Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Ag Building [PAGE 8]

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6 efficient means for the application and diffusion of even the practical knowledge which does exist. True, we have fairly got the primer, the spelling- book, and the newspaper abroad in the world, and we think that we have done wonders; and so, comparatively, we have. But if this is a wonder, there are still not only wonders, but, to most minds, inconceivable miracles, from new and unknown worlds of light, soon to break forth upon the industrial mind of the world. "Here, then, is a general though very incomplete outline of what such an institution should endeavor to become. Let the reader contemplate it as it will appear when generations have perfected it, in all its magnificence and glory; in its means of good to man, to all men of all classes; in its power to evolve and diffuse practical knowledge and skill, true taste, love of industry, and sound morality, not only through its apparatus, experiments, instruction, annual lectures, and reports, but through its thousands of graduates, in every pursuit of life, teaching and lecturing in all our towns and villages, and then let him seriously ask himself: Is not such an object worthy of at least an effort, and worthy of a state which God himself, in the very act of creation, designed to be the first agricultural and commercial state on the face of the globe? **Who should set the world so glorious an example of educating their sons worthily of their heritage, their duty, and their destiny, if not the people of such a state? In our country we have no aristocracy, with the inalienable wealth of ages, and constant leisure and means to perform all manner of useful experiments for their own amusement; but we must create our nobility for this purpose, as we elect our rulers, from our own ranks, to aid and serve, not to domineer over and control us. And this done, we will not only beat England, and beat the world in yachts and locks and reapers, but in all else that contributes to the well being and true glory of man. I maintain that, if every farmer's and mechanic's son in this state could now visit such an institution but for a single day in the year, it would do him more good in arousing and directing the dor* mant energies of mind than all the cost incurred, and far more good than many a six months of professed study of things he never needs and never wants to know." The effort of this convention resulted in the land grant act