Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/130

 102 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO a year or more and have finally decided to establish a new professorship for him and endow it .... and are urging him to authorize them to say that he will accept the appointment. It is a very high compliment to him, and we fear that he will feel that he must accept it. We have said and done all we could to hold him here, for we cannot yet spare him. Dr. Northrup says he has greater capabilities than any man he knows He thinks there is more outcome in Harper for our denominational work than in any other man in the country. He is now, at thirty years of age, the universally recognized leader of work in his department. He is not only a scholar, but a leader, an organizer, an administrator, and is easily first and chief in all these directions. He has immense capacity for work and for bringing things to pass. He is now teaching a thousand men by correspondence. He has organized the Hebrew professors of all the seminaries of the country and is conducting six summer schools in Hebrew, with these professors, many of them eminent men, working under him. We feel that our denomination cannot afford to lose such a man. This feeling and the present exigency have led Dr. Northrup and me to take very decided action during the past four days. We have proposed to Dr. Harper to assume the presidency of our wrecked and ruined University and re-establish it here at Morgan Park, retaining the oversight of the department of Hebrew in the Seminary. The suggestion has taken a strong hold on him, and, if he had some assurance of help, he would not hesitate to do it. The suggestion was welcomed with enthusiasm by the trustees of the then existing University, and he was unanimously elected President. On May 8, 1886, he declined the election, saying: .... for two weeks I have carefully and prayerfully studied the situ- ation. I realize, as never before, the necessity of this work, its importance, and the great success which must ultimately attend it. I have been strangely and strongly drawn toward it. Yet, in view of all the circumstances in the case, I am compelled to say, though reluctantly, that I do not see my way clear to accept the great responsi- bility involved in the position In a letter from Mr. Rockefeller of April 13 he wrote as follows in regard to Dr. Harper: I should regret to have Mr. Harper leave the Seminary If it were deemed desirable in order to hold Mr. Harper, to increase his salary, I would make a special contribution for that object. To this it was responded : We appreciate your offer to join with others in adding to Professor Harper's salary. That, however, would not hold him here We will not, there- fore, avail ourselves of your kind proffer During the past week he has received from one to three letters from Yale representatives daily, urging