To the above is to be added $500, the sum guaranteed by J. L. Stephens, Esq., of Columbia, to found the Stephens prize.

Now, sir, let us see what the State has done, what amount has been appropriated from the treasury at different times for other State institutions. since their establishment, and for their support. I hold in my hand a statement from the Auditor's office, giving the facts upon this subject as nearly as they can be ascertained.

Statement showing approximate estimate of Aggregate Appropriations made from the State Treasury, for the various institutions of the State from their first organization to Jan. 1, 1872:

MOST OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS WELL CARED FOR.

It will be observed, Mr. President, that in the above tables I have referred only to those public institutions that are recognized by the Constitution and the laws-institutions part of whose support the State has taken upon tself, which constitute a part of its public polity, and are an imperative demand of our present civilization. These and similar institutions are found in every free State; and a State that was without them would hardly be recognized. I do not complain of these appropriations. They were found to be necessary and proper, and therefore the legislatures that made them were compelled by the obligations resting upon them to do as they did. It will be remarked, however, that while Missouri has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars from her treasury to erect buildings for the detention of criminals; whilst the insane, the deaf and dumb, the blind, the orphans have been cared for by large appropriations from the treasury (all of which is right, and meets my cordial approbation); whilst various literary institutions have met with favor at the hands of the Legislature, and appropriations have been made from the treasury to sustain them,

LITTLE HAS BEEN DONE BY THE STATE FOR THE UNIVERSITY.

The University, next to the oldest institution in the State, and the only institution recognized and expressly named in the Constitution of the State, placed there in the Constitution of 1820 adopted when Missouri was admitted into the Union, retained there in every succeeding Constitution, and the subject of a clause (article 9, section 3) of our present Constitution, which expressly provides, "The General Assembly shall establish and maintain a State University, in which there shall be departments in teaching agricultural and natural science, as soon as the public school fund will permit"- this institution, the oldest of the kind in the State, the only one named or recognized in the Constitution, standing at the head of our educational system, has received only the sum of $10,000 from the State treasury, to be expended in the rebuilding of the president's house, which had been destroyed by fire. In a period of thirty-four years since the founding of the institution, this is the only sum that it has received from the treasury for purposes of permanent improvements. All the rest of its lands, deeded to the State; its fine buildings, the property of the State; its Normal department; its boarding facilities for the accommodation of students, worth more than a quarter of a million of dollars - all these have been the generous gifts of the people of Boone County to the State! I speak, sir, of appropriations for permanent improvements upon the University grounds. It is true that by an act of the General Assembly, approved March 11, 1867, in addition to the $10,000 mentioned, the sum of 134 per cent. of the State revenue was set apart, according to the express authority of article 9, section 4 of the Constitution, for the maintenance of the institution, and the whole amount derived from that source, up to this date, is betwixt $40,000 and $50,000; and, sir, this is all (except debts paid and due the institution) that the great State of Missouri in more than a quarter of a century has appropriated from her treasury for the support and maintenance of the State University. All the rest has come from private and county beneficence. am particular in the accurate statement of these facts in order to correct a wrong impression existing in the public mind upon this subject. Many people, and even legislators, believe that the University has been during its existence the constant recipient of large pecuniary appropriations from the State treasury; but this is not the case. I have stated the facts correctly, and they will not be disputed by candid men.

RAPID INCREASE OF WEALTH AND POPULATION.

But, sir, I wish to put the proposed measure of aid and relief to the State University, and its agricultural and mechanical departments, upon higher

and more liberal grounds than those of mere contract, if, indeed, there can be any higher. I have endeavored to do so. I would make my appeal to a great and magnanimous State, increasing with unexampled rapidity in every element of power and wealth. Our population now is more than 1,800,000 inhabitants. It will, during the present decade, reach at least 2,500,000. But wealth increases in yet a higher ratio. I have not the census tables of 1870-they are not yet published—but in every prosperous country wealth increases in a greater ratio than population. The actual increase of wealth in the United States from 1850 to 1860 was, according to the census of 1860, no less than 130 per cent., while the increase of population was a fraction under 36 per cent. The increase of wealth in Missouri from 1870 to 1880 will be in yet a higher ratio. It cannot be less than 200 per cent. The small amount asked in this Bill, and for other State institutions, is not even worthy of thought or consideration, in view of such facts and figures.

SENATOR MORRILL'S NEW BILL.

It is a matter of pride that, while Congress has done so much, the different State Legislatures have, without exception thus far, done a noble part towards building up the industrial colleges. This has encouraged Senator Morrill, who introduced the original Bill donating land to the States for the benefit of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, to introduce a new one, making still further donations for the same object.

SHALL MISSOURI FAIL?

And shall Missouri alone, of all the American States, fail in the grand work of supporting her Agricultural College and School of Mines ? It must not and cannot be. We cannot maintain our rank as a State, and do so.

EXAMPLE OF OTHER STATES.

Mr. President, we are to a great extent influenced by the actions of others; we are so as individuals, and no less as States. Could any State, for example, maintain its rank at this day as a Christian and civilized community, that should fail in the establishment and support of what are called the State benevolent institutions, such as lunatic asylums, deaf and dumb, and blind asylums? Surely not. And have not the State Universities become part and parcel of State civilization, and under our Constitution, quoted above, a part of the State system; and can a State at this day refuse support to her institutions of this character? No State can do it. Missouri

shall not. She must come up to the standard of the times, or fall back in public consideration; she must stand abreast with her sister States in the great work of educational advancement. I beg leave to read here again from the report to which I have referred, to show what other States have done for their institutions of education.

"The present General Assembly of Illinois, as the Secretary of State writes to Dr. Read, appropriated to the Illinois Industrial University a sum total of no less than $265,200; and this over and above all former appropriations and its large income from endowments. To that sum, $75,000 has just been added.

"The State of California gave her university at Oakland $245,000 in coin, in order to start it in a manner becoming its high destiny, and worthy of the State.

"Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and even Nebraska have made provisions for their universities and industrial institutions by the appropriation of thousands of dollars, and of even hundreds of thousands. Nebraska gave $150,000 for the erection of her university buildings.

"No State has better understood how to raise up great men among her sons than Virginia. According to a recent statement of the chairman of the faculty, that State has given to her university a grand total of $1,044,304. She has given tuition fees to 1,081 students, known as State students, and has boarded a large number free of charge. It is estimated by the same authority that the amount brought into and retained in the State by the university is no less than $4,476,800. Even in the days of her poverty she forgets not her university. The recent appropriations amount to $82,545. "Shall our great central State of Missouri, so rich in all the elements of wealth and civilization, fall far below her sister States around her; or rather shall she not be pointed to as a model and example for her spirit and liberality in sustaining her university upon the broad basis on which by her Constitution and laws she has established it?"

To this statement much more might be added, showing such munificence in behalf of institutions of learning as the world has never before witnessed. I know, Mr. President, there has been a prejudice against what we call colleges or universities. But we must remember that these institutions for which this appropriation is asked are intended especially for the working. classes. They are not merely literary institutions for the advantage of those who are preparing themselves for the learned professions. We should follow the advice and example of the great men of the republic. Thomas Jefferson, the apostle of American liberty and of true democracy, appreciated the importance of such institutions of learning for the American people. He had represented our Government at the most brilliant courts of Europe; he was the third President of the United States, and he had held

other important positions, yet when he came to die he did not choose to rest his fame upon the flimsy idea that he had been promoted to high offices, but upon the more enduring basis, that he had aided in planting the principles of political liberty and religious freedom in our soil, and in founding a great institution of learning where the people might be taught to understand, to maintain, and to defend their rights. The epitaph written by his own hand, and inscribed upon the marble that marks his last resting-place, reads thus:

HERE LIES BURIED

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

AUTHOR OF THE

DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

OF THE

STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM,

AND

FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

Sir, we have seen enough of poor, starveling institutions, that have highsounding names and lofty pretensions, but no means whatever for the scientific instruction that the present status of education requires, and which therefore have no credit at home and abroad. The country is sick of them. We surely do not wish the first educational institution under the patronage of the State to be of this class. As citizens of Missouri we wish it to be of the very highest type, so that we shall have a just State pride in it; so that the stranger or foreigner when he thinks of Missouri will think of her great industrial institutions as part and parcel of the State, just as when he thinks of Michigan her university is first in his thoughts, or when of Connecticut it is Yale College, or of Virginia it is her university that rises spontaneously to his mind. As Missourians we cannot have our university any less. We have already excellent foundations; we can soon realize our best and highest wishes. Already our institution is beginning to command the attention of the most distinguished educators; its plans and method are beginning to attract attention. Will you see it starve for the want of nutriment? Will you ignore it just as it is beginning to assume a position amongst the great institutions of the nation?

IDEAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE.

I would, Mr. President, by every proper inducement, by affording every encouragement, by furnishing the highest advantages, gather the youth of the