to Dr. Green. I think you will be pleased with what I said about you and your resignation in my introductory address. We were all sincerely sorry to part with you, but I think you have done right, and I shall be sure to follow your good example whenever I find myself, or am found by others, unable to attend the meeting of the trustees. We had an unexpectedly full attendance on the 3rd inst. Everyone was present at the morning meeting except you, Gen'l. Jackson and Mr. Evarts. Jackson has resigned, and we have chosen Judge Somerville, of Alabama, in his place. Your place was assigned, as I know you would be glad to have it, to Wm. Wirt Henry.

Poor Evarts went to Europe in August with a sad affliction of the eyes, almost depriving him of sight. He is to return next month, but I fear he will return without a radical cure. He is too young to be spared from professional and public service, and I am grieved at the thought of it.

Cleveland was with us for the first time and seemed greatly interested in our work. Good Hamilton Fish, too, was with us at the business meeting.

You have done excellent work on our Board, and I thank you for it. Let me hear from you occasionally still, and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.

Your affectionate old friend,

Robt. C. Winthrop.

CHAPTER XXXV

RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

IN 1876, Governor Kemper appointed Mr. Stuart a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia and he was chosen Rector. Governor Holliday reappointed him in 1880, but in the midst of his second term of service he was removed

by W. E. Cameron, the readjuster Governor, who removed the members of all the boards of the State institutions and filled their places with men of his own party. General Fitzhugh Lee succeeded Cameron as Governor, defeating John S. Wise, the readjuster candidate. Soon after General Lee entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office, Mr. Stuart received a telegram from the Governor in which he stated that he desired to appoint him a member of the Board of Visitors and asked if he would accept the appointment. Mr. Stuart at once replied declining the appointment. He promptly received a second telegram from the Governor requesting him to accept the appointment, at least temporarily, as the Governor was not prepared to name anyone else in his place and was anxious to send the names to the Senate for confirmation. Under these circumstances, Mr. Stuart yielded to the wishes of the Governor, and accepted the appointment.

Mr. Stuart entered upon his duties as Rector of the Board of Visitors in 1876. In 1875, Lewis Brooks, of Rochester, New York, gave the University $68,000 with which to build and equip a museum of natural history and geology. In addition the Board of Trustees of the Miller Agricultural School loaned $10,000 to purchase cases and to cover the cost of mounting the specimens designed for the museum. William B. Rogers, of Boston, formerly a

Professor in the University, and also State Geologist, gave $1,000 for the same purpose, and the alumni of the University subscribed a similar amount. Mr. Brooks died before the building was completed, but his brothers, the Rev. Samuel Brooks and Garcy Brooks, of New York, completed his work by the gift of $4,000.00 to provide a botanical collection. The aggregate cost of the building and its contents was $85,000. There has been much just criticism of the style of architecture and of the location of the building, but all these matters had been settled and the work begun before Mr. Stuart became a member of the Board. He was always an ardent admirer of the classic style of architecture adopted by Jefferson for the University.

When Mr. Stuart was a member of President Fillmore's Cabinet in 1851 he became acquainted with W. W. Corcoran of Washington, who afterward acquired great wealth and was one of the noblest philanthropists of his day. This acquaintance ripened into a close personal friendship which was only terminated by the death of Mr. Corcoran.

For several generations the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs was the mecca of the South and one of the most unique and charming places in the country. Mr. Corcoran and Mr. Stuart were regular visitors there prior to the War between the States. In the summer of 1876, they met there again, and the University was the topic of frequent conversations between them. During one of these discussions Mr. Corcoran inquired of Mr. Stuart what the University most needed at that time. He replied that his connection with the University, as a member of the Board of Visitors, was of such recent date that he could not then answer his question, but he added that he would confer with some of the professors and let him know the result of his investigation. Shortly after returning home, Mr. Stuart wrote Mr. Corcoran and suggested that an addition to the library, especially of books published since 1860, as the war had interfered with all additions of books covering that period, would be most acceptable. Mr. Corcoran replied, in a confidential letter, saving he intended to give the

University $5,000.00 in five annual payments beginning January 1st, 1877, for the enlargement of the library.

Mr. Corcoran became more and more interested in the University, and on November 8th, 1876, wrote the following letter to Mr. Stuart:

My dear Sir:

Washington, Nov. 8, 1876.

It is my intention to do something more for the University of Virginia, and if you can make it convenient to make me a visit of a day or two any time during this month, I will be glad to confer with you on the subject.

I congratulate you on the glorious result of yesterday's election. It ought to be called "Emancipation Day," as it virtually emancipates the South from the tyranny and oppression under which it has groaned for so many yearsand emancipates also the poor deluded negro from the ignorance as to his best friends, in which he has long been kept by designing demagogues.

With kind regards to your family,

I remain Very Truly Yrs.

W. W. CORCORAN.

The Hon.

A. H. H. Stuart,

Rector &c, &c.

University of Virginia.

I will be obliged if you will say nothing in regard to my intended donation.

W. W. C.

In accordance with this request, Mr. Stuart visited Mr. Corcoran at his home in Washington, and they discussed fully the affairs of the University. Finally, Mr. Corcoran informed Mr. Stuart that he intended to make the University a gift of $50,000.

After consultation with the Board of Visitors and the professors, it was decided that the gift should be dedicated

to the schools of Moral Philosophy, and History and Literature, afterward named in honor of Mr. Corcoran.

On August 13th, 1878, Mr. Corcoran was again at the White Sulphur Springs, and wrote Mr. Stuart that he proposed to give the University an additional donation of $50,000 with which to endow a chair of Natural History. In writing of the University he expressed his "gratitude for the profound scholarship it had given the country."

Each recurring summer, as these friends met at "The White," they discussed the affairs of the University, of which Mr. Corcoran had become a warm friend and patron. He told Mr. Stuart that he intended to make further provision for the University in his will, and that he was the only person to whom he had spoken on the subject, except Miss Sarah Randolph of Albemarle, a devoted friend of Mr. Corcoran and a great-granddaughter of the founder of the University.

The members of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia are appointed by the Governor of the State for a term of four years, one-half of the membership expiring every two years. When the Board met on July 3rd, 1879, Mr. Stuart was unable to attend on account of sickness, and the following resolution was unanimously adopted and sent to him:

"Resolved, That the members of the Board of Visitors, now in attendance, have felt with deep regret the absence of their Rector, the Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, and they beg leave to tender to him their profound sympathy in his protracted ill-health, and their sincere desire for his speedy recovery.

"And this being the last regular meeting which will occur during the term of service of the present Board, they deem it proper to record their sense of the ability and fidelity which have characterized all his official actions, and the distinguished courtesy he has displayed in his intercourse with his fellow-members."

While Mr. Stuart was Rector, Leander J. McCormick,