Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 558]

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Griggs and the Location of the University

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The supervisors of Urbana and Champaign townships appropriated $40,000 for the expenses of this campaign; what proportion came from each township Mr. Griggs does not remember. He shortly set out on a quiet tour of the State in an effort to pledge votes to Champaign County, interviewing only members of the lower House. He avoided Jacksonville, Lincoln, and Bloomington, not wishing to put these cities on their guard. Elsewhere he made a very thorough canvass, presenting his arguments and wherever possible finding some way to commend himself to each legislator he met. In the space of five weeks he thus interviewed nearly forty members out of the total of eighty-five, and secured pledges, slightly if at all qualified, from perhaps fifteen. At the capital he made himself acquainted with Governor Oglesby and Lieutenant-Governor Bross, both of whom listened to him with interest. He also saw the Eepublican State Chairman, Mr. Babcock, and the Democratic State Chairman, whose name Mr. Griggs has forgotten, and induced them to become paid servants of the Champaign County Committee. In his tour he learned that a greater number of special interests would be before the legislature than ever before in Illinois history. Chicago was anxious to secure legislation in connection with Jackson and other parks and the boulevard system, and for the deepening of the Chicago River. Southern Illinois wanted a projected new penitentiary. Peoria and Springfield were rivals for the new State House, though it was commonly felt that Peoria had little chance. He noted these ambitions as useful in future bargaining. At Pekin and Danville he urged that the location of the college at Urbana would assist the prosperity of the railway then planned. Elsewhere lie pointed out that Jacksonville already had a number of institutions of a charitable sort, that Bloomington had the normal college, and that Chicago would grow fast enough without such a gift, while none of the three cities could offer such agricultural advantages as Urbana-Champaign. None of the other cities undertook such a preliminary canvass. The legislature opened the first Monday in January, 1867. The Champaign County Committee, at Mr, Griggs'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