8760. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Professors.—[further continued].
I have no reason to regret
the measure taken of procuring professors from abroad where science is so much ahead of
us. You witnessed some of the puny squibs
of which I was the butt on that account. They
were probably from disappointed candidates,
whose unworthiness had occasioned their applications
to be passed over. The measure has
been generally approved in the South and West;
and by all liberal minds in the North. It has
been peculiarly fortunate, too, that the professors
brought from abroad were as happy selections
as could have been hoped, as well for their
qualifications in science as correctness and
amiableness of character. I think the example
will be followed, and that it cannot fail to be
one of the efficacious means of promoting that
cordial good will, which it is so much the interest
of both nations to cherish. These teachers
can never utter an unfriendly sentiment
towards their native country; and those into
whom their instructions will be infused, are not
of ordinary significance only; they are exactly
the persons who are to succeed to the government
of our country, and to rule its future
enmities, its friendships and fortunes. As
it is our interest to receive instruction through
this channel, so I think it is yours to furnish it;
for these two nations holding cordially together,
have nothing to fear from the united world.
They will be the models for regenerating the
condition of man, the sources from which representative
government is to flow over the whole
earth.—
To J. Evelyn Denison. Washington ed. vii, 415.
(M.
1825)
