It was characteristic of the man that in the midst of his herculean tasks as defender of the State during the second war with England, he could find time to devote some attention to the little school at Mount Pleasant.
It is said of Tompkins that he "did more than the Federal Government for the success of the operations on the Canada–US border, pledging his personal and official credit when the New York banks refused to lend money on the security of the U.S. Treasury notes without his endorsement.
He advanced the means to maintain the military school at West Point, to continue the recruiting service in Connecticut, and to pay the workmen that were employed in the manufacture of arms at Springfield".
Even today we need add little to these quaint words except possibly to say that daily communication with the city has been replaced by an hourly train service.
In 1824 application was made to the Legislature for financing aid for the academy and an act was passed on the 17th of November of that year providing a fund which ultimately netted the school about $1,200.
All other funds for improvement and development have been derived from the legitimate revenues resulting from the careful and businesslike management of the school throughout its existence of almost a century.
About this time a further, but unsuccessful, petition for assistance was made to the Legislature in which the following dignified and illuminating language was used: - "Your petitioners have, for a number of years past, been assiduously engaged in rearing and maintaining a literary institution that might essentially aid the cause of Literature and Science in our favored country.
Under the smiles of Providence, their academy has been rising and its pupils multiplying until the buildings heretofore occupied by the institution have become wholly inadequate to their comfortable accommodation."
Mr. Gilman was graduate of Harvard College, but his connection with Mount Pleasant ended in 1869 and the Associate Principalship of Messrs. Benjamin and Allen began, to continue until the death of the former in 1883.
In 1902 Mr. Emory withdrew and since that time Mr. Brusie has been at the head of the school completing in June, 1914 a service of twenty years at Mount Pleasant Academy.
In material equipment Mount Pleasant has successfully met the demands of the times, providing all that is necessary to the comfort, safety and happiness of the growing boy, but teaching always simplicity of life and living.
What the educational world and the public generally think of Mount Pleasant's past and its outlook into the future can best be judged from the list of colleges and universities that thought it worth their while to be represented at this celebration, by the letters and telegrams received from men of culture and influence and by their expressions of approval printed on these pages.