Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/192

 1 64 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO years from this date; and also that a thoroughly equipped academy shall be established in the buildings hitherto occupied by the said Seminary, on or before October i, 1892. Yours truly, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER. Thus, in a little more than ninety days after the subscription for the college was completed, immediately after the legal incor- poration, at the second meeting of the Trustees on September 18, 1890, when Mr. Rockefeller's first million dollar subscription was accepted, the first great step in expansion was taken, and the name of the new institution received its justification. It became the University of Chicago. For this first step was in reality two steps. Eight hundred thousand dollars was provided for non-professional graduate instruction. But Mr. Rockefeller's subscription also provided that the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park should become an organic part of the University and should be trans- ferred to the grounds of the University, that one hundred thousand dollars should be expended in constructing buildings for it, and a like sum be set apart as an endowment for theological instruction in the Divinity School. That the Theological Seminary should be made a part of the new University had been the desire and hope of the Seminary people from the beginning. They had, indeed, re- frained from thrusting their wishes forward for fear of embarrassing the main question. But as early as December 3, 1888, Dr. North- rup had made the suggestion to Dr. Harper. The question of the relation of the Seminary to the proposed University is one of the first importance. I am fully persuaded that the Seminary ought to be an organic part of the University This view he supported at length by a dozen considerations. When in March, 1889, the Committee of Nine was appointed by the Executive Board of the Education Society, Mr. Goodspeed wrote to the secretary, Mr. Gates, on behalf of the Seminary of which he was secretary: The executive committee and the faculty instruct me to say on their behalf: i. That they feel a profound interest in the establishment of the proposed institution.