. In this courageous action he performed one
of the greatest of his many services to the University.

But the Legislature had a different idea as to the sacredness of the
trust. Various measures were passed, lengthening the time of deferred
payment, successively lowering the minimum price at which the lands were
to be sold and eventually in 1841 making the minimum price of $12
retroactive. Under this measure, $35,651 were actually returned or
credited to purchasers. When the lands were all sold the average price
realized was not quite $12 an acre, resulting in a fund of some $547,000
from which the University now derives an annual income of $38,433.44.
While this amount is by no means as large as was hoped for in those
early days, this income, if it had been available in the first years,
would have helped the struggling institution materially.

To most of us this dissipation of what might have been, with more
careful and conservative management, a magnificent endowment seems
almost a tragedy. But there is another side. Michigan was far more
fortunate in her disposal of these public lands than any of her
contemporaries and obtained more than twice the amount realized from any
other state lands in the Northwest. For example, Wisconsin only realized
$150,000 from her 72 sections, while others fared worse instead of
better. Michigan is regarded in this respect as a model, instead of a
horrible example. Then, too, the early sale of the land was imperative
if the University was to live. The income from this source was almost
its sole support except the exceedingly slender student fees. We must
conclude, therefore, that the Government grants performed their
function; thanks to them we still have a University and still receive a
respectable income from the fund which represents their sale.

The Constitution prepared for the prospective State by the Convention of
1835 provided for a University and authorized its immediate
establishment upon the adoption of the Constitution. This provision was
the result of the joint labors of two men whose memory will always be
held in honor by the University;--John D. Pierce, a graduate of Brown
University and a missionary in the service of the Presbyterian Church,
who was then about forty years old, and General Isaac Edwin Crary, a
graduate of Trinity College, Connecticut (1827), who, with his bride,
made his home with Pierce in the tiny backwoods settlement of Marshall.
They were both men o