EZRA CORNELL- 1864-1874 305 



tus Brooks of the "Express," and Manton Marble of the 

 "World." This did much for us, yet when the vote was 

 taken the old cowardice was again shown; but several of 

 us stood in the cloak-room and fairly shamed the waverers 

 back into their places. As a result, to the surprise and 

 disgust of the chairman of the Assembly committee, the 

 bill was taken out of his control, and referred to the Com- 

 mittee of the Whole House. 



Another long struggle now ensued, but the bill was 

 finally passed in the Assembly and came back to the 

 Senate. There the struggle was renewed, all kinds of de- 

 laying tactics were resorted to, but the bill was finally 

 carried, and received the signature of Governor Fenton. 



Now came a new danger. During their struggle against 

 the bill, our enemies had been strong enough to force into 

 it a clause enabling the People's College to retain the land 

 fund, provided that institution should be shown, within six 

 months of the passage of the bill, to be in possession of a 

 sum such as the Board of Regents should declare would 

 enable it to comply with the conditions on which it had 

 originally received the grant. The Board of Regents 

 now reported that the possession of one hundred and 

 fifty thousand dollars would be sufficient for such a com- 

 pliance, and would insure the fund to the People's Col- 

 lege. Naturally we watched, in much uneasy suspense, 

 during those six months, to see whether Mr. Cook and 

 the People's College authorities would raise this sum 

 of money, so small in comparison with that which Mr. 

 Cornell was willing to give, in order to secure the grant. 

 But our fears were baseless; and on the fifth day of 

 September, 1865, the trustees of Cornell University were 

 assembled for the first time at Ithaca. 



Then^came to them a revelation of ajjmdity in Mr. Cor- 

 nell unknown to most of them before. In one of the peti- 

 tions forwarded from Ithaca to the legislature by his 

 fellow-citizens it had been stated that "he never did less 

 than he promised, but generally more. " So it was found 

 in this case. He turned over to the trustees, not only the 



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