Vault Early Papers of the University Box 1 Folder 1860 Cornerstone Ceremony 1

St Albans Vt. Sept. 27. 1860

Rt Rev & dear Sir

Your kind {insert symbol:}note of invitation to be present at the interesting ceremony, which is to take place at University Place on the 10th day of October next, was duly received.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to participate in the services of the occasion, but I am confined at home with the care of a little school of my own, which I cannot possibly leave for so long a time as would be requisite to make the journey & back.

You have my hearty sympathy in the glorious enterprise so happily inaugurated, as is the "University of the South." As an American citizen, my patriotism

prompts me to rejoice that so much is to be done in the important work of education for our common country; as an Episcopalian, I rejoice that The University will be blessed with the predominating influence of the Episcopal Church; & because of my Southern feelings, which became part of my nature from my long residence in Georgia & Louisiana, I rejoice that the South is to be specially benefitted by this grand educational movement. May God prosper it from beginning to end, and may you, Rt Rev. & dear Sir, & the other bishops, who have taken the lead in the enterprise, have reason to believe, before you die, that your zeal & labours have laid the foundation of an

Institution, second to none in the world, for its wide reaching influence & bearings upon the cause of Christian education.

Very truly

Yours &c

Charles Fay