University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER V

Thomas Jefferson—Father of the University of
Virginia

The Mercer Bill although similar to that of Mr. Jefferson's
had some notable exceptions: 1, The Board of Public Instruction
was authorized to accept the Anne Smith Academy,
for the education of females, and to provide for the erection
of not more than two other similar institutions, thereby introduced
female education at the public expense. 2, Four colleges
were proposed—Pendleton, Wythe, Henry, Jefferson,
and the three already existing, William and Mary, Washington,
Hampden-Sidney, might be received into this arrangement
at the option of their Trustees. 3, The Primary Schools
were to be established first, Academies second, Colleges third,
and the University last—then only if sufficient funds remained
after completing the preceding. These and several minor differences
rendered the bill in Mr. Jefferson's opinion decidedly
objectionable—much inferior to his plan of establishing Primary
Schools without taking a cent from the Literary Fund,
leaving it for founding Academies (Colleges) in every district
of eighty miles square, and finally an University centrally located.
He further believed that unless something less extravagant
be devised, the whole undertaking would fail, as the
Primary Schools alone would exhaust the entire funds, consequently
he set himself again at work to produce a more acceptable
single bill for the next session of the Legislature.

Mercer had now been elected to Congress, where he remained
twenty-one years, so he was out of the way, and likewise,
as it proved, was his bill. After a slow and painful
siege of writing Mr. Jefferson finished the so-called, "Jefferson's
Educational Bill of 1817-1818," which was forwarded,
October 24, 1817, to Cabell with these concluding words: "I
send you the result brought into a single bill, lest by bringing
it on by detachments some of the parts might be lost." This
bill abstracted largely from the plan enunciated in his comparehensive
letter to Peter Carr, September 7, 1814—dividing the
State into nine collegiate districts, each to have a college with
two professors, paid from the Literary Fund, and teaching
Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, English grammar,
geography, higher arithmetic, mensuration of land, use
of globes, and the ordinary elements of navigation; also an
University "in a central and healthy part of the State," whose
location should be determined by a board of eight visitors,
subject to approval by the Board of Public Instruction, unless
the State should decide to accept the present lands, buildings,
property, and rights of Central College, whenever its board of
visitors should authorize a transfer to the Board of Public
Instruction, for the purposes of an University. In this institution
should be taught history and geography—ancient and
modern—natural philosophy, agriculture, chemistry, theories
of medicine, anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geology,
mathematics—pure and mixed—military and naval science,
ideology, ethics, law of nature and nations, law—municipal
and foreign—science of civil government and political economy,
languages, rhetoric, belles-letters, and the fine arts generally—all
distributed to not more than ten professors."

In order to pave the way for this bill Mr. Jefferson submitted
shortly thereafter, January 6, 1818, to the speaker of
the House of Delegates the first report of the Trustees of
Central College, in which he recounted in detail its plans,
progress and prospects, taking care to emphasize "the want
of a seminary of general science in a healthy part of the State,
and nearly central to its population, for whose development the
resources at the command of the Legislature would alone be
adequate. By the Mercer bill of the last session, passed by one
branch and printed by the other, for public consideration, a

disposition appears to go into a system of general education,
of which a single University for the use of the whole State is
to be a component part. But observing that in the bill presented
to public consideration a combination of private and
public contributions has been contemplated, and considering
such an incorporation as completely fulfilling the view of our
institution, we undertake to declare that if the Legislature
shall think proper to proceed to the establishment of an University,
and to adopt for its location the site of the Central
College, we are so certain of the approbation of those for
whom we act, that we may give safe assurances of the ready
transfer to the State of all the property and rights of the Central
College, in possession or in action, towards the establishment
of such an University, and under such laws and provisions
as the Legislature shall be pleased to establish; and that
we ourselves shall be ready to deliver over our charge to such
successors, or such other organization, as the Legislature shall
be pleased to ordain, and with increased confidence of its success
under their care."

This was the first intimation, at least official proposal, to
convert Central College into the University of Virginia, a
proposition to thoughtful persons savoring of much reason and
advantage, as that institution was well-located, well-endowed
and well-underway, while its educational scope was to be of an
university character—that which the State so thoroughly
needed and desired. It would be far better, surely more economical,
to promote and sustain this than to establish another
de novo, only to become a strong and deadly rival—a fact that
Mr. Jefferson fully realized, and could not believe his people
would think otherwise when enlightened upon the conditions—
and yet he was conscious of needed diplomacy that his hopes
might succeed.

He wrote to Cabell, December 18, 1817: "I think you had
better keep back the general plan till this report is made, as
I am persuaded it will give a lift to that. Pray drop me a line
when any vote is passed which furnishes an indication of the
success or failure of the general plan. I have only this single
anxiety in the world. It is a bantling of forty years' birth
and nursing, and if I can once see it on its legs, I will sing
with sincerity and pleasure my nunc dimittas."

Mr. Jefferson was now seventy-five years of age, and though
all his efforts in the interest of local "Diffusion of Knowledge,"
extending over forty years, had been apparently without
results, yet he was enthused to a high degree in making
one more final trial. He wrote Cabell, December 31st: "I
have this morning sent to Mr. Madison a draft of the report
I promised you. When returned, I shall have to make out a
fair copy and send it the round for signature. You may,
therefore, expect it about the last of next week." This report
was placed in the hands of the Speaker, January 6, 1818, with
the request that it be communicated to the House in such form
as he thought best. Mr. Jefferson anxiously awaited a knowledge
of the impression it made upon the Legislature—"because
that shows how near we are to the accomplishment of a
good college, one that cannot but be thought of some value
to the State—and the urgency of their enabling us to complete
it."

Cabell wrote Mr. Jefferson, January 5, 1818: "It grieves
me to tell you that I think our prospects are by no means
flattering in the General Assembly. I shall not relax my
small exertions in this noble cause. I hunt assiduously around
me for every suggestion towards lessening the difficulties on
the branch of the primary schools. The hostile interests to
Central College—the Cincinnati Society, mostly Federalists,
and the Lexington people both favor Washington College;
the Staunton people, who have not only selected the site in
their midst for the University, but would have the capital
removed there from Richmond—have been constantly at work
producing some effect on the House of Delegates, now much
altered for the worse, with which I believe nothing can be
done. Again, the discordant opinions about the primary
schools seem irreconcilable. Efforts have been, and doubtless
will be made to convert this subject into a question between
the east and west side of the Blue Ridge. Judge Roane, Col.
Nicholas and others disapprove of your plan of an assessment
on the wards, believing the moneys should come out of the
Literary Fund, but that your mode of administration should
be kept up."

Mr. Jefferson wrote Cabell, January 14th: "A system of
general instruction which shall reach every description of our

citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest,
so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I
shall permit myself to take an interest. Nor am I tenacious of
the form in which it shall be introduced. Be that what it
may, our descendants will be as wise as we are, and will know
how to amend and amend until it shall suit their circumstances.
Give it to us, then, in any shape, and receive for
the inestimable boon the thanks of the young, and the blessings
of the old, who are past all other services but prayers for
the prosperity of their country and blessings to those who
promote it." This letter Cabell had published in the Richmond
Enquirer, February 10th, and while the "enlightened
few" read it with sympathy and fervor, yet it failed to attract
many legislators to the support of the bill. The House of
Delegates really preferred a small appropriation for educating
the poor from the Literary Fund, and the rest of it devoted
to paying the State's debts. It rose, however, to the demands
of the occasion, by accepting a compromise between the highest
and lowest forms of education—Hill's substitute for Mr.
Jefferson's bill.

On January 22nd, Cabell wrote Mr. Jefferson: "I have
read the bill and am greatly disappointed. Indeed, sir, the
prospect before us is dreary." Three weeks later he wrote in
a more cheerful strain: "When the school bill came up in
the Senate we engrafted upon it a provision for an University,
and it has passed, February 21st, in the form of the enclosed
with one small exception. The bill gives forty-five thousand
dollars per annum to the poor, and fifteen thousand to the
University—this latter amount being continued for nearly
sixty years as the State's sole annuity. The Governor and
Council shall choose one commissioner from each Senatorial
District in the State, who, as a body, shall meet at Rockfish
Gap, August 1, 1818, and sojourn from place to place and
time to time; that they shall report to the next Assembly the
best site, plan, etc., and the next Assembly will have the whole
subject in their power. We have fifteen districts (out of the
possible twenty-four) on this side of the Ridge, and I think
we are safe in the hands of the Executive. The appointment
of the commissioners is now a subject of infinite importance to
us. The Executive, I think, will do us justice. Our policy

is to invest all our funds (Central College) in buildings, and
get them as far advanced by August as possible." Truly Mr.
Jefferson needed no reminder for this, as he had time and
again expressed the same aim—to make the greatest progress,
then have the Legislature adopt and further it.

The University of Virginia was no longer a dream—its
existence had been decided upon definitely, but where it should
exist was still, as it always had been the disturbing and unsettled
question—one that Mr. Jefferson determined should
be influenced towards his choice location, Central College,
with all the reason, logic and personal magnetism he possessed.
The contest was to be with the Commissioners and
also the next Legislature, and in both assemblies Mr. Jefferson
proposed to meet manfully the pending issue. Of the
twenty-four commissioners only three were absent from the
meeting, August 1st, at the tavern in Rockfish Gap—that
between Albemarle and Augusta counties, through which the
turnpike to the West passes—now the summer resort, "Afton
or Mountain Top."

Besides the President of the United States, Mr. Monroe,
and his two predecessors, Mr. Jefferson and Madison, nearly
all the others were distinguished men—judges, statesmen,
lawyers, etc.—"yet it was remarked by the lookers-on, that
Mr. Jefferson was the principal object of regard both to the
members and spectators; that he seemed to be the chief mover
of the body—the soul that animated it; and some who were
present, struck by these manifestations of deference, conceived
a more exalted idea of him on this simple and unpretending
occasion than they had ever previously entertained." He was
elected unanimously President of the meeting, and, after some
discussion, Chairman of a Committee of six, to report on all
the duties assigned the Commission by the Legislature, except
that of the site—that being left to the legislative body. However,
at the same time this point was discussed liberally, each
of the three places proposed, Lexington, Staunton, Central
College, being recognized as located in equally healthy and
fertile districts, but Mr. Jefferson added much weight to his
favorite, by exhibiting "an imposing list of octogenarians,"
and by demonstrating with figures and charts its approximate
centrality in territory and white population.

Although absolutely fair in his bearings, statements and
conclusions some criticism followed the manner of drawing
his transverse lines so as to intersect at Charlottesville—the
beginning of his westerly line being the mouth of the Chesapeake
Bay, a point much nearer the southern than the northern
state boundary—but he defended his position by the statement:
"the greatest part of what is north is water." This
line was not drawn due west, as the northern state boundary
was north of northwest, but discreetly balancing his geography,
followed the line of "equal division of the population."
For his north and south line of population, he paralleled the
Blue Ridge, running southwest and northeast. Mr. Jefferson
afterwards affirmed: "Run your lines in whatever direction
you please, they will pass close to Charlottesville." Be that
as it may, he apparently had little trouble in winning the Assembly
at Rockfish Gap, for when the vote was taken, sixteen
stood for Central College, three for Lexington, and two for
Staunton—an expression of opinion which the Committee was
instructed to include in the report unanimously adopted, August
3rd.

The following day two copies were signed by the entire
Commission present, in readiness for the Speakers of the
House and Senate. The report as an entirety was lengthy,
elaborate and comprehensive, being prepared with careful
thought, no doubt by Mr. Jefferson, prior to the meeting. It
defined the object of primary and higher education, the relation
of the State to science, the relation of education to morals
and religion, the advantage of modern languages and Anglo-Saxon,
the necessity of bodily exercise and manual training,
and finally enumerated the many objects to be taught in a
masterly manner, arranged for ten professors.

At the beginning of the next Legislative session, Cabell
was in Richmond, as usual, attending to his Senatorial duties,
chiefly those pertaining to the University. Mr. Jefferson
forwarded to him the report, November 20th, stating it the
opinion of the Commissioners, "that it should be delivered
to each speaker in the chair on the second morning of the
session."

In a letter to Mr. Jefferson, December 8th, Cabell wrote:
"The report was read, and received with great attention in

University—East Wing of Rotunda, with Terrace Walks Above

(Looking southward)

FACING 102

both the Houses, and a resolution to print a number of copies
passed each House. The ability and value of the report I am
informed are universally admitted. It was referred in the
lower house to a select committee, and the speaker is friendly
to the measure. A portion of the Assembly will be opposed
to the whole subject, and how far a combination between this
part and the Lexington interest may jeopardize the measure,
I cannot now determine. All that I can now positively affirm
is, that the clouds seem to be scattering, and the prospect to
smile."

Just as was apprehended and feared, opposition to Mr. Jefferson's
university scheme did not abate in the Legislature, as
shown by Cabell's letter, December 24th: "There is a decided
majority of the Committee in favor of the Central College;
but the Eastern members are less attentive than the
Western. The friends of Lexington wish to have the clause
of location reported with a blank, discredit your calculations,
seek to reinforce their claims, so that the hostile interests are
daily acquiring new force by intrigue and management. The
party opposed altogether to the University is growing so
rapidly we have just grounds to fear a total failure of the
measure." Some believed the Literary Fund was to be diverted
from its original object—to educate the poor, and that
the rich were to receive its benefits. Others thought Charlottesville
too small for a university town, neither attracting
nor furnishing polished society for either professors or students,
and incapable of supplying accommodations and police
authority for governing a large number of young men. The
friends of William and Mary College demanded five thousand
dollars annually for their concurrence—that which Cabell
spurned, preferring to lose the bill, and, in spite of precarious
health, braved all the objections, by not relinquishing in the
least his efforts towards quieting the turbulent waters and
converting legislators to his way of thinking. As he put it:
"I passed the night in watchful reflection and the day in
ceaseless activity." He wrote to liberal minded men in the
belligerent districts importuning influence upon their representatives;
prepared letters for the Enquirer, calculated to
move public sentiment in favor of his cause; published Mr.
Jefferson's able defense and explanation of the true center of

population, and by skilful tactics at last won over the majority
to his opinion. Early in January, 1819, he wrote Mr. Jefferson:
"Happily sir, a counter-current has been produced, and
I am now confident of ultimate success. Our friends are at
last aroused, and are as ardent as you could desire, so that
our policy now is to keep back the vote as long as possible."
Again he wrote, January 18th: "Grateful, truly grateful is
it to my heart, to be able to announce to you the result of this
day's proceedings in the House of Delegates. In Committee
of the Whole the question was taken, after an elaborate discussion,
on the motion to strike the Central College from the
bill, and was lost by a vote of 114 to 69. This is a decisive
victory." Just then one of the western opponents, Baldwin
of Augusta, arose to the occasion, and expressed eloquently:
"I have supported Staunton as long as there was any hope of
success, but now I implore this body to sacrifice all local prejudice
and sectional feeling, in order to have unanimity of action
—let us unite with the majority in support of the bill." And
as he wished, so it was—an overwhelming victory for Mr.
Jefferson's cause. Cabell had been suffering two days before
from hemorrhage of the lungs, "brought on by exposure to
bad weather and loss of sleep," and left the House just prior
to the final vote in order, "to avoid the shock of feeling which
I should have been compelled to sustain. But I am told the
scene was truly affecting. A great part of the House was in
tears, and, on the rising of the House, the Eastern members
hovered around Mr. Baldwin—some shook him by the hand,
others solicited an introduction. Such magnanimity in a defeated
adversary excited universal applause. The discussion
must have produced a considerable effect." In the Senate the
bill was known to be safe, where it passed by a vote of 22 to
1, January 25th, thus chartering the University of Virginia
and adopting Central College as her site. Her seal—
"Minerva enrobed in her peplus and characteristic habiliments
as inventress and protectress of the arts"—bears this
birth year, 1819, but six long, perplexing years elapsed before
she was opened formally (1825) to the reception of students.

Although in this great struggle Mr. Jefferson was the
power behind the throne, yet Cabell had been the watchdog
and fighter—better pacifier—who could have accomplished

alone much that he did, but Mr. Jefferson nothing. At the
same time Cabell even was powerless without the hearty cooperation
of the many—indeed denied the timely voice of the
intrepid Baldwin, who can predict the fate of the almost forlorn
hope? Cabell graciously paid tribute to a few of those
worthies—Brooke, Brockenbrough, Cabell, Gilmore, Green,
Hoomes, Nicholas, Nicholson, Minor, Pannill, Rice, Roane,
Ritchie, Scott, Slaughter, Stanard, Taliaferro, Taylor, etc.—
but scores of others unnamed, came in for a large share of the
unbounded credit. Before the great world the line has to be
drawn somewhere, as in martial battles—simply with Xenophen,
Wellington, Napoleon, Washington, irrespective of possibly
as large or larger factors—so here we must attribute
results to Mr. Jefferson and Cabell—that which, however, the
great majority accepts as alone the work of Mr. Jefferson.

Mr. Jefferson congratulated Cabell, January 28th, on the
passage of the bill, expressed concern about the funds needed
at once for furthering the construction of buildings, and inquired,
"If the Legislature would not give the University
the derelict portions offered to the pauper schools and not accepted
by them," the unclaimed dividends of which would enable
the University "to complete its buildings, and procure
its apparatus, library, etc." Cabell in his reply, February 4th,
disapproved of mentioning at that session of the Legislature
anything more pertaining to the University, as he and many
others believed it best to rest quietly on what had been accomplished,
mollify the asperities of the contest, and thereby
gather good friends and opinions for the institution. The
financial side will stand a much better show next session. "Let
well enough alone; we have got possession of the ground, and
it will never be taken from us."

The first Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia—
Jefferson, Madison, Cabell, Cocke, Breckenridge, Johnson,
Taylor—met March 29th, when Dr. Thomas Cooper was appointed
professor of chemistry, mineralogy and natural philosophy,
and the purchase of additional land from John Perry was
decided upon; Mr. Jefferson was chosen Rector—a position
retained until death—and owing to close identity with the
cause, ambition for early completion, general information,
broad experience, familiarity with education, fondness for the

work and proximity thereto, his associates gladly entrusted to
him practically the entire management of affairs. He from now
on was the University's architect, constructor, supervisor, inspector
and administrator—giving his unstinted time in looking
after the minutest details. If he had no desire for "building
better than he knew," he certainly had a pride in producing
the best he knew—something beyond that already existing
in this country, possibly the world. He realized that
"Virginians would never be pleased with anything on a small
scale," that here he must be equal to expectations, that his institution
must be a source of attraction to professors, students,
visitors, far and near, and by "the extent and splendor of
the establishment" win for it, as actually was the case, staunch
friends and ardent supporters. At the very outset, with a keen
sense of the sublime and beautiful, he determined to carry into
practice there what this later day Municipal Art Societies are
endeavoring wisely to impress upon communities—the value
of good object lessons for refining taste and character—that
the various pavilions should present the several types of
architecture, and in order that the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
capitals to the stately columns might have their imposing
place, Italian stone cutters were brought over for the service,
but, owing to the indifferent Virginia marble, they returned
and carved seventeen in Italy from its excellent white marble,
which to-day remain as originally placed, being among the
most unique and instructive attractions to both young and old
at the University.

The drawings and plans submitted by Mr. Jefferson met the
approval of the Visitors, with the exception of Cabell, who,
also possessing a resourceful mind from home and foreign
training, did not hesitate to make such suggestions thereto
as seemed to him wise and best. Thus he believed that some
other architectural style should be adopted for the hotels and
ranges, than that selected for the pavilions and lawns; that
the flat roofs would leak and require renewal every six years;
that the classroom in each pavilion—now the professor's parlors—should
be abandoned in favor of a central recitation
building having rooms of varying capacity to suit different
size classes, thereby releasing the pavilions to the sole use of
the professors' families. He did not agree with Mr. Jefferson

that the professors would all be, and ever remain, unmarried,
like the English college tutors, and need only rooms for the
literary side of life. In this he was not mistaken, and in some
of the other directions his opinions modified and partly prevailed,
giving a decided shade to final results. For the construction
of this beautiful mental creation Mr. Jefferson sadly
realized the want of the one great essential—money—that
which must have an early vision, provided the University was
to materialize in his day. Despite funds and equipment he at
first believed the institution might begin its "Diffusion of
Knowledge" in a modest way that year (1819)—an opinion
he soon abandoned as absolutely impractical—consequently
at the first meeting of the Visitors it was determined to push
forward the work upon the pavilions and dormitories until all
of the then available means were exhausted.

Cabell was still in the Senate and happily was in perfect
accord with Mr. Jefferson upon the financial policy to be
adopted for promoting and maintaining the University. They
decided the first effort should be directed towards getting specific
appropriations from the Legislature, but failing in that,
then endeavor to secure its sanction for borrowing as much
as possible of the Literary Fund, paying interest thereon from
the University's annual endowment of fifteen thousand dollars.
Mr. Jefferson communicated to Cabell, January 22, 1820, the
need of eighty thousand dollars for completing the proposed
buildings, and the House of Delegates at once rejected a bill
for this, and another for half the amount, but passed one,
February 24th, allowing the use of sixty thousand dollars of
the Literary Fund, under the restrictions already suggested.
The appointment of Dr. Thomas Cooper, October 7, 1817,
professor in Central College—duties to be assumed only when
the institution was equipped sufficiently—gave rise, as the
months rolled by, to much unfavorable comment, but when it
became generally known that he was to be retained in the
University under similar conditions criticism grew pronounced
and defiant. Mr. Jefferson, August 22, 1813, wrote Adams:
"The fate of my letter to Priestley, after his death, was a
warning to me on that of Dr. Rush; and at my request, his
family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original
letter and syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much

interest I take in keeping myself clear of religious disputes before
the public; and especially of seeing my syllabus disembowelled
by the Aruspices of the modern Paganism. Yet I
enclose it to you with entire confidence, free to be perused by
yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and to be returned
to me. You are right in supposing, that I had not
read much of Priestley's `Predestination,' his no-soul system,
or his controversy with Horsley. But I have read his `Corruptions
of Christianity,' and `Early Opinions of Jesus,'
over and over again; and I rest on them, and on Middleton's
writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to Waterland,
as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been
answered, nor can be answered by quoting historical proofs,
as they have done. For these facts, therefore, I cling to their
learning, so much superior to my own." To this might well
be added here what another eminent writer has said pertinent
to this subject: "There would be much less obscurity and
misunderstanding about Mr. Jefferson's religious views if people
would take him at his word and in the light of his relations
to Priestley and Cooper. All three were Unitarians." No
institution can defy the universal denunciation of the clergy
of its State, and least of all a new one, like the University,
whose creation had suffered already such cantankerous sentiments
as to embarrass its promoters. Under the circumstances
there certainly was only one alternative—to accept, as the Visitors
did, Dr. Cooper's resignation, tendered in full knowledge
of the prevailing criticism and in the following spirit: "I regret
the storm that has been raised on my account, for it has
separated me from many fond hopes and wishes. Whatever
my religious creed may be, and perhaps I do not exactly know
it myself, it is pleasure to reflect that my conduct has not
brought, and is not likely to bring, discredit to my friends.
Wherever I have been, it has been my good fortune to meet
with, or to make ardent and affectionate friends. I feel persuaded
I should have met with the same lot in Virginia had
it been my chance to have settled there, as I had hoped and
expected, for I think my course of conduct is sufficiently habitual
to count on its effects." This was equally a great blow
to Mr. Jefferson, who wrote: "I do sincerely lament that
untoward circumstances have brought on the irreparable loss
of this professor, whom I looked to as the cornerstone of our
edifice. I know no one who could have aided us so much in
forming the future regulations for our infant institution; and
although we may perhaps obtain from Europe equivalents in
science, they never can replace the advantages of his experience,
his knowledge of the character, habits, and manners of
our country, his identification with the sentiments and principles,
and high reputation he has obtained in it generally."
At one of the early meetings of the Visitors it was decided
to engage George Ticknor, of Boston, as professor of modern
languages, and Nathaniel Bowditch, of Salem, professor of
mathematics, but unfortunately both declined, having already
accepted satisfactory positions elsewhere. Mr. Jefferson wrote
Adams, July 19th: "I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has
safely returned to his friends; but should have been much more
pleased had he accepted the Professorship in our University,
which we should have offered him in form. Mr. Bowditch,
too, refuses us; so fascinating is the vinculum of the dulce
natale solum. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can
be found, like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement
in their respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the
first order to natives of the second, we shall certainly have to
go for several of our Professors to countries more advanced
in science than we are." Again he wrote Adams, August
15th: "Our University, four miles distant, gives me frequent
exercise, and the oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan
is unique, and it is becoming an object of curiosity for the
traveler. I have just read its critique in your North American
Review, having not been without anxiety to see what that able
work would say of us; and I am relieved on finding in it
much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms were
indulged, I found they would have been obviated had the development
of our plan been fuller." During all these months
there was not the slightest cessation in building, and in late
November Mr. Jefferson forwarded his report to the Governor,
in which he estimated the entire cost of the institution,
exclusive of the library, at one hundred and sixty-two thousand
dollars, and made further appeal to the Legislature by
referring to the good example of New York, concluding thus:
"Surely the pride as well as the patriotism of our Legislature
will be stimulated to look to the reputation and safety of their
own country (State), to rescue it from the degradation of
becoming the Barbary of the Union and of falling into the
ranks of our own negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking.
We shall be in the hands of other States, what our indigenous
predecessors were when invaded by the science and
arts of Europe. The mass of education in Virginia before
the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her sister colonies.
What is her education now? Where is it? The little
we have we import like beggars from other States; or import
their beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And
what is wanted to restore us to our station among our competitors?
Not more money from the people. Enough has
been raised by them, and appropriated to this very object. It
is that it should be employed understandingly, and for the
greatest good." He also recommended again, with equal
failure, the establishment of the common schools upon a self-supporting
basis, in order to liberate the entire Literary Fund
for the University's promotion. Cabell wrote him, January
18, 25, 1821: "The general impression here is that we shall
be able to effect nothing for the University during the present
session. It is now my serious intention to withdraw from
the Legislature. My object is domestic, rural, and literary
leisure."

To these letters Mr. Jefferson replied: "They fill me with
gloom as to the disposition of our Legislature towards the
University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened.
I think we had better not open the institution until the buildings,
library and all, are finished, and our funds cleared of
incumbrance, which must be infallibly at the end of thirteen
years, and as much earlier as an enlightened Legislature shall
happen to come into place. Even with the whole funds we
shall be reduced to six professors, while Harvard will still
prime it over us with her twenty professors. How many of
our youths she now has, learning the lessons of Anti-Missourianism,
I know not, but a gentleman lately from Princeton told
me he saw there a list of the students at that place, and that
more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no
doubt, deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our holy
alliance of Restrictionists." Thus in the midst of his all-absorbing

University work, his one chief ambition for her was
revealed—a service towards impressing and inculcating his
political principles upon future generations. In this same letter
he also discussed another loan of sixty thousand dollars,
and upon Cabell's suggestion wrote to General Breckenridge
a public letter upon the subject, showing no preference and
taking no imputations: "I learn with deep affliction, that
nothing is likely to be done for our University this year. So
near as it is to the shore that one shove more would land it
there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes
of our country may depend more than may meet the general
eye. The reflections that the boys of this age are to be the
men of the next; that they should be prepared to receive the
holy charge which we are cherishing to deliver to them; that in
establishing an institution of wisdom for them, we secure it
to all our future generations; that in fulfilling this duty,
we bring home to our bosoms the sweet consolation of seeing
our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of
high promise; these are considerations which will occur
to all; but all, I fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which
is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. I fear our divisional
line will never be obliterated, and we are permitting
our sons to be trained by those opposed to us in position and
principles. If we send three hundred thousand dollars a year
to the northern seminaries, for the instruction of our own sons,
then we must have there five hundred of our sons, imbibing
opinions and principles in discord with those of their country.
This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and if not
arrested at once, will be beyond remedy. I have brooded, perhaps
with fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to
me the hope of continuing to be useful while I continue to live.
I had believed my life to be of some favorable service to the
outset of the institution. But this may be egotism; pardonable,
perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my colleagues
and successors will do so well, whatever the Legislature
shall enable them to do." As hoped and intended this
letter made such a powerful hit, that the House of Delegates
appropriated another sixty thousand dollars from the Literary
Fund for the University, and Cabell immediately wrote Mr.
Jefferson: "It is the anxious wish of our best friends, and of
no one more than myself, that the money now granted may be
sufficient to finish the buildings. We must not come here
again on that subject. These suggestive applications for
money to finish the buildings, give grounds of reproach to our
enemies, and draw our friends into difficulties with their constituents.
I hope the buildings may be ready by next winter.
The popular cry is that there is too much finery and too much
extravagance."

The great trouble arose from the fact of the House being
a severely practical body, preferring to provide only for present
needs in the simplest form, while Mr. Jefferson desired
to create an unique and ornate temple of education, a pride
for all time to himself, the cause, and the State—a sentiment
the Senate, a more enlightened body, shared and felt willing
to promote. Although this Legislative antagonism abated
somewhat, it continued sufficient to do the University great
harm, as in time it spread to the general public. While the
Dr. Cooper episode should have ceased irritating the Presbyterians
at Hampden-Sidney, and the Episcopalians at William
and Mary, yet the general clergy continued to believe and proclaim
that the Socinians were to be installed at the University
in order to overthrow the prevailing religious opinions of the
country.

Mr. Jefferson wrote Cabell, September 30th: "The Proctor
has settled for six pavilions, one hotel, and thirty-five dormitories,
and will proceed with the rest; so that I hope, by our
next meeting, the whole of the four rows will be nearly settled."
To this Cabell replied, November 21st: "I am at this
time inclined to think I would ask nothing of the present Assembly.
I would go on and complete the buildings, and at
another session make the great effort to emancipate the funds.
I will heartily co-operate in such measures as your better
judgment will propose."

At a meeting of the Visitors, November 30th, a financial
arrangement was agreed upon, a ground-plat of the buildings
ordered engraved and copies made for sale, while it was further
decided to engage a painter to draw a perspective view of
the upper level of the buildings, and to join other seminaries
in a petition to Congress for a repeal of the duty on imported

books—thereby becoming one of the first in this respect, as
she has since in many others, to relieve literature and science
of unwise burdens. The annual report adopted at this meeting,
to go before the Legislature, contained a full summary
of all expenditures and likely monetary needs, also a defense
of the style and scale of the buildings, claiming them to be
"proportioned to the respectability, the means, and the wants
of our country, and such as will be approved in any future
condition it may attain. We owed to it to do, not what was to
perish with ourselves, but what would remain, be respected,
and preserved through other ages." Cabell, January 3, 1822,
reminded Mr. Jefferson of the unchanged attitude of the Senate
and House towards the University—the one body so
friendly, the other so hostile—and that he refused to sanction
the proposition of the House in wishing the Senate to pledge
the University "never to apply for any further appropriation,
if the Legislature would consent to cancel the University
bonds."

Now the colleges had begun to seek appropriations, and,
being more popular than the University, had to be conciliated,
while the clergy continued antagonism, claiming they were
to be excluded from the University. As financial relief for
the University was all important, Mr. Jefferson thought possibly
that the Government might be willing to pay the arrears
of interest, amounting to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
on the amount borrowed from the State for war defence,
etc. (which principal now constituted the greater portion of
the Literary Fund), and if so, it might be divided between the
colleges and the University; he also desired a suspension for
four or five years of the interest payments by the University
on its debts. Cabell desired more money from the Literary
Fund, although he preferred the cancelling of the University's
bonds, and after persistent effort during the entire session,
realizing near its close that no aid would be forthcoming,
wrote Mr. Jefferson, February 11th: "My patience was
nearly exhausted, and I felt an inclination, almost irresistible,
to return to my family. I remembered, however, the great
interests at stake, and chided my own despondency. Would
it be believed in future times that such efforts are necessary
to carry such a bill for such an object! I attribute the result

to the idea of extravagance in the erection of the buildings,
which has spread far and wide among the mass; and even
among a part of the intelligent circle of society."

Mr. Jefferson wrote Dr. Waterhouse, June 26th: "I have
received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation
of the abuses of tobacco and wine. I expect it will
be a sermon to the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate
these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present
day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God.
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness
of man: 1. That there is one only God, and he is perfect.
2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
3. That to love God with all your heart and thy neighbor as
thyself, is the sum of religion. These are the great points on
which he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews. But
compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin: 1.
That there are three Gods. 2. That good works, or the love
of our neighbor, are nothing. 3. That faith is everything, and
the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in
its faith. 4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use. 5.
That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to
be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes
of the former can damn them; no virtue of the latter save.

Now which of these is the true and charitable Christian?
He who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus, or
the impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily
I say these are the false shepherds, mere usurpers of the
Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the
deliria of many imaginations, as foreign from Christianity
as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies produce infidels,
but had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure
as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would
now have been Christian. I rejoice that the genuine doctrine
of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a
young man now living in the United States who will not die
an Unitarian." In a letter to Adams, June 27th, he wrote:
"I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, when I
found those received year before last to be twelve hundred
and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate
research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration.

University—West Lawn

(Looking northward)

FACING 114

Is this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse,
who sees no end to his circle but in death. To such a
life, that of a cabbage is paradise." Again, November 1st,
"While in Europe I formed, undoubtedly, the opinion that
our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a naval
force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on
this subject we communicated together, as you observe. When
I returned to the United States and took part in the administration
under General Washington, I constantly maintained
that opinion, and reported to Congress in favor of a force
sufficient to protect our Mediterranean commerce. I thought
afterwards, that the public safety might require some additional
vessels of strength, to be prepared and preserved in
readiness in dry docks, above the level of the tide waters, covered
with roofs, but clear of the expense of officers and men.
But the majority of the Legislature (Congress) was against
any addition to the navy, and the minority, although for it in
judgment, voted against it on the principle of opposition."

To this letter Adams replied: "I have always imputed to
you the measures of Congress ordering the four ships built
and the appointment of their captains, for carrying an ambassador
to Algiers to protect our commerce in the Mediterranean.
I did this for several reasons: First, because you frequently
proposed it to me while we were at Paris, negotiating
together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly, because
I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only
indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary
of the Navy; only four heads of department. I have
always suspected that you and Knox were in favor of a navy,
but Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment,
yet his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your
opinion, for I know he had great regard for you, might induce
him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even though Bradford
united with Hamilton in opposition to you. I have always
believed the navy to be Jefferson's child, though Knox may
have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton's hobby
was the army."