University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IV

Thomas Jefferson—Advocate of Knowledge and
Education

Education seems to have held Mr. Jefferson an ardent
votary from his earliest association with William and Mary
College to his latest realization—the University of Virginia.
From manhood to old age he never ceased expressing paternal
gratitude for his classic training in these words: "If I had
to decide between the pleasure derived from a classical education
which my father gave me and the estate he left me, I would
decide in favor of the former." In his day and environment
education was "conspicuous by its absence" as the majority
possessed it only in low, the minority in high degree—presenting
a difference in these two classes, self-evident to every
one, that amounted to an inhuman contrast to a man with Mr.
Jefferson's sensitive and generous nature, eager to give others
that which he possessed and enjoyed. He was a firm believer
in the Latin proverb, "veritas vos liberabit," and recognized
the passing of his existence in an atmosphere, yes a country,
sadly lacking in its observance—bound by ironclad heresies,
superstitions, apathy and ignorance. His entire being was
enthused and exhilarated over the possibilities in reform—
by evolution, or preferably revolution, as he realized a great
change to be an immediate need. At the same time he desired
to destroy nothing bad without creating something good in its
stead, and heeding common sense plans and policies he accomplished
and predicted many wholesome results. He not only

believed that "knowledge was power," but that the emancipation
of mankind from the bonds of various servitudes centered
in education. It is, therefore, not surprising that almost
his very first energies were directed in procuring for his fellow-statesmen
better opportunities for acquiring knowledge. Although
re-elected to Congress, June, 1776, he resigned three
months later, in order to remain in his State Legislature,
where he considered his efforts most needed in forming a
new Constitution and in aiding many desirable reforms.
Among these he reckoned as greatest—the curtailment of
ignorance, by a more general "Diffusion of Knowledge"
among the people, and to that end introduced during the session
three educational bills furthering the support of his governmental
philosophy: "Experience has shown that under the
best forms of government those entrusted with power have in
time perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most
effectual means of preventing this would be to illuminate the
minds of the people by giving them historic facts of past experience,
so that they may know ambition under all its shapes,
and may exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.
It is generally true that people will be happiest where laws
are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed,
and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form
and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes
expedient for promoting public happiness that those persons,
whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be
rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to
guard, the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of our
fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge
without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental circumstance.
But the greater number, by indigence, being unable to
educate their children whom nature hath fitly formed and
disposed to become useful instruments of the public, it is better
that such should be sought for and educated at the common expense
of all, than the happiness of all should be confined to the
weak and wicked. Instead of putting the Bible in the hands
of children with immature judgments for religious inquiries,
their memories, in my plan, may be stored with the most useful
facts from Grecian, Roman, European, and American history.
The finest element of morality too may be instilled into
their minds; such as may teach them how to work out their
greatest happiness, by showing them that it does not depend
on the condition of life in which chance has placed them, but
is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation,
and freedom in all just pursuits."

His bills presented a comprehensive and thorough plan,
involving the division of each county in hundreds, each of five
or six miles square, and these to constitute ten districts of the
entire State, and further:

1. An elementary school in the center of each hundred,
which shall give to the children of every citizen gratis competent
instruction in reading, writing, common arithmetic and
general geography.

2. A college in the center of each district for teaching two
languages (ancient and modern), higher arithmetic, geography
and history. This places a college within a day's ride
of every inhabitant of the State, and adds provision for the
full education at the public expense of select subjects from
among the children of the poor who shall have exhibited at
the elementary schools the pronounced indication of the aptness
of judgment and correct disposition.

3. An university near the center of the State, in which all
the branches of science deemed useful at this day shall be
taught in their highest degree.

The bill, as a whole, lay dormant four years in the original
manuscript, until Mr. Jefferson, when governor, advanced it
to the printing stage; then followed a sleep of fifteen years
and amendment unto death. During this period the country
was experiencing serious agitation, revolution and reorganization,
with little incentive for internal reforms, while beyond
that the great home exponent of these proposed measures, Mr.
Jefferson, had not been permitted to remain with his people
to look after their needs and acts—having been called to posts
involving higher and more serious interests. But this long
period was not a barren waste to the cause of education, for
the people were becoming gradually sensible of its advantages,
indeed necessity, and Mr. Jefferson, better acquainted with its
methods of development in the most cultured centers of the
civilized world.

While Minister to France, Mr. Jefferson, with many other

celebrities, loaned his name to the establishing in Richmond,
Virginia, of the "Quesnay French Academy," an institution
of arts and sciences, with branches in Baltimore, Philadephia,
and New York. It was to be on a gigantic scale, affiliating
with the royal societies of London, Paris, and Brussels, as well
as with other learned bodies of Europe. Mineralogists, mining
engineers and experts of every class were to come from Paris to
the New Academy to teach American youth and to serve as
scientific commissioners for governments. All research results
were to be communicated to other countries, so that there
might be established a comity of interests, and although the
foundation of the building was laid, June 24, 1786, with great
eclat and apparently under most favorable circumstances, yet
the close following of the French Revolution, when capital and
scholars, so much needed at home, were timid towards foreign
undertakings, rendered the brilliant project of very short life.
The original building, however, was finished, but soon afterwards
converted into a theater—the first in Richmond—and
better yet, has played a historical part by sheltering legislative
bodies, especially the Conventions ratifying the Constitution
of the United States, and the Federal Union. It is credited by
many, that had this Academy prospered the University of Virginia
would have been forestalled, while the border States
would have been dominated largely by French culture and
customs. Mr. Jefferson's next decided step to advance higher
education was in 1795, when he favored transplanting to Virginia
the entire faculty of the Swiss College of Geneva—
thoroughly French in its form of culture. He had met in
Paris some of these professors, who no doubt helped to implant
in him the more liberal systems of university education, for
prior to that association he heartily countenanced developing
the curriculum of William and Mary College, but of this
nothing was heard after his return to America. This Faculty,
having become dissatisfied with the political environment,
wrote to Mr. Jefferson, an old friend to most of its members,
expressing a willingness to come over in a body, provided suitable
arrangements could be made for continuing its academic
work. Mr. Jefferson now thought his dreams near unto
realization, and suggested to his Legislature that it make provision
for the establishment of the Genevan College in Virginia.
The practical thinkers, however, considered the scheme
too hazardous and expensive, while Washington, who had fostered
the idea of a National University, expressed opposition
thus: "I doubt the expediency of importing a body of foreign
professors not familiar with the English language and at variance
with the popular party in their own land. If we are to import
professors, they should not be all from one nation." Mr.
Jefferson, encountering discouragement in all directions, had
to abandon this tempting proposition, but his bounteous hope
and ambition for a great Southern center of education faded
not the slightest with failure, as five years later, January 18,
1800, we find him communicating to Dr. Joseph Priestley
well-matured plans for a new institution. Dr. Priestley, with
his family and son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Cooper, had emigrated
to this country, 1794, settling in Northumberland, Pennsylvania,
and was regarded possibly as the then greatest English
scientist, being the leading authority on electricity and a chemist
of the highest rank—the discoverer of oxygen, simultaneously
with Scheele in Sweden, the initiator of gas analysis
and author of "History of Electricity" (1767). Beyond profound
scholarship he was an excellent preacher, proclaiming,
to the utter disgust of many, adverse doctrines to the Church
of England, which caused his house, chapel, books, papers, apparatus
and all belongings to be burned and destroyed by a loyal
and pious mob of Birmingham. Mr. Jefferson welcomed with
open arms such talented men as Priestley and Cooper, seeking
shelter and protection in our land, and in his letter of above
date revealed his devised scheme: "We wish to establish in
the upper district of Virginia, more central than William and
Mary College, an university on a plan so broad and liberal
and modern, as to be worth patronizing with the public support,
and be a temptation to the youth of other States to come
and drink of the cup of knowledge and fraternize with us.
The first step is to obtain a good plan; that is, a judicious selection
of the sciences, and a practical grouping of some of
them together, and ramifying of others, so as to adopt the
professorships to our uses and our means. Now there is no
one to whom this subject is so familiar as yourself, and to
you we address our solicitations. We should propose that
the professors follow no other calling, so that their whole
time may be given to their academical functions; and we
should propose to draw from Europe the first characters
in science, by considerable temptations, which would not need
to be repeated after the first set should have prepared fit successors
and given reputation to the institution. From such
splendid characters I have received offers most perfectly reasonable
and practical."

About this time (1800) Mons. Dupont de Nemours, a
highly educated French economist and philosopher, reached
this country, having been friendly with Mr. Jefferson in Paris,
close to Turgot, and an ardent worker in averting the French
Revolution. While here he visited Mr. Jefferson frequently
—at Philadelphia, Washington and Monticello—when they
discussed freely a general scheme for higher education in
America, which he followed by an exhaustive treatise of one
hundred and fifty-nine pages upon the subject, outlining our
educational needs according to his opinion—preparatory
schools of all grades in the several States, and a central mammoth
"National University," at Washington, second to the
capitol, consisting of four departments: 1, Medicine; 2,
Mines; 3, Social Science and Legislation; 4, Higher Mathematics.
In order to reach this University one must have
passed through all the ascending schools—a fact that rendered
the plan too comprehensive for those unsettled days, but encouraged
Mr. Jefferson in his own educational scheme for his
State, that which he had formulated largely from French
and German institutions, those fostering advanced instruction
in distinct schools.

In 1803 Mr. Jefferson renewed his correspondence with
Professor Pictet, of the Genevan College, writing him February
5th: "I have still had constantly in view to propose to the
Legislature of Virginia the establishment of a good `seminary
of learning' on as large a scale as our present circumstances
would require or bear, but as yet no favorable moment has
occurred. In the meanwhile I am endeavoring to procure
materials for a good plan. With this view I am asking the
favor of you to give me a sketch of the branches of science
taught in your college, how they are distributed among the
professors; that is to say, how many professors there are and
what branches of science are allotted to each professor, and

University—The Lawn

(Showing upper half with professors' homes (pavilious) and students' rooms (dormitories) on each side,
and the Rotunda (south front) closing the view)

the days and hours assigned to each branch. Your successful
experience in the distribution of business will be a valuable
guide to us who are without experience." During Mr. Jefferson's
second Presidential term, 1806, a young Virginian called
upon him in Washington, bearing simply commendable letters
of introduction. It was Joseph Carrington Cabell, just twenty-eight
years of age, on his way home from a three years absence
in Europe, where he had gone for travel, study and the
improvement of health. He seemingly had used Mr. Jefferson
as an exemplar—graduating at William and Mary College,
studying law at Williamsburg, accepting Paris as his
foreign educational center. He had attended lectures under
Cuvier at the "College de France," had absorbed natural
science at Montpelier, had sojourned at the Universities at
Leyden, Padua, Rome, Naples, Cambridge and Oxford, and
through this long line of contact and influence had become
naturally a broad-minded thinker and critical observer. But
above all he held as the most deserving mission in life the
furtherance of improved educational methods in his own State,
interesting himself in Swiss education to the extent of studying
at Verdun the novel system of Pestalozzi in the hope of
introducing it into Virginia. Of course such a counterpart in
experience, thought, ambition and aspiration appealed at once,
heart and soul, to Mr. Jefferson, who immediately offered him
positions of civic and diplomatic prominence, which were
refused on the ground of already being sufficiently long from
home, whither he must hasten that he might speedily become
identified with the interests of his people. A year later we
find him favoring De la Coste, a French scientist, in the establishment
of a natural history museum at William and Mary
College, a step disapproved by Mr. Jefferson, who already had
abandoned the possibility of increasing the scope and usefulness
of his alma mater. Upon the subject he directed his private
secretary to write Cabell: "If the amelioration of education
and the diffusion of knowledge be the favorite objects of
your life, avail yourself of the favorable disposition of your
countrymen, and consent to go into your legislative body.
Instead of wasting your time in attempting to patch up a decaying
institution, direct your efforts to a higher and more
valuable object. Found a new one which shall be worthy of
the first State in the Union. This may, this certainly will one
day be done, and why not now? You may not succeed in one
session, or in two, but you will succeed at last." This suggestion
was not long in being heeded by Cabell, for he was elected
to the House of Delegates in 1808, where he remained two
years, 1810, and then to the Senate for a continuous period of
nineteen years, 1829, becoming a far greater man than these
home political positions imply—being entreated to represent
his district in Congress and to enter the Cabinets of Madison
and Monroe. These, however, he declined, preferring an
energetic devotion directly to the good of his State, in whose
legislative halls he became a most able and persuasive debater,
a formidable champion of all that tended towards her betterment,
breathing as none other the spirit and ambition of Mr.
Jefferson for local government, popular education, and a
great State University. Indeed but for the mental and physical
accordance of these two dominant characters, neither of them
would have seen the University of Virginia a living reality in
their day. It would have come later, but to the credit of
different powers and persons.

Mr. Jefferson, during 1813, revived an earnest interest in
higher education for his State, making it the most vital and
absorbing occupation of declining years—happily a broader
and more serious field than an overtaxed correspondence with
which hitherto he had been afflicted. The first evidence of this
appeared in agitating the subject locally, and in numerous
letters to various friends and educators. Among these Dr.
Thomas Cooper possibly took first rank, being a man of high
university culture, well trained in chemistry, physics, mineralogy,
physiology, law and political economy—one of our
earliest writers upon the latter science and the first to introduce
the study of Roman law—the son-in-law of Dr. Joseph
Priestley, with whom he had escaped political and religious
persecutions of England, and now resided in Pennsylvania.
In his adopted home he assumed the practice of law, became
a judge, and afterwards a professor in Dickinson College,
University of Pennsylvania, and South Carolina College, and
the second one appointed (chemistry, law) in the University
of Virginia—the first being Dr. Samuel Knox (language) of
Baltimore. Mr. Jefferson, January 16, 1814, wrote Dr.

Cooper: "I have long had under contemplation and been
collecting materials for the plan of a university in Virginia
which would comprehend all the sciences useful to us, and
none others. This would probably absorb the functions of
William and Mary College, and transfer them to a healthier
and more central position—perhaps to the neighborhood of
this place. The long and lingering decline of that College,
the death of its last president (Bishop Madison), its location
and climate force on us the wish for a new institution more
convenient to our country generally, and better adapted to
the present state of science. I have been told there will be
an effort in the present session of the Legislature to effect
such an establishment. I confess, however, that I have not great
confidence that this will be done. Should it happen, it would
offer places worthy of you, and of which you are
worthy."

The first decided act by the people of Albemarle, indicating
a sympathy for higher education and a desire for their locality
to be the seat of a great institution, was taken in 1783, when
some public-spirited citizens requested Mr. Jefferson, just
about departing from Monticello for Trenton to resume congressional
duties, to secure a suitable tutor to assume charge
of a grammar school or academy proposed for Charlottesville.
In reply to this request Mr. Jefferson wrote, December 31st:
"I inquired at Princeton of Dr. Witherspoon, but he informed
me that that college was just getting together again, and that
no such person could, of course, be had there. I inquired at
Philadelphia for some literary character of the Irish nation in
that city. There was none such, and in the course of my inquiries
I was informed that learning is but little cultivated
there, and that few persons have ever been known to come from
that nation as tutors. I concluded on the whole, then, if the
scheme should be carried on, and fixed on so firm a basis as
that we might on its faith venture to bring a man from his
native country, it would be best for me to interest some person
in Scotland to engage a good man." The contents of this
letter evidently brought temporary death to the academy
scheme, for it was not chartered by the Legislature until
twenty years later, 1803, and then remained simply on paper
another ten years, March 25, 1814, when Mr. Jefferson was

elected one of its trustees. At this meeting and several others
that followed in quick succession, he recounted his life-long
study, identity and interest in educational institutions, and his
great desire to have a creditable one in his State—boldly advocating
the abandonment of the simple academy idea for a
university of the broadest scope and usefulness.

In accordance with his views the Board of Trustees was reorganized
and a committee appointed, he being chairman, to
draft governing rules and regulations, to seek subscriptions
and other monetary aid by promoting the sale through lottery
of certain glebe lands in Albemarle, and to provide a suitable
site and plans. Mr. Jefferson wrote Dr. Cooper, August 25th:
"To be prepared for our new institution I have taken some
pains to ascertain those branches which men of sense, as well
as of science, deem worthy of cultivation. To the statements
which I have obtained from other sources, I shall highly value
an additional one from yourself. You know our country,
its pursuits, its facilities, its relations with others, its means
of establishing and maintaining an institution of general
science, and the spirit of economy with which it requires that
these should be administered. Will you, then, so far contribute
to our views as to consider this subject, to make a statement
of the branches of science which you think worthy of being
taught, as I have before said, at this day and in this country?
It will be necessary to distribute them into groups in order
to bring the whole circle of useful science under the direction
of the smallest number of professors. We are about to make
the effort for the introduction of this institution."

Although from now on the creating of the University was
Mr. Jefferson's absorbing pleasure—his hobby, as he termed it
—receiving daily the greater part of his attention, yet by forced
effort and indomitable will nothing seemingly was neglected in
the older directions except his own business, that which he
erringly thought might run itself satisfactorily. He never lost
interest in the affairs of our country, and was thoroughly indignant
at the British, August, 1814, burning Washington
with its Congressional Library, even endeavoring to repair
the latter by offering Congress, at its own price, his private
collection of ten thousand volumes, an accumulation of fifty
years that cost as many thousands of dollars—an offer, after

much unpleasant debate, personal crimination and recrimination,
finally accepted at half the amount.

During this year he wrote Dr. Jones: "I deplore with you
the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and
the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the
production of a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss
of degradation into which we have fallen. These ordures are
rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening its relish for
sound food, etc." In this same letter he expressed opinions
of Washington, which, despite the claim of depreciation,
amounted to a glowing eulogy from beginning to end. In the
early part of 1815 he catalogued and shipped his books to
Washington, and throughout the year wrote many letters, contributed
material to Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, perfected
several mechanical devices—adjustable carriage top, hemp machine,
etc.—and pursued a number of scientific investigations.
Early in 1816 he wrote Thompson: "I retain good health,
walk a little, ride on horseback much. No tooth shaking yet,
but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold. My greatest
oppression is a correspondence afflictingly laborious, the
extent of which I have long been endeavoring to curtail. This
keeps me at the drudgery of the writing-table all the prime
hours of the day, leaving for the gratification of my appetite
for reading, only what I can steal from the hours of sleep."
Later in the year he wrote Adams: "You ask if I would agree
to live seventy-three years over again? To this I say, yea.
I think with you, that it is a good world on the whole; that
it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and more
pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are, indeed (who
might say, nay), gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants
of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and
despairing of the future; always counting that the worst will
happen, because it may happen. To these I say, how much
pain have cost us the evils which have never happened! My
temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the
head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail;
but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. I have
often wondered for what good end the sensations of grief could
be intended. I wish the pathologists would tell us what is

the use of grief in the economy, and of what good it is the
cause, proximate or remote. There is a ripeness of time for
death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is reasonable
we should drop off, and make room for another growth.
When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish
to encroach on another. I enjoy good health; I am happy in
what is around me, yet I assure you I am ripe for leaving all,
this year, this day, this hour."

To Adams' reply on the utility of grief, Mr. Jefferson replied:
"You have exhausted the subject. I see that with the
other evils of life, it is destined to temper the cup we are to
drink." This same year he passed over to his eldest grandson,
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the management of his lands,
and of the fact writes: "I am indeed an unskillful manager
of my farms, and sensible of this from its effects, I have
now committed them to better hands, of whose care and skill
I have satisfactory knowledge, and to whom I have ceded
the entire direction. This is all that is necessary to make them
adequate to all my wants, and to place me at entire ease." In
one of his letters to John Taylor, May 28, 1816, he defined the
term republic—a government by its citizens in mass, acting
directly and personally according to rules established by the
majority; and every other government is more or less republican,
in proportion as it has in its composition more or less
of this ingredient of the direct action of the citizens. The
further the departure from direct and constant control by the
citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.
The Senate is less so than the House.

In the early part of 1817 Lieutenant Hall, of the British
Army, an intelligent traveler, visited Monticello, writing thereof
a beautiful description. Mr. Monroe also became President,
much to the delight of Mr. Jefferson, as he believed "twenty-four
consecutive years of republican administration would so
consecrate its forms and principles in the eyes of the people
as to secure them against the danger of a change." In a letter
to Dr. Stuart he wrote: "I hope the policy of our country
will settle down with as much navigation and commerce only
as our exchanges will require." He heartily approved of the
President's veto of the Internal Improvement Bill, and in a
letter to Adams, January 11, 1817, wrote: "Forty-three

volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear
sir, how I envy you! Half a dozen of octavos in that space
of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight
only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would
that time be indulged to me, could I by that light see to write.
From sunrise to one or two o'clock and often from dinner
to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all of this
to answer letters in which neither interest nor inclination on
my part enters; and often from persons whose names I have
never before heard. Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse
them civil answers. This is the burden of my life." Indeed,
when President his published writings included considerably
less than one-fiftieth part of his written letters.

In a letter to Burwell, March 14, 1818, upon female education,
he said: "A great obstacle to good education is the
inordinate passion prevalent for novels, and the time lost in
that reading which should be instructively employed. When
this poison infects the mind, it destroys its tone and revolts
it against wholesome reading." Even Scott's novels were not
to his taste, refusing to read them, and to accept either prose
or poetry of the romantic school, while he detested the middle-age
political civilization, especially the feudal system, just as
much as Scott admired them; he was the warm sympathizer
with common humanity as Scott was with kings and nobles.

The most absorbing topic, however, all this time was his
proposed University. On September 7, 1814, he submitted
to the president of the Board of Trustees of the Albemarle
Academy, Peter Carr, a lengthy report, incorporating his
educational views—the result of thirty years careful reflection
—plan of organization for the Academy, and the suggestion
of its possible expansion into a college with professional
schools, which as a complete document, defining general and
technical education, classification of the sciences, and professional
schools, may truthfully be claimed to represent the
"literary foundation" of the University of Virginia. Three
days later Mr. Jefferson forwarded a copy of this report to
Dr. Cooper, asking for such suggestions as might be available
through future amendments, and implied that his plan was maturing
fast. Peter Carr placed his copy, along with the petition
in behalf of the Academy needing legislative sanction, into

the hands of a legislator, who with inexplicable motive withheld
its publicity until January 5, 1815, when Mr. Jefferson
could refrain no longer from writing his loyal co-worker, Joseph
C, Cabell, then a member of the Senate: "Could the
petition which the Albemarle Academy addressed to our Legislature
have succeeded at the late session, a little aid additional
to the objects of that would have enabled us to have here immediately
the best seminary of the United States. I do not
know to whom Mr. Carr committed the petition and papers,
but I have seen no trace of their having been offered. Thinking
it possible you may not have seen them, I send for your
perusal the copies I retained for my own use. They consist
of letters to Mr. Carr and Dr. Cooper, and a petition of the
Academy trustees, requesting a change in the name—to Central
College—in the number, appointment, succession, duties
and powers of the Visitors, also the enactment of fixed principles
for its safe government and administration." In addition
the Academy desired the moneys from the sale of the
two glebes, and from the Literary Fund—that established in
1810 for the encouragement of learning, being created and
increased from certain escheats, penalties and forfeitures, and
augmented, at the suggestion of representative Charles Fenton
Mercer, by the amount of the Government's indebtedness
to the State for expenses incurred in the war of 1812. "They
are long, but as we always counted on you as the main pillar
of our support, we shall probably return to the charge at the
next session, the trouble of reading them will come upon you,
and as well now as then. In addition to the revenue asked,
if we could obtain a loan for four or five years of seven or
eight thousand dollars, I think I have it now in my power to
obtain three of the ablest characters in the world to fill the
higher professorships of what in the plan is called the second
or general grade of education; and for those of language and
mathematics, a part of the same grade, able professors doubtless
could also be readily obtained. With these characters I
should not be afraid to say that the circle of the sciences would
be more profoundly taught here than in any institution in the
United States, and I might go farther."

There seemed to be considerable opposition to so much legislation
in favor of the new institution—Central College—then

even recognized as the child of Mr. Jefferson, the great supposed
believer in heterodox religion, the true sainted apostle
of the Republican creed. The older colleges of the State—
William and Mary, Washington, Hampden-Sidney, etc.—were
all, as elsewhere, under orthodox regime, and dreaded a more
liberal thinking competitor, making it difficult to assuage
their staunch supporters and his political opponents. As a
result the act passed, February 14, 1816, did not afford all
that was desired, as it shared none of the Literary Fund advantages,
but otherwise conceded about what was hoped
for. Consequently a reorganization under the new name—
Central College—was soon effected, by the Governor (Nicholas)
appointing a distinguished Board of Visitors, consisting
of Mr. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Cabell, Cocke, Watson—
selected evidently on account of great ability, interest in education,
Mr. Jefferson's preference, and geographical convenience,
none residing beyond twenty-five miles of the institution
—a half day's ride—except Monroe, then President, when
temporarily away from his nearby home, "Ashlawn," on the
west side of Carter's Mountain.

At their first legal meeting, held at Monticello, May 5, 1817,
all present except Cabell and Watson, a lottery plan was approved,
subscription paper prepared, while Mr. Jefferson reported
the purchase from John Perry of two hundred acres
of suitable land, one mile west of Charlottesville, for the sum
of fifteen hundred dollars, and submitted tentative plans of the
proposed buildings—those that now exist in reality as the University
of Virginia—consisting of ten distinct two-storied
pavilions for the professors, arranged at equal distance apart
(about one hundred and twenty-five feet) on the longer side of
a rectangle, and connected by spans of ten one-storied dormitories
for the students. The construction was to be of brick
and stone—the pavilions to contain a schoolroom and accommodations
for the professorial family (?), the dormitory
rooms of sufficient size for two students—all to open upon a
covered colonnade, suggestive of the mediæval monastery, or
the modern academic village. As the plan contemplated low
buildings in long ranges, the funds in hand, forty-five thousand
dollars, could at once be turned to a beginning, and as these
increased, construction could be extended. During this first

meeting it also was determined to erect at once one of the
pavilions (fourth from Rotunda, West Lawn) and the attached
dormitories—twenty rooms, ten on either side—one of which
the writer occupied his second session. Progress was so satisfactory
that the Board of Visitors, as an entire body, attended
the laying of the corner-stone of the parent building,
October 6th, an event accentuated with great local eclat and
masonic honors. At a preceding meeting, July 28th, Dr. Samuel
Knox had been appointed professor of languages, but
having declined, the Board, on the day following the dedicatory
services, elected Dr. Thomas Cooper professor of chemistry,
etc., and directed two additional pavilions with attached dormitories
to be built. Just at this time there seemed to have
developed in the Legislature a very strong—possibly rival—
interest towards advancing all grades of education in Virginia.
The new source or faction was headed by Charles
Fenton Mercer, a delegate from Loudoun, a Federalist, a man
of culture and travel, who had drawn, 1811, the act, "To provide
for the education of the poor," and now, apparently without
any knowledge of Mr. Jefferson's plan, conceived a very
broad scheme of public education, to be aided by the Literary
Fund, to whose corpus large additions had been made through
his energy and efforts. He now proposed the following resolution
which was passed by the Legislature, February 24,
1816: "Be it resolved by the General Assembly, that the
President (Governor Nicholas) and Directors of the Literary
Fund be requested to digest and report to the next General
Assembly a system of Public Education, calculated to give effect
to the appropriations made to that object by the Legislature,
heretofore, and during the present session, and to comprehend
in such a system the establishment of one University,
to be called, "The University of Virginia," and such additional
Colleges, Academies, and Schools as shall diffuse the benefits
of education throughout the Commonwealth; and such rules
for the government of such University, Colleges, Academies,
and Schools as shall produce economy in the expenditures for
the establishment and maintenance, good order and discipline
in the management thereof."

This happened to be the first legislative sanction for the establishment
of a University of Virginia, and two days after

University—The Rotunda (North Front)

(Erected 1825-26, restored 1896-98, and showing ornate square, where formerly stood the Annex (Public
Hall), destroyed by fire, 1895)

FACING 92

its enactment, February 26th, Cabell wrote Mr. Jefferson: "I
think the passage of these two measures—(1) Mercer's on
education, (2) Increasing Literary Fund—unquestionably to
be ascribed in a great degree to the publication in the Enquirer,
on that very morning, of your letter to Peter Carr. But it may
be asked, why inquire of the President and Directors of the
Literary Fund for plans, when one so satisfactory is already
before the public? I will tell you. Appropriations abstracted
from their location are not easily obtained. Should the next
Assembly sanction the scheme of an university, you will see the
Lexington and Staunton interests striving to draw it away
from Albemarle, and the whole western delegation will threaten
to divide the State, unless this institution should be placed beyond
the (Blue) Ridge. Mr. Mercer will be an advocate for
a western site; the Federalists will favor Lexington, but I
think that Central College will triumph over them all. I am
pleased to think Governor Nicholas will be in office at the
commencement of the next session of the Assembly."

In accordance with the resolution of February 24th, Governor
Nicholas, desiring to make a creditable report, began at
once collecting necessary data, and soon applied to Mr. Jefferson,
the recognized authority on educational matters, for advice
and information, which were given both gladly and freely.
Mr. Jefferson emphasized the close resemblance between Mercer's
scheme and his own bills for the more general "Diffusion
of Knowledge" reported in 1776 and 1779, and for his detailed
view of education, professional and otherwise, list of subjects,
arrangement, departments, and professorships he referred him
to his comprehensive letter to Peter Carr, published several
months before. He also recommended that the buildings be
arranged as proposed for Central College—this village form
being preferable on account of fire, health, economy, peace and
quiet. Governor Nicholas thought that possibly some others
outside of his State might suggest something tangible for an
educational system if appealed to, consequently addressed, May
30, 1816, a "Circular Letter" to a number of well-known
educators—Dr. Thomas Cooper, Rev. Timothy Dwight, Dr.
Samuel Mitchell, J. A. Smith, President Monroe, etc.—all of
whom gave lengthy and painstaking replies, which were digested
into an able "Report of the President and Directors of

the Literary Fund," and presented to the Legislature, December
6th. Upon this Professor Herbert B. Adams makes the
following comment: "If Mr. Jefferson was not the author
of this entire report, his ideas pervade it from beginning to
end, and as Governor Nicholas sought his advice before all
others, just so he gave it preference. The official voice is the
Governor's, but the hand is Jefferson's."

In this report the general subject was subdivided into (1)
Primary Schools, (2) Academies, (3) an University, and this
system was based upon dividing the counties into townships,
each to support one primary school, in which should be taught
reading, writing and arithmetic—the Lancastrian method of
teaching being recommended. Boys when well-grounded in
these will be prepared to enter the next grade, academy,
teaching Latin, Greek, French, higher arithmetic, six first
books of Euclid, algebra, geography, elements of astronomy,
and the use of globes. Finally a university, "comprehending
in its teachings the whole circle of the arts and sciences, extending
to the utmost boundaries of human knowledge. The
peculiar conditions of Virginia must be studied, and the university
adapted to the needs of the people; it should have a
modest beginning; centrally and healthfully located; buildings
paid for out of the Literary Fund; fifteen visitors and nine
professors; there shall be educated, boarded and clothed, at
the public expense (Literary Fund) ten of the most deserving
and promising young men, who shall remain four years at the
University, and shall serve four years in the academy, if required;
there shall be seven fellowships—about the first offered
in this country—to be filled out of the most learned and meritorious
graduates of the University, who are to receive salaries
out of the Literary Fund, and teach four years in the academy,
if required. It is to these we ought to look for our supply
of teachers and professors, by which service to the youth of the
country, they will amply repay their own obligation for gratuitous
training. This will create a corps of self-sustained literary
men able to devote their whole time to science, thereby
enlarging its boundaries and infusing generally an inspiration
for the charms of literature and knowledge."

The report was destined to have its vicissitudes, being at
once referred to the Committee of the Whole, while the resolutions,

after receiving ten amendments, were ordered by Mercer
laid upon the table, January 12, 1817, and upon further
amendment—including a series of colleges—were presented,
February 3rd, as a bill, "Providing for the establishment of
an University." The Committee of Schools and Colleges reported
several bills, which, not being acted upon at a late hour
of the session, gave Mercer opportunity to hurriedly prepare
and present a suitable substitution, leaving out the site of the
University, that passed the House, February 18th, but failed
two days later in the Senate, by a tie vote, as half of the members
were absent, thus causing to be deferred for two years the
whole educational scheme. However, these various bills pertaining
to education were ordered by the Senate to be printed
in pamphlet form, entitled "Sundry Documents," for general
distribution throughout the State, in order that the public
might become thoroughly familiar with their various provisions.