Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 282]

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History University of Illinois

feated by the defeat of the other bill of which it was a supplement. "We did not then suppose that it was practicable to make a bid at all commensurate with the importance of the object, or the expectations of the people of the State, without an enabling Act by which to equalize the burdens thus sought to be imposed on any community, and recent events have fully vindicated the correctness of that opinion. We make this statement in answer to a question that has frequently been raised during the present Session, why we were not sooner prepared to submit to you some definite proposition to secure the location of the proposed University. "The developments of the last two weeks in both Houses having fully satisfied us that it is your determination not to devolve the duty of fixing the location upon a Commission, but to settle it by direct vote of the Legislature prior to its adjournment, we have in conformity with that apparent determination, caused elections to be held in the city of Bloomington, and also in the town of Normal, at which propositions were voted upon to issue by the properly constituted authorities of each of said localities, One Hundred Thousand Dollars of 10 per cent Bonds, redeemable in twenty years. "Though the notice on which said elections were held was necessarily brief, we are happy to state that the unanimity of our people in responding to the appeals which have been made to them in behalf of the proposed measure, is perhaps without parallel in popular elections. In the city of Bloomington where at the ordinary annual elections about a thousand votes only, are polled, 1492 votes were cast, of which one only was in opposition to the proposed donation. In the township of Normal—including a territory of six miles square—a majority of all the votes hitherto registered were polled, with but one dissenting vote to the measure. This unanimous and hearty appreciation of the benefits likely to result from such an institution if planted in our midst, is not only in the highest degree complimentary to the character of our people, but affords, we respectfully submit, an unmistakable guarantee that the University if here located, will receive at the hands of our people that fostering care and attention necessary to its proper development.