EZRA CORNELL-1864-1874 327 



his comments were rather playful than otherwise. On one 

 occasion, when he had written to a gentleman of great 

 wealth and deserved repute as a philanthropist, asking 

 him to join in carrying the burden of the land locations, 

 and had received an unfavorable answer, he made a re- 

 mark which seemed to me rather harsh. To this I replied : 

 "Mr. Cornell, Mr. - - is not at all in fault; he does not 

 understand the question as you do ; everybody knows that 

 he is a very liberal man." "Oh," said Mr. Cornell, "it 's 

 easy enough to be liberal ; the only hard part is drawing 

 the check." 



Of his intellectual characteristics, foresight was the most 

 remarkable. Of all men in the country who had to do 

 with the college land grant of 1862, he alone discerned the 

 possibilities involved and had courage to make them actual. 



Clearness of thought on all matters to which he gave his 

 attention was another striking characteristic ; hence, when- 

 ever he put anything on paper, it was lucid and co- 

 gent. There seems at times in his writings some of the 

 clear, quaint shrewdness so well known in Abraham Lin- 

 coln. Very striking examples of this are to be found in 

 his legislative speeches, in his address at the opening of 

 the university, and in his letters. 



Among his moral characteristics, his truthfulness, per- 

 sistence, courage, and fortitude were most strongly 

 marked. These qualities made him a man of peace. He 

 regarded life as too short to be wasted in quarrels; his 

 steady rule was never to begin a lawsuit or have anything 

 to do with one, if it could be avoided. The joy in 

 litigation and squabble, which has been the weakness of 

 so many men claiming to be strong, and the especial 

 curse of so many American churches, colleges, universi- 

 ties, and other public organizations, had no place in his 

 strong, tolerant nature. He never sought to publish the 

 sins of any one in the courts or to win the repute of an 

 uncompromising fighter. In this peaceable disposition he 

 was prompted not only by his greatest moral quality: 

 his charity toward his fellow-men, but by his greatest intel- 



