University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS W. GILMER.

Dr Sir—I recd. by the last mail yours of Aug. 31.
I concur with you entirely in the expediency of
promoting as much as possible a sympathy between.
the incipient and the finishing establishments provided
for public education; & in the particular expedient
you suggest, of providing for a complete
education at the public expence of youths of distinguished
capacities, whose parents are too poor
to defray the expence. Such a provision made a
part of a Bill for the "Diffusion of knowledge," in the
code prepared by Mr. Jefferson Mr. Wythe & Mr. Pendleton,
between the years 1776, & 1779.[117] The bill
proposed to carry the selected youths thro' the several
gradations of schools, from the lowest to
the highest, and it deserves consideration, whether,
instead of an immediate transition from the primary
schools to the University, it would not be better to
substitute a preparatory course at some intermediate
seminary, chosen with the approbation of the parents
or Guardians. One of the recommendations of this
benevolent provision in behalf of native genius is, as
you observe, the nursery it would form for competent
teachers in the primary schools. But it may

be questionable whether a compulsive destination
of them to that service would, in practice, answer
expectation. The other prospects opened to their
presumed talents & acquirements might make them
reluctant, & therefore the less eligible agents.

As it is probable that the case of the primary
schools will be among the objects taken up at the
next session of the Legislature, I am glad to find
you are turning your attention so particularly to it
and that the aid of the Faculty is so attainable.
A satisfactory plan for primary schools, is certainly
a vital desideratum in our Republics, and is at the
same time found to be a difficult one everywhere. It
might be useful to consult as far as there may be opportunities,
the different modifications presented in
the laws of different States. The New England, N.
York, & Pennsylvania examples, may possibly afford
useful hints. There has lately I believe been a plan
discussed, if not adopted by the Legislature of Maryland,
where the situation is more analogous than that
of the more Northern States, to the situation of Virga.
The most serious difficulty in all the Southern States
results from the character of their population and
the want of density in the free part of it. This I
take to be the main cause of the little success of the
experiment now on foot with us. I hope that some
improvements may be devised, that will render it less
inadequate to its object; and I should be proud of
sharing in the merit. But my age, the unsettled
state of my health, my limited acquaintance with
the local circumstances to be accommodated, and

my inexperience of the principles dispositions and
views which prevail in the Legislative Body, unfit
me for the flattering co-operation you would assign
me. The task, I am persuaded, will be left in hands
much better in all those respects. . . .