 |
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Bill for System of Public Education
The next couple weeks proved to be very busy for Jefferson. Besides being reappointed to
the Central College Board of Visitors by Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas,[83] Jefferson
drafted his Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education and sent it to Joseph
Carrington Cabell to push forward in the Virginia General Assembly. The bill is a
comprehensive plan for state education that called for the establishment of "schools at which
the children of all the citizens of this Commonwealth may recieve a primary grade of
education at the common expense," the establishment of "Colleges whereat the youth of the
Commonwealth may within convenient distances from their homes recieve a higher grade of
education," and the establishment "in a central and healthy part of the state an University
wherein all the branches of useful science may be taught."[84] The bill was written,
"however slow & painful the operation of working is become from a stiffening wrist, and
however deadly my aversion to the writing table," and upon its completion Jefferson
instructed Cabell to "take it and make of it what you can, if worth any thing. . . . I meddle no
more with it. there is a time to retire from labor, & that time is come with me. it is a duty as
well as the strongest of my desires to relinquish to younger hands the government of our
bark and resign myself, as I do willingly to their care." More concerned about the progress
of the work at hand, Jefferson went on to complain that
dilatoriness of the workmen gives me constant trouble. it has already brought
into doubt the completion this year of the building begun, which obliges me to
be with them every other day. I follow it up from a sense of the impression
which will be made on the legislature by the prospect of it's immediate
operation. the walls should be done by our next court, but they will not by a
great deal.[85]
83. See Nicholas' Appointment of Central College Board of Visitors, 18 October 1817, in
DLC:TJ. All members of the board were reappointed.
84. TJ's undated draft for his Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education, is in
ViU:TJ, and a contemporary printed copy is in ViU:JHC. Cabell wrote a note on the first
page of the draft that reads: "This Bill was written by Mr. Jefferson: and has been rejected
by a large majority in the House of Delegates, in favor of a bill providing for the poor only.
J.C.C."
|
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |