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Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
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208 THE UNIVEBSITY FINDS ITSELF yard" and Spain was burnt in effigy to that when the undergraduates expressed in mass meeting their unanimous indignation that they could not wholly manage athletics for themselves. The resignation of Draper was not unexpected, and for it a variety of causes may be assigned. The reason which he gave chief prominence was that he could not resist the call of duty in his native State, which had offered him the newly created post of Commissioner of Education in a way constituting a personal triumph for him. When he had left the Superintendency of Public Education in 1892, it was largely because of friction between his office and that of the President of the University of the State of New York. Now his political friends had combined the two offices in the Commissionership. Its incumbent was given "power to create such departments as in his judgment shall be necessary," and to appoint or approve the appointment of all officers; and Draper was thus virtually asked to recreate the Department of Education in the greatest State and the State where the department was most powerful. But he was influenced by other considerations as well. He had unfortunately become sensitive over the lameness under which he labored after** 1902, when he had been thrown from his carriage while driving a spirited team—he was fond of driving about the University—and had had a leg amputated. JfHe had returned to work again that fall, but, as he said, he ''could not escape the feeling that it would be better for the University to have a President who was without any physical disability. 1 Finally, he saw that his great work was done, and that it was time for a President of different character. The aggressive man of affairs had
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