University of Virginia Library

IT'S ABOUT TIME

All we can say in response to the decision
to cancel Founder's Day is, "It's about time."
For too long, this University has debased itself
with a shameless and scandalous devotion to an
eighteenth century rabble-rouser. Necrophilia
has no place in a twentieth century University
such as Virginia is trying to become. The man
happened to found the place—big deal!
Benjamin Franklin, another rabble-rouser,
founded the University of Pennsylvania, but
you don't see any of the people up there
bowing and scraping on his birthday.

Aside from the fact that he owned slaves,
this Jefferson fellow did very little else in his
life which would recommend him for veneration
at a University such as our great
institution. Let's look at the record. In 1776,
he committed one of the gravest acts of treason
ever done against the British government; and
despite what you may think of the present
course of the British government, you have to
admit that, at the time, it was a helluva regime.
Anybody that would advocate separation from
it, and violence to achieve that end, is certainly
not a man whose birthday is worth remembering.

Fortunately, the Constitution, at least as it
was before the Warren Court got hold of it, was
written without Jefferson's aid. Unfortunately,
like so many radicals of his ilk, Jefferson soon
found a way to tear it asunder. He got himself
elected President in 1801, and his whole term
in office was just one constitutional transgression
after another. Look at the Louisiana
purchase as an example. There is not one place
in the Constitution where it says that the
President is empowered to buy land. And yet,
no sooner was the man in office than he went
and spent $15 million of the taxpayers' money
to buy Louisiana. The man plainly had no
respect for law.

And so what if he did found the place?
Aside from the buildings, it was a lucky thing
for the University that he died when he did.
Have a listen to some of the things he wanted
the institution to be. First of all, he made no
stipulations that the professors publish regularly.
In fact, the design of the Lawn would
indicate that he expected the faculty members
to live in close proximity to, and probably
mingle with, the students. Even more disconcerting,
he wanted the University to give the
students a serious voice in its administration,
and to allow them to regulate their own daily
affairs. This guy Jefferson would be considered
a radical even by pinkos like Hubert Humphrey;
and if his plans for the University had not been
sensibly laid aside by the good Virginians who
followed him, we might be inhabiting a
University more like those liberal Ivy League
schools than the University we know and love.

"Mr." Jefferson is dead. Long live the
University!