Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 50]

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History University of Illinois

It was given to the people, the whole people of this state—not for a class, a party, or sect, or conglomeration of sects; not for common schools, or family schools, or classical schools; but for 'An University,' or seminary of a high order, in which should of course be taught all those things which every class of citizens most desire to learn—their own duty and business for life. This, and this alone, is an University in the true original sense of the term. And if an Institution which teaches all that is needful only for the three professions of law, divinity, and medicine, is therefore, an University, surely one which teaches all that is needful for all the varied professions of human life, is far more deserving of the name and the endowment of an University. " B u t in whose hands shall the guardianship and oversight of this fund be placed, in order to make it of any real use for such a purpose ? I answer, without hesitation and without fear, that this whole interest should, from the first, be placed directly in the hands of the people, and the whole people, without any mediators or advisors, legislative or ecclesiastical, save only their own appointed agents, and their own jurors and courts of justice, to which, of course, all alike must submit." 8 If one compares Turner's plan, given to the public in 1851, with the agricultural colleges of the various states today, it seems almost like a prophecy. I t might have served as a basis of organization for many of the colleges, so like is it to them in essential parts. In fact evidence is at hand to show that this plan of Turner's did directly influence the organization of agricultural colleges in Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, and New York and because it was widely published it is very possible that it exerted a powerful influence upon individuals and institutions in other states in a way that may not now definitely be traced.9 The convention at Granville, therefore, was highly significant in the history of industrial education. The resolutions

Tumer, University for the People, Appendix, p. 366. •The Ottawa Free Trader, Illinois Journal, and several individuals, notably Turner himself, called attention to the fact that a New York paper, the Buffalo Patriot, printed the ( plan word for word without giving credit; shortly afterward New York state "founded an agricultural college baaed directly upon these propositions of Turner. For the influence exerted upon institutions in other states see below p . 77.

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