Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 14]

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STATE TARDINESS

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in 1817 the Catholepestemiad, or University of Michigania, which in 1821 was rechristened the University of Michigan—though it was not till 1837 that the University as we know it was founded. Even the immature neighbors of Illinois took precedence of her. The University of Missouri was established in 1839, that of Iowa and that of Wisconsin before 1850; while in 1851 Minnesota petitioned Congress for land to endow a University at the Falls of St. Anthony. In Illinois it required the union of a powerful new movement with the old impulse expressed in the Congressional grant of "college townships" to bring" the University into being. Yet since her admission in 1818 Illinois had had even greater opportunities than most of her sister commonwealths to found a State institution of higher learning. The Federal Government had given her not only the customary two townships but one-half per cent, of all the proceeds of the sale of Government lands in Illinois after 1818, with the special stipulation that this was to be "exclusively bestowed upon a college or university." Ordinarily Congress gave five per cent, of such proceeds for road-building, but in the case of Illinois it was thought best to divide this percentage among the roads, the common schools, and the University. The Government was generous, too, in its arrangements for the location of the two townships. The first, granted in 1804, was found to be marshy, and permission was later given to relocate it in detached tracts of smalt area, to insure the selection of good land. The second, granted in 1818, was to be located in the same manner. A progressive and public-minded legislature might early have founded a University in Illinois; instead, the Legislature was consistently perverse and at times dishonest.