turn denounce and slander us for daring to come at once before the representatives of the people and ask that the State accept the handsome gift tendered by our county thus refusing the mediatorship of their graces. Political mendicants who have looked to such occasions as this for opportunities to set themselves up for sale to towns asking for the location of a State Institution, snap and snarl, curse and swear, because our proposition looks to a settlement of the question, by the representatives of the people, in a fair and open manner, thus cutting off their opportunity, as members of the proposed locating commission, of receiving themselves from rival towns the money which should go for the benefit of the Institution, instead of towards the purchase of these men who are always in the market for such occasions.

The Gazette in the same article scored the Chicago Tribune for favoring the commission plan of locating the college. The Illinois State Journal printed an article about the same time written by a friend of the agriculturists that declared the Tribune was on both sides of the fence. The author thought the Tribune was right on one point, the location of the college by a commission. On this point the writer aimed a fiery shaft at Champaign county: "Indeed the only opposition to this feature of the House bill, so far as I can learn, has emanated from an effort at town lot speculation some years ago, on a naked tract of land lying between Champaign and Urbana, in the East part of the State. A certain company, it seems, undertook some years ago to lay that tract off in lots, and bring them into market by building on it a school or seminary of some sort. They have since, in some way, transferred their rights to Champaign County, and made that county the ostensible profferers of the donation. It is a quite respectable bid, for the first time. But it probably does not amount to one half the amount of money which the location of the University there will give of additional value to their naked town lots, aside from all its other advantages to the place. Of course these bidders are exceedingly jealous of throwing the thing, in any way, open to the public, and particularly jealous of town lot speculators in Chicago and elsewhere. They keep a troop of men here lobbying for their interests, all

the time. They labor particularly to show that the Governor and Senate cannot be trusted to select one man from each Congressional District, to decide on the location of the Institution, guard and define their action by law as we may; while their bill proposes that this same Governor and Senate shall appoint the Trustees to manage the vast accumulating interests of the University, in all coming time. All the old friends of the grant, and all the constructive and appointed representatives of the industrial classes, the officers of their societies, the representatives of the teachers in the state, and the committee who drew the House bill, are opposed, to a man, so far as I know, to this whole proceeding."

Later in this session of the legislature the Chicago and Champaign interests united in a plan to divide the proposed institution. Representative Cook of Cook county on February 10 introduced a substitute to section 11 of the house bill that was in fact only an addition to the section as it then stood and as quoted above. It provided that the trustees of the industrial university which was to be located in Urbana-Champaign should be "required" to establish a department in the city of Chicago for the purpose of teaching the mechanic arts and that they have the "authority" to establish a department to teach agriculture at "some time" at "some place" in southern Illinois.55 These loosely worded but carefully planned paragraphs might have been used, as it was claimed, to sell out the southern friends of the measure, though whether that was the purpose would be difficult to establish. The adjournment of the legislature without deciding the question of the location of the industrial university was unfortunate, for it prolonged an unseemly scramble of Illinois men to obtain control of a prize that was intended to benefit all the people. It was particularly unfortunate because it had drawn into the struggle some of the men of Illinois who, through long years of sacrifice and labor, had made the grant to all the states possible. The struggle, however, was only fairly begun. The next two years were to be utilized by the various contestants in preparation for the inevitable "fight-to-a-finish" upon the question of the final disposition of Illinois' share in the federal land grant.

CHAPTER IX

PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL STRUGGLE

FOR THE

LOCATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY

1865-1867

After the adjournment of the general assembly in 1865 the various parties in the contest for the location of the industrial university were busy putting up their own fences and knocking the props from under those of their adversaries. Party lines were by this time very sharply drawn and the differences in principles or mere desires of the contestants were capable of definite statement.

The Champaign county group earnestly desired to have the industrial university located in the Urbana-Champaign institute, and they preferred to have an undivided institution located in the seminary building, but if they could not get the whole they were equally determined to get a half or even a third. There was a certain bull-dog tenacity of purpose in their efforts that boded ill for their opponents. The agriculturists' group was headed by Turner and the leaders in the state agricultural and horticultural societies. Some of them, who had been leaders in the movement for industrial education ever since the Granville convention of 1851, could not help the feeling and belief that they had a kind of proprietary right in this proposed university, the very possibility of which had been due in a large measure to their foresight and energy. They had fought and would continue to fight as a unit for a separate and distinct institution supported by undivided funds. They agreed that the best method of locating the institution was by a commission, but they disagreed necessarily on the question of place, for the members were scattered through the state and local interests made such appeal that the members were unable to stand as a unit opposed to Champaign county. The group

of college men, composed mostly of the presidents of the colleges, had striven for years to get the state to appropriate the college and seminary funds to their needy institutions. They had zealously opposed the plan of the industrial league for an industrial university in Illinois and for each of the states, and to them it had seemed an absurd dream, as undesirable as impracticable. But the dream realized, the funds available, they had no objections to have a portion appropriated to the institutions over which they presided. Then, too, they had an abiding faith in their own ability to carry on educational affairs, but none in the state. Other groups organized later for the chief purpose of making bids for the location of the university.

With the renewal of activity by the various factions in the contest, feeling became more intense and the expression of resentment very vigorous. In declaring the attitude of Champaign county the Gazette said: "The enemies of Champaign county may perhaps think that the failure of our county to secure the location of the Industrial University is in effect their final triumph and the sharks who had hung like vultures upon the flanks of the legislature for years, under the various guises of agricultural and educational committees, may likewise think the fund sacredly dedicated to industrial advancement will, like well ripened fruit fall into their basket.

"They will however, observe in due time, that their fancied security is but an illusion. The beautiful structure offered by our county is rapidly approaching completion and will, in a finished condition, lose none of its claim upon the attention of the State. It will commend itself to our law-makers as just the place to rock the great enterprise in its infancy. The contest during the past winter in which the friends of our county have been engaged, has been but the school of preparation for the final contest; and while our enemies have been putting forth their best efforts to secure the temporary success which accrued to them finally by default, our friends have not exhausted their preliminary tactics." From the above and from later statements in local papers it was quite evident that Champaign county was so certain of winning the location, that she determined to

'Central Illinois Gazette, Urbana, March 31, 1865.