“Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”
Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White
Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White had not yet met when the Morrill Land-Grant Act was passed, but each was developing his own deep-rooted convictions about education.
Cornell had been instrumental in the founding of a Farmers’ Club and an Agricultural Reading Room in Ithaca. In 1862, he attended the International Exposition in London representing the New York State Agricultural Society. Agricultural and practical education was on his mind, as were women’s higher education and coeducation. That same year, as a member of the New York State Assembly, he supported a bill for the chartering of Vassar College, where he later sent his daughter Mary.
At the same time White was dreaming of an “Ideal University.” In a September 1, 1862 letter to Gerrit Smith, he wrote: “…my aim has ever been to fit myself to help in founding and building a worthy American University….There is needed a truly great University.” He writes of creating an institution “where the most highly prized instruction may be afforded to all—regardless of sex or color.”
Two years later the two men, now New York State Senators, would meet to discuss the chartering of Ezra Cornell’s public library and the fate of the Morrill Land Grant Act in New York State. In these discussions a Cornell University was born.
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Letter to Senator Justin Morrill from Secretary of State William Seward. May 25, 1864. [zoom] After serving two years in the New York State Assembly, Ezra Cornell was nominated and elected to the New York State Senate, where he was destined to meet fellow Senator Andrew D. White. Cornell was a longtime friend and supporter of of fellow New Yorker, William Seward, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State. In this simple letter two of the most important figures in 19th century American education are introduced: “My dear Sir, |