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of its claim, and devoted to the purposes of the Willard Asylum for the chronic insane.

At the most critical period of the great struggle for national existence, responding to a general sentiment in favor of some practical provision for agricultural education, the Congress of the United States illustrated the unwavering faith of the loyal people in the complete restoration of national unity by the enactment, in July, 1862, of Chapter 130, General Statutes, entitled, "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts."

This act conceived in far-reaching wisdom, granted to each State a quantity of public land equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative in Congress under the census of 1860, and provided for the sale of the lands and investment of the proceeds in permanent funds, the income of which should by each State be appropriated" to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and

practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life."

Under the provisions of this act the State of New York became entitled to receive 990,000 acres of public lands, and by the enactment of Chapter 460, of the laws of 1863, the State accepted the trust, and made preliminary provision for the receipt and custody of the scrip, and authorized the Comptroller to sell the land and invest the proceeds in conformity with the law of Congress. A subsequent act, Chapter 511, laws of 1863, appropriated the income of the Land Grant Fund to an undeveloped institution, known as the "People's College," at Havana, Schuyler County, thus completely ignoring the State Agricultural College, which, by all fair means, should have been selected by the Legislature as the recipient of this federal bounty. Although the passage of this measure was earnestly opposed by the friends of the Agricultural College, it was promoted by some invisible power, and became a law.

That the partisans of the People's College proved to be more effective as promoters of legislation than in building up a real college, was demonstrated by the report of the Regents of the State University under an investigation made, pursuant to the direction of the State Senate, in

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the month of February, 1865. This report exposed the ridiculous pretence which had been made in reference to the People's College, and clearly demonstrated that no adequate steps had been taken to create such an institution as the statutes contemplated. The earnestly devoted friends of agricultural education were fully aroused by this exposure, and urgently demanded legislation which should make proper amends for the injustice done to their cause by the wrongful appropriation of the Land Grant Fund to the socalled People's College.

At this juncture of affairs, Mr. Cornell offered the trustees of the Agricultural College a personal endowment of $300,000, în condition that the institution should be removed from Ovid and located at Ithaca, and provided further that the Legislature should appropriate to it one-half of the income of the Land Grant Fund. Finding, among the more intelligent champions of higher education, a very decided expression against dividing and frittering away the federal income, Mr. Cornell subsequently increased his offer of endowment to $500,000, if the entire Land Grant income were permanently appropriated to the institution.

This proposition aroused the enthusiasm of the friends of agricultural education to a high pitch, and stimulated their ambition to still higher

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aims than they had ever before entertained. Cornell's proposition was very cordially accepted, and, after careful consultation, it was decided to abandon the Agricultural College entirely, and take steps to secure the necessary legislation for the organization of a general university, which should also embrace the special features required by the congressional act. In pursuance of this policy a carefully prepared bill was presented to the Legislature for the incorporation of the "Cornell University," and embracing the conditions named.

The measure was very bitterly opposed by the adherents of the People's College, and zealously advocated by the friends of the Agricultural College and other leading friends of higher education. The passage of the bill was earnestly contested at every step of progress, from its introduction to its final enactment. The controversy attracted general attention throughout the State, and the antagonists of the measure were reinforced by the friends of several of the minor colleges, who loudly clamored for a division of the fund among all of the existing colleges. This policy was, however, successfully combated, on the ground that it would be an idle dispersion of the fund, which would practically defeat the objects of its creation.

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The contest over the University bill was so evenly balanced that its friends found themselves obliged, as a preliminary to final success, to accept an amendment providing that "within six months from the passage of this act, said Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, shall pay over to the trustees of Genesee College, located at Lima, in this State, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars for the purpose of establishing in said Genesee College a professorship of agricultural chemistry." Thus, as a condition of being permitted to contribute the sum of $500,000 to endow the Cornell University, a public institution for the benefit of the people of the entire State, Mr. Cornell was required, by legislative enactment, to first give $25,ooo to another institution. Many friends were so indignant at this provision, that they strongly urged him to reject it; but he overlooked the indignity, and duly paid the money to Genesee College.

This monstrous abuse of philanthropic generosity was, however, by the Legislature, in 1867, so far corrected as was possible, by appropriating, out of the general fund of the State, $25,000 to the Cornell University for its sole and exclusive use, "being the amount which Ezra Cornell has paid to the Genesee College, pursuant to the requirements of Chapter 585, of the laws of 1865." The