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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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158 History University of Illinois mittcd a new offer which provided, besides lot sixteen for maintenance of schools and lot twenty-nine for purposes of religion, for "two townships near the centre of the second specified tract which comprehends the purchase amounting to the first-mentioned million of dollars, and of good land to be also given by congress for the support of a literary institution, to be applied to the intended object by the legislature of the state," 4 Congress again objected but when Cutler expressed his intention of leaving New York, of giving up his plan of buying land from congress and of purchasing from one of the states instead, members of congress prevailed on him to remain and promised to meet his demands.5 In making this decision they took into account the desirability of opening up western lands and of stimulating immigration, the government's need for the money which would result from the sale of this six million five hundred thousand acres of land and especially the fear that Cutler would fulfill his threat and buy from the older states. In view of these possibilities congress passed an ordinance on July 23, 1787, in which the Board of the treasury was ordered to contract with the Ohio company for the land desired. The resulting contract secured to the Ohio company two townships within the purchase for the perpetual support of a seminary of learning and it is the first provision made by the federal government for that purpose. The credit of this important precedent would seem to belong entirely to the first board of directors of the Ohio company, and especially to their able lobbyist, Manasseh Cutler. The farreaching significance of the precedent may only be realized by a consideration of it in the light of its subsequent importance to higher education in the different states. The federal grant of two townships thus secured for the Ohio company was handed over to the state of Ohio on her adAt this time Cutler was prevailed upon by certain influential men to include secretly in his purchase offer the much larger offer of another company. In this way one million five hundred thousand acres of the Ohio company and an option of five million acres for the Sciota company were secured. Bancroft, History of the Formation of the Constitution, 2; 436. "Cutler, Life Journal and Correspondence, 1: 303-305. 4 rj| * J
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