Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1White, Andrew Dickson
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Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1
White, Andrew Dickson
Cornell University; Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918
When I had come down, we first investigated the echo
of the chime, which had really aroused his interest; then
he said seriously: ``Don't make yourself unhappy over
this matter; it will turn out to be a good thing for the
university. I have long foreseen that this attack must
come, but have feared that it would come after my death,
when the facts would be forgotten, and the transactions
little understood. I am glad that the charges are made
now, while I am here to answer them.'' We then discussed
the matter, and it was agreed that he should telegraph and
write Governor Dix, asking him to appoint an investigating
committee, of which the majority should be from
the political party opposed to his own. This was done.
The committee was composed of Horatio Seymour,
formerly governor of the State and Democratic candidate
for the Presidency of the United States; William A.
Wheeler, Vice-President of the United States; and John
D. Van Buren, all three men of the highest standing, and
two of them politically opposed to Mr. Cornell.
During the long investigation which ensued in New
York and at Ithaca, he never lost his patience, though at
times sorely tried. Various disappointed schemers, among
these one person who had not been allowed to make an
undue profit out of the university lands, and another who
had been allowed to depart from a professorship on
account of hopeless incompetency, were the main witnesses.
The onslaught was led by the person who made the attack
in the legislature, and he had raked together a mass of
half-truths and surmises; but the evidence on Mr. Cornell's
side consisted of a complete exhibition of all the
facts and documents. The unanimous report of the
committee was all that his warmest friends could desire; and
its recommendations regarding the management of the
fund were such as Mr. Cornell had long wished, but which
he had hardly dared ask. The result was a complete triumph
for him.
Yet the attacks continued. The same paper which had
been so prominent in sounding them through the western
part of the State continued them as before, and, almost
to the very day of his death, assailed him periodically as
a ``land jobber,'' ``land grabber,'' and ``land thief.'' But
he took these foul attacks by tricky declaimers and his
vindication by three of his most eminent fellow-citizens
with the same serenity. That there was in him a profound
contempt for the wretched creatures who assailed him
and imputed to him motives as vile as their own can
hardly be doubted; yet, though I was with him constantly
during this period, I never heard him speak harshly of
them; nor could I ever see that this injustice diminished
his good will toward his fellow-men and his desire to
benefit them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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