Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/148

 120 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The progress Dr. Harper was making toward a decision favor- able to Chicago is revealed in two letters, the first to Mr. Gates, dated July 30: The great question and the question which I am trying to settle in my own mind is, Whether or not I can continue my life work as a biblical specialist, and do this work which the University of Chicago will demand; and if not, whether I am justified in giving up the life work You may be sure I am thinking, and dreaming, and doing nothing really but this Chicago matter. A re-reading of the letter of Mr. Gates could not fail to relieve his mind on this "great question" now troubling him. It seems to have had just that effect, and the second letter shows that he had begun to consider practical questions of ways and means. It also shows that he was advancing fast. In a letter of July 31 to Mr. Goodspeed he says: I am laboring on three distinct points; one or two of them I think I can get into shape, but the third is a sticker. It does not seem possible to do what ought to be done, what the denomination will expect, what the world will expect, with the money we have in hand. There must in some way be an assurance of an additional million. How this is to be obtained, or where, is the question. If Mr. R. is in dead earnest, possibly the case will not be so difficult as we may think. He heard from Mr. Rockefeller within a week after writing this letter and the message must have helped him farther on toward a decision. The letter was written August 5, 1890: I agree with the Board of Trustees of the Chicago University that you are the man for President, and if you will take it I shall expect great results. I cannot conceive of a position where you can do the world more good; and I confidently expect we will add funds, from time to time, to those already pledged, to place it upon the most favored basis financially. I do not forget that the effort to establish the University grew out of your suggestion to me at Vassar, and I regard you as the father of the institution, starting out under God with such great promise of future usefulness. In this letter Dr. Harper had been invited to visit Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller at Cleveland and in answering the letter and accepting the invitation he said, after speaking of his reluctance to make the great change in his life work which the acceptance of the presidency would require: There is one other difficulty which I think has hardly been appreciated. The denomination, and, indeed, the whole country, are expecting the Uni-