226 IRA W. LEWIS
The sharpest difference of opinion came about as a result of Mr. Deady's motion to strike out the provision for a state university ls for, he said, experience had demonstrated that state universities were of little use to anybody. Mr. Reed thought that every avenue to the acquisition of knowledge should be opened. Mr. Peebles stated that the University of New York was in a flourishing condition. Mr. Boise said the situation in Oregon was peculiar. Other institutions in the older states were so far away that the parents did not want to let their children go so far from home at such an early age. Mr. Smith said it was the poor people who wanted the university, not the rich. The rich could afford to send anywhere. The young people should be well edu- cated if educated at all. On the other hand Mr. Farrar and Mr. Love joy claimed that a university would be par- tisan and sectarian in spite of all opposition, as was old Harvard and others. Mr. Deady suggested, as the trend of the time was toward these tendencies and a state uni- versity would be certain to be sectarian, that it w r ould be better to divide the university fund among the present sectarian colleges in proportion to the number of stu- dents. Mr. Boise opposed this on account of the ten- dency to separate the people of the state into clannish groups. The western state universities were considered generally as failures, Mr. Watkins thought. Mr. Kelsay claimed that universities were expensive and only the rich could afford them.
Many members 17 wanted the university fund trans- ferred to the common school fund, but Mr. Waymire said a law of Congress made it illegal, so that the question was whether to have a state university or let the funds lie idle. The common school fund was sufficient without the university fund, Mr. Smith thought. They finally
16 Report of convention in the Oregon Statesman, Sept. 11, 1857.
17 Those that stated their desire to transfer the fund were Messrs. Kelsay, Farrar, Campbell, and Logan.
