University of Virginia Library

VII. Jefferson's Foresight for the College

One of the conspicuous qualities of Jefferson's many-sided mind was a far-sightedness that was at once minute and imperialistic in its scope. His possession of this characteristic to an extraordinary degree has come to light in the course of our previous narrative, but perhaps it was

never more clearly evinced than in the name which he gave to the new college, and in his choice of the men who were to be coupled with himself in its organization and development. Had he styled it Albemarle College, he must have put aside all hope of ultimately obtaining a larger support from the State than would be granted to any other of the local academies. At the best, the most sanguine expectation that he could nurse would be, that, in time, it would rise to the respectable but not preeminent rank of Washington and Hampden-Sidney Colleges.

Jefferson had a State university really in view, and as such an institution could be only founded with the assistance of the Commonwealth, he wisely decided to give the new seat of learning the name that would approximate the closest to the broad meaning of the words, "University of Virginia"; in short, a name that, from the very start, would lift it above the common level of the academies and colleges already in existence, by clothing it with the dignity of an institution rightly bidding, in the opinion of all, for the patronage of the Virginians in the mass. By such a name alone, the supreme convenience of its situation, in those days of stage coach and private carriage, would be indicated to every citizen in the State who had a son to educate. But Jefferson looked upon this last fact as important only because it would be promotive of his main object. He anticipated that, when the struggle for the site of the university, which he was confident would be built in the future, began, the people would have become accustomed to thinking of the college at Charlottesville as the only really central seat of learning underway in Virginia, and for that reason, if for no other, possessing the prior claim to final conversion into a great State institution. In other words, he reckoned

the value of the temporary success to Central College chiefly in the light of its increasing the chance of the College's transformation into the University, when they hour was ripe for that long forecasted event.

There was a choleric debate going on, at this time, as to the wisdom of removing the capital from Richmond to some. place which would better subserve the convenience of the Virginian people by its more central situation. The advocates of Staunton were active to uproariousness in urging the superiority of her claim on this score; and some of them even put out a plain threat, that, unless the seat of administration was transferred to the west of the Blue Ridge, those parts of the Commonwealth would confederate to erect a new State. It is not improbable that, in the midst of this scramble for preference, Jefferson harbored the hope that Charlottesville would be selected as the new metropolis; and had he been a member of the General Assembly at this hour, and as young as he was in 1776, he might have secured the simultaneous establishment of both the capital and the university on the banks of the Rivanna, in his native county. He had shown how important he considered the association of the two to be at the time that he was endeavoring to broaden the course of study at the College of William and Mary, when Williamsburg was still the seat of government. Being fully aware, through his frequent correspondence with Cabell, of the ferment in the General Assembly over the question of removing the Capital, he clearly foresaw the opposition which both Staunton and Lexington would stir up to the erection of the university in the eastern shadow of the Ridge, -Staunton because it would interfere with the success of her campaign to acquire the new seat of administration; and Lexington because it would put an end to the realization of her ambition

to become the site of the proposed State institution. In giving the name "Central College" to the new seat of learning, Jefferson, in a spirit of quiet calculation, defied the political aspirations of the one town, and the academic aspirations of the other; and at the same time, tacitly announced to the entire Commonwealth that, when the hour should arrive for locating the university, he was going to make a bid for the site on the score of this centrality, to which he knew no rival could pretend.

But he was not satisfied with creating but one favorable condition, at the very start, to sustain the claim which he expected to bring forward just so soon as the General Assembly should decide to establish a university: his next step was to join with himself in the directorate of his new college men of such preeminence in the social and political affairs of the Commonwealth that their personal distinction would be a powerful agency in winning popular respect for it, thus influencing public sentiment in support of his ultimate designs.

One of the baffling questions that offers itself in this somewhat obscure initial stage of our history is: how did Jefferson succeed, apparently so amicably,[20] in getting rid of the very estimable board of trustees of Albemarle Academy? That board embraced, as we have seen, fifteen or sixteen citizens of the county who deservedly enjoyed a high degree of repute in their own community. Was no bad feeling aroused in them when the seat was withdrawn so abruptly from under them? No reason for their elimination that could have been submitted, however sound from a practical point of view, could have been entirely acceptable to their sensibilities. Were they too

numerous? This was a fault which could have been removed by reduction. Were they lacking in influence? To intimate that they were was perhaps too delicate an assertion to make even by innuendo. The plausible and soothing explanation that was given by Jefferson was probably this: (1) that the original board was too large, and that it was better to drop all its members than to irritate the many by choosing only a few from its number to serve on the second board: (2) that the only solid hope of enlarging the scope of the new college was by drawing together for its support a board which would represent, not one county, but the entire State; and (3) that the conversion of the College into a university, which could only be accomplished by such means, would confer both a sentimental and a material advantage on the people of Albemarle county. It was, perhaps, this ulterior scheme, well known to every member of the old board, that softened the chagrin which must have been felt by them as a body. In one alone did exasperation against Jefferson show itself in action, and in that instance, this may have been due to political and not to personal irritation. John Kelly was the exception. When an offer was made for his land near Charlottesville for the purpose of using it as the site of the College, he seems to have declined it with a brusqueness that was decidedly offensive; and this conduct was emphasized by the fact that he was conspicuous in the religious life of the community.

The Board of Visitors of Central College comprised Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, David Watson, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and John Hartwell Cocke. Jefferson and Madison, besides their extraordinary services in other lofty public positions, had each occupied the Presidency during eight years in critical

times. Mr. Monroe was, at the hour of his appointment, the actual incumbent of that exalted office. The careers and the characters of these three distinguished statesmen belong to the history of the whole country, and are too well known to call for any description here. The reputations of the other three members of the Board were confined to Virginia. It is not necessary to dwell on the character of David Watson, or the events of his life, as he seems, either from indolence or ill health, to have taken no part in the labors of the Board; and a substitute was ultimately found for him, apparently with his full approval. There was a wide gulf between his conduct in this respect, whether voluntary or involuntary, and that of the remaining members of the body, Cabell and Cocke, Jefferson's two most faithful and persevering coadjutors, -the one in assisting him to obtain the appropriations from the General Assembly, which were indispensable to the success of the University; the other, in aiding him in its actual construction. The indefatigable services of. both to the institution continued during a period of many years after the death of the "sachem," as they admiringly called him in the privacy of their correspondence; and they stand in its history second only to him in the energy, devotion, and intelligence of their unceasing efforts in its behalf. That history would not be adequately treated without a full account of their careers to show the reader the spirit and the calibre of the two men, to whom, after Jefferson, the University was most deeply indebted, either for its foundation, or for its prosperity during its formative years. It is only by examining the honorable record of their lives that we can clearly understand why, after choosing a famous former President of the United States, and an actual President, as members of the new board, he should then have selected two younger men, whose reputations were limited to the area of their native State.