National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-01-05
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

priated TO every State for the purpose OF pro
viding colleges for the benefit Of agriculture
and the mechanic arts the share of the State
of New York was in land scrip, representing
990,0 acres. Adopting the policy of coucen-
trating this fund upon an institution worthy Of
the Commonwealth, the Legislature, Ia 1865,
chiefly through the efforts and arguments of
Hon. Andrew D. White, then State Senator,
(now president of the university, decided to
accept the offer Of Mr.. Cornell to donate
$500, 900 toward such an institution, to be
located at Ithaca, and to be called by his
name. Besides complying with this condition,
at the first meeting of the trustees Mr.. Cornell
made the additional gift of over two hundred
acres of land, with buildings, as a farm, to be
attached to the college Of agriculture, and Of
the Jewett collection of geology and paleutol-
ogy, which cost him SO, 900, and subsequently
gave at various times other gifts to the amount
of over 800, 900.
But Mr.. Cornell was not satisfied with thus
merely giving his money to this noble object
1t is well known that many of the States, as the
first step toward founding the agricultural
colleges for which the lands were granted them,
threw their scrip at once upon the market,
where 1t was bought up by scheming specu-
lstors at almost their own price, and thus the
States failed to realize more than tithc Of its
real value. To prevent this, Mr.. c. came for
ward and purchased about 5000, 900 worth of
the scrip, and then, applying that same bust
ness sagacity which had brought him his own
fortune, succeeded in locating and disposing of
1t to such good advantage that the profits on
the same formed fund, amounting in septem-
Der, 1871, to about 1000, which he placed
in the custody of the State for the benefit of
the university.
1t will thus be seen that the university is,
under its charter, an organic part Of the edu-
cational system of the State. Four Of the
States highest officers are, by virtue of their
position, trustees of the institution; and the
Legislature has in various acts shown an en-
lighteued regard for its interests. The uni
versity is bound by its charter to educate, free
of all fees for instruction, one student from
each of the 12S Assembly districts of the State,
and these are selected by yearly competitive
examination from the various public schools
and academies maintained by the people ofNew
York. Other noble and generous minds be-
sides Mr.. Cornell have supplemented his lib
erality, and the value OF the gifts in buildings,
books, apparatus and money from private in
dividuals since the opening of the university
in October, 1868, was estimated in 1872 at
about 500, 900. Among the principal donors
| is President White, who, being gentleman
of means, has devoted his salary to the sup
port of poor students and the establishment Of
various prizes, and, besides the gift Of an archi-
tectural library and several thousand miscel-
lsneous books and the "Horace Mann Herbs-
rum" has expended over SIC, 900 in increas-
ing the usefulness of various departments of
the institution. Prof. Goodwin Smith, besides
refusing to accept any salary as professor of
English history, has given an admirable col
lection of over 1000 historical works to the
library. Other munifcent donors are Mr.. j.
McGraw, Of Ithaca, who gave the costly CEN
trail stone building Miss Jennie McGraw, who
gave the fine set of chimes; Hiram sibly, of
Rochester, who erected a large stone edihee
for the College of Mechanic Arts, and equipped
it at a cost of $4,000. The university, which
comprises five stone and one wooden, buildings,
Exclusive of the farm and other buildings,) is
one of the finest specimens of architecture In
the State, and with its beautiful grounds and
admirable arrangements Is q noble monument
to the memory of its founder.
But this article would be incomplete with
out some account of the distinctive educational
features Of the university. Mr.. Cornell said,
when making his muniicent offer to the State:
81 would found an institution where any per-
son can find instruction in any study" This,
Of course, is the true meaning of the term
university" but how far 1t is carried out in
most of our institutions bearing the name and
based on the old Oxford and Cambridge model,
every sensible person can judge. When, there
fore, the liberal-minded trustees of Cornell, to
carry out the idea of its founder, created, in
addition to the colleges of agriculture and the
mechanic arts, called for by the act Of Con-
gross, eight other colleges, embracing, besides
the regular classical studies of the old curri-
culum, about every branch of theoretical and
practical knowledge that one would ever have
occasion for in any pursuit or business, 1t is no
wonder that some four hundred students pre-
scented themselves at its doors on its first open
ing, and that its annual list now numbers be-
tween six and seven hundred.
The special features which have rendered
this institution so deservedly popular from the
start are the employment of such men as
Agassiz, Lowell, Curtis, Dwight, Goodwin
Smith and Bayard Taylor as nonresident pro-
fessors, to deliver each year courses of lee
lures upon subjects which they have made q :
speciality; complete university liberty in the
choice of studies; the prominence given to
studies which shall be practically useful; the
absence Of a daily marking system, and though
last, not least, the unsectarian character of
the institution. This latter point is net only
in accordance with its position ss q portion of
the educational system of the State, but with
the very decided views of Mr.. Cornell.
In 1872, the trustees, after an investigation
and report by a committee, of which President
White was chairman, as to the results of the
co-education Of the sexes in such institutions
as the State University of Michigan, 0berlin
College, &C., decided to accept the offer of
Hon. H. W. Sage, of Brooklyn, of $3.50, 900, on
the condition that obstruction shall be
afforded to young women, by the Cornell Uni
versity, as broad and as thorough as that now
afforded to young men," As the result Of this,
one LADY, Miss Emma Eastman, entered en-
advanced class and graduated with honor the
next year, and number have since entered
and are pursuing the various courses with good
success.
While there are many rich mems sons among
the studeuts-one of President Grants, among
others-this is emphatically tie workingnan's
college. Many of the students are between
twenty and thirty years of age, and some are
married The cost of tuitionis only s45 per an
mum, and the total expense for living in the Uni
versity buildings is considerably less than 81 per
diem. Opportunity is afforded those who de-
sire # for earning partial support by manual
labor on the grounds of the university, on the
University Press and in the machine shops.
The library, in numbers and character OF books,
is second only to that of Harvard, and in many
departments is not inferior even to that.
1t will thus be seen that the institution
with which Mr.. Cornell's name is identified is
no second rate or ephemeral one, but, while it
has taken at once, and in its infancy, Q front
rank among the educational centres of the
country, its capabilities for fitting "Young
America" for the practical work of to-day are
absolutely incalculable, and thousands will rise