| |
| |
Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.
EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:
Activity Illinois Industrial League 87 tion but left it to depend upon the charity of its friends and the generosity of the community in which it should be located for its site and for its buildings. Because of this act of the legislature the next meeting of the state teachers? association held in Decatur early in January of 1858 was an occasion of rejoicing. Bronson Murray who attended this gathering spoke of it as " a glorious triumph for the friends of the Industrial League.*' The reasons for this note of exultation seems to be in these significant statements: "We have concluded to rally around and support the Normal University and it is now understood and agreed on all sides that that institution is to be developed into a University and its nature shall be Normal which will insure its being Industrial in its character. " 5 2 This statement supports the one quoted above as to the intentions of both the normal and university men to develop the normal into an industrial university. It appears that J. S. Post; the member who moved and carried through the university bill, deliberately condensed it, changed the title of the institution from Illinois university to normal university, and then pushed the bill through both houses. "The opponents of Turner," Murray wrote, '' voted for it to prevent the Industrial men from getting the fund and the friends of Turner voted for it because they were let behind the scenes. So all is well."*3 Thus it would seem that for the moment all parties were pleased with the outcome, whether they saw the situation as it really existed or not. The Illinois industrial league had frequently failed to secure measures that it had striven hard to obtain; but by January, 1858, the industrial league had really accomplished the great work for which it had been organized, for on December 14,1857, a bill had been introduced into congress which was ultimately to give to each of the states a land grant to endow an industrial university. Without the preliminary educational work done by the league the passage of the land grant act would have been impossible or at any rate many years delayed. 1 "Murray to Pennell, January 12, 1858, Pennell manuscripts. A note of triumph in Murray's letter may be due to the fact that he had already learned of the introduction of the Morrill bill into Congress, December 14, 1857. "Ibid.
| |
