the momentous event." At the board
meeting in June, the young ladies presented their promised letter
of application, and received as reply, that the board should have
_more time to consider_. In September their reply was, that it
seemed inexpedient for the University to admit ladies at present.
In the meantime, a great deal had been said and done on the
subject; some members of the faculty had spoken in favor, some
against. University students, and citizens of Ann Arbor also
joined in the general discussion. The subject was widely
discussed in the press and on the platform; members of the
faculty and board of regents applied to the presidents of
universities east and west, for their opinions. The people of
Michigan, thus brought to consider the injustice of the exclusion
of their daughters from this State institution, there was offered
for signature during the winter of 1859, the following petition:

_To the Regents of the University of Michigan:_

The undersigned, inhabitants of ----, in the county of ----,
and State of Michigan, respectfully request that young women
may be admitted as students in the University, for the
following among other reasons: _First_--It is incumbent on
the State to give equal educational advantages to both
sexes. _Second_--All can be educated in the State University
with but little more expense than is necessary to educate
young men alone. _Third_--It will save the State from the
expenditure of half a million of dollars, necessary to
furnish young ladies in a separate institution with the
advantages now enjoyed by young men. _Fourth_--It will admit
young ladies at once to the benefits of the highest
educational privileges of the State.

Among the most active in lectures, debates, circulation of
petitions and general advocacy were James B. Gott, Judge Edwin
Lawrence, Giles B. Stebbins and O. P. Stearns, the last at that
time a student, since a lawyer, and the husband of Mrs. Sarah
Burger Stearns of Minnesota.

In the spring of 1859 formal application was again made to the
regents by a class of young ladies, only to receive the same
answer. But the discussion was not dropped; indeed, that was
impossible. Some of the most intelligent on thi