216 History of Universities
given in New York City. As early as 1699 a Harvard gradu-
ate built a new dormitory for his alma mater; and from Eng-
lish Puritans and dissenters came many valuable gifts,
including a farm in England which the College owned until
the present century, and whose rents, compounded and care-
fully reinvested, now yield about $900 a year for two scholar-
ships to the founder’s kin. In 1655 Massachusetts undertook
to pay the Harvard President’s salary, and continued to do so
until after the American Revolution.
Thus, in modern terms, Harvard “sold” college education
to the community; and at the same time learned the lesson
that political bodies are a very precarious support for higher
education. More and more she came to depend on gifts and
legacies of individuals, her own alumni and others. And this
source has been the main support of American universities
ever since; for it must be remembered that state universities
are still in a small minority, both as to numbers, and as to
revenue. There has been a great deal of objection to this
“capitalist” method of supporting our colleges, and not alone
from the radical side. Some years ago there was much talk
of “tainted money,” but most colleges and universities have
since comfortably concluded that the use to which the money
has been put removes the taint. And there has been far less
interference with academic freedom by individual donors or
corporate trustees in the endowed universities than by politi-
cians in the state institutions.
Yale followed the Harvard method of support by small
state grants and private gifts. The College of William and
Mary was founded in 1693 in Virginia, which had existed for
eighty-six years without acquiring the habit of making gifts
to higher education. Accordingly, William and Mary was
early provided with a considerable endowment in English
lands, the rents of which were supposed to be used for Indian