Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 274]

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242

History University of Illinois

The statements in these papers in regard to the cost of the Urbana-Champaign institute building varied greatly for some reason. The Chicago Post said the building had cost $80,000 before the war and was worth, with the ten acres of land, at least $150,000. The Chicago Journal said the building had been "erected in 1861 at a cost of $175,000 when labor and material were worth not much over half their present value/ 1 The Springfield Journal estimated Champaign's offer at $500,000. These extravagant statements may have influenced the mind of the public but did not deceive the legislature. I t made an investigation of its own later in which it came close to the truth in regard to the value of the various offers. What the legislature did, it did with real knowledge of the situation. On Champaign's activity in Springfield at the opening session in 1867, there is the testimony of Mr. Griggs, the acknowledged leader, who is responsible for the substance of the following statements. The legislature opened the first Monday in January, 1867. The Champaign county committee, at Mr. Grigg's prompting, had prepared for the fight of the next three months by engaging the principal reception room of the Leland hotel, with several suites of parlors and bedrooms on the second floor. The reception room, holding two hundred people, was used for general entertainment. A buffet service was installed, and arrangements were made for serving elaborate meals. Near Mr. GriggsI quarters were placed those of the democratic and republican state chairmen. At once lobbying was begun on a lavish scale. Members, whether democrats or republicans, hostile or friendly, were invited to the Leland for drinks, for light refreshments, or for huge oyster suppers or-quail dinners. They were pressed to bring with them any of their constituents who happened to be in town, and to order for such guests as freely as for themselves. They were supplied with cigars, and groups of them were taken to the theatre. During the week three or four of the Champaign county committee were always on the ground, and at week ends, when entertainment was at its height, eight or ten would come over. All bills were sent in to be paid from the $40,000 fund subscribed or appropriated for the purpose. No other community had fitted up headquarters in this way, or made