320 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT II 



severe protest from sundry clergymen of the place, de- 

 claring dancing to be ''destructive of vital godliness." 

 Though this was solemnly laid before the faculty, no an- 

 swer was ever made to it; but we noticed that, at every 

 social gathering on Founder's Day afterward, as long as 

 Mr. Cornell lived, he had arrangements made for dancing. 

 I never knew a man more open to right reason, and never 

 one less influenced by cant or dogmatism. 



To most attacks upon him in the newspapers he neither 

 made nor suggested any reply; but one or two which were 

 especially misleading he answered simply and conclu- 

 sively. This had no effect, of course, in stopping the at- 

 tacks ; but it had one effect, at which the friends of the uni- 

 versity rejoiced: it bound his old associates to him all the 

 more closely, and led them to support him all the more vig- 

 orously. "When a paper in one of the largest cities in west- 

 ern Xew York had been especially abusive, one of Mr. 

 Cornell's old friends living in that city wrote: "I know 

 that the charges recently published are utterly untrue; but 

 I am not skilled in newspaper controversy, so I will simply 

 add to what I have already given to the university a spe- 

 cial gift of thirty thousand dollars, which will testify to 

 my townsmen here, and perhaps to the public at large, my 

 confidence in Mr. Cornell." 



Such was the way of III ram Sibley. Upon another at- 

 tack, especially violent, from the organ of one of the de- 

 nominational colleges, another old friend of Mr. Cornell 

 in the eastern part of the State, a prominent member of 

 the religious body which this paper represented, sent his 

 check for several thousand dollars, to be used for the 

 purchase of books for the library, and to show confidence 

 in Mi*. Cornell by deeds as well as words. 



Vile as these attacks were, worse remained behind. A 

 local politician, who had been sent to the legislature from 

 the district where the "People's College" had lived its 

 short li fe, prepared, with pell i fogging ability, a long speech 

 to show that the foundation of Cornell University, Mr. 

 Cornell's endowment of it, and his contract to locate the 



