Commissioners Appointed
On 21 February 1818 the Virginia General Assembly passed an "An Act appropriating part
of the revenue of the Literary Fund and for other purposes," section 8 of which required the
executive to appoint twenty-four "discreet and intelligent persons, who shall constitute a
Board of Commissioners to aid the Legislature in ascertaining a permanent scite for a
University and for other purposes." On 18 March Preston appointed the commissioners,
including James Madison, for the senatorial district composed of the counties of
Spotsylvania, Lousia, Orange and Madison.[105] This act was an important step in the story
of the founding of the University of Virginia but it is largely outside the scope of this
study.[106]
[105]
105. James Patton Preston, Appointment of Commissioners to Choose a Site for the
University of Virginia, 18 March 1818, DLC:JM. Preston enclosed the commission in an
unfound letter to James Madison of the same date (see Madison to Preston, 19 May 1818, in
Vi: Executive Papers).
[106]
106. See Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in Jefferson's Virginia, 1790-1830, 62-69.
Davis called Jefferson's educational venture a "cooperative intellectual enterprise to which
many Virginians contributed."
