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overdrafts. Nearly $2,000 was still unpaid on the building account,
including the $1,000 voted to James White for his able
supervision. The balance was needed immediately for grading, fencing
and other improvements. The committee also estimated that the annual
operating expenses for the next three years would approximate $14,600,
and that the probable income would be less than $13,000.
In this dilemma the Corporation appealed to the Commonwealth for aid
to the extent of $50,000. The petitioners, Stephen Salisbury, Emory
Washburn, James B. Blake and George F. Hoar, forcefully set forth the
claims of the Institute, reminding the honorable members of the
General Court of their munificence to other Massachusetts
institutions, and urging them to aid the development of manufacturing
and mechanical pursuits as they had aided the cause of the learned
professions. The committee on education heard these claims expounded
on February 11, 1869. Seldom has a cause been more brilliantly
advocated than by the two trustees who presented the principal
arguments, Governor Washburn and Hon. George F. Hoar.
Mr. Hoar based his argument on the assertions that the mechanical
classes had a right to demand this aid from Massachusetts, that their
better education was a necessity of self-preservation for the State,
and that the scheme of education contemplated by the Institute was
practical and wise. He drew upon the classical allusions to the value
of education, upon testimony of European educators and statesmen, and
demonstrated the power of logical eloquence that was later to sway the
United States Senate and mark him as a leading statesman of his
generation. Emory Washburn followed with a speech of equal eloquence,
in which he outlined the beginnings of the school and prophesied what
contributions its graduates would make to the industrial development
of the state.
Whether impressed by these arguments, or worn down by the length of
them, the committee gave its unanimous
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