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
``Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
The mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.''
On the mere letter of Scripture he dwelt little; and,
while he never obtruded opinions that might shock any
person, and was far removed from scoffing or irreverence,
he did not hesitate to discriminate between parts of our
Sacred Books which he considered as simply legendary
and parts which were to him pregnant with eternal truth.
His religion seemed to take shape in a deeply reverent
feeling toward his Creator, and in a constant desire to
improve the condition of his fellow-creatures. He was
never surprised or troubled by anything which any other
human being believed or did not believe; of intolerance
he was utterly incapable. He sought no reputation as a
philanthropist, cared little for approval, and nothing for
applause; but I can say of him, without reserve, that,
during all the years I knew him, ``he went about doing
good.''
CHAPTER XIX
ORGANIZATION OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY--1865-1868
Although my formal election to the university presidency
did not take place until 1867, the duties implied
by that office had already been discharged by me
during two years.
While Mr. Cornell devoted himself to the financial
questions arising from the new foundation, he intrusted all
other questions to me. Indeed, my duties may be said to
have begun when, as chairman of the Committee on Education
in the State Senate, I resisted all efforts to divide
the land-grant fund between the People's College and
the State Agricultural College; to have been continued
when I opposed the frittering away of the entire grant
among more than twenty small sectarian colleges; and
to have taken a more direct form when I drafted the
educational clauses of the university charter and advocated
it before the legislature and in the press. This
advocacy was by no means a light task. The influential
men who flocked to Albany, seeking to divide the fund
among various sects and localities, used arguments often
plausible and sometimes forcible. These I dealt with
on various occasions, but especially in a speech before the
State Senate in 1865, in which was shown the character
of the interested opposition, the farcical equipment of
the People's College, the failure of the State Agricultural
College, the inadequacy of the sectarian colleges,
even though they called themselves universities; and I
did all in my power to communicate to my colleagues
something of my own enthusiasm for a university suitably
endowed, free from sectarian trammels, centrally
situated, and organized to meet fully the wants of the
State as regarded advanced education, general and
technical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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