the establishment of the University as a State institution and consequent part of a general system of education, it was provided as far back as March, 1827, in the "Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas," that " In all the towns of the State a suitable number of primary schools shall be established, wherein shall be taught reading, writing and arithmetic, the catechism of the Christian religion, a brief and simple explanation of the constitution of the State, and that of the Republic (of Mexico), the rights and duties of man in society, and whatever else may conduce to the better education of youth;" that "The seminaries most required for affording the public the means of instruction in the sciences and arts useful to the State, and wherein the constitution shall be fully explained, shall be established in suitable places, and in proportion as circumstances go on permitting;" and that "The method of teaching shall be uniform throughout the State, and with this view also, to facilitate the same, congress shall form a general plan of education and regulate, by means of statutes and laws, all that pertains to this most important subject." (Arts. 215, 216 and 217, Title VI of the Constitution.) The constitution of the republic, adopted March 16, 1836, at Washington, Texas, made it the "duty of the congress of Texas to provide by law a general system of education as soon as circumstances permitted." Then came the act of the congress of Texas of January 14, 1839, providing for the selection of a site for a University, and an act of January 26, at the same session, requiring the president of the republic to have surveyed from the vacant domain of the republic, fifty leagues of land as an appropriation for the purpose of university education. Then followed provisions by the State of Texas itself for establishing "The University of Texas." And thus in the language of the University Regents: "The idea of a university for the promotion of the arts and sciences was no afterthought to those who founded the State of Texas. The idea of a university was part of the very organized foundation of the State itself, incorporated from the first into its very life, and vitalizing its best hopes for the future;. so that holding fast to the University, with the same tenacity as to the common schools, is but carrying out the policy conceived with the very birth of the State." SELECTION OF 'COLLEGE HILL." The congress of Texas passed an act, which was approved January 14, 1839, providing for the election of five commissioners to select a site for the location of the seat of government to be named the city of Austin, and for an agent to have said site purchased or condemned for the use of the State, and to have it laid off into lots and sold; and further, before the sale, " to set apart a sufficient number of the most eligible for a capitol, arsenal, magazine, university, academy, churches, common schools, hospital, penitentiary, and for all other necessary public buildings and purposes." (Acts first session, Third congress.) The beautiful eminence which was selected for the University was at the time covered with a grove of magnificent live oaks and remained unoccupied for forty years, all of which time it was known as "College Hill." It was not till the last war that it was despoiled of most of its grand forest growth by an army engineer who had several hundred of the trees cut away as obstructions in his plan of defense of the city. PRESIDENT LAMAR'S FORESIGHT. As early as 1836 it was provided in the constitution that "It shall be the duty of congress, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by law a general system of public education;" and in 1839 President Lamar, in his address to the congress of Texas, speaking of education, said: "It is a subject in which every citizen, and especially every parent, feels a deep and lively concern. It is one in which no jarring interest is involved, and no acrimonious feelings are excited, for its benefits are so universal that all parties can cordially unite in advancing it." He advocated and urged that congress provide by appropriation from the immense public domain for both elementary and higher education. His views met with a ready response in congress, and early in 1839 the act was passed making an agrarian endowment for public education on which is based the State's provision for elementary and university or higher education. (Act of Texas congress, January 26, 1839.) The prescience of Lamar's conviction was expressed in his argument that landed provision for so important a matter as public education should be made while the domain was ample for such purpose before the settlement of the country rendered it impracticable; and it was to the wise and patriotic foresight of the "Fathers of the Republic" that the people of Texas are now indebted for the grandest school patrimony perhaps in the world, say thirty million acres of free school domain, worth at least sixty million dollars, besides over two million acres of University lands. Somewhat similar to Lamar's plea was that of President Gambetta, when, many years after in the French chambers, in arguing in favor of public education-and a fortiori, it would seem the higher such education the better, he said: "We place the interest of public instruction above all personal quarrels, and it pleases me to see that in the midst of the inevitable antagonisms of public life all good citizens are united on this point. Of all the efforts of thinkers, writers and statesmen, there is only one which is really efficacious, profound and productive, viz., the diffusion of education-that social capital, the best of all capitals, which gives every man who comes into the world the means of gaining all other capitals, and thus of securing a position without force, without violence, without civil war. Conclusive as such arguments appear it is nevertheless strange that strong opposition to higher education, and especially "the university idea" for its promotion, seems to have been encountered in Texas as far back as in 1839, and from no less distinguished an opponent than President Houston, one of the greatest minds and foremost thinkers of the whole country, who is said to have combatted the proposition to establish a University as "a project for favoring the rich at the expense of the poor;"* and that all along the line since for half a century, such opposition has been indirectly voiced against the University, not on account of a laudable enough and natural preference of the masses for the common schools as being nearest home to their necessities, but on account of a blind prejudice in their favor as against a University, as something hostile, instead of being adjunct to a perfect system of public education, or beautiful capstone to the political structure or a well-rounded system of public instruction from the broad base of the common schools to the apex of university finish. The dominance of such sentiments in public affairs as are credited to Houston and his masterly influence doubtless retarded the organization of the University for a long period. Even great men little imagine sometimes the effect of their examples, and how far their utterances may "go sounding down the corridors of time." Not only has the University of Texas had to contend all along with popular prejudice against the "university idea" of higher education, but it had to contest such recurring influences in legislation and the State departments. Like such institutions in other States it has been the victim of capricious enactments, its necessities being too often disregarded, and in some instances its funds being imperiously diverted by the legislature and not always restored. While at times it has been munificently treated by the State, at others *The writer can find no published declaration of Gen. Houston to this effect, but has authority for it coming down from those who profess to have been familiar with his views on the subject. Still, it is not given as absolutely historical. If Gen. Houston was really opposed to the establishment of a State University, it was possibly not so much on account of objection to university education per se,as a system for State adoption, as an idea that Texas was not then prepared for such an advance in educational methods. Or it may be he was opposed to establishing a University on the same ground, advanced in the time of Jefferson to Governor Nicholas of Virginia by the president of William and Mary College, who declared that he presumed the object of aid from Virginia, that is from the "literary fund," was to "inform those who must otherwise remain ignorant in the humbler but more important pa ts of knowledge than to make a comparatively few proficient in the sublimer parts of knowledge. Gen. Houston's views as to a University, so far as published and given in his message while subsequently governor of the State, are cited in another part of this volume under the caption of "The University in Politics." the State through its legislature has even denied any indebtedness to it for moneys absolutely taken for public exigencies from the University fund. Such, with other reasons, which will be referred to further along as they present themselves in the history of the institution, were great difficulties with which the University has had to contend. AN ABNORMAL BRANCH. The organization, years before the University got into operation, of the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan, a rather abnormal because antagonistic branch of the University, on account of its being under a separate board of management, and its heavy drafts upon the University's fund, in face of the University's needs for the main establishment at Austin, made the distribution of the fund by the legislature a source of contention between the University and the College, the latter generally winning as the favorite of the farmers on account of that element's preponderating influence in legislation. The College was provided for under the benefits of the act of congress of July 2, 1862, to which, under the State's acceptance of the provisions of the act, it owes its origin. Under this act the State received for the College one hundred and eighty thousand acres of land scrip which was sold under authority from Governor Davis by J. P. Newcomb, secretary of state, in 1871 at 87 cents an acre. The amount realized from the scrip was $156,600, with which bonds were purchased to the amount of $174,000. There was due in the way of accumulated and unpaid interest on these bonds February 1, 1876, $45,280, for which payment was provided by State bonds at 6 per cent. An investment was made of $35,000, of these bonds, so that, according to report of Col. A. J. Peeler of the board of directors, the endowment of the College then stood, January 20, 1881, as follows: Seven per cent gold bonds, interest payable semi-annually, Six per cent gold bonds, interest payable semi-annually, $174,000 35,000 $209,000 14,280 |