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A correspondent of the New Orleans Times Democrat writes as follows of the gift of Paul Tulane to establish a university in the South, about which of late so much has been said: Stopping at Princeton for a day, by request of the venerable Paul Tulane, I had the pleasure of a long conversation with him about the university he desires to establish in New Orleans.
He spoke at once, at length and with great feeling, about his educational scheme. He had made his fortune, he said, in Louisiana. He had had scores upon scores of her best people in his younger days and in his maturer years as his best, his most intimate friends. They were well to do and had been enabled in consequence to send their sons, as was the custom of the day, to the North or to Europe for an education. All that was changed by the war. The sons of his old friends were impoverished. Their young sons could not, of course, go to Harvard or Yale or London or Paris for the education they sought and ought to have; so he had determined to enable them to secure it at home. Their grandfathers had made his fortune; it was his duty as well as his pleasure to help the grandsons.
"We have the boys, sir!" said the old gentleman, with marked emphasis and vivacity, his face lighting up; "we have the boys! They are fine boys! bright boys! good boys! There is in them the making of new Madisons, Jeffersons, Calhouns, Clays! We need such men in the South! We need them in Louisiana above all! And we have the boys there to become such men, only they lack the educational resources. The common school system of the State is defective. When I made my first donations towards establishing the university I was not aware the property so given would be taxed. Such treatment of property given for such purposes is unheard of in the North. Look at Princeton College! It has had millions of dollars given to it, to be managed by its officers and trustees. The state has nothing to do with it-does not interfere in the slightest degree. Not long ago it was determined to establish a school for boys, to train them for the college. At once friends of the college gave $600,000 for the school, and it is now being established a few miles from Princeton. I confess when I heard of the decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court that the property I had already given would be taxed, it made me sick. I was sick for two weeks. I have not yet gotten over it. I am prepared to add largely to my donations, and some of my friends, whose fathers made their fortunes in Louisiana, have promised me they will give $300, 000 more to the university, but they will not do so if their donated property is to be taxed. Something ought to be done and done now to set this matter right."
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