The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-06-12

G i'll her possession. Professor Fiske mad
a proposition to give Cornell University
= at his death, every dollar he was wOrtl
S if they would let him live in his wife
= house, and he met with scornful rC
a fusal. Mr.. Justice BOardman said tina
( residence overlooking Cayuga Lake wa
h a bad investment, and that they couldn'
]. afford to apply it to any other than til
l.. purposes of a college. This condition 0
4 affairs increased in acrimOny for nearl
= two years before it resulted in litigation
a Charles p. Bacon, the Cornell student
/. had known. Professor Fiske since 1865
5 and as before related, had lived witt
him for five years.
t After leaving Cornell University h
became the editor of Governor Hill
= paper, the Elmira Gazette, but after
time Hill advised the young man tina
there was little money in the pursuit o.
= journalism, and that if he were wise Ii,
would study and practice law. Acting
, upon this suggestion, Bacon, while still
, welding the pen, entered nominally as
J clerk in David b. Hills Office and begaI
the study of the law. At that time III
was intimate with the president tn,
treasurer and the trustees of Cornell
! University, and Professor Fiske re
mained his devoted friend. Bacor
naturally learned all that was going OF
. about the McGraw fortune, and siding
with Mr.. Fiske he became an opponent
of the BOardman party in the affairs OF
the University. One day, while still q
law student, he was reading the statutes
of wills, and being thoroughly familiar
with Cornelrs charter, when he came to
certain paragraph he suddenly saw the
figures "$3, 0,0OG' staring at him from
the page in letters of flame. The point
he had discoved was this: A corpora
ton is an artificial creation. 1t can only
do the things its charter permits and il
can do nothing for which that instru-
ment does not expressly provide for.
The charter of Cornell University de-
clares that the corporation thereby
created can only hold property to the
amount of $3,000,000. At the time Mrs.
Fiske died, itwas asserted and afterward
proved, Cornell University owned more
than S3,000,000 of property, and cOnse-
quently could not take one penny of the
S2,000,000 and more bequeathed by the
lumberman's daughter. When Bacon,
the law student, had made his discovery,
he laid the matter before his preceptor,
David b. Hill, and that gentleman, clever
lawyer though he be, informed the young
man that he had discovered a mare S
nest. Bacon, however, found an instant
and ardent believer in the person of
Judge William l.. Muller, who afterward
drew up the brief in this now famous
case, and has been its ardent champion
during all the tedious delays Of the liti-
CATION. 1t took several weeks to con-
vince Mr.. Hill that there was any merit
in the law point that had been suggested,
and then he rather reluctantly gave the
use of his name as counsel for the plain
| tiff. At that time young Bacon had not
been admitted to the bar and could not
institute legal proceedings. When Mr.
| Hill became Governor and consequently
an ex-officio trustee of Cornell Univer-
sity, he withdrew from the case and
since then it has been conducted entirely
in Mr.. Bacon's name. At the time the
young law student made his discovery
| Professor Fiske had been induced by Mr.
Justice BOardman to sign papers which
it might be supposed would deprive him
of any rights whatever under his wife's
will beyond the $500, 600 expressly be-
queathed him. He signed paper drawn
| up by Judge Boardman, in which he
gave receipt in full for every claim
against his wife's estate In addition to
this, an effort, though a vain one, was
made to have the charter of Cornell
| University amended. When Professor
Fiske was being most vexed by the ex-
ecutor named in his wife's will, young
Bacon approached him and said: ''If
these people instist upon standing upon
the law to such an extent that you are
compelled even to buy your wife's
dresses, can show you how to give them
more law than they will want" and
when the Cornell librarian inquired his
meaning, the young law student replied:
81 mean exactly what l say. Cornell
University is not entitled to your wife's
money. Every penny of it belongs to
you, and | can show you how to apply
the law SO that you may obtain your
Just dues. If / win show that every dol
lar of Mrs. Fiske's fortune is yours, will
you adopt the legal means to procure itg'
Professor Fiske said that he would.
That was in 1888. On June 10th, of that
year, Professor Fiske, on the campus of
Cornell University, laid the cornerstone
of the Students Hospital that had been
endowed by his wife, and Mr.. Justice
Boardman, with a quit-claim receipt in
his possession, smiled complacently as
he viewed the approaching completion
of his scheme. On July 10, twenty days
later, he almost lost his breath when he
was served with papers notifying him
that a petition had been filed in the Sur
rogate's office by Daniel Willard Fiske,
alleging that he had been deceived and
betrayedr by his supposed friend, Mr..
Justice Boardman, demanding that the
account of the executor of his wife's
estate be opened and asserting that Cor
nvll University was not legally entitled
to one dollar of it, The petition was
signed in the City Hall in New York, on
| the very morning on which Professor
Fiske sailed for Florence, Italy, where
he is still residing but whence he will
return next month.
Thus it was that the Fiske will con-
test had its beginning. AT that time
about SS00,000 of the McGraw money
had been paid to the Cornell University,
and the remainder was in the hands of
the executor. An injunction was at
once obtained restraining the latter from
parting with any more of the estate and
a similar process was served upon the
university officials, commanding them
not to spend the part of the bequest that
had been paid them. For seven years
the contest has ragged with bitterness
unusual even in litigation. Professor
Fiske, the students friend, the idol of
| Ithaca, was publicly denounced not only
upon the streets, but even in the columns
OF the Ithaca Journal, as "dTunkard," !"
as "a corrupter of youth, as "a robber
of his wife's grave" in fact no term was
considered too vile to apply to him.
Bacon, the young law student, and pet
of the Cornell faculty, the prize scholar
of the great university, was socially os-
| tracised. Ladies who had smiled upon
him with friendly favor cut him dead.
But the suit went on and succeeded in
attracting so much attention, that since
its beginning, nearly every college in the
country, and many charitable institutions,
have changed their charters in order that
they may not lose bequests. The first
phase of the contest was in the Surro-
gates Court, and there the Cornell peo-
pie won their only victory. An appeal
was taken to the General Term. Mr..
Justice Boardman was the presiding
Judge of the Sixth District Not only
was he the executor of the will in dis
pute, but the petition openly charged
him with fraud and conspiracy, alleging
no selfish interest against him, but aeeus-
ing him of permitting his integrity to be
shadowed by too fervid interest in Cor
nell University. He consequently left
the bench when the case reached hear
! . a =. III