EZRA CORNELL- 1864-1874 323 



to the very day of his death, assailed him periodically as 

 a ' ' land jobber, " " land grabber, ' ' and ' ' land thief. ' ' But 

 he took these foul attacks by tricky declaimers and his 

 vindication by three of his most eminent fellow-citizens 

 with the same serenity. That there was in him a profound 

 contempt for the wretched creatures who assailed him 

 and imputed to him motives as vile as their own can 

 hardly be doubted ; yet, though I was with him constantly 

 during this period, I never heard him speak harshly of 

 them; nor could I ever see that this injustice diminished 

 his good will toward his fellow-men and his desire to bene- 

 fit them. 



At the very time when these attacks were at their worst, 

 he was giving especial thought to the problem of bringing 

 education at the university within reach of young men of 

 good ability and small means. I am quite within bounds in 

 saying that he gave an hour to thought upon this for 

 every minute he gave to thought upon the attacks of his 

 enemies. 



It was during this period that he began building his 

 beautiful house near the university, and in this he showed 

 some of his peculiarities. He took much pains to secure a 

 tasteful plan, and some of the ideas embodied in it evi- 

 dently resulted from his study of beautiful country-houses 

 in England. Characteristic of him also was his way of 

 carrying on the work. Having visited several quarries in 

 various parts of the State, in order to choose the best 

 possible building-stone, he employed some German stone- 

 carvers who had recently left work upon the Cathedral of 

 Cologne, brought them to Ithaca, and allowed them to work 

 on with no interference save from the architect. If they 

 gave a month or more to the carving of a single capital 

 or corbel, he made no remonstrance. When he had thus 

 secured the best stone-work, he selected the b^st seasoned 

 oak and walnut and called skilful carpenters from Eng- 

 land. 



In thus going abroad for artisans there was no want 

 of loyalty to his countrymen, nor was there any alloy 



