University of Virginia Library

Spring Meeting of the Visitors

April meant that already it was once again time for the Board of Visitors' annual meeting.
General Cocke could not attend but he did write offering to make the trip despite severe pain
from an illness (exposure to the "late severe weather" gave him a cold which settled in his
face) in case the more distant members failed to attend.[466] As luck would have it,
Madison, Johnson, and Breckenridge did make it, so Cocke was spared the trial of making
the 30-mile trip from Bremo to Monticello; Cabell and Taylor stayed away, however.[467] At
the meeting the bare quorum decided on three important matters, all relating directly to the
construction at the university. First, the board resolved to purchase from Consul Thomas
Appleton in Leghorn the Corinthian and Ionic capitals wanting for the pavilions. Next, the
visitors instructed the committee of superintendence to negotiate with the president and
directors of the Literary Fund for the additional $60,000 loan that the General Assembly had
approved at its last session.[468] And last and more important, the board resolved to begin
building the library, "provided the funds of the University be adequate to the completion of
the buildings already begun and to the building the western ranges of Hotels and
dormitories, and be also adequate to the completion of the Library so far as to render the
building secure and fit for use." The committee of superintendence was instructed not to
enter into any contracts for the library until it had examined the university's accounts and
ascertained that "without interfering with the finishing of all the Pavilions, Hotels and
dormitories begun and to be begun, they have funds Sufficient to put the library in the
condition above described."[469]