UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
N A V I G A T I O N D I G I T A L L I B R A R Y
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 45]

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34

THE FOUNDING OF THE UNIVERSITY

system, for she was then planning the steps that a few years later were temporarily to give her the title of the "Garden City." Griggs also pointed out at Pekin and Danville that the location of the University at Urbana would assist the prosperity of the new railway planned to connect the three towns, and everywhere he urged that Jacksonville already had her share of State-supported institutions, that Bloomington had a normal college, and that Chicago would grow fast enough without fresh advantages, while none of the three cities could offer such agricultural facilities as Urbana-Champaign, in the heart of the most fertile prairie region of the State. | | A n interviewer of Griggs in 1915, when the old man was ninety-four years old, still found some of the phrases of these appeals fresh in his memory. The tactics of Griggs at the legislative session of 1867 were calculated to win respect even at a capital where the contemporaries of Lincoln and Douglas had made a fine art of political maneuvering. The plans of the County Committee were completely shaped by him. Spacious quarters were engaged at the largest hotel in Springfield—the Leland: offices, bedrooms, a buffet, and a reception room which held two hundred people. Here he, the Democratic and Republican Chairmen/and the committee began lobbying on a large scale. Members of either party, hostile or friendly, were invited to the hotel for liquor, for light refreshments, or for huge oyster suppers or quail dinners. They found here a place to lounge in easy chairs, to chat or read newspapers, and to listen to legislative gossip. They were urged to bring with them constituents who happened to be in town, and to order for these constituents as freely as for themselves. They were supplied with cigars, and