Although Andrew Dickson White introduced a bill into the New York State Senate in 1865 to establish Cornell University and its reception was positive, its passage was by no means a sure thing.

On March 29, 1865, Ezra Cornell wrote his son:

"[Lyman] Tremain addressed the committee two hours yesterday PM in favor of C. University -- made a splendid argument. Comt adjourned to 3 1/2 this PM to hear oposition [sic]. This delay of time is outrageous. It may defeat us."

April 1, 1865: F.M. Finch to Ezra Cornell:

"This week I received a telegram from Senator White threatening to drop the bill if a delegation did not appear. I think five or six will be there. I have spared Boardman with great difficulty: I must now do his work & mine too but I have told him to stay till the last minute you desire."

After much political maneuvering, however, on April 27, Gov. Reuben E. Fenton signed the bill that constitutes the charter of Cornell University. The first meeting of the board of trustees was held the very next day. Cornell endowed the university through an outright gift of $500,000, to which would be added the sum realized by Cornell's purchase of the Morrill land scrip from the state.

May 25, 1866. Draft of a letter by Ezra Cornell:

"I expect thus to appropriate the balance of my life, and the labors which I have selected, the building up of a first class University, will afford an abundant field. If, however the loyal men of the State should aquiesce in the partiality of my neighbors, and call upon me to discharge the delicate and responsible duties of Governor, I may feel bound to yield to their wishes, and should do my best to discharge the duties honestly and conscienciously [sic]."

On Aug. 4, 1866, Cornell wrote to his wife:

"The struggle is over at last. ... I now feel for the first time that the destiny of the Cornell University was fixed, and that its ultimate endowment would be ample for the vast field of labor it embraces, and if properly organised for the developement of truth, industry and frugality, it will become a power in the land which will controll and mold the future of this great state, and carry it onward and upward in its industrial developement, and support of civil and religious liberty, and its guarenty of equal rights and equal laws to all men [sic]."

White was named a member of the board of trustees and appointed to draft bylaws. His report, which included a detailed description of White's conceptions of the new university, was presented to the board on Oct. 21, 1866. The trustees applauded the plan and unanimously elected Andrew D. White as the first president of the university.

White's fundamental themes included: the union of liberal and practical education; equality in prestige between the courses of study; variety of courses and freedom of choice among them; the magnification of scientific study; the need for full cultural development of the individual; student self-government; continued renewal of the board of trustees and election of alumni trustees; a close relationship between the university and the state school system, with state revenues provided for higher education; nonsectarianism; and the refusal to make any distinctions by race or sex.

All of Cornell's presidents have developed and expanded White's basic themes.

-- Adapted by Susan S. Lang from the Web site "Invention and Enterprise: Ezra Cornell, a Nineteenth-Century Life."