Circular Appealing to the Citizens of North Carolina to Help the University, 1867
Circular.
The Trustees of the University of North
Carolina appeal to the people of the State, whose representatives
they are, in behalf of an Institution
which has been to them for three fourths of a century, an object of just
& honorable pride.
The University
must receive assistance, or it must cease to be.
The Trustees ask attention to the following statements. The monied endowment
of the University, after deducting all liabilities,
amounted in 1837 to $136.618.22. In 1862 it amounted to
$142.377.79. During the intervening twenty five years, the Trustees expended in erecting new edifices in other improvements
& in necessary repairs &c. &c, according to the
statement of the Treasurer the sum of $137.822.42, from the net earnings of the Institution
(of which sum $100.000 was in permanent improvements), not only leaving
the original endowment untouched, but augmenting it by more than $5000.
The number of Students in the year 1858 was 456, a larger number at that time,
than at any other literary Institution in the U.S. with one exception.
The tuition fees & room rent that year amounted to $21.950.
From 1837 to the present time the University has
received & educated free of charge, annually, on an average, more than
ten young men, citizens of the State, and each of the two literary Societies
have educated entirely at their own expense, at least two young men annually.
The Trustees make these statements with a just pride as showing what the
University has done. It has not been merely
self-supporting, but it has increased its own endowment fund — has
added immensely to the value of the real estate owned in it by the State,
& besides has educated gratuitously hundreds of her sons.
Among the 3500 young men who have shared in its advantages since its
establishment, are many of the most honorable names in the whole country, men
who have filled with distinction every office in the public service, in Church
& State, & in all the learned professions. And many of these
distinguished men have been among those who received their education as a gift.
If the State were now to repay to the University the
amount of expenditure (with accruing interest) for the education of these
beneficiaries alone, it would at once be freed from its present embarrassments.
For the information of those who may inquire what has become of the endowment, it
may be stated in brief that it was invested in the new Bank of North Carolina, & has
been lost in consequence of various acts of the State
Legislature over which the Trustees had no control
— & from causes which no human sagacity could have foreseen
or avoided. All that the State had ever given the University
& much more was swallowed up & lost in the Legislative
repudiation of the war debt & the consequent insolvency of the Banks.
The number of students since the first year of the war has been insufficient to
pay the gentlemen of the Faculty their stipulated salaries, & since the
loss of the endowment fund, the Legislature at
the session of 1865-66 appropriated the sum of $7000 for the relief of
the Institution. Under existing circumstances there
is no likelihood of a meeting of the Legislature this
winter. The number of students is not over 95. The present Faculty have resigned
their chairs, their resignations to take effect at the close of the present
session.
If the University is to survive, these chairs must all
be filled, but the Trustees cannot hope to secure teachers of such
reputation & ability as will attract students to the University & restore its former prosperity, unless they can
offer them an adequate support. Changes in the course, in the objects &
mode of instruction — improvements in every department demanded by
the progress of the age, are in contemplation by the Executive Committee, but no step can be taken without aid. The Land
Scrip donated by Congress to the State, & turned over by the Legislature to the Univ. is for
all practical purposes useless at present. tho in the course of time it will
doubtless become valuable.
This then is the situation of this once prosperous & renowned school of
learning. Unless the people of North Carolina come forward at once, generously
& promptly & declare by substantial benefactions that their
University shall continue to shed the light and
blessing of sound education & religious influence over the State for
the benifit of unborn generations, — it must soon go down. The Trustees believe that there are enough men of wealth &
liberality in the State to save her from even the imputation of such a disgrace.
For disgrace it will be. Hardly a newspaper has come from the North in the two years
just passed, that has not chronicled some munificent gift to their colleges
& schools by the business men of that prosperous portion of our
country. The South
is not prosperous, but greater will be the glory & honor, that in her
day of defeat, humiliation & prostration, it shall be seen that the
love of letters still burns brightly here, & the high resolve to secure
to our children the best blessings bequeathed us by our forefathers still warms
& expands our breasts.
This last & general & most earnest appeal is made to North
Carolinians, from the mountains to the sea, at home and abroad, in the confident
hope that they will not hear it unmoved, but that from every county in the State
large-hearted men will come forward at once & say what they will do for
the Child of the State.
Communications to be addressed to
Gov Worth (ex officio President of the Board
or
Hon Kemp P Battle
(Pub. Treasurer)