Founding of the Leland Stanford Junior University
by George E. Crothers
Class of 1895
Part 3
In drawing the Enabling Act it did not seem to occur to Stanford that his proposed gift to the Trustees for the endowment of the institution would ever prove to be inadequate, or that others might wish to supplement the endowment, or add to the scope of the institution, although he attempted to remedy this in the Founding Grant. The Act did not even provide for or permit Stanford's own bequest of two and a half million to the Trustees for the endowment of the University which went to the University only with Mrs. Stanford's consent as residuary legatee and subject to her right to make such disposition of it as she saw fit during her lifetime, without accountability by her or her representatives.
Although the reservations and conditions of the trust provided for in the Enabling Act were such as were not permissible under the other general laws then in force, Stanford should have made this Founding Grant of November 11,1885, conform to the terms of the Act. But he did not do so; nor did Mrs. Stanford make her important grants and her attempted amendments to the trusts executed in the late 'nineties conform to either.
For example, the Founding Grant expressly declared that the property conveyed thereby, being the three great ranches, were community property; but, under the California law at that time, the properties "belonged" to and were vested in the husband alone, making Mrs. Stanford [in a legal sense] not a joint grantor or founder, but merely an assenting spouse.
Stanford reserved no powers to himself alone as founder, or to Mrs. Stanford as surviving wife, as provided for in the Act; but all the reservations and conditions are made by and to both of them as purported co-founders, and to the one who might succeed the other as purported surviving founder and not as surviving spouse, as provided for in the Act.
Although the Act authorized the founder to reserve the power of management of the properties and of the University to himself for his life, and then to a surviving wife, it did not permit the reservation of the power to amend the trusts to a founder's surviving wife, or even to a surviving co-founder. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Mrs. Stanford, in all grants by her, reserved and exercised all powers permitted to be reserved to a founder, and made many attempted amendments beyond even the scope of the power so reserved.
Not until five years after Senator Stanford's death, when these defects and deficiencies came to light in connection with another task which I undertook for Mrs. Stanford, were steps taken to remedy them. In the meantime the attention of Mrs. Stanford was concentrated upon her financial problems and those of the University.
"Here was a man who had played a great and vitally important role in the history of the University. Just how crucial that role was in preserving its very existence is even clearer to those who know that the original Founding Grant was so defective legally that it would have collapsed at the first onslaught either of contesting relatives or of the state - neither danger was imaginary. His work averted that peril and it is no exaggeration but only a fair and just appraisal to characterize him as the architect and builder, the refounder of Stanford's present secore legal foundation and structure."
--George E. Osborne, Stanford professor of law,
speaking at a dinner honoring George Crothers' 50th year in the law
Unconscious of the defects and deficiencies in the Enabling Act and Founding Grant, Senator Stanford went forward with great earnestness and devotion in putting his cherished plan into operation, leaving the virtual refounding of the institution upon a broader and more workable basis to Mrs. Stanford with the aid of future alumni. Senator Stanford was permitted to see but the first experiment in education at the University directed toward the accomplishment of his educational ideal. On being informed that the great panic of 1893, which placed in receivership every Western railway excepting the Southern Pacific, would break in Wall Street the following morning, Leland Stanford went up early to his bedroom, and after calling down to Mrs. Stanford, "I just want to say I love you," he went to sleep on June 21, never to awake. The troubles which his enfeebled heart could not stand were thrown upon the inexperienced widow.
Stanford's death left the University with very little income. Mrs. Stanford was allowed by the Probate Court ten thousand dollars per month, which was approximately the amount she had been accustomed to expend in the maintenance of her household. She reduced her personal retinue from seventeen to one cook, one maid, and a secretary, the payment of whose salary was deferred almost a year, and her total household expenses to three hundred and fifty dollars per month, or about the equivalent of a professor's salary. When she went East she traveled in her private car free of railroad expense and lived in her car while in New York to save hotel expenses. To keep the University open she sold at a sacrifice her six magnificent strings of choice pearls, and carried with her and tried in vain to sell her other jewels.
