Excerpt from John Milton Gregory, LL. D., First President of the University: Memorial Convocation at the Chapel, Sunday, October 23, 1898 In our State the movement culminated upon the last day of February, 1867, when the Legislature passed the act found ing and practically locating the Illinois Industrial University upon the broad basis of the so-called Land Grant Act of 1862, backed and forfeited by the wealth and power of the State. The newly-appointed Board of Trustees had a difficult duty to perform in finding men capable and ready to take the Offices of administrators and teachers. These were not merely to do work that had been done, but they were to mark out new paths, to devise new methods. The Old was not to be forgot ten or forfeited, but upon it as a foundation where feasible a new superstructure was to be raised. School men are proverbially conservative. The old with them is better because of age. The established is likely to be to them the law and the gospel in education. To whom could the Trustees turn in the emer gency? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.