 | The University of Virginia record February, 1908 |  |
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
By an act of January 12, 1803, of the Legislature of Virginia, certain
citizens of Albemarle County were incorporated under the style of "Trustees
of Albemarle Academy," and were empowered to take such steps as
seemed practicable to raise the funds necessary for erecting buildings and
putting the Academy into operation. Albemarle Academy was destined
never to exist except on paper, but under the guidance of Thomas Jefferson,
who was elected to the board of trustees on March 23, 1814, a process of
development was begun leading first to the organization of Central College,
and afterwards to that of the University of Virginia. On August 19,
1814, the committee of the trustees appointed to select a site, reported that
it would be desirable to locate the Academy in the vicinity of the town of
Charlottesville, distant not more than one-half mile therefrom.
By an act of February 14, 1816, the Legislature authorized the establishment
of "Central College, in the County of Albemarle, at the place
which has been, or shall be, selected by the trustees of Albemarle Academy,
and in lieu of such Academy." All rights and claims of Albemarle Academy
were, by the same act, vested in Central College. The board of
visitors of the college consisted of six members, of whom Jefferson was
the only one who had been a member of the Academy board. The other
five members were James Madison, James Monroe, Joseph Carrington
Cabell, David Watson, and John H. Cocke.
On May 5, 1817, Jefferson was elected Rector of the board, and, on the
same day, the board authorized the purchase of a farm of about two hundred
acres lying one mile west of Charlottesville as a site for the College.
This tract now forms a part of the grounds of the University of Virginia.
The cornerstone of Central College was laid on October 6, 1817, in
the presence of Thomas Jefferson, Rector, and of James Madison and
James Monroe—the latter then President of the United States. This
building, located on what is known as the West Lawn of the University, is
now utilized as a professor's residence.
Jefferson's plan was to erect a distinct building, a pavilion for each
individual professor—buildings to be arranged around a rectangular lawn.
Each pavilion was to contain "a school room and apartments for the
accommodation of the professor"; and one-story dormitories for the
students were to be erected adjacent to the pavilions. Jefferson drew most
of the sketches for the buildings with his own hands, basing them upon
designs by Palladio; and his ideas of architectural effect and grouping were
carried out in detail when Central College was merged in the University of
Virginia.
The prime object in Jefferson's mind, while Rector of the board of
visitors of Central College, was to get the college well under way, and then
have it adopted by the Legislature as the State University. Accordingly,
in the first report of the visitors to the Legislature, of date January 6,
1818, it is recommended that a state university be established on the site
of Central College.
By an act of February 21, 1818, the Legislature authorized the appointment
by the Governor of a board of twenty-four members, to be known as
the "Board of Commissioners of the University." It was the duty of this
board to meet on August 1, 1818, at the Tavern in Rockfish Gap, on the
Blue Ridge Mountains, and report upon the following points regarding the
organization of a state university:
1. A proper site for the projected university.
2. A plan for the building thereof.
3. The branches of learning which should be taught therein.
4. The number and description of professorships; and
5. Such general provisions as might properly be enacted by the
Legislature for the better organizing and governing of the University.
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were present at the meeting of the
Commissioners, and their able and elaborate report to the Legislature
(indicating much careful thought) had probably been prepared by Jefferson
before the meeting was held. This report, recommending, among other
things, the site of Central College as the most advantageous one for the
University, was forwarded in duplicate to the Speaker of the House and
the Speaker of the Senate on August 4, 1818. On January 25, 1819, the
Legislature adopted a formal act "for establishing an University," and this
date must be reckoned as the year of the origin of the University, although
the institution was not opened to students until March 7, 1825.
Although Jefferson's was the dominant spirit and the shaping hand in
the whole movement for the establishment of a state university, it should
be stated that but for the influence and efforts of Joseph Carrington Cabell,
the close personal friend of Jefferson, the acts of February 21, 1818, and
January 25, 1819, would probably have failed of adoption by the Legislature.
The act of January 25, 1819, establishing the University, is as follows:
"1. Be it declared by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the
conveyance of the lands and other property appertaining to the Central
College in the County of Albemarle, which has been executed by the
proctor thereof, under authority of the subscribers and founders, to the
President and Directors of the Literary Fund, is hereby accepted, for the
use and on the conditions in the said deed of conveyance expressed.
"2. And be it enacted, That there shall be established, on the site
provided for the said college, an University, to be called The University of
Virginia; that it shall be under the government of seven visitors to be
thereof the persons so appointed, and prescribing to them a day for their
first meeting at the said University, with supplementary instructions for
procuring a meeting subsequently, in the event of failure at the time first
appointed.
"3. The said visitors, or so many of them as, being a majority, shall
attend, shall appoint a rector, of their own body, to preside at their meetings,
and a secretary to record, attest, and preserve their proceedings, and
shall proceed to examine into the state of the property conveyed as aforesaid;
shall make an inventory of the same, sepcifying the items whereof it
consists; shall notice the buildings and other improvements already made,
and those which are in progress; shall take measures for their completion,
and for the addition of such others, from time to time as may be necessary.
"4. In the said University shall be taught the Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages; French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Anglo-Saxon;
the different branches of Mathematics, pure and physical; natural philosophy;
the principles of agriculture; chemistry; mineralogy, including geology;
botany; zoölogy; anatomy, medicine; civil government; political
economy; the law of nature and nations; municipal law; history; ideology;
general grammar; ethics; rhetorick; and belles lettres; which branches
of science shall be so distributed, and under so many professors, not
exceeding ten, as the visitors shall think proper and expedient.
"5. Each professor shall be allowed the use of the apartments and
accommodations provided for him, and those first employed such standing
salary as the visitors shall think proper and sufficient, and their successors
such standing salary, not exceeding one thousand dollars, as the visitors
shall think proper and sufficient, with such tuition fees from each student,
as the visitors shall from time to time establish.
"6. The said visitors shall be charged with the erection, preservation,
and repair of the buildings, the care of the grounds and appurtenances,
and of the interests of the University generally; they shall have power to
appoint a bursar, employ a proctor, and all other necessary agents; to
appoint and remove professors, two-thirds of the whole number of visitors
voting for the removal; to prescribe their duties and the course of education,
in conformity with the law; to establish rules for the government and
discipline of the students, not contrary to the laws of the land; to regulate
tuition fees, and the rent of the dormitories occupied; to prescribe and
control the duties and proceedings of all officers, servants, and others, with
respect to the buildings, lands, appurtenances, and other property, and
interests of the University; to draw from the literary funds such monies as
are by law charged on it for this institution; and, in general, to direct and
do all matters and things which, not being inconsistent with the laws of
the land, to them shall seem most expedient for promoting the purposes
in the form of by-laws, rules, resolutions, orders, instructions, or otherwise,
as they shall deem proper.
"7. They shall have two stated meetings in every year, to-wit, on the
first Mondays of April and October; and occasional meetings at such other
times as they shall appoint, or on a special call, with such notice as themselves
shall prescribe by a general rule; which meetings shall be at the
University; a majority of them constituting a quorum for business, and on
the death, resignation of a member, or failure to act for the space of one
year, or on his removal out of the Commonwealth, or by the Governor,
with the advice of Council, the Governor with like advice shall appoint a
successor.
"8. The said rector and visitors shall be a body corporate, under the
style and title of `The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia,'
with the right, as such, to use a common seal; they shall have capacity to
plead and be impleaded in all courts of justice, and in all cases interesting to
the University, which may be subjects of legal cognizance and jurisdiction;
which pleas shall not abate by the determination of their office, but shall
stand revived in the name of their successors; and they shall be capable in
law, and in trust for the University, of receiving subscriptions and donations,
real and personal, as well as from bodies corporate or persons associated,
as from private individuals.
"9. And the said rector and visitors shall, at all times, conform to
such laws as the legislature may, from time to time, think proper to enact
for their government; and the said University shall in all things, and at all
times, be subject to the control of the legislature. And the said rector
and visitors of the University of Virginia shall be, and they are hereby
required to make report annually to the president and directors of the
literary fund (to be laid before the legislature at the next succeeding session),
embracing a full account of the disbursements, the funds on hand,
and a general statement of the condition of said University.
"10. The said board of visitors, or a majority thereof, by nomination
of the board, shall, once in every year at least, visit the said University;
enquire into the proceedings and practices thereat; examine the progress
of the students, and give to those who excel in every branch of science,
there taught, such honorary marks and testimonies of approbation as may
encourage and incite to industry and emulation.
"11. On every twenty-ninth of February, or, if that be Sunday, then
on the next, or earliest day thereafter on which a meeting can be effected,
the Governor and Council shall be in session, and shall appoint visitors of
the said University, either the same or others at their discretion, to serve
until the twenty-ninth day of February next ensuing, duly and timely
notifying to them their appointment, and prescribing a day for their first
shall be as hereinbefore provided: Provided, that nothing in this
act contained shall suspend the proceedings of the visitors of the said
Central College of Albemarle; but for the purpose of expediting any
objects of said institution, they shall be authorized, under the control of the
Governor and Council, to continue the exercise of their functions, and
fulfil those of their successors, until the first actual meeting of their said
successors.
"12. And be it further enacted, That the additional sum of twenty
thousand dollars shall be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the education
of the poor, out of the revenue of the literary fund, in the aid of
the sum heretofore appropriated to that object, and to be paid in the same
manner and upon the same conditions in all respects as is prescribed by
the fourth section of the act, entitled `An act appropriating part of the
revenue of the literary fund, and for other purposes, passed the twenty-first
day of February, eighteen hundred and eighteen.'
"13. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the
passing thereof." (Revised Code, 1819, ch. 34, p. 90.)
The first Board of Visitors consisted of four members of the old
board of Central College—namely, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
Joseph Carrington Cabell, and John H. Cocke; the additional appointees
were James Breckenridge, Chapman Johnson, and Robert Taylor. The
board met for the first time on March 29, 1819, and elected Thomas
Jefferson Rector. Henceforth, until his death in 1826, Jefferson was the
dominating and directing power of the University, not only evolving the
entire system of education introduced, but actually devising, to the minutest
detail, every feature of construction and administration.
| The University of Virginia record February, 1908 | |