University of Virginia Library

XIII. Degrees

It was announced in 1831, that no diploma was to be
given for less proficiency than a student of fair talents
could acquire after a course of two years' study. In the
beginning, this award was restricted to those who had
reached the first grade; the medals to those who had risen
to the second; and books to those who advanced to the
third. The diploma was the token of two degrees,—
the one, the doctorate, academic or professional; the
other, the plain graduate. In a very limited sense, the
doctorate was the degree of a curriculum, as a fixed
though short series of studies had to be mastered before
it could be won. This was especially true of it when
vocational. The term "graduate" was also considered
to have the character of a degree.[10] A student who had
successfully passed the examination in ancient languages,
or any other separate school, was as much entitled to the
designation "Graduate of the University of Virginia"
as if he had carried off diplomas in all the schools. It
was Jefferson's intention to confine the academic award
to the graduate diploma,—the academic doctorate
diploma was simply an advanced graduate diploma,—as
the one most in harmony with the conception which he
had of the University's purpose; namely, that it was to
be restricted to graduate work. No academic degrees in
the usual sense, and no honorary degrees, were to be
bestowed. In no particular, in our opinion, did his
judgment touching the affairs of the institution show
greater weightiness than in his determination to shut out
all the old degrees except the doctrinate, academical or
vocational. The academic degrees subsequently introduced,

—especially the mastership of arts,—were incongruous
with the spirit of the elective system, for they,
like the professional degrees, required a fixed curriculum,
and the industry of several years for their acquisition.
But beyond this, their practical influence on the mass of
students was unfortunate, for they tended to raise a small
number of them to a position of superiority over their
fellows, and thus accentuated the comparative failure of
the great majority. This influence was not without responsibility
for the extraordinary disparity in numbers
already pointed out between the students who had attended
one year and those who had attended two,—a disparity
which had its springs mainly in discouragement
and depression.

There was a perfect simplicity in Jefferson's arrangement
of awards for the vocational schools and the academical
schools. It is true that, in the beginning, the only
vocational degree given was the doctrinate of medicine,
but this inevitably set the precedent for the introduction
of the entire list of professional degrees, from that of
bachelor of law to that of civil engineer. It did not,
however, necessarily foreshadow the degrees of master
and bachelor of arts, and the numerous other academic
degrees that, from time to time, have been established
at the University. Had the academic award been permanently
limited to the diploma of graduation, whether
ordinary or advanced, it would have conferred on that
award a dignity which would have waxed with the constantly
increasing reputation of the institution; nor would
this dignity have been curtailed by the fact that it rested
as much upon the student who had acquired one diploma
as upon the student who had acquired ten, for both would
have stood upon the same high platform, inasmuch as
both would have been equally entitled to be called a

"Graduate of the University of Virginia." The academic
doctor would have been simply an advanced graduate
of the same institution.

The denial to the Faculty of the right to confer honorary
degrees is not so easily approved. The idea which
Jefferson had in mind was that every degree bestowed by
the institution should be a proof of merit which had been
exhibited in its own class-rooms alone. So long as that
was the rule, there would be no temptation whatever for
it to confer any degree except on the ground of what
had been laboriously acquired, and also of what was
acknowledged by all to be deserving of recognition. On
the other hand, in conferring purely honorary degrees,
there seemed to him to be room for the display of a far
less praiseworthy spirit. Political enthusiasm and sectarian
zeal might govern the Board in their choice rather
than disinterested appreciation of extraordinary talents
and achievements. A military hero and a sectional Congressman
have received the chaplet of the doctrinate in
many American institutions for accomplishments that lay
far outside of the scholar's pale. It is possible that
Jefferson was apprehensive lest the dignity of his new
seat of learning should, in the future, be lowered by an
occasional false step of this nature; but he was probably
more anxious to shut out the doctrinate of divinity than
the doctrinate of letters or laws. His distrustful attitude
towards honorary degrees was characteristic of a
man who had struck fiercely at all artificial distinctions,
and who was suspicious of men's disposition to create
them where they did not already exist. There was possibly
too an aristocratic flavor about honorary degrees
which made them distasteful to him. In reality, there
was no legitimate objection to such degrees if bestowed,
—as doubtless they would have been at the University,—

with the normal discernment and discretion. They are
awarded by all the world's greatest seats of learning in
a spirit which has only occasionally provoked censure.
The influence and prestige of the University of Virginia
would have been very much enhanced, and not at all
lessened, had Jefferson's revolutionary, and, in this particular
instance, eccentric, spirit not led him to reject so
old and so honorable a custom.[11]

Although the enactments of 1825 specifically provided
for a diploma, yet, during several years, the highest
award seems to have been a certificate of proficiency.
General John S. Preston, who was a student at the
University in 1828, tells us that, at this time, there were
no academic diplomas or degrees conferred. He received,
in the autumn of that year, certificates "which,"
he said, "I presented at Harvard, asking the position
of resident graduate. The rule required a diploma, but
with flattering compliments to the younger university, I
was installed as a resident graduate with the privilege
of a master of arts." William Wertenbaker, writing of
Poe, mentions that the poet obtained "distinctions at
the final examinations in Latin and French," and
that, at this time (1827), this was the highest honor
that a student could win. "Under present regulations
(1868)," he adds, "he would have graduated and been
entitled to a diploma."

Jefferson had not been dead more than fifteen months
when the Board of Visitors,—probably in response to a
rising sentiment in the Faculty,—instructed that body to

consider the advisability of altering the rule relating to
degrees, so far as to sanction the introduction of the
"ancient denomination of bachelor, master, and doctor."
Jefferson's plan of academic awards had been in harmony
with the Continental practice, about which he had learned
during his sojourn in Europe. On the other hand, the
tentative plan suggested by the Board was in unison with
the long established rule of Oxford and Cambridge; and
as there were four natives of England, and one former
subject (Tucker), among the members of the Faculty,
it is quite possible that these professors had earnestly advocated
its adoption some time before it was first considered
by the Visitors. Several years of debate and
agitation passed before the alteration was actually made.
Thus, in 1829, we find the Faculty, after prolonged deliberation,
recommending (1) that the graduate should be
one, who, by rigid examination, should demonstrate his
proficiency in any of the University courses; (2) that the
graduate in the School of Medicine should be awarded
the degree of doctor of medicine; (3) that there should
be an academic and a professional degree in the School of
Law,—the academic graduate should be entitled "graduate
of the School of Law," but his diploma should state
that the amount of information required to win it was
not sufficient to authorize the holder to become a member
of the bar; on the other hand, the professional graduate
should be entitled "barrister of law"; (4) that, if the
graduate in one or more schools should afterwards prove
that he had, by later study, become more highly versed
in such school, or schools, as the Faculty should designate,
he should receive a title of a higher quality. What was
to be the name of this new degree? Probably, the Faculty
had in mind a passing suggestion of Lomax's, who
recommended that the graduate in four schools should be
called "bachelor of science." None of these proposed
innovations, however, were adopted, at this time, by the
Board.

On July 9, 1831, Dr. Dunglison submitted a resolution
at a meeting of the Faculty urging the introduction
of the degree of master of arts. The two reasons which
he gave, in advocating this revolutionary addition, were,
that the proposed degree would (1) "afford parents and
guardians a guide in the selection of subjects of study";
and would (2) "keep the student longer at the University."
A few days afterwards, the Board, following the
expressed wish of the Faculty, but with a perceptible feeling
of uncertainty as to the wisdom of their own act,
authorized the use of the new degree,—not permanently,
but "for the present." The system of degrees as established
by the Enactments of 1831 stood as follows:
(1) the graduate,—the student who had proved his
mastery of an entire school, like mathematics, or a branch
of a school, like chemistry; (2) the winner of a certificate
of proficiency in some section of a school; (3) the doctor
of medicine; and (4) the master of arts,—the student
who had been awarded diplomas in ancient languages,
mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, and moral
philosophy. In 1833, modern languages was added to
this list, with the right reserved to the student to make his
choice of any two. The degree of bachelor of law had
not been adopted as late as 1839; indeed, it does not seem
to have been introduced until July, 1840.