University of Virginia Library

XII. Fight for Appropriations, Continued

There is an amusing side to the almost nervous eagerness
with which Cabell started in at once to discourage
his persistant co-worker at Monticello from looking upon
this second loan as simply a spur to another application
to the General Assembly for money. Jefferson's attitude
towards appropriations for the University was very
much in the spirit of the Frenchman's definition of gratitude:
he was never satisfied with what he was able to
drag out of the reluctant Legislature,—it was always the
favors to come, and not those already received, which he
kept in view. No one understood better than he how
much expenditure was required to complete the University
in the grand manner which he thought indispensable;
and his eye, therefore, was never withdrawn from the
future appropriation, however much he might be pleased
with the past one.

"It is the anxious wish of our best friends," wrote
Cabell, who was uneasily conscious of this peculiarity of
his correspondent, "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 successive applications for money to finish
the buildings give grounds of reproach to our enemies,
and draw our friends into difficulties with their constituents."
On March 10, he wrote again in the same strain.
The Legislature, he now hints, may indirectly force the
Board of Visitors to throw open the doors before the
University is completed, by requiring the unencumbered
part of the annuity to be reserved for the payment of the

salaries of the professors. "The popular cry," he adds,
"is that there is too much finery, too much extravagance."
In April, he was convinced that the University
had lost ground of late among the great body of the
people. How was the public confidence in the institution
to be restored and strengthened? "By a call upon all
the friends of literature and science in the State to see
that their influence was directed to the choice of the very
best men in each community for the next Assembly."
He repeated with alarm the censorious utterances of the
Presbyterians at Hampden-Sidney College, and of the
Episcopalians at the College of William and Mary. "I
learn that the former sect, or rather the clergy of that
sect, in their synods and presbyteries talk much of the
University. They believe, I am informed, that the
Socinians are to be installed at the University for the
purpose of overthrowing the prevailing religious opinions
of the country." It is quite possible that this preposterous
suggestion had its fountain-head, not so much with
the denomination to which it was attributed by rumor,
as with the opponents of further loans to the University
within the ranks of the General Assembly itself. Not
long after the session of 1821–22 began, Mr. Griffin, of
the House of Delegates, endeavored, in a private interview
with Cabell, to ascertain whether the University
would desist from asking for more appropriations, should
the Legislature consent to cancel its bonds. On that condition
alone would the debt be released. Cabell declined
emphatically to give the pledge, and his supporters in the
Assembly, anticipating Jefferson's indignation at such a
proposition, heartily approved his reply.

Whilst this tortuous and ceaseless struggle for State
assistance was going on, Jefferson was threatened with
disability in the use of the only weapon which he had at

his immediate disposal. When, during the session of
1821–22, Cabell asked him to write to numerous influential
members of the Assembly in support of the Unisersity,
he replied, "You do not know, my dear sir, how
great is my physical inability to write. The joints of my
right wrist and fingers, in consequence of an ancient dislocation,
are become so stiffened that I can write but at
the pace of a snail. The copying of our report and my
letter lately sent to the Governor, being seven pages, employed
me laboriously a whole week. The letter I am
writing has taken me two days. A letter of a page or
two costs me a day of labor, and of painful labor." But
this fact did not permanently curb his industry, or diminish
his assiduity in pushing the cause which he had so
closely at heart. Estimating in January, 1822, the
amount still required for the completion of the buildings
at $55,564, he started in to secure the release of the annuities
for the years 1822 and 1823 from the interest
charges imposed by the Legislature; and he even had
the quiet hardihood to ask for a substantial increase in
the allotted fifteen thousand dollars. In the meanwhile,
the obstacles which Cabell as spokesman had to overcome
grew more numerous and alarming. He still ascribed
many of the stones in his way to the influence of the
clergy. "William and Mary," he wrote in January,
1822, "has conciliated them. It is represented that
they are to be excluded from the University. ... I
have made overtures of free communication with Mr.
Rice, and shall take occasion to call on Bishop Moore.
I do not know that I shall touch on this delicate point
with either of them. But I wish to consult these heads
of the church and ask their opinions."

While Cabell, in this state of perplexity, was turning
from one group of opponents to another, in the hope of

bending them all to his purpose, he received a suggestion
from Jefferson which, for a short interval, shifted
his attention elsewhere. It appears that, during the war
of 1812–15, when the British, having landed on the
Patuxent, were threatening to invade the Northern Neck,
the State, not having time to obtain pecuniary assistance
from the National Government, borrowed a large amount
from the Richmond banks, upon which it had since been
compelled to pay a high rate of interest. After the war,
a claim was entered at Washington for the reimbursement,
not only of the principal, but of this interest also.
The principal was promptly paid, but not the interest.
It was the State's claim to the latter which Jefferson
hoped would be transferred in part at least to the University.
The accumulated interest due amounted to several
hundred thousand dollars; but so small was the
prospect of its being paid that Cabell said that an effort
to secure it was "like working for a dead horse." Nevertheless,
he was convinced that a petition for the appropriation
of this prospective fund was the only one which
the Assembly, at that time, would consider with favor.
"The members," he wrote in January (1822), "seem
liberal in giving lands in the moon. ... Some of our
friends are much dissatisfied with what is called the intended
Dead Horse bill; but all estimate it is better than
nothing."

But Jefferson and himself did not allow so precarious
a hope as this to keep them from pressing for some substantial
advantage from the General Assembly. In February
(1822), a bill was submitted which provided for
the suspension of interest on the loans during five years,
and also arranged for the final extinguishment of principal
and interest by means of the amount to be collected
from the Central Government. There was now a faction

in the Assembly which was urging the transfer to the
State treasury of the entire Literary Fund, on the ground
that the sum annually granted for the education of the
poor had been loosely spent; and this wing, combining
with those members who were opposed to giving aid to
the University, was successful in defeating, not only the
bill which would have liquidated the University's debt,
should the Government pay the interest claim, but also
the bill suggested by Jefferson, which, had it been enacted,
would have authorized the interest charge on the University
annuity to be temporarily suspended. Perhaps, the
Legislature was not so niggard as it appears to have been
from this action, for there was still a widely dispersed
report that economy had not been shown so far in the
erection of buildings; and that this wastefulness was
likely to continue.

Were the two co-workers disheartened? If so, only
for a very short period, for hardly had a new session
begun in December (1822) when Cabell decided to obtain
the General Assembly's consent to a loan of fifty
thousand dollars for the building of the Rotunda, and at
the same time to secure the passage of an Act that would
place the University's obligations on the footing of the
other debts of the Commonwealth, which would bring
about their ultimate extinction along with those debts.
"Let us have nothing to do with the old balances, or
dead horses, or escheated lands," he said to Jefferson,
"but ask boldly to be exonerated from our debts by the
powerful sinking fund of the State. This is manly and
dignified legislation, and if we fail, the blame will not
be ours."

William C. Rives, it seems, had already put the interrogatory
to Jefferson: "Which would you prefer, the
remission of the principal debt or an advance for the erection

of the Library?" Very emphatically and characteristically,
and shrewdly too, Jefferson replied,
"Without question, the latter. Of all things the most
important is the completion of the buildings. The remission
of the debt will come of itself. It is already remitted
in the minds of every man, even of the enemies
of the institution. ... The great object of our aim from
the beginning has been to make the establishment the
most eminent in the United States, in order to draw
to it the youth of every State, but especially of the
South and West. ... The opening of the institution in
a half state of readiness would be the most fatal step
which could be adopted. It would be an impatience defeating
its own object by putting on a subordinate character
in the outset, which never would be shaken off, instead
of opening largely and in full system. Taking our
stand on commanding ground at once will beckon everything
to it, and a reputation once established will maintain
itself for ages. To secure this, a single sum of fifty
or sixty thousand dollars is wanting. If we cannot get it
now, we will at another trial. Courage and patience is
the watchword."

This sagacious advice, accompanied by words so convincing
and so inspiriting, prevailed. Cabell wrote on
the 30th of the same month that the University's friends
in the General Assembly had agreed almost unanimously
to solicit a loan of sixty thousand dollars, and, for the
present, to cease all agitation in favor of the State's assumption
of the debt. "We propose," he said with a
politician's astuteness, "to move for one object at a
time in order not to unite the enemies of both measures
against one bill. Should we succeed in getting the loan,
we may afterwards try to get rid of the debt." The bill
authorizing the loan having passed the House, was

adopted by the Senate on February 5 (1823). During
the discussion in the House, William F. Gordon highly
distinguished himself in his advocacy of the measure; and
on February 10, he submitted a resolution calling upon
the Committee of Finance to report "the best means of
paying off the debts of the University"; but, the members
being of the opinion that enough assistance for the present
had been extended to the institution, it was rejected
by a large majority; and that majority was still larger
when a similar resolution, offered by George Loyall, was
voted upon the ensuing day. There was an impression
in the Assembly that the friends of the University were
asking for too much at one session, and this soon created
a disposition to censure and obstruct them; but, in selfdefense,
they urged, that, as they had found both the
House and the Senate more kindly disposed towards the
University than they had been during several years, it
seemed to be only the part of common sense to take the
utmost advantage of the prevailing and, perhaps, evanescent,
feeling.

Two days before the final passage of the bill, Cabell
had written to Jefferson, "We must never come here
again for money to erect buildings. ... Should the funds
fall short, I would rather ask for money hereafter to
pay off old debts than to finish the Library."[16] Cocke
advised that all these debts should be liquidated first,
and that, afterwards, the cost of the Rotunda should be
made to conform to such surplus as remained. Already
by March 24,—barely a month after the authority was
given to borrow sixty thousand dollars for the completion
of the buildings,—both Cabell and Cocke were apprehensive
lest the "old sachem" should be contemplating
another call upon the Legislature for financial aid.

"It appears to me," Cabell wrote to him, "that the plan
you have adopted of engaging for the hull of the Library
is a prudent one. I earnestly hope that the house may be
got in a condition to be used with the proceeds of the last
loan, and that we may be able to make this assurance to
the next Assembly when we apply for the remission.
Mr. Doddridge requested me to state that he had supported
this third loan, but that his patience was worn out,
and that another application could not and would not be
received. ... There is a powerful party in this State
with whom it is almost a passport to reputation to condemn
the plan and management of the University. ...
Perhaps, this may be the result of old political conflicts."

Some impression seems to have been made on Jefferson
by these half unreserved, half hinted remonstrances,
for his next step was to apply for the remission of the
interest on the loans. In the report for October 6, 1823,
he informed the General Assembly that the University
could be opened at the end of 1824, should the annuity,
in the meanwhile, be released from the burden of its incumbrances.
He intimated that, should this be refused,
no just reason for complaint would exist if the doors were
to continue tightly closed indefinitely. The charge for
interest on $180,000, the amount of the loans, would be
$10,800, and two or three thousand dollars more would
be required to keep the finished buildings in repair. As
this would leave a surplus of only about two thousand
dollars for the redemption of $180,000, it would be necessary
for an interval of twenty-five years to go by before
the principal could be expected even to approximate liquidation.
"This," Jefferson remarked, with dry sarcasm,
"is a time two distant for the education of any person

already born, or to be born for some time to come; and in
that period, a great expense will be incurred in the mere
preservation of the buildings and the apparatus."

In December (1823), Cabell was able to say with confidence
that there was a rising sentiment in the State
favorable to the remission, not simply of the interest, but
of the entire debt. This new feeling was to be attributed
either to impatience with Jefferson's patent determination
to keep the University shut up until it was fully completed,
or to admiration for his stubborn and disinterested
zeal in its behalf. Prematurely it would appear, Cabell
wrote, on the 29th, that the National Government had
finally passed affirmatively on the State's claim to interest
on the advances made during the war of 1812–15. Had
this been really so, there would have been added at once
to the principal of the Literary Fund an amount so large
as to produce a surplus in interest sufficient to supply the
University's needs in the way of books for the library and
apparatus for the laboratories. There was, during the
session of 1823–24, no prospect of obtaining a further
sum for building; but as the purchase of books and apparatus
would indicate an intention to throw open the
lecture-rooms at an early date, the General Assembly,
Cabell thought, might be willing to make an appropriation
for that purpose out of the surplus of the Literary
Fund. "Am I right in supposing," he inquired of Jefferson
in February, 1824, "that fifty thousand dollars,
payable in ten annual instalments, for the purchase of
books and apparatus, with a power to the Visitors to
anticipate the money for those purposes only, would be
a good measure next to be adopted? I am thinking of
it." "Perhaps," he writes three days later, "forty thousand
dollars would be more apt to succeed." Jefferson
was confident that not a cent less than the latter sum

would be required. While the two friends were debating
as to the exact amount to be asked of the General Assembly,
that body became so impatient for the University
to begin its career that, in January, 1824, it relieved the
Board of the obligation to pay interest on its bonds and
imposed the whole amount of that charge upon the surplus
revenue of the Literary Fund. This proved that
Jefferson had whirled his club with success; but how was
the fifty thousand dollars needed for the purchase of
books and apparatus to be obtained?

Cabell now sprang a stratagem on the Assembly, which
kindled an angry flame both without and within the walls
of the capitol. The Farmers' Bank, at this time, was petitioning
the General Assembly for the renewal of its
charter. Here was an opportunity to be pounced upon;
and this he promptly did with a glee which he was unable
to repress in his report to Jefferson. "I kept my secret
even from the Visitors, and my brother, and most intimate
friends," he said. The House of Delegates passed the
bill without requiring any proviso, but when it came up in
the Senate, he moved that the charter should only be renewed
on condition that the bank should pay the University
a bonus of fifty thousand dollars. Seventeen of
the Senators went over to his side; the rest bitterly opposed
him. Elsewhere also, as he expressed it, he stirred
up "a hornet's nest." The whole number of the stockholders,
debtors, directors, and officers combined, "in the
midst of a prodigious ferment," to combat and defeat
the proposition; and the majority in the Senate, under
this pressure from the outside, quickly fell away. In spite
of this fact, Cabell kept up the fight, but without success.
He found a dubious compensation for his failure
in the action of the General Assembly, on March 6, 1824,
in empowering the Board of Visitors to receive, for the

University's benefit, fifty thousand dollars of the money
which the National Government was expected to pay.

Before this sum could be collected it would be necessary
for him to concentrate on Congress the full force of
his extraordinary powers of persuasion. A bill, introduced
in the House of Representatives by James Barbour,
authorizing the payment of the interest as legally due,
had failed. Cabell endeavored in vain to prevail on
Jefferson to draft a memorial to that body to show how
this interest, should it be recovered, was to be spent.
The claim offered the only prospect of obtaining the
funds needed, for Cabell admitted that the General Assembly's
liberality was exhausted. He visited Washington
in April to press it, and on his arrival there, found
that it was in a state of suspension. A meeting of the
Virginia delegation was held, and Barbour was instructed
to bring the claim before the War Department, which
quickly recommended that Congress should settle it.
Monroe was now President, and Cabell wrote to him on
the subject, with full knowledge of his interest in the
University, and his willingness to assist it by every influence
that he could legitimately employ. Monroe was
now told that, so soon as Congress should recognize the
claim as just, the General Assembly would order an equal
amount to be advanced out of the Literary Fund, in anticipation
of its reimbursement by the Government.