THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||
4. THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY
I. Rockfish Gap Commission
It was on February 21, 1818, that the bill for the establishment of a State university received the final approval of the General Assembly. The clause providing for the choice of the site was vague and general: it simply required that it should be "convenient and proper"; and as these words left a broad field for selection, the decision was really reserved for a Board of twenty-four Commissioners. This Board was to be appointed, not by the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, but by the Governor and Council. Cabell used his influence to have this latter method adopted because he looked upon it as the first important step towards the designation of Charlottesville as the site; for was not the Governor a citizen of Albemarle, and in picking out the Commissioners might he not be biassed by that fact to nominate men known to be friendly to the selection of Central College?
But there was another fact quite as auspicious: a Commissioner was to be chosen from each senatorial district, and the districts situated east of the Blue Ridge were more numerous than those lying west. With the rivalry narrowed down to Staunton, Lexington, and Charlottesville, the local partizanship of the eastern majority would probably tip the scale on the side of Charlottesville even should the Commissioners from beyond the mountains,
But Cabell was not satisfied with creating all these propitious conditions in advance: he was acutely solicitous that Jefferson should serve as a member of the Board; and that he should induce Madison to consent to his appointment also. The influence of these two distinguished men, Cabell rightly anticipated, would carry extraordinary weight with their associates. Deeply interested as Jefferson was in the approaching conference, he debated with hesitation for some time the wisdom of his becoming a Commissioner. "There are fanatics both in religion and politics," he said in reply to Cabell, "who, without knowing me personally, have long been taught to consider me as a rawhead and bloody bones; and as we can afford to lose no votes in that body (General Assembly), I do think that it would be better for you to be named for our district. Do not consider this to be a mock modesty. It is the cool and deliberate act of my own judgment. I believe that the institution would be more popular without me than with me, and this is the most important consideration, and I am confident that you would be a more efficient member of the Board than I would be." Cabell submitted Jefferson's candid suggestion of his own unfitness to a parley of their friends, who decided unanimously and wisely in favor of Jefferson's nomination as the Commissioner of the Albemarle district. Madison was appointed for the Orange district. Their fellows on the Board were men of substance, distinction, and influence. The full membership of that body embraced Creed Taylor, of Cumberland, Peter Randolph, of Dinwiddie, William Brockenbrough, of Henrico, Archibald Rutherford of Rockingham, Archibald Stuart, of Augusta, James Breckinridge, of Botetourt, Henry E. Watkins, of Charlotte,
The specific duty imposed on this Board by the Legislature was to report to that body (1) a site for the University; (2) a plan for the building of it; (3) the branches of learning which should be taught therein; (5) the number and character of the professorships; and (5) such general provisions for the organization and government of the institution as the General Assembly ought to adopt. All these requirements were precisely in harmony with Jefferson's wishes, and they had quite probably been indirectly, through Cabell, proposed by him. An additional clause in the Act, -which, no doubt, caused him equal satisfaction, as increasing the chance of Central College winning the coveted prize, -authorized the Board to "receive any voluntary contributions, whether conditional or absolute, in land, money, or other property, which may he offered through them to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund for the benefit of the University."
On Saturday, August 1, the Commissioners assembled at the Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ride Mountains. This spot had been selected as lying on the great natural line
There was not within the bounds of the Commonwealth a more romantic prospect than the one which was unrolled before the gaze of the Commissioners as they climbed up from the side of the Valley or of Piedmont to the tavern that stood in the Gap. Here, towards the north and towards the south alike, the peaks of the chain rose to a cloudy height; and far below, in every direction of the compass, the region spread out like a gigantic map, the great Valley on the one hand, and on the other, a landscape broken by foothills, plateaus, forests, streams, and cultivated lands, as far as the eye could reach. The country, in this double picture, promised in its extensiveness and in its fertility even more than it, at this time, actually possessed, for it was still only sparsely inhabited in comparison with the surface of the Old World. The little company of thoughtful men, who, on the first day of August, 1818, looked down on that wide panorama, from the green mountain flanks, might justifiably enough have been meditating more on its future than on its present, in associating it, and all the territory beyond, with the university which they were about to define in
But if the magnificence of the views from these mountain heights was in harmony with the noble enterprise which they had come to launch, the actual place of meeting was plain and democratic enough to suit the birthplace of a popular university. It was a tavern, spacious and comfortable, but like all its fellows of that day lacking in pretension to even the simplest elements of architectural beauty. Around it, however, there must have been always a scene of extraordinary liveliness, for the regular stages, private carriages, and the jingling caravans of canvas-covered wagons, with their ribbon-bedecked teams, passing in a broken stream eastward and westward, halted there to allow the horses to be fed or watered, and the travelers to breakfast or to dine. This customary animation was conspicuously increased by the arrival of the Commissioners, so many of whom had brought with them their own coaches and servants. Never, indeed, before had there been such a throng of distinguished citizens under its roof.
There has been handed down the tradition that the first session of the Conference was held in the large public dining-room, an apartment which possessed no other pieces of furniture besides a long, rough table and numerous well-worn split-bottom chairs, such as were then in common use in the log-huts of the mountaineers. Jefferson, the most eminent member of the Board, was promptly chosen to preside; and it was, perhaps, in some measure, due to his moderate and urbane spirit that the
The choice to be made did not concern simply the welfare of literature and education. Had that been the sole issue, the dignity of it would have explained the self-restraint shown in the discussions of the body; but there was an inflammatory political question involved, which was known to all, whether or not frankly mentioned and discussed, for every man present was convinced that the choice of a site for the University would give a powerful bias to the choice of a site for the new Capital, should the General Assembly determine to abandon Richmond as it had formerly deserted Williamsburg. The antagonism which such a thought was so calculated to raise did
The offer submitted by the Central College was also an imposing one. It consisted of its entire possessions the one hundred and ninety acres purchased of Perry; a pavilion and its dormitories "already far advanced"; a second pavilion also, with its appendix of dormitories, which was to be completed before the end of the year; the proceeds in hand of the sales of two glebes, aggregating $3,280.86, and of a subscription list of $41,248. The whole of this last amount had not yet been collected, and it was also subject to deductions for sums due under existing contracts. A deed conveying these several properties to the Literary Fund had already been executed and recorded in the clerk's office of Albemarle county.
The value of the estate offered by Washington College as compared with the value of the one offered by Central College, -had the difference between the two been accepted as the final test in the choice of a site, would have given the superior claim to the institution in which Jefferson was so zealously interested. But he was not satisfied to rest his chances of winning the prize on this foundation alone; the query in the minds of the Commissioners which he knew was to shape their decision more powerfully than any other was this: which of the three sites lies nearest to the centre of the State's population? Having fully anticipated this controlling point, he came amply fortified with statistics to uphold his contention in favor of Central College. It required little shrewdness on his part to foresee that Lexington, and not Staunton, was the formidable rival which had to be overthrown, for Lexington alone of the two had substantial advantages in buildings and endowments to offer
During the progress of the debate which sprang up on the subject of centrality the first day, Jefferson sat in silent attention to it until the arguments on that point for and against Staunton, Washington College, and Central College had caused such confusion in the minds of the Commissioners that they appeared entirely incapable of arriving at an accurate and common conclusion. It was at this critical moment that he modestly drew forth that innocent-looking blunderbus, his map, and quietly spread it out for the inspection of the body.[36] While the vote was not taken at this sitting, there is reason to think that the evidence, so unostentatiously presented in this graphic form, proved so unanswerable that it brought about the decision announced a few days afterwards.
What did the map demonstrate? First, that, if a straight line was drawn from the mouth of the Chesapeake
There has long been a tradition that, besides securing these convincing statistics in support of his claims for Central College, he hunted down the name of every man and woman in Albemarle county, who had passed their eightieth mile-stone, and presented the list, which was of extraordinary length, to the Conference as a proof that the salubrity of its climate was as productive of Methuselahs as ancient Judea. Doubtless, some jocularity was excited by the reading of this list, but it did not strike the less straight to its mark because of that genial accompaniment.
After carefully examining the map, the Commissioners agreed to defer their decision as to the site from Saturday until Monday, and in the meanwhile, a very distinguished committee was appointed to draw up the statement required by the General Assembly touching the plan of the buildings, the courses of instruction, the number of professors, and the provisions for organization and government. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, General Breckinridge, Judges Roane, Stuart, and Dade. Now, there was not in Virginia, at this time, an equal number of men more competent to draft the necessary recommendations within a period of forty-eight hours than these seven Commissioners; but the principal contents of the report that was submitted would seem to prove that it had been composed by the brain of Jefferson alone, -not under the roof of the tavern where they were assembled, but in the philosophical and stimulating quiet of Monticello. No doubt, the manuscript of most
At least two additions to it, however, were made after Jefferson's arrival on the ground: first the offer of the Board of Trustees of Washington College and the provisional donation by John Robinson; and second, the insertion of the name of Central College as the place finally adopted as the site for the projected university. This decision was reached in the course of the meeting of the Commissioners on Monday. When the votes were counted, it was found that Breckinridge, Pendleton, and John M. Taylor had expressed a preference for Lexington; Stuart and Wilson for Staunton; and the remainder of the Commissioners for Charlottesville. The selection of the latter site was then unanimously confirmed, in a spirit of harmony worthy of the highest demands of popular education, which all were anxious to advance in spite of natural local aspirations. A conciliatory attitude had distinguished the members of the Conference throughout their deliberations, upon which Jefferson commented in feeling language at the close. Adjournment did not take place until Tuesday, August 4. In the meanwhile, the report had been read and adopted.
Letter from judge Jackson to Cabell, Cabell Papers, University Library. Its date is December 13, 1818. Judge Jackson kept a record of the proceedings of the Conference. Correspondence with his descendants in West Virginia has failed to disclose whether this diary is still in existence.
Recollections of Alexander Garrets. See Letter of George W. Randolph to Dr. James L. Cabell, Cabell Papers, University Library. The map is said to have been made of cardboard.
These figures are given in a statement by Cabell among the Cabell Papers in the University Library.
II. The Report
In writing to John Adams, several years afterwards, Jefferson somewhat modestly declared that the Report consisted simply of "outlines addressed to a legislative
As this report was drawn with direct reference to the University of Virginia, and afterwards shaped the general character of its whole system, a synopsis of its most salient features will be distinctly pertinent to our subject. In proposing a plan for the architectural setting of the institution as required by the Legislature, Jefferson simply repeats the scheme which he was already carrying out in. the lawn, pavilions, and dormitories of Central College. To it, however, he adds a large building "in the middle of the grounds," which was his earliest public foreshadowing of the present Rotunda. With respect to the branches of learning to be taught in the new seat of learning, he first dwells upon the conspicuous benefits to accrue from elementary and advanced instruction respectively, and combats the perverse idea of those persons who consider the sciences as useless acquirements, or at least, such as the private purse alone should pay for. On the contrary, he said, a great establishment
Jefferson was regretfully aware that, without more preparatory schools than existed in Virginia at that time to train the youths who intended to enter the University, its standards in the ancient languages, -tuition in which he so highly valued, -would necessarily be damaged. No greater obstruction to that particular study, he remarks in the Report, could be suggested than the presence, the intrusion, and the noisy turbulence of small boys; and, said he, if they are to be permitted to go to the University to acquire the rudiments of these languages, they may be so numerous that the characteristics which should belong to it as a scat of higher learning, will be submerged in those of an ordinary grammar school. He pressed upon the consideration of the General Assembly the expediency of erecting a system of intermediate academies, for, unless they were set up, the
The proposal of a course in Anglo-Saxon was a novel one in those times, when its study was confined to a few private investigators. "It will form," he said, "the first link in the chain of an historical review of our language through all its successive changes to the present day; and will constitute the foundation of that critical instruction in it which ought to be found in a seminary of general learning." He candidly admitted in the Report that only a single professor for both medicine and surgery was possible at first, as the population of Charlottesville and the surrounding region was not as yet sufficiently large to justify the erection of a hospital, where students would enjoy the practical advantage of clinical lectures and surgical operations. Only the theory of medicine and surgery as a science was to be taught. Anatomy, however, was to be fully covered. The Report, in addition, recommended that no chair of divinity should be established, for to do so, it said, would be repugnant to that principle of the Constitution which puts all religious sects on a footing of equality. It advised that, for the present at least, only ten professors should be chosen, and that a maximum for their salaries should be determined. Whilst no formal provision for gymnastics was suggested, the expediency of encouraging manual exercise, military manoeuvres, and tactics in general, was urged; so also was instruction in the arts which embellish life, such as dancing, music, and drawing; and finally, -and this was perhaps the most original feature of the Report, -it proposed that training in the handicrafts should be given.
From some points of view, the most distinctly Jeffersonian
The Report, still following closely Jefferson's previously expressed opinions, further recommended that all questions concerning qualifications for entrance, the arrangement of the hours of lecture, the establishment of public examinations, the bestowal of prizes and degrees, should be entrusted to the board of visitors. It also laid down the additional duties of this board, the most important of which were represented to be: the general care of the, buildings and grounds, and the other properties of the University; the appointment of all the necessary agents; the selection and removal of professors; the prescribing and grouping of the courses of instruction; the adoption of regulations for the government and discipline of the students; the determining of the tuition fees and dormitory rents; the drawing from the Literary Fund of the annuity to which the University would be entitled; and the general superintendence and direction of all the affairs of the institution. The Report, in closing, advised that the board should convene twice a year; that it should nominate a rector; and that it should enjoy the right to use a common seal, to plead and be impleaded in all courts of justice, and to receive subscriptions and donations, real and personal. Appended to
III. Struggle for the University Site
Not until November 20, 1818, did Jefferson send the Report on to Cabell, the representative of the district in the upper chamber, to whom it was now intrusted for delivery to the proper officials. Cabell's first step was to print the manuscript, and his next, to hand one copy of it to the President of the Senate and another to the Speaker of the House. On the second morning of the session, it was brought to the attention of both bodies, and its reading, -so we are informed by William F. Gordon, now a member of the General Assembly, and a staunch supporter of the University scheme, -was followed by exclamations of "universal admiration." A bill was promptly introduced in the lower chamber to carry into effect the recommendations of the Report. This bill was under the patronage of Mr. Taylor, of Chesterfield county, who had been selected by the pilots of the measure because he seemed to be entirely disentangled from the meshes of local interests and ambitions. Opposition was expected from the start by Cabell and Gordon, who were marshalling the partizans of Central College, -the one in the Senate, the other in the House. The bill, with the Report appended, was referred to a select committee which contained a majority in favor of passing it; and a further auspicious condition was that the
The advocates of the Lexington site in the committee urged, with persistence, that the clause recommending Central College should be expunged, and a blank substituted for it; and also that the bill should be held back for more careful scrutiny before this blank should be filled up. The members from Rockbridge in the committee were especially vehement in questioning the correctness of Jefferson's way of arriving at the centre of population. They were supported by Chapman Johnson, who represented Augusta county in the Senate. He asserted in the presence of Cabell and Gov. Preston, that, to start the line of division at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, "was to make it nearer to the southern than to the northern side of the State." This suggestion seems to have worried Cabell, and he at once wrote to Monticello for information to combat it. In his reply, Jefferson acknowledged, what was obvious, that at its commencement, the line was nearer to North Carolina than it was to Maryland; but was not the area towards the north entirely occupied by water without any inhabitants except numerous fish and many wild fowl? "Wherever you may decide to begin," he added, "the direction of the line of equal division is not a matter of choice. It must from thence take whatever direction an equal division of the population demands; and the census proves this to pass near Charlottesville, Rockfish Gap, and Staunton."
Some of the advocates of Lexington shrewdly laid off the southern half of the State in the form of a parallelogram and the northern half in the form of a triangle. This method, Jefferson gently intimated, was suggested
At the third meeting, the Committee declined to strike the words "Central College" from the bill. The measure was then reported to the House in its original form; but here it again ran upon the ugly snag that had threatened to wreck it in the committee room: the advocates of Lexington again disputed the correctness of Jefferson's calculations, and demanded that the vote upon the bill should be deferred until they had been given an opportunity to refute them. Cabell soon began to feel doubt as to its passage, for he had found out that the party opposing the acceptance of the Central College site, -which consisted principally of the delegation from the West, -had decided that, should they be unable to substitute Lexington for Charlottesville, they would endeavor to overthrow the whole university scheme; and in this course, they counted on the support of those members who favored the permanent breaking up and dispersal of the Literary Fund.
Cabell plucked up heart once more when privately informed by his colleague in the Senate from Clarksburg
Some opposition to Charlottesville, as the site for a great seat of learning, was expressed by a small circle of thoughtful and enlightened members on the ground that, as it was simply a village and remote in its situation, it would offer no social advantages to draw thither distinguished professors; nor could it, for the same reason, serve to polish the manners of the students, furnish them with the needed accommodations, or bring forward sufficient physical force to put down large bodies of young men, should they fall to rioting.
By January 1, 1819, the delegates from the Valley had united in solid rank against Central College, and nearly one-half of the delegates from the region west of the Alleghanies had joined their company. In addition, the delegates from the southeastern part of the State were inimical; and there were members in the same mood who were scattered throughout the representation from the other districts. Cabell, bracing himself against a rising feeling of dismay, urged all the friendly absentees to hasten their return, and in the meanwhile, he sought encouragement in the loyalty of his supporters on the ground. "I consider the establishment of the University," wrote John Taliaferro, of the Lower House, as he was about to set out from Fredericksburg for Richmond, "of more vital consequence to the State than the sum of all the legislation since the foundation of the government";
Within a few weeks, this persistent spirit had forced a favorable turn. Absent friends came to his assistance. Especially assiduous and energetic among these were Captain Slaughter, of Culpeper, and Mr. Hoomes, of King and Queen; but above all, Chancellor Green, who, on the day of his arrival, sat up with him until three o'clock in the morning. The foremost purpose now was to contrive a plan to break the assaults of the delegates from the Peninsula; and it was in consequence of such prolonged mental strain and constant loss of sleep, that Cabell suffered, at this crisis, an attack of blood spitting, which lasted, without interruption, for a period of seven or eight hours.
The ablest and most disinterested of all Cabell's coadjutors, outside of the Assembly itself, in this protracted contest, was the Rev. John H. Rice, the most distinguished Presbyterian divine in the State. Perhaps his most notable service at this time took the form of a letter over the signature of Crito, which he contributed to
Dr. Rice made no plea for a particular site for the University, because he thought that this should be decided by the General Assembly, of which he was not a member; but his reasoning for the creation of the institution itself was a powerful influence towards the overthrow of the unscrupulous propaganda then prevailing that would have shut out Central College by undermining the whole project of setting up a great seat of learning. A searching discussion of the several clauses of the bill took place in the Committee of the Whole of the House on January 18 (1819), and all the arguments in support of, and in opposition to, its different provisions were elaborately presented. A determined attempt was again made to discredit the statistics of Jefferson's map showing the centre of population in the State; but when the
William C. Rives, a delegate at the time, expressed to Cocke his gratified surprise at what he described as the "unexpected result " of the voting. "You have seen from the newspapers," he wrote on the 20th, "the vigorous and persevering attempts that were made on the floor of the House to repeal it (the University bill). The efforts that were employed out of doors to defeat it by intrigue were not less vigorous, and possibly were more alarming; because more difficult to be met and counteracted."
On the 21st, the measure, having reached the Senate, was referred to a very able committee. When at last
The opposition to the bill, as we have seen, had its origin in a variety of hostile influences, some of which were directed against the acceptance of Central College as the site and some against the establishment of the University at all, because supposed to be repugnant to the interests either of the College of William, and Mary or of the poor in the distribution of the income of the Literary Fund. At the bottom of the antagonism, there was present a distinct political motive. The desire to obtain the site of the Capital, should Richmond be abandoned, prompted many of the delegates from the Valley to cast their votes against the selection of Central College, for it was generally anticipated that the Capital and the University would, in the end, be located together. There was also a lingering antipathy to Jefferson himself, in spite of his venerable age and long retirement from public life. This feeling, however, was not shared by many. William C. Rives expressed the more generous attitude of the majority towards him when he said, "Among the many sources of congratulation that present themselves on this occasion (the passage of the bill), it is not the least with me that the man to whom this country of ours owes more than to any other that ever existed, with
Jefferson himself received the announcement of the realization of his hopes of so many years with the philosophical moderation so characteristic of him when his faculties were not disturbed by the red flag of Federalism or Sectarianism. "I sincerely join in the general joy," was his brief and simple reply when the news had been conveyed to him.
IV. The First Board of Visitors
The Act establishing the University of Virginia, after accepting the conveyance of the lands and other property belonging to Central College, laid down with minuteness the necessary prescriptions for the number of Visitors, their appointment, their powers and duties, the courses to be taught, and the number, salaries, and accommodations of the professors. Substantially, the Act followed the recommendations of the Rockfish Gap Report in every particular, and it will, therefore, not be requisite to add to the synopsis of that Report which has been given. The most vital provision of the original bill for the creation of a university was retained: the annuity was again fixed at fifteen thousand dollars. Among the characteristic features of the subsequent government of the institution which were not foreshadowed in the Act was the chairmanship of the Faculty, and the great power which its incumbent was to exercise in the management of its affairs. The Board of Visitors were authorized in a general way "to direct and do all matters and things which to them shall seem most expedient for promoting the purposes" of the new seat of learning, and it was
The first Board of Visitors, -which, as the Act required, was appointed by the Governor, -consisted of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John H. Cocke, Joseph C. Cabell, Chapman Johnson, James Breckinridge, and Robert B. Taylor. The Board of Central College, it will be recollected, embraced only five members, and all of these, with the exception of David Watson, were transferred to the new Board. Of the three new additions, two were lawyers of the highest standing for learning, probity, and astuteness, and the third a citizen equally conspicuous for ability and public services There seems to have been no undertaking to divide the membership among the different sections of the State, but the homes of several were notwithstanding widely dispersed: Taylor resided in Norfolk, Johnson in Staunton, and Breckinridge in Botetourt county. There was not a single Visitor from the region of country lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, -the reason for which, quite probably, was that, in those times of stage coach and private carriage, there was small prospect of even a rare attendance at the sessions of the Board of a member who had to traverse the long road from the valley of the Kanawha or the Monongahela. Johnson and Breckinridge were also, in their homes, remote from Charlottesville, but both were constantly passing through on their way to Richmond to be present at the sessions of the General Assembly or the terms of the Supreme Court. The original plan of Jefferson was to ask for the appointment of men who resided within convenient reach of the University; but this was modified by the action of the Governor and Council, who thought it wise to select only a majority of the Board from the neighboring
The last meeting of the Visitors of Central College was held on the 26th of February, 1819. They had been impowered by the University Act of January 25 to perform their former functions until superseded by the coming together of the new Board. The proceedings of this meeting were far from being merely nominal, in anticipation of the early extinction of the old Board; at least three of its members belonged to the new; and they perhaps felt that they were an expiring body only in law and not in fact. Jefferson was present, and through his influence, no doubt, the necessary measures were adopted to ensure the continuation of the building, since upon this he had always laid the primary stress. It was resolved (1) that the funds of the University remaining after the payment of current expenses, should be applied to the erection of additional pavilions and hotels; (2) that workmen for this purpose should be contracted with at once before the season had advanced too far to secure the services of the number required; (3) that the funds in hand, or in prospect, would justify entrance into engagements for the building of at least two more pavilions, one hotel, and as many additional dormitories as the amount left over would allow; (4) that Alexander Garrett should be retained as the treasurer,
Central College, as a working corporation, came to an end on March 29, 1819, when the new Board, with a full attendance of members, convened for the first time. The transition was merely nominal; there was nothing radical in the spirit of the change; it continued to be the same institution, under the same guiding and controlling hand. Its aims were the same, and so were its principles. Jefferson now felt more confident of the successful consummation of his long matured plans for a really great seat of learning; and this was perhaps the only alteration in his outlook for the institution on the broader stage of operation upon which it had entered. Even the social customs of the old Board were to be those of the new so far as his hospitable instincts could bring it about. "It has been our usual course," he wrote to General Taylor, when inviting him to Monticello, "for the gentlemen of Central College to come here the day before the appointed meeting, which gives us an opportunity of talking over our business at leisure, of making up our views on it, and even of committing it to paper in form, so that our resort to the College, where there is no accommodation, is a mere legal ceremony for signing only."
The officers chosen by the Board at their first memorable session were Thomas Jefferson, rector, Peter Minor, secretary, Alexander Garrett, bursar, and Arthur S. Brockenbrough, proctor. Jefferson and Cocke were reappointed members of the committee of superintendence. The Board promptly adopted the recommendations of the Visitors of Central College at their last meeting; namely, that all but necessary current expenditures
At this time, there was a considerable body of land, laid off in two lots and owned by John M. Perry, lying between the tracts, -one of forty-seven acres, the other of one hundred and fifty-three, -which had been acquired by Central College, and transferred to the infant university. The Board, on March 29, instructed the committee of superintendence to purchase this intervening area on the condition of a deferred payment; and it was due to this complication, perhaps, that it was not until January 25, 1820, one year later, that Perry conveyed the first lot of forty-eight acres; and not until May 9, 1825, more than five years afterwards, that he signed the deed to the remaining lot of one hundred and thirty-two acres. The first lot was improved with a dwelling house and curtilages, and its value was estimated as high as $7,231.00. The second lot was assessed at $6,600.00. The payment, even in instalments, of these large sums imposed on the resources of the University an irksome burden for several years. The acquisition, however, was rendered compulsory by the fact that the springs which supplied its cisterns were situated a little without the observatory tract owned by it, whilst the communicating pipes had been run entirely within the boundaries of Perry's property before reaching the actual site of the University itself. At any time, the owner of that property could order the removal of the pipes and thus cut off the natural reservoir from use. Jefferson had long been aware of this possibility, but until the institution was incorporated, was lacking in the means to remove
An additional section of land, -presumably situated between the present Staunton Road and a parallel line running west and east in front of the north portico of the Rotunda, aggregating about eight acres, -was bought in 1824, from Daniel A. Piper.[38] These four parcels of land increased to the extent of one hundred and eighty-four acres the domain already in the possession of the University. Another addition was made in 1824: a small parcel was bought of Mrs. Garner. This also was probably situated on the present Staunton Road, and if so, lay west of the present Gothic Chapel.
The description in the deed runs as follows: "On Rockfish Road in a right line with west side of West Street 462 feet from hotel A A on West Street." Tradition say that the old Staunton Road wound around near the University cemetery to assure a better grade.
V. Course of Construction
Although Central College had been raised to the platform of a university, the general outline of the original plan of building underwent but few alterations. Jefferson had drafted that plan for a broad and populous seat of learning, and now that this consummation of his hopes was assured, he had but to push to a termination what he had long ago conceived, and what he had already substantially begun. The scheme of construction which he submitted to the General Assembly in the Rockfish Gap Report made no addition to the scheme in harmony with which the carpenters and bricklayers were already at work in the old ferry field: and in the letter written by him to William C. Rives, only three days after the
The first and only really important modification that was made in the setting was in April, 1820, when Jefferson, confronted with the necessity of choosing the site of the first hotel, decided that he would not place it on an extension of the Lawn in alignment with the pavilions, but instead would erect it on what was afterwards named Western Back Street, now West Range. Thus began the existing array of four instead of two parallel rows of buildings. In the original draft, the distance from the eastern line to the western was seven hundred and seventy-one feet; but, in fixing the sites of the pavilions, Jefferson contracted the interval. The addition of hotels and dormitories, in the form of parallel East and West Ranges, enabled him to return to the dimensions of the original plat. He seems to have at first intended that each of the lateral ranges should have its front in precise correspondence with the front of that side of the Lawn; and he was ingenious enough to devise a scheme by which the denizens of these lateral ranges could be prevented from peering from their front windows into the ugly premises in the rear of the adjacent parallel pavilions and dormitories. But the expense of carrying this out was shown to be so great that he ultimately determined to change the plan to the one afterwards
Taking the noble group of buildings in the mass as completed, they enable us to understand clearly Jefferson's purpose of teaching the principles of architecture by example in this new seat of culture. It will be recalled that, in the Rockfish Gap Report, he had recommended the study of the fine arts; but the General Assembly, in the Act of Incorporation, had pointedly omitted that theme in enumerating the courses of instruction. Jefferson got around this tacit injunction by persuading the Board of Visitors to enter military and naval architecture among the subjects to be taught in the school of mathematics. It was, however, in the peculiarities of the surrounding buildings that the fundamental lessons of the art were to be learned. "The introduction of chaste models," he wrote to William C. Rives, "taken from the finest remains of antiquity, of the orders of architecture, and of specimens of the choicest samples of each older, was considered as a necessary foundation of the instruction of the students in this art." And so highly did he value this aspect of the University edifices that he urged upon the same correspondent, -at this time a distinguished member of Congress, -that the capitals and bases recently arrived from Italy should be exempted from custom duties because they were designed as much
There was another practical reason which Jefferson gave in justification of that splendid but costly architectural scheme. It was his conviction that, without a "distinguished scale in structure," to employ his own words, foreign scholars of celebrity would hardly be willing to accept chairs in so new an institution. This was a somewhat fanciful notion, for certainly the only alien professors who ever occupied those chairs apparently made no inquiry at all as to the character of the University's architecture, when they entered into their engagements. The prestige of this seat of learning, in our own country, was unquestionably enhanced from the start by its noble physical setting, and this, perhaps, has had a calculable influence in securing for it, throughout its history, the services of the ablest and ripest American scholars.[39] It is quite possible, -and it is no discredit to Jefferson to say so, -that he would have followed the plan which he did adopt even if there had been no practical recommendation
The entire setting of the original group was classical in its character. Beginning at the head of the West Lawn, it will be found that Pavilion I was an adoption of the Doric of the Diocletian Baths; Pavilion III, Corinthian of Palladio; Pavilion V, Ionic of Palladio; Pavilion VII, Doric of Palladio; and Pavilion IX, Ionic of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis. Beginning again on the east side of the Lawn and descending from the north end, we observe Pavilion II, Ionic, after the style of the same temple; Pavilion IV, Doric of Albano; Pavilion VI, Ionic of the Theatre of Marcellus; Pavilion VIII, Corinthian of the Baths of Diocletian; Pavilion X, Doric of the Theatre of Marcellus; and the Rotunda, after the Pantheon at Rome.
Jefferson reduced, modified, and adapted to new purposes, but still preserved with fidelity, the art of the originals, both in their lines and in their proportions. His inspiration, in general, was derived from Palladio, but when his own judgment, in any instance, suggested a departure, he did not shrink from following it, and in doing so, exhibited always precision and certainty. Sometimes, he preferred a simpler form, as in his copy of the pilasters of the Temple of Nerva, because he thought that it was "better suited to our plainer style." It has been said of
The same feeling of admiration was aroused in other men of culture who visited the spot at this time, although the Rotunda, the most imposing of all the structures, was not yet fully completed. Thus Garrett Minor, writing to Cabell, in 1822, said, "I was much pleased and delighted with the beauty, convenience, and splendor of the establishment." The word "splendor," used both
Even the persons who were most enthusiastic in commenting on the extraordinary beauty of Jefferson's conception as incorporated in the Lawn and Ranges, could not blind themselves entirely to the inconveniences of his plan, and particularly to those connected with the dormitories. With doors facing either east or west, and with one small window only breaking the back wall of each room, there was little prospect of their catching the southern breeze during the heats of early summer. The burning rays of the declining sun struck the face of the western arcade in June and September,[41] the closing and opening months of the session, and the cold eastern winds poured against the eastern arcade both in winter and early spring alike. It was apprehended by some, at the beginning, that the constant noise of tramping feet under the cover of the arcades would disturb the students engaged with their books in their several apartments. The long, flat roofs of the Lawn, under the thawing of recurring snows, soon developed a tendency to leak, while smoking chimneys, within a short time, proved such an annoyance to the professors that Bonnycastle wrote an elaborate treatise to demonstrate how this irritating evil could be remedied.
The lecture-hall reserved in each pavilion became almost at once a source of perplexity; it was anticipated that some members of the Faculty would draw classes too small in size to occupy the whole of their several halls, whilst others would be so popular in themselves or their
According to tradition, the purpose which Jefferson had in view for these single ground-floor apartments was blocked, not by formal resolution of the Board, but by that more delicate and subtle instrument of change, a woman's will. It is said that the wives of the professors, finding that they needed the lecture-halls for reception or dining-rooms, brought furtive conjugal influences to
Not only was Jefferson the author of the common plan for Central College, and its successor, the University of Virginia, but, in spite of the burden of his increasing years, he continued to act as the practical superintendent of the building down to the completion of the entire group of structures, with the exception of the Rotunda, which, at his death, was still unfinished in some details of importance. He was assisted in this supervision by Cocke, and he possessed in the proctor, Arthur S. Brockenbrough, a vigilant and well-informed agent; but the bulk even of the specifications came from his brain and pen. In the interval between February and October, 1819, he drafted the plans and wrote out the specifications for five pavilions, with their adjacent dormitories, and also for five hotels. In 1821, he drew up the plans and specifications for the Rotunda. He was now in his seventy-ninth year. After the celebration of his eightieth birthday, he prepared the plans for an observatory and an anatomical hall. The entire set of these original plans, elevations, and specifications have been preserved, but only a few of the working drawings for the guidance of the builders have survived, since most of them were destroyed in their necessarily rough use by the mechanics. The knowledge which he had acquired of materials in erecting the Monticello mansion was put to practical service on afar greater scale iii the construction of the University buildings; he was now as able to test the quality of brick, stone, mortar, and lumber, and to calculate their value, as the most expert artisan on the ground, while his taste in ornamentation was reflected in the
Under his watchful and experienced eye, the progress of construction from the day that the Visitors of Central College turned the property over to the Visitors of the University was rapid and uninterrupted. The committee of superintendence, Cocke and himself, had at first contemplated the erection of a hotel, so as to open the institution to students during the following winter, but, as early as May 12 (1819), they had, with the Board's approval, decided to finish the entire group of buildings before taking this final step. Workingmen were soon engaged in digging the foundations for the two additional pavilions and their dormitories, which had been authorized in anticipation of the payment of the annuity of the ensuing year. We obtain a glimpse of the busy scene on the University grounds in August (1819) from a letter written by George W. Spooner, who represented the proctor in the work out of doors during his absence in Richmond. "Mr. Phillips," he says, "has commenced to lay in bricks, and has the basement story (of one of the new pavilions) nearly up. Mr. Ware's foundation will be ready in a few days, but he is not yet ready for laying, not having burnt any of his bricks yet. Mr. Perry will begin as soon as they have succeeded in blasting a rock which has impeded their progress in digging his foundation. The two Italians are going on quite leisurely. They have cut three bases and one Corinthian cap. The two from Philadelphia I went out to the quarries to see. They appear to go on quite slowly, owing to the difficulty of quarrying the very hard rock. Mr. Dinsmore is puting up modillions in the cornice of his pavilion. Mr. Oldham is making his frame." [42]
By December 17 (1819), the brickwork of the five pavilions, with their respective dormitories, situated on West Lawn, had been completed, whilst the rafters of the roofs of two pavilions situated on East Lawn were in the course of being adjusted. By November 21, 1821, six pavilions, eighty-two dormitories, and two hotels, were in condition for immediate occupation; and by October 7, 1822, ten pavilions, one hundred and nine dormitories, and six hotels. Only a small amount of plastering remained to be finished. The gardens had not been entirely laid off, nor the serpentine walls, designed to bar them against intrusion, erected. A few capitals also had not as yet arrived from Italy. By October 6, 1823, all these deficiencies had been supplied. But the Rotunda had still to be carried through the last stage of construction.
It has, undoubtedly, had a profound influence in preserving the alumni's affection for, and increasing their pride in, their alma mater, the University of Virginia.
The early sessions extended into July. Originally, indeed, the vacation was confined to the winter.
VI. Men Who Built the University
We know the mind that conceived the plan of that noble group of buildings, and the hand which platted that plan, and drew up its vital specifications. Who were the men who actually laid the foundations, raised the walls, set the roofs, and decorated the entablatures? We have already mentioned the names of the contractors employed by the Visitors of Central College, and Spooner's letter, from which we have quoted, gives the names of most of those who were engaged in the work of construction after the University had been incorporated. Each pavilion in Jefferson's schema represented in his view a separate school. It is significant that the amount which, according to his estimate, each would cost was precisely the same as that which, by his calculation, would be required to erect each of the district colleges called for in his famous scheme for popular education. In a very
Starting with the pavilion situated at the northern end of West Lawn, we find that the bricks used in its construction were laid by Phillips and Carter, of Richmond, whilst its woodwork was from the hand of James Oldham. The brickwork of the second pavilion, on the same side of the Lawn, was from the hand of Matthew Brown; the woodwork from that of James Dinsmore. The contractor for the brickwork of the third pavilion was John M. Perry, and for the woodwork, Perry and Dinsmore; for the brickwork of the fourth pavilion, Matthew Brown, David Knight, and Hugh Chisholm, and for the woodwork, John M. Perry. Carter and Phillips furnished the brickwork for the fifth pavilion -at the south end of West Lawn, -and George W. Spooner the woodwork. At least three of the pavilions situated on the East Lawn, beginning at the northern end, were erected by Richard Ware. The woodwork for the fourth pavilion seems to have been from the hand of James Dinsmore. The hotels, A, B, C, D, E, and F, were built by Perry, Spooner, Nelson Barksdale, Curtis Carter, William Phillips and A. B. Thorn. Perry alone had a share in the construction of all the hotels except Hotel D. The contractors for the numerous dormitories were the same men as the contractors for the pavilions and hotels. The bricks for the serpentine walls were furnished by Perry, Phillips, and Carter; the tin for all the houses by A. H. Brooks.[43]
We have already referred briefly to the history of John M. Perry. He not only conveyed to the College and the University almost the entire area of ground on which the group of buildings now stands, but he also had a more extensive part in their erection, as a whole, than any other person employed in the work. Spooner, who was associated with him in his carpentry, appears first under contract to General Cocke at Bremo, where he was a co-laborer with Neilson, afterwards a partner of Dinsmore in the construction of the Rotunda. He remained at the University during many years engaged in making the repairs which were soon constantly required; and he was so much respected there, that, during a short interval, he filled the responsible office of proctor. Curtis Carter and William Phillips were brickmakers in business in Richmond. The famous Brockenbrough House, afterwards the White House of the Confederacy, was a monument of Carter's mechanical skill; and he had manufactured most of the material used in the thick walls of the handsome banks of that city in those times. This firm, responding to the advertisement inserted in the Enquirer by the proctor in the spring of 1819, sent in a bid to supply one million bricks for the use of the University, which was an indication of the great scale of their operations.
Alexander Garrett, a shrewd and competent judge, and as bursar in a good position to compare the skill of the different contractors, pronounced the work of Richard Ware to be superior to that of all the others. Ware resided in Philadelphia, where he had built several of the most imposing public and private edifices adorning that cultivated city. He had seen the advertisement, -which had appeared in the journals there, -for the erection of the University pavilions and dormitories,
Subordinate to the contractors, there were at least three stonecutters who deserve some notice: John Gorman and Michael and Giacomo Raggi. Our first view of Gorman is in Lynchburg, where, before he was induced to come to the University by Jefferson, he had been employed in a large marble quarry. Having been heartily recommended by Christopher Anthony, a highly esteemed citizen of that town, he was engaged to chisel the Tuscan capitals and bases; and was also expected to do all kinds of stonework that might be required, such as keystones, and window and door sills. He seems to have hacked into shape most of those needed for the hotels and dormitories. He was paid in accord with a tri-monthly measurement; and the fact that one-half of the amount due him at the end of each interval was always held back for six months, would seem to prove that he was not entirely reliable, and, for that reason, had to be subjected to a check of some sort.
The Raggis were Italian brothers who had been imported in accord with the advice of Jefferson. The first intimation that he gave of his intention to pursue his architectural scheme on a more ambitious scale than was reflected in the first pavilion, was his request for authority from the Board of Visitors to bring in a stonecutter who had been trained in his art in Italy. Micheli and Giacomo Raggi were procured through the offices of
Giacomo was still at the University in 1831. He was, during that year, engaged with work for Dr. Patterson.
VII. How Materials Were Procured
If we except the marbles imported from Italy, the fundamental materials for the construction of the pavilions, dormitories, and hotels were obtained in the neighborhood of the University. There was a quarry nearby which afforded a great quantity of stone; the quality of it, as we have seen, unfitted it for conversion into capitals and bases; but it served very well for foundations and for the sills which were required for so many of the doors and windows. As this local stone was too hard and flinty for more pretentious forms, the Board endeavored to find a better sort in other Virginian deposits; and with that object in view, one of the Italians was sent, in October, 1819, to Bremo, on the James River, to examine General Cocke's freestone quarry, and to report whether or not the blocks were suitable for Corinthian capitals. He was ordered to bring back a load of four thousand pounds. Cocke gave him the sample solicited, but he wrote the proctor that he had no confidence in its real adaptability to such a purpose. He thought, however, that the freestone which was to be found in large quantities on Mt. Graham in his neighborhood, could, with ease, be used in the carving of Ionic capitals.
Brockenbrough, concluding that it would be cheaper to purchase in Richmond the stone that was needed, requested Thomas R. Conway, -who was interested in a quarry situated near that city, -to send him a sample of
As early as October, 1819, Cocke had urged the dismissal of the Raggis, and the importation from Italy of the marbles required. His prediction that this course would have to be pursued was fully verified in the end. In April, 1821, the Visitors received from Thomas Appleton, the American consul in Leghorn, a statement showing the cost of Ionic and Corinthian capitals delivered on shipboard in that harbour; and it was found that these marbles, in spite of the wide ocean, could be transferred from Europe to the University for a sum smaller than the one that had been dissipated in the attempted use of the Virginian stone. The committee of superintendence were, therefore, instructed to procure from Carrara all that should be thereafter needed.
The bricks used in the buildings were moulded and burnt in the neighborhood, as it was too expensive to transport them from a distance. The chief manufacturers were Perry, Thorn, Carter, Phillips, and Nathaniel Chamberlain.
The lumber required by the contractors in such large quantities was purchased from the numerous sawmills in the thickly wooded surrounding region. Perhaps, the most productive of these was the Hydraulic Mill, owned by Perry, who, through it, was able supply, not only himself, but the other contractors with lumber. He also furnished for use at the University a large quantity of plank in such manufactured forms as scantlings, ceilings, joists, rafters, floorings, and sills. Nelson Barksdale, the former proctor, provided lumber of all sorts for the same general purpose; so did several members of the Meriwether family; so did Thomas Draffin, Warner Wood, and David Owens, of Albemarle, and William Mitchell, of Orange. The greater part of the glass and hardware was obtained from firms in Richmond, the most prominent of which were John Van Lew and Co., and Brockenhrough and Hume. The painting and glazing were principally the work of Edward Lawber of Philadelphia, through skilful assistants like John Vowles and Angus McKay. The ornaments for the entablatures that adorned the pavilion drawing-rooms, -the ox-heads and flowers, the rosettes, lozenges, female heads, flowers on pannels and friezes, -came from the expert fingers of W. J. Coffee, an artisan from the North.
Among the most expensive items in the general account for the building of the pavilions, dormitories, and hotels were the charges for transportation. Many articles used in their construction were brought overland from Richmond, and as the number of wagons on the road increased
In the course of the building, the University had use for the labor of many hired slaves. In 1821, the number employed there in different ways was thirty-two, some of whom were still under age. The terms for which they served did not run over one year, although, doubtless, the contracts with their owners were most often renewed at expiration. The overseer in charge was James Herron,
VIII. The Building of the Rotunda
The various details dwelt upon in the preceding chapter are pertinent only to the pavilions, dormitories, and hotels. The Rotunda was not only separate from these edifices in a physical way, but the history of its construction is equally distinct from theirs. Most of the buildings of the University were erected simultaneously, and all were practically completed before the excavations began for the foundations of the dominating edifice. In the earliest scheme, it will be recalled, the pavilions were to be placed on each of the three lines forming the boundaries of the first plat; and there were to be twenty dormitories attached to each pavilion. When it was decided to raise an imposing structure irk the middle of the north line, this scheme was altered, -instead of the original number of pavilions and dormitories to be erected on the east and west lines respectively, it was necessary now to build five pavilions, with ten dormitories attached to each.
Although the Rotunda, the central feature of the beautiful architectural setting of the University, seems to have had, in its main lines at least, its germ with Latrobe, yet in the shape which the suggestion, once dropped in Jefferson's mind, finally took, that building was more distinctly characteristic of his classical taste than any other standing on the ground. It must have been as perceptible
This famous building was in the form of a cylinder surmounted by a hemisphere. The exterior walls were of concrete, faced with brick and marble. The dome was of concrete also, with a bronzed outer surface and a gilded ceiling. Sixteen granite columns, crowned by Corinthian capitals of marble, upheld the weight of the portico. A row of fluted marble pillars ran around the circumference of the great apartment, while the interior walls were covered with variegated marbles, upon which, and upon the floor, shone the rays of the sun falling through a circular orifice in the top of the dome.
In reproducing this splendid edifice, Jefferson was compelled to use the humble materials of brick and mortar instead of brick and concrete; plaster and white-wash instead of a marble facing; tin plates instead of bronze tiles. In one detail, however, the building in imitation is superior to the one copied. The masterpiece of Agrippa is approached by only five steps, a condition that imparts a squat appearance to the structure looked at from the front. The Rotunda, on the other hand, is approached
The Rockfish Gap Report recommended that the Rotunda should contain apartments for religious worship and public examinations, and also for instruction in music, drawing, and similar studies, but that the section of it which would be immediately under the dome should be reserved for the storage of books. That the latter was the principal end which the building was expected to subserve was demonstrated by the fact that, in the successive reports of the .Visitors, it is ordinarily designated as the "Library." There was no provision for numerous lecture-rooms in the proposed structure, the explanation of which lay, of course, in the assignment of halls for that purpose in the pavilions; but after the edifice was finished, the little use which could be made of the apartments below the highest floor for the objects for which they were intended, -there being no demand for music and drawing lessons, and the examinations taking place only at long intervals, -led to the shifting of the lecture-rooms from the pavilions, where they caused so much domestic awkwardness, -to these vacant apartments in the Rotunda.
There were not sufficient funds on hand, during the early period of construction, to permit of the erection of so large and costly an edifice as the Rotunda. In April, 1821, the Board of Visitors ordered the committee of superintendence to refrain from entering into any contract for its building until they were fully satisfied that the expenditure "on its account would not interfere with the completion of the pavilions, dormitories, and hotels," the erection of which had either begun or would soon begin. This made it impossible to start upon its actual construction before the General Assembly had appropriated a large sum for that purpose. It was not until October 7, 1822, indeed, that the proctor was told to stipulate with "skilful and responsible undertakers" for its erection according to the provisions of the plan already in his possession. Cocke, as a member of the committee of superintendence, had criticized the disjointedness of the terms
Among the builders of the Rotunda were Thorn and Chamberlain, to whom were assigned the brickwork; for which they were required to furnish the mortar; and they also agreed to bring on trained men from Philadelphia for the actual bricklaying. Thorn received a wage of fifty dollars a month for overlooking the manufacture of the bricks, since most of this material was made in the University kiln by hired labor. From a letter written in February to Cocke by Neilson, we learn that Jefferson was full "of brickmaking ideas at present," which clearly indicates how minute was the supervision which he gave even to so ordinary a detail. Dinsmore and Neilson were the principal agents in carrying through carpenters and joiners' tasks for the new building; but the lumber, in this instance, as in that of the brick, was furnished at the University's expense, although the firm
On July 4, Jefferson was able to write to Cabell, in a spirit of unrepressed exultation, that the Rotunda "was rising nobly." In the course of 1823 not less than thirty persons, whether or not regularly engaged in business, supplied the different articles that were required for this building, such as lime, lumber, dressed plank, shingles, hardware and iron; and there were almost uncountable bills for hauling as well as for providing food for man and beast employed in its construction. The persons who furnished the principal materials were the same as those who had furnished the like for the pavilions, dormitories, and hotels. For instance, three hundred thousand bricks, in addition to those burnt in the University kiln, were purchased of John M. Perry. The most admirable features of the Rotunda were the ornate capitals and bases. In September, 1823, Jefferson and Cocke, as the committee of superintendence, entered into a contract with Giacomo Raggi, which obliged him to obtain in person in Italy for that edifice ten Corinthian and two pilaster bases of Carrara marble. He was to receive sixty-five dollars for each of the Corinthian, and thirty-two dollars and fifty cents for each of the pilaster, -one half of which sums was to be paid before the bases were dumped on shipboard at Leghorn, and the other half afterwards. Raggi had spent his hours of leisure in carving numerous articles in alabaster marble, and these he hoped to sell privately for his own profit;
The marbles were transported to Richmond from Boston and New York by vessel, and there turned over to Colonel Bernard Peyton, the agent of the University, who seems to have looked upon the responsibility of taking
Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. A few days before he was forced to take to his bed with his fatal illness, he visited the University, and in the final glimpse which we have of him within the precincts of the institution to which he had given up all his thoughts and energies in his old age, he is seen seated and looking out through a window on the Lawn to watch the workingmen as they raised a capital to the top of the column at the southwest corner of the portico. So oblivious was he of all besides that he had unconsciously remained standing until Mr. Wertenbaker silently brought him a chair. It seems very appropriate that his last association in his own person with
Dinsmore and Neilson were sometimes disposed to act impatiently in their intercourse with the Faculty. They were pointedly complained of, on one occasion, as replying offensively when they were asked to provide shelves for the books in the galleries of the library. Certain stairways of this apartment had not yet been finished, and these builders resented the suggestion that the work should be hastened on this part at the expense of other parts equally important, although many volumes thereby might have been made accessible for use at an earlier date. Nor did they concern themselves about the deafening noise raised by their tools. Dinsmore was requested to remove a workingman whose hammer rendered it impossible for one of the professors to go on with his lecture; the only answer from him, according to the report of the Faculty, was "a gross insult in the presence of the class." What he had said was, no doubt, true enough at that time; namely, that "the professors had no business in the building," and it seems to have been this fact alone that had caused him to threaten, with a fierce oath, "to turn them all out." It is quite probable that the inconveniences of the lecture-halls in the pavilions had proved so irksome to the teachers, -not to bring in their wives, -that some of them had been forced to take refuge in the half-finished lecture-rooms of the Rotunda, to the natural discomposure of both Dinsmore and Neilson, who were endeavoring to hurry forward its completion.
In October, 1826, the noble apartment reserved for the library was on the point of being finished; only a flight of steps and the laying of the marble flags on the floor of the portico were thereafter wanting to complete
[45] Bonnycastle, of the School of Natural Philosophy, said, in 1826: "The lecture-room attached to my house, not being adapted to exhibit experiments, and having been found otherwise inadequate to the purposes intended, Mr. Jefferson had given me permission to have one of the elliptical rooms of the Rotunda fitted up as a lecture-room, with cases for the instruments, and raised seats for the students, according to a plan which he had approved. A colleague who had to have experiments also, had had two other rooms in the Rotunda similarly fitted." This was the chemical department. Minutes of Board of Visitors, Oct. 2, 1826.
"A room in pavilion VII was used for lectures in 1830-31. In September, 1831, the Board of Visitors took possession of the large room in Dr. Blaettermann's pavilion. He threatened to leave the University if it was not restored to him." Dr. Patterson to Cocke, Sept. 16, 1831.
A large proportion of the plastering was done by Joseph Antrim; of the glazing by Lawber; and of the clone work by Gorman.
IX. Additions to Main Building
The Rockfish Gap Report had recommended that anatomy should form a part of the course to be taught in the School of Medicine, but it was not until March, 1825, that the Board decided that Jefferson's design for an anatomical hall should be adopted, and that steps should be taken to erect it just as soon as the funds then expected to be paid by the National Government had been received. In anticipation of the shelter of its roof, two skeletons were purchased by Dr. Robert Goodhow, of New York; and this seems to have been the first practical step towards the establishment of the medical school. By February, 1826, the construction of the hall had begun under a contract with Dinsmore and Neilson, and by August the roof had been completed. As it was necessary
There was no suggestion in the Rockfish Gap Report of the need of an observatory in the projected university, and yet astronomy was a study which Jefferson looked upon as almost as important as architecture. An entry in his notebook accompanying a plan which he had drawn for such a building shows that he thought that astronomy, like architecture, could he taught by the object lesson of one of the University's structures. "The concave ceiling of the Rotunda," he remarked, with a characteristic absence of humor, "is proposed to be painted sky-blue, and spangled with gilt stars in their position and magnitude copied exactly from any selected hemisphere of our latitude. A seat for the operator, movable and flexible at any point in the concave, will be necessary, and means of giving to every star its exact position. A white oak sapling is to he used as a boom, its heel working in the centre of the sphere, with a rope suspending the small end of the boom and passing over a pulley in the zenith, and hanging down to the floor, by which the boom may be raised or lowered at will. A common saddle with stirrups is to he fixed as the seat of the operator; and seated in that, he may, by the rope, be propelled to any point in the concave."
It was probably the costliness of the projected building that influenced Jefferson to go slowly in advising the erection of an observatory, which, in size at least, should
So soon as the contracts were given out, in the spring of 1819, for the construction of additional pavilions and dormitories, Jefferson began to consider the means of obtaining a permanent and voluminous supply of water. On April 9, he received a proposal from Mr. Balinger, of Philadelphia, to bring it within the precincts by means of pipes that were to tap springs on the side of Observatory Mountain. A previous bid seems to have been made in March by William Cosby, who was to have a share of some importance in the building of the University. By August, the work of boring the pipes, which were manufactured by hollowing out large logs of wood, had begun. The reservoir, however, had not yet been constructed, for, on October 7, James Wade, who had recently inspected the ground, advised Jefferson to place the receiving basin as high up on the mountain as practicable, so as to avoid the use of pumps. This method, he said, would be certain to create a strong natural flow of water for extinguishing a great fire, or for supplying an ornamental jet d'eau, should one be desired for diversifying the beauty of the University grounds. He suggested the construction of a circular reservoir, to consist of oak plank two and a half to three inches in thickness, and capable of holding three thousand or even four thousand gallons, with an arch of brick thrown over it for protection. The excavation of the ditch to contain the pipes occupied the interval from May to November.
There has already been a brief allusion to the gardens which lay in the rear of the ten pavilions. The walls enclosing these gardens were of a shape which has been aptly described as serpentine. It will be recalled that Jefferson, during his mission to France, had made a tour of the English counties, and in the course of his circuit of the island, had been very much pleased with the beauty of the gardens, especially in their relation to landscape. It was, probably, during this tour that he first noticed the serpentine walls, which, in those times as in these, environed so many of the English gardens, and being delighted with their graceful and unique sinuosity, he, no doubt, carried this impression with him until he had an opportunity of reproducing their shape in planning the garden walls for Central College. In England, this type of wall, because it presents a larger surface to the rays of the sun, is thought to be better adapted to the growth of flowering vines and fruits. The smaller cost of such an enclosure was, perhaps, an important reason for its adoption for the protection of the University gardens. The serpentine wall can be safely raised with a thickness of one brick to a greater height than an ordinary straight wall of the same dimensions. The original serpentine walls at the University were only half a brick through, and yet from ground to top the distance
In providing for the buildings for the new seat of learning, Jefferson did not forget the need of a clock and bell. In 1825, the proctor obtained an offer from Joseph Saxton, of Philadelphia, who represented the famous maker, Lukens, who was then in Paris. Apparently, this was not accepted, for, in April, Jefferson wrote to Mr. Coolidge, of Boston, -a city which then had a high reputation in the art of bell making, -to ask him for assistance in procuring the bell so soon to be used "We want one," he said, "which can be generally heard at a distance of two miles, because this will always ensure its being heard at Charlottesville."
Coolidge, in his reply to this letter, seems to have recommended Mr. Willard, of Boston, but no clock and bell were manufactured that year, for, on April 3, 1826, the Board of Visitors empowered the executive committed to buy a clock and bell, should Congress consent to remit the duties on the capitals imported from Italy.[47] The order for the bell given to Willard was countermanded by Cocke after Jefferson's death, and an order for a triangle at first substituted; but the clock was
When, in the spring of 1819, the appointment of a proctor was under discussion, Governor Preston, recommended Arthur S. Brockenbrough, a member of a distinguished family, who, at that time, was superintendent of repairs to the Capitol in Richmond, and was also in charge of the improvements to the Capitol Square, then in progress. "Brockenbrough," he wrote, "was judicious, economical, and industrious, a man of correct taste, who had been trained in building; and in character, unexceptional, and in disposition, amiable." These encomiums were not exaggerated. His ability and fidelity in performing the practical part imposed on him officially in the erection of the University have not been awarded the praise to which they fully entitle him in the history of the institution. Constant vigilance, unceasing activity, and the power to direct and use men to advantage, as well as knowledge of building in its general and special features alike, were required of him, and all these qualifications he exhibited. His responsibilities covered a large field of small details arising continuously, and calling
It is true that Jefferson relieved Brockenbrough of much drudgery that would have fallen on him had Jefferson himself been satisfied with a nominal oversight. We have seen him laying off the site of Central College, drawing up the specifications for the buildings from cellar to garret, prescribing the tests for brick, stone, and timber, writing out many of the contracts with his own hand, and preparing the deeds to the purchased lots. But he very probably did not take upon himself to perform every one of those duties which he enumerated in the letter to Duke. Although he visited the University so frequently, yet it was not possible for him to remain the entire round of working hours, and there must have been, in his intervals of absence, however short, a throng of small matters of business rising up suddenly and requiring to be at once passed upon. As Bremo, the home of General Cocke, the other member of the committee of superintendence, was situated a day's journey off, it was not possible for him to be constantly within the precincts.
That his temper was sometimes harassed by the exasperating intricacies of his duties crops out in the history of his relations with some of the workingmen. W. J. Coffee, whose artistic eye and hand fashioned the ornamental parts of the entablatures of the pavilion drawing-rooms, roundly denounced him, on one occasion, as "illbred, unhandsome, and insulting," but as there had been a difference of opinion in the settlement of his balance, it is quite possible that Brockenbrough was only endeavoring to safeguard the interests of the University. That was certainly so in the case of a contention with Edward Lawber, who supplied the paints for so many of the buildings. The records indicate that there was but one suit of importance brought against the institution during his administration by any of the contractors; this was by James Oldham; a proof that care had been taken by him to deal justly and exactly with all the persons who had a share in constructing it.
After Jefferson's death, Brockenbrough's prolonged experience under circumstances that sharpened his powers of observation was very serviceable to both Cocke and Madison as the executive committee. There still survives a letter written by him to the latter about the time that Madison succeeded to the rectorship, which contains many valuable practical suggestions respecting
Writing to Cocke, October 31, 1826, Coolidge gave the following information: "In answer to my inquiry, Mr. Willard said he is now old (73) and cannot accomplish much during these short days, -that being very anxious that the clock shall surpass any he has ever made, he suffers no one to work on it but himself, -that giving freely his own time and care to perfect it, he asks only patience on the part of the Visitors to enable him to surpass any which has been made in this country." Writing August 23, 1827, to the proctor, Madison said, "Great care in the postage of the clock and thermometer is required." The clock had been injured in its springs in the course of the first transfer, and, it seems, had to be sent back for repairs. We learn this from a letter by Coolidge dated August 16, 1827.
X. Cost of Buildings
What was the outlay required for the erection of the elaborate fabric of the University? The answer to this question is an important one, not only from an economical and historical point of view in general, but also because it demonstrates in another way the breadth and dignity of the work which Jefferson performed for his native State in founding and building that institution. It would be possible, from the contents of the proctor's vouchers belonging to the period of construction, to offer tables that would embrace every detail of the entire cost; but the prices of a few of the essential and fundamental materials used by the contractors will be sufficient for our present purpose.
The chief price list at that time was known as the Philadelphia Price Book, and we shall find that it governed many of the charges in the building of the University, although, in some cases, with modifications called for by local conditions. Take, for instance, the bids of the carpenters and joiners in 1819. "From my knowledge of the manner in which the work is to be done," writes James Dinsmore in May of that year, "and of the difficulty of procuring good workingmen, and also in the difference in [the price of] the materials between here and Philadelphia, I shall not consider myself justified in undertaking by the book (Philadelphia Price Book) as the standard, at a less advance than the difference of the currency between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Should it be more agreeable to the Visitors, I would undertake it at five per cent less, provided they get an experienced
Philadelphia measurer to measure the work after it is executed. At these rates, I should wish to undertake the carpenter's and joiner's work of the Ionic pavilion, with the range of dormitories attached to it." It seems that Dinsmore and Perry, after this letter was written, consented to reduce the amount of their bid because there had been a fall in wages since it was first submitted; and they asserted their willingness now to conform to the Philadelphia Price Book provided that a Virginia dollar should be accepted as equal in value to a Pennsylvania dollar. Perry, testifying, in 1830, in the suit of James Oldham, said that he recalled "that it was distinctly understood that the last work let at the University was to be done at ten per cent. below the first work undertaken. I recollect I applied to Mr. Jefferson, and urged it, that, as we were fixed then to do the work, I did not think it right that we should be required to work for less than we had done. His reply was, that work had fallen everywhere and that no more would be given."
The men who had the principal share in building the University, lacked, with hardly an exception, even a moderate amount of capital; when they did buy their own material, payment was usually effected by advances on their accounts with the proctor; the purchase, in each case, was really made by him, and a deduction for it was entered against the balance due the contractor on his books. But this fact rather increases than diminishes our ability to find out the most significant charges.
Down to a period as late as 1819, the former habit of stating all prices in the terms of the old Colonial currency of pounds and shillings was very often followed. Thus we find that the edge plank used in the construction of the pavilions was valued at so many shillings the one hundred feet; but when the quantity was very large, the
In the beginning William Leitch, of Charlottesville, acquired the sole right to supply all the ironmongery for the buildings; but as this monopoly brought down the criticism of the trade, and raised up enemies for the new institution, the contract, with his consent, was cancelled. As this material was afterwards procured from Richmond, the prices were very much swelled by the charges for hauling.
The most onerous single feature in the construction of the University was the importation of the capitals and bases from Italy. Writing to Cabell in September, 1821, Jefferson calculated that the seventeen capitals for pavilions II, III, V and VIII had cost $1,784.00; and that
The wages of ordinary stonecutters, in 1820, was twenty-five cents for each superficial foot. It was, however, fifty cents per foot in straight moulded work, and seventy-five cents in circular. Alexander Spinks, the quarrier, received a wage of thirty dollars a month, and as the charge for board was ten dollars only for the same length of time, he still retained a satisfactory margin of profit. In January, 1820, John Gorman was working at the rate of seventy-five cents the superficial foot in chiseling the Tuscan bases and capitals. For the Doric bases and capitals, on the other hand, he was paid at the rate of eight dollars apiece; for the moulded doorsills, four dollars and eighteen cents; and for the plain, two dollars and fifty cents; and for setting the sills, two dollars respectively.
The work of sheeting the roofs with tin during the years 1820, 1821, and 1822, was done by the hand of A. H. Brooks. His scale seems to have been six dollars and thirty cents for each square. Jefferson soon became dissatisfied with him because of this high charge, for such he considered it to be. "The tinning," he wrote Mr. Yancey, of Buckingham, "can be done as well for one dollar as he can do it. We were led to it from a belief that it could not be done without the very expensive and
This letter brings into light, not only Jefferson's unremitting vigilance in superintending the work of building at the University, down to the minutest particulars, but also his shrewd discernment and his mechanical ingenuity. Brooks seems to have been retained in spite of the discredit cast upon his machine by this object lesson, for, in 1826, he was employed in laying on such sheets of tin as the Rotunda needed, at the rate of five dollars and fifty cents the square, -which was only about one dollar less than he had charged for the like covering on the other buildings.[49]
The cost of all the materials used in the construction was very much increased by the high charge for wagonage and boatage. We have seen that packages from a distance, however ponderous, -and there was no one thing of its size heavier than a marble capital or base, were conveyed either in the overland vehicles, or in the river batteaux that put Charlottesville and Richmond into commercial intercourse by water. The rates for local hauling were moderate in comparison, but formed a serious expense on account of the quantity of lumber and
One of the continuous expenses which had to be met
The amounts required for the purchase of separate articles would fail to give even an approximate idea of the total expenditures for erecting the several buildings of the University. There are figures available to show what was the aggregate outlay which each of these edifices entailed. In 1820, Jefferson, writing to Cabell, enclosed for his examination the following estimates: ten pavilions were to cost six thousand dollars each; six hotels, three thousand, five hundred dollars each; one hundred and four dormitories, three hundred and fifty dollars each. Independently of the Rotunda it was his belief that the entire group could be constructed for $162,364.00. In 1821, he stated that the average expenditure for the pavilions which had been finished was
An impression that the outlay for constructing the University was far larger than was justifiable was very wide-spread in 1822; Cabell conceded that the charge of extravagance was now on the lips of even the "intelligent circle of society"; but he did not think that there was any substantial foundation for it. Writing to Jefferson in March, he said, "The admissions of our own friends, and the known opinion of a part of the Board of Visitors, have mainly contributed to give currency and weight to the prejudice prevailing on this subject." He insisted that, instead of prodigality, there had been strict economy in the expenditures; but it is probable that the opposing opinion of Cocke, who was not so much under Jefferson's
The following tables show the actual cost of the pavilions, hotels and dormitories, which were in existence when the University was thrown open.
Pavilions | Hotels | Dormitories |
I. $ 9992.05 | Hotel A $4,499.21 | $78,509.58 |
II. 10,863.57 | Hotel B 6,278.29 | |
III. 16,528.47 | Hotel C 4,525.38 | |
IV. 11,173.30 | Hotel D 6,245.39 | |
V. 11,723.41 | Hotel E 4,638.71 | |
VI. 9,793.40 | Hotel F 6,013.68 | |
VII. 9,399.73 | ||
VIII. 10,786.86 | ||
IX. 8,785.04 | ||
X. 11,758.06 |
The balance sheet of the proctor for 1828 disclosed that, up to that year, the residential buildings of the University had called for an expenditure of $236,678.29, and the Rotunda, of $57,749.33. The figures for the latter edifice clearly exhibited Jefferson's proneness to undercalculate the cost of construction, for he had agreed with the proctor in thinking that $46,847.00 would be sufficient for its erection. John Neilson, -who was pronounced by Cocke to be one of the few men employed in the work at the University who was competent to make an estimate, -had predicted that the outlay necessary for the Rotunda would not fall short of fifty-five thousand dollars; and this anticipation turned out to be almost precisely correct. In 1830, the entire property belonging to the institution was valued at $333,095.12, in which account the lands were assessed at $9,465.75 and the books and apparatus at $36,308.07.
XI. The Tight for Appropriations
From what sources were obtained the voluminous funds that were necessary to carry through the elaborate and expensive programme of building which has been described? It will be recalled that, before the College
There was one man who never for a moment was satisfied with fifteen thousand dollars as the annual limit to the State's assistance; that man was Jefferson. The petition for aid which he wished to submit to the General Assembly while Central College was still in existence, seemed to him more imperative than ever after it had been merged in the University. He was clearly aware, that, should he not succeed in obtaining the appropriation of very large sums by the Commonwealth, in addition to the annuity, he would not be able to complete the buildings in the splendid form upon which he had set his aspiration in the beginning. He, and his staunch coadjutor, Cabell, and their few unwavering supporters in the Legislature, never suffered any sort of set back, however staggering, to balk them long in their crusade. How deeply Cabell's heart was enlisted in it is revealed in one of his letters to Jefferson: "I returned (to Richmond) over stormy rivers and frozen roads," he wrote,
There was in the avidity with which Jefferson fixed his eyes on the Literary Fund, -the only source from which more of the State's money could be got, -something that would appear pathetically ludicrous but for its unselfish and disinterested spirit. That Fund was barred to the University beyond the annuity by numerous influences which could be broken down only with painful difficulty; among them were (1) the disposition of the General Assembly to restrict all large appropriations from this fund to the use of the elementary public schools, such as they were; (2) the sour feeling against Jefferson himself, which lingered among his political foes of the past; (3) the impression among the friends of the College of William and Mary that the waxing of the University would be accompanied by the proportionate waning of the College; (4) the jealousy and rivalry of small institutions like Hampden-Sidney College and Washington College; (5) the belief among the several denominations that the University was friendly to irregligious tendencies; and finally, (6) the provincial indifference to the claims of literature and education, which was then so much abroad in Virginia. As these hostile influences existed in the State at large, they were, of course, reflected in a concentrated form in the popular representation in the General Assembly. It was Cabell who had to ride down this powerful array, for it was he, and not Jefferson,
Among the most conspicuous and indefatigable of these "compeers" was William F. Gordon, a delegate in the House, and afterwards a representative in Congress, the author of the Sub-Treasury Scheme, and as a member of the Convention of 1829-30, -in itself a badge of civic distinction, -the proposer of the plan that settled the vehement controversy between the East and West that was so near to the verge of breaking up that great body. He had been in the first rank of those who strove to establish the University on the site of Central College; and he stood always at Cabell's elbow, whenever, as General Cabell expressed it, "a charge" was to be made for an appropriation. Chapman Johnson, William C. Rives, George Loyall, General Breckinridge, General Blackburn, R. M. T. Hunter, and Philip Doddridge, were some of the other high-minded and public-spirited men,
With characteristic promptness and singleness of purpose, Jefferson began the fight for the appropriations of large sums to the University only three days after its incorporation. Would it not be possible, he inquired of William C. Rives in January, 1819, to induce the General Assembly to turn over to the institution all that portion of the annual reservation for the charity schools which remained derelict because not accepted by them? "I mean so much of the last year's $45,000 as has not been called for, or so much of this year's $65,000 as shall not be called for. These unclaimed dividends might enable us to complete our buildings and procure apparatus and library, which, once done, the institution might be maintained in action by a moderate annual sum. Could it have any ill effect to try this proposal with the Legislature?" Cabell, and very probably Rives also, disapproved of this course, because it would revive the popular impression that the University was covertly seeking to absorb the entire income of the Literary Fund. This alone would make certain its defeat. The interests which had striven to divert the location of the University from Charlottesville were still sore and angry over their discomfiture. "They will seize upon every occasion," wrote Cabell in February, "and avail themselves of every pretext to keep it down." "Better," he urged "to put off to another session the petition for a special appropriation." But Jefferson was not disposed to accept this advice. "We should go on in our duty," he said sturdily, "and hope the same from them, and leave on them the blame of failure." And it was not until Cabell
By January 22, 1820, -the Legislature, in the meanwhile, having been in session during several weeks without making the appropriation so eagerly desired and expected, -Jefferson began to grow impatient and reproachful. "Kentucky," he said "has a University with fourteen professors, and two hundred students, though the State was planted after Virginia. If our Legislature does not heartily push our University, we must send our children for education to Kentucky or Cambridge. If, however, we are to go a-begging anywhere for our education, I would rather it should be to Kentucky than any other State, because she has more of the flavor of the old cask than any other. All the States but our own are sensible that knowledge is power, and we are sinking into the barbarism of our Indian aborigines, and expect, like them, to oppose by ignorance the overwhelming mass of light and science by which we shall be surrounded. It is a comfort that I shall not live to see it."
About a month later, -perhaps, under the influence of Jefferson's temporary dejection of mind, -Cabell was inclined to make an effort to obtain that portion of the income of the Literary Fund which remained unappropriated after there had been paid out the regular annuities to the University and the public schools. It seems that this surplus had now swelled to forty thousand dollars. Nothing of practical value, however, was done by the State for the institution until February 24, 1820, when the General Assembly impowered the Board of Visitors to borrow sixty thousand dollars for the purpose of finishing the group of buildings. Security for the payment
Jefferson very correctly thought that the loan of the sixty thousand dollars should have been an appropriation for the benefit of education, and as such should not have been accompanied by a proviso as to interest and redemption. He soon began to swing the club which he wasp 1 always to find so effective. Now, he was fully aware of the fact that the public expected the lectures to begin at an early day, and that the members of the Assembly were responsive to the popular desire. What was more likely to make an impression on them than the warning that, unless they were liberal in their grants of money to the institution, there would be but a slim prospect of its throwing open its doors within any limit of time that could then be reasonably predicted? He was shrewd enough to recognize that it would be short-sighted to admit students while the buildings were only partly completed, for if it were known that the University was obtaining an income from this source, the members of the
We catch the tone of a cold but polite rebuke in the report of the Visitors for October 3, 1820, which was written by him and reflected his attitude of mind: "If the Legislature shall be of opinion that the annuity already apportioned to the establishment and maintenance of an institution for instruction in all the useful sciences, is its proper part of the whole (Literary) Fund, the Visitors will faithfully see that it shall be punctually applied to the remaining engagements for the buildings, and to the reimbursement of the extra sum lately received from the General Fund; that, during the term of its application to these objects, due care shall be taken to preserve the buildings erected from rain or roguery; and at the end of that term, they will provide for opening the institution in the partial degree to which its present annuity shall be adequate. If, on the other hand, the Legislature shall be of the opinion that the sums so advanced in the name of a loan from the General Fund of education were legitimately applicable to the purposes of a university; that its early commencement will promote the public good (1) by offering to our youth, now ready and panting for it, an early and near resource for instruction, and (2) by arresting the heavy tribute we are annually paying to other States and countries for the article of education, and shall think proper to liberate the present annuity from its charges, -the Visitors trust it will be in their power, by the autumn of 1821, to engage and bring in place that portion of the professors designated by law to which the present annuity might be found competent; or by the same epoch, to carry into full execution the whole object of the law, if an enlargement be made of
These words, respectful as they are, barely veil Jefferson's contempt for the niggard spirit of the General Assembly; and they also put forward something broader than a hint for a larger share of the income of the Literary Fund. The public suspicion that he was really aiming to divert most of that income to the University was not altogether without foundation. "One hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars," he remarked a few weeks later, "had been appropriated, in the course of three years, to the primary schools. How many children had been instructed during that time? " "I should be glad to know," he adds, "if that sum has educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children. I doubt it much. And if it has, it has cost us one thousand dollars apiece for what might have been done with thirty dollars. Divide the income of the Fund, amounting to sixty thousand dollars, between the University and the primary schools, and there would be an ample sum for both."
Again he bitterly reproaches his native State for its apathy to education. "The little we have, we import like beggars from other States, or import their beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And what is wanted to restore us to our station among our equals? Not more money from the people. Enough has been raised by them and appropriated to this very object. It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for their great good."
When the session of the General Assembly for 1820-21 opened, Jefferson was as fixed as ever in his resolution to obtain a large appropriation from the State for the benefit of the University. Cabell informed him
Cabell was now suffering from an alarming weakness of the heart, and he became so dejected, in consequence, that he determined to resign his seat in the Senate; he declared that he could not, without risk of bringing himselve "to the grave," expose his person to the rigor of the long rides from courthouse to courthouse in order to address his constituents. Jefferson received this entirely rational announcement with a Spartan's remonstrance. "I know well your devotion to your country and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her sooner or later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal to this? What object of our lives can we propose so important? What interest of our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us can be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? The exceptions and mortifications are temporary; the benefit, eternal. If any member of our College of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it would be myself, who quadragenis, stependis jam dudum peractis, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep the field. But I will die in the last ditch. Do not think of deserting us, but view
This appeal to friendship, duty, and patriotism, which reflected the sturdy and resolute spirit of the writer, was irresistible, and Cabell, in spite of his declining health, decided to retain his seat. With renewed energy and fidelity, he took up again the great work of cooperation; and so successful was he during this session (1820-21), that on February 24, the General Assembly authorized the President and Directors of the Literary Fund to make a second loan of sixty thousand dollars to the Board of Visitors for the purpose of completing the buildings, and thus enabling the University to throw open its doors at an earlier day than had, for some time, been anticipated. Jefferson, it will be recollected, had, during some years, been inclined to disparage the usefulness of the College of William and Mary, -perhaps, because it was still a rival to he counted with. This feeling, on his part, was aggravated at this time by the opposition which the friends of that institution raised to the passage of the Act of February 24, -a fact which should be borne in mind when we come, at a later stage, to describe the rather ruthless way in which he endeavored to deprive the College of its endowment fund after he had used his powerful influence to frustrate its purpose of removing from Williamsburg to Richmond, a step, at that time, apparently imperative, if it was to continue to exist at all. Cabe11 happened to be seated in the Senate chamber, just above the hall of the House of Delegates, when the Loan bill passed the latter body; and his first intimation of its success was obtained from the tumultuous clapping
XII. Fight for Appropriations, Continued
There is an amusing side to the almost nervous eagerness with which Cabell started in at once to discourage his persistant co-worker at Monticello from looking upon this second loan as simply a spur to another application to the General Assembly for money. Jefferson's attitude towards appropriations for the University was very much in the spirit of the Frenchman's definition of gratitude: he was never satisfied with what he was able to drag out of the reluctant Legislature, -it was always the favors to come, and not those already received, which he kept in view. No one understood better than he how much expenditure was required to complete the University in the grand manner which he thought indispensable; and his eye, therefore, was never withdrawn from the future appropriation, however much he might be pleased with the past one.
"It is the anxious wish of our best friends," wrote Cabell, who was uneasily conscious of this peculiarity of his correspondent, "and of no one more than myself, that the money now granted may he sufficient to finish the buildings. We must not come here again on that subject. These successive applications for money to finish the buildings give grounds of reproach to our enemies, and draw our friends into difficulties with their constituents." On March 10, he wrote again in the same strain. The Legislature, he now hints, may indirectly force the Board of Visitors to throw open the doors before the University is completed, by requiring the unencumbered part of the annuity to be reserved for the payment of the
Whilst this tortuous and ceaseless struggle for State assistance was going on, Jefferson was threatened with disability in the use of the only weapon which he had at
While Cabell, in this state of perplexity, was turning from one group of opponents to another, in the hope of
But Jefferson and himself did not allow so precarious a hope as this to keep them from pressing for some substantial advantage from the General Assembly. In February (1822), a bill was submitted which provided for the suspension of interest on the loans during five years, and also arranged for the final extinguishment of principal and interest by means of the amount to be collected from the Central Government. There was now a faction
Were the two co-workers disheartened? If so, only for a very short period, for hardly had a new session begun in December (1822) when Cabell decided to obtain the General Assembly's consent to a loan of fifty thousand dollars for the building of the Rotunda, and at the same time to secure the passage of an Act that would place the University's obligations on the footing of the other debts of the Commonwealth, which would bring about their ultimate extinction along with those debts. "Let us have nothing to do with the old balances, or dead horses, or escheated lands," he said to Jefferson, "but ask boldly to he exonerated from our debts by the powerful sinking fund of the State. This is manly and dignified legislation, and if we fail, the blame will not be ours."
William C. Rives, it seems, had already put the interrogatory to Jefferson: "Which would you prefer, the remission of the principal debt or an advance for the erection
This sagacious advice, accompanied by words so convincing and so inspiriting, prevailed. Cabell wrote on the 30th of the same month that the University's friends in the General Assembly had agreed almost unanimously to solicit a loan of sixty thousand dollars, and, for the present, to cease all agitation in favor of the State's assumption of the debt. "We propose," he said with a politician's astuteness, "to move for one object at a time in order not to unite the enemies of both measures against one bill. Should we succeed in getting the loan, we may afterwards try to get rid of the debt." The bill authorizing the loan having passed the House, was
Two days before the final passage of the bill, Cabell had written to Jefferson, "We must never come here again for money to erect buildings . . . . Should the funds fall short, I would rather ask for money hereafter to pay off old debts than to finish the Library." [50] Cocke advised that all these debts should be liquidated first, and that, afterwards, the cost of the Rotunda should be made to conform to such surplus as remained. Already by March 24, -barely a month after the authority was given to borrow sixty thousand dollars for the completion of the buildings, -both Cabell and Cocke were apprehensive lest the "old sachem" should be contemplating another call upon the Legislature for financial aid.
Some impression seems to have been made on Jefferson by these half unreserved, half hinted remonstrances, for his next step was to apply for the remission of the interest on the loans. In the report for October 6, 1823, he informed the General Assembly that the University could be opened at the end of 1824, should the annuity, in the meanwhile, be released from the burden of its incumbrances. He intimated that, should this be refused, no just reason for complaint would exist if the doors were to continue tightly closed indefinitely. The charge for interest on $180,000, the amount of the loans, would be $10,800, and two or three thousand dollars more would be required to keep the finished buildings in repair. As this would leave a surplus of only about two thousand dollars for the redemption of $180,000, it would be necessary for an interval of twenty-five years to go by before the principal could be expected even to approximate liquidation. "This," Jefferson remarked, with dry sarcasm, "is a time two distant for the education of any person
In December (1823), Cabell was able to say with confidence that there was a rising sentiment in the State favorable to the remission, not simply of the interest, but of the entire debt. This new feeling was to be attributed either to impatience with Jefferson's patent determination to keep the University shut up until it was fully completed, or to admiration for his stubborn and disinterested zeal in its behalf. Prematurely it would appear, Cabell wrote, on the 29th, that the National Government had finally passed affirmatively on the State's claim to interest on the advances made during the war of 1812-15. Had this been really so, there would have been added at once to the principal of the Literary Fund an amount so large as to produce a surplus in interest sufficient to supply the University's needs in the way of books for the library and apparatus for the laboratories. There was, during the session of 1823-24, no prospect of obtaining a further sum for building; but as the purchase of books, and apparatus would indicate an intention to throw open the lecture-rooms at an early date, the General Assembly, Cabell thought, might be willing to make an appropriation for that purpose out of the surplus of the Literary Fund. "Am I right in supposing," he inquired of Jefferson in February, 1824, "that fifty thousand dollars, payable in ten annual instalments, for the purchase of books and apparatus, with a power to the Visitors to anticipate the money for those purposes only, would be a good measure next to he adopted? I am thinking of it." "Perhaps," he writes three days later, "forty thousand dollars would be more apt to succeed." Jefferson was confident that not a cent less than the latter sum
Cabell now sprang a stratagem on the Assembly, which kindled an angry flame both without and within the walls of the capitol. The Farmers' Bank, at this time, was petitioning the General Assembly for the renewal of its charter. Here was an opportunity to be pounced upon; and this he promptly did with a glee which he was unable to repress in his report to Jefferson. "I kept my secret even from the Visitors, and my brother, and most intimate friends," he said. The House of Delegates passed the bill without requiring any proviso, but when it came up in the Senate, he moved that the charter should only be renewed on condition that the bank should pay the University a bonus of fifty thousand dollars. Seventeen of the Senators went over to his side; the rest bitterly opposed him. Elsewhere also, as he expressed it, he stirred up "a hornet's nest." The whole number of the stockholders, debtors, directors, and officers combined, "in the midst of a prodigious ferment," to combat and defeat the proposition; and the majority in the Senate, under this pressure from the outside, quickly fell away. In spite of this fact, Cabell kept up the fight, but without success. He found a dubious compensation for his failure in the action of the General Assembly, on March 6, 1824, in empowering the Board of Visitors to receive, for the
Before this sum could be collected it would be necessary for him to concentrate on Congress the full force of his extraordinary powers of persuasion. A bill, introduced in the House of Representatives by James Barbour, authorizing the payment of the interest as legally due, had failed. Cabell endeavored in vain to prevail on Jefferson to draft a memorial to that body to show how this interest, should it he recovered, was to be spent. The claim offered the only prospect of obtaining the funds needed, for Cabell admitted that the General Assembly's liberality was exhausted. He visited Washington in April to press it, and on his arrival there, found that it was in a state of suspension. A meeting of the Virginia delegation was held, and Barbour was instructed to bring the claim before the War Department, which quickly recommended that Congress should settle it. Monroe was now President, and Cabell wrote to him on the subject, with full knowledge of his interest in the University, and his willingness to assist it by every influence that he could legitimately employ. Monroe was now told that, so soon as Congress should recognize the claim as just, the General Assembly would order an equal amount to he advanced out of the Literary Fund, in anticipation of its reimbursement by the Government.
XIII. Removal of William and Mary College
While the claim against the Government was in a state of suspense, there arose before the watchful eyes of the two protagonists the prospect of securing an endowment fund in another quarter; and for some time, afterwards, their energies seemed to have been diverted from the
The endowment of the College of William and Mary, at this time, was about one hundred thousand dollars, the largest fund in the possession of any institution situated in Virginia. So soon as he was informed of the design to remove the College to Richmond, it occurred to Cabell that this endowment fund might be taken from it, and laid out in the establishment of the series of intermediate academies which Jefferson had always advocated. "We were told some winters ago by the College party," he said, "'we do not want a university -we want preparatory seminaries over the whole face of the country.'" From this arbitrary attitude on his part, there was, for a moment, a generous revulsion of feeling. "To oppose an institution struggling to save itself," he remarked, "and to thwart the natural endeavors of literary men to advance their fortunes, is truly painful." Then the feeling
Jefferson was very much startled by the project of transplanting the College. "It is a case of a pregnant character," he replied to Cabell, "admitting important issues, and requiring serious consideration and conduct." It is plain that, like Cabell, he looked upon the plan of removal as carrying in its bosom a very grave peril to the welfare of the University. How far was he really justified in taking this view? On its face, at least, the attitude of almost unscrupulous hostility which he now assumed towards the ancient College, his alma mater, in its hour of pecuniary difficulty, appears to be discreditable to himself and to the institution which he had founded in the noblest spirit of liberty and equality. What can be said in his defense? As we have seen, he had a very exaggerated conception of the advantages which a seat of learning would enjoy, if it were established in the capital of the State. Had Williamsburg remained that capital, he would have looked upon the College of William and Mary as a far more powerful rival to contend with than it was now, because it would, through that fact, have been able to retain its original dignity and influence. A university was an institution, which, in his opinion, bore a direct relation to the civic duties of the people, and where could this function of educating citizens be so fully carried out as on the spot where the central administration was at work? Remove the College of William and Mary to Richmond, and with its large permanent fund, it would soon recover its prestige, and the prosperity which it had lost when Williamsburg ceased to be the capital.
Jefferson, as revealed by the numerous quotations from his letters already given, was always apprehensive that something might occur which would lower the University of Virginia to the level of the two principal subordinate colleges of the Commonwealth, Washington and Hampden-Sidney. It was a practical feeling which caused him to be so solicitous for its prestige. This feeling had led him, apart from any appreciation of architectural beauty, to erect the splendid group of buildings at Charlottesville. Without such buildings, he believed that it would he hopeless to engage European professors of the first order of talents and learning, and without that cast of instructors, the institution, being young, would start without distinction. It was the same sort of far-sightedness that now caused him to oppose the removal of the College of William and Mary, for it seemed to foreshadow a new rivalry that might, in some measure, overcloud the dreams of greatness in which he indulged for his own university. Had the latter been underway, with a corps of foreign scholars lecturing to large classes, he would probably have accepted the thought of this future rivalry with far less acrimony, and shown more tolerance and magnanimity in anticipating it.
The apparently ungenerous and inconsistent spirit of hostility which he displayed perhaps had its origin, in a measure, in two additional reasons of a more definite character. Jefferson must have tacitly recognized, although he never directly admitted the fact, that one of the important deficiencies in the course of studies which he had projected for the University was the entire absence
So soon as Jefferson had fully taken in the menace which he was convinced would follow the removal of the College, he began to devise the means to defeat the project, and in doing so, allowed no sense of loyalty or gratitude to his alma mater, no recollection of his own great principle of equal opportunities to all and special privileges to none, to shake his will or palsy his energy. In the fixity of his purpose, he did not stop at the mere frustration of the ancient College's plan of re-establishment elsewhere, but even aimed to destroy it on the very ground on which it stood by transferring its funds, in whole or in part, to his own seat of learning. "When it was found," he wrote to Cabell on May 16, 1824, "that that seminary was entirely ineffectual towards the object of public education, and that one on a better plan, and in a better situation,
Comprehending, perhaps, that it would be impolitic to show such a naked hand, Jefferson pressed upon Cabell the wisdom of "saying as little as possible on this whole subject." "Give them no alarm," he added; "let them petition for the removal, let them get the old structure completely on wheels, and not until then put in our claim." Seated under the serene roof of Monticello, at a remote distance from all the persons who were anxious for the change, and insensible to the memories of the youthful years spent in Williamsburg, he was not in a position, or the mood, to understand the weight of the influences, which, after awhile, made his coadjutor disposed to modify his attitude of hostility. As the months passed on, the transplantation became the subject of still hotter public debate; and Cabell was so much impressed by the arguments in its favor, that he informed Jefferson, in December, that he had decided to vote for the measure, provided that the College would consent to be brought under the control of the General Assembly. What did he mean by the expression, "control of the General Assembly"? Its purport, he said, was that the Assembly should have the power to "reduce the capital of the College, leaving a moiety here (Richmond), and transferring the residue to Winchester and Hampden-Sidney, or other points in
The short interval of four days had hardly vanished before Cabell's views underwent again what he described as "a material change." He had, as we have just seen, contemplated a compromise, in order, as he expressed it, to avoid the appearance of illiberality. Subsequent reflection, he said, had convinced him that he ought to vote against the removal. In taking this course, he added, "I oppose the wishes of my nearest and dearest relatives and friends." Indeed, no one among them condemned this new decision with more, brusqueness and pungency than his own brother, William H. Cabell, a former Governor of the State, and during many years, the President of the Court of Appeals. His letter is worthy of reproduction in full as throwing a vivid light on the social penalties which Cabell was now inviting by his apparently unreasonable and inequitable loyalty to the supposed interests of the University. If his own brother could not restrain his impatience, it may be clearly perceived what a flood of censure he had to encounter from less kindly critics.
"Do you think it possible," wrote W. H. Cabell, "that Smith and Company (the President and Faculty of the College) can ever make the people of Virginia consider William and Mary, when removed, as the rival of the University? It would be as easy to believe that the frog could swell himself to the size of the ox. The indirect means which the friends of the University have been forced to adopt, in obtaining money from the Legislature, have excited strong hostility in many quarters against
Having finally determined to oppose the transplantation of the College, Cabell refused to yield to the remonstrances and reproaches of friends, and remained indifferent to the acrimony and obloquy of enemies. In this course, he was sustained by his repeated communications with Jefferson, who marshalled his arguments against the College, and in favor of the University, with consummate vigor and plausibility.
Jefferson seems to have taken it for granted that, even if the General Assembly should permit the College's removal, the funds in its possession would be distributed. As he looked at it, there was some benefit to be expected, no matter what should he the upshot of the controversy: if the College remained in Williamsburg, there would be no further cause for apprehension on the score of competition; if, on the other hand, it was re-established in Richmond, it should, in return, for the advantages of this new situation, give up the whole or, at least, the larger part of its endowment for the erection of the district academies. In his enthusiasm over the prospect of carrying out this part of his original plan of public instruction, by the use of the funds of the older institution, he seems to have accepted with philosophy Cabell's prediction that the University would not be directly benefited pecuniarily by the removal. He foresaw, in the creation of the academies, a full compensation for this, for he was confident that they would prove to be a means, not only of preparing students for entry into his own establishment, but also of raising up a well-informed body of yeomanry. "This occasion of completing our system of education is a god send," he exclaimed, "I certainly would not propose that the University should claim a cent of these funds in competition with the district colleges." This letter was shown to numerous members of the General Assembly.
Jefferson's sensibilities seemed to have been wounded by the animus rather than by the pertinency of this accusation. "The attempt," he replied, "in which I have embarked so earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition of my native State, although in other States it may have strengthened good dispositions (towards me), it has certainly weakened them in my own. The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many personal views, and of so much ignorance, and I have been considered as so particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of sentiment towards myself . . . . It is from posterity we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifice we are making for their service, of
The confidence with which Cabell had anticipated the failure of the College's petition was suddenly shaken by a change in the Assembly's attitude. In January (1825), he unexpectedly informed Jefferson that there was now an increasing danger that the advocates of removal would be able to obtain a decisive vote in their favor; but there was one device, he said, by which they could yet be thwarted, and this was to bring in a bill to appropriate the funds of the College to the establishment of the system of district academies. "Delay is all we want," he exclaimed, "so as to get the representatives of the people away from the Richmond parties, and to give the people the power to act. I beseech you to prepare a bill immediately and send it as quickly as possible by mail . . . . Let the funds be equally divided among the districts . whatever they may be. Give me but this bill, and I think I will yet defeat them."
Jefferson received this letter on January 21 (1825), and by
the following evening, he had drafted the bill and deposited it
in the post. "I am so worn down by the drudgery," he stated in
enclosing it, "that I can write little now." By the 28th, it had
reached Cabell's hands. "I shall keep it as private as possible,"
he replied, in acknowledging its arrival. "The opposite party
are triumphing in anticipation, but I think we will yet defeat
them." He now published a very able letter in the
Constitutional Whig, over the signature of "A Friend to
Science," in which he quoted at length from the Plan
His prediction turned out to be correct, for, on February 7, he was able to announce that the College's petition had been denied by a majority of twenty-four votes. "But," said he, no doubt to Jefferson's keen disappointment, "our friends and myself concur in thinking that it would be improper to bring in the bill for dividing the funds of the College . . . . My friends assure me that the essay under the signature of "A Friend to Science," with the extracts from your letter and bill . . . broke the ranks of the opposition completely . . . . Richmond is now hors de combat." This was the end of the controversy. The College of William and Mary remained on its original site, and the bill for the distribution of its funds, which had been used as such a powerful instrument to prevent its removal, was not again revived. There is no just ground for supposing that, had the ancient College been re-planted in Richmond, it would have become a ruinous competitor of the University. It had a moral and a legal right alike to establish itself there, and the part which Jefferson and Cabell took in balking that right, forms the only chapter in the which is darkened by the spirit of an illiberal and ungenerous policy, -a policy, indeed, only relieved from the taint of positive unscrupulousness by the fact that
The Committee on Claims in the House of Represenatives had recommended the payment of the interest due the State of Virginia on advances made during the War of 1812-15, but the majority in favor was only one, and Jefferson, in February, 1826, admitted that it had still a long gauntlet to run before it could pass the House itself. In the meanwhile, however, the rents from the dormitories and other buildings offered the supplementary resource needed for the expenses of the moment.
So far unable to secure the approval of the interest claim by Congress, and hesitating to go to the Legislature for an independent appropriation while that measure was pending, both Cabell and Jefferson heartily favored the resuscitation of Jefferson's Bill for Public Education, drafted in 1817-18. The Garland bill, now before the General Assembly, authorized the establishment of twenty-four district colleges; but the Jefferson bill was considered by Cabell to be preferable, provided that it should be so altered that the local districts would be required to contribute at their own expense the land and buildings that would be needed. Under the terms of this bill, should it become law, the University would acquire from $25,000 to $32,000, which would be sufficient to complete the Rotunda and Anatomical Hall. This indirect measure for obtaining money for the institution, however, ended in disappointment, for the State was not yet ripe for any broad and costly scheme of public instruction.
In addition to the appropriations by the General Assembly, a very considerable sum was collected from the persons who had signed the original subscription list.
XIV. System of Education
The founding of the University of Virginia was not confined solely to erecting a stately group of edifices,
Jefferson, it will be recalled, had very often expressed his conviction as to what departments of knowledge should be embraced in the platform of instruction of every higher institution of learning. On the seventh of April, 1824, before the Rotunda had been finished, the Board of Visitors, under his guidance, adopted a scheme of studies which was precisely the same in general character as the one recommended by himself in the Rockfish Gap Report. The chair of anatomy was only omitted because the poverty of the funds did not, at that time, supply the amount needed for an additional salary; but on October 6, of the same year, this deficiency was removed. The several schools prescribed on that date, in anticipation of the opening of the University in the ensuing February, comprised the following: I. -Ancient Languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew; and there were to be taught in the same school in addition, belles-lettres, rhetoric, ancient history, and ancient geography; II. -Modern Languages: French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English in its Anglo-Saxon form, while modern history and modern geography were also to be included in the same course; III. -Mathematics in all its branches, to which
The eight broad courses of study embraced in this short but pregnant list represent the three prime divisions of the Higher Education; namely, the disciplinary, the scientific, and the vocational. In their association in that list, they resembled three great apartments, entirely distinct from each other, but so closely connected as to be standing under the same roof. As a whole, the scheme was not more disciplinary than scientific, nor more scientific than vocational. It reflected an equal respect for the humanistic studies, which are essential to the intellectual cultivation of men, and the practical studies, which fortify their physical well-being, and enhance their worldly prosperity. The follower of Locke, who looked upon education as precious for its intellectual drill rather than foe the facts learned, would have detected in it enough to satisfy his requirement, while the pupil of the modern Spencer, in spite of his exclusive and intolerant convictions, would have been unable to reject it altogether.
Apart from the catholicity and perfect equilibrium that distinguished the course of studies thus selected, the general scheme possessed three practical features of an uncommon character: (1) the division into schools; (2) the ability of each school to expand more or less as the funds of the institution increased; and (3) the unhampered right of election which the student enjoyed instead of his being bound down to an inflexible curriculum. It will be seen hereafter that, when Jefferson came to draw up rules to govern the choice of professors, he revealed his dislike of single attainments, however great, by requiring that the men to be selected should be so broadly
Each school was confined to one great subject of study. At the start, a single professor was in charge of each school, but with a larger attendance of students, and a rising income, the number was increased. Thus arose what were designated as departments, which, in every instance, were devoted to the study of at least one branch of one fundamental subject. In 1851, the School of Law was subdivided into two departments,[51] which were under the direction of two professors; and in a broader manner, the School of Ancient Languages expanded into two schools in 1856, when the single chair was abandoned, and the course in Latin was taken up by one professor, and the course in Greek by another.
Each of the original schools of 1824 was independent of the rest; each not only had an exclusive property in its professor, but possessed, in that professor's pavilion, an academic building of its own, in which its students were required to assemble from day to day in their private lecture-hall. In the beginning, each of these pavilions, as we have stated, was expected to cost as much as one of the intermediate academies which Jefferson had so carefully planned as the secondary part of his scheme of public education. His attitude towards each school and its pavilion was almost as if he looked upon the two combined as an institution as distinct as one of these district
In the curriculum that prevailed in other colleges, definite courses were assigned to the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years respectively, and no departure from the rule was tolerated. On the other hand, in the system of schools which Jefferson created for his university in 1824, there were to be no such limitations as these. If the student aspired to graduate in the entire round of studies provided for in the general scheme, he was to be at liberty, not only to begin and end with such as he preferred, but he was to be under no compulsion even in selecting his grades; if he wished, he was to be permitted to attend, for instance, the senior class in Latin, the intermediate class in Greek, and the junior class in mathematics during the same session. In the curriculum college, time was an element of controlling power. In Jefferson's system of schools, on the other hand, time was expected to play no part whatever. The student might pass ten years, or even twenty years, if he liked, in the endeavor, successful or unsuccessful, to graduate in one
The diploma was to be won by the study of text-books that were to be chosen, not by the Board of Visitors, but by the professor himself. The incumbent of the chair of law alone was not to enjoy this right; for that course, from some points of view the most important of all, the text-books were to be selected by Jefferson and Madison, in accord with their own political doctrines. This was a significant departure from the principle of independence which had been adopted as the mainspring of the other schools. "In most public seminaries," Jefferson remarked in a letter to Cabell, "text-books are prescribed to each of the several schools as the norma dociendi in that school, and this is generally done by the authority of the trustees. I should not propose it generally in our university, because I believe none of us are so much at the height of science in the several branches as to undertake this, and, therefore, it will be better left to the professors until occasion of interference be given." The conclusion thus expressed was the one suggested and confirmed by common sense. With all his versatility of knowledge, Jefferson was too wise to think that he possessed the exact as well as the varied information required of one who was called upon to select the text-books for
As one of the purposes for which the University was founded was to propagate and fortify what he considered to be the only sound principles of government, it was right, from his point of view, that he should show the utmost jealousy in restricting the professor of law to text-books which had been picked out by him with discriminating care. But in its broadest aspect, this spirit of exclusiveness, -which, it is significant, he exhibited in connection with no other school as a whole, -was in consistent with the general character of independence which he endeavored so sedulously and so successfully to stamp upon the institution. When it came to political theories, his attitude of liberal impartiality vanished at once. A limitation of thought and action took its place.[52]The intolerance which he justly condemned in sectarianism, only too perceptibly animated him in the bent which he deliberately gave to his school of law on its political side. That school, instead of teaching the Federalist and Republican respective views of the National Government on a footing of historical and academic equality, put its emphatic imprimatur upon the Republican theory,
Secondly: While the number of schools established on the threshold was only eight, there was embedded in the whole system the elastic principle which allowed, not only expansion within each school by the broadening of its several courses of instruction through the employment of additional professors, but also an indefinite increase in the number of independent schools. We have seen that the plan of building rendered possible an unlimited extension of the double lines of pavilions and dormitories. This physical feature was adopted in anticipation both of a spreading out within the existing schools, and of the augmentation of their number. Jefferson looked forward to the time when many subjects which received but meagre consideration in his day would become an indispensable part of every general scheme of higher education. He foresaw, for instance, the importance of technical philosophy, manual training, agriculture, horticulture, veterinary surgery, and military science,-to designate only a few departments of vocational instruction. His provisions for teaching architecture and astronomy were necessarily restricted, but he laid the foundation for the acquisition of the fullest knowledge of both sciences, although time has assured ample facilities only in the
Thirdly: The adoption of the elective principle was the consistent, though not the inevitable, consequence of the first division into schools, and of the power to add new schools to the old indefinitely. The rapid increase in the number of subjects, which, in our times, have forced themselves upon the attention of teachers as indispensable to a liberal education, has compelled the introduction of elective courses even in colleges that remain loyal to the formal curriculum. Had the number of schools at the University of Virginia been permanently restricted to those adopted at first, there would have been no impediment in the way of prescribing a curriculum that would have embraced them all. But Jefferson was hostile to such a system by the sheer force of principle; and he foresaw, that, in time, with the vast expansion of knowledge, it either would become impossible in practice in his university, or would have to be so stretched that it would amount to the general right of election.
In 1816, Dr. Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, ventured to assert, -amid growls of sour dissent, no doubt, -that there was not a single university in the United States at that time. There were seven, he intimated, that pretended to that broad and liberal framework, but tested by the standard of the great seats of learning in Europe, only one in his judgment, Harvard College, approximated it. Eight years after this bold and sweeping pronouncement, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, which was not yet in operation, adopted the following rule: "Every student shall be free to attend the schools of his choice, and no other than he chooses." This principle did not spring up now for the first time even in the United States, for, many years before, it had been put in limited practice at the College of William and Mary.[54] Now, however, it was flung down as a tacit challenge to Dr. Dwight amid far more imposing surroundings, and with far brighter prospects of success, than had ever greeted it before in America. It was to become, indeed, the corner-stone of the institution; and through it that institution was to claim identity in spirit at least with the universities of the Old World, which had enjoyed renown for ages. "I am not fully informed of the practices of Harvard," wrote Jefferson to Ticknor, in 1823, "but there is one principle we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States, that is, the holding of the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular
Jefferson had a clear perception of the difference between the college and the university. It was not a part of his original plan that his own institution was to undertake the work of a college even to a moderate extent. The work which he designed it to do was graduate work, and the only academic diploma -independent of the doctrinate granted for advanced graduation -which it was authorized to award was the graduate's diploma. The adoption of the degrees of master of arts and bachelor of arts was not in harmony with the principle upon which his university was built, in its theory at least, and was a distinctly regrettable, though perhaps, for practical reasons, an unavoidable departure from its fundamental character. It was special culture and not general culture, which he had primarily in view, although the system permitted also of general culture in the highest measure, should the student succeed in passing through all the classical and scientific schools. But it was not to the aspirations of this set among the young men that he directed his most earnest gaze; it was rather to the ambitions of those who had come up to acquire knowledge along some special line, scientific or classical, that appealed to their individual tastes. It is true that, under the existing regulations, each student was required, except in cases of parental dispensation, to pursue at least three courses of study; but these three he was at liberty to choose; and it was always in his power, if he wished to perfect himself in one school, to find two other schools that would he more or less closely related to it.
It was not because of any defect in Jefferson's scheme
The need of these advanced colleges, as distinguished from the large number of superior private schools that existed, was perceived more and more clearly by the Faculty as time passed. "Without an ample provision for intermediate colleges and academies, and a judicious distribution through the State," wrote Professor Lomax to Cabell, in January, 1827, " the University can never
At this tune, there were not in Virginia sufficiently numerous facilities for preliminary instruction of a high order, to equip every student to the degree required by the standards of the University; and the depressing influence of this fact on some of the junior classes of that institution, during the early years of its existence, was so much exaggerated by report, that colleges like Washington and Hampden-Sidney apparently locked on it at first, not as a superior, but as a common rival, engaged like themselves chiefly in undergraduate work. And this was also the prevailing attitude of the College of William and Mary, although that institution had a better right, both from an historical and a scholastic point of view, to assume it.
After 1865, some of the schools were grouped into what was then designated as Departments. Thus we have the Agricultural Department and the like made up, in each instance, of several schools. Department became the primary division, the reverse of the early rule.
In this expression reference is not intended to Jefferson's general principles of government and citizenship, but simply to those opinions which divided him from the school of Washington and Marshall, men who believed in the supremacy of the National Government under all circumstances.
Since this was written, a School of Fine Arts has been established at the University of Virginia by the liberal endowment of Paul Goodloe McIntire.
"Many years before the establishment of the University of Virginia," says Prof. William B. Rogers, in his report to the General Assembly in 1845, "an election of studies was allowed at the College of William and Mary." Rogers had been an instructor in that college at one time and could, therefore, write authoritatively on this subject.
In the history of the Fifth Period, we shall show how seriously Jefferson overstated the lack of facilities for a good secondary education in Virginia at the time the University began its career.
XV. Plans for Filling the Chairs
Jefferson was not one of that bigoted stamp, perhaps as numerous in his times as in our own, who honestly believe
Jefferson was a provincial in his intensely partisan interest in the welfare of his own country, but he was a cosmopolite in his discernment in recognizing what was most useful in alien lands, and in his solicitude to reproduce it on this side of the water. The spirit of his mission to France, apart from its purely diplomatic aspects, was summarized in the ever present thought: what advantages
Such was his mental attitude in considering the vital task of selecting the professors of the new university, when, after the completion of the buildings, and the adoption of the system of instruction, it became imperative to choose the entire number. He was fully determined to appoint only the most erudite, not only because his standard was as high in the respect of scholastic training as it was in all others, but because he was shrewdly aware that it was only the most shining acquirements that could give prestige to a seat of learning which was still in its infancy. The distinction of the teachers alone could overcome the absence of that glamour which tradition and a long history of achievement are so fecund in imparting. Without this distinction, the University could not only assert no superiority over its fellow institutions of older origin, -it could not even claim an equality with them. The first question, which, he said, should be asked of a candidate was: Is he highly qualified? Nor was he to be accepted as so qualified simply because he knew thoroughly his own topic. On the contrary, Jefferson insisted that "he should be educated as to the sciences generally; able to converse understandingly with the scientific men with whom he is associated; or to assist in the councils of the Faculty on any subject of science on which they may have occasion to deliberate. Without this, he will incur their contempt, and bring disrespect on the institution."
It is to be inferred from this expression of opinion, that
He knew from his own personal observation while abroad that, among the most splendid structures in Europe, were those that housed the ancient colleges and universities; and he could easily comprehend the feeling of
Had Jefferson been able to go from one American seat of learning to another and pick out the very men whom he preferred, it is quite possible that he would not have directed his gaze so soon towards the universities of Europe. During the existence of Central College, as will be recalled, he turned first to Dr. Cooper, who, although of English birth, had resided long enough in Pennsylvania for his original democratical opinions to be confirmed. Dr. Knox was a citizen of the United States. Jefferson clearly perceived the practical advantage of employing instructors who were already in sympathy with American political principles and social customs, and who, he knew, would be satisfied with the still raw American environment because they were born to it. As early as March, 1819, the Board of Visitors, under the spur of his prompting, instructed the committee of superintendence to overlook
The failure to secure these distinguished men seems to have discouraged Jefferson in his pursuit of American professors. "It was not probable," he concluded, "that they would leave the situation in which they were, even if it were honorable to seduce them from their stations." "It was easy enough," he added, "to fill the chairs with the employed secondary characters. But this would not have fulfilled the object or satisfied the expectation of our country in the institution." The impossibility of obtaining in the United States the teachers of the scholarship by him considered to be indispensable, fully justified him in deciding to look henceforward across the ocean for their counterparts. And he may have done this with the less hesitation because he was aware that a foreign professor was, at that time, certain to be invested with the greater prestige because he would he able to show a diploma from some one of the famous European universities;
Naturally, Jefferson concentrated his earliest attention upon the country which spoke the same language and possessed the same points of view as Americans, and were of the same racial descent, political principles, and social instincts. He was too sensible to presume that an infant university seated in the far-off New World, as yet without reputation because still a pile of fresh bricks, and with no large endowment fund, would be able, by the few inducements that it could hold out, to draw to itself historical scholars like Robertson, or classical scholars like Porson and Parr, or scientists like Playfair. They, he said, "occupied positions which could not be bettered anywhere." It was upon the accomplished members of a younger generation that he cast his eyes, -the men who were already treading impatiently upon the heels of the veterans; and who, within a few years, would be usurping their shoes, and, as their successors, showing even higher qualifications than the veterans themselves had exhibited. The rivalry among these younger English scholars of equal claims to recognition, he knew, was sharp and unceasing; and he was sanguine that there would be found among them some, who, as he said, would prefer a comfortable certainty in Virginia to a precarious stipend in England. So universal and so relentless, indeed, was this competition in the strangle there for a moderate income, that he had been told, he added, that "it was deemed allowable in ethics for even the most honorable minds to give exaggerated recommendations and certificates to enable a friend or protégé to get into a livelihood."
Jefferson was well-informed as to the English universities which must be sounded by him in his search for the
The first foreign instructor to send in his testimonials to the Board of Visitors was George Blaettermann, a German by birth and education, who had been recommended by George Ticknor and General Preston. This was in 1821. Again, in 1823, he applied by letter to Jefferson for the appointment, for which he had, in the interval, prepared himself by collecting, during a tour of France, Germany, and Holland, materials for a series of lectures to be delivered at the University. Richard Rush, the American minister to London, had been asked to inquire as to his character and qualifications. It is possible that, at one time, Jefferson was sanguine that all the professors could be selected through the intermediary offices of Rush; but this expectation, if ever nursed, was soon abandoned as impracticable.
It was natural and judicious that he, in casting about for an agent, should first think of Joseph C. Cabell, a man upon whose good sense he had always, as we have seen, relied implicitly, and who, by a previous visit to Europe, and by personal acquaintance with many distinguished persons there, seemed to be exceptionally fitted to carry out successfully the mission which was now to be performed. Cabell, asked for time to consider the request. "I cannot conceal," he wrote, "the gratification I feel at the confidence the proposition discovers." At the moment, he was debating in the closet of his own mind whether he should not resign his seat in the Senate, and withdraw
At the meeting of the Board of Visitors held on April 5 (1824), Francis Walker Gilmer was chosen in his stead. As Jefferson had known Gilmer intimately from boyhood, the selection was quite certainly the direct result of his advice. From every point of view, it was both a judicious and an interesting one. Gilmer belonged to the same caste in Virginia as Cabell, and had passed his early life in the midst of precisely similar social influences; indeed, the home of Dr. George Gilmer, the father of Francis Walker, was the exact counterpart in domestic refinement, elevated tastes, and simple occupations, of the home of Colonel Nicholas Cabell, the father of Joseph. The mould in which the characters of both young men had been shaped was the typical country-house of the Old Dominion, with its English traditions of manliness, uprightness, and culture of head and heart. Both were animated by the same lofty ideal of intellectual accomplishments and public services. Distinction in literature,
Cabell and Gilmer resembled each other even in their flaws of temperament: the one exhibited on the threshold of his active life, the other, throughout the whole of his shortened existence, a definite infirmity of will, which, by shifting their energies from one channel to another, created an impression of instability and inconstancy of character. Cabell, acquiring, by inheritance and marriage, a large fortune, was able in time to concentrate his powers in a brilliant political career, which he followed uninterruptedly until the verge of old age. Gilmer, as we shall see, wavered, not so much in his general spirit, as in his particular aims, and died while still young, leaving behind a memory that was held in all the more tenderness by his numerous friends because it was invested with the pathos of arrested achievement and unfulfilled promise. Both Cabell and Gilmer were sufferers from weakness of the lungs; and Gilmer succumbed to it before his powers had fully ripened. The capriciousness and fickleness which marked his conduct at times were probably due, in no small measure, to the haunting thought of this terrible disease, which naturally tended to confuse his plans for life and debilitate his will in their pursuit. The impression left by the study of his career is one of brilliance that bordered on futility, and of ambition of the noblest order that lacked the necessary fixity of purpose to blossom into full efflorescence.
Cabell, writing to Jefferson, October 27, 1823, said that he had recently bought one of his brother's plantations. This led him to consider abandoning public life. "I have thought it advisable to inform you of the purchase, and its probable consequences, that you might not he unprepared with a fit person to execute your views in Europe."
XVI. Francis Walker Gilmer
ilmer was born at Pen Park, near the steep banks of the Rivanna, and in the long morning shadow of the Southwest Mountains. It was a cultivated and refined neighborhood, as we have shown, in which his childhood and youth were spent. His father, who was of direct Scotch ancestry, and had received his medical education at Edinburgh, was noted, in the community, for his literary culture, his taste for science,-more particularly for botany and chemistry,-and for an uncommon knowledge of the fine arts. William Wirt, who married his daughter, Mildred, described him as being an accomplished gentle man, gay in temper, witty in utterance, and on occasion, capable of eloquence of great force and dignity. He enjoyed Jefferson's friendship, -largely, perhaps, because they were both so deeply interested in every branch of scientific inquiry. Wirt imagined that he detected in Francis as early as his fourth year the general cast of his father's remarkable character. His early education seems to have been discursive and desultory, but it was sufficiently concentrated for him to acquire a great fund of classical learning. His first lessons of importance were received in the family of Thomas Mann Randolph; and here, under the tutelage of Mrs. Randolph, who had been educated in Paris, he obtained a very respectable knowledge of the French language. Afterwards entering Georgetown College near Washington, he passed thence to the College of William and Mary, where he seems to have impressed Bishop Madison as favorably as Cabell had done, for his genial manners, his refined tastes, and his ripe scholarship.
While a student there, he was thrown into the society of his distinguished brother-in-law, William Wirt, for the
Bishop Madison quite naturally was solicitous to associate such an unfledged prodigy of learning as this with the College of William and Mary; and perhaps it was only Gilmer's youth which stood in the way of the offer of a more conspicuous station in the institution than the ushership of the grammar school. But he seems to have been already looking forward to a more active career than teaching. We learn from a letter addressed to his brother in October, 1810, that he was, at this time, planning a sojourn of several years in Albemarle county, where he expected to devote his time to a special course of reading, for which he would find the necessary volumes in the libraries of his friends. Now begins the somewhat sauntering habit of life which he was to keep up more or less to the end, and which seems to reveal a certain waywardness of spirit in the pursuit of his purposes. He
His friends, among whom were many men of distinction, fortified him with words of encouragement: "I consider you," wrote W. M. Burwell, a representative in Congress from Virginia, "destined to be eminently useful." "You set out," said William Wirt, "with a stock of science and information not surpassed, I suspect, in the example of Mr. Jefferson, and not equalled by any other, I do not except Tazewell." And he tells his young brother-in-law that he will not be satisfied with mediocrity in his career. "Whatever line of life you propose to pursue," wrote Jefferson, "you will enter on it with the high profits which worth, talent, and science present. There would be nothing which you might not promise yourself were the state of education with us what we could wish."[57]
Gilmer, in 1811, accepted an invitation from Wirt to study law in his office in Richmond, the customary method, at that time, of qualifying for the profession. Wirt was not only the most brilliant member of the local bar, but
In the spring of 1814, Gilmer determined to open a law office in Winchester; but during the many months which he passed at leisure before acting on this decision, he seems to have employed his time in the several kinds of literary composition to which he was impelled by the didactic spirit of that day. It was during this interval that he was first thrown with Abbe Corrèa; and as they had many tastes in common, their friendship quickly ripened. Corrèa was a Portuguese, who, for some years, had acted as secretary of the Lisbon Academy, but sympathizing with the French Revolution, had been forced to fly his native country and to take refuge in London. There he won such unreserved consideration that he was appointed the British representative in Paris, and remained there from 1802 to 1813. He was held in high repute by scientists for his knowledge of botany; and he seems to have visited the United States for the first time
Gilmer was irresistibly attracted to him, not only by his universal learning, but also by his knowledge of plants, a subject which had always interested the young Virginian. "Corrèa," said he, with generous enthusiasm, "knows all the languages, all the sciences. He is the most extraordinary man who ever lived." The two very often exchanged roots and seeds, and on at least two occasions, they made long and delightful excursions together in search of rare species of flowers. "The Abbe wishes you were always with him," Henry St. George Tucker wrote from Winchester; and we find Corrèa constantly sending him letters that breathe both affection and admiration. "Go on ascending the ladder," he tells him in February, 1816, "but remember that a genius like yours must not make it the only business of his life, but employ the ascendancy he got by that means to better the mental situation of his nation." Through Corrèa, Gilmer forwarded an essay to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia to be read at its ensuing meeting; and he also became a correspondent of Du Pont de Nemours, to whom he discoursed on the topic of roads built at the national expense, or of a paper currency that rested on no basis more solid than the public confidence.
He was established in Winchester by 1814. His mind, however, was still so little set upon the profession of law, to the exclusion of all other interests, that Corrèa was able to seduce him into a botanical excursion to the Carolinas. He was also secretly engaged in literary composition. In 1816, a thin volume entitled Sketches of the Orators written by him, but without acknowledgement
Another correspondent was the versatile Hugh L. Legarè, who, like himself, had an almost inordinate esteem for literary culture and classical learning.
During his residence in Winchester, where he was able to earn his expenses by his profession, Gilmer was daily brought in the most familiar association with Henry St.
He thought at first of establishing himself in Baltimore. Robert Walsh, a prominent resident of that city, whose advice he sought, threw cold water on this plan. "The competition is crowded here," he said, "though not powerful. Much depends on accident and family influence. As for political advancement, the chances are more favorable in Winchester." On the other hand, Wirt, to whom he also turned, counseled him to decide in favor of Baltimore. That wise friend urged him to give up entirely the diversion of writing books until he had accumulated a fortune by his practice; ten years at least should pass before he should permit himself to gratify his literary ambitions. "Be content," adds Wirt, "with the beautiful and captivating specimen of your taste in composition which you have already given." Gilmer, unfortunately, perhaps, for his success as a lawyer,
The length of residence required by the Baltimore rules before he would be granted a license, finally decided him to enroll his name in the membership of the Richmond bar. He had not been long settled in that city when he was mentioned for the presidency of the College of William and Mary, and under the influence of his leanings as a scholar, he would very probably have accepted it had it been offered, if Jefferson had not somewhat indignantly protested against his suffering himself to be drawn into what he described as a cul de sac. "You must get into the Legislature," he added, "for never did it more need of all its talents, nor more so than at this next session." The success which Gilmer won at the Richmond bar at this time proves that, had he been able to concentrate his thoughts and energies on the profession of law, he would have fulfilled all the sanguine expectations of his friends. Wirt, whose amiable temper, perhaps, led him to form an exaggerated estimate of other people's abilities, had not yet ceased to regret that his young brother-in-law had decided against a residence in Baltimore. "Had you gone thither," he said, "a few years might have placed your name next to Pinckney's." Now, Pinckney was, at this time, the most celebrated advocate in the American courts, and to predict that the young Virginian would, by proper exertion, rise to a position only second to his was to attribute to him the possession of the most extraordinary capacity. Whether his powers were really so great or not, Wirt followed his legal career with affectionate interest; and
During one year, Gilmer served as the official reporter of the Court of Appeals, and his name was even suggested for the Attorney-Generalship of the State; but in spite of his apparent attention to the obligations of his jealous profession at this time, he seems to have still had little proclivity for it. His most earnest meditations were, as formerly, constantly directed towards literature and science. "I had not the least suspicion of your talent for poetry," wrote Corrèa, who had just received a copy of verses from his pen. Later, he is found rebutting Jeremy Bentham, and the self-complacent Edinburgh reviewers, in a treatise on usury, which was greeted with warm encomiums by both Jefferson and Wirt. A more imaginative production was an essay, in which he represented himself as lost at night in Westminster Abbey, and listening unseen to a conference between the marble figures, which had turned to flesh and blood and resumed their powers of motion and speech. In a second essay of a scientific cast, he offered an ingenious explanation of the phenomenon of the lunar rainbow.
He never lost his keen taste for the study of botany. Corrèa, in December, 1818, urged him to join him in an excursion to the Dismal Swamp in search of wild plants and flowers; and also, the following summer, to accompany him to the neighborhood of Charleston, for the
It was, during this year, that he became a candidate for the Secretaryship of Florida; but his motive apparently was not to secure a semi-tropical field for the gratification of his botanical curiosity, but to settle himself in a region that would prove more favorable to his precarious health. Wirt, to whom he applied for a backing, was discouraging in his reply. He again, with renewed impatience, enjoined upon him "to bid adieu to the sciences and literature for a season, and let the world see that your soul is in your profession. Avoid the reputation of fickleness. Your next move must be your last." Unfortunately, perhaps, for himself, Gilmer failed to obtain the appointment, and the next few years were passed in Richmond, broken only by the performance of his mission to England, which will be subsequently described. His pursuits continued to be of a desultory cast. We find him in correspondence with Philip Norborne Nicholas, who retailed, for his amusement,
These kind words, coming from men of such public distinction or private worth, must have been deeply soothing to Gilmer's disquieted spirit, now that his fatal disease was making such rapid and destructive progress. So extreme was his debility, that, towards the close of 1825, he made up his mind to return to his native county of Albemarle, in reality to die. Thomas W. Leigh, a man like himself of extraordinary promise, and like himself destined to pass away before his prime, wrote to him, after his departure, that "absence and separation would never weaken the sentiment of gratitude, and affection, and admiration with which I shall continue your friend"; and Dr. John Brockenbrough regretted that "one of the greatest pleasures we had is gone," now that he is no longer a citizen of Richmond. "No more friendly chitchat soirees, and no substitute for them," he adds in words that show his sincerity.
Before Gilmer went back to the familiar scenes of his youth and early manhood, he sought the benefit of a change in a visit to Norfolk. Chapman Johnson encouraged him, after his return, by saying that, as a result of the trip, he was "less hoarse and coughed less." "I
The last scenes in Gilmer's life remind us in many
The sad Immunities of the Grave,
Silence and Repose."
In January, 1817, Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, of Washington, met Gilmer at "a drawing-room" in the White House. "The one who most interested me," she says in her Forty Years of Washington Society, "was Mr. Gilmer, a young Virginian . . . . He was called the future hope of Virginia, its ornament, its bright star. I had a long, animated, and interesting conversation with him, really the greatest intellectual feast I long have had." P. 137.
XVII. The Mission to England
Such in general was the spirit and the quality of the man who was selected to visit England in order to make the necessary choice of foreign professors. Jefferson offered him the mission by letter on November 23, 1823; but it was not until April 5, 1824, that he received a specific direction from the Board to leave for Europe to engage "characters of due degree of science, and of talents for instruction, and of correct habits and morals." The persons to he sought for and contracted with were to be the professors who were to occupy the chairs of mathematics, the ancient languages, anatomy and physiology, which should take in the history of the main theories of
Gilmer was impowered to offer to each a fixed salary of a thousand dollars as the minimum, and fifteen hundred as the maximum, and also the tuition fees belonging to the chair to be filled. A guarantee was to be given that, during the first five years, the remuneration of the incumbent was not to be allowed to fall below twenty-five hundred dollars. Two thousand dollars was to be deposited in an English bank to enable Gilmer to make an advance of money to such of the professors as should need it before shutting up their homes in England; he himself was to receive fifteen hundred dollars to cover the expenses of his journey, and also to pay for his services in carrying out the mission; while a sum of six thousand dollars was to be appropriated for the purchase of apparatus for the use of the mathematical, chemical, physical, and astronomical classes. As the University was expected to be in a condition to receive students by February 1, 1825, it was hoped that he would be able to engage all the professors by the middle of November, 1824. His power of attorney was dated April 26, 1824. A letter of introduction from Jefferson to Richard Rush, the American minister in London, which accompanied this document, recommended him to Rush's good offices as the "best educated subject we have raised since the Revolution, highly qualified in all the important branches of sciences, particularly that of law . . . . His morals, his amiable temper, and his discretion, will do justice to any confidence you may place in him." Madison, in a supplementary letter, was equally complimentary. "He will quickly recommend himself," he said, "by his enlightened and accomplished mind, his pleasing disposition
With numerous copies of the Rockfish Gap Report in his baggage, as Jefferson's gifts to his English correspondents, like Dugald Stewart and Major John Cartwright, and fortified with bills of exchange on Gowan and Marx of London, Gilmer set sail from New York on May 8, in the packet Cortez, which steered straight for Liverpool; but, buffeted by fierce headwinds in St. George's Channel, turned into the harbor of Holyhead, in Wales, from which town he travelled overland to the original port of destination, where he arrived twenty-nine days after dropping out of sight of Sandy Hook. Stopping at Hatton, after his departure from Liverpool, to talk with Dr. Parr, he was told that he was absent from home. During the first eight days of his sojourn in London, he was, against his will, left in a state of restive idleness by the crush of Mr. Rush's engagements; but at the end of that interval, was able to obtain from Lord Teignmouth and Mr. Brougham the letters which he needed for Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. He held personal interviews with these two distinguished Englishmen, both of whom he discovered to be very much interested in the objects of his mission; but Sir James Mackintosh was either too indolent, or too much absorbed in his political duties, to give any assistance. Lord Teignmouth's four letters were addressed to the highest dignitaries at Oxford and Cambridge, -among them, Dr. Edward Coplestone, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, -while Brougham's three were to persons described
Before leaving London, Gilmer signed a contract with Dr. Blaettermann, who, not expecting the appointment, had recently rented and furnished a large house.[58] It is to be noted that he was not guaranteed the salary of twenty-five hundred dollars which Gilmer had been authorized to offer; and it was even intimated to him that the fifteen hundred dollars which he was to receive at the outset, might, during the second year, be reduced to one thousand. No real ground of objection to Blaettermann seems to have been discovered; but as the terms extended to him were less liberal than those granted to the other professors, we can only infer that Gilmer's impression of the man was not of the most favorable nature in the beginning. He spoke with a distinct foreign accent, which may have aroused a feeling of prejudice against him. His salary was to begin to accrue from the day of his sailing; he was to receive, in addition, fifty dollars from every pupil who studied his courses only; thirty, if the pupil attended one other school; and twenty-five, if he attended two other schools. He bound
Gilmer set out from London for Cambridge on June 22, carrying with him such letters of introduction as he had been successful in obtaining; and on arriving there, found that the long vacation had begun, and that Dr. Davy was absent. He filled up the interval before the tatter's return with an endeavor to decide whether it would be wise to engage the scientific professors among the fellows of this University; and he finally concluded that only incumbents for the chairs of mathematics and natural philosophy should be selected there, as small attention was paid in that institution to natural history. While busy pushing this vital inquiry, he was the recipient of the warmest hospitality from the masters of the colleges and the undergraduates alike, to whom he was recommended, not only by his scholar's mission, but also by his handsome presence, pleasant manners, varied information, and cultivated mind. He was invited to occupy rooms in Trinity College, and dined almost daily in its hall. The original letters of Sir Isaac Newton, the manuscript of a portion of Milton's Paradise Lost, the mulberry tree planted by the poet, his noble bust, and other memorials of literary interest, were shown him by the Bishop of Bristol in person. It was with a pleasant emotion of surprise that he noted among people of all ranks a genuine feeling of kindness for his own country.
Before leaving Cambridge, he visited several famous spots in its vicinity, -among them, the stately cathedral at Boston, standing on an eminence that rose to a greater height than the capitol at Richmond from a wide plain recently rescued from the fens; and also the church at Grand Chester, which was then thought to be the scene
From Stratford, he continued his journey to Oxford, which was now deserted, for professors and students alike had dispersed for the summer vacation. "I have seen enough of England and learned enough of the two Universities," he wrote from that place, "to see that the difficulties we have to encounter are greater than we supposed, -not so much from the variety of the applications, as from the difficulty of inducing men of real abilities to accept our offer . . . . Education at the Universities has become so expensive that it is almost exclusively confined to the nobility and the opulent gentry, no one of whom could we expect to engage. Of the few persons at Oxford or Cambridge who have any extraordinary talent, I believe ninety-nine out of a hundred are designed for the profession of law or the gown, or aspire to political distinction; and it would be difficult to persuade one of these, even if poor, to repress so far the impulse of youthful ambition as to accept a professorship in a college in an unknown country. They who are less aspiring .who have learning, are caught up at an early period in their several colleges; soon become fellows and hope to be masters; which, with the apartments, garden, and 4, 5 or 600 pounds sterling a year, comprises all they can imagine of comfort or happiness."
An additional obstacle, which Gilmer had to overcome
Leaving Oxford in this mood, Gilmer visited Dr. Parr in his home at Hatton. Parr was too infirm to be a of service to him in securing the professors sought for, but was of assistance in preparing a catalogue of classical books for the library. From Hatton, Gilmer travelled on to Edinburgh, the city where his father had matriculated fifty years before, and where a brother had died from over-exertion in the prosecution of his studies. On the day of his arrival, he obtained his first glimpse of a tangible success in carrying out his mission. During his sojourn in Cambridge, he had been introduced in the rooms of the poet, William Mackworth Praed, to Thomas Hewett Key, who, at that time, was a student of medicine, after winning distinction in the academic courses of that University. Gilmer, subsequent to their parting there, invited him by letter to accept the professorship of mathematics. It was the favorable reply to
Although Key suggests in this letter that the final arrangement should be delayed until they should have the opportunity to talk fully and intimately together at his father's in town, he now submits a number of practical questions for definite answers which would assist him in deciding. What branch of science was he expected to teach? What duties to perform? Would he be entirely under his own or others' directions? How far should he have the right to control his own time? What was the existing state of the University as to government? What were the number, age, and pursuits of its students? Had Gilmer the authority to make a private arrangement? And would the expense of the journey to the University be partly met at his own charge? To these numerous and searching interrogations, Gilmer was able to return a prompt and satisfactory reply by letter. Key would be expected to teach the mathematical sciences by lessons or lectures, as he himself should prefer; he could only be dismissed by a vote of two-thirds of the Board; he could dispose of his time as he liked, provided that he
An interesting paragraph of this letter related to the number of students that would probably be in attendance the first year. The estimate of that number which Gilmer now gave was scrupulously honest, but it was so exaggerated, in the light of the reality disclosed within a few months, that it must have left a painful impression on Key in recalling it after his arrival in Virginia. Repeating Jefferson's sanguine prediction, Gilmer asserted that not less than five hundred would matriculate so soon as the doors of the University were opened to receive them; and he was confident that at least two hundred of these young men would enter the mathematical course. As each pupil would be required to pay a fee of twenty-five dollars at least, the amount that would accrue to Key from students alone would be five thousand dollars, and when the sum due from the University as a fixed salary, namely, fifteen hundred dollars, was added, the total would rise to the imposing figure of six thousand, five hundred dollars. As no rent was to be asked for the occupation of a pavilion, -which would have reduced this figure, -the prospect was well calculated to dazzle a young medical student like Key, who had been looking forward in England to a protracted period of impecunious probation.
So soon as Gilmer arrived in Edinburgh, he personally interviewed a number of persons who had been recommended to him in London. Among the first of these was Professor John Leslie, who had, at one time, been a tutor in the Randolph family, in Virginia. If Leslie had not since become a scientist of indisputable acquirements,
Leslie's expansive offer, which was reported to the Board by letter, discloses upon its face that he was too costly a luxury to be in the reach of a poorly endowed university, still in its swaddling clothes. Gilmer, for some days, cherished the hope that he would be able to secure the talents of Professor Buchanan for the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry, two courses which
It seems, however, that not all the scholars were so impoverished. The pedagogic calling in Scotland had become lucrative. "Even the Greek professor at Glasgow, Leslie tells me," Gilmer wrote in the letter just quoted, "receives fifteen hundred guineas a year. Some of the lecturers here receive above four thousand pounds sterling. Besides this, we have united branches which seem never to be combined in the same person in Europe . . . . I have, moreover, well satisfied myself that, taking all the departments of natural history, we shall, at Philadelphia and New York, procure persons more fit for our purpose than anywhere in Great Britain. The same may be said of anatomy . . . . As at present advised, I cannot say positively that I may not be condemned to the humiliation of going back with Dr. Blaettermann only."
Socially, he found the city of the North quite as attractive as Cambridge or Oxford. While there, he was entertained by the distinguished advocate, Murray, a kinsman of Lord Mansfield; and was also kindly received
Writing, April 26, 1824, to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson said, "We still have an eye on Mr. Blaettermann for the professor of Modern Languages, and Mr. Gilmer is instructed to engage him, if no very material objection to him may have arisen unknown to us." In 1835, Blaettermann was paid only one thousand dollars as his fixed salary while all the other professors engaged in the beginning continued to receive fifteen hundred dollars.
XVIII. The Mission to England, Continued
Gilmer stopped with Key in London, and through Key, he was brought into communication by letter with George Long, then about twenty-four years of age, a fellow of Trinity. To Long, he made precisely the same general offer which he had submitted to Key. Longs reply was at once that of a scholar and a man of business: it was sensible, candid, and straight-forward. The peculiar circumstances of his situation, he began, induced him to throw off all reserve. He had lost both his father and mother, and also a considerable property in the West Indies, which he had relied upon to yield him an easy and permanent income. Upon his exertions were almost entirely dependent two younger sisters and a brother under age. He had been studying privately to become a member of the bar, with the expectation that it would afford a subsistence for these relations, as well as gratify his ambition to rise in the world. "Did that
Such were some of the pertinent questions put by Long. "I have no attachment to England as a country," he concluded; "it is a delightful place for a man of rank and property to live in, but I was not born in that enviable station . . . . If comfortably settled, therefore, in America, I would never wish to leave it." Gilmer replied at length to this letter; and one week afterwards, Long, who had, in the meanwhile, consulted Adam Hodgson, a merchant of Liverpool familiar with Virginia, accepted the original offer.
In reporting Longs acceptance to Jefferson, Gilmer stated that there were two objections to him: (1) he made no pretension to knowledge of Hebrew; but as this study was little esteemed in England, it would require a search that would extend over at least another year, to discover a competent man for the chair of ancient languages, should instruction in the Hebrew tongue be pronounced indispensable: (2) as an alumnus of Trinity, it
By the time Long's consent had been obtained, Key had also agreed to accept the chair of mathematics. Both Key and Long, it seems, noticed the disparity between the offer submitted to them in Gilmer's letters, and the one actually embodied in the contract which they were asked to sign. They raised the objection now, they said, so that there should be no room for dispute after their arrival in Virginia. "There is no doubt," wrote Key on September 27, "that I shall receive a salary of fifteen hundred dollars for the five years, independent of the fees. This is stated in both of your letters, but you wish virtually to reserve to the Visitors the power of diminishing this under certain conditions and limitations. I grant that this power is not to be enforced except at discretion, and for good reasons appearing to the Rector and Visitors. But it is still a power in their hand, which may be employed at their sober discretion, and independent of us. Now the limitation you put to the power of the Visitors is to restrain them from diminishing the fixed salary unless the whole receipts exceed twenty-five hundred dollars. But if the receipts will never be less than four thousand, and the Visitors have the power of diminishing the salary as soon as the whole receipts exceed twenty-five hundred dollars, is this not giving them an unconditional power of diminishing the salary? Ought not the limit to be at the very least forty-five hundred dollars . . . . I have just written
The last sentence is a proof that Key had no intention of withdrawing from the engagement because of a supposed contradiction in the terms of the contract. Before this letter was written, Gilmer had been employed in the search for incumbents for the other professorships. "I have had more persons recommended for anatomy," he wrote Jefferson in August, "than for any other place, but immediately they find they will not be allowed to practise medicine abroad, they decline proceeding further." This difficulty, however, was finally overcome with the experienced assistance of Dr. George Birkbeck, the founder in Glasgow of the first Mechanics Institute, afterwards a prominent physician in London, and during many years, interested in the progress of popular education. Birkbeck suggested the name of Robley Dunglison, widely known already as a writer on medical topics. He accepted the anatomical professorship on September 5. On the same day, Gilmer visited Woolwich to talk in person with Peter Barlow, then an instructor in the Royal Military Academy, a member of the Royal Society, and a celebrated investigator in magnetism and optics. Barlow was absent; but afterwards by letter, readily agreed to assist him, and as the first step, promised to write to the son of a distinguished mathematical professor, whose name, however, he withheld. This person was undoubtedly Charles Bonnycastle, the son of John, who had filled the chair of mathematics at Woolwich with conspicuous ability and learning. As Bonnycastle was not in England at that time, for he was in the employment of the Government, Barlow wrote also to George Harvey, of Plymouth. But Bonnycastle was finally selected.
It seems that he had given bond for about five hundred pounds to the British Government, and this he forfeited when he accepted Gilmer's offer. He expected to cancel the obligation by an advance from the University, and there occurred some misunderstanding on this score between Gilmer and himself. Gilmer admitted in April, 1826, in a letter to Jefferson, that he had been compelled "to take Bonnycastle more on trust than the others," as he was anxious to close all engagements in time to get the professors overseas by November. He was under the impression that he had made no promise, in the University's name, to relieve Bonnycastle's sureties, but he declared that, should the Board of Visitors be unwilling to advance the amount, he would do so out of his own pocket. The money was, in the end, paid by the University in full. There was a somewhat furtive reflection on this professor's capacity in a letter which Gilmer received in January, 1825, from George Marx, the member of the banking firm which had honored his letters of credit in London: "I do not know whether it is my duty to tell you in strict confidence," he wrote, "that some opinion has been given me that Mr. Bonnycastle is not adequate to his situation." The conspicuous efficiency afterwards exhibited by him at the University of Virginia is a tacit refutation of this innuendo launched by some unknown and hostile tongue. "The son," said Dr. Birkbeck, "I am persuaded, will extend the fame of the parent. Had I entertained the slightest idea of his being in your reach, he would have been the first recommended."
By the nineteenth of September, Gilmer was in a position to report that he had succeeded in engaging four of the five professors sought for. It had been his expectation that he would certainly be able to embark for home
It only remained to procure a professor of natural history. By the advice of Dr. Birkbeck, Gilmer wrote to Dr. John Harwood, -at this time delivering a series of lectures in Manchester, -who, in his reply, on September 20, expressed regret that his engagements with the Royal Institution made it impracticable for him to consider the offer before the ensuing May. In the meanwhile, he intimated, his brother William Harwood, who had given instruction in natural history, might take the
Dr. John Harwood, in a letter which Gilmer received just before his departure from England, again revealed his desire that his brother should act as his stop-gap; and so anxious was William Harwood to assume this part, that he crossed to the Isle of Wight to talk with Gilmer in person on shipboard, only to be informed that it was too late for a written agreement to be drawn and signed; but he was advised to run the risk of going out to Virginia without a contract. To this suggestion, he very sensibly demurred. Frederick Norton arrived on the ground a few hours after the ship had set sail (October 5).
During the last week of his sojourn in England, Gilmer's time had not been altogether taken up with the pursuits of possible candidates for University professorships. Among the distinguished persons whom he met in general society was Thomas Campbell, who was interested in America from the association of at least one of
Gilmer, while in London, spent some of his leisure hours in Lambeth Palace Library, and became so much interested in the manuscript of John Smith's History of Virginia preserved there, that he had a copy of it written out for publication in the United States.
During his voyage to New York, he was entirely prostrated by seasickness, and in this unhappy condition, fell
Such is the martyrdom I have endured for the Old Dominion! She will never thank me for it, but I will love and cherish her as if she did." After his arrival in New York, he was detained by illness during several weeks, but, as will hereafter appear, he was, in spite of his feeble condition, ardently interested in engaging a professor for the vacant chair of natural history, the only chair which he had been compelled to leave still unprovided for when he set out from England.
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THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||