Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 275]

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The University Located

243

any preparations for the entertainment of members. The house was greatly impressed by the earnestness of Champaign county, and many a representative voted for the Champaign bill because Mr. Griggs and his followers "had worked so hard." 2 Although Morgan county had in 1866 defeated the proposition to vote a tax of $300,000 to secure the location, Jacksonville still had hopes of gaining the prize. On January 1,1867, a meeting of citizens was held and a resolution passed requesting the trustees of the town to hold an election on the seventh for or against a tax of $50,000 upon the town to aid in securing the location of the university. It was the idea of Jacksonville to obtain $50,000 by tax and an additional amount sufficient to acquire the location by individual subscription. One such subscription was made at this meeting by Mrs. Ayres. She offered to give the state, in case the university was located at Jacksonville, the Berean college building. This was considered a munificent gift and valued at the time at $60,000. I t was included in Morgan county's bid later at $25,000 and so estimated by the legislative committee. Such was the situation at the opening of the legislative session of 1867. • The speakership was one of the things for which Mr. Griggs bargained. -As the time of the opening of the session drew near, Mr. Griggs carefully planned his campaign to be carried forward on the floor of the house. Quoting from an interview with Mr. Griggs: " I t was understood that the Senate would accede to whatever the House did, and though Mr. Tincher, of Danville, was deputed there to take care of Twin City interests, he had little to do. At the opening of the session Mr. Griggs was named for speaker by one faction of the republicans, and Mr. Corwin, of Bloomington,3 by another. This was upon the initiative of Mr. Griggs' friends; and while Griggs did not court the position as aiding him in passing the bill, he later saw in the nomination the possibility of a helpful bargain. The contest was regarded as indicating that the struggle for the college would lie between Bloomington and Urbana-Champaign, and that Chicago, Jaek*Clark' Bobinson Griggs and location of the university, manuscripts at University of Illinois. •Mr. Corwin was from La Salle, not Bloomington.