LETTER OF THE FOUNDER. 21
LETTER
OF
THE FOUNDER.
To Messrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio; Morrison R. Waite, of the
District of Columbia; William E. Dodge, of New York; Phillips
Brooks, of Massachusetts; Daniel C. Gilman, of Maryland; John
A. Stewart, of New York; Alfred H. Colquitt, of Georgia; Morris
K. Jesup, of New York; James P. &oyce, of Kentucky; and William
A. Slater, of Connecticut:
Gentlemen : It has pleased God to grant me prosperity in my business,
and to put it into my power to apply to charitable uses a sum of money so
considerable as to require the counsel of wise men for the administration
of it.
It is my desire at this time to appropriate to such uses the sum of one
million of dollars ($1,000,000.00); and I hereby invite you to procure a
charter of incorporation under which a charitable fund may be held exempt
from taxation, and under which you shall organize; and I intend that the
corporation, as soon as formed, shall receive this sum in trust to apply the
income of it according to the instructions contained in this letter.
The general object which I desire to have exclusively pursued, is the
uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States, and
their posterity, by conferring on them the blessings of Christian education.
The disabilities formerly suffered by these people, and their singular patience
and fidelity in the great crisis of the nation, establish a just claim on the
sympathy and good will of humane and patriotic men. I cannot but feel
the compassion that is due in view of their prevailing ignorance which
exists by no fault of their own.
But it is not only for their own sake, but also for the safety of our common
country, in which they have been invested with equal political rights, that
I am desirous to aid in providing them with the means of such education as
shall tend to make them good men and good citizens — education in which
the instruction of the mind in the common branches of secular learning shall
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