In 1862 the newly created State Board of Agriculture appointed English Literature professor Theophilus Capen ("T.C.") Abbot president, much to the professor's surprise. Nevertheless, the soft-spoken Abbot remained president for twenty-two years and helped stabilize the College during and after the Civil War. One of the College's main concerns was that its Morrill Act endowment had attracted the University of Michigan's attention. Advocates for the University brought a bill before the State Legislature to merge with the Agricultural College and move the Lansing faculty and facilities to the Ann Arbor campus. UM leaders argued that it was necessary to share the Morrill Act income with the financially struggling UM. At least one influential pro-merger advocate appeared persuaded more by pure academic considerations than financial self-interest. Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University co-founder and first president, noted, “The State of Michigan . . . indeed gave its Agricultural College an excellent faculty and they have achieved much success considering their means but infinitely better would it have been to combine that Agricultural College with their noble University.” While the plan initially had broad support across the state, merger opponents pointed out that Ann Arbor had inadequate facilities for an agricultural education; a move to Ann Arbor would require so much investment capital as to make the UM plan financially untenable. The Legislature voted down UM's proposal in 1863, but it returned to the floor in 1865, 1867, and again in 1869. While the College successfully fended off each takeover attempt, the persistent threat that it might move kept the Legislature from appropriating any money for new campus construction at Lansing. As a result, the College was restricted to one boarding hall and enrollment was accordingly limited for many years thereafter.