SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 179 



In 1851, Governor Barry called attention in his message to 

 the constitutional provision, which received some attention from 

 members of the legislature. In 1853, a bill for an agricultural 

 college was passed by the senate but lost in the house. 



Governor Bingham in his message to the legislature, in 

 January, 1855, recommended the establishment of an agricul- 

 tural school and at some length strongly urged action. A bill 

 passed the senate by a vote of 24 to 5, and the next day passed 

 the house by a vote of 52 to 13, and was approved February 12, 

 1855. College Hall, a dormitory, and a small brick barn were 

 erected in 1856 and on May 13, 1857, the College was duly 

 dedicated. But the discussion as to whether it should continue 

 as a separate institution, or exist at all, did not end, as is shown 

 by the frequent discussions at various meetings and by articles 

 in the public press, as well as by the opposition and strife at 

 nearly every session of the legislature when the College appropri- 

 ation was up for consideration down to 1869. In that year when 

 the appropriation bill of $70,000 for the College had passed 

 the house and came to the senate for concurrence, a carefully 

 prepared bill was offered transferring the College to Ann Arbor, 

 as a department of the university. This was defeated, and the 

 $70,000 was given the College by a vote of 22 to 8. An 

 editorial in the State Republican, under the heading of "End of 

 a Ten- Year Fight," mentioned the vote as ending a fight to 

 destroy an institution which a democratic majority had provided 

 in the constitution, and a republican majority had put into 

 active operation. 



A partial record of this long struggle will be found in the 

 reports of either the State Agricultural Society, the State Board 

 of Agriculture, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or the 

 Pioneer Society. 



I will not follow this farther except to quote a paragraph from 

 the Detroit Post of March 31, 1869, which fairly voices the gen- 

 eral feeling at that date. 



