ORGANIZATION OF CORNELL-1865-1868 331 



something of my own enthusiasm for a university suit- 

 ably endowed, free from sectarian trammels, centrally 

 situated, and organized to meet fully the wants of the 

 State as regarded advanced education, general and 

 technical. 



Three points I endeavored especially to impress upon 

 them in this speech. First, that while, as regards primary 

 education, the policy of the State should be diffusion of 

 resources, it should be, as regards university education, 

 concentration of resources. Secondly, that sectarian col- 

 leges could not do the work required. Thirdly, that any 

 institution for higher education in the State must form an 

 integral part of the whole system of public instruction; 

 that the university should not be isolated from the school 

 system, as were the existing colleges, but that it should 

 have a living connection with the system, should push its 

 roots down into it and through it, drawing life from it 

 and sending life back into it. Mr. Cornell accepted this 

 view at once. Mr. Horace Greeley, who, up to that time, 

 had supported the People's College, was favorably im- 

 pressed by it, and, more than anything else, it won for us 

 his support. To insure this vital connection of the pro- 

 posed university with the school system, I provided in 

 the charter for four "State scholarships ' ' in each of the 

 one hundred and twenty-eight Assembly districts. These 

 scholarships were to be awarded to the best scholars in the 

 public schools of each district, after due examination, one 

 each year; each scholarship entitling the holder to free 

 instruction in the university for four years. Thus the 

 university and the schools were bound closely together by 

 the constant and living tie of five hundred and twelve 

 students. As the number of Assembly districts under the 

 new constitution was made, some years later, one hundred 

 and fifty, the number of these competitive free scholar- 

 ships is now six hundred. They have served their pur- 

 pose well. Thirty years of this connection have greatly 

 uplifted the whole school system of the State, and 

 made the university a life-giving power in it; while this 



