In a long letter on December 26 White revealed his concern over the fiscal condition of the university in the months following the financial panic of 1873 and his embarrassment in meeting his own pledge of extra support. On January 23 he dismissed the value of college oratory and speaking contests, and on February 22 wrote at length of his personal ambition and religious convictions to his old Ann Arbor friend, Mrs. Edward Payson Evans. Joseph Roswell Hawley, in charge of plans for the centennial celebration of 1876, complained that an editor of the New York Post “... adds that the American nation, by reason of universal corruption, meanness & dishonesty is hopelessly incapable of managing such an affair. White sought to justify Cornell's handling of the university's funds in a series of conferences and speeches before the New York State Agricultural Society, the National Conference of Education, and other interested groups.