University of Virginia Library

TO FREDERICK BEASLEY.

Revd. Sir, I have just received your letter of the
13th, on its return from Charlottesville, and wish
I could gratify you with all the information it asks.
In place of it, I can only observe that the System
of Polity for the University of Virginia being not
yet finally digested & adopted I cannot venture to
say what it will be in its precise form and details.
It is probable that instead of a President or Provost,
as chief magistrate, the superintending & Executive
duties, so far as not left to the individual Professors
over their respective Classes, will be exercised by
the Faculty; the Professors presiding in rotation.
This regulation however, as experimental, will be at
all times alterable by the Board of Visitors. The

Code of discipline will be prepared with the aid of
all the lights that can be obtained from the most
distinguished Seminaries; and some of the innovations
will, not improbably, be in the spirit of
your judicious observations. As the University,
being such in the full extent of the term, will not
contain boys under sixteen years of age, and be
chiefly filled by youths approaching to manhood,
with not a few perhaps arrived at it there is the
better chance for self-government in the students,
and for the co-operation of many in giving efficacy
to a liberal and limited administration.

The peculiarity in the Institution which excited
first, most attention & some animadversion, is
the omission of a Theological Professorship. The
Public Opinion seems now to have sufficiently
yielded to its incompatibility with a State Institution,
which necessarily excludes sectarian Preferences.
The best provision which occurred, was that of
authorizing the Visitors to open the Public rooms
for Religious uses, under impartial regulations,
(a task that may occasionally involve some difficulties)
and admitting the establishment of Theological
Seminaries by the respective sects contiguous to the
precincts of the University, and within the reach of
a familiar intercourse distinct from the obligatory
pursuits of the Students. The growing Village of
Charlottesville also is not distant more than a mile,
and contains already Congregations & Clergymen
of the sects to which the students will mostly belong.

You have already noticed in the public Prints the

Scientific Scope of the University, and the resort
to Europe for some of the Professors. The reasons
for the latter step, you may have also seen in Print;
as well as the reduction of the number of chairs in
the first instance, by annexing Plural functions to
some of them. This was rendered necessary by the
limited resources, as yet granted by the Legislature,
and will be varied as fast as an augmentation of these
will permit, by dividing & subdividing the branches
of Science now in the same group. Several of the
Professors remain to be appointed; among them
one for Mental Philosophy including the branches
to which you refer. This has always been regarded
by us as claiming an important place in so comprehensive
a School of Science. The gentleman in
prospect for the station is not yet actually engaged.

You seem to have allotted me a greater share in
this undertaking than belongs to me. I am but
one of seven Managers, and one of many pecuniary
benefactors. Mr. Jefferson has been the great projector
& the mainspring of it.

I am sorry that I have never been able to give the
volume you kindly favored me with, the reading it
doubtless deserves; and I fear that however congenial
the task would be with studies relished at
former periods, I shall find it difficult to reconcile
it with demands on my time, the decrease of which
does not keep pace with the contraction of its remaining
span. From several dips into the Treatise
I think myself authorized to infer that it embraces
a scrutinizing & systematic view of the subject,

interesting to the best informed, and particularly
valuable to those who wish to be informed.

I thank you Sir for the friendly sentiments you
have expressed, and beg to accept with my great
respect a cordial return of them.