Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 285]

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The University Located

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it be objected to, other sites will be offered. The benefits however of close proximity to the Normal, where there is an extensive museum of Natural History, and other kindred advantages, are such as we trust will secure the location on this ground. "Our citizens further propose that should the location be made in this vicinity, adequate accommodations in the way of buildings, free of rent, at either Bloomington or Normal, will be furnished till the necessary buildings are erected by the State. "As one of the considerations moving us to present to you a proposition four-fifths of which will be cash, allow us to call your attention to the fact, that to meet the current expenditures of the institution in supporting a faculty and defraying other incidental expenditures, large sums of money will be needed before they can be realized by the proceeds of the land scrip held by the State. I t will also be borne in mind in this connection, that no part of the principal fund arising from the sale of said scrip is applicable to this or any other object, and that in the absence of a cash donation on which to draw, the institution becomes at once a charge upon the State, not only for these current expenses but what is more, for the erection of the necessary buildings. To raise the endowment fund by thrusting into the market the 480,000 acres of scrip at the present depressed prices, and with the disability which it now temporarily, as we hope, labors under, would not only involve a ruinous sacj rifice, but largely defeat the beneficent purposes of the grant. y "A word on a point that may seem foreign to the subject in hand, but which by outside appliances, is sought to be made at element of weakness to the locality we represent. It has been industriously charged that our county and local subscriptions made in 1857, of $141,000, to secure the location of the State Normal University, was not paid as agreed, and hence our subsequent applications to the Legislature for appropriations. In answer to this we beg leave to refer to a report made by a select Committee of the House at its last session, charged with the investigation of this subject, by which it will be seen that our people were not only acquitted of these charges, but the strongest testimony borne of the fidelity and good faith with which said subscriptions were paid. If as we hope, it is your pleasure to