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 PRESIDENT SCHURMAN 
 
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PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 AT THE INAUGURATION OF 
 
 JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN,LLD. 
 
 TO THE 
 / 
 
 PRESIDENCY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 November ii, 1892 
 
 ITHACA, N. Y. 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE UNIVERSITY 
 1892 
 
l^^ 
 
INAUGURATION 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT SCHURMAN. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Board of Trustees held on Mon- 
 day, the eighteenth of May, 1892, the resignation of President 
 Charles Kendall Adams having been presented and accepted. 
 Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman was unanimously elected president 
 of Cornell University. A committee consisting of Hon. Andrew 
 D. White and Dr. Daniel E. Salmon was appointed to notify 
 Dr. Schurman of his election and to invite him to come before 
 the Board and state his pleasure. In response to the invitation 
 of the committee, Dr. Schurman appeared before the Board, and 
 in a few brief remarks formally accepted the office to which he 
 had been elected. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting of the executive committee of 
 the Board of Trustees it was decided that the inauguration of 
 President Schurman should take place on Friday, the eleventh 
 of November, and a committee of arrangements was appoint- 
 pointed, consisting of Hon. Henry W. Sage, Chairman, and the 
 following members of the Board, Robert H. Treman, George 
 R. Williams, and Samuel D. Halliday. 
 
 This committee decided to hold the Inauguration Ceremo- 
 nies in Armory Hall, Friday, November nth, at 10:30 A. M., 
 and by special announcement all regular University exercises 
 were suspended on that day. 
 
 The academic body consisting of trustees, faculties, grad- 
 uate and under-graduate students were requested to meet on 
 
4 Cornell University. 
 
 the campus at 9:30 a. m., the places of assembly being assigned 
 as follows : 
 
 Trustees at the president's office. 
 
 Faculty, instructors and officers at the faculty's rooms. 
 
 Fellows and graduate students at Morrill Hall. 
 
 Students of the law school at the Law School Building. 
 
 Seniors and juniors at McGraw Hall. 
 
 Sophomores and freshmen at White Hall. 
 
 The procession, numbering about one thousand, was formed 
 under the direction of I^ieutenant Bell, assisted by the Officers 
 of the Battalion, and preceded by the University Band marched 
 to the Armor}' Hall. 
 
 Gartland's Orchestra of Albany, N. Y., stationed in the 
 gallery, rendered the ' 'Austrian Army March' ' while the pro- 
 cession entered the Hall and proceeded to seats which had been 
 reserv^ed for them. The ceremonies began promptly at 10:30 
 A. M., and the following was the 
 
 PROGRAMMK : 
 Music, By the Cornell Glee Club 
 
 Prayer, By the Rev. Stephen H. Synnott 
 
 Music, By the Orchestra 
 
 Address in behalf of the Students, 
 
 By Mr. Harlan Moore, 
 President of the Senior Class 
 Address in behalf of the Alumni, 
 
 By Mr. Frank H. Hiscock:, '75 
 Address in behalf of the Faculty, 
 
 By Prof. George C. Caldwell, Ph.D. 
 Reply, By the President 
 
 Music, By the Orchestra 
 
 Address in behalf of the Trustees, 
 
 By the Hon. Samuel D. Halliday 
 
Inauguration op President Schurman. 5 
 
 Presentation of tlie CHarter and the Seal, 
 
 By the Hon. Henry W. Sage, 
 Chairman of the Board of Trustees 
 
 Acceptance of the Charter and the Seal, 
 
 By the President 
 
 Music, By the Cornell Glee Club 
 
 Inaugural Address, 
 
 By President Jacob Gould Schurman, LL.D. 
 Music, By the Orchestra 
 
 Benediction, By the Rev. Charles M. Tyler, D.D. 
 
 The Cornell Glee Club sang : 
 
 " Far above Cayuga's waters 
 
 With its waves of blue, 
 Stands our noble Alma Mater, 
 
 Glorious to view. 
 Lift the chorus, speed it onward. 
 
 Loud her praises tell, 
 Hail to thee, oh Alma Mater, 
 
 Hail, all hail Cornell ! 
 
 Far above the busy humming 
 
 Of the bustling town. 
 Reared against the arch of heaven. 
 
 Looks she proudly down. 
 Lift the chorus, speed it onward. 
 
 Loud her praises tell. 
 Hail to the, oh Alma Mater, 
 
 Hail, all hail, Cornell." 
 
 PRAYER BY THE REV. STEPHEN H. SYNNOTT. 
 
 Almighty and everlasting God, our Heavenly Father, who 
 art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and are wont to 
 give more than we desire or deserve ; we humbly beseech Thee 
 to hear us as we come before Thee to present our supplications 
 and our thanksgivings. Thou art our Maker — our Helper and 
 our Redeemer, O Lord ! Thou by Thy living presence — ^by Thy 
 
6 CoRNEi.1, University. 
 
 sympathy — by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, dost con- 
 descend to help us, and we acknowledge that it is what Thou 
 givest us — what we receive from Thee — what Thou dost help us 
 to do, that makes us to prosper. Without Thee nothing is 
 strong, nothing is Holy, nothing is really successfril, and there- 
 fore we come before Thee this day to offer unto Thee our pray- 
 ers and our thanksgivings. Especially at this new beginning 
 of things in this institution, at this daj^ of inauguration of a 
 future which we trust may be larger and grander than even the 
 past has been ; at this hour may we think and realize and 
 give thanks to Thee for that which from the beginning Thou 
 hast designed for the sons of man. What a future ! What 
 progress ! What power ! What an inheritance of the earth 
 and the skies. And may we all feel, and most of all, those up- 
 on whose young years this future is just dawning, the true 
 magnificence Thou hast planned, and that we are, indeed, fel- 
 low workers with Thee in laying the foundations and in rear- 
 ing the walls of the greatness that is to be, and in making ad- 
 vance to that perfect manhood and that supreme dominion over 
 the works of Thy hands, which Thou hast showed us in Thy 
 Beloved Son, our example and our model. And knowing that 
 in this institution and other like ones Thou hast put into our 
 hands the instruments and tools whereby we may work out 
 this larger future, may we humbly seek of Thee and obtain 
 wisdom to use them as thou hast ordained. Especially we im- 
 plore Thy blessings upon him who now takes the great respon- 
 sibility and the most serious charge of the presidency of this 
 University. May he be endued with strength of body and of 
 soul to fit him for the work that lies before him. Make him 
 humble in the hour of success and give him the grace of 
 patience in the hour of trial. Through sunshine and in cloud 
 may he ever rest upon Thee. And so crown with success his 
 efforts in the years to come, to guide, to plan and to build. 
 Bless all who are in any way his helpers and coadjutors in the 
 work of this University. May the}^ be guided and governed by 
 Thy Good Spirit in the ways of wisdom and understanding. 
 May no means be wanting to enable them to fulfill their de- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 7 
 
 signs, and by the liberality of heart and hand of many of Th}^ 
 servants, in the years to come, may the cherished plans of the 
 founders of this University become a reality. And for those 
 who are and are to be students here we ask Thy blessing, that 
 they may be both perceive and know what things they ought 
 to do and may have power faithfully to fulfill the same. They 
 are face to face with the solemn future of their lives. May they 
 resolve to grow in all Christian manhood, in all courtesy of 
 manners, in all strength and purity of conduct, and in all dili- 
 gence and perseverance of study, so that they may be fitted for 
 that work in this world which Thou shalt give them to do. 
 
 We give Thee humble and hearty thanks for the blessings 
 of the past, for the labor and liberality that have founded and 
 sustained this University, for all who have been its benefactors, 
 for all who have been trained here and have honored it in their 
 successful lives. 
 
 Have us now and forevermore in Thy holy keeping, and 
 open unto us in the end the gates of everlasting life, through Thy 
 son Jesus Christ, our L,ord. Amen. 
 
 Overture — "Erl King," by Gartland's Orchestra. 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE STUDENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 ]\Ir. Harlan Moore, President of Senior Class. 
 
 Mr. Chairma7i, Ladies and Gentlemen^ and Fellow Students : 
 
 A few more than a dozen miles to the south of Ithaca there 
 stands in those lovely hills a majestic ridge, sloping rapidly to 
 the east and to the west. Known to the dwellers in that locality 
 as the "Divide, ' ' it forms for the waters of Southern New York 
 a grand and stately water-shed. Whenever it rains, the drops 
 of water falling to the one side are mingled with streams that, 
 by cascades and caverned ways, seek the stormy Ontario ; borne 
 thence by the rapid St. Lawrence to its frigid outlet they are 
 carried northward, and frozen and lost in the barren ice-fields of 
 the Arctics. But the drops falling to the right smoothly wend 
 their way to the majestic Susquehanna ; flowing onward through 
 fertile valleys and rich fields to the blue Chesapeake, laving the 
 shores of fair Virginia, they are borne blessing and blessed of 
 nature to the warm, sun-lit waters of the Southern Ocean. 
 
 Just six month ago, the trustees of Cornell took a step 
 that marks a decisive moment in the history of our Universit5^ 
 With one accord they made choice of him who was to bear upon 
 his shoulders the president's mantle. Did that choice fall, as 
 it were, to the left ? Did it fall upon a man, the current of 
 whose thoughts and administrative policy would flow in a di- 
 rection harmful to the interests of this University ? Or did it 
 fall to the right — upon a man, the outpourings of whose 
 genius would bear the destinies of our Alma Mater to fields 
 rich with the blessings of nature and of Nature's God? I need 
 not answer that the Trustees have chosen well ; I need but say 
 their choice fell upon JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN ! (Great 
 applause.) And, Mr. President, were the choice of the Trus- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 9 
 
 tees needful of student ratification, I can assure you from the 
 depths of my heart that I voice the unanimous sentiment of 
 the entire student body when I say, the trustees' action would 
 have been our action and their choice is our choice ! 
 
 We do not greet 5'-ou to-day, sir, as stranger to stranger ; 
 as, for the past six years, your services have been rendered to 
 Cornell, where already your efforts have given fame to her de- 
 partment of philosophy. We rather congratulate you upon 
 your promotion, while at the same time our most fervent pray- 
 ers storm the battlements of heaven that its choicest blessings 
 may forever rest upon you. 
 
 It is indeed, ladies and gentlemen, a beautiful truth that 
 succession to the presidency of Cornell University has been 
 apostolic in its nature. It was Andrew Dickson White, whose 
 interests as he now fills an honorable position abroad, are dear 
 to every true Comellian's heart, — it was our first president who 
 chose the second ; and it was through the efforts of the second 
 that were first secured the ser^dces of the third. 
 
 In passing, I desire to pay a tribute of grateful thanks to 
 Charles Kendall Adams, the second president of our Univer- 
 sit5^ We owe to him a debt of gratitude which no words can 
 repay ; and in behalf of the students I would voice the spirit 
 and letter of the words regarding him, which appear in resolu- 
 tions adopted by our trustees : "His administration will be 
 remembered in the history of Cornell University as equally im- 
 portant to the interests of the institution and creditable to him- 
 self ; and we tender to him as a scholar, as an educator, and as 
 a man, the assurances of our sincere respect and regard, with 
 our best wishes for his future success and happiness." 
 
 This should indeed be a day of rejoicing ; a day of rejoicing 
 because we know that Cornell's third president is in no wise 
 inferior to his worthy predecessors ; and because we know that 
 under his guidance is assured the continued prosperity of our 
 beloved Alma Mater. 
 
 We congratulate you, Mr. President, upon the manifold 
 blessings that have attended you ; we congratulate you upon 
 your past career, a fitting example for us to follow ; we congrat- 
 
lo Cornell University. 
 
 ulate you upon your efforts as a preceptor, successful to the 
 highest degree ; and we congratulate you upon your election 
 to the presidency of this University, in truth a great Uni- 
 versity, of a great state, of a great country. But while, sir, we 
 congratulate the trustees upon their choice, and you upon being 
 chosen, we, as students of the University, would congratulate 
 ourselves upon being the chiefest recipients of this blessing. 
 When we reflect that we are members of this great and progres- 
 sive University, situated in the very heart of the Empire State, 
 we are proud to be Cornellians ! When we look about us, see- 
 ing these noble structures rearing their heads heavenward and 
 firmly founded upon these beautiful hills, whereon the God of 
 Nature hath lovingly laid His plastic hand, we are proud to be 
 Cornellians ! But when we climb these hills and listen to the 
 words of wisdom as they fall from the lips of our faculty, 
 realizing that you, sir, are at their head, and that about us all is 
 the strong right arm of our generous trustee body, — then, not 
 only are we proud to be Cornellians, but we glory in the 
 name ! 
 
 As students under your presidency we pledge to 5'ou our 
 hearty co-operation and support. The University's interests 
 shall be our interests ; and our most earnest endeavors shall be 
 directed toward advancing her policy along those lines of prac- 
 tical progress so characteristic of her histor5^ And when we 
 have laid aside our active duties here, and as Alumni have 
 passed into the mystic future, our interest, I assure you, will 
 continue unabated, our loyalt}^ to Alma Mater undiminished 
 throughout our allotted lives. Then, indeed, will our love and 
 devotion be strong and firm ; while to our ears no rhythm will 
 be more harmonious, no music more sweet, than the words of 
 our Universit)' anthem : 
 
 "Far above Cayuga's water, 
 
 With its waves of blue, 
 Stands our noble Alma Mater, 
 
 Glorious to view. 
 Lift the chorus, 
 
 Speed it onward, 
 I/Oud her praises tell ; 
 
 Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, 
 Hail, all hail, Cornell ! " 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI 
 
 BY 
 
 Mr. Frank H. Hiscock, '75. 
 
 Mr. President: 
 
 In the name and behalf of a body of Alumni which is 
 strong in numbers and serious in its aspirations and ambitions, 
 and above all intensely loyal to its Alma Mater, I welcome you 
 to the presidency of Cornell and wish you the full measure of 
 success in its administration. 
 
 The discharge of this pleasant part which has been as- 
 signed me in these exercises has been all the more gratifying 
 because it emphasizes again and afresh at this time for you and 
 them the relation and interest which the Alumni have to and 
 in the government of the University. 
 
 A wonderfully short time has demonstrated beyond criti- 
 cism or dispute the sound and enduring wisdom of the princi- 
 ples and ideas upon which Cornell University was founded. It 
 seems to me that no provision of its constitution was wiser 
 or more far-sighted than that one which by giving them a lib- 
 eral part in the management of its affairs tended to stimulate 
 and at all times keep alive the active interest and attention of 
 its Alumni. They have come to realize more fully each year that 
 the privileges thus conferred upon them carry the corresponding 
 duty of a wise and careful exercise and to appreciate, I trust, 
 that to them this University has a right to look for material en- 
 couragement and aid in the future. 
 
 In speaking for them at this time, Mr. President, I feel 
 that I may assure you, entirely avoiding exaggeration or mere 
 aflfability of speech, that their entire confidence and absolute 
 good will attend you to-day in your formal inauguration. 
 
12 Cornell University. 
 
 They will watch your administration with a scrutiny be- 
 gotteiT of the intense eagerness which they will feel for its un- 
 qualified and lasting success. They very possibly may dijffer 
 from and criticise it, in some of its details. They may at times 
 even seem unreasonable and exacting, but I believe that 3^ou 
 may upon the whole rest secure in the expectation of a fair and 
 broad-minded judgment from the men and women who graduate 
 from this University. 
 
 It is at once your good fortune and peril that j'ou assume 
 your office at this time. We stand at the, thus far, flood-tide 
 of prosperity. The present hour is rich in the realization of the 
 dreams and aspirations of the past. In fact we may well doubt 
 if an}' one of those who labored upon the foundation of the Uni- 
 versit}' or of those who watched them with friendh^ interest 
 dared to really hope for the results which we see to-day. Even 
 since it was felt that success had been actually attained the pro- 
 gress has been wonderful. In 1884, President White, speaking 
 to a meeting of the Alumni of Western New York, almost felt 
 called upon to justify in some way his prophecy that the results 
 of the next few years would exceed those of the ten 3'ears then 
 closing. It w^as still more recently that we heard the venerable 
 Dr. Wilson, speaking in behalf of the faculty, at the inaugura- 
 tion of your predecessor, dwell with pride upon the fact that 
 the number of students had reached six hundred and twelve. 
 
 The University stands here in the foremost rank of univer- 
 sities, representing in its beautiful buildings, in its multitude 
 of students, in its body of earnest and able professors, the la- 
 bors and triumphs of the past, and now we commit to 3'ou, in 
 large measure, to answer, ' 'And what of the future ? ' ' 
 
 Not forgetting that Cornell has now reached a position 
 where not to progress is to retrograde ; that the brilliant and 
 continuous advancement and enlargement of the past few j-ears, 
 which make prosperity seem almost a matter of course, in fact 
 increase enormously the demands upon resources and executive 
 management, we still look with hopeful confidence to the suc- 
 cessful answer by the results of your administration of the prob- 
 lem cast upon it. We shall look to see each year a nearer ap- 
 
Inauguration of Prksident Schurman. 13 
 
 proach to that complete University where all persons may pursue 
 under the guidance of the ablest and best minds, through the 
 broadest avenues, any and every branch of useful knowledge. 
 And, in conclusion, to draw for the future a brief compar- 
 ison with the past, which is so natural upon an occasion like 
 this : Those who attended and graduated from this university 
 in its earlier days cherish with a peculiar fondness and loyalty 
 the memory of Cornell's first president. They may not at all 
 times have agreed with him in every detail of university policy 
 but by actually witnessing, and sometimes, to a small extent at 
 least, by sharing in them, they learned to properly appreciate 
 and value the unceasing, enthusiastic and unselfish struggles 
 which he made for its success. His personal identity and in- 
 fluence were always an inspiration to a more elevated manhood 
 and womanhood, and to a broader and riper scholarship. You 
 will appreciate, therefore, that I fill the limit of good wishes 
 for your Presidency when I express the hope that as the basis 
 and reward of its successful administration you may en- 
 joy the same enthusiastic, personal loyalty and esteem from 
 those who shall come here as did your first predecessor. Presi- 
 dent White. 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE FACULTY. 
 
 BY 
 
 Professor George C. Caldwell. 
 
 In the discharge of the duty that has been assigned to me 
 b}' the Faculty, as its senior member, it is fitting that I should, 
 first of all, extend to you, sir, the hearty welcome of those 
 whom I represent on this occasion, to the new relationship in 
 which 3'ou now stand to them. You are younger as actual age 
 is counted, j'-ou are younger, too, in j^ears of membership of the 
 Faculty-, than many of them ; moreover, it is but a few j^ears 
 ago that you came to us from beyond the nation's border, a for- 
 eigner. If for any of these reasons there might under anj- con- 
 ditions be dissatisfaction with this promotion from out of the 
 Facult}^ to the Presidency, such conditions do not exist here. I 
 can assure j'ou, sir, if indeed any such assurance is needed, 
 that the onlj^ feeling is that of most cordial good will towards 
 3-ou on the part of all j^our former colleagues, and of confidence 
 that your administration of your difl&cult office will redound to 
 the credit and glory of the University, and of all who do their 
 share in helping you. 
 
 It cannot be questioned that it is the sacred dut}- of ever}' 
 member of the Faculty, as well as of its President, to do his ut- 
 most to maintain this cordiality. There cannot but be differ- 
 ences of opinion in a body constituted as the Faculty of a large 
 University is — every member of it supposed to be capable of 
 passing sound judgment on questions at issue of which he knows 
 all the bearings. Such men are not apt to be content unless 
 they know the reasons for action affecting their interests. That 
 3^ou, sir, on j^our part will meet each one of us fairlj- and open- 
 ly on this ground, we have no doubt. On the other hand you 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 15 
 
 have a right to expect on the part of the Faculty, where there 
 are so many and such varied interests, contesting in a rivalry 
 that should always be generous, a liberal measure of forbear- 
 ance ; and that each one of us should be slow to let an unfa- 
 vorable conjecture or opinion pass on into a conviction, and 
 possibly open the way for unhappy disturbances of that har- 
 mony in spirit and purpose, which is of such vital importance 
 to the welfare of the University. 
 
 As President of the University you hold many relations to 
 the Faculty — as its presiding officer, its executive officer, its 
 medium of communication with the Board of Trustees, besides 
 sharing with it the work of instruction. Of all these functions 
 belonging to your office, that one which places you between the 
 Faculty and the Trustees may cost 3^ou as much anxious thought 
 as any other. It is not to be supposed, we trust, that, because 
 you stand officially in this relation, there is to be no direct 
 communication between individual members of the Faculty and 
 of the Board of Trustees, on subjects of mutual interest. That 
 the members of these two governing bodies, both engaged in 
 the same great work, should have no direct intercourse with 
 each other about that work would be an unwise policy. But 
 even with such intercourse freely held, a large part of the im- 
 portant communications from the one body to the other, or from 
 its individual members, must pass through your hands. The 
 Faculty may justly expect that every such communication shall 
 be faithfully and fairly presented ; and we are sure that a right so 
 plain and equitable will be fully and cheerfully conceded by you. 
 
 It is I may well say the misfortune of manj- of us to have 
 to call upon the Trustees at stated times for large sums of 
 money, not unfrequently running up into thousands of dollars 
 annually. It is easy for the sum total of these requests to 
 greatly exceed the capacity to meet them ; so there come to be 
 arrayed on the one hand, year after year, these demands for 
 more means, prompted by each petitioner's appreciation of the 
 great need of his own department for additional equipment to 
 provide for increasing numbers of students, or for a higher 
 range of study ; and, on the other hand, the replies that less 
 
1 6 Cornell University. 
 
 must be asked for, as there is not enough to go round ; and be- 
 tween these opposing parties the President must stand, as be- 
 tween the upper and the nether millstones, to attempt the 
 impossibility of satisfying both. 
 
 You may indeed, sir, have encouraged us to dream of the 
 possibilities of our several departments, with an unlimited in- 
 come ; but we know too well that it will be only castles in the 
 air that we build on such expectations ; we know too well that 
 this inadequac)'- of the supply to meet the want must always 
 exist. Indeed it would not be well for the University if it were 
 otherwise ; any department of its instruction that should stand 
 still, unmindful of the possibilities ever before it for more and 
 better work with larger means at command, would soon be left 
 behind by other departments ever on the alert to grasp such 
 possibilities and make the best of them ; a one-sided instead 
 of a symmetrical growth would be the unfortunate result. 
 Really disastrous would it be, on the other hand, if the treasury 
 were not carefully guarded by its custodians against exhaustion ; 
 a bankrupt University would be a mortification to its friends, 
 deep beyond expression. 
 
 In these times when new universities are opened on every 
 hand, the competition becomes keener and keener for more men 
 and women to come forward and make use of these new facili- 
 ties for getting an education. But if the competition is to be for 
 numbers mainly, with little regard for anything else, the result 
 of all this activity will be but a poor gain to the country- ; there 
 are empty seats enough already, I imagine, in many of our col- 
 leges and so-called universities, if more room is all that is 
 needed. 
 
 But these new universities are often ably manned, as well 
 as munificently endowed, and the competition is not for num- 
 bers only ; able students are sought for, as well as able teach- 
 ers for them ; the aim is to give a broader and a better educa- 
 tion on these rich foundations ; and the older universities, 
 whether like ourselves only just passing their majority, or 
 hoary with old age, must grow in the best sense of the word, 
 or else fall behind in this rivalry. 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 17 
 
 The live university is always growing ; but growth is not 
 necessarily in mere size ; a really live man may be growing, even 
 though he long ago attained his full bodily stature — growing 
 intellectually or morally, of which there may be no outward 
 sign to the casual observer. So we maj^ grow, as a University, 
 and so each department may grow, though the traveler on the 
 opposite hill five years hence, or ten years hence, may count no 
 more new buildings than he can count now, or the summary in 
 the Register may show no more students year by year. 
 
 The rate of progression in the sum total of the intellectual 
 forces engaged in the work of the college or University 
 shows what the growth is there that is of the best kind, rather 
 than the increase in the mere weight of flesh and bones on the 
 forms. That it will be your highest pleasure, sir, as President of 
 this University to foster this higher growth, that which is of the 
 kind most ardently to be desired, we of your Faculty are as- 
 sured. 
 
 One of the soundest manifestations of this growth is the 
 quickening of the spirit of research. New knowledge must 
 come out of our higher institutions of learning ; this is in re- 
 ality one of the missions of these institutions, one that is too 
 often lost sight of in the pride of mere numbers. This widen- 
 ing of the scope of knowledge in these days often requires 
 means and appliances which only a rich university can pro- 
 vide ; just in proportion to its means will be the demand for 
 new knowledge, that the world will make of each of these great 
 centers of learning, of which Cornell is justly proud to be recog- 
 nized as one. 
 
 You are fortunate, sir, it seems to me, in beginning your 
 administration with a University already so big that you can 
 give your thoughts freely to the quality of the work done here, 
 and let the number take care of itself of those who come to 
 ,do that work, day by day, in its class rooms, laboratories and 
 workshops. There is no truly appreciative friend of the Uni- 
 versity who would not be fullj^ satisfied if it made no more 
 mere corporeal growth, provided that it should be alive with 
 seekers for higher and higher culture, each succeeding year, and 
 
1 8 Cornell University. 
 
 that from its private studies, its seminaries and laboratories 
 there should come out its share of contributions to the world's 
 knowledge, and from its workshops, draughting rooms, fields 
 and gardens, its share of what goes to make human life safer 
 and happier. 
 
 That you, sir, will do all that in you lies to help this 
 University to accomplish its part of this great work for the 
 world, we happil}^ can have no doubt. 
 
 The conditions under which you enter upon your adminis- 
 tration here are in some important respects unique, so far as 
 our own history is concerned. Our first President had to deal 
 with a Faculty, with whose members he had for the most part 
 only the slightest acquaintance ; furthermore, a new University 
 was here launched into existence with important novel features 
 in its purposes and methods, and with perhaps at least as many 
 enemies as it had fi-iends. It must have been with no small de- 
 gree of solicitude that President White took up the leadership 
 along these untried paths and with untried men to support him. 
 How much of anxious groping in the way there was in those 
 first years of the University's life, only those who lived through 
 them can realize. 
 
 The next President assumed his office with the work of 
 the University in successful operation along the lines laid 
 down by his predecessor, a Faculty in sympathy with it, and at 
 any rate many more friends than at the outset ; but, like his 
 predecessor, he labored under the disadvantage of onty a slight 
 acquaintance with the members of the Faculty. The success 
 of these two administrations is now a matter of histor>^ The 
 first President left the University and the particular educational 
 principles that it represented, firmly established on a sound 
 basis ; the second left it with a broader scope and a higher 
 standard of education, and in a far more prosperous condition 
 than when he came to it. 
 
 For you, sir, the way is, we hope and believe, made easier 
 than it was for them, in that you already know so well those 
 who are to work with you, and with all the world our friends, 
 for the further advancement of this University to a yet higher 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 19 
 
 degree of material prosperity, and, better and more glorious 
 than that, to raise it to a yet higher standard of educational 
 work — higher work not only in all that relates to the making of 
 more cultured men and women as the years roll by, but also of 
 truer and better men and women. 
 
 May your life and our lives be spared, and abounding 
 health and strength be given us all, for many years of earnest, 
 harmonious and happy effort together, for the accomplishment 
 of such a noble purpose. 
 
REPLY TO THE ADDRESSES 
 
 in behalf of the students, the alumni, and the 
 faculty, by 
 
 President Schurman. 
 
 Fellow- students, Fellow-Graduates, Fellow- Teachei^s : 
 
 I thank j^ou for your words of welcome, of kindly cheer, and 
 of generous sympathy and confidence. Uttered not only with 
 the grace of scholarship but with all the cordiality of friendship 
 they have, I freely confess to you, gratified and moved me be- 
 3'ond any power of description. A man is especially sensitive 
 to the judgment of his peers ; and, with the exception of an earh' 
 apprenticeship to business, my life, like yours, has been devoted 
 to the things of the mind. But there is another reason wlij- I 
 earnestly covet your good opinion. It is 3'ou who constitute 
 the University ; in its essence you are the University'. 
 
 The students are the final cause of its existence. My young 
 fellow- workers we are all here for your sakes. And all we 
 have and are is yours. Take hold then with all your organs 
 on the life that environs 3^ou ; and let the thews of j-our minds 
 be nourished and strengthened bj^ the truth on which spirit 
 feeds. The variety of the intellectual life of Cornell Univer- 
 sit}^ is itself a liberal education to those who know how to use 
 it. Here, while learning ever3'thing of something, 3'ou may 
 also learn something of everything. And with all j^our getting, 
 get wisdom. Conduct is not merely three- fourths of life, as 
 Matthew Arnold said ; it is the whole of life. And it is n\y 
 eamest desire and prayer that Cornell University may go 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 21 
 
 on to evolve a more perfect type of manhood, — a manhood 
 which, shufSing off the animal coil and fulfilling the divine 
 idea of man, shall attain to a sense of honor that feels a stain 
 like a wound, to an integrity that will not palter with the 
 truth, to a justice and kindliness which, in their ministrations, 
 go out to meet the claims and needs of others, to a gentleness 
 which is harsh with nothing but meanness and a tolerence that 
 forgives everything except hypocrisy, and to a reverence and 
 piety which transcending all the sublimities of Time go on to 
 commune with the Spirit of L,ife and Truth and lyOve Eternal. 
 Students of Cornell University ! this is your moral vocation. 
 To keep it constantly before you is the highest duty of your 
 President. 
 
 And you, older sons and daughters of Alma Mater, I have 
 heard your words with joy as I shall obey your summons with 
 alacrity. The spirit of Cornell University is mine as fully as 
 it is yours. And it bids us all work together for the liberal and 
 and practical education of the youth of all classes and profes- 
 sions of our people. I wish, however, to state, with all the 
 emphasis I can command, that Alma Mater has now reached a 
 point in her history beyond which further growth is impossible 
 without the united and cordial support of her children. ' It is 
 for you to consider how you can most effectually maintain the 
 University which from this time on must be so largely ne- 
 trusted to your keeping. Without you we can do nothing ; 
 with your aid all things are possible. Alumni, I appeal to you 
 because you are strong. Alumnae, I appeal to you because you 
 are quick-witted. We need the help of both. A giant's work 
 is before us. But through your heroism we shall triumph. 
 
 Fellow-teachers, I desire to magnify our office. We are 
 training minds. And, as Emerson most truly said, "the main 
 enterprise of the world for splendor, for extent, is the upbuild- 
 ing of a man." Methods of education, like metaphysics, must 
 be reconsidered by every generation. Therefore, besides teach- 
 ing and investigating, you must shape our educational policies. 
 And grave educational issues are now before you. Within the 
 very general limits prescribed by the charter, you must deter- 
 
22 Cornell University. 
 
 mine the constituents of a liberal culture and of a professional 
 training, and fix their proper relation to each other. All culture 
 should be humanistic and naturalistic at the same time ; but it 
 is no easy matter to adjust the claims of each. The humanities 
 are indispensable ; but the end is humanity : and it is at least 
 an open question whether the English language and literature are 
 not the most effective of all liberalizing disciplines. Cornell Uni- 
 versity must settle all such questions on their own merits. As 
 Goldwin Smith said at the foundation of the institution, it is for 
 Cornell "to remain uninfluenced, either in the way of imi- 
 tation or of antagonism by other educational institutions or 
 ideas." Gentlemen of the Faculty, it is your privilege as it 
 is your dut}^ to settle our educational problems in the waj^ j^ou 
 think best. The President is your chairman ; he is the expon- 
 ent of your ideas ; and the executor of your resolutions. But 
 yours is the responsibility of framing the legislation he admin- 
 isters. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you all once more for your messages. 
 Yet I do not misunderstand their import. You pledge co-oper- 
 ation ; the work is still before us. You summon me to action ; 
 in your strength I say, Forward ! 
 
 Music — "The Tyrolean," bj^ the Orchestra. 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Hon. Samuel D. Halliday. 
 
 President Schurman : 
 
 I cannot help on this occasion indulging in some reminis- 
 cences. Twenty-four 5^ears ago while a student at this Univer- 
 sity I became the owner of my first and only autograph album. 
 That album contains three names. They are the names of 
 three of those distinguised non-resident lecturers, who in the 
 early history of our University did so much to inspire every- 
 body connected with it. These names are, Louis Agassiz, 
 James Russell Lowell and George William Curtis. They have 
 all gone to their final home, and I have never allowed anybody 
 else to profane that album by writing their names upon its 
 pages. Curtis and Agassiz were present and took part in the 
 inauguration of our first President. Last night I hunted up that 
 old album. I found that Curtis and Agassiz had contented them- 
 selves with simply writing their names, but over the signature 
 of James Russell Lowell I found the following sentiment : 
 "I do not wonder that Ulysses longed to return to Ithaca." 
 That was written twenty-four years ago. It has been my good 
 fortune to reside continuously since that time under the very 
 eaves of Cornell and in that city to which every alumnus, like 
 the ancient Ulysses, will always long to return. Since that time 
 as a student, as an alumnus, as a trustee and as a citizen, I have 
 watched the wonderful progress of our University and its 
 growth in harmonious proportions from small beginnings until 
 now, on the occasion of the inauguration of its third president, 
 it seems to have become 
 
 "One stupendous whole, 
 
 Whose body nature is, and God the Soul." 
 
 It is not fit or proper, for me, at least, on this occasion, to 
 go in detail into the causes which have brought about this re- 
 sult ; nor could I in the brief time alotted me do any kind of 
 justice to the few honored members of our board during that 
 time, both living and dead, who in more ways than one have 
 
24 Cornell University. 
 
 done so much for this University. But while I am speaking for 
 the trustees, I may be permitted briefly and in general words to 
 speak to you, Mr. President, of them and about them. 
 
 Somebody has somewhere laid down the following wise 
 rule of action in governing bodies : "In essentials, unity ; in 
 non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charity." Nowhere 
 has that rule of action been so thoroughly exemplified and fol- 
 lowed than in the Board of Trustees of Cornell University. 
 Differences have arisen. But these differences have been based 
 on honest differences of judgment among those who are inde- 
 pendent in thought, independent in speech and above all, inde- 
 pendent in action, and underneath them all was alwa5^s to be 
 found a common purpose to be loyal and true to the institution, 
 whose interest it was their official and bounden duty to guard 
 and protect. 
 
 While I have thus spoken, boastfully perhaps, of the 
 Board of Trustees of which I am a member, I desire now to 
 contrast favorably my boasting, if such it be, with the extreme 
 modesty of a comparatively young man, with whom you, Mr. 
 President, are somewhat acquainted ; but whose merits I be- 
 lieve 3^ou yourself do not yet fully appreciate. Last May he 
 was suddenly and unexpectedly promoted to a very high and 
 exalted position. When he was informed of that fact in the 
 presence of the Board that promoted him, overwhelmed with 
 the responsibility of his new position, he closed a few brief re- 
 marks in the following modest, but to me almost immortal 
 words : "I do not know," said he, — "I do not know whether 
 I can succeed or not, but with God's help I will tr}\" 
 
 lyCt me here and now make a prediction. That modesty, 
 which is always an evidence of genuine worth, that subdued 
 and earnest enthusiasm bom almost of inspiration, will make 
 for this University a future greater even than its past. 
 
 On behalf of the Board of Trustees I am authorized to ex- 
 tend to you. President Schurman, their hearty greetings and 
 cordial welcome to the Presidency of Cornell Universit}', and to 
 assure you that all your efforts to promote its interests and ad- 
 vance its glory will receive their hearty support. 
 
ADDRESS OF THE HON. HENRY W. SAGE, 
 Chairman of the Board of Trustees, 
 
 ON 
 
 Presentation of the Charter and the Seal. 
 
 Mr. President : 
 
 In May last (1892) you were unanimously elected third Pres- 
 ident of Cornell University to succeed Charles Kendall Adams. 
 On this day of your formal inauguration it is my duty as chair- 
 man of the Board of Trustees to deliver to your keeping the 
 charter and the seal of the University. 
 
 Twenty-four years have elapsed since real work under this 
 charter began. These years have been pregnant with results, 
 larger, broader and more far-reaching than most of us then 
 living had good reason to anticipate. Years of trial, we have 
 had, of poverty, of embarrassment, of labors without much 
 seeming result, but God's hand has always been near us and 
 with us and His inspiration has created faith much, caused 
 works many, and out of these have come crowns of glorious 
 fruitage. Our noble founder, Ezra Cornell, went to sleep be- 
 fore this fruitage came, but he had planted the seed which pro- 
 duced it. 
 
 Our honored first president, Andrew D. White, tilled it 
 twenty years with wisdom and care, leaving vigorous growth 
 at the roots and the top. Our second president, Charles Ken- 
 dall Adams, gave us seven years of his earnest life, and dur- 
 ing those years were growth and expansion in all ways not be- 
 fore known. 
 
 Under the guidance of your predecessors in office the fac- 
 ulty have always been able and efficient builders of a sound ed- 
 ucation. From the beginning, the various Boards of Trustees 
 
26 Cornell University. 
 
 have given labor without stint and without compensation, and 
 their hands and their hearts, their faith and zeal have ever been 
 constant promoters of the great work to which Cornell Univer- 
 sity has been committed. 
 
 A new era now dawns upon us. You, sir, succeed to 
 larger duties and responsibilities than did your predecessors 
 and their co-workers. What they built and established you 
 have. What they lifted to present altitude you are to lift 
 higher, ever higher. All are yours to strengthen where weak, 
 to add to, to build broader, deeper, better. 
 
 The labors of your office as President you begin to know 
 are vast enough in themselves to create no small tax upon 
 your powers. These are added to those already yours as Dean 
 of the department of ethics and philosophy. Your function 
 there of dealing with and teaching the higest problems of moral 
 and intellectual action is greater than the presidency — higher 
 than any known to me. 
 
 I know the extreme modesty with which you have assumed 
 these duties, and where you look for power to perform them 
 all. May it be given to you in abundant measure, and may 
 your administration of all the high trusts committed to your 
 charge be crowned with success equal to your own highest as- 
 pirations, and to the largest wants of Cornell University. 
 
 I have the honor to invest you with the charter and seal. 
 
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT 
 
 IN 
 
 Accepting the Charter and the Seal. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : 
 
 I take from your hands these symbols of the office to which 
 you have summoned me with mingled feelings of anxiety and 
 confidence. As I think of the magnitude of the actual inter- 
 ests of our University, and of the greater future to which the 
 Cornell ideal points, I am oppressed by the share of responsi- 
 bility you have put upon me in the management of its affairs. 
 The office is one that makes diverse and onerous demands upon 
 the incumbent ; and neither shall I escape mistakes nor you 
 disappointments. The confidence that supports me is not, you 
 will recognize, born of levity or even of want of foresight. It 
 arises chiefly from my knowledge of what the Board of Trus- 
 tees has achieved for Cornell University. In the management 
 of her affairs you have made a record without parallel in the 
 educational history of our country. The present and the future 
 of the University are secure in the hands of men who have 
 made the past illustrious. Gentlemen of the Board, you are 
 my hope and my stay. As you were pleased to call me to the 
 presidency by a unanimous vote, and as I have no desire or 
 ambition but to carry out the measures you devise for the best 
 interests of the University, I look for — and I desire now most 
 earnestly to bespeak — not only your confidence and support, 
 but even your patience, your forbearance, and your kindly 
 judgment. You will find many, alas, too many, occasions for 
 the exercise of these generous sentiments. But, if I should ever 
 cease to be the object of them, I should not desire to be presi- 
 dent. Fortunately, I have assurance of your attitude, not 
 
28 CoRNEivi. University. 
 
 only in the manner of the election, but in the kindness and 
 generosity with which j^our Board has always treated me. 
 And so relying upon your support, I enter formally upon the 
 new office. Maj'- the Spirit of Light and Truth whose cause 
 we serve, guide and strengthen us ! 
 
 The Cornell Glee Club then sang : 
 
 The soldier loves his general's fame, 
 
 The willow loves the stream, 
 The child will love its mother's name, 
 
 The dreamer loves his dream ; 
 The sailor loves his haven pier, 
 
 The shadow loves the dell, 
 The student holds no name so dear 
 As thy good name Cornell. 
 We'll honor thee, Cornell, 
 While breezes blow 
 Or waters flow, 
 We'll honor thee, Cornell. 
 
 The soldier with his sword of might 
 
 In blood may write his fame. 
 The prince in marble columns white 
 
 May deeply grave his name ; 
 But graven on each student's heart 
 
 There shall unsullied dwell, 
 While of this world they are a part. 
 Thy own good name, Cornell. 
 We'll honor thee, Cornell, 
 While breezes blow 
 Or waters flow. 
 We'll honor thee, Cornell. 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Chairman : 
 
 Tlie institution wliich has summoned us to this 
 day's ceremonial is almost if not quite the youngest 
 member of the still too small fraternity of great 
 American universities. The oldest sister has already 
 celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
 of her birth. The present year is the twenty-fifth 
 since the opening of Cornell University. For our 
 years, the oldest American colleges show decades ; 
 and beside the venerable antiquity of their European 
 models we are but of yesterday. We can make no 
 pretense to the dignity of age, or to hereditary influ- 
 ence, or to sacred tradition, or to that subdued and 
 statuesque beauty of countenance which is bom of 
 the travail of many generations. It may, however, 
 be suspected that the modern scholar, who nourishes 
 his spirit on the rich legacies of remote generations, 
 is, in consequence of a natural association of ideas, 
 under constant temptation unduly to exalt the past 
 and to admire what is old simply because it is old. 
 This, however, was not the habit of that wonderful 
 people who were the authors, and who continue to be 
 the unapproachable models, of scholarship and liberal 
 culture. Youth was the ideal aspiration, the dearest 
 yearning of the Greeks, from the time their litera- 
 
30 Cornell University. 
 
 ture opeued with the story of the youthful Achilles 
 till their national history closed with the conquests of 
 the youthful Alexander. Cornell, I admit, has not 
 the stately splendor of those Old World seats of learn- 
 ing which thrill and almost pain the unaccustomed 
 sense of the American traveler. But if Cornell lacks 
 the transfiguring beauty of age she wears the fresh 
 glory of a vigorous prime. Hers is the portion of 
 youth — of youth with its lofty faith, its unquenchable 
 hope, its superabounding energy, its tingling sense 
 of activity, — of youth that counts not itself to have 
 attained, that lives not on the fading record of the 
 past, but on the promise of all the unrevealed and 
 splendid future. To have lived is good ; but it is 
 better to feel the pulses now throbbing with the un- 
 tamed strength of fresh and unexhausted life. 
 
 In tracing the origin of Cornell University we go 
 back to the year 1862. The date stands a poor chance 
 of recognition just now with the Columbian Exposi- 
 tion before us and a surfeit of national centennials 
 behind. Yet that year marks the fulfillment of the 
 moral and intellectual promise of the nation's glori- 
 ous youth. The Declaration of Independence, the 
 noblest expression ever given to the rights of man, 
 remained a mere form of words till Lincoln announced 
 in 1862 the Declaration of Bmancipation. In the 
 terrible 3^ears which followed the message was re-writ- 
 ten in blood ; but through Lincoln's first draft, which 
 is now among the treasures of our own state library, 
 the nation was purged of the foul stain of slavery and 
 consecrated forever to freedom. The enslavement of 
 man is a survival of barbarism ; civilization, by the 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 31 
 
 potency of science, makes a thrall of nature herself. 
 The genius of Lincoln rose to the height of the great 
 occasion. With one hand he smote the fetters of the 
 slave, and with the other he joined in a splendid effort 
 to subjugate nature. On the second of July, 1862, 
 while the announcement of emancipation was still on 
 his desk, he signed the act of congress, donating pub- 
 lic lands for the establishment of colleges of agricul- 
 ture and mechanic arts. This act had been introduced 
 into congress by the Hon. Justin S. Morrill, who after 
 the lapse of a generation, still adorns the senate and 
 whose name will live with later generations among 
 the noblest and wisest of our statesmen. The famous 
 Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the North- 
 west territory had declared it to be the duty of the 
 nation to support education, and it reserved public 
 lands for the maintenance of schools and colleges. 
 Speaking generally, there were set aside in each new 
 state thereafter one or more townships for higher edu- 
 cation, and in each township one section for common 
 school education. It was the spirit of this wise na- 
 tional policy which begot the Morrill Land Grant. 
 The greatest educational measure since the passage 
 of the Ordinance, it is a splendid embodiment of the 
 nation's long-cherished ideal of public instruction as 
 the contemporaneous announcement of Kmancipation 
 was the perfect fulfillment of our oldest charter of 
 personal liberty. 
 
 The Morrill act provided for a donation of public 
 land to the several states, each state to receive thirty 
 thousand acres for each senator and representative it 
 sent to congress. States not containing within their 
 
32 Cornell University. 
 
 own borders public land subject to sale at private en- 
 try received land scrip instead. But this land scrip 
 tlie recipent states were not allowed to locate within 
 the limits of any other state or of any territory of the 
 United States. The act laconically directed "said scrip 
 to be sold by said states." The proceeds of the sale, 
 whether of land or scrip, in each state were to form a 
 perpetual fund, the capital of which should remain 
 forever undiminished or, if diminished or lost, should 
 be replaced by the state. This fund being invested 
 in safe stocks yielding not less than five per cent, up- 
 on their par value, the interest was to be inviolably 
 appropriated by each state to the endowment and sup- 
 port of at least one college for promoting "the liberal 
 and practical education of the industrial classes in the 
 several pursuits and professions of life." The lead- 
 ing object of the college was declared to be the teach- 
 ing of "such branches of learning as are related to 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts," but other scien- 
 tific and classical studies" might be embraced in the 
 curriculum and the subject of "military tactics" was 
 specifically prescribed. 
 
 Such are the principal features of the college 
 land grant act. It is the only congressional measure 
 dealing with education which applies to every state 
 in the Union. And it must be pronounced worthy of 
 this unique distinction whether we consider the terms 
 of the act itself or the far-reaching and splendid re- 
 sults it has produced in the educational life and work 
 of the last quarter of a century. It created thirty- 
 three colleges and infused new life into half as many 
 more. And these institutions, which the liberality 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 33 
 
 of the nation animated, have become the objects of 
 the munificence of individuals and of the bounty of 
 the states. A careful estimate shows that the dona- 
 tion of congress has been doubled by the grateful 
 offerings of its beneficiaries. The states have ten- 
 derly cared for the seed planted by the Union. And 
 this was obviously the intention of congress. In- 
 deed the Morrill act, though national in origin, is in 
 the scope of its provisions and in the mode of its ad- 
 ministration less a system of national than of state 
 education. The state pays out of its own treasury 
 the taxes and other expenses incident to holding and 
 selling the land and the cost of managing and in- 
 vesting the proceeds. The state is under obligation 
 to maintain the capital of the fund forever undimin- 
 ished. The state has supervision and control of the 
 teaching, which is to be "in such manner as the leg- 
 islatures of the states may respectively prescribe." 
 And the state has one other duty — or shall I say 
 privilege — which though not mentioned in set terms 
 is clearly implied, and which has been performed by 
 nearly all the states in the Union. I mean the duty 
 of making appropriations in aid of the college found- 
 ed on the land grant. And congress specifically 
 invites and even compels such co-operation by for- 
 bidding the use of any portion of the congressional 
 grant, or of the interest thereon, for the purchase, 
 erection, or repair of any building or buildings. 
 The state in accepting the gift accepted the condi- 
 tions. And for the effective teaching of the sciences 
 and branches of learning contemplated in the Morrill 
 act buildings and laboratories costing millions of 
 
34 Cornell University. 
 
 dollars are nowadays indispensable in any large in- 
 stitution. The days when science could take airy 
 nothing for its local habitation are gone forever ; that 
 insubstantial element, however inflated, serves no 
 lonsfcr to even make a name ! 
 
 But the college land act, besides rall3dng the sev- 
 eral states to the support of higher education, set forth 
 a new and indeed a revolutionary conception of the 
 constituent studies of a college curriculum and of the 
 persons to whom it was addressed. Remember that 
 in 1862 the universally accepted type of higher edu- 
 cation was the four years' course of the classical col- 
 leee. This course included mathematics and some- 
 times physics (which, however, was taught from a 
 text book !), but its leading aim was to impart a lib- 
 eral culture by means of the study of the ancient lan- 
 guages of Greece and Rome. But for causes which 
 I need not stop to recite, classical scholarship never 
 flourished widely or struck deep roots in the soil of 
 the new world. English ourselves, our minds have 
 derived their sustenance almost exclusively from na- 
 tive sources. If we went be3^ond these, the French 
 interested us more than the Romans ; and by degrees 
 the Germans have taken the place which the Greeks 
 never filled. But neither this essentially indigenous 
 character of American culture nor this new field of lin- 
 guistic scholarship found the slightest recognition in 
 the classical colleges. And they were still less re- 
 sponsive, if that were possible, to another and a far 
 greater intellectual revolution. Of all occurrences 
 in history since the invention of writing none has 
 witnessed more clearl}^ to the godlike qualit}^ of the 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 35 
 
 human mind, and none tias liad more stupendous 
 consequences for man's life on earth, than the dis- 
 covery by the searching light of modern science of 
 the laws and processes of the material universe. To 
 the modern student, nature always an object of won- 
 der, shows herself also the embodiment of law, of 
 order, of rational intelligence. Such knowledge is 
 not only elevating and stimulating to our spirits, it 
 is a powerful instrument in our physical lives. By 
 means of it man has subjugated nature, so that air 
 and water and steam, nay, those subtle but more 
 potent agencies which the eye has not seen or the 
 touch felt, have been harnessed to bear our burdens, to 
 carry our messages, and in general to minister to all 
 our bodily wants. Science is the good angel of the mod- 
 ern world. As generally happens in such cases, it came 
 unobserved of the learned and the wise. But though 
 the cloistered scholar scarce heard the rustle of its ap- 
 proach, the common people saw the splendid vision 
 and rejoiced. It gave new dignity to their lives and 
 pursuits. Shut out from the schools of learning which 
 were consecrated to the minister, the doctor, and the 
 lawyer, the common people carried on their humble 
 pursuits by immemorial rule of thumb. I know there 
 are those who hold that the thumb has redeemed us 
 from the bar of simian ancestry. All honor to this an- 
 cient badge and organ of humanity ! But whatever the 
 beginning, I am sure that we shall all agree that the 
 goal is the rule of mind — the suffusion of life by a 
 moral and rational intelligence. To this end the act 
 of congress of 1862 was a rare and well-timed instru- 
 ment. Its fundamental idea, as Senator Morrill 
 
36 Cornell TJniversity. 
 
 aftenvard declared, was "liberal and larger education 
 to larger numbers." Its beneficiaries were not the 
 select classes contemplated by the ancient colleges, 
 the gentlemen of sedentary professions but the 
 masses of the people who with no advantage of 
 higher instruction, but engaged actively in industrial 
 pursuits and professions, were carrjdng on the larger 
 part of the world's business. To these "larger num- 
 bers" the act offered a "larger education." The civil 
 war, then in the direst j^ear of its protracted course, 
 suggested one requirement of the curriculum — mili- 
 tary tactics. And our experience shows, as Milton 
 long ago saw, that a moderate amount of military 
 drill conduces markedly to the health and physical 
 development of the students, while at the same time 
 it fits them in case of war for immediate ser\dce 
 in the defense of their country. The leading ob- 
 ject of the land grant, however, was "to teach such 
 branches of learning as are related to agriculture 
 and the mechanic arts," though "without excluding 
 other scientific and classical studies." This language 
 is clear enough, though it has often been misquoted 
 if not misunderstood. All agree that the grant Avas 
 not made primarily for the benefit of the old educa- 
 tion, though on the other hand the old education was 
 not excluded from the scope of its fostering influence. 
 But it is generally assumed that the object of the 
 new college was to teach agriculture and the me- 
 chanic arts. Now I have no doubt that the intention 
 of the legislators was to promote better farming and 
 better manufacturing. But the function assigned, and 
 wisel}'- assigned, to the colleges was to teach all those 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman, 37 
 
 brandies of learning whicti are related to agriculture 
 and the mechanic arts. This program embraces, be- 
 sides mathematics, all physical and natural science. 
 Take out languages, literature, philosophy, history, 
 and political science and there is no branch of knowl- 
 edge (professional training apart) taught in the great- 
 est university in the world which is not prescribed 
 for the colleges created by the Morrill land act. And 
 the end of this comprehensive curriculum is ''to pro- 
 mote the liberal and practical education of the indus- 
 trial classes in the several pursuits and professions 
 of life." 
 
 ''Liberal and larger education to larger num- 
 bers !" Such was the commission given by congress 
 to the states in endowing them with grants of public 
 lands. In the execution of this trust the State of 
 New York was hampered by great and almost insu- 
 perable obstacles. For its distributive share it re- 
 ceived land scrip to the amount of nine hundred and 
 ninety thousand acres. The munificence of the en- 
 dowment awakened the cupidity of a multitude of 
 clamorous and strangely unexpected claimants. Never 
 surely was a great state so much embarrassed in 
 making the greatest good of so great a gift. Heaven 
 forbid that I should call from oblivion the jealousies, 
 the wranglings, the indecent tactics of the despoilers. 
 One thing, however, let us never forget. If the 
 princely domain granted to the State of New York by 
 congress was not divided and frittered away, we owe 
 it in great measure to the foresight, the energy, and 
 the splendid courage of a few generous spirits in the 
 legislature of whom none commanded greater re- 
 
38 Cornell University. 
 
 spect or exercised more influence than Senator An- 
 drew Dickson White, the gentleman who afterwards 
 became first president of Cornell University, and who 
 now, returned to his first love, holds for the second 
 time the dignity of Minister Plenipotentiary of the 
 United States at one of the great imperial courts of 
 Europe. 
 
 But the all-compelling force which prevented the 
 dispersion and dissipation of the bount}^ of congress 
 was the generous heart of Bzra Cornell. While rival 
 institutions clamored for a division of the "spoils," 
 and political tricksters played their base and desper- 
 ate game, this man thought only of the highest good 
 of the State of New York, which he loved with the 
 ardor of a patriot and was yet to serve with the hero- 
 ism of a martyr. Mr. Chairman, in entering upon 
 the presidency of Cornell University I covet earnest- 
 ly the best gift of a baptism with the spirit of the 
 Founder. On this solemn occasion piety demands a 
 votive offering : and, here, by the altar sacred to the 
 memor}^ of Ezra Cornell, I humbly dedicate myself 
 to the service of those high ends for the achievement 
 of which he established this university. Sir, this 
 vow is a digression from my theme, though not, you 
 will believe me, a deviation by a hair's breadth, from 
 my thought and intention. When the legislature of 
 the State of New York was called upon to make some 
 disposition of the congressional grant, Ezra Cornell 
 sat in the senate. A man of striking presence, tall, 
 muscular, of rugged features, with high cheek bones, 
 a firm-set mouth, a strong but unruffled brow, he 
 looked out upon the world with a steady eye of de- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 39 
 
 liberate blue, wearing always a grave, almost stern 
 expression of countenance, and showing a reticence 
 and coldness of manner wbicli strangers took for in- 
 grained hardness but which friends knew to be the 
 superficial mask of kindness and charity unexampled. 
 A pious man, he held converse with the realms of 
 faith and imagination, not in any conventional way, 
 but with the fruitful inspiration that goodness and in- 
 telligence, to which our race is called, must ultimate- 
 ly triumph in the world. Accordingly he lived much 
 in the future ; and all who knew him agree that he 
 possessed a miraculous gift of foresight — a power of 
 divination that illuminated the foreground of his work 
 with the light of its distant, still uncreated perspec- 
 tive. A courageous, independent soul, he was as pa- 
 tiently persevering and inflexible as he was restlessly 
 active. Already verging towards sixty, he had known 
 in the long course of his life many varieties of voca- 
 tion and many vicissitudes of fortune. Farmer, pot- 
 ter, carpenter, mechanician, engineer and man of busi- 
 ness, he had stretched our first telegraph line from 
 Baltimore to Washington when Morse and his asso- 
 ciates had failed ; and full of faith in the new inven- 
 tion, he had, undaunted by sickness, by disaster, and 
 by overwhelming debt, poured the electric current in- 
 to the great Northwest, though capital shrank terri- 
 fied from the enterprise, and not a dollar could be 
 raised in the great city which to-day, the seat of the 
 World's Fair, pulsates with telegrams from every 
 quarter of the globe. Enriched beyond all expecta- 
 tion by the consolidation of his scattered lines into 
 the "Western Union," he had devoted himself, in the 
 
40 Cornell University. 
 
 manner of an ancient patriarch, to the service of his 
 fellow citizens and his conntry. A sublime figure 
 anywhere, he seemed to the historian Fronde the 
 most surprising and venerable object he had seen in 
 America. He ministered to the poor and needy ; he 
 cheered the sick and weary on distant battle-fields ; 
 he established, on the most liberal basis, a free pub- 
 lic library in Ithaca ; he strove zealously for the im- 
 provement of agriculture ; and when his fellow citi- 
 zens summoned him to the trust he undertook the 
 high responsibilities of legislation, first as a member 
 of the assembly and afterwards as a member of the 
 senate. Proud of his state he served her with the 
 fidelity and zeal of an ancient Roman. Of his minor 
 legislative achievements I shall not speak. One act, 
 however, has made his name as immortal as the state 
 it glorified. By a gift of half a million dollars (a vast 
 sum in 1865, the last year of the war!) he rescued 
 for the higher education of New York the undivided 
 grant of congress ; and with the united endowments 
 he induced the legislature to establish, not merely a 
 college of applied science but a great modem univer- 
 sity — "an institution," according to his own admirable 
 definition, "where any person can find instruction in 
 any study." It was a high and daring aspiration to 
 crown the educational system of our imperial state with 
 an organ of universal knowledge, a nursery of every 
 science and of all scholarship, an instrument of liberal 
 culture and of practical utility to all classes of our peo- 
 ple. This was, however, the end ; and to secure it Ezra 
 Cornell added to his original gift new donations of 
 land, of buildings, and of money. He approved himself 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 41 
 
 an educational reformer and practical philanthropist 
 who came to serve the state ; but though we who see 
 the fulfillment recognize the sanity and purity of his 
 dream, the men of his own time, if they did not think 
 him visionary, accused him of planning to rob the 
 state" and mulcted him twenty-five thousand dollars 
 for the patriot's privilege of giving half a million. 
 
 Libel and contumely is the reward the world 
 gives its benefactors. Ezra Cornell endured the com- 
 mon lot of these exalted spirits. But the congres- 
 sional grant was saved from partition ; and the people 
 of New York saw a new type of university arise in 
 their midst, — the first in the history of education, — 
 an institution embracing the entire range of human 
 knowledge and attainment and opening its doors to 
 young men (and women too) who craved the light 
 and power of intelligence for any purpose whatever, 
 whether to live or to make a living ; — they saw, in a 
 word, the beginnings of a People's University. 
 
 But one danger threatened this latest birth of 
 time. The act of congress donating land scrip re- 
 quired the states to sell it. The markets were imme- 
 diately glutted. Prices fell. New York was selling 
 at an average price of fifty cents an acre. Her princely 
 domain would bring at this rate less than half a mil- 
 lion dollars 1 Was the splendid donation to issue in 
 such disaster ? If it could be held till the war was 
 over, till immigration opened up the Northwest, it 
 would be worth five times five hundred thousand dol- 
 lars ! So at least thought one far-seeing man in the 
 State of New York. And this man of foresight had 
 the heart to conceive, the wisdom to devise, and the 
 
42 Cornell University. 
 
 courage to execute — he alone in all the states — a 
 plan for saving to his state the future value of the 
 lands donated b3^ congress. Ezra Cornell made that 
 wonderful and dramatic contract with the State of 
 New York ! He bound himself to purchase at the 
 rate of sixty cents per acre the entire right of the 
 commonwealth to the scrip, still unsold ; and with the 
 scrip, thus purchased by him as an individual he 
 agreed to select and locate the lands it represented, 
 to pa}^ the taxes, to guard against trespasses and de- 
 fend from fires, to the end that within twenty years 
 when values had appreciated he might sell the land 
 and turn into the treasury of the State of New York 
 for the support of Cornell University the entire net 
 proceeds of the enterprise. In the peaceful annals of 
 history I know no grander act of patriotism and of 
 statesmanship. Within a few years Kzra Cornell had 
 located over half a million acres of superior pine land 
 in the Northwestern states, principally in Wisconsin. 
 Under bonds to the State of New York to do the 
 state's work he had spent about $600,000 of his own 
 cash to carry out the trust committed to him by the 
 state, when, alas, in the crisis of 1874, fortune and 
 credit sank exhausted and death came to free the 
 martyr-patriot from his bonds. 
 
 The seven years that followed were the darkest 
 in our history. Even at this day the official reports 
 of the board are more moving than any tragedy. It 
 was the struggle of brave men against impending 
 ruin and appalling disaster. With the consent of the 
 state the board of trustees had taken the lands loca- 
 ted by Ezra Cornell, assumed his obligations, and 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 43 
 
 bound themselves to carry out his contract. It was a 
 period of great commercial and financial depression. 
 There was no demand for land. On the other hand, 
 nearly all the available funds of the university were 
 in the land grant. Up to June, 1 881, the proceeds 
 from the sale of the lands were less than the cost of 
 carrying the lands ; and the cost had reached the 
 enormous figure of a million dollars. The very ex- 
 istence of the university was in danger. The num- 
 ber of students fell to 320. There was no money to 
 pay even the beggarly salaries the professors nomin- 
 ally received. With debt at the door, and bankruptcy 
 not far off, it was no wonder that a majority of the 
 board was willing to sell the lands for a million dol- 
 lars. But as it is written, "those who believe shall 
 not make haste." And there presided over the delib- 
 erations of the board a man who to the gifts of su- 
 perior judgment, imagination, enthusiasm and con- 
 viction added the acquirement of a great practical 
 experience in the management of pine lands. In full 
 view of inevitable catastrophe this leader and coun- 
 selor set his face like flint against the sale of the lands. 
 You, sir, were the Fabius who saved the university ! 
 Captain of our salvation, all hail ! Kzra Cornell was 
 our founder ; Henry W. Sage followed him as wise 
 master-builder. The edifices, chairs, and libraries 
 which bear the name of "Sage" witness to your later 
 gifts : but though these now aggregate the princely 
 sum of $1,250,000, your management of the university 
 lands has been your greatest achievement. From these 
 lands, with which the generosity and foresight of Bzra 
 Cornell endowed the university, there have been 
 
44 Cornell University. 
 
 netted under your administration, not far short of 
 $4,000,000, with over 100,000 acres still to sell. 
 
 Ezra Cornell's contract with the state was for 
 twenty years. It expired August 4, 1886, when a ten 
 years' extension was granted by the state. The trust 
 will be closed in 1896. And when the commonwealth 
 receives the report of the trustees, I think she will 
 reward a generous "Well Done" to Ezra Cornell and 
 the men who succeeded to his obligations. Never 
 was a great trust more faithfully, more generously, 
 and more brilliantly administered. Let me by a com- 
 parison bring home to your minds the nature of this 
 really wonderful achievement. The grant of land 
 made by Congress under the Morrill act to the several 
 states and territories amounted to 9,600,000 acres, of 
 which the share of New York was 990,000 acres. The 
 gross receipts from the sale of this land — for it has 
 nearly all been sold, and what is unsold may be eval- 
 uated — will aggregate $15,900,000, of which between 
 $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 must be credited to the 
 State of New York. In other words, the State of New 
 York with one-tenth of the entire grant of land has 
 realized from three-eighths to one-half of the entire 
 proceeds. The price per acre, realized from the lands 
 belonging to New York State is about $7 ; it is $1 for 
 the lands belonging to all the other states of the 
 Union. The New England States sold their lands at 
 an average of 61 cents per acre ; the Middle states, 
 (New York excepted) at 56 cents ; and the Southeni 
 states at 89 cents. Of all the states only eight be- 
 sides New York succeeded in obtaining as much as 
 the regular government price of $1.25 per acre for their 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 45 
 
 land ; and these eight were states in which public lands 
 were open to entry within their own borders. But 
 even the most foninate of these highly favored states 
 sold its lands at a price per acre much lower than 
 that received for the New York lands. These latter, it 
 is true,when managed by the state, itself, did not bring 
 more than the price realized by the other Middle and 
 the New England states. Their enhanced value was 
 created by the wise management of Ezra Cornell and 
 the trustees of the university. It is no part of the do- 
 nation of the Union or of the grant of the state, which 
 as the courts have decided, amounts to only $603,000. 
 Was I not justified in saying that when in 1896 
 the trustees of Cornell University come to render to 
 the state an account of their stewardship, the record 
 will be one of which all New Yorkers may well be 
 proud ? Where else can you find an example of such 
 splendid financiering ? And the university making 
 the best use of the talents entrusted to it by the state 
 has thereby stimulated and encouraged private boun- 
 ty. Its friends have, in general, been business men, 
 who, desiring to make the most of their money, felt 
 that there could be no better investment than Cornell 
 University. Is not this true of Henry W. Sage and 
 his sons, of John McGraw, of Andrew D. White, of 
 Hiram Sibley, of Daniel B. Fayerweather, of Jennie 
 McGraw-Fiske, and of the two gracious ladies who 
 have just presented us with the Moak law library in 
 memory of Judge Boardman ? Their gifts, combined 
 with the net receipts from the sale of lands, carry the 
 value of our aggregate property, exclusive of lands 
 still unsold, beyond $8,000,000. Of this nearly 
 $6,000,000 is in the form of productive funds, and the 
 
46 Cornell University. 
 
 residue in buildings and eqiiipments. The university 
 estate embraces 270 acres. We use for purposes of 
 instruction sixteen buildings, eighteen laboratories, 
 and six seminary rooms. Our income from all sources 
 for the current year is about $500,000. We have over 
 1600 students and nearly 150 professors and instruc- 
 tors. Our curriculum, with the exception of courses 
 in medicine and theology, is so broad and compre- 
 hensive that it may safely challenge comparison with 
 the best in the world. If I may single out one part 
 of our material equipment, I do not hesitate to say 
 that our library building, with which also was donated 
 an endowment yielding $15,000 for the annual 
 purchase of books, is unapproached by any other 
 university on this continent. And this crowning 
 work, like the university itself, is a victory snatched 
 from apparently inevitable defeat. Cornell Univer- 
 sity is an embodied miracle. It has shot up a luxu- 
 riant growth out of a soil of impossibilities in the 
 short space of a quarter of a century. When the au- 
 thorities of New York come here in 1896 to examine 
 into the administration by Cornell University of the 
 grant of land conferred by congress upon this state, 
 our voucher will be the institution itself, and we shall 
 proudly say Sz vioiiunientum rcquiris circmnspice ! 
 
 Look now upon the other side of the picture. 
 New York, among all the states, rejoices, thanks to 
 the trustees of this university, in a brilliant and 
 uniquel}^ successful administration of the great trust 
 committed to us by congress in the interests of high- 
 er education. But the very splendor of its achieve- 
 ment has entailed consequences highly injurious and 
 even disastrous to the continued efficiency of our uni- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 47 
 
 versity. Of these baleful consequences I will men- 
 tion two in the hope and prayer that their blighting 
 influences may henceforth be counteracted and an- 
 nihilated. 
 
 In the first place we suffer from the popular im- 
 pression that Cornell University is fabulously rich. 
 A friend of mine not long ago signalized his advent 
 to the control of a great bank by writing ojQf one mil- 
 lion dollars of bad debts. Confidence was shaken. 
 Stock fell from 124 to 116. But as always happens 
 when the truth is spoken, confidence speedily recov- 
 ered from the first shock ; and the stock of that par- 
 ticular bank is now selling it at 145. Bver since your 
 honorable board, much to my surprise, made me a par- 
 taker in the high trust of administering the affairs of 
 Cornell University, I have been oppressed by my 
 share of so great a responsibility ; and deeply conscious 
 of the limitations of my own natural ability I have 
 cast about with more than common pains to discover 
 what one so poorly qualified but so well disposed 
 might contribute to the noble undertaking with which 
 the state has charged us. Those who have hitherto 
 been active in our affairs might, I knew, be relied on 
 for the proper execution of our trust. But one duty 
 summoned me too. I determined to take the public 
 into our confidence, and to lay before the people of 
 the commonwealth we serve, a true picture of the 
 affairs of Cornell University. In obedience to this 
 resolution I have troubled you with figures, and more 
 are to follow. You know what our wealth is, and 
 what portion is fixed capital and what productive. 
 You know what our income is. But you do not know 
 
48 CoRNELi. University. 
 
 the calls made upon it even for tlie maintenance on 
 its present basis of the educational work we already 
 have in hand. I say nothing here of additions and 
 enlargements, which indeed are imperative, because I 
 am to treat of them in another connection. At this 
 point I desire to state, without going into details, that 
 Cornell University is not able to meet the obligations 
 already incurred for the prosecution of work already 
 undertaken. Measured by income she is rich, as men 
 estimate the wealth of universities ; though for my 
 own part I should say that to cultivate properly all 
 the intellectual elements of our civilization which 
 ought to be represented in a modern People's Univer- 
 sity, she would not be rich with quadruple her in- 
 come. But I do not wish to measure our resources 
 by future calls upon them. They are inadequate to 
 our present needs ; worse still, they are inadequate 
 to our present obligations. Cornell University is poor 
 and needy. I wish this could be gainsaid. I wish it 
 were rhetorical pathos. But it is steely fact. The 
 board of trustees yesterday, because there was no help 
 for it, adopted the report of the committee on appropria- 
 tions. I well remember how at the first meeting of that 
 committee (of which I have the honor to be chairman) 
 a blood-curdling chill came over me when, after cutting 
 down all appropriations to an absolute minimum, sav- 
 ing $io here and $i there, we discovered that our total 
 appropriations were just $36,000 in excess of our in- 
 come. But there was no help for it, and so the matter 
 stands. The myth of Cornell's superabounding wealth 
 will,Isuppose,notstandthe shock ofthis annual deficit! 
 And so I scarcely regret it ; for with this illusion dis- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 49 
 
 pelled we shall meet, as in the past, so in the future, 
 wise and benevolent men — with eyes fixed on the 
 after ages — who for the good of the commonwealth, 
 the nation, and humanity, will desire to make invest- 
 ments in the everlasting endowments of Cornell Uni- 
 versity. For one I have no anxiety, no fear. The 
 heart behind American wealth is at bottom generous 
 and discerning ; and so long as money can foster in- 
 telligence, that heart will not suffer our civilization 
 to become a prey to ignorance, brutishness, and stupid 
 materialism. No one knows better than the million- 
 aire that man lives not by bread alone. And when it 
 becomes generally understood that Cornell is not en- 
 compassed by a forbidding mountain of gold, streams 
 of private benevolence may be expected to flow hith- 
 er under the constraining influence of a body of this 
 importance, — a body which, as it is the educational, 
 is also the geographical centre of our commonwealth. 
 The state ! This brings me to the second subject 
 for lamentation. Ezra Cornell and his successors, as 
 trustees of New York, put into the management of 
 the educational land grant such a wealth of patriot- 
 ism, generosity, and matchless executive ability, that 
 the state, dazzled I suppose by the result they created, 
 has itself done nothing. Not one cent of its own mon- 
 ey has ever been given by the State of New York to Cor- 
 nell University. This indifference of the common- 
 wealth is as unique as the success of the trustees. 
 Elsewhere, if little was realized from the congressional 
 grant, much was and is given by the state. In fact, 
 I find that, with two or three insignificant exceptions, 
 every other state in the Union makes appropriations, 
 
50 Cornell University. 
 
 annual or special, or both, and in many cases very 
 large appropriations, in aid of tlie institution wliich 
 received tliat state's share of the bounty of congress. 
 And an unusual liberality is practiced by those states 
 which, instead of establishing special colleges, as- 
 signed their lands to large universities. But this im- 
 perial State of New York, which has the largest of all 
 these universities, has given it up to this date abso- 
 lutely nothing. I say "up to this date ;" for when the. 
 people of our commonwealth understand all the facts 
 of the case I am sure they will not suffer the contin- 
 uance of this unparalleled, not to say discreditable, 
 singularity. 
 
 Cornell University was called into existence to 
 serve the State of New York. The people of this com- 
 monwealth are its authors, its patrons, its proprietors, 
 and its beneficiaries. The larger part of its endow- 
 ment has been derived from the lands granted to the 
 state by congress. For certain legal purposes two dis- 
 tinct trusts have been established of the funds real- 
 ized by the sale of these lands. One, known as "The 
 College Land Scrip Fund," was formed from the pur- 
 chase money received by the state for the sale of the 
 lands. This fund, which is held by the comptroller 
 of the state, now amounts to $473,400 ; and when the 
 lands are all sold there will be added $129,600, mak- 
 ing a total of $603,000. The other trust was created 
 by the gift of Ezra Cornell and the profits subse- 
 quently made by the university on the lands he pur- 
 chased from the state. It is designated "The Cornell 
 Endowment Fund," and at present falls little short of 
 $4,200,000. By a recent decision of the Supreme 
 
Inauguration op Preside;nt Schurman. 51 
 
 Court of the United States, ajB&rming tlie decision of 
 the Court of Appeals of our own state, it was decided 
 that "The Cornell Endowment Fund" belonged abso- 
 lutely to Cornell University, and that it was entirely 
 free from all the limitations and restrictions contained 
 in the congressional act of 1862 under which the land 
 was originally derived. The effect of this decision 
 was to throw upon the university the expense of the 
 management of the lands and the taxes, which at this 
 date aggregates more than $1,350,000. On the other 
 hand, "The Cornell Endowment Fund" has been used 
 by the trustees to build up for the State of New York 
 a university worthy of its people and of its primacy 
 in the Union. I hope the time is not far distant when 
 it will be universally recognized that the distinctive 
 function of Cornell University is to serve this state. 
 When that day comes, instead of higgling over the 
 interest which the act of congress prescribes for "The 
 College Land Grant Fund," New York may follow 
 the example set by most of the other states and care 
 for all our land grant endowments at a rate not lower 
 than five per cent. At present it occupies the unen- 
 viable position of being the only state that pays less 
 than five per cent. — and that too on the entire princi- 
 pal of the fund derived from the sale of the lands 
 granted under the Morrill act. I admit that the action 
 of the state has been legally competent. But I ap- 
 peal from legality to equity, and to the spirit of mod- 
 eration and practicability, and to wise self-interest and 
 mutual convenience. Cornell University is a very 
 important organ of the body politic, and why should 
 it alone be deprived of the nourishing life of the or- 
 
52 
 
 Cornell University. 
 
 ganism ? Other states have acted more wisely. The 
 question is, not what the state 77iay do, but what in 
 justice and wisdom it oiigJit to do. If good policy and 
 generosity point in the same direction, a sovereign is 
 none the less politic for being generous. After all, 
 the university is not less indispensable to the state 
 than the state to the university. 
 
 There is still a stronger claim, under the terms of 
 the Morrill act, which Cornell University must urge 
 upon our commonwealth. It has been shown that no 
 part of the funds derived from the bounty of the 
 United States or the interest thereon can be applied, 
 directly or indirectly, to the "purchase, erection, pres- 
 ervation, or repair of any building or buildings." On 
 the other hand, each state is put under obligations by 
 the Morrill act to provide "at least not less than one 
 college." This condition has been fulfilled, and its 
 obvious intention, by the several states, with scarcely 
 an exception. But the State of New York has not 
 provided a single building for Cornell University 
 which, however, it charges with teaching the branches 
 of learning related to agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts. At present the university is greatly in need of 
 an agricultural hall and of an addition to the build- 
 ings devoted to mechanical engineering, as I shall 
 point out hereafter ; and I consider the occasion very 
 opportune to remind the legislature of this long de- 
 ferred, but not yet outlawed, obligation. 
 
 Still my strongest argument in favor of support 
 from the public treasury is that Cornell is in fact the 
 university of the State of New York, just as, for ex- 
 ample the institutions at Ann Arbor and at Berkeley 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 53 
 
 are tlie state universities of Michigan and California. 
 Unfortunately our institutions could not take that 
 name ; for it was already borne by one of the oldest 
 organizations in the state. The University of the 
 State of New York, which is substantially the crea- 
 tion of Alexander Hamilton, is a unique example of 
 a supervisory university. It has no teachers, it gives 
 no instruction, it seldom (I trust I may soon say, 
 never) holds examinations for collegiate degrees. It 
 is the agency by which the state conducts its rela- 
 tions, not indeed with all its educational institutions, 
 but with those of the higher and secondary education. 
 This important and venerable organization, which is 
 in reality a department of public instruction, had a 
 vested right in the name, misnomer though it is, of 
 the University of the State of New York. And so 
 nothing remained for the new institution at Ithaca 
 but to adopt the name of the benefactor whose muni- 
 ficence saved for the highest educational work of the 
 state the undivided congressional land grant. Kzra 
 Cornell himself did not originate the name. And had 
 he supposed it might breed misunderstanding re- 
 garding the true relation of the university to the 
 state we may be sure he would have forbidden its use. 
 For nothing is more certain than that the object of 
 his patriotic benefaction was to enable New York to 
 establish a state university — an institution coming 
 from the state, freely educating the state, and depend- 
 ent upon the state for its support. 
 
 This, too, I cannot doubt, was the intention of 
 the legislature. In granting the charter of the uni- 
 versity, the legislature reserved to itself the right of 
 
54 Cornell University, 
 
 altering and amending it. And this right it has ex- 
 ercised on different occasions. Furthermore, the leg- 
 islature has asserted its control of the institution by 
 the appointment of a committee to investigate its af- 
 fairs. The state guarantees to the United States com- 
 pliance on the part of Cornell University with the 
 terms and conditions of the congressional act of 1862. 
 The university is an object of the state's supervision, 
 control, and ownership, as it is also the product of its 
 creation. And in the constitution of the board of 
 trustees the legislature asserted, in no uncertain 
 terms, the sovereignty of the state. All the high 
 state officials beginning with the governor himself, 
 who could properly be charged with the duty, were 
 made ex ojficio members of the board ; and, though 
 other clauses of the charter have since undergone 
 modification, this primary requirement has, ver^^ prop- 
 erly, remained unchanged. Through these officials 
 the state exercises a minute inspection of our affairs 
 and a constant control over them ; and, as though the 
 owner's right could not be too strongly guarded, be- 
 hind this intermediary body is the general supervis- 
 ory supremacy of the legislature. It is written in our 
 charter, in the laws of the state, and in the acts of 
 the legislature, that Cornell is the state university of 
 New York. 
 
 If this conclusion, which rests on a cumulative 
 argument that I have not time to give in detail, seem 
 to admit of the possibility of doubt which generally 
 infects that species of reasoning, I am willing to stake 
 the entire case on a single point which I have still to 
 mention. The state directs Cornell University to 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 55 
 
 give free tuition to 512 students annually, "as a re- 
 ward for superior scholarship in the academies and 
 public schools of this state." The charter of the uni- 
 versity does not, indeed, contain this requirement. It 
 provides that the institution shall annually receive 
 students, one from each assembly district of the state 
 free of any tuition fee or of any inci- 
 dental charges." Now there are only 128 assembly 
 districts ; but the state has demanded that each free 
 scholar shall have the right to his scholarship for 
 four years, and the university, in its desire to pro- 
 mote the educational interests of the commonwealth 
 has not contested the claim. Furthermore, to keep 
 all the scholarships full, the state has authorized the 
 filling of vacancies in any assembly district in which 
 there are no qualified applicants, by students from 
 other assembly districts. Instead of 128 free schol- 
 arships with many of them unfilled, as the charter 
 contemplated, we have now 512 free scholarships with 
 all of them likely and liable to be filled. Now what 
 is the value of this service of the state ? 
 
 The entire cost of educating about i ,600 students 
 is for the current year, apart altogether for interest 
 on fixed capital, about $500,000. Nearly one-third of 
 these students are free scholars from the State of New 
 York. It needs no figuring to see that New York 
 obliges Cornell University to contribute annually to 
 the good of the state more than $150,000. Cornell is 
 the state university of New York with a vengeance ! 
 But though obligation is a sufiicient test, unilateral 
 obligation can scarcely be the sole portion, of a great 
 public institution. 
 
56 Cornell University. 
 
 I say tliat if Cornell University be compared 
 with any of the state universities in the great and 
 flourishing commonwealths of the Northwest and far 
 West she will be found to possess the higher char- 
 acteristics which distinguish them and which, mak- 
 ing her a true People's University, mark her off from 
 the other colleges of the Eastern States. Like them 
 she has a charter changeable at the will of the legis- 
 lature. Like them she has a curriculum which is de- 
 signed for the liberal and practical education of all 
 classes of the people. Like them she opens her doors 
 to women on equal terms with men. Like them she 
 gives free tuition to students from the state. Like 
 them she is the organ, instrument, and multiplying 
 centre of all the interests — material and spiritual — 
 embraced in the life and civilization of the state. 
 Like them she is free from all party and sectarian 
 control, diffusing her blessings without respect of 
 persons or regard to creed, in obedience to the act of 
 incorporation and under the control of the state 
 which ordained it. Like them she stands both for 
 liberal culture and professional training; and like 
 them too she has enlarged the notion of "profession" 
 till round the once narrow circle of clergymen, lawyer, 
 and doctor are now grouped all those callings in 
 which knowledge in any way ministers to practice, — 
 so that agriculture, engineering, and architecture 
 here stand on the same footing as language, history, 
 or philosophy. Like the great state universities of the 
 West in all these respects, Cornell yet differs in one. 
 There the university is the beneficiary of the state ; 
 here the state is the beneficiary of the university. 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 57 
 
 The State of New York^ which has never cont^^ibiited 
 from its own treasury one cent to Cornell University 
 de7nands of Cornell University ^12 free scholarships at 
 an a7tnual cost of more than $1^0^000 ! 
 
 "But," it will be said, "New York assigned to 
 Cornell University the federal land grant." Well, I 
 do not know why one politic act should be a bar to 
 further wisdom. But let us see precisely the value 
 of the grant. Does it include all that has since been 
 realized by the university in the management of the 
 lands purchased of the state by Ezra Cornell ? No ; for 
 the courts have decided that "The Cornell Endow- 
 ment Fund" is no part of the congressional grant, 
 but is owned absolutely as it was created entirely, by 
 Cornell University. There remains, as the assignment 
 of the state to Cornell University, only "The College 
 Land Scrip Fund" or $473,402, on which the state 
 pays us annually $18,000. If the state could in any 
 way be credited with "The Cornell Endowment 
 Fund," she would be under obligations to pay ulti- 
 mately more than $1,500,000 for the management of 
 the land and taxes, and to keep the net proceeds in- 
 vested in good securities. It is then clear as any fact 
 can possibly be, that the State of New York, which 
 itself has never given a cent to Cornell University, 
 demands in return for $18,000 a year, which was 
 given by congress to enable us to provide instruction 
 in pure and applied science, the free education of 
 512 students at an annual cost ranging from $150,000 
 to $175,000. 
 
 Free education is certainly a desirable thing. I 
 rejoice to think of the inestimable boon which Cor- 
 
58 Cornell University. 
 
 nell University has been to the poor young men and 
 women in every assembly district in this state. She 
 has educated thousands who would otherwise have 
 missed the life and power which a modern university 
 education imparts, and to that extent she has directly 
 enriched the state. And if I might venture to improve 
 on Senator Morrill's saying, I would express the 
 hope that Cornell University may continue to be for 
 this state the instrument of larger education to larger 
 numbers at the very lowest prices. I look with sadness 
 and alarm on the growing cost of a collegiate educa- 
 tion. Forty-four years ago when Bdward Everett, 
 then president of Harvard College, appeared before a 
 joint committee of the Board of Education of the leg- 
 islature of Massachusetts, to secure for collegiate ed- 
 ucation the support of the state, his first argument 
 was that the cost to the student would be thereby 
 cheapened. Massachusetts, for excellent reasons, did 
 not grant the memorial of the petitioners. And the tu- 
 ition fee at Harvard, which was then $75, is now double, 
 and in some departments nearly treble, that charge. 
 The rates are almost, in some cases quite, as high in all 
 the larger universities to the east of the meridian of 
 Cornell. And this fact seems to me the doom of private 
 universities. To maintain their efficiency the charge 
 for instruction must be so high that the masses of the 
 people cannot afford to pay it. The great states to 
 the west of us have adopted the policy of cheap, or 
 even free, university education, the state itself bear- 
 ing the cost, as in the case of public schools, high 
 schools, and institutions of charity. With these en- 
 terprising commonwealths freely educating all uni- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 59 
 
 versity students tliat claim tlie privilege, New York 
 cannot afford to abandon tlie free education of at least 
 512. Rather, I say, let tlie number be increased. 
 
 But shall a great state practice injustice that she 
 may be benevolent ? What then is New York to do ? 
 IMr. Chairman, this is a grave question, if ever there 
 was one. And unwilling to trust my own judgment 
 in a matter so momentous, I have consulted the 
 greatest of political philosophers — a thinker who by 
 his marvelous insight into the American Revolution 
 of which he was a contemporary, has approved him- 
 self worthy of our absolute confidence. In my perplex- 
 ity I turned to Burke's great speech in the House of 
 Commons on moving his resolutions for concilia- 
 tion with the colonies. As often before I was charmed 
 by the resounding magnificence of his language, but 
 I was never more clearly illuminated by the princi- 
 ples it re-echoed. I learned "that magnanimity in poli- 
 tics is not seldom' the truest wisdom ; that a great em- 
 pire and little minds go ill together." I shut the book. 
 The problem was solved 1 The State of New York 
 must take Cornell University to her bosom. Is it 
 objected that the state has the right to neglect or even 
 to oppress the university ? I reply that the question 
 is not whether the state has the right to injure the 
 university but whether it is not to its interest to make 
 the university prosperous. Of what use to the state, 
 I should like to know, is the right to injure a mem- 
 ber of its own body ? From such an absurd right, I 
 appeal to the reason, the humanity, and above all 
 to the good policy of my proposal. In the name of 
 equity and expediency^ and for the sake of her meritor- 
 
6o Cornell University. 
 
 lous sons and daughters who?n we educate free of tui- 
 tion^ I ask of the State of New York an annual ap- 
 propriation to Cornell U^iiversity of not less than 
 $1^0^000. 
 
 No one can fail to recognize the justice of our 
 claims upon the state. If these claims are not imme- 
 diately satisfied, I shall not be disquieted, for they 
 are of a nature to bide the slow award of 3^ears. And 
 I am sure the people of this commonwealth will 
 eventually open their eyes to the ill husbandry of in- 
 justice to the state university. There are, however, 
 two considerations which at the present time may be 
 used to pervert their mental vision and to close up 
 their hearts to the sentiment of duty, justice, and 
 generosity. On the one hand, it will be said that the 
 state cannot afford to make such large appropriations 
 to Cornell University ; and, on the other, that the state 
 ought to have nothing to do with the maintenance and 
 support of the highest education. Both these argu- 
 ments I shall now briefly consider. 
 
 Assuming the righteousness of the claims of Cor- 
 nell University, and the absolute justice and expedi- 
 ency of satisfying them, the first question is. Can the 
 state afford to make such considerable annual appro- 
 priations to the university ? It will be admitted that 
 the most satisfactory mode of answering this question 
 is to compare the population and resources of our state 
 with those of sister states which maintain universities 
 at the public expense. New York is by far the most 
 populous state in the Union, having, according to the 
 census of 1890, a population of 6,000,000. Ohio comes 
 fourth in rank with a population of 3,700,000. Not to 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 6i 
 
 enter into minute details, I will simply observe tliat 
 tlie population of New York is almost three times as 
 great as that of either Indiana or Michigan, three and 
 one-half times as great as that of Wisconsin, four and 
 one-half times as great as that of Minnesota, five times 
 as great as that of California, and five and one-half 
 times as great as that of Nebraska. Turn now from 
 population to property. The estimated true valuation 
 for 1880 of all property within the state of New York 
 is $6,300,000,000. This is twice the value of the prop- 
 erty of Ohio, four times that of Indiana or Michigan, 
 four and one-half times that of California, five and 
 one-half times that of Wisconsin, eight times that of 
 Minnesota, and sixteen times that of Nebraska. Al- 
 though we habitually think of the Western states as 
 the paradise for farmers. New York is not surpassed, 
 either in the value of farms or in the value of farm 
 products, by more than one state in the Union. And 
 when we come to manufactures, the value of products 
 is not only very high in itself, and the highest in the 
 Union, it is more than three times that of Ohio, more 
 than seven times that of either Indiana or Michigan, 
 more than eight times that of Wisconsin, and more 
 than nine times that of California. 
 
 Now let us see what these states, some of them in 
 comparison with New York poor and sparsely settled, 
 contribute to their universities. I have the data up 
 to 1888, and in one or two cases even later. The Uni- 
 versity of Michigan, whose present organization goes 
 back to 1837, received no aid from the state till 1867, 
 when it had grown to be strong, renowned, and very 
 numerously attended. Up to 1889 the total appropri- 
 
62 Cornell University. 
 
 ations of tlie state of Michigan to lier university 
 amounted to $1,850,000. This aid consisted partly of 
 special grants and partly of a fixed annual tax of one- 
 twentieth of a mill on every dollar of the appraised 
 valuation of the taxable propert}^ of the state. In 
 Michigan the congressional land grant of 1862 was 
 not given to the university but to the agricultural col- 
 lege, which had been opened in 1856. And this institu- 
 tion has also received legislative appropriations which 
 at this date amount to over $900,000. 
 
 In Wisconsin, as in New York, the colleges of ag- 
 riculture and mechanic arts are a part of the state uni- 
 versity. And for some years the university had the 
 same fate as Cornell. Though enjoying the income 
 of the congressional grant (as also of the state semi- 
 nar}'- lands) she did not receive a dollar from the pub- 
 lic treasury till 1870, when the legislature gallantly 
 entered upon its new and splendid educational career 
 by appropriating $50,000 for the erection of a ladies' 
 college. Not satisfied, however, with irregular contri- 
 butions, the legislature enacted in 1878 that there 
 should be levied and collected annually for the income 
 of the university, a tax of one-tenth of one mill on each 
 dollar of the assessed valuation of taxable property of 
 the state ; and this tax has since been raised to nine- 
 fortieths of a mill. This tax at present produces 
 between $70,000 and $80,000 a year. But the legis- 
 lature has supplemented it by special appropriations. 
 For example, it granted, between 1885 and 18S8, 
 $350,000 for buildings, apparatus, and cabinets. One 
 other act I shall mention not for the magnitude, but 
 for the wisdom, of the appropriations. In 1889 the leg- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman, 63 
 
 islature passed an act appropriating annually the sum 
 of $1,000 to aid in maintaining a summer school for 
 teachers in connection with the university. 
 
 I regret that time does not permit me to give even 
 a short account of the evolution of the duty of pub- 
 licly supporting their universities in other Western 
 states. I know of no sentiment of so late a growth 
 which has attained such strength and efficiency. In 
 Minnesota, the university, to which in 1868 was as- 
 signed the income of the congressional land grant, has 
 received from the legislature special appropriations 
 which, up to July 31, 1888, amounted to about $600,000; 
 and the regular annual appropriation is now $40,000. 
 The University of California, which was opened for 
 the reception of students in 1869, grew up out of the 
 congressional act in much the same way as Cornell. 
 Before the close of 1885 the state had appropriated 
 about $750,000 for buildings, equipment, and supplies, 
 special preference being shown among the depart- 
 ments to the college of agriculture ; and in 1887 the 
 legislature established for the support of the univer- 
 sity, a perpetual state tax of one-tenth of a mill on 
 each dollar of assessed valuation of property. From 
 this ever-increasing source of income the university 
 now receives not far short of $100,000 annually. The 
 University of Indiana, which is now in receipt of a 
 large annual appropriation, will have had from the 
 state, by 1895, grants and appropriations, aggregat- 
 ing more than $1,200,000. In Nebraska the congres- 
 sional grant was united with the state seminary lands, 
 and the consolidated fund set apart as an endowment 
 for the university. But the state, in the very year in 
 
64 Cornell University. 
 
 whicli the university was chartered, voted it a tax of 
 one mill on each dollar of taxable property. This rate 
 was subsequently changed ; but it is still three-eighths 
 of a mill, which is the highest university tax in 
 America. 
 
 The history of state taxation for university pur- 
 poses in the neighboring commonwealth of Ohio is 
 for us of special interest and encouragement. The uni- 
 versity which received the congressional grant is lo- 
 cated at Columbus. The people of Ohio took little in- 
 terest in it before 1888 ; and the legislative appropri- 
 ations did not average more than $15,000 a year. Its 
 pretensions to be the state university were resisted by 
 sister colleges, — and Ohio has more colleges than any 
 other state in the Union. But the duty of providing at 
 the lowest rates the highest and the largest education 
 for the masses of the people finally made itself felt in 
 Ohio. And in 1890, Governor Campbell, in his mes- 
 sage to the legislature, recommended the levy, for the 
 use of the university, of an annual tax of one-twentieth 
 of a mill on every dollar of the valuation of the as- 
 sessed property of the state. Public sentiment strong- 
 ly favored the measure, and a bill introduced by the 
 speaker of the house speedily became law, placing the 
 university on the same footing as the common schools 
 and providing for its support by the one-twentieth of 
 a mill tax, which yields this year about $So,ooo. 
 
 In Pennsylvania the land grant college was up 
 to 1887 almost as much neglected by the state as Cor- 
 nell University. But agitation awakened the people 
 of that commonwealth to a perception of the obliga- 
 tion imposed upon them to furnish buildings and ap- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 65 
 
 pliances to the college endowed by tlie bounty of con- 
 gress. The land grant act of 1862 forbade the states 
 to use the congressional fund for buildings or repairs, 
 and at the same time obligated each state to provide 
 "at least not less than one college." In fulfillment 
 of this obligation the State of Pennsylvania has since 
 1887 provided its land grant college with several large, 
 commodious, and costly buildings ; so that Pennsyl- 
 vania no longer keeps New York company in neg- 
 lecting to comply with the conditions on which each 
 state received the federal land grant. 
 
 Next ? Why, New York ! And I leave the forego- 
 ing facts without application. They tell the wealth of 
 our state ; they indicate its duty ; and {sursum corda f) 
 they auspicate its future. 
 
 I recollect, however, almost too late, that I prom- 
 ised before finishing this branch of my subject to say 
 something of the proposition that the state is not called 
 upon to support higher education. Well, let me say 
 at once that I look with the profoundest suspicion on 
 every abstract theory of the functions of the state. 
 The speculations of the individualist and of the so- 
 cialist are alike castles in the air. In civil as in pri- 
 vate affairs men are guided, not by metaphysical spec- 
 ulations, but by a desire to attain the highest good. 
 Subtle disputations are for the schools ; the true states- 
 man aims at the highest welfare of the citizens. And 
 in the pursuit of this object he finds that the com- 
 munion and fellowship of a great commonwealth ne- 
 cessitates the healthful activity of a great variety of 
 organs. One of these is the agency, — called school, 
 college or university, — which maintains, diflfuses, and 
 
66 CoRNELi, University. 
 
 multiplies the intelligence of tlie common wealth. The 
 old classical colleges were supported by your ances- 
 tors so long as they represented the intellectual life 
 of the people. When they withdrew from the living 
 present (or rather when the living present left them 
 behind) to the seclusion of antiquity, the states re- 
 fused to support them from the public treasury. A 
 new and better organ of our intellectual life was de- 
 manded ; and universities like Cornell, which date 
 their origin from the Morrill act, have been framed by 
 educators to give larger and better instruction to the 
 youth of our own time. In voting them support from 
 the taxes of the state, legislators are not doing any- 
 thing new ; they are simply following in the tracks of 
 their ancestors. They cannot do better than revert to 
 that treasury of maxims and principles which enabled 
 the colonists to frame the constitution and set up the 
 Republic. But our history only begins with the colon- 
 ies ; and there have been great statesmen since Wash- 
 ington and Jefferson and Hamilton. I appeal, therefore, 
 not only to the oldest practice of your forefathers in 
 the Kast, but to the newest practice of your brothers 
 in the West. The support of the higher and highest 
 education by the state has the warrant of experience ; 
 and experience tells us of no other means at all effect- 
 ual for the purpose. 
 
 How else can we provide for our youth the knowl- 
 edge on which our civilization rests, even if nothing 
 be said of increasing that knowledge ? The artisan 
 needs it ; the farmer needs it ; the mechanic needs it ; 
 the engineer needs it ; the architect needs it ; the teach- 
 er needs it ; the lawyer, doctor, and minister need it ; 
 
Inauguration op President Schurman. 67 
 
 all classes and conditions need it, either to enricli tlieir 
 lives or procure a livelihood. Who will undertake the 
 task of supplying it, if the state will not ? The church- 
 es ? No ; for the churches as such are interested, not 
 in every kind of liberal and practical education, but 
 merely in that particular sort necessary for the train- 
 ing of the clergy. The denominational colleges are 
 the old-fashioned classical colleges. And nothing is 
 more patent than that the college-founding instinct, 
 with the ever increasing growth of knowledge, is be- 
 coming atrophied in all denominations. I cannot think 
 of a great modern university which owes its origin 
 to a religious body. The very newest one may indeed 
 seem to be an exception ; but whatever the charter of 
 that institution may prescribe in regard to the relig- 
 ious complexion of the board of trustees, its original 
 endowment came from a wise and philanthropic gen- 
 tleman in this state, and the later reinforcements have, 
 it is said, been derived from local, not denominational, 
 sources. Shall we then entrust the cause of higher 
 education to private universities ? No ; they are in 
 supply too capricious, in maintenance too precarious, 
 in efficiency too variable, and in the charge for instruc- 
 tion they are too far beyond the means of the masses 
 of the people. Denominational and private colleges 
 belong to an age which is passing away ; and though 
 we may trust and believe — as I certainly do — that 
 higher education will continue to enjoy the support 
 of philanthropic wealth, its main reliance must be on 
 the state ; the future must be with the People's Uni- 
 versity. 
 
68 Cornell University. 
 
 I say tlien that if New York had not a great state 
 university it wonld be her dnt}^ to establish one. The 
 principle on which the public school rests is that all 
 the property of the people must provide education for 
 the children of all the people. Last year we levied 
 taxes, state and local, amounting to $18,000,000 for 
 the maintenance of the public schools of this state. 
 There is not a single argument in favor of the free 
 public school which is not equally cogent as an argu- 
 ment in favor of the free public university. The pub- 
 lic school is maintained at the public expense because 
 it is a powerful instrument for the preservation and 
 promotion of that variety of agencies, influences, and 
 results, to which we give the collective name of civili- 
 zation. Universities have the same end and attain it 
 more completely. Both institutions train human fac- 
 ulty and conserve the results it achieves, while one 
 also multiplies these results. The cost of maintain- 
 ing the state university is, therefore, as fairly charge- 
 able upon the property of the people as the cost of the 
 public school establishment. This maxim admits of 
 no exception, provided the university represents im- 
 partially all the intellectual interests embraced with- 
 in the circuit of our civilization, and offers its privi- 
 leges without charge to all classes of the people. Such 
 an university is the best practical answer that can be 
 furnished to the charge — dangerous anywhere, but 
 especially dangerous in a democracy — that our citi- 
 zens have not all a fair chance, and that the state is 
 an instrument of organized injustice. I hold it im- 
 possible in the nature of things to equalize men's 
 property ; but it is perfectly feasible, as experience 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 69 
 
 shows, to give equal opportunities for mental cultiva- 
 tion and attainment. In the interest of the large ma- 
 jority of our people, it is both just and politic for the 
 state to offer universal free education of the highest 
 as well as of the lowest order. As Huxley has well said : 
 " No system of public education is worthy the name 
 of national unless it creates a great educational ladder, 
 with one end in the gutter and the other in the uni- 
 versity." The people already enjoy political liberty, 
 but the spirit of fraternity now invites the poor boys 
 and girls of every district in our state to share with 
 their more fortunate fellows the intellectual goods and 
 forces to which the modern world is heir. I am sure 
 the good sense of this commonwealth, when it express- 
 es itself by ballot, will not reject a reasonable propo- 
 sition, because it is recommended by humanity, good 
 policy, and justice, as well as by reason itself. Or are 
 we so taken up with the rights of property that we 
 totally forget the rights of man ? Is the end of the 
 state merely the accumulation of wealth ? No, the 
 state is to be regarded with other reverence. In the 
 noble language of the philosopher who saw the weak- 
 ness and the irrationality of the French Revolution, 
 the state is "not a partnership in things subservient 
 only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and 
 perishable nature ; it is a partnership in all science ; 
 a partnership in all art ; a partnership in every vir- 
 tue, and in all perfection." 
 
 In the communion of the state the people are to 
 be sharers of all the good things of civilization in so 
 far as that is possible without invasion of personal 
 rights. Foremost among these good things, and ab- 
 
yo CoRNEivL University. 
 
 solutel}^ indispensable to the existence of a civilized 
 state as well as to the welfare of its citizens, are 
 knowledge and the power which knowledge gives. 
 The school is the organ of the state's intellectual life. 
 The university is the highest school. It stands to 
 the institutions of primary and secondary education 
 in a relation similar to that sustained in the natural 
 body by the brain to the lower centres of the nerv^ous 
 system. It is the originating, directing, and regu- 
 latino- orean of the hiofher intellectual life and activ- 
 ity of the state. And just as the brain draws from 
 the bodily organism as a whole the copious and fre- 
 quent supplies of energy which it exhausts in its 
 work, so the genuine university is dependent, for 
 healthy and vigorous functioning, upon large and con- 
 tinuous appropriations from the treasury of the body 
 politic. And great as is our country as a whole, great 
 as is this empire state, our people have not yet, either 
 here or elsewhere, formed any adequate idea of the 
 needs of a modem university. This is all the more 
 deplorable as the most potent ally of the people is an 
 ef&cient People's University, 
 
 Cornell University, which is the only official 
 organ of the higher intellectual life of New York, 
 has an income not exceeding $500,000. And with 
 this income she is to promote, so the charter directs, 
 the liberal and practical education of the young men 
 and women of this commonwealth in all the ranks 
 and professions of life ! Observe that Cornell is to be 
 a seat both of "liberal" and of "practical" education ; 
 and observe, furthermore, that this education is to be 
 adapted to the intellectual needs of all workers in the 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 71 
 
 state. Mr. Chairman, it is a high and sacred voca- 
 tion to whicli we are called ; and we liave made ever}^ 
 effort to fulfill it. But let us make full confession to 
 the state which has entrusted us with this work. Our 
 means mock our vocation ! Were our revenues doub- 
 led, — as I trust they may soon be doubled by. public 
 grants and private gifts — we should still fall far short 
 of a realization of my ideal of a true modem People's 
 University. And to give definiteness to this propo- 
 sition I will close by stating briefly some of the most 
 urgent needs of the university. 
 
 A university must have costly buildings and ap- 
 pliances, but these are only means to enable the teach- 
 er to do his work efficiently. In the most literal 
 sense, therefore, it is the instructing staff that makes 
 the university. And the teacher's, I hold, is the high- 
 est calling among men. But it is, I believe, the worst 
 paid. Now there is always danger that the remuner- 
 ation customary in a profession may determine the 
 estimation in which that profession is held. And to 
 the great detriment of the commonwealth, the profes- 
 sion of teaching has already fallen into some dises- 
 teem. The board of trustees of Cornell University 
 recognize that, as a matter both of private justice and 
 public policy, the salaries of our professors should be 
 higher than they are. But, hemmed in by necessity, 
 they are at present unable to accomplish what they 
 so earnestly desire ; and they appeal to all who appre- 
 ciate the value of high and trained intelligence to 
 come to their relief. 
 
 But even professors are for the sake of students. 
 And Cornell has always had an unusually large num- 
 
72 Cornell University. 
 
 ber of poor, struggling, able, bigb-minded youtb, 
 especiall}^ from tbe State of New York. Some of tbem 
 are candidates for advanced degrees ; most of them 
 complete tbe undergraduate course. For tbe former 
 we are greatly in need of fellowsbips. One or two hun- 
 dred fellowships of tbe annual value of $500 each, 
 could be distributed with great profit to able and stu- 
 dious graduates who come here for tbe master's and 
 doctor's degrees. We have admirable facilities for ad- 
 vanced research and investigation ; and within the last 
 few years our graduate department has become one of 
 the strongest, best known, and most frequented in 
 America. What it now needs, above all things, is a 
 large fund for the benefit of poor and deserving grad- 
 uates who wish to become expert in their specialties. 
 Here is a fine field for the bounty of individuals. How 
 can a man better perpetuate his name than by con- 
 necting it with one or more of these fellowships ? 
 And what a luxury to be able to aid the poor but tal- 
 ented young men and women who are to mould the 
 civilization of the next generation ! In regard to un- 
 dergraduates I recommend a plan which has been in- 
 itiated by the wisdom and bounty of Mr. Amos Padg- 
 ham, of Syracuse. Mr. Padgham has founded a schol- 
 arship in this university for the student from the 
 public schools of Syracuse who enters with the high- 
 est standing. This is a stimulus to local schools, a 
 prize to students, and a help to the university. I com- 
 mend Mr. Padgham 's example to the rich men and 
 women in every city and village in the state. There 
 is no limit to the number of scholarships of this sort 
 which might be established in Cornell University. 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 73 
 
 And what a variety of good ends would be observed 
 by each endowment of $5,000 ! 
 
 In the work of investigation, which is the crown- 
 ing achievement of every large university, we are 
 straitened by lack of means for the publication of 
 results. Thanks to the generosity of a constant 
 friend, the department of philosophy has a publica- 
 tion fund, and no other investment of the same sum 
 could have been so helpful as The Philosophical Re- 
 view. Other departments have masses of material, 
 the valuable results of protracted investigations, which 
 cannot see the light because, like most new discov- 
 eries, there is no money in them for publishers. 
 Consequently the endowment of publication is im- 
 perative. We need at once an income of $10,000 a 
 year for this purpose, and twice that sum in the near 
 future. The communication of knowledge by word 
 of mouth alone is a singular phenomenon in a uni- 
 versity, now that reading is taking so generally the 
 place of speech. And to illustrate how Cornell suf- 
 fers, I may say that other institutions are publishing, 
 naturally without giving us any credit, investigations 
 which were undertaken and completed in this uni- 
 versity. 
 
 One other general need is that of dormitories. 
 With the rapidly increasing numbers of our students, 
 the friends of the university should come to the aid 
 of the city in providing lodgings for them. The 
 cost of living in Ithaca must be kept low. And the 
 city in the next few years is likely to be full, even 
 though a dozen benefactors should give the univer- 
 sity as many dormitories, each at a cost of $100,000. 
 
74 CoRNEivL University. 
 
 The rent received for rooms, wliicli, however, should 
 always be kept at a moderate figure, would be a con- 
 stant source of income to the university. Let us see 
 to it that Cornell never ceases to be the poor man's 
 university. 
 
 When I turn from general university needs to 
 the specific needs of departments, I know not where 
 to begin amid all the urgent appeals that come to the 
 board. But I will follow the order of our register and 
 start with the literary, historical, and philosophical 
 disciplines to which we give the collective term of hu- 
 manities. I notice, in the first place, that of the two 
 great sources of human civilization, one is not even 
 mentioned in our curriculum. It would be shameful, 
 were it not a tragic proof of our poverty, that Cor- 
 nell University is still without chairs of Semitic and 
 Oriental civilization, even without a professorship of 
 that Hebrew literature which has furnished the sub- 
 limest content of modern civilization. Though the 
 historical department is otherwise strong, it needs 
 much money for new chairs and additional books, 
 especially in the way of original sources, to keep pace 
 with the progress of historical investigation. But of 
 all the studies whose object is man, that dealing with 
 the production and distribution of wealth is the one 
 which the university is most urgently called upon to 
 strengthen. It is a sad confession to make here at the 
 centre of the richest state in the Union. Perhaps the 
 knowledge of this need will cause wealth at once to 
 flow to its relief We should have professorships of 
 economics, finance, statistics, social science, etc., and 
 an equipment of books for verification of any state- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 75 
 
 ment that miglit be made regarding tlie wealth of the 
 world. For philosophy I ask nothing ; the endow- 
 ment given by Mr. Sage hds put that department on 
 a solid basis, and the work is commanding no little 
 attention. The collection of casts, donated by the 
 same benefactor, will hereafter furnish illustrative 
 material for the studies of the ancient classics such as 
 few other universities possess ; but for the establish- 
 ment of a well-equipped school of fine art, — of paint- 
 ing, statuary, and music, — an endowment of not less 
 than $1,000,000 will be necessary. As to language 
 and literature, both the group of ancient and the group 
 of modem languages and literatures demand rein- 
 forcement ; and in the interest of the schools of the 
 state, as well as for their own sake, these subjects 
 should be supported by liberal grants, very much 
 larger than the university is.now able to make. This 
 is pre-eminently true of English, the constant need, 
 as it may be the constant inspiration, of every stu- 
 dent at every age. And I hold it to be one of the sev- 
 eral missions of Cornell University to train a certain 
 number of students directly for English teacherships 
 and to obtain for them positions in preparatory schools. 
 Passing from the literary to the scientific field, 
 we meet mathematics at the entrance. In this uni- 
 versity it is now taught to nearly 700 students, either 
 for the purpose of liberal or of practical education. 
 Our staff, though large, is overworked ; and our rooms 
 are altogether inadequate. We should have, besides 
 a large building, many thousands of dollars a year 
 to add to the efficiency of this department. Astron- 
 omy, the oldest and sublimest science, fares rather 
 
76 Cornell University. 
 
 worse than any other. I do not say we must excel 
 the Lick or any other observatory, though I should 
 rejoice in a donation for that purpose ; but I do say 
 that, investigation apart, we need, even to make our 
 teaching effective, an observatory which could not be 
 built, equipped, and maintained for much less than 
 $500,000. In chemistry, though we have a strong 
 staff and a laboratory whose equipment is confessed- 
 ly very complete, we need new chairs of theoretical, 
 technical, and physiological chemistry, additional lab- 
 oratories for the increasing number of students, and 
 annual appropriations twice as large as those now 
 available for apparatus and material. In the flourish- 
 ing department of phj'-sics, the classes have already 
 outgrown the present large building ; and a new lec- 
 ture room and two new laboratories for research are 
 indispensable, as well as increased funds for new 
 equipment, including perhaps in the not distant fu- 
 ture the transmission of power from Niagara Falls. 
 Among the pure sciences the group formerly desig- 
 nated natural history is urgently in need of strength- 
 ening. The department of botany should have at 
 least another professorship and also better equipment ; 
 and a botanic garden, a museum of economic botany, 
 a herbarium, and an arboretum cannot long be defer- 
 red. Our entomologist should be relieved of inverte- 
 brate zoology. And for that subject, as well as for 
 vertebrate zoology, comparative anatomy, and ph3^si- 
 ology, new professorships should be established, so 
 that the two professors who now make a specialt}^ of 
 the morphology of the brain and vertebrate histology 
 might be relieved of all other responsibilities. In the 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 77 
 
 department of geology, we need in addition to a 
 general professorship, chairs of paleontology, petro- 
 graphy, economic geology, and physical geography 
 with all their accompaniments. Besides these speci- 
 fic wants, the buildings and museums now available 
 for the several departments of natural history will in 
 the near future prove altogether inadequate. 
 
 Look in the last place at our professional schools. 
 The school of law after being domiciled several years 
 in the attic of Morrill Hall, now rejoices in the pos- 
 session of a new, commodious, and even luxurious 
 building of its own. And its library with the recent 
 addition of the Moak collection, is one of the best in 
 the country. But the school needs endowments to 
 keep up its innumerable series of reports ; and if the 
 increase in attendance continues at the rate of this 
 year, additional professors will have to be appointed 
 in the near future, as indeed a librarian should be 
 appointed now. 
 
 Lincoln Hall is no longer large enough for the 
 departments of architecture and civil engineering. 
 The former requires a separate building, which should 
 provide enlarged draughting rooms, a museum for 
 the display of models, casts, materials of construction 
 and products, and a gallery for the exhibition of pho- 
 tographs and prints. This would cost at least $60,000. 
 And twice that sum is necessary for increasing the 
 staff of instruction and for adding to the permanent 
 equipment. 
 
 In this age of rapid locomotion the importance 
 of civil engineering, in its most obvious province, is 
 abundantly manifest. But few persons realize the 
 
78 Cornell University. 
 
 cost of maintaining a thoroughly equipped college of 
 civil engineering. We hold ours to be second to none 
 in the country. But the entire value of its equip- 
 ment for all purposes is not as large as the value of 
 the machinery and apparatus of the cement testing 
 laboratory alone of the great school at Zurich. Re- 
 call the subjects that must be taught in a completely 
 organized college — railroad construction, bridge con- 
 struction, hydraulics, methods of drainage, etc., — and 
 you will agree that $1,000,000 would be a moderate 
 sum to add to the endowment of our college of civil 
 engineering. 
 
 Still larger are the demands of the department of 
 mechanical engineering, because of the greater num- 
 ber of students. Everything is now too small in Sib- 
 ley College. We need more class-rooms, more engi- 
 neering laboratories, more draughting rooms, more 
 professors. The limitation of funds has prevented the 
 establishment of maii}^ branches of engineering ; and 
 those already established await further development. 
 The first manufacturing state in the Union, New York 
 can afford to foster a first class school of mechanic 
 arts ; and in accepting the congressional grant of 1862 
 it pledged support to this one. It is to the interest of 
 the state, not less than to the interest of Cornell Uni- 
 versit}^, that there should be liberal and steady appro- 
 priations for the maintenance of a department which 
 contributes so largely to the progress of the material 
 side of our civilization. 
 
 From the very beginning Cornell University has 
 paid special attention to the two subjects, which, more 
 than any other, vitally affect the interests of the ma- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 79 
 
 jority of our people — I mean agricultural and veter- 
 inary science. What the university has achieved in 
 these fields is known, not only to educators but to the 
 farmers of our state. But it is the merest fraction of 
 what with adequate resources might be done. We 
 need an appropriation, for a college of veterinary sci- 
 ence, of at least $40,000 a year. This is demanded 
 alike in the interests of health and wealth. In the 
 State of New York, for a period of eight 3^ears ending 
 with 1887, every eighth death was from tuberculosis ; 
 and the infection in most cases comes from the lower 
 animals. Three per cent, of our cattle are tuberculous. 
 Comparative pathology will probably be the next 
 fruitful field for medicine. It is a field for which Cor- 
 nell University has unusual facilities and to which it 
 is especially summoned by the legal mandate to give 
 liberal and practical education. Nothing is needed for 
 success but a fair appropriation from the treasury of 
 the state. And at the same time liberal provision 
 should be made for agriculture including horticulture. 
 The first and imperative need is that of a building 
 large enough to house along with the department of 
 agriculture, those of horticulture, entomology, and 
 dairy husbandry. It should contain a museum for the 
 exhibition of all kinds of agricultural implements. 
 The home of teachers and investigators, it should be 
 made the living centre of all the agricultural interests 
 of the state. Students would come for the regular 
 courses, or for short winter courses ; and those who 
 could not leave their homes might receive instruction 
 by correspondence. Bulletins would be published giv- 
 ing the result of investigations. All this and more, 
 
8o Cornell University. 
 
 if we had aid from the state, could be done for the ben- 
 efit of our farmers, as we already do a good deal even 
 without that aid. We should need at least $200,000 
 for the building, and then such appropriations as 
 would make the work in it worthy of the vast agri- 
 cultural resources and wealth of this imperial state. 
 Consider the importance of our live stock and dairy 
 products merely. The census of 1880 gives the value 
 of the live stock of the United States as $1,500,000,- 
 000, and of New York State as $117,000,000. There 
 are 1,500,000 cows in the State of New York. An in- 
 crease of one cent per pound in the average price of 
 our dairy products would amount to $1,875,000. And 
 how easy it would be to create this wealth by scien- 
 tific instruction in the art of making butter and cheese. 
 But I have tired you by a long discourse. The 
 gist of it all, however, may be briefly put. Cornell Uni- 
 versity was designed for the benefit of the people of 
 this commonwealth. But in accepting the land grant 
 from congress. New York pledged state aid to the 
 institution receiving the proceeds. This is Cornell 
 University. Now Cornell University has never re- 
 ceived one cent from the treasury of the State of 
 New York. On the other hand, the state requires 
 the university to give free tuition to 512 students 
 annually, at a cost ranging this year from $150,000 
 to $175,000, thereby imposing upon the universit}^ 
 burdens never contemplated by the charter. But 
 the university has now reached a point in its de- 
 velopment at which, if it is to furnish liberal and 
 practical education to the largest numbers in all 
 the pursuits and professions of life, it must have sup- 
 
Inauguration of President Schurman. 8i 
 
 port from the public treasury as well as from tlie 
 bounty of private individuals. Tlius only can the 
 university fulfill its vocation of furnishing the high- 
 est education to all classes at the lowest cost. Its ends 
 are the ends of the state. It is dedicated to truth and 
 to utility ; and between these there is no incompatibil- 
 ity ; for, as Plato has well said, the divinest things are 
 the most serviceable. We are at once realistic and 
 idealistic. And while we cherish the old we are 
 always in quest of something better. The genius of 
 Cornell University stands on the solid earth ; and 
 while his eyes front the dawn, the ancient heavens 
 are about him, and through all its resounding spaces 
 he hears the noble mother call. Excelsior ! So may 
 it be ! So shall it be ; for the people of New York will 
 not suffer either private gifts or public grants to 
 fail us. 
 
 Benediction by the Rev. Charles M. Tyler, D.D.: 
 
 Now, may the blessings of God the Father Almighty, the 
 grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the fellowship 
 and communion of the Holy Ghost, abide with us all forever. 
 Amen. 
 
 Music — "Furore," by the Orchestra. 
 
82 Cornell University. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY RECEPTION. 
 
 A reception was tendered President and Mrs. Schurman 
 by the University at Armory Hall, Friday evening, from 8 to ii 
 p. M. The hall was suitabl}^ decorated and the music was fur- 
 nished by Gartland's Orchestra of Alban3\ The reception was 
 largely attended by the trustees, members of the corps of in- 
 struction, their families, students and friends of the University 
 and was a very successful social event. 
 
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