| |
| |
Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.
EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:
REASONS FOB DELAY 11 that it was "too early" for a central State institution of higher education.* In truth, the population did not increase rapidly till after 1830, then leaping by 1840 from 157,000 to 476,000, and by 1850 to 851,000. And the early population was not merely dispersed, but wanting in homogeneity. From the early days of statehood people poured in by the Great Lakes on the north, the Ohio on the south; and containing many diverse elements, the State split most definitely into camps representing northern and southern blood. In 1822-25 there was a sharp contest between slavery and antislavery forces which left a lasting mark; and Gov. Ford testified to the "elements of discord in the population," with the consequent injury to "the adoption of the wisest means for the public relief.'! At the same time, he complained of the want of pride in the State and its institutions. "Illinois can be abused anywhere with impunity. I hope yet to live to see the day in Illinois, as in Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, New York, and New England, that no one1 will be suffered to abuse the State."2 1 |§ Again, Illinois suffered more than any of her neighbors, much more than any except Indiana and Missouri, from financial reverses. We have noted the failure of the first State Bank. In 1839 the State's blundering internal improvement system was overturned, work upon most projects stopped, and a debt of over $10,000,000 left for improvements largely abandoned. In the spring of 1842 the second State Bank burst with a crash, doing great injury to the holders of its $3,000,000 of paper money. Gov. Ford states that when he came to office * N. W. Edward's " History of Illinois and Life and Times of Ninian Edwards," p. 238 et acq. • Thomas Ford's " History of Illinois," Chapters III and IX
| |
