Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1White, Andrew Dickson
History
Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1
White, Andrew Dickson
Cornell University; Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918
This struggle being ended, the Assembly committee
could not be induced to report the bill. It was easy, after
such a speech, for its members to pose as protectors of
the State against a swindler and a monopoly; the chairman,
who, shortly after the close of the session, was
mysteriously given a position in the New York custom-house,
made pretext after pretext without reporting, until it became
evident that we must have a struggle in the Assembly
and drag the bill out of the committee in spite of him.
To do this required a two-thirds vote. All our friends
were set to work, and some pains taken to scare the
corporations which had allied themselves with the enemy, in
regard to the fate of their own bills, by making them
stand that, unless they stopped their interested
opposition to the university bill in the House, a feeling
would be created in the Senate very unfortunate for them.
In this way their clutch upon sundry members of the
Assembly was somewhat relaxed, and these were allowed
to vote according to their consciences.
The Cornell bill was advocated most earnestly in the
House by Mr. Henry B. Lord: in his unpretentious way
he marshaled the university forces, and moved that the bill
be taken from the committee and referred to the Committee
of the Whole. Now came a struggle. Most of the
best men in the Assembly stood by us; but the waverers
--men who feared local pressure, sectarian hostility, or
the opposition of Mr. Cook to measures of their own--
attempted, if not to oppose the Cornell bill, at least to
evade a vote upon it. In order to give them a little tone
and strength, Mr. Cornell went with me to various leading
editors in the city of New York, and we explained
the whole matter to them, securing editorial articles
favorable to the university, the most prominent among these
gentlemen being Horace Greeley of the ``Tribune,'' Eras-
tus Brooks of the ``Express,'' and Manton Marble of the
``World.'' This did much for us, yet when the vote was
taken the old cowardice was again shown; but several of
us stood in the cloak-room and fairly shamed the waverers
back into their places. As a result, to the surprise and
disgust of the chairman of the Assembly committee, the
bill was taken out of his control, and referred to the
Committee of the Whole House.
Another long struggle now ensued, but the bill was
finally passed in the Assembly and came back to the
Senate. There the struggle was renewed, all kinds of
delaying tactics were resorted to, but the bill was finally
carried, and received the signature of Governor Fenton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive