reported that $15 per acre was the lowest price for which the lands would be sold, and the price established by the legislature was $20 per acre. But by this sale the fund expected was considerably diminished. Had this land been sold for $15 per acre the university would have received some $40,000 more than it thus received, and a sale at the price first established by the legislature would have yielded nearly $65,000 more than the sale thus ordered. Again and again from this time on sales were made at less than $20, and finally, in 1842, the price was set at $12 per acre, and by a species of retroactive le gislation 1 lands here. tofore sold at $20 per acre or over might be reappraised, and if the board of appraisement decided that the lands were worth less than the price at which they were sold, the superintendent of public instruction was instructed to give credit for the balance.

Of course, the board of appraisement, which was composed of the county judges and the county surveyor, must have been influenced offen by personal and local considerations, and the result was very much the same as if all the lands had been sold at $13.42 per acre.2 The report of the superintendent for 1843 shows that $34,651 had thus been deducted from the funds of the university. Up to this time sales had been made to the amount of $220,000. But by such untoward legislation as this the sum was reduced to about $137,000—a loss of $83,000.

Although the legislature in 1837 had directed that the lands should be sold for not less than $20 per acre, there seems no just reason for considering this a contract, morally inviolable by that body. The board of regents were doubtless induced by this action of the legislature, as well as by the high price obtained for the first land placed on the market, to take steps at once for the broad and liberal establishment of the university. But the inevitable decline in values throughout the West was not due to legislative action, and to argue that a legislature by a mere act of a directive nature restricts its own action for the future under all circumstances, and in spite of all exigencies and popular needs, is to argue that a legislature is morally powerless to exercise its authority, and is bound perpetually by its every action. Much of this legislation was unfortunate, possibly some of it was due to unworthy motive. But the burden of the difficulty came not so much from the fact that the price was lowered, as that special legislative action continually interfered in an apparently thoughtless manner with the wise and conservative management of the superintendent.

The various acts of reappraisal gave opportunity for the reduction of the price because of the testimony of prejudiced witnesses and interested judges. One instance is given us of the sale of land at $2 an acre. The judgment of President Angell in this matter is entirely just :

We can see now that it would have been far better for the university and perfectly just to the purchasers to extend the time of payment, but not to reduce the price. The general result of the management of our lands has been that instead of obtaining for

Laws of 1842, p. 45.

2 See Report of Superintendent, 1843.

them $921,000, which at $20 an acre Mr. Pierce in his first report showed they would bring, they have yielded $547,87.51, and 125 acres remain unsold. It is not easy to guess how much more the Toledo lands would have added to our fund if they had been retained for some years, but certainly some hundreds of thousands of dollars. Still, we may at least temper our regret at the sacrifice which was made by remembering that no other one of the five States formed out of the Northwest Territory made the land grant of the United States yield so much to its university as Michigan did.

In 1838, the board of regents of the university, desiring to proceed 'rapidly with the buildings, and relying upon the large funds still confidently expected, obtained from the legislature a loan of $100,000. The history of the whole transaction is a curious one, and a rare example of the effects of disorganization. The loan was negotiated July 1, 1838. The legislature soon exhibited its interest in the university by relieving the board from the direct payment of the interest and in other ways assisting the institution. The message of Governor Felch, in 1846, shows the method of relief and how the principal of the loan was rapidly diminished.

The university fund, at an early day of its existence, became indebted to the State for a loan of $100,000, and the interest of this debt has been liquidated from the interest received annually on the fund. The acts of the legislature, approved February 28, 1844, and March 11, 1844, authorized the State treasurer to receive certain property and State warrants belonging to the university fund, and to credit the same on this loan, and also authorized the sale of university lands for internal improvement warrants, which were to be paid into the State treasury and credited in like manner. The effect of these provisions has been materially to aid in relieving the fund from its embarrassments. The amount received from the State under these provisions and credited to the university fund is $56,774.15, leaving due to the State from that fund for principal $43,222.60.2

Governor Ransome, in a message two years later, stated that the debt had been reduced to about $20,000. In 1850, the finance committee of the board announced that the debt had been practically liquidated in this manner. For some years following there was discussion about the matter, and it has resolved itself into a question of bookkeeping on which different experts have had differing opinions. Doubtless the system of rotation in office, put into full career by the constitution of 1851, had the effect of obscuring matters of detail in the financial status of the university. Information was not inheritable, and the anomalous government of the university before the adoption of the new constitution. left many matters in a somewhat unintelligible plight. There is no need

of discussing the arithmetical problem as to how much was gained or lost by the university in the transaction. That the debt was obliterated by the university seems tolerably clear. In 1855 President Tappan memorialized the legislature in his own vigorous fashion and pleaded a remission of the debt. Governor Bingham in his message, 1857, recom

1 University of Michigan, Semicentennial, p. 166.

* Joint documents, 1846, p. 15; see, also, Ten Brook, Am. State Uni., etc.; Knight, Land Grants, etc., p. 143. Ten Brook gives statement of the State officer.

mended that the principal then becoming due be paid by the State "so that the noble institution, in the prosperity of which every citizen of Michigan feels a deep interest and pride, shall be entirely relieved from embarrassment and debt." The course of legislation in regard to this somewhat obscure matter can be traced through the State laws. February 12, 1853, the auditor-general was required to credit the university fund with the entire interest upon the whole amount of university land sold the act to be limited in operation to two years. Like measures were passed in 1855 and 1857, and in 18592 the limitation of 2 years was' omitted from a similar act. The result is that at the present time the university receives interest from the State upon a fund equal to the whole amount received from the sale of the university land.

Michigan Laws, 1853, p. 85.

2 Ibid., 1855, p. 139; 1857, p. 154; 1859, p. 397.

CHAPTER III.

ORGANIZATION AND PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY IN TERRITORIAL PERIOD.

It was suggested in the first chapter that the people of Michigan seemed suddenly to awaken to their educational necessities about 1817. Various articles in the Gazette called the attention of American and Frenchmen to the subject of schools and colleges. The Territory then had within its limits some six or seven thousand people; but the imagination of Judge Woodward was at no time limited by present appearances or restrained by present necessities. It was he who devised the wondrous cobweb arrangement of the Detroit streets, a plan that is a weariness to the feet of the stranger and a perplexing problem to his mind; and of like wondrous formation was his plan for a university. His curious nature certainly caused him to give utterance to the vagaries of apparent aberration. But no one who looks into his career with care can see aught but a stubborn and arrogant disposition, lighted up with flashes of a too brilliant imagination. And yet, in spite of a facetiousness which was often untimely, he had, withal, a grasp of affairs and a dignity and pose in his position which made him at times invaluable in the history of the Territory. No one but sturdy, stubborn, fanciful and wise old Judge Woodward could have maintained with so much persistence the rights of the citizens during Proctor's command of Detroit in the dreary days of the War of 1812, and no one but he, on the other hand, could have continued the disgraceful bickerings of Governor Hull's administration. And so the man, with his curious combination of wisdom and folly, proposed the following astounding scheme for a university. One sometimes thinks that his love of drollery must have proved too much for his discretion. But undoubtedly he presented the plan in good faith, and on the 26th of August, 1817, the governor and judges, in the plenitude of their wisdom, arose to the following pitch of legislation.

AN ACT to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania.

Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan, That there shall be in the said Territory a catholepistemiad, or university, denominated the catholepistemiad, or university of Michigania. The catholepistemiad, or university of Michigania, shall be composed of thirteen didaxum or professorships: First, a di

daxia, or professorship, of catholepistemia, or universal science, the didactor, or professor, of which shall be president of the Institution; second, a didaxia, or profes sorship, of anthropoglossica, or literature, embracing all the epistemum, or sciences relative to language; third, a didaxia, or professorship, of mathematica, or mathematics; fourth, a didaxia, or professorship, of physiognostica, or natural history; fifth, a didaxia, or professorship, of physiosophica, or natural philosophy; sixth, a didaxia, or professorship, of astronomia, or astronomy; seventh, a didaxia, or professorship, of chymia, or chemistry; eighth, a didaxia, or professorship, of iatuca, or medical sciences; ninth, a didaxia, or professorship, of œconomica, or economical sciences; tenth, a didaxia, or professorship, of ethica, or ethical sciences; eleventh, a didaxia, or professorship, of polemitactica, or military sciences; twelfth, a didaxia, or professorship, of diegitica, or historical sciences; and thirteenth, a didaxia, or professorship, of ennocica, or intellectual sciences, embracing all the epistemum, or sciences, relative to the minds of animals, to the human mind, to spiritual existences, to the deity, and to religion, the didactor, or professor, of which shall be Vice-President of the Institution. The (didactors, or) professors, shall be appointed and commissioned by the Governor. There shall be paid from the treasury of Michigan, in quarterly payments, to the President of the Institution, and to the Vice-President, and to each didactor, or professor, an annual salary, to be fixed by law. More than one didaxia, or professorship, may be conferred upon the same person. The president and didactors, or professors, or a majority of them assembled, shall have power to regulate all the concerns of the institution, to enact laws for that purpose, to sue, to be sued, to acquire, to hold, and alien, property, real, mixed, and personal, to make, to use, and to alter a seal, to provide for and appoint all such officers and teachers under them as they may deem necessary and expedient; to establish colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athenæums, botanic gardens, laboratories, and other useful literary and scientific institutions consonant to the laws of the United States of America and of Michigan; and to provide for and appoint directors, visitors, curators, librarians, instructors, and instructrixes, in, among, and throughout the various counties, cities, towns, townships, and other geographical divisions of Michigan. Their name and style as a corporation shall be "The Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania." To every subordinate instructor and instructrix appointed by the catholepistemiad, or university, there shall be paid from the treasury of Michigan, in quarterly payments, an annual salary to be fixed by law. The present public taxes are hereby increased fifteen per cent., and from the proceeds of the present and all future public taxes fifteen per cent. is appropriated for the benefit of the catholepistemiad, or university. The Treasurer of Michigan shall keep a separate account of the university fund. The catholepistemiad, or university, may propose and draw four successive lotteries, deducting from the prizes in the same fifteen per centum, for the benefit of the institution. The proceeds of the preceding sources of revenue, and of all subsequent, shall be applied in the first instance, to the procurement of suitable lands and buildings, and to the establishment of a library, or libraries, and afterward to such purposes as shall be by law provided for and required. The honorarium for a course of lectures shall not exceed fifteen dollars, for classical instruction ten dollars a quarter, for ordinary instruction six dollars a quarter. If the judges of the court of any county, or a majority of them, shall certify that the parent, or guardian, of any person has not adequate means to defray the expense of suitable instruction, and that the same ought to be a public charge, the honorarium shall be paid from the treasury of Michigan. This law, or any part of it, may be repealed by the legislative power for the time being. An annual report of the state, concerns, and transactions of the institution shall be laid before the legislative power for the time being.

The same being adopted from the laws of seven of the original States, to wit, the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,