University of Virginia Library

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

was converted into a University, the only means of collecting money consisted of the subscription list. Had the University, like the College, been compelled to depend upon this alone, it would have had a very precarious outlook from the start. The General Assembly foresaw that, in incorporating the institution, it would be imperative to afford it a definite measure of support. The sum to be appropriated annually for its benefit, namely fifteen thousand dollars, was not enough in itself for the erection of the buildings, but it would at least be sufficient to pay the salaries of the professors, and at a pinch, be used as interest upon a loan negotiated to embrace the remaining cost of construction. The annuity, small as it was, was granted somewhat grudgingly, and there were to be times in a future not at all remote when a warning threat of discontinuing it was to be heard.

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,

"to rejoin the band of steadfast patriots engaged in the holy cause of the University "! The holy cause of the University! That was the view which both of them took in their unceasing fight for appropriations; and, as we shall see, neither of them, -as, for instance, in opposing the transplantation of the College of William and Mary, -allowed any sentimental scruples to palsy the resolute energy of their purpose.

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,

who, under the roof of the capitol, was brought face to face with it in its most threatening shape. "The University," wrote General B. J. S. Cabell, who was a member of the Legislature during these years, "had the warm support of a number of enlightened men in both Houses, but he it was whose generous enthusiasm and burning zeal always called and marshalled the forces to battle. It was remarkable that, though promptly opposed and sometimes beaten in the vote, with what elasticity he would rise again in a few days, and return to the charge stronger than ever; and a session rarely passed without his having obtained a signal victory for the University. It is no disparagement to the memory of his patriotic colleagues to say that he was the Ajax Telemon of that sacred war. I know several of his enlightened compeers, devoted patriots, men of exalted worth and talents, who delighted to honor him as their leader in that great work."

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,

who, either in the Senate or the house, could, like Gordon himself, be always relied upon to use their influence with their colleagues to ensure the passage of any measure that was favorable to the interests of the University.

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

pointed out to him that the income from the Literary Fund was, for the time being, exhausted, and that the Assembly would refuse to create a special fund, that he desisted.

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

of the interest, and for the redemption of the principal, was to be created by the pledge of a definite proportion of the annuity. In March, forty thousand dollars of the authorized loan was obtained from the President and Directors of the Literary Fund. The Visitors, at their meeting in April, decided to apply one-half of this amount to the liquidation of the University debt, and the other half to the completion of such buildings as were already in the process of construction; and should there remain a surplus, this surplus, together with all the annuity for 1821, -except the portion needed to pay the interest on the loan, -was to be expended in the erection o f additional pavilions and dormitories. And the Visitors further determined to borrow of the Literary Fund the additional twenty thousand dollars which the General Assembly had allowed.

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

Assembly would be more inclined than they were then to be apathetic to his insistent calls for financial assistance.

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

its participation in the General Fund adequate to the full establishment contemplated by the law."

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

that the condition of the Literary Fund was, at this time, so parched that its revenue would, perhaps, not he sufficient to pay the annuities; and if a surplus should be proven to exist, it would be so small that it would afford but a few crumbs to the numerous mouths now wide open to receive them. He soothed Jefferson's impatient spirit by suggesting that, just so soon as the first loan to the University had been put "on the proper basis for managing it," a petition should be sent to the Legislature for authority to borrow the further sum of fifty thousand dollars.

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

the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy labors until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, nunc dimittis Domine."

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

of hands with which the upshot of the voting was received by its supporters.