te and nation was about $232,050, and from tuition fees about
$336,100; the campus and buildings were valued at about $4,263,400, and
the Library, collections, apparatus, &c. at about $1,826,100.

The university was incorporated by the legislature of New York state on
the 27th of April 1865, and was named in honour of Ezra Cornell,[1] its
principal benefactor. In 1864 Cornell, at the suggestion of Andrew D.
White, his fellow member of the state senate, decided to found a
university of a new type--which should be broad and liberal in its
scope, should be absolutely non-sectarian, and which should recognize
and meet the growing need for practical training and adequate
instruction in the sciences as well as in the humanities. He offered to
the state as an endowment $500,000 (with 200 acres of land) on condition
that the state add to this fund the proceeds of the sales of public
lands granted to it by the Morrill Act of 1862 for "the endowment,
support and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading
object shall be ... to teach such branches of learning as are related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts.... "[2] The charter provided that
"such other branches of science and knowledge may be embraced in the
plan of instruction and investigation pertaining to the university as
the trustees may deem useful and proper," and Ezra Cornell expressed his
own ideal in the oft-quoted words: "I would found an institution where
any person can find instruction in any study." The opposition to
Cornell's plan was bitter, especially on the part of denominational
schools and press, but incorporation was secured, and the trustees first
met on the 5th of September 1865. Andrew D. White was elected president
and the entire educational scheme was left to him. Dr White's ideals in
part were: a closer union between the advanced and the general
educational system of the state; liberal instruction of the industrial
classes; increased stress on technical instruction; unsectarian control;
"a course in history and political and social science adapted to the
practical needs of men worthily ambitious in public affairs"; a more
thorough study of modern languages and literatures, especially English;
the "steady effort to abolish monastic government and pedantic
instruction"; the elective system of studies; and the stimulus of
non-resident lecturers. On the 7th of October 1868 the Cornell
University opened with some confusion due to the condition