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The Jeffersonian cyclopedia;

a comprehensive collection of the views of Thomas Jefferson classified and arranged in alphabetical order under nine thousand titles relating to government, politics, law, education, political economy, finance, science, art, literature, religious freedom, morals, etc.;
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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1798. COOPER (Thomas), University of Va. and.—

I do sincerely lament that untoward
circumstances have brought on us the irreparable
loss of this professor, whom I have
looked to as the corner stone of our edifice
[University of Virginia]. I know no one who
could have aided us so much in forming the future
regulations of our infant institution; and
although we may perhaps obtain from Europe
equivalents in science, they can never replace
the advantages of his experience, his knowledge
of the character, habits and manners of our
country, his identification with its sentiments
and principles, and high reputation he has obtained
in it generally. [107]
To General Taylor. Washington ed. vii, 164.
(M. 1820)


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[107]

Dr. Cooper was an Englishman, and the son-inlaw
of Dr. Priestley, with whom he came to America
in 1792. Cooper edited Priestley's writings and was
regarded as a Unitarian. He was well-versed in
chemistry, physics and physiology; was one of the
earliest writers in this country on political economy,
and the first to introduce the study of Roman law by
his edition of Justinian. He was a professor in
Dickinson College, a lecturer in the University of
Pennsylvania and became a Judge. His liberal
views on religion aroused the antagonism of the
orthodox clergy of Virginia and their attacks led to
his retirement from the University of Virginia. In
1820, he became President of the College of South
Carolina. He died in 1839.—Editor.