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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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Illinois Plan for Land Orant Colleges 45 mind, and rather visionary genius,—now most bitterly sarcastic—and anon most truly eloquent—denounced the debasing rottenness of old customs and usages, and the incubus of the languages of Greece and Rome, sitting like an evil bird on the car of progress, and blighting the young intellect of the age—carrying it to the corruption of centuries, long since entombed, but constantly dragged from the sepulchre of the past, to blast the buds of promise in the present, " In spite of so much eloquence the convention, however, did not cut out of the Granville plan the clause relating to a classical department. They approved it, but appended the following expression: "That it is the opinion of this Convention, that it will never become necessary or expedient to teach the dead languages in the Institution. ?\ One other exception was taken by the convention to the plan; it disapproved of the section suggesting that instruction by lectures or otherwise should be given mostly in the colder months of the year and expressed the opinion that for many reasons the warmer months were preferable. In the very significant concluding paragraph of his report Kennicott says: "And now shall we succeed in our undertaking? We answer, Yes. Most likely not this year, nor next, perhaps not the year after; but ultimate success is certain, because it is indispensible to the destiny of the Anglo-American race, and the true position of labor. We put our prediction on record, and will stand or fall by it. We know that we shall succeed, as certainly as we know there is a God, and as surely as we believe there is a hereafter."85 Kennicott's faith was not the blind sort. The opposition that had already developed made him aware that only by hard work, much sacrifice, and long persistent effort could they hope for ultimate success. He and his co-workers had just organized for these very things, and their later actions and the results obtained were to be the acid test that would determine whether his words were real prophecy or merely idle prediction. It is interesting at this time, a little more than a year after the launching of the Granville plan, to note the attitude of Turner to the whole movement. The plan had been subject to search"Prafoie Farmer, February, 1853.
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