 | Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Joseph Carrington Cabell to Thomas Jefferson
The Legislature being on the eve of adjournment, & all the business of my district, & indeed
of the State in general, being compleated, or so nearly so, as to admit of my departure, I left
town on the 23d. inst. & arrived here on the evening of the same day.
During the latter part of the session we provided by law that visitors of the University
should not lose their Seats by the mere fact of being absent from two successive meetings,
but only after a notification of that fact to the Executive by the Board of Visitors. I do not
recollect whether the provision had a retrospective bearing so as to embrace Mr. Johnson's
case. Perhaps it did not. I think Mr. Johnson seemed to wait for you to state to the Governor
whether you would wish him reappointed. I would take the liberty to recommend that you
should do so. Then you would certainly have from him in approbation of the loan.[862]
Genl. Cocke, in a letter lately received from him, expresses the strongest wish that in
contracting for the building of the Library the undertakers should be bound down to
compleat it for a definite amount. This wish is general among our friends. Nothing, in my
opinion, would be more advantageous or grateful to them. Great fears are entertained that
the workmen will be left too much at large. A strong & general wish prevails that we should
finish the buildings with the third loan. If we do this, I think, all will ultimately succeed. The
opposition in this quarter is broken. I think the enemy is ready to strike his colors. My friend
Doctr. Smith confesses that the public sentiment is decidedly with us; & if he admits it, it
must be so. Thro' the Senators & Delegates, I have, in conjunction with the delegates from
Albemarle, dispersed the circulars respecting the Professorship of agriculture over the whole
state.[863] I remain, Dr. Sir, faithfully yours
Jospeh C. Cabell
ALS, ViU:Cabell Papers, 2p [1980] with TJ docket "Cabell Joseph C Wmsbg Feb. 26. 23.
recd Mar 6"; printed, Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 277-78.
862. For Cabell's earlier concern about Johnson's vacated seat, see Cabell to TJ, 11
February. On 5 March TJ drafted a letter to Governor James Pleasants: "The law concerning
the University makes the non-user for a whole year vacate the office of a visitor. mr
Chapman Johnson failed to attend both our semi-annual meetings of the last year from
sickness, which has determd his comm[issio]n. I should have sooner notified you of this &
asked a renewal but that mr Cabell wrote me he would do it yet not hearing from him again,
and anxious that it shd not be pretermitted I take the liberty of mentioning the fact, and if a
new comm[issio]n be not already issued to request that you will be pleased to do it at your
first convenience and forward it as we must meet at the beginning of the next month, and mr
Johnson's aid is much valued by us" (DLC:TJ).
863. Cabell's note reads: "Mr. Jefferson's sense of the importance of having Agriculture
regularly taught as a branch of education is expressed in a letter to david Williams, in 1803.
(Writings IV. 9.) The Rockfish report contemplates a chair for that purpose among those to
be established in the University, when its endowments would permit. In the mean time, it
was expected that the Theory of Agriculture would be expounded by the Professor of
Chemistry. Whether this was incompatible with his other duties, or from whatever cause, it
has, we believe, been very inadequately done, or not at all. In 1822, Gen. Cocke offered to
the Agricultural Society of Albemarle a series of resolutions, presenting a plan of raising a
fund for the endowment of a chair of Agriculture in the University, by joint contribution of
other Agricultural Societies in Virginia, and of such farmers in the State in the State as
approved the measure. The President of the Society, Mr. Madison, prepared a letter in
recommendation of the object, and both letter and resolutions were embodied in a Circular
by Mr. Peter Minor, their Secretary, and dispersed through the State in the mode mentioned
by Mr. Cabell. For the resolutions and Mr. Madison's letter, see Skinner's American Farmer,
IV. 273.
"Some three of four thousand dollars were raised in this way; but the person to whom it was
loaned omitting to give security for its return, and his circumstances having changed, the
money was lost. Repeated efforts were afterwards made by different individuals to procure a
special endowment for such a chair from the Legislature--as by Gov. Barbour, mr. Edmund
Ruffin, and others--but hitherto without effect. See Am. Far. VII. 289, Far. Reg. II. 703, III.
274, 625, 687, VI. 707. A proposition is now before the Agricultural Society of Virginia for
the maintenance of such a Professorship with a part of their funds, and is favored by many.
Its fate will probably be decided at their next annual meeting in the coming autumn"
(Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 277-79).
| Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |