Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/578

Rh the resolve, the preparation, and the application to enter the University of Michigan; and young as she was, her clear-sightedness and courage called forth our admiration. As a child, in Ann Arbor, from 1845, to 1852, she had often attended the commencement exercises of the University, and on those occasions had felt very unhappy, because all the culture given to mind and heart and soul by this institution was given to young men alone. It seemed a cruel injustice to young women that they could not be there with their brothers, enjoying the same. In connection with her efforts and those of her friends to enter those enchanted portals, she bears grateful testimony to the discussions on the question of woman's rights, as follows:

When it was my blessed privilege to attend a women's rights convention at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853,—and it was a grand meeting—where dear Lucretia Mott, Ernestine L. Rose, Frances D. Gage, Antoinette Brown, Lucy Stone, and others, dwelt upon the manifold wrongs suffered by women, and called upon them to awake and use their powers to secure justice to all, I felt their words to mean that the Michigan University as well as all others, should be opened to girls, and that women themselves should first move in the matter.

Thus aroused, though but sixteen years old, she resolved at once to make application for admission to the State University. Early in the autumn of 1856, she entered the high school at Ann Arbor, and studied Greek and Latin two years, preparatory to taking the classical course. Four young ladies besides herself, recited with the boys who were preparing for college, and they were all declared by a university professor who had attended frequent examinations, to stand head and shoulders in scholarship above many of the young men. Miss Burger wishing as large a class as possible to appeal for admission, wrote to a number of classical schools for young women, asking coöperation, and secured the names of eleven who would gladly apply with her. In the spring of 1858, she sent a note to the regents, saying a class of twelve young ladies would apply in June, for admission to the University in September. A reporter said "a certain Miss B. had sent the regents warning of the momentous event." At the board meeting in June, the young ladies presented their promised letter of application, and received as reply, that the board should have more time to consider. In September their reply was, that it seemed inexpedient for the University to admit ladies at present. In the meantime, a great deal had been said and done on the subject; some members of the faculty had spoken in favor, some against. University students, and citizens of Ann Arbor also joined in the general discussion. The subject was widely discussed in the press and on the platform; members of the faculty and board of regents applied to the presidents of universities east and west, for their opinions. The people of Michigan, thus brought to consider the injustice of the exclusion of their daughters from this State institution, there was offered for signature during the winter of 1859, the following petition:

To the Regents of the University of Michigan:

The undersigned, inhabitants of, in the county of , and State of Michigan, respectfully request that young women may be admitted as students in