ORGANIZATION OF CORNELL-1865-1868 337 



to us from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the University of 

 Virginia, and the University of Michigan? An endow- 

 ment twice as large as ours would be unavailing/' There- 

 fore it was that I broached, as a practical measure, in my 

 "plan of organization, " the system which I had discussed 

 tentatively with George William Curtis several years be- 

 fore, and to which he referred afterward in his speech at 

 the opening of the university at Ithaca. This was to take 

 into our confidence the leading professors in the more 

 important institutions of learning, and to secure from 

 them, not the ordinary, conventional paper testimonials, 

 but confidential information as to their young men likely 

 to do the best work in various fields, to call these young 

 men to our resident professorships, and then to call the 

 most eminent men we could obtain for non-resident pro- 

 fessorships or lectureships. This idea was carried out to 

 the letter. The most eminent men in various universities 

 gave us confidential advice; and thus it was that I was 

 enabled to secure a number of bright, active, energetic 

 young men as our resident professors, mingling with them 

 two or three older men, whose experience and developed 

 judgment seemed necessary in the ordinary conduct of our 

 affairs. 



As to the other part of the plan, I secured Agassiz, 

 Lowell, Curtis, Bayard Taylor, Goldwin Smith, Theodore 

 Dwight, George W. Greene, John Stanton Gould, and at a 

 later period Froude, Freeman, and others, as non-resident 

 professors and lecturers. Of the final working of this 

 system I shall speak later. 



The question of buildings also arose ; but, alas ! I could 

 not reproduce my air-castles. For our charter required 

 us to have the university in operation in October, 1868, 

 and there was no time for careful architectural prepara- 

 tion. Moreover, the means failed us. All that we could 

 then do was to accept a fairly good plan for our main 

 structures; to make them simple, substantial, and digni- 

 fied; to build them of stone from our own quarries; and 

 so to dispose them that future architects might so combine 



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