At the formal opening of the University the faculty embraced the following members: Six non-resident Professors, nineteen resident Professors, four Assistant Professors, and five Instructors. This general University faculty was divided into nine special faculties, each constituting a college or department, designated as follows: 1, College of Agriculture; 2, College of Chemistry and Physics; 3, College of History and Political Science; 4, College of Languages; 5, College of Literature and Philosophy; 6, College of Mathematics and Engineering; 7, College of Mechanic Arts; 8, College of Military Science; 9, College of Natural Science.

The University Library at that time comprised about twenty-five thousand volumes, which had been selected under the direct supervision of the President. The Museums embraced very complete collections in Geology and Mineralogy; Botany and Agriculture; Zoology and Physiology; Technology and Civil Engineering; Chemistry and Physics; and the Fine Arts. There were enrolled and entered in the different departments of study nearly four hundred students, coming from fifty different counties of the State of New York, and twenty-seven States of the Union, besides several foreign countries.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CORNELL

UNIVERSITY. — INAUGURAL
MONIES.

CERE

Opening of the University.-Inaugural Exercises.-Notable Occasion.-Founder's Address.-President White's Inaugural.Subsequent Benefactions.- The McGraw Building. -Sibley College of Mechanic Arts.-Female Education.-The Sage College. Sage Chapel. University Sermons. — Jennie McGraw's Generous Efforts.-New Buildings.-Grand Development. Increased Equipment and Enlarged Facilities.The Founder's Aims and Hopes.

THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY was formally opened for the reception of students in the autumn of 1868, and the event marked an era in the history of Ithaca, long to be remembered by her citizens. The village was thronged with visiting strangers, and everything betokened a joyous holiday. Many prominent citizens were present from distant sections of the State, as well, indeed, as from many different States. Prominent officers of the State government, and educators of eminence in their profession, were present in large numbers, and the occasion altogether was one of exceptional interest in the educational annals of the

FOUNDER'S ADDRESS.

199

State. A large concourse of people were in attendance at the lecture room of the Cornell Library, where, on Wednesday, October 7th, the formal exercises of the inauguration occurred. The address of the FOUNDER, and some extracts from that of PRESIDENT WHITE, are here inserted as pertinent to a review of the history of the University.

MR. CORNELL'S REMARKS.

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Mr. Chairman, Citizens, and Friends: I fear that many of you have visited Ithaca at this time to meet with disappointment. If you came as did a friend recently from Pennsylvania, expecting to find a finished institution," you will look around, be disappointed with what you see, and report on your return to your home, as he did, "I did not find one single thing finished.”

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Such, my friends, is not the entertainment we invite you to. We did not expect to have a single thing finished," we did not desire it, and we have not directed our energies to that end. It is the commencement that we have now in hand. We did expect to have commenced an institution of learning, which will mature in the future to a great degree of usefulness, which will place at the disposal of the industrial and productive classes of society the best facilities for the acquirement of practical knowledge and mental culture, on such terms as the limited means of the most humble can command.

I hope we have laid the foundation of an institution which shall combine practical with liberal education, which shall fit the youth of our country for the professions, the farms, the mines, the manufactories, for the investigations of science, and for mastering all the practical questions of life with success and honor.

I believe that we have made the beginning of an institution which will prove highly beneficial to the poor young men and the poor young women of our country. This is one thing which we

have not finished, but in the course of time we hope to reach such a state of perfection as will enable any one, by honest efforts and earnest labor, to secure a thorough, practical, scientific or classical education. The individual is better, society is better, and the State is better for the culture of the citizen; therefore, we desire to extend the means for the culture of all.

I trust that we have made the beginning of an institution which shall bring science more directly to the aid of agriculture, and other branches of productive labor. Chemistry has the same great stores of wealth in reserve for agriculture that it has lavished so profusely upon the arts. We must instruct the young farmer how to avail himself of this hidden treasure.

The veterinarian will shield him against many of the losses which are frequent in his flocks and herds, losses which are now submitted to as matters of course by the uneducated farmer, and which, in the aggregate, amount to millions of dollars every year in our own State alone.

The entomologist must arm him for more successful warfare in defence of his growing crops, as the ravages of insects upon both grain and fruit have become enormous, resulting also in the loss of many millions of dollars each year.

Thus, in whatever direction we turn, we find ample opportunity for the applications of science in aid of the toiling millions. May we not hope that we have made the beginning of an institution which will strengthen the arm of the mechanic and multiply his powers of production through the agency of a better cultivated brain? Any person who visits our Patent Office, at Washington, and contemplates the long halls stored with rejected models, will realize that our mechanics have great need of this aid.

The farmer is also enriched by increasing the knowledge and power of the mechanic. Mechanism, as applied to agriculture, was the great motive power which enabled the American farmers to feed the nation while it was struggling for existence against the late wicked rebellion, and it will enable them to pay the vast debts incurred by the nation while crushing that rebellion. This is an inviting field in which we must labor most earnestly. The

mechanic should cease the fruitless effort" to bore an auger hole with a gimlet."

I desire that this shall prove to be the beginning of an institution which shall furnish better means for the culture of all men, of every calling, of every aim; which shall make men more truthful, more honest, more virtuous, more noble, more manly; which shall give them higher purposes, and more lofty aims, qualifying them to serve their fellow-men better, preparing them to serve society better, training them to be more useful in their relations to the State, and to better comprehend their higher and holier relations to their families and their God. It shall be our aim and our constant effort to make true Christian men, without dwarfing, or paring them down to fit the narrow gauge of any sect.

Finally, I trust we have laid the foundation of an University— "an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."

Such have been our purposes. In that direction we have put forth our efforts, and on the future of such an institution we rest our hopes. If we have been successful in our beginning, to that extent and no further may we hope to be encouraged by the award of your approval. We have purposed that the finishing shall be the work of the future, and we ask that its approval or condemnation shall rest upon the quality of its maturing fruit.

To take the leadership of this great work, we have selected a gentleman and a scholar, who, though young in years, we present before you to-day for inauguration, with entire confidence that the "right man is in the right place."

We have also selected a faculty which, I trust, will very soon convince you that we have not thus early in the enterprise commenced blundering. They are in the main young men, and they are quite content to be judged by their works.

Invoking the blessing of Heaven upon our undertaking, we commend our cause to the scrutiny and the judgment of the American people.