Publication InformationWashington Jany 28. 48

Page 1

Dear Baird

Before I left Burlington, I had conversations with Mr Wheeler & other persons connected with our University, in respect to the propriety of inviting you to fill the chair vacated by Mr Benedict, & so far as your qualifications or the interest, of the University were concerned, I had no hesitation in thinking the measure highly desirable. I however anticipated the objections you make viz the niggardly salary, and the reluctance you would feel to come under an implied obligation of making the University the permanent field of your labours, and as I could not hope that these objections would be removed, I did not choose to take the responsibility of mentioning the matter [line missing]

instruction on a respectable footing. The financial arrangement is therefore against your acceptance, and I must admit, that the grounds for hoping that you could make yourself useful in your vocation, with so slender means as we can put at your disposal, are by no means flattering. On the other hand, so far as concerns the question of your own intellectual improvement, I think the inducements for the proposed change very strong. You would be transferred to a in the realm of nature, & brought into contact with a social circle, not superior perhaps to that with which you are conversant at Carlisle, but so differently constitututed as to excite new sympathies and bring new powers into action. A residence of a few years therefore at Burlington would be attended with advantages which might probably counterbalance the objections, & it is possible that when our Rail Roads are completed we may find such favour in Boston as to secure us a more liberal endowment, in which case we should be liberally disposed to you and your department.

I know not what to say [lines missing]

References in this letter:

The Rev. Dr. John Wheeler (1789-1862) was president of the University of Vermont from 1833 to 1848. He offered Baird the chair of Chemistry and Natural History in December 1847.

George Wyllys Benedict, a professor of science at the University of Vermont, shared with Marsh an interest in botany and politics. He was a member of the state senate but lost in his bid to become railroad commissioner because of railroad lobby opposition.

Both Timothy Follett's Rutland and Burlington Line and the Vermont Central finally completed laying tracks to Burlington in December 1847.