EZRA CORNELL -1864-1874 315 



school-books. Mr. Cornell questioned him closely, and 

 then rose, walked with him down the hill into the town, 

 and bought the books which were needed. 



As the day approached for the formal opening of the 

 university, he was obliged to remain in bed. Care and 

 toil had prostrated me also ; and both of us, a sorry couple 

 indeed, had to be taken from our beds to be carried to the 

 opening exercises. 



A great crowd had assembled from all parts of the 

 State: many enthusiastic, more doubtful, and some de- 

 cidedly inclined to scoff. 



Some who were expected were not present. The Gov- 

 ernor of the State, though he had been in Ithaca the day 

 before, quietly left town on the eve of the opening exer- 

 cises. His Excellency was a very wise man in his genera- 

 tion, and evidently felt that it was not best for him to 

 have too much to do with an institution which the sectarian 

 press had so generally condemned. I shall not soon forget 

 the way in which Mr. Cornell broke the news to me, and 

 the accent of calm contempt in his voice. Fortunately 

 there remained with us the lieutenant-governor, General 

 Stewart Lyndon Woodf ord. He came to the front nobly, 

 and stood by us firmly and munificently ever afterward. 



Mr. Cornell's speech on that occasion was very simple 

 and noble; his whole position, to one who knew what he 

 had gone through in the way of obloquy, hard work, and 

 self-sacrifice, was touching. Worn down by illness, he 

 was unable to stand, and he therefore read his address in 

 a low tone from his chair. It was very impressive, almost 

 incapacitating me from speaking after him, and I saw 

 tears in the eyes of many in the audience. Nothing could 

 be more simple than this speech of his ; it was mainly de- 

 voted to a plain assertion of the true university theory in 

 its most elementary form, and to a plea that women should 

 have equal privileges with men in advanced education. In 

 the midst of it came a touch of his quaint shrewdness ; for, 

 in replying to a recent charge that everything at the uni- 

 versity was unfinished, he remarked in substance, "We 



