HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF VIRGINIA
1819-1919
VOLUME I
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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THOMAS JEFFERSON
HISTORY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
1819-1919
The Lengthened Shadow of One Man
BY
PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE, LL.B., LL.D.
AUTHOR' OF
"Economic, Institutional, and Social Histories of Virginia in the
Seventeenth Century;" "Plantation Negro as a Freeman;"
"Rise of the New South;" "Life of General Robert E.'
Lee;" "Brave Deeds of Confederate Soldiers;"
"Short History of United States," etc.
Centennial EfcWon
VOLUME I
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
ST. PAUL
Lb
S-6
67
COPYRIGHT 1920
BY THE GENERAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Set up and printed. Published, November, 1920
PREFACE
I. Method of Treatment
The history of the University of Virginia, during the
one hundred years of its existence, can be related in three
different ways. First, as annals, with an inflexible fi-
delity to the flow of events from year to year; second,
as a series of monographs, the theme of each to be
treated separately for the entire interval of time lying
between 1819 and 1919; or third, as a succession of
periods, each period growing out of the preceding one,
but dissimilar in length, in problems, and in achievements.
To present that history in the form of annals would be to
introduce unavoidably definite elements of incoherence
and desultoriness. To narrate it in the form of a series
of independent monographs would be to destroy its funda-
mental unity, and the close inter-relations of its almost
innumerable phases. On the other hand, to consider
it as a succession of periods permits of the retention of
all the advantages of chronological sequence and of sep-
arate exposition subject by subject, with the discursive-
ness of the one and the disconnection of the other sub-
stantially modified.
The history of the University of Virginia lends itself
fully to a narration by periods. Thus we have the First
Period, the period when there was a persistent struggle
for the incorporation of a university, in which Jefferson
was the great protagonist; the Second Period, the pe-
riod of germination, when Albemarle Academy and Cen-
tral College were rapidly developing into a seat of higher
11453
vi PREFACE
learning; the Third Period, the period of construction,
which saw the erection of the buildings, the adoption of
the regulations, and the selection of the professors; the
Fourth Period, the period of formation and experi-
mentation, which began with the opening of the Univer-
sity to students; the Fifth Period, the period of re-
formation and expansion, as illustrated in the introduc-
tion of the Honor System, the establishment of the Young
Men's Christian Association, and the addition of new lec-
ture halls and new schools; the Sixth Period, the period
of the war, when the activities of the institution were
almost suspended; the Seventh Period, the period of
reconstruction and re-expansion, which succeeded that
conflict; the Eighth Period, the period of restoration,
which followed the Great Fire; and finally, the Ninth
Period, the period of the presidency, in which the drift
has been towards a broader democratization, in harmony
with the dominant spirit of our own times. It is this
division of my general subject which I have adopted in
the present work.
II. Foreword to Volumes I and II
In the preparation of Volumes I and II, I have enjoyed
the advantage of access to the following illuminating
manuscripts which had not before been used for the
same general purpose. The Misses Cocke, of Bremo,
kindly placed at my disposal the correspondence of Gen-
eral John Hartwell Cocke; Dr. William C. Rives, of
Washington, D. C., the correspondence of his grand-
father, the statesman, William Cabell Rives; Judge John
C. Rutherfoord, Miss Elizabeth Johnson, Mrs. John B.
Henneman and Mr. Malcolm G. Bruce, family letters
PREFACE vii
written from the University previous to 1842; Colonel
W. Gordon McCabe, letters of Frank G. Ruffin descrip-
tive of his impressions as a student; Mr. Armistead C.
Gordon, the letters of General William Fitzhugh Gordon
and his wife; Mrs. Caroline Ellis, the correspondence of
her grandfather and father, Governor James Barbour
and B. Johnson Barbour; Misses Bessie and Margaret
Gaines, family letters of their father, the late Major R.
V. Gaines; Professor Raleigh C. Minor, the diary of Pro-
fessor John B. Minor; Professor Dunnington, the min-
utes of the Temperance Society; Mr. M. S. Dimmock,
the manuscript papers belonging to the University Li-
brary which were gathered up after the Great Fire; Pro-
fessor Lancaster, a copy of a letter which throws light
on the offer of the Presidency of the University to Wil-
liam Wirt.
Two collections of letters and papers in the possession
of the University of Virginia have furnished me with a
large amount of hitherto unused information. I refer
( i ) to the loose documents, in the form of vouchers,
receipts, letters, deeds and the like, now in the custody of
the Registrar; and (2) to the mass of unassorted letters
and public papers of Joseph C. Cabell presented to the
Library by his heirs. This latter collection is quite as
valuable as the well-known volume published with the title
of Correspondence of Jefferson and Cabell, and under the
editorship of Mr. N. F. Cabell. For thoughtful points
of view as well as for important facts, I am indebted to
the following books: Patton's Jefferson, Cabell and
University of Virginia; Garnett and Barringer's Univer-
sity of Virginia, Its Influence, Example and Characteris-
tics; Professor Minor's Sketch of the University of Vir-
ginia in the Old Dominion Magazine; Rev. Edgar
viii PREFACE
Woods's History of Albemarle County; Professor
Adams's University of Virginia; Professor Lambeth's
Jefferson as an Architect; Professor Fiske Kimball's
Thomas Jefferson, Architect; Professor William P.
Trent's Sketch of English Culture in Virginia; Dr. Tyler's
Williamsbur g , the Old Colonial Capital, and Professor
Heatwole's History of Education in Virginia.
The following monographs have also been of use to
me in the study of the Third and Fourth Periods : Pro-
fessor Charles A. Graves's Martin Dawson; Professor
Thomas FitzHugh's Letters of George Long; William
C. Rives, Jr.'s, Life and Character of William B. Rog-
ers; Professor George Tucker's Memoir of Dr. Emmet;
Professor Broadus's Address on Gessner Harrison; Dr.
George Tucker Harrison's Address on James L. Cabell;
and Colonel W. Gordon McCabe's Virginia Schools Be-
fore and After the Revolution.
Ecfgar Allan Poe, the most famous alumnus of the
University of Virginia, was a student during the Fourth
Period. I have deferred an account of his connection
with the institution to the history of the Fifth Period,
which will contain chapters descriptive of the distin-
guished alumni of these early times.
In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness
to Mr. John S. Patton, the Librarian of the University,
and his assistants, Misses Mary and Estelle Dinwiddie,
for the unfailing aid which they afforded me in my ex-
amination of the books and manuscripts now in their cus-
tody. I was indebted too to Mr. Howard Winston, the
late Registrar, for his kindness in facilitating my use of
the unbound collection of the Proctor's Papers stored in
his office; and also to the executive committee of the
General Alumni Association of the University of Vir-
PREFACE ix
ginia at whose request the preparation of this work
was undertaken by me for the encouragement which
they have given me throughout its prosecution.
PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE.
University of Virginia,
March 7, 1920.
AUTHORITIES FOR VOLUMES I AND II
INTRODUCTION
Memoirs and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, Randolph
Edition.
Writings of Jefferson, H. A. Washington Edition.
Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ford Edition.
Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb and Burgh Edition.
Miss Sarah N. Randolph's Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson.
Henry S. Randall's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
James Parton's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
George Tucker's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
John T. Morse's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
Dr. William A. Lambeth's Jefferson as an Architect.
Dr. Fiske Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect.
Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.
FIRST PERIOD
Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell, edited
by N. F. Cabell.
Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.
Sundry Documents on the Subject of Public Education for the
State of Virginia, issued by President and Directors of the
Literary Fund.
Journals of the House of Delegates 1779 to 1825.
Journals of the Senate of Virginia 1779 to 1825.
Collections of the Virginia Historical Society.
Tyler's Williamsburg, The Old Colonial Capital.
Tyler's Lives and Times of the Tylers.
Adams's College of William and Mary.
Adams's Jefferson and University of Virginia.
Gordon's Life of William Fitzhugh Gordon.
Correspondence of William Fitzhugh Gordon, MSS., Gordon
Family, Staunton, Va.
Trist Manuscripts, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.
xii AUTHORITIES FOR VOLUMES I AND II
Patton's Jefferson, Cabell, and University of Virginia.
Garnett and Barringer's History of the University of Virginia.
Minor's Sketches of the University of Virginia in Old Dominion
Magazine.
Eckenrode's Church and State.
Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists.
Mcllwaine's Struggle of Protestant Dissenters for Religious Tol-
eration in Virginia,
Barbour Manuscripts, Barboursville, Va.
Correspondence and Papers of Joseph C. Cabell, MSS., Univer-
sity Library.
Correspondence of John Hartwell Cocke, MSS., Bremo, Virginia.
Correspondence of William C. Rives, MSS., Rives Family, Wash-
ington, D. C.
Richmond, Va., Newspapers, 1800-1819.
SECOND PERIOD
Correspondence of Joseph C. Cabell, MSS., University Library.
Correspondence of John Hartwell Cocke, MSS., Bremo, Va.
Correspondence of William C. Rives, MSS., Rives Family, Wash-
ington, D. C.
Trist Manuscripts, Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.
Correspondence of Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell, edited by
N. F. Cabell.
Woods's History of Albemarle County.
Mead's Historic Homes of the Southwest Mountains.
Minutes of the Trustees of Albemarle Academy.
Minutes of the Board of Visitors of Central College.
Proctor's Papers, in custody of Registrar of University.
Alumni Bulletin of the University of Virginia.
Patton's Jefferson, Cabell, and University of Virginia.
Garnett and Barringer's History of the University of Virginia.
Miss Randolph's Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson.
Tucker's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
Randall's Life of Thomas Jefferson.
Journals of House of Delegates 1800 to 1819
Journals of Senate of Virginia 1800 to 1819.
Richmond Newspapers 1800 to 1819.
Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect.
Lambeth's Jefferson as an Architect.
AUTHORITIES FOR VOLUMES I AND II xiii
Brown's Cabells and their Kin.
Meade's Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia.
Gordon's Life of William Fitzhugh Gordon.
Tyler's Williamsburg, The Old Colonial Capital.
McCabe's Virginia Schools before and after the Revolution.
THIRD PERIOD
Correspondence of Joseph C. Cabell, MSS., University Library.
Correspondence of John Hartwell Cocke, MSS., Bremo, Va.
Correspondence of Jefferson and Cabell, edited by N. F. Cabell.
Proctor's Papers, Registrar's Office.
Correspondence of William Fitzhugh Gordon, MSS., Gordon
Family.
Correspondence of William C. Rives, MSS., Rives Family.
Barbour Correspondence, MSS., Barboursville, Va.
Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect
Lambeth's Thomas Jefferson as an Architect.
Reports of Board of Visitors 1819-1824.
Minutes of Board of Visitors 1819-1824.
Minutes of Faculty 1819-1824.
Code of 1824.
Minor's Sketches of the University of Virginia in Old Dominion
Magazine.
Heatwole's History of Education in Virginia.
Alumni Bulletin of University of Virginia.
Smith's Forty Years of Washington Society.
Letters of Thomas Walker Gilmer, MSS.
Trent's English Culture in Virginia.
Woods 's History of Albemarle County.
Adams's Jefferson and University of Virginia.
Patton's Jefferson, Cabell, and University of Virginia.
Tucker's Memoir of Dr. Emmet.
Dictionary of National Biography.
Hicks's Memoir of Professor Thomas Hewitt Key.
FOURTH PERIOD
Correspondence of Joseph C. Cabell, MSS., University Library.
Correspondence of John Hartwell Cocke, MSS., Bremo, Va.
Correspondence of William C. Rives, MSS., Rives Family.
xiv AUTHORITIES FOR VOLUMES I AND II
Hubard Correspondence, MSS., Dilwyn, Va.
Bruce Correspondence, MSS., Berry Hill, Va.
Catalogues of University of Virginia.
Minutes of Board of Visitors, 1824-1842.
Minutes of Faculty, 1824-1842.
Minutes of Chairman of Faculty.
Enactments of 1831, 1835.
Diary of John B. Minor, MSS.
Minor's Sketches of University of Virginia in Old Dominion
Magazine.
Patton's Jefferson, Cabell, and University of Virginia.
Journal of Dr. Robley Dunglison.
Alumni Bulletin of University of Virginia.
Johnson Letters, MSS., University Library.
The Museum Magazine.
The Collegian Magazine.
Jefferson Memorial Magazine.
University of Virginia Magazine.
Rives's Address on Professor William B. Rogers.
Life of Professor William B. Rogers.
Letters of John C. Rutherfoord, MSS.
Letters of Frank G. Ruffin, MSS.
McCabe's Virginia Schools before and after the Revolution.
Minutes of Washington Society.
Minutes of Jefferson Society.
Recollections of Professor Francis H. Smith in Alumni Bulletin.
Corks and Curls.
Minutes of Temperance Society, MSS.
Broadus's Address on Gessner Harrison.
Dr. Geo. Tucker Harrison's Address on James L. Cabell.
Professor Fitzhugh's Letters of George Long.
Professor Graves's Martin Dawson.
Southern Literary Messenger.
Professor Schele's Semi-Centennial Catalogue.
Dr. Henry Tutwiler's Address before Alumni Association of Uni-
versity of Virginia.
Johnson's Life of Rev. R. L. Dabney, D.D.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME I
INTRODUCTORY PAGE
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON i
I. Father of the University ; II. Political Principles ; III.
Religious Views; IV. Love of Science; V. Taste for Architec-
ture.
FIRST PERIOD
THE STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 45
I. Jefferson's Faith in Education; II. Three Foreign
Schemes; III. Bill of 1779; IV. Jefferson's Schemes of Popu-
lar Education; V. Educational Measures Adopted.
SECOND PERIOD
GERMINATION : ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 95
I. Jefferson's Preference for University Site; II. History of
the University Region; III. Early Social Life; IV. Origin
of Albemarle Academy; V. Acts of Albemarle Academy Trus-
tees; VI. Academy Converted into College; VII. Jefferson's
Foresight for the College; VIIL Joseph C. Cabell; IX. John
Hartwell Cocke; X. Site of College Selected; XL The Sub-
scription List; XII. The Plan for the Buildings; XIII. The
Actual Building; XIV. The First Professors Elected; XV.
Fight Against Cooper; XVI. The Bill for Conversion.
THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 209
I. Rockfish Gap Commission ; II. The Report ; III. Strug-
gle for the University Site; IV. The First Board of Visitors;
V. Course of Construction ; VI. Men Who Built the Uni-
versity ; VII. How Materials Were Procured ; VIIL The
Building of the Rotunda; IX. Additions to Main Buildings;
X. Cost of Buildings ; XL The Fight for Appropriations ;
XII. Fight for Appropriations, continued ; XIII. Removal of
William and Mary College ; XIV. System of Education ;
XV. Plans for Filling the Chairs; XVI. Francis Walker
Gilmer; XVIL The Mission to England; XVIIL The Mis-
sion to England, continued.
HISTORY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
INTRODUCTORY
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON
I. Father of the University
Thomas Jefferson, from early manhood until the end
of his sixty-sixth year, had, with short intervals of pri-
vate life, filled in succession the highest offices in the gift
of the popular voice. He had served in the General As-
sembly and in the first Virginia Convention; had been a
member of the Continental Congress and Governor of
the Commonwealth; had been Minister to the Court of
Versailles, Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet
and Vice-President of the United States; and, finally, at
the summit of his career, had been President during one
of the most pregnant and critical eras in American his-
tory. He had won distinction in the very different parts
of legislator, diplomat, and executive. His name had
been coupled with all the events forming the great mile-
stones of his time, with the solitary exception of the adop-
tion of the Federal Constitution, which was drafted and
ratified during his absence in France.
Towards the close of his life, looking back, with tran-
quil discrimination, upon the achievements of his great
career, he wrote down a list of the acts which he con-
ceived to be his principal claims upon the remembrance
and gratitude of posterity. This list embraced all those,
l
2 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
which, before the establishment of the University of Vir-
ginia, had brought him conspicuously into the eyes and
minds of men, not one of any substantial importance,
legislative, executive or educational, was omitted. It be-
gan with his public spirited example, as a young man, in
opening up the shallow waters of his native Rivanna to
the navigation of batteaux; then passed on to his author-
ship of the Declaration of Independence; to his separa-
tion of Church and State in Virginia; to his destruction
there of the laws of entail and primogeniture; to his pa-
ternity of the statute that prohibited the further importa-
tion of slaves; of the one defining the rights of naturaliza-
tion; of the one making more humane the punishment of
crime; and of the bill of 1779 for the diffusion of knowl-
edge among the people. He closed as he began with the
mention of an act of utilitarian patriotism, seemingly little
in itself but really of far-reaching consequence : his intro-
duction of olives and a more hardy and fecund species of
rice into the Southern States. There was, in the list, not
the slenderest hint of the political honors which had been
showered upon him so generously by his countrymen.
In extreme old age, when he had had a longer time to
weigh and set the nicest value upon all the incidents of his
life, he determined to revise this first list, and in abbrevi-
ating and condensing it, to retain only those facts which
indicated most clearly the characteristic spirit of his ca-
reer in all its phases. What was this spirit? The gov-
erning and driving power of Jefferson's whole course
from youth to old age was love of freedom, freedom
of the mind in its outlook in every direction and on all
things; freedom of the soul, in its beliefs; freedom of
action for the individual in every personal relation, and in
every department of human affairs, so far as it was not
repugnant to morality, law and order. Which were the
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 3
achievements of his life that, in his final judgment, re-
flected most faithfully and pointedly this overtopping, this
all-animating aspiration of his entire existence? When,
after his death, his papers were examined to discover his
wishes for the disposal of his body, the following memo-
randum was found among them, and the more closely
we scrutinize its details, the more comprehensive does it
show itself as the matured expression of the mainspring
of his long career:
Here lies Thomas Jefferson,
Author of the Declaration of Independence,
Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom,
And Father of the University of Virginia.
His last thought, as we thus perceive, was occupied, in
no egotistic spirit, with only three facts of his life; but
they were the three, which, in his opinion, made up his
greatest contributions to the noblest of all causes, the
cause of freedom. As the author of the Declaration,
he had proclaimed the tyranny of all Governments that
had not received their authority directly from the con-
sent of the governed; as the author of the Virginia stat-
ute, he had proclaimed, with equal emphasis, the tyranny
of all spiritual domination that was rejected by the intel-
ligence; and as the Father of the University of Virginia,
he was convinced that he had founded a seat of learning
that, for ages, would help to preserve that freedom of
mind, spirit, and individual action, which he had always
so persistently advocated with tongue and pen, and which,
by his acts, he had done so much to encourage, to
strengthen, and to perpetuate.
There have been few men in our political history who
have had so accurate a command of the English language,
in its nicest shades of meaning, as Jefferson. He was al-
4 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ways lucid and precise in the use of the written word. It
will be noticed that he did not describe himself as the
Founder of the University of Virginia but as the Father.
Now, there is an important difference in the significance
of the two words, as employed in this connection, entirely
apart from any hint of endowment which may vaguely
linger about the former. There have been many foun-
ders of scholastic institutions in the United States, but
few fathers of such institutions. Those great seats of
learning, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Chicago, and Leland
Stanford, Jr., to mention only the most eminent,
had their respective origins in the benefactions of single
philanthropists, who were content to impart in a general
way only, if they imparted at all, the trend and color
of certain principles to the aims of those universities,
and to the methods of their administration. But it can-
not be said of them to the degree that can be so often
said of a father in relation to his children, that their
transmitted influence has never ceased to shape those
creations of their benevolence, in the smallest detail as
well as in the largest, from the time the first charter was
obtained and the first stone was laid, down to the present
hour.
On the other hand, had Jefferson been in a position to
endow the projected University of Virginia with a mil-
lion dollars of his own, it would still have been more cor-
rect to speak of him as the Father of that institution than
as its Founder. He was not merely the father of it in the
spiritual and intellectual sense: he was the father of it
in a corporeal sense also, for he designed the structure
in the main from dome to closet, and he superintended
its erection from the earliest to almost the last brick
and lath. ^It was he who had carried at the front of
his mind for more than a generation the unrealized con-
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 5
ception of a university for his native Commonwealth;
who, through all this long period of disappointment,
but not of discouragement, pressed it upon the attention
of the General Assembly; who, when it was at last incor-
porated in its earliest form as a college, selected its site
and surveyed its boundaries; who, after its final charter
was granted, kept up a persistent and successful struggle
with faction, prejudice, and ignorance, to obtain from
the State the funds needed for its completion; who, after
its doors were thrown open, thought out minutely and
laid down with precision its courses of instruction; who
chose many of the text-books; formed the library; nom-
inated all the professors; and finally drafted all the
laws for the general administration of the institution,
and all the regulations for the enforcement of discipline
among the students. Almost daily, if the weather was
fair, he rode down from his mountain-top to the Uni-
versity to watch the progress of the building; and when
prevented from doing this, turned from that lofty height
upon the unfinished structures the far-reaching eyes of
his telescope.
There is hardly another instance in our educational
history which approaches the noble, the almost pathetic,
solicitude which the illustrious octogenarian showed for
this child of his of brick and stone. " I have only this
single anxiety in this world," he declared. ; ' It is a bant-
ling of forty years' birth and nursing, and if I can see it
on its legs, I will sing, with serenity and pleasure, my
nunc dimittis." Nor did this brooding thought leave
him even when he lay on his death-bed at Monticello, for
his physician tells us that he constantly speculated as to
the name of his probable successor in the rectorship,
that office upon which most depended the intelligent man-
agement of its affairs.
6 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
II. Political Principles
No biography can be accepted as complete which fails
to scrutinize the qualities of the parentage of its subject.
The laws of heredity are equally applicable to the Uni-
versity of Virginia, for all its principal characteristics,
as we have just seen, were, in the beginning, derived from
the moulding hand of Jefferson. The first one hundred
years of its history turns in a very real and practical
sense upon the spirit which was breathed into its work-
ing organization at the start by the liberal, versatile, and
sagacious brain of one man. Madison, who, from its
foundation, was a member of the Board of Visitors, very
frequently reminded the members of that body of the
propriety of permitting their venerable rector to carry
out all the plans which he had framed for its benefit; and
he did this, not simply because that rector's judgment was
entitled to peculiar deference, but chiefly because, as
the scheme was, in the beginning, his own, the responsi-
bility for its failure or success would fall on him.
Apart from its architectural setting, which was en-
tirely of his dictation, there were three conspicuous as-
pects in which the University of Virginia reflected the
spirit of Jefferson: ( i ) in its political creed; (2) in its
freedom from every form of sectarianism; and (3) in its
complete dedication to the advancement of science.
Jefferson's almost extravagant love of freedom was,
perhaps, more vividly reflected in his political principles
than in any other branch of his convictions. He was in
favor of that system of government which would ham-
per the least the natural liberty of the individual. This
liberty, both in private relations and in public, was to
be as completely without restraints as the working re-
quirements of organized society would permit. Men
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 7
were to be taught to discipline themselves so firmly and
so unselfishly that the controlling hand of a central
power would be hardly needed at all; such central power
as did exist should have before it as its supreme object,
not the curbing of the bad instincts and impulses of man-
kind, but the bestowal upon the multitude of the highest
degree of happiness possible for humanity. Freedom
and Happiness, these, in his opinion, were the principal
ends which all governments, as well as all acquisitions
of knowledge, were designed to subserve. " The gen-
eral spread of science," he wrote only a few days before
his death, when his hand trembled so violently that he
could, with difficulty, retain the pen in his fingers, " has
already laid open to every view the truth that the mass
of mankind have not been born with saddles on their
backs; nor a favored few booted and spurred ready to
ride them legitimately by the grace of God."
It was his hatred of tyranny, expressed so graphically
in this remarkable imagery, that made him the implacable
opponent of all special privilege, whether entrenched in
law or in immemorial custom. It was this feeling,
which burnt in his breast even in youth, that prompted
him to bring forward in the General Assembly the bill
for the abolition of entail and primogeniture, so as to
throw the soil again into the hands of the many; for the
separation of Church and State, so as to remove all the
galling burdens from the backs of the Dissenters; and,
finally, for the suppression of the harsh features of crim-
inal law by' reducing the number of capital offenses from
twenty-nine to two. And it was this same feeling also
that led him to draft the bill to put a stop to the further
importation of slaves; and that caused him to favor a
second bill that would have brought about gradual manu-
mission, had the opinion of the public, at that time,
8 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
been as ripe for such a farsighted measure as his own.
His views on this momentous subject reflected most con-
spicuously the openness of his mind as well as the clear-
ness of his vision : " Nothing is more certainly written in
the book of fate than that these people are to be free.
. . . The way, I hope, is preparing, under the auspices
of Heaven, for total emancipation." There was pre-
sented to him, afterwards, but one other great opportu-
nity to show, in attempted legislation, his eagerness to
uproot African bondage, and he did not let it pass: in
his original plan for the organization of a government
for the Northwest Territory, he provided that the States
to be carved out of that area, should, after 1800, be pro-
hibited from holding slaves.
Valuing liberty even to the point of favoring the
emancipation of the negroes, and the curtailment of the
punishment of criminals, to what did Jefferson look for its
preservation? He asserted again and again that the peo-
ple at large were the only bulwark of a free government.
" What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in
every country which has ever existed under the sun? " he
asked. " The concentration of all laws and powers into
one body. I know of no safe depository of the ultimate
powers of society but the people themselves." ' When-
ever the people are well informed," he wrote to Dr.
Price in 1789, " they can be trusted with their own gov-
ernment." He urged up to the end that the citizens of
every community should retain control over all persons
intrusted with the reins of administration, for, should they
neglect to do so, such authority was sure to be perverted
to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth
and dominion among the members of the intriguing office-
holding caste. With Hamilton, his persistent antagonist,
he believed that virtue and intelligence should always be
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 9
in the ascendancy in political life; but, unlike Hamilton,
he was convinced that intelligence and virtue could only
have room for full play if the natural right of every man
to the enjoyment of the suffrage, whether he was a
property-owner or not, was candidly acknowledged and
ungrudgingly granted. He would have relieved the suf-
frage of all restrictions; and it was his clear perception of
the fact that suffrage unrestricted could not be of the
most beneficent service to the individual and the com-
munity unless education was also universal, that caused
him, as we shall see, to advocate so earnestly a general
system of public instruction. It was this epochal proviso
that saved his sweeping opinion from the taint of dema-
gogism.
Did Jefferson exaggerate the danger to popular free-
dom in thinking, as he did, that it was always threatened
by the open or furtive encroachments of rulers, local or
national alike? The events through which he had passed
in early manhood unquestionably inflamed his imagina-
tion in its outlook even on the events of the normal years
in which his later life was spent. The arrogant conduct
of the British Government towards the American colon-
ists before the Revolution ; the exasperations of that con-
flict after it had once begun; his observation of the un-
equal laws in France, and the consequent prostration of
its people in the mass, previous to the destruction of the
monarchy, all this had convinced him that there was an
instincti.ve and unavoidable antagonism between rulers
and ruled, unless the rulers were chosen by the majority
of the people; and that, even when they were, eternal
vigilance was the price of liberty.
Jefferson was the only statesman of the first order in
those times, violent as they were in both America and
Europe, who always, and with palpable sincerity, ex-
10 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
pressed the firmest confidence in the virtue and wisdom
of the people at large. The most maturely considered
and most cautiously framed document of that period was
the Federal Constitution. Why is its tenor throughout
characterized by so many checks and balances? Largely,
no doubt, because it was only by compromise that the
sectional antagonisms of the Convention could be recon-
ciled, but, perhaps, principally because even that noble
body of patriots, in their secret consciousness, did not,
like Jefferson, place a solid reliance on the trustworthi-
ness of the people. " It is an axiom of my mind," he
affirmed on more than one occasion, " that our liberty can
never be safe but in the people's hands " ; and then he
always added significantly, " I mean the people with a
certain degree of instruction."
It is one of the strangest riddles of American history
that a man born like himself to wealth and high social
position, and in a community in which the English con-
ception of class distinctions still lingered, should have
understood so clearly and thoroughly the aspirations of
the people as a mass that he should have become their
articulate voice. How did he catch with such niceness the
democratic idea? Was it taken in with the free atmos-
phere of his frontier hills and mountains and wild pri-
maeval woods? Or was he simply a philosophical radi-
cal, a speculative sage, who had reached his conclusions
by thought and reading alone? There was no more out-
cropping of the democrat in Jefferson's personal bearing
and domestic surroundings than in Washington's ; and yet
so obnoxious were his opinions to many of his fellow-
countrymen that he was roundly and widely decried as a
demagogue, a jacobin, an atheist, and an anarchist. And
yet what were the fundamental principles that he pro-
mulgated? First, that all men should stand upon ex-
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON n
actly the same platform of equal privileges and equal op-
portunities before the law; secondly, that every nation,
great or small, should possess the right to administer its
own affairs free from all dictation, compulsion, or inter-
ference from other nations.
In Jefferson's life-time, as in our own, there prevailed
two views of what should be the relations of the State to
the individual, and of the individual to the State. Ac-
cording to one view, the first duty of the individual was
to forward the welfare of the State; according to the
other, the only duty of the State was to exercise a general
oversight, which was to leave the individual in spirit and
in practice to his own self-government. Under the sec-
ond system, the individual is all important; under the first,
he is of as small consequence as one ant in a nest of mil-
lions. The single ant is of no interest; the millions as a
body are of supreme interest. Now, Jefferson had no
toleration for such a theory of the Commonwealth as
this. He objected even to a benevolent interference by
the State in the affairs of men, and looked upon all rules
and regulations for government as arbitrary, however
wise in themselves, unless they resulted directly from the
action of the majority of the people. It was one of his
firmest convictions, after the Revolution had begun, that
America was destined to run a career entirely different in
temper and in fruitfulness from the civilization of Eu-
rope ; and long before the foot of the last English soldier
had passed from American soil, he brought in those mea-
sures in the General Assembly of Virginia which would
introduce at once a condition of society antipathetic, from
top to bottom, to that society which still prevailed in
England, and which had previously prevailed in Virginia.
By knocking away the cornerstones, he justly anticipated
that the whole structure of privilege and monopoly would
12 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tumble to the ground. Abolition of the law of entail
would put an end to the automatic preservation of wealth
in the hands of. a few families from generation to genera-
tion; abolition of the law of primogeniture, which had
made the eldest son rich and all his brothers poor,
would, by distributing the inheritance, not only improve
the pecuniary fortunes of the majority, but also diffuse
among them a passion for equality in all things; while
the separation of the Church from the State would de-
stroy sectarian ascendancy at a blow, and like the sub-
division of lands, would reduce each denomination to the
level of all.
It was Jefferson's uncompromising hostility to privilege
in every form, whether it showed itself in the preroga-
tives of kings and nobles, or in the exclusive inheritance
of an elder son, or in the tithes of a state church, that
caused him to judge so harshly the principles and policies
of the Federalist party. His antagonism to that party
was unquestionably embittered by political opposition and
personal resentment, but, for deeper reasons than these,
it would still have inflamed his mind had he never filled
an office or left his library and fields at Monticello.
" The leaders of Federalism," he wrote Governor Hall,
" say that man cannot be trusted with his own govern-
ment. Every man and every body of men on earth pos-
sess the right of self-government." " I am not a Feder-
alist," he said to Francis Hopkinson, in 1789, " because
I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the
creed of any party of men, whether in religion, in philos-
ophy, in politics, or in anything else, when I was capable
of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last
degradation of a free and moral agent." The then
powerful party of the Federalists was stigmatized by him
as the Parricide party, because, he asserted, they were
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 13
basely willing to sell what their fathers had so bravely
won. Or he spoke of them as the Monarchist party,
because they accepted, he said, the newly-adopted re-
publican form of government only as a stepping stone
to a monarchical one. He never forgot that, when he
arrived in New York, in 1790, from France, to become
Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet, he found
himself plunged in a society, that, boldly expressing a
preference for royalty, did not hesitate to make a tar-
get of him, in whatever company he might mingle, be-
cause, fresh from the French Revolution, in its first and
pure stage, and consequently somewhat " whetted up in
his republican principles," as he declared, he ventured
to dispute the sentiments which he heard pronounced on
every side.
It is to be inferred from these perhaps exaggerated
impressions that Jefferson was a staunch opponent of
centralization in the National Government. He desired
to keep unbroken the line that had been drawn between
the Federal and State administrations by the Constitu-
tion, and to strengthen the barriers raised to prevent the
one in the future from stepping over into the province of
the other. He favored the inviolable conservation of
that instrument within the bounds of the precise sense
in which it was adopted by its framers : the reservation to
the States of all powers not expressly delegated to the
National Government, and the limitation of the latter's
executive and legislative branches particularly to the pow-
ers granted to those branches, without any right what-
ever to trespass on the jurisdiction of the judicial branch.
In a letter to Samuel Kincheloe, in 1816, he summar-
ized this section of his political creed as follows: ' We
should marshal our Government in ( i ) the General Fed-
eral Republic, for all concerns foreign or federal; (2)
14 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the State Republics, for what relates to our citizens ex-
clusively; (3) the County Republics, for the duties and
concerns of the county; and (4) the Ward Republics, for
the small and yet numerous and interesting concerns of
the neighborhood."
If there should be an attempt on the part of the high-
est of these republics to steal or leap beyond its own
legitimate area, how was the usurpation to be met? The
famous Kentucky Resolutions of 1798-99, formulated
the principles and the policy alike which Jefferson ap-
proved: that the Constitution was a compact between the
different States and the United States, and that all viola-
tions of that compact on the part of the Federal Govern-
ment, by assuming functions not intrusted to it, were ille-
gal and without force ; that the General Government was
not made by this compact the exclusive or final arbiter of
the powers delegated to itself; that, as in all other cases
of compact in which there was no common judge, each
party had an equal right to determine whether an infrac-
tion had been committed; and if so, the manner in which
it should be redressed. Jefferson was always most ve-
hemently jealous of judicial encroachments on the rights
of the States backed by the power of the Federal Execu-
tive. In 1825, he was very much disquieted by the de-
cisions of the Supreme Court; by the orders of the Presi-
dent, John Quincy Adams; and by the misconstructions of
the Constitution, which, in his opinion, signalized many
of the legislative measures. " It is but evident," he said
in a letter to W. B. Giles, " that the three ruling branches
of that department (the National Government) are in
combination to strip their colleagues, the States' authori-
ties, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise
themselves all functions, foreign and domestic." " Are
we to stand to our arms? " he asked. " That must be the
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 15
last resource, not to be thought of until much longer and
greater sufferings. . . . We must have fortitude and
longer endurance with our brethren while under delusion
. . . and separate from our companions only when the
sole alternatives left are the dissolution of our Union with
them, or submission to a government without limitation
of powers. Between these two evils, when we must take
a choice, there can be no hesitation."
Such, in bare outlines, were the political principles of
Jefferson; and it was these principles that he required
to be taught in the University of Virginia. They were
derived by that University directly from him ; and unless
they are taken into account at the start, the true char-
acter of the institution, as fashioned by his devoted zeal,
cannot be fully understood. He announced, before its
doors were thrown open, that, with one exception, all the
professors were to be permitted to choose the textbooks
Lfor their respective classes; but that exception was a vital
one, for it was the professor of Jaw. The textbooks
assigned to this member of the Faculty had first to receive
the approval of the Rector and the Board before they
could be used in his lecture-room in the instruction of his
pupils. The new university, he said, was not to be suf-
fered to become a hot-bed for the propagation of political
- doctrines destructive of State and Nation alike. Mpn^
archical Federalism and the consolidation of the powers
of government were heresies to be fought there with all
the fiery energy of a council of mediaeval churchmen.
And no quarter whatever was to be given. He was
firmly resolved that, in the inculcation of his political
principles from those platforms at least, no room at all
was to be left for the display of opposition or even of
doubt. There was unquestionably a spirit of narrow-
ness and even of bigotry in the uncompromising attitude
16 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
which he thus assumed. " The young lawyers," he wrote
Madison, a few months before his death, " no longer
know what Whiggism and Republicanism mean. It is
in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be kept alive.
It is thence to spread anew over our own and sister States.
If we are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or
twenty years, a majority of our own legislature will be
from our own school, and many disciples will have carried
its doctrines home with them to their several States, and
will have leavened thus the whole mass." x
Who were the contumacious lawyers thus stigmatized?
They were the young Virginians of that day who had been
converted to the political doctrines which John Marshall
advocated, and which they had acquired from him during
their practice in his circuit, or in personal intercourse with
him in the social circles of Richmond. When it was
planned to remove the College of William and Mary to
that city, Jefferson opposed it, not simply because it would
raise up a formidable rival to his own University, but also
because it would become an instrument, through the in-
fluence of the Chief Justice, whose residence was there,
for the propagation of the political creed of the Federal-
ists throughout the Southern States. Nor could he re-
frain from a bitter fling at Harvard and Princeton for
the same reason. Harvard was destroying the patriot-
ism of Southern youths who entered its lecture-halls, with
lessons of anti-Missourianism, while Princeton, one half
of whose students had come up from the South, was busy
sowing the seeds of prejudice in their minds against the
" sacred principles of the Holy Alliance of Restriction-
ists."
The list of the textbooks drawn up for the use of the
1 " Much depends on the University of Virginia," Monroe wrote to
Cocke in January, 1829, " as to the success of our system of government."
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 17
X
professor of law indicates the works which Jefferson con-
sidered the best for inculcating the only political prin-
ciples which he would tolerate. It embraced Sidney's
Discourse, and Locke's Essay on Civil Government, the
Declaration of Independence, the Federalist, the Virginia
Resolutions of 1798, and the Inaugural Speech and Fare-
well Address of Washington. It was by the study of
these classical authorities, as he himself said to the com-
mittee of the Transylvania University in 1819, a few
months after his own seat of learning had been incorpor-
ated, that he expected to make the young men under
its arcades desirous, on the one hand, " of bringing all
mankind together in concord and fraternal love," and de-
termined, on the other, " to preserve as the sheet-anchor
of the people's hope and happiness, the sacred form and
principles of the State and Federal Constitutions." And
there was another course of instruction which he was
equally resolved to require, and for the same reason : the
study of Anglo-Saxon, he thought, was necessary, not sim-
ply because the pupil would become versed thereby in
a neglected department of invaluable knowledge, but pri-
marily because, in learning that language, he would drink
in with it all the primitive principles of free government.
III. Religious Views
Whilst the University of Virginia has always stood for
the freest principles of government and a strict interpre-
tation of the Constitution, it has also stood equally un-
equivocally for extreme opposition to every form of sec-
tarian interference in the administration of its affairs.
This attitude too was derived from Jefferson's impress in
the beginning. Again we must go back, this time to a
study of the opinions which he held and uttered on the
subject of religion; for with such a study omitted, it
18 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
would be impossible to comprehend why it was that, in an
age when all the existing colleges offered a long course in
theology, the University of Virginia was founded with-
out the smallest consideration for any religious dogma
or denomination. With one breath, Jefferson could ex-
claim, " I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hos-
tility to every form of tyranny over the minds of men,"
and with the next, he could truthfully say, " I have never
attempted to make a convert or wished to change anoth-
er's creed. I inquire after no man's religion, and I trou-
ble none with mine." " I am for encouraging the pro-
gress of science in all its branches," he wrote to Elbridge
Gerry, in 1799, " and not for awing the human mind by
stories of rawheads and bloody bones to a distrust of its
own vision."
And yet the relations between man and his Creator,
and the responsibilities which resulted therefrom, were
pronounced by him to be the most important of all to
every human being, and, therefore, the most obligatory
on each person to inquire into. Of the different systems
of morality which he had investigated, and he had been
a close student of religious history, that of Christ al-
ways rose before his mind's eye as the purest, the most
benevolent, and the most sublime. Epictetus and Epicu-
rus, he said, formulated a code of ethical laws by which
the individual should govern himself; Christ went a great
distance further by enforcing upon men the charities and
the duties which they owed to their fellowman. He had
inculcated a universal philanthropy far above the loftiest
imagination of the ancient philosophers or of the Jews
themselves. " Had his doctrines," Jefferson added,
" been preached always as pure as they came from his
lips, the whole world would have been converted to
Christianity." Who had perverted the original com-
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 19
plexion, the primitive spirit, of those doctrines? The
priest, was his reply. In every country and in every age,
he said, the priest had been the foe of liberty. He was
always an ally of despots, and ready to connive at their
abuses in return for protection for his own. The most
culpable members of the living priesthood, he asserted,
were the Presbyterian ministers ; they are, he wrote Wil-
liam Short " the most intolerant of all sects, the most
tyrannical and ambitious, ready at the word of the law-
giver, if such a word could now be obtained, to put the
torch to the pile. They pant to re-establish by law the
Holy Inquisition."
The acridness with which he assailed the whole clerical
profession had its origin, not so much in any real knowl-
edge of its history, as in resentment at the attacks which
many of that profession had made on him in retaliation
for his political and legislative changes. His successful
effort to separate the Church from the State in Virginia
had naturally enough aroused the vehement hostility of
the clergymen of the former Rpjscopal Establishment,
while his Republican principles had been sourly obnoxious
to the Federalist Congregational ministers of New Eng-
land, who never ceased to denounce him from their pulpits
as that crowning .abomination, a French infidel; and this
charge was echoed elsewhere also. " It is so impossible
to contradict all these lies," he wrote Monroe, in 1800,
" that I am determined to contradict none, for while I
should be engaged with one, they would publish twenty
new ones." As a matter of fact, Jefferson was, in none
of his religious opinions, deserving of the anathema of
atheism. In his youth, he said, he had been " fond of
speculations which seemed to promise insight into that
hidden country, the land of spirits " ; but observing at
length that he was tangled up in as great a coil of doubt
20 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
as at first, he, for many years, ceased to meditate seri-
ously, or at all, on the subject of religion. " I reposed
my head," he consoled himself with placid philosophy,
" on that pillow of ignorance which a benevolent Creator
has made so soft for us, knowing how much we should
be forced to use it." In a later phase of mind, he relied
exclusively on the practice of virtue as the corner-stone
of the only true religion. " I have thought it better,"
he said, " to nourish the good passions, and control the
bad, in order to merit an inheritance in a state of being
of which I can know so little, and to trust for the future
to Him who has been so good for the past." " It is in
our acts and not in our words that our religion must be
read." " Men should show no uneasiness about the dif-
ferent roads they may pursue, as believing them to be the
shortest to their last abode, but following the guidance of
a good conscience, they should be happy in the hope that,
by those different paths, they shall meet together at the
end of the journey."
" Reason is the only oracle given men by Heaven," he
said on another occasion, " and they are answerable, not
for the rightness, but for the uprightness of the decision."
" I am," he added, " a Christian in the only sense Christ
wished any one to be : sincerely attached to his doctrines
in preference to all others." Under the influence of his
reverence for those doctrines, he made up, from the pages
of the Bible, with the use of a pair of scissors, a volume
which he entitled the Philosophy of Jesus, and which he
panegyrized as the most beautiful and precious morsel of
ethics that existed. It comprised numerous verses picked
out here and there from the texts of the Gospels, and ar-
ranged in strict conformity to time and subject. That
these texts encouraged him to believe that the soul would
not perish with the body is proven by many of his utter-
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 21
ances during his last years. " The time is not far dis-
tant," he said in a letter to John Adams, " at which we
are to repose in the same cerement our sorrows and suf-
fering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meet-
ing with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom
we shall love and never lose again." And when his
daughter Maria died, he declared, in reply to words of
sympathy from John Page, that " every step shortens the
distance we have to go. The end of the journey is in
sight. We sorrow not then as others who have no hope,
but look forward to the day which joins us to the great
majority." " Your age of eighty-four and mine of
eighty-one," he wrote to John Cartwright in England,
" ensures us a speedy meeting. We will then commune
at leisure and more fully, on the good and evil, which, in
the course of our long lives, we have both witnessed."
And at the close of his last interview with the members
of his weeping family, he was heard to murmur, " Lord,
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
Whatever may have been the religious tenets of Jeffer-
son at bottom, he was of the clear conviction that civil
government could not legitimately take even the smallest
notice of men's religious opinions, unless those opinions
were used as an engine for the destruction of peace and
order. Then and only then could the civil officers inter-
vene. " What has been the effect of religious coercion? "
he asks in the Notes on Virginia. " To make one half
of the world fools, and the other half hypocrites." He
urged that differences of view were advantageous to re-
ligion; that the several sects performed the office of
censor morum over each other; and that to make one sect
the Church of the State, and then to compel the other
sects to support it as offering the only correct religious
creed, was usurping the right of private judgment, and
22 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
imposing an unjustifiable and intolerable yoke upon those
who rejected that creed and all its ordinances. " I can-
not give up my guidance to the magistrate," he declared,
" because he knows no more of the way to Heaven than I
do, and is less concerned to direct me right than I am to
go right. The magistrate has no power but what the
people gave. The people have not given him the care of
souls because they could not. They could not because no
man has the right to abandon the care of his salvation
to another." Holding as he did these opinions, which
appear to be self-evident enough in our more liberal age,
and which, doubtless, were widely entertained even at that
period, Jefferson was fully resolved to tear up the Episco-
pal Establishment of Virginia root and branch, whenever
the hour seemed opportune to do so. He was eager, as
we have seen, to raze the whole system of monopoly,
which, in 1776, he found in existence in the new Common-
wealth; but he was particularly impatient to demolish that
branch of it which was represented in the union of the
Church with the State. How revolutionary at that time,
and in that community, were the sentiments which were
hurrying him on, a few facts bearing on the condition of
the Dissenters then will clearly show.
The Hanover Presbytery complained as late as 1774
that their ministrations were by law confined to a small
number of places, in spite of the sparse population; that
they were not permitted to assemble at night; that they
were compelled to keep open the doors of their meeting-
houses in the day while the services were in progress;
and, finally, that they were deprived of the right as a
corporation to hold estates and receive gifts and legacies
in support of their schools and churches. They prayed
that the misdemeanors of Dissenters should be punished
by ordinances equally binding on all citizens regardless of
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 23
their religious creeds. " We ask for nothing," they de-
clared, "but what justice says ought to be ours; for as
ample privileges as any of our fellow-subjects enjoy."
And they concluded with the proud reminder that the pe-
tition was not that of a sect sunk in obscurity, but of one
that belonged to the national church of Scotland, Hol-
land, Switzerland and Northern Europe.
The persecutions of the Baptists alone were a sharp
enough spur to quicken Jefferson's fierce drive for reform.
In the same year, Madison wrote from Montpelier to a
friend, " There are at this time in the adjoining county
not less than five or six well-meaning men in close jail
for publishing their religious sentiments, which, in the
main, are very orthodox." These prisoners were Bap-
tists. About one year after the date of this letter, and
less than one year before the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, an anonymous signer urged every member of the
Church of England who had subscribed for the endow-
ment of Hampden-Sidney College, a Presbyterian institu-
tion, to withdraw his contribution until that institution
had been put under masters who belonged to the Estab-
lished Church. " If this school is thus encouraged," so
the writer warned, " we may reasonably expect, in a few
years, to see our Senate House as well as our pulpits
filled with Dissenters, and thus they may, by an easy tran-
sition, secure the Establishment in their favor."
In his legislative innovations, Jefferson merely rose to
the cry of these Dissenters, who naturally and rightly de-
manded the alteration of the laws relating to religious
worship. An open and liberal mind like his could not fail
to respond to the just appeal which the Presbyterians and
Baptists were so persistently making for religious free-
dom and civic equality; nor did he halt in his effort to
force so desirable a change, because, in winning the good
24 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
will of the outlawed denominations in general, he knew
that he was inviting the hatred of the one which had en-
joyed the exclusive privileges that he was seeking to de-
molish. He allowed no inherited church affiliations of
his own to stay his hand in striking the blow of separation.
He was brought up in the Anglican creed and ceremonial;
he still preferred the Anglican form at least to all others
in spite of his unorthodox opinions; and he had no wish
to place his native sect on a lower footing than that of
the rest. It was absolute equality before the law alone
which he aimed at. He had observed that Pennsylvania
and New York had flourished without any establishment
at all; and that every denomination in those communities
was prosperous and in harmonious relations with each
other. What was the explanation? It was the toler-
ance with which all were treated, he replied, and the en-
tire absence of special privilege; there was no jealousy,
no envy, no jostling, no bickering; each stood upon its own
platform, and made no claim not founded upon its in-
trinsic merit.
In 1776, the Virginia Convention declared that free-
dom of religious worship was a natural right; but this
action was not satisfactory to Jefferson because that body
adopted no measure which would safeguard this right.
In October of the same year, the Convention, reassem-
bling as Senate and House of Delegates, repealed all the
statutes which branded the religious opinions of Dissent-
ers as criminal; and it also suspended the existing provis-
ions for the payment of salaries to the Episcopal clergy-
men. The question of what constituted heresy, however,
was reserved for the interpretation of the common law.
In 1777, the General Court was impowered to pass upon
every case of the kind which should arise within the juris-
diction of that branch of jurisprudence. At this time, the
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 25
Act of 1705 was still in force; whoever denied the exist-
ence of the Deity, or expressed disbelief in the Trinity, or
the Christian tenets as a whole, or asserted that there were
more gods than one, or that the Scriptures were of human
origin, was liable to conviction for felony. Such, ex-
claimed Jefferson, with undisguised bitterness, was the
religious slavery in which still remained a people who, by
every form of sacrifice, involving life and fortune alike,
had won their political and social freedom 1
The great Act drafted by him to create a religious
equilibrium that would be comparable to the political one
already secured, was prepared as early as 1777, but was
not reported to the General Assembly until 1779; and
not until nine years had gone by, did it become a part of
the organic law of the State. The drastic alteration
which he submitted was summed up by him in a few words :
u No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any
religious worship, ministry, or place whatsoever; nor
shall he be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in
his body or his goods, nor shall he otherwise suffer, on
account of his religious opinions or belief; but all men
shall be free to profess, and by argument, to maintain
their opinions in matters of religion; and the same shall
in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capaci-
ties." This proposition, radical as it was at that time,
but which seems to us now to be so axiomatic in its mean-
ing, could only be put in practice piece by piece and step
by step, as it were, although it had the sustaining and driv-
ing power behind it of the ablest debaters in the General
Assembly. The first step was to enact that, thereafter,
no fine should be laid on any one because he neglected to
be present at public worship; but it was not until 1779
that the clergy were divested of the right to compel the
payment of their salaries through the public treasury;
26 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and not until 1786 that the power of the Civil Govern-
ment to regulate religious observances, and to punish the
holder of heretical or atheistic opinions, was permanently
abandoned. For the first time in Virginia a father who
refused to subscribe to all the confessions of the Episcopal
creed could claim the prerogative of guardianship over his
own children; and for the first time too a Roman Catholic
could testify in court.
Correct in principle and in action as Jefferson was in
this great controversy, he frequently, in the course of it,
expressed himself intemperately. He went so far, for
instance, as to say that the despondent view taken by so
many persons of the ability to ameliorate the condition of
mankind was due to the " depressing influence " of the
alliance between Church and State. The men who fat-
tened on the fruits of that alliance, he declared, would
bitterly oppose every advance of society, because they
would expect it " to unmask their usurpation and monop-
oly of honors, wealth, and power, and endanger all the
comforts they now enjoyed." And to such a height did
he carry this spirit of fanatical antagonism that he re-
fused, while President of the United States, to proclaim
a national Day of Thanksgiving, an annual regulation as
appropriate and as desirable in his time, as it is in our
own. " I don't believe," he wrote on this occasion, " that
it is for the interest of religion for the civil magistrate to
direct its exercises, its discipline, and its doctrine. Fast-
ing and prayers are religious exercises; the enjoining them
an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right
to determine for itself the times for these exercises; and
the right can never be safer than in their own hands,
where the Constitution has placed it."
Jefferson was not more earnest in advocating the di-
vorce of Church and State than he was the separation
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 27
of the Church from the organization and administration
of every seat of learning. He had perceived the hamper-
ing effect of that alliance on the fortunes of the College
of William and Mary at the time when he was endeavor-
ing to convert it into an institution of the first order for
higher education. Who were the persons that disap-
proved so strongly of this change that they joined in their
efforts to prevent it? The leading Presbyterians and
Baptists, who feared the spread of the sectarian influence
which the College had always nourished. In founding
the new university, therefore, he had a double motive in
making it thoroughly undenominational: all theological
leaning in a public institution was, in his judgment, not
only grossly wrong in principle, but also invited a hos-
tility that would seriously diminish its popularity and
cloud its prestige.
IV. Love of Science
We have now come to a third characteristic of Jeffer-
son, which we will find infused into the entire round of in-
struction of the infant university, this was the breadth,
versatility, and what may be called, the modernity of his
scientific outlook. If it is imperative to dwell upon his
political and religious opinions in order to obtain a just
conception of the institution at the start, it is equally nec-
essary to dwell, in a preliminary way, on his extraordi-
nary esteem for knowledge, and his unfailing interest in
all its departments. He had none of the spirit of the
specialist, which would have given a preponderance to
some one province in which he happened to be learned.
If he exhibited any preference at all, it was for architec-
ture, and even in this, he was, perhaps, chiefly influenced
by his anxiety to create a proper setting for his projected
28 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
university. All the different chairs which he established
enjoyed an equal dignity in his mind. Roundness and com-
pleteness in each school was all that he aimed at. This
was as true of law as it was of the languages and the
sciences, although, as we have seen, he required that only
certain political doctrines and principles should be taught
in it; but his political creed he considered to be as much
the truth in an advanced form as the latest discoveries
brought to the attention of the students in the School of
Medicine or of Natural History.
Jefferson thought his early lessons to be so valuable
that he would often say that, if he were asked to choose
between the large estate devised to him by his father,
and the education bestowed upon him by the same boun-
teous hand, he would select the last as that one of the
two benefits which he considered to be the most indispen-
sable. His tuition up to his fourteenth year was re-
ceived from a learned Scotchman; the next two years
were passed at the Maury School, famous in its day for
its classical thoroughness; and in his seventeenth year,
he entered the College of William and Mary. This was
in 1760, when he is said to have been very shy and
awkward in manner, rawboned in frame, with sandy hair
and a freckled face. The most fruitful side of his life
in Williamsburg was his intimate association with Wil-
liam Small, professor of mathematics, and for a time
also of ethics, rhetoric, and belles-lettres, who had
brought over from his native Scotland an uncommon
share of the learning which had conferred such celebrity
on its universities. He was remarkable not only for his
knowledge of the sciences, rare in Virginia at that time,
but also for his ability to impart it; and he was still
more remarkable for the liberality of his opinions.
It was probably through the friendship of Small that
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 29
Jefferson first came to enjoy the companionship of Wythe
and Fauquier, the two most accomplished men of that day
in the Colony. At the table of Fauquier, he often
formed the fourth in what he dubbed the partie quarree,
to which he owed the most instructive hours of this
period of his life. There, from Small he learned of that
vast field of natural science, in which he was to continue
to feel so keen an interest until the end; from Wythe,
of those great principles of jurisprudence which were
to enable him to become one of the foremost of American
social and political reformers; and from Fauquier, of the
arts of government as well as of the graces of courtly
bearing and the charms of urbane conversation. Such
familiar and constant intercourse must have deeply con-
firmed those aptitudes which he, as a college youth, had
brought down to Williamsburg from his mountain home :
love of science, appreciation of literature and law, and
a relish for intellectual companionship.
He was as diligent a student throughout his college
course as he had been while still a pupil in the lower
schools. Indeed, he never sat down in idleness. " Even
in my boyhood," he once said to a grandson, " when
wearied of play, I always turned to books." It was to
the literature of Greece and Rome that he reverted with
the liveliest and most unfailing sense of enjoyment. It
was " a sublime luxury," he declared, to read the works
of the great classical authors, that " rich source of
delight," as he also described them in a letter to Dr.
Priestley. " I would not exchange them for anything
which I could have acquired, and have not since acquired."
He often asserted that " these models of pure taste " had
saved English literature " from the inflated style of
our Teutonic ancestors, or from the hyperbolical and
vague style of the Oriental nations." " I have given up
30 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides,"
he wrote John Adams, in 1812, " and I find myself much
the happier." And in his old age, when the energies
of his mind, as he said, had sunk in decay, he would turn
" to the classical pages to fill up the vacuum of ennui."
It is remarkable how slightly he depended for recrea-
tion on the variety and beauty of the literature of his own
language. He seems to have been indebted to it only for
the clarity and precision of his flexible style. Unlike
many of his' contemporaries, he had no familiar knowl-
edge of Shakespeare, and his letters are never garnished
by a quotation from that author, or indeed from any
English author of celebrity, with the possible exception
of Pope. His taste in English literature seems to have
been meretricious. " I think this rude bard of the North
(Ossian)," he wrote, "the greatest poet who has ever
existed." He preferred Homer to Milton and Polybius
to Gibbon. The profound impression which he made on
the character of the University of Virginia is revealed in
no particular more plainly than in the history of its school
of languages. His interest in the ancient tongues caused
him to employ the ablest scholars for those professor-
ships who could be procured from Europe; but the near-
est approach to an English chair was a barren school of
Anglo-Saxon. Is it the shadow of his comparative indif-
ference to English literature, projected through the cen-
tury which has followed, that explains the failure of the
University of Virginia to produce successful authors in
the normal proportion to successful lawyers, physicians,
clergymen, engineers, and men of business? As a
fructifying force in the field of even Southern literature,
the institution has not gained the reputation which it has
won in all the other departments of mental culture and
practical efficiency.
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 31
Although a classical scholar of merit, and a student of
several modern languages, it was toward natural science
that the intellectual curiosity of Jefferson was chiefly
directed. Nature, he wrote to Du Pont, in 1809, had
designed him for the tranquil pursuits of science by ren-
dering them his supreme delight. Small, he declared,
had fixed the destinies of his life. " From my conversa-
tions with him, I got my first view ... of the system
of things in which we are placed." He was equally im-
patient with the ignorant adult who raised a hue and cry
against science, and with the supercilious youth who
looked upon its acquisition as a waste of time. He had
a keen taste for mathematics, and in 1811, when he un-
dertook to instruct his grandson therein, he spoke of him-
self as resuming its study with avidity; but, in reality,
he had far more relish for the investigation of Nature,
especially in the departments which would increase the
ease and wholesomeness of life. When he arranged for
a botanical garden at the University of Virginia, he gave
direction that only those plants should be cultivated which
were certain to be of practical use to his countrymen.
" The main object of all science," he said, " was the free-
dom and happiness of man "; and no detail of it was too
small or too insignificant apparently to enlist his attention
if it should tend to secure these benefits.
This was signally true of agriculture, a pursuit which
always deeply interested him. His knowledge of it, in
every feature, was unfailingly at the service of his friends,
who were constantly seeking his advice. We find him
offering suggestions to both Cabell and Cocke as to the
hedges which they should plant for fences on their
farms to shut out the vagrant hogs and cattle. Would
barriers of holly, haw, cedar, locust or thorn be the best
for the purpose? He decided in favor of the thorn
32 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
for reasons based on his personal experiments. During
many years, he kept a meteorological record that was so
minute in its details as to excite the wonder of all who
read it. " It is astonishing," writes Cabell, " how you
could find time, in the midst of your other engagements,
to make such a prodigious number of observations." A
subject of long rumination with him was as to how to
contrive the mould-board of a plough that would offer
the least resistance in breaking up the ground. Concen-
trating whatever inventive talent he possessed on this
problem, he sought its solution with the patient diligence
of a trained mathematician; and the upshot was the pro-
duction of a model so excellent that it won the formal
approval of the English Board of Agriculture, and the
gold prize from the Society of Paris. He imported
from Scotland a reaping machine that was expected to
hasten and cheapen the harvest; and he brought into
Albemarle county strains of foreign stock, sheep,
hogs, and cattle, both male and female, which would
improve the native breeds. He put himself to extraor-
dinary inconvenience while abroad to procure rice and
olives for testing in the soil of South Carolina, while his
garden-book brings to light his long course of experiments
with vegetables and fruits. He frequently distributed
seeds, roots, and plants among his correspondents, or sent
them to agricultural societies; and on one occasion at
least, he received from a friend in London in return,
specimens of every kind of pea and vetch that was grown
in English ground.
No prevailing heat of partisan controversy was
allowed to divert his thoughts from the branches of nat-
ural history that interested him most. In 1798, when
the uproar of the threatened war with France was at
its height, he was writing to Mr. Nolan for information
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 33
about the herds of wild horses which were reported as
roaming over the western prairies; and during the fol-
lowing year, when Federalists and Republicans were
fighting each other with tooth and claw, he exhibited the
keenest curiosity about the possibilities of Watt's new
application of the power of steam. Even when his
chances of election to the Presidency in 1801 were wav-
ering to and fro, he is found composing letters of eager
speculation over the origin of the mammoth bones then
recently exhumed in Ulster county, New York; the nativ-
ity of the wild turkey; and the influence of the moon
on the turn of weather. In 1808, when a war-cloud was
looming between the United States and Great Britain,
three hundred bones from the prehistoric beds of Big
Lick were heaped up in a room of the White House
awaiting scientific classification, a fact strongly remin-
iscent of the wagon-load that had followed him to Phil-
adelphia for Dr. Wistar's inspection, when he went
thither to take the post of Vice-President.
It was Jefferson who dispatched Lewis and Clark on
their romantic expedition to the Columbia; and no one
gave Pike warmer and more intelligent encouragement in
his western explorations than he. It is precisely correct
to say of him that the enlightened policy which the
National Government has always pursued towards
scientific objects had its earliest impulse in his own liberal
attitude as Chief Magistrate. While American Minis-
ter to the Court of Versailles, he never failed to inform
the Faculties of Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and
Pennsylvania, of all the recent acquisitions to science,
such as new data relating to astronomy, improvements in
agricultural and mechanical methods, and further dis-
coveries in the wide province of natural history. " He
was always on the lookout," says an English friend, who
34 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
was habitually in his company at this time, " to find new
ideas to send home." In the course of his residence in
Paris, he took a conspicuous part in a controversy over
the true reason for the presence of marine shells on
mountain-tops; and he successfully disputed the assertion
that the animal frame dwindled after several generations
passed in the climate of America. Buffon maintained
that the chemical laboratory was not superior in dignity
or value to the ordinary kitchen. " I think it amongst
the most useful of sciences," retorted the far-sighted
Jefferson, " and big with future discoveries for the utility
and safety of the human race. It is yet indeed a mere
embryo." But he did not show the same prescience
about geology; he obtusely enough took little interest in
that science because he was not able to foresee its prac-
tical helpfulness to men. " What difference does it
make," he asked, " whether the earth is six hundred or
six thousand years old? And is it of any real importance
to know what is the composition of the various strata,
if they contain no coal or iron or other useful metals? "
Jefferson evinced only a respectable ingenuity in inven-
tion. He was often spoken of as the " Father of the
Pension Office," which was established by authority of
Congress during the time he occupied the post of Secre-
tary of State, but his talents for mechanical contrivance
do not seem to have risen any higher than a mould-board,
a walking-stick that could be spread out to form a seat,
or a chair that revolved on a screw. Was a tribute to
his convivialty or to his genius in small though useful
inventions, intended by William Tatham in submitting to
him a device by which full decanters could be passed
more rapidly around the table? He showed a prophetic
interest in the plans to build torpedoes and sub-marines;
and writing to Robert Fulton, recommended that a corps
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 35
of young men should be educated exclusively for their
service. Although much disposed to have a jocular fling
at physicians, he was, nevertheless, an ardent student of
the subjects which engage their attention. Dr. Dungli-
son, a member of the original Faculty of the University,
frequently remarked that Jefferson could have made him-
self a master of the art of surgery, so great was the
amateur skill which he exhibited in sewing up a wound,
or in setting a broken leg. It was characteristic of him
that he was one of the first Americans to submit to vac-
cination as a preventive of smallpox.
V. Taste for Architecture
Jefferson was always interested in every department
of the Fine Arts. While serving as Visitor of the Col-
lege of William and Mary during his Governorship, he
had been instrumental in adding a course of that charac-
ter to the professorship of ethics; and in his scheme of
education addressed to Peter Carr, in 1814, instruction
was to be given in civil architecture, painting, sculpture,
and the theory of music. He played on the violin with
skill; had been a patron of Caracchi; and it was at his in-
stance that Houdon was employed to model the full
length statue of Washington and the bust of Lafayette.
He was a sympathetic correspondent of Peale and Trum-
bull, and an active member of the Academy of Fine Arts
in Philadelphia.
But it was in architecture that he felt the most pene-
trating interest, and it was also in this art that he dis-
played an original talent almost comparable to the genius
which he evinced in political science; indeed, it has been
said of him by several critics of distinction that his in-
fluence in this more or less private province has been just
36 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
as notable as in the public province of either statesman-
ship or education. There was perhaps not an architect
in the colonies when Monticello was planned, who pos-
sessed either his ability or his technical knowledge as
a draftsman. His drawings, which began about 1769,
have been pronounced to be unexampled in American
history down to a much later period; and form, with
those of the White House and the Capitol, the principal
source of our knowledge of colonial architecture. In
his autobiography, he makes an interesting reference to
his " passion for architecture," a term exactly pertinent
to his feeling for the art. Nowhere is this passion so
gracefully yet so fervently expressed as in the playful
letter to Comtesse de Tesse written from Nimes in 1787.
" Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison
Carree like a lover at his mistress. . . . This is the
second time I have been in love since I left Paris. The
first was with a Diana at the Chateau de Sage Espanage
in Beaujolais. This you will say was in rule to fall in
love with a female beauty. But with a house! It is
out of all precedent! No, Madam, it is not without a
precedent in my own history. Whilst in Paris, I was
violently smitten with the Hotel de Salm."
But it has been correctly said of Jefferson that he used
his talent for architecture for other purposes besides the
mere gratification of his sense of beauty. A sense of
practical fitness too was reflected in all his designs, which
ranged from the Capitol at Richmond and the temples
and cloisters at the University of Virginia, to the jails of
Cumberland and Nelson counties; and from the mansions
of his friends at Bremo and Farmington to a chicken
coop at Pantops, his outlying farm. What had nour-
ished this taste in the beginning? He had visited An-
napolis, Philadelphia and New York, in 1766, before the
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 91
cornerstone of Monticello had been laid, but there is no
evidence that his observations, during his sojourn in those
cities, directly shaped his .original aptitude as designer,
draftsman, and builder. Certainly there was little in
the houses of his native colony that appealed to that
spirit of innovation, as well in architecture as in politics
and education, which animated him even in his youth.
Westover, Gunston Hall, Carter's Creek, Brandon,
Sabin Hall, Shirley, and the old Virginian manor-house
of Stratford, the residence at Mt. Airy, though some
were inspired by classic models, were not looked upon
by him as worthy of praise, or even of incidental mention.
In the Notes, he remarks on the homely construction of
the dwelling houses in his native State. Few were built
of brick; still fewer of stone; they were merely wooden
cottages made of scantling and boards, with walls plas-
tered with coarse lime. There were, in his opinion, but
four structures deserving of notice, i the Palace, the
College, the Capitol, and the Hospital at Williamsburg.
Of these the College and the Hospital were held up as
rude misshapen piles, " which might easily be mistaken
for huge brick-kilns, were they not covered with roofs."
The churches and courthouses had been designed with a
blind eye to elegance ; but this general want of architect-
ural beauty was not surprising, he said, when it was re-
called that there were no workmen in Virginia who pos-
sessed even a moderate degree of artistic judgment and
mechanical skill. The existing styles of architecture
were, in his judgment, " a malediction, not a blessing to
the land," although it cost no more to build a beautiful
structure than to build an ugly one of the same size.
Jefferson was the son of a planter, and had come into
the world in a plain house, in a sparsely inhabited neigh-
borhood, removed only by a few years from the secluded
38 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
days of the pioneer. There was nothing in that early
environment to cultivate a taste for architecture. All
his friends of his own age and social standing had been
carefully drilled, like himself, in the ancient classics, but
they, no more than himself, perhaps, had been led by that
fact to acquire an insight into the art. There was no
chair of fine arts at the College of William and Mary
to increase any natural leaning which he may have had
towards it; nor is there any proof that either Small, or
Wythe, or Fauquier, who so deeply colored his char-
acter while a student there, encouraged him to pursue
its study. Both in Williamsburg, and in the homes of
such men as William Byrd of Westover, he found illus-
trated books relating to architecture, and it is possible
that access to them for casual reading ripened what was
at first merely an idle liking for the art. But the bare
taste itself very probably sprang, not from any extrinsic
influence, but from his own versatile, inquisitive, and cul-
tured personality, which happened to find, in that par-
ticular, a congenial reflection in the plates of Palladio, a
copy of which he looked upon even at the age of twenty-
seven as the principal treasure of his library.
The first monument of his genius was the most beauti-
ful; the house at Monticello was pronounced by a culti-
vated and travelled French nobleman to be the handsom-
est private residence in America. The environment at
the time of its foundation offered such extraordinary
obstacles to a builder that they would have discouraged
any one who lacked the sanguine and resourceful temper
of Jefferson. The nearest point from which he could
obtain supplies of any sort was a small village; and even
this afforded but a paucity of the rarer materials for
construction; and no skilled mechanics at all. He cre-
ated substitutes for the latter by training intelligent
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 39
negroes of his own to be cabinet-makers, carpenters,
blacksmiths, masons, and bricklayers. Nails were man-
ufactured in his own smithy by his youthful slaves; and
his bricks were made of clay dug up out of beds on his
own land. He applied his own tests to different woods
to detect their relative fitness, strength, and durability,
and chose only those varieties that stood these tests
most successfully. The mortar used by him was obtained
only after long and laborious experiments.
In those times, there were no professional architects
at work in America. All building, even along the most
ambitious lines, was in the hands of handicraftsmen who
were guided by principles that had been brought in with
the early emigration, to be later on, perhaps, modified
by novelties which had been introduced by the most
recent comers. Not elegance, but utilitarian and eco-
nomic purposes were alone kept in view. Jefferson, how-
ever, had beauty, utility, and economy all in his vision;
and he was fully competent to serve as his own architect,
whether design or practical specifications were demanded.
Monticello is the most remarkable of all his structures
because it was the fruit of his taste and discernment
before either had been broadened and chastened by a
study, on the ground, of the splendid architectural monu-
ments of Europe. It is true that the mansion was not
finished until after his return from his foreign mission,
but already in 1782, the Marquis de Chastellux, a visitor,
was so impressed with its charm that he thought it de-
serving of a minute description in the general record of
his travels. Mr. Jefferson, he said, was the first Ameri-
can who had consulted the fine arts to find out how to
shelter himself best from the weather. The house was
begun in 1769, and completed in 1801, and during that
long interval, the original design was modified in one im-
40 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
portant particular only; which, however, cannot be hunted
down to any suggestion which came to him abroad. It
was to Greek and Roman concepts that he turned when
he first framed that design ; and to those concepts he con-
tinued loyal to the end. He passed by the models then
standing in Virginia and in New England, which he might
have used, and took his cue from Palladio, who had
drafted the best existing representations of the surviving
monuments of ancient times. But in his drawings of
private houses, that architect had been forced to rely on
the descriptions of certain Roman predecessors. It is
an interesting fact that the country homes of the Vene-
tian merchants, his principal patrons, called for at least
one detail which was common to the country homes of
the Virginian planters: both sets of estates, being produc-
tive, required a grouping of service quarters alongside
the owners' mansions. It was Palladio who solved this
problem by clothing the utilitarian outbuildings with a
decorative garb of columns at the very time that he sub-
ordinated them to the main building.
This great master had influenced the grouping of many
planters' residences in Virginia, previous to Monticello,
through the style of architecture known by his name,
which had been transmitted from England to colonial
builders; but there was no such example of his work
there, even in an extremely modified form, as was pre-
sented later in the design and structure of Jefferson's
mansion. As a matter of fact, there was no exact repre-
sentation of that mansion to be found in the plates of
either Palladio, or his English disciple, Gibbs; it was,
in reality, a reversion to the owner's early studies because
it fulfilled the purpose he had in view better than any
specific plan already in shape for immediate use in the
drawings of his favorite architect, for whom he was
41
afterwards to show his preference in the buildings of the
University of Virginia l During his sojourn at home,
after his temporary retirement in 1793, he derived a
very kindly satisfaction from drafting plans for new resi-
dences for his wealthy friends in Virginia, or in suggest-
ing alterations for the improvement of those already
standing. His advice and services were eagerly and
gratefully received, and in such houses as Bremo and
Farmington, already referred to, the impression of his
taste and skill remains to this day to delight the visitor.
He was consulted by Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon,
and by James Madison, of Montpelier, and on applica-
tion, supplied designs for the projected courthouses for
Buckingham and Botetourt counties, and for additions
to the Episcopal church in Charlottesville.
It was always the public building that aroused the most
enthusiasm in him as an architect. As early as 1776, he
brought in a bill in the General Assembly which provided
that, when the State Government should be removed to
Richmond, six entire squares of ground should be re-
served there as sites for the Capitol, a great Hall of
Justice, the offices of the Executive Board, and the addi-
tional structures intended for other public purposes.
This combination of squares, broad streets, and noble
buildings was expected by him to serve as an imposing
monument that would always hold up before the eyes
of the Virginian people the most splendid examples of the
architectural art. Such a scheme was altogether unex-
ampled in American history up to that date; and not
until recent years has it been carried out by any foreign
or domestic community to the degree projected in the
mind of Jefferson.
1 Monticello was Palladian in some of its elements, and after the
manner of Gibbs in others.
42 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
He was very solicitous, while in France, to give all the
assistance then in his power to improve the taste of his
countrymen as reflected in their public buildings; his plan
for doing this was to send over the drawing of some
noble model whenever such an edifice was to be erected;
and in order to inform himself of the wide range of
models of that kind in European countries, he was not
content to study those in Paris alone, but travelled
through England, Holland, Italy, and Southern France
on a tour of inspection. In the course of these journeys,
he gathered up a large collection of books on architec-
ture, which further increased the weight of his advice.
Among the notable structures that are to be credited to
him is the Capitol at Richmond, which, at his suggestion,
was built along the lines of the Maison Carree at Nimes,
one of the most " beautiful morsels " of architecture, in
his opinion, if not the " most precious," surviving from a
remote antiquity. The Capitol is said to be the first
direct imitation of a classical edifice to be found in the
United States; and while it did not conform exactly to
the model sent over by him, it has, nevertheless, always
remained a permanent memorial to the purity of his
taste.
There was now perceptible, in different parts of the
young Republic, a tendency to erect public buildings of
large dimensions. Naturally, this was most obvious -in
the plans for the national capitol at Washington. Jef-
ferson was, at this time, Secretary of State, and the loca-
tion of the new District of Columbia fell within the
jurisdiction of that department. A trace of his early
scheme for the squares and public buildings in Richmond
is to be detected in his suggestion as to the use to be
made of the area of land set apart for the Capitol,
the President's House, and the Town Hall. The plan
THE IMPRESS OF JEFFERSON 43
chosen by L'Enfant, to whom Washington submitted
Jefferson's plan, was the Jefferson plan modified; and it
was further altered by Washington also. Jefferson's ad-
vice was afterwards sought by the same great official as
to the style of architecture to be adopted for the pro-
jected city, and his reply had an important influence on
its character as finally determined upon. He thought of
sending on a design which he had drawn for the Presi-
dent's House; but he must have decided it to be imprac-
ticable, either because it was too expensive, or pitched on
too large a scale. The model which he had proposed
for the Governor's House at Richmond failed of success
in the competition. His indirect recommendation of the
temple form for the Capitol at Washington was not re-
ceived with favor, for this style also was decided to be
too costly and too incommodious.
He was able to make his predilections more distinctly
felt after he assumed the Presidency, since the Capitol,
the White House, and the Department buildings were
still unfinished. He chose as architect a man who was
even more of an admirer of classic models than himself,
for Mr. Latrobe favored a return, not simply to classi-
cism in general, but to the original Greek form of it.
Jefferson, through this appointment, not only stamped his
own taste on the Capitol and the White House as far as
possible in their incomplete state, but in the public edi-
fices afterwards built in the other cities of the Union, he
was able to carry out his architectural preference with-
out obstruction or interference. His aim now, as for-
merly, was to make the architecture of the classic era
the characteristic architecture of America; and in this
ambition, which he pursued consistently, he, fortunately
for his own success, had the support of a public opinion
which he himself had done so much to confirm and ex-
44 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
pand. This, the distinctive bent of his genius as designer
and builder, found perhaps its most complete expression
in the edifices of the University of Virginia; and their
origin cannot be understood without a full knowledge of
their author's previous achievements as an architect.
FIRST PERIOD
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY
I. Jefferson's Faith in Education
We have now described those fundamental tastes and
convictions of Jefferson which have left a permanent
impression on the University of Virginia : his almost
fanatical devotion to political freedom; his hatred of
all forms of sectarian obtrusiveness; and his enthusiasm
for every branch of science which he believed would lib-
eralize and fructify the human mind. How were these
great objects, upon which, in his judgment, the liberty,
felicity, and comfort of mankind depended, to be solidly
and lastingly preserved? By education, was his emphatic
reply. " Knowledge is power," he wrote George Tick-
ner in 1817, "knowledge is safety, knowledge is happi-
ness." Education to him meant the diffusion of light
through all the ranks of society, from the highest to the
lowest; indeed, it was the chief, if not the only, means
by which the goodness of the individual could be nour-
ished, and his happiness secured. It was not simply
education, but " well directed education" that was to
improve his morals, enlarge his mind, clarify his de-
cisions, instruct his industry, and augment his material
prosperity. " Education," Jefferson remarks in the
Rockfish Gap Report, " engrafts a new man on the native
stock, and turns what in his nature was vicious and per-
verse into qualities of virtue and social worth." " And
it cannot but be," he continued, " that each generation,
45
46 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those that
preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions and dis-
coveries, and handing the mass down for successive and
constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge and
well-being of mankind, not infinitely, but indefinitely."
It was one of the most seductive of all Rousseau's
theories that the right to a pleasant place in the sun was
the natural right of. every man; and that the only reason
for the existence of social organization, and the only
object of education, was to assure that right to every
person beyond the possibility of alienation or depriva-
tion. Jefferson's own convictions were in general har-
mony with this view; but in one detail he went a long
stride further than the great sentimentalist of Geneva;
he thought that the aim of education should be, not sim-
ply to make a contented and prosperous citizen, but also
a useful and unselfish one, one who would perform all
the public duties of citizenship with as much cheerfulness
and alacrity as he would perform all the tender and be-
nevolent offices of his own domestic hearth and social cir-
cle. It was the function of democracy to secure for all
men precisely equal opportunities for advancement; no
man was to be favored at the expense of any other man,
while all the prizes for which men strove should be
thrown open to free competition; but it was necessary
that they should, in this ardent and unceasing contest,
have the use of all their powers at the highest tension
of their capacity. How was this to be brought about?
Again, he replied, by education.
What were the benefits, which, in Jefferson's opinion,
would be conferred by primary education? The acqui-
sition of the knowledge that every citizen needs for the
transaction of his private business, such as the skill to
make his own calculations in figures, and to express and
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 47
preserve his ideas, his contracts, and his accounts in writ-
ing; the improvement, by reading, of his morals and fac-
ulties; the intelligent comprehension of what was due
from him to his neighbors and country, and the capacity
to discharge, with usefulness, all duties imposed on him
by either; the full understanding of his rights, and the
ability to exercise them in his own person with justice and
discretion; the ability also to select wisely the fiduciaries
to whom he might delegate some of those rights, and to
follow up their conduct with diligence, candor, and sound
judgment; and, finally, in a general way, the capacity to
show staunchness and equanimity in all the social rela-
tions, however difficult the situation, and however search-
ing the test.
The aims of the higher education rested upon a some-
what broader platform. What were they? To mould
the characters of the statesmen, legislators, and judges A_
on whom the prosperity of the public and the happiness
of the individual, in the future, were to depend so largely;
to expound the proper spirit and framework of govern- -
ment, and to interpret the laws that regulate the inter-
course of nations; to harmonize and nourish the growth
of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce; to develop
the reasoning faculties of the young, to enlarge their ^
minds, cultivate their morals, and instil into them the
principles of virtue and order; to instruct them in those ^
mathematical and physical sciences which foster the arts
and contribute to the health, support, and comfort of
human life; and finally, to mould them to habits of re-
flection and honorable conduct, so as to raise them up
to be exemplars of the highest virtue to their neighbors,
and of the most rational happiness within themselves.
As Jefferson expected primary education to reach a far
larger body of citizens than advanced education, his
48 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
scheme for universal instruction required that the supe-
rior attention should be paid to the primary as thereby
the greater number could be trained in the duties which
all owed to the -commonwealth. For he never for a
moment forgot the value of education in its relation to
the State at large; he looked upon it, he said in 1819,
" as the means of giving a wholesome direction to public
opinion; it was the safest guide and guardian of public
morals and public welfare; it was the arbitress in every
ge of happiness or wretchedness for a community."
" Is not education," he asked at another time, u the
most effectual means to prevent tyranny by illuminating
the minds of the people at large with knowledge, and
especially knowledge of those facts which history pre-
sents? Thus possessed of the experience of other ages
and other countries, they would be able to detect ambi-
tion under all its guises, and prompt to exert their
^national powers to defeat its purposes." ' What does
- a tax for general education amount to? " he wrote to a
friend three years after the close of the Revolution.
" It is not a thousandth part of what will have to be
paid to monarchs and their satellites, who will rise up
amongst us if we leave the people in ignorance." " Edu-
cate the people, and never again will they submit to the
prejudices and privileges that attend a government car-
ried on by one great class greedily bent on their own
advantage alone. Moreover, it would bring every sec-
tion of the community in harmonious relations, which
would be a lasting guarantee of its unity and vigor."
He was the first statesman of our country to foresee
clearly the extraordinary improvement which education
"would produce in the purely material condition of the
nation, the sea-like multitude, as distinguished from the
condition of the simple individual. In drafting the re-
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 49
port of the Visitors of the University of Virginia, in
1821, he used the following pregnant and prophetic
words: "We fondly hope that the instruction which f
may flow from this institution, kindly cherished, by ad-
vancing the minds of our youth with the growing science
of the time, and elevating the views of our citizens gen-
erally to the practice of the social duties and the functions
of self-government, may ensure to our country the repu-
tation, the safety, the prosperity, and all the other bless-
ings which experience proves to result from the cultiva- i
tion and improvement of the general mind."
But Jefferson was not satisfied with simply dwelling
on the benefits to spring from the adoption of his princi-
ples of popular education; on the contrary, from his
entrance into public life, as a delegate to the General
Assembly, he was incessantly busy with plans to put these
principles into continuous operation. Before we de-
scribe his long struggle to create a public school system,
capped by a university, some account should be given of
his attempt to increase the usefulness of the one centre
of higher culture in existence in Virginia at that time,
and of his share in projecting another of foreign origin,
which promised, during a short interval, to secure a
stable foothold. A third, as we shall discover, failed to
enlist his sympathy and support, because, from the start,
he considered its plan to be impracticable. Naturally,
as a youthful statesman but recently graduated from the-
College of William and Mary, already looked upon as a
venerable seat of culture, his activities were first directed
towards the improvement of its curriculum rather than
towards the establishment of a new institution elsewhere.
The College, which had been created by royal war-
rant in the seventeenth century, had won a high repu-
tation in colonial history by the broadness of its scholastic
50 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
platform for those times, and by the prominence of its
alumni in all the avenues of colonial life. In 1779, when
Jefferson undertook to enlarge its studies and to raise
its standards, its departments were divided as follows:
First, the Grammar School. The pupils in this school
were known as scholars, and they entered it as early as
their ninth year. The Latin and Greek languages made
up an important part of their tuition. Second, the
School of Philosophy. The pupils of this school were
known as students, and they were required to wear the
collegiate cap and gown. In one section of it, rhetoric,
logic, and ethics were taught, and in the other, physics,
metaphysics, and mathematics. The degrees awarded
were those of bachelor of arts and master of arts; and
two and four years respectively were the prescribed pe-
riods within which they were to be won. Third, the
School of Divinity. In this school, in which lessons were
given in the Hebrew language and in the history of
dogma, the instruction was assigned to two professors;
there were two professors also in the School of Philoso-
phy; and one in the Grammar School. A weekly lecture
was delivered by the President of the College. In addi-
tion to these three departments, there was, for the bene-
fit of a fixed number of Indian boys, a course in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, and also a supplementary course
in the precepts of the catechism, and in the fundamental
doctrines of the Christian religion.
At this College from the beginning, as at all the
chief seats of learning in America during the same period,
the first consideration was given to the subject of Divin-
ity, but in a form that was exclusively Anglican. The
teachers, as a rule, had been educated at Oxford, and
through them, the traditional influences of that great
university had made a deep impression on the character
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 51
of the institution. So far did the monastic conception
triumph in its government, that the marriage of a pro-
fessor aroused censure; and this was all the keener be-
cause the majority of the faculty were clergymen; in
1758, two of the members were removed for violating
this tacit prescription of celibacy, although they protest-
ingly pointed to the President of the corporation as the
one who had first set so honorable and natural an ex-
ample. It was jocularly said, at a subsequent date, that
the College of William and Mary was, by an unwritten
law, compelled to justify its existence by raising a furious
controversy with a heretic at least once in the course of
every three years. 1 It was under the direct control of
the Episcopal Church, and furnished it regularly with its
principal candidates for the ministry. Every one of the
Visitors was expected to belong to this denomination;
and every one of its professors, when appointed, had to
walk up to the faculty table and sign the Thirty-nine
Articles.
In 1779, as Governor of the State, Jefferson occupied
a seat on the Board, and he took advantage of this fact
to make definite changes in the curriculum, with the de-
sign of converting the institution into a true university.
This was the first step towards establishing somewhere
in America a centre of learning that was patterned on the
standards of the great universities of Europe. The ear-
liest measure called for was one that would remove all
trace of theological flavour: the School of Divinity was
cut out root and branch, and the ancient languages were
dropped. These languages had been retained among the
courses recommended by the revision of 1776, but, in
1779, it was found by Jefferson, now a Visitor, that the
1 Minutes of Board of Hampden-Sidney College, April 25, 26, 1838.
Note.
52 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
new schools could not be erected without swallowing up
the income that had gone to the support of the profes-
sorship of Latin and Greek. The new scientific and
political studies brought in 'Were thought by him to be of
more practical service than instruction in the ancient
languages, which, after all, could, in his judgment, be
safely left to the secondary schools already provided for
| in his all-comprehensive scheme of public education.
The courses of instruction which he proposed for the
metamorphosed College of William and Mary were as
follows: (i) law and politics; (2) anatomy and medi-
cine; (3) physics and mathematics; (4) moral philoso-
phy, law of nature and nations, and the history of fine
arts; (5) modern languages; (6) the Indian School.
He was sanguine that, with the flight of time, the en-
dowment of the College would grow in volume as well as
the income from the ever-increasing number of students
in attendance, a combination that would justify a great
expansion in the work of the class-rooms. He was par-
ticularly solicitous that the literatures of the north of
Europe should be taught under its roof, as they were, he
said, so intimately connected with " our own language,
laws, customs and history." This was one of the rea-
sons, though not the principal one, which afterwards led
him to require the admission of Anglo-Saxon among the
studies of the University of Virginia. He thought that
the Indian School, as then conducted, was of small util-
ity; and he suggested as a substitute that a missionary
should be appointed, who should, in the wigwams of the
West, investigate the aboriginal system of laws, religious
traditions, and languages, the record of all which
should be retained as a permanent possession of the
library at Williamsburg. The School of Law proposed
by him, was the first collegiate school of the kind to be
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 5$
set on foot in the United States; so was the School of
History inaugurated there in 1803; and Charles Bellini
was also the earliest professor of modern languages to
become a member of the faculty of an incorporated seat
of learning within the same area of the Continent.
At the time that Jefferson was meditating and planning
for higher education at the College of William and Mary,
he had no examples in his native State to guide him.
Hampden-Sidney College was then hardly superior to a
grammar school, and it was altogether under the con-
trol of a sect, which he, at least, thought to be more in-
tolerant than the Episcopalians. Washington College,
too, though of great respectability, could lay no claim to
exalted scholarship at that early stage of its history;
and it also was under the mastery of the same vigorous
denomination. Unless he could raise and broaden the
standards of the College of William and Mary, by trans-
forming it into a genuine university, Virginia, he knew,
must continue to see a large stream of her most promis-
ing young men flowing annually into the scholastic reser-
voirs of the North. He was not far enough away from
his own graduation to have lost all affection for his alma
mater; and he also perceived that it possessed two con-
spicuous advantages for its own advancement : ( I ) its
( comparatively ancient origin; and (2) its situation in the
\capital city. Both of these unrivaled circumstances, he
thought, would have a very strong tendency to augment
its prosperity when expanded into a university; but, un-
fortunately for the general success of his scheme, the
Dissenters' prejudices had been further inflamed by the
Revolution, and this relentless sentiment was not satis-
fied short of positively discouraging the extension of the
College's patronage among the families of their own de-
nominations. Without the friendly countenance of every
54 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
section of the community, it could not become the uni-
versity he desired. Doubtless, too, ^he_insalubrity of
Williamsburg 1 had some influence in bringing about the
failure of his first expectations; and this harmful in-
fluence was increased by the remoteness of the town
from the centre of the State, for, in those times, the
stage and carriage and the back of a horse were the only
means of travelling to a distance. The removal of the
Capital to Richmond at his own instance was the final
blow.
But while Jefferson's hope for the establishment of a
university was not realized in the reformed College of
William and Mary, his effort in its behalf strongly tended
to quicken his sense of the need of a higher seat of learn-
ing in Virginia, and, undoubtedly, enabled him to study
with more discrimination every aspect of that subject
when he came to visit and inspect the foremost schol-
astic institutions of Europe. That he retained a favor-
able opinion of the instruction in the College of William
and Mary, as broadened and liberalized by himself, is
clearly proven by the contents of his letter to Mr. Banis-
ter in 1785. What are the constituents of a useful
American education? he asked. " Classical knowledge,"
he replied, " modern languages, chiefly French, Span-
ish and Italian, mathematics, natural philosophy, nat-
ural history, ethics, and civil history. In natural phil-
osophy, I mean to include chemistry and agriculture, and
in natural history, to include botany as well as other
branches of those departments. It is true that the habit
of speaking the modern languages cannot be so well ac-
quired in America. But every other article can be as
well acquired at William and Mary College as at any
1 The correspondence of Professor William B. Rogers at a later period,
contains many references to the unhealthiness of WilHamsburg.
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 55
place in Europe. When college education is done with,
and a young man is to prepare himself for public life,
he must cast his eye for America either in law or physics.
In the former, where can he apply himself so advanta-
geously as to Mr. Wythe? . . . The medical class is the
only one which need come to Europe."
WHen it is recalled that Mr. Wythe was the preceptor
in jurisprudence of both Jefferson and Marshall, the
first, among the greatest legislative reformers, the second,
the greatest interpreter of the law, that have appeared
in American history, this expression of opinion seems
to be devoid of the pardonable exaggeration of local par-
tiality. The words too were penned when his ability
to compare the relative merits of domestic and foreign
colleges had been rendered more penetrating by careful
observation of all that was to be studied in European
countries. This preference, however, did not survive his
return to America; or if it did do so, it did not reveal
itself in a second effort to convert his alma mater into
a modern university. On the contrary, we shall see that,
after the incorporation of the University of Virginia,
he sought to deprive that venerable college of her endow-
ment in order to provide financial support for the system
of academies which formed a section of his comprehen-
sive scheme for public instruction.
II. Three Foreign Schemes
Before the end of the eighteenth century, there were
three foreign schemes to usher higher education into
Virginia; but only two of them aroused Jefferson's inter-
est; and only one obtained his practical assistance. The
earliest, the project of Quesnay de Beaurepaire, which was
of a very ambitious and grandiose character, received a
56 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
douche of cold water from his pen. Jefferson, at this
time, was residing in Paris as Minister to the Court of
Versailles. Quesnay, before setting up a school in Rich-
mond, with rather mixed departments of study, had been
an officer in the American army under Lafayette's com-
mand. He was the grandson of a man who had acquired
such fame in the medical profession as to be appointed
physician to Louis XV; and had also won a high repute
as a philosopher and an economist. Quesnay had inher-
ited a taste for science, but like so many young French-
men of his own age of good social standing,'and graceful
if not solid accomplishments, had been prompted by the
spirit of adventure to accompany the French contingent
to the United States, where, during several campaigns,
he seems to have served in the capacity of an engineer.
His health broke down before the close of the war; but
he recovered sufficiently to travel widely through the
different States. He was so much impressed by all that
he saw, that he determined later to found, on the corner-
stone of his Richmond school, a grand Academy of Arts
and Sciences; and he is reported to have spoken of the
project for the first time while visiting John Page at
Rosewell, on the York. Page was so much delighted
with the plan that he encouraged him to expect financial
aid, should he be able to engage the faculty indispensable
for carrying on the work of the Academy. Subscriptions
amounting to sixty thousand francs were soon received;
a site for the building was chosen in Richmond, which
had been selected as the place for the new seat of learning;
and the edifice was actually erected in the most fashion-
able quarter of the town. The foundation stone was
laid in June, 1786, in the midst of a great multitude of
interested spectators. Six councillors were nominated
by the contributors to the building fund, and as they
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 57
were the most influential citizens of the community,
one of them being John Harvie, the mayor, the author
of the project had a right to look forward to local en-
couragement and assistance in the future.
Quesnay, justly elated with the progress already made,
sailed for France to secure the patronage of influential
persons in Paris, and the countenance of the Royal Gov-
ernment. He pushed his scheme in the most illustrious
circles of the French capital with energy and address;
visited the studios of artists, the closets of scientists, the
salons of leaders of fashion, and the reception-rooms of
public officials; and everywhere, his plans were received
with expressions of sympathy and promises of financial
support. Men standing at the summit in all the great
departments of contemporary life, literature, science,
politics and society, graciously permitted their names
to be entered in the already voluminous list of associates.
Lafayette, Beaumarchais, Montalembert, Houdon, Con-
dorcet, Lavoisier, Malesherbes, Vernet, La Rochefou-
cauld, statesmen, playwrights, warriors, sculptors,
chemists, painters, wits, the most brilliant names in
France, were enrolled among the number.
But there was one person in that splendid city who
held back from the scheme with a discouraging lack of
enthusiasm, and that man was the very one, perhaps,
whose favorable influence, and whose active co-operation,
were the most important for its practical success. On
January 6, 1788, Jefferson wrote to Quesnay in the fol-
lowing language: "I feared it (the plan) was too ex-
tensive for the poverty of the country. You remove the
objection by observing it is to extend to several States.
Whether professors itinerant from one State to another
may succeed I am unable to say, having never known an
experiment of it. The fear that those professors might
58 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
be disappointed in their expectation, has determined me
not to intermeddle in the business at all. Knowing how
much people going to America overrate the resources of
living there, I have made a point never to encourage any
person to go there, that I may not partake of the cen-
sure which may follow this disappointment. I beg you,
therefore, not to alter your plan in any part of it on
my account, but permit me to pursue mine of being abso-
lutely neutral."
What were the details of the plan on which Jefferson
commented so coldly and so distantly in these remarkable
words? The Richmond Academy of Sciences was in-
tended to be, in spirit at least, a trans-Atlantic rival of
the great French Academy. The central organization
was to be placed in the capital of Virginia, while there
were to be co-ordinate branches in the cities of Philadel-
phia, Baltimore, and New York. The list of studies was
to embrace foreign languages, mathematics, physics, de-
sign, architecture, painting, sculpture, astronomy, geog-
raphy, chemistry, botany, anatomy, and natural history.
There was to be a large faculty on the ground; and in
addition to the instruction to be given by them, the pupils
were to have the benefit of the learning of one hundred
and seventy-five non-resident associates, eminent in both
America and Europe for their acquirements in the prov-
inces of .their respective pursuits. Experts in every
branch of natural science especially were to be dispatched
to Richmond from Paris, not only to teach these pupils,
but also to advise the corporations and stock companies
that were about to invest in the hitherto unexploited re-
sources of the country. In the extensive researches
which this would call for, the young men would assist,
and thus not only garner up valuable knowledge, but, by
turning in their wages, increase the sum already lying in
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 59
the treasury of the Academy. The scientific and liter-
ary societies of both hemispheres were to be kept in-
formed of the work of the institution by correspondence,
and also through an annual publication. Specimens of
the flora and fauna of the North American continent
were to be collected and sent to Europe to adorn its dif-
ferent museums and cabinets.
There was at least one feature of this scheme that
justified Jefferson in declining to enter without reserve
into the efforts to carry it out; it was probably rendered
impracticable, as he said, by _the scale on which it was
projected. But why was it that he failed to offer a single
suggestion towards lopping off the worst of its faults
in order to reduce it to a shape that might make it work-
able? It was very unlike him to look at such a scheme
with coldness, if there was any room whatever for hope
of success. Did he jump beyond its apparently bald in-
feasibility and disapprove of it because it locked horns
with the plan of a university which he was undoubtedly
pondering over at this time, and which he had already
perhaps decided to build, if possible, in the shadow of
Monticello ? Was the choice of Richmond, an hundred
miles away, as the site of the new Academy, the true rea-
son for an indifference which he had never before shown,
and was never again to show, about any university scheme
brought to his attention? The plan of transporting the
College of Geneva to Virginia, which arose a few years
later, was seemingly as impracticable in its character as
Quesnay's plan, and yet it secured Jefferson's earnest and
energetic support. There is no reason to doubt that he
expected this college to be re-established in visiting dis-
tance of his own home at least. If he was really in-
fluenced by personal reasons in both cases, it was due to
his perfectly correct impression that, if a university was
60 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
to be founded in Virginia, it would have more chance of
succeeding under his own direct patronage and super-
vision than if left to the inadvertence and inexperience
of foreigners, settled an hundred miles from Monticello.
The scheme of a transplanted French Academy fell
through, not because it was impracticable, as it possibly
was, but because the hour was unfavorable for its suc-
cess. It did not pass beyond the selection of a course of
studies, and the nomination of Dr. Jean Rouvelle as the
instructor in natural history and chemistry; but there is
no reason to presume that it would not have been at least
organized had not the French Revolution, like a cyclone,
been coming up, with all the distracting influences that
went before its actual outburst. Socially and financially,
France was in no state to give such a scheme the continu-
ous support which it required, and naturally the scheme
itself, as well as its author, finally sank into oblivion.
But although it had never been put to the test of actual
working, it yet left a perceptible impression on Jeffer-
son's views in spite of his refusal to encourage it. Of
all the plans for higher education canvassed in Virginia
before the incorporation of the State University, this
had the most affinity with the noble plan which he set in
operation in 1825. The scientific bias that so conspicu-
ously distinguished it was the one with which he was
most enthusiastically in sympathy; and it was also the one
that he was most anxious to give to his own seat of learn-
ing. And in addition, he adopted for that institution the
system of separate schools which Quesnay had expected
to introduce at Richmond.
We have seen that Jefferson refused to countenance
Quesnay's projected academy because he was afraid lest
the foreign professors, disappointed in their venture,
should turn on him in censure, and yet, in 1794, eight
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 61
years later, he warmly encouraged the faculty of the
College of Geneva to remove that seat of learning to
Virginia. He did not seem to worry about the risk of
their criticism should the purposes for which alone they
wished to emigrate, fail. There was no difference in
spirit at least between the scheme of Quesnay and the
scheme of D'lvernois. It is true that there was a tur-
gidity about Quesnay's that was absent from D'lver-
nois's; but this inflation would certainly have passed away
under the influence of the practical Americans who would
have co-operated with the Frenchman. The Genevans,
on the other hand, were handicapped by that form of
sectarianism which was most irksome to Jefferson's lati-
tudinarian sympathies: Calvinism; but he seems to have
been willing to wink at this drawback, as well as at the
professors' inability to lecture in any language but that
of their own country. It must, however, be borne in
mind that these men were an organized body of high rep-
utation in all scientific and literary spheres; and several
of them had been thrown with him personally during his
sojourn in Paris. It was this fact that led D'lvernois,
when his faculty had become dissatisfied with their en-
vironment in Switzerland, to consult him by letter as to
the wisdom of uprooting their famous college and replant-
ing it in the United States. Jefferson promptly sub-
mitted this proposal to certain influential members of the
General Assembly, at the same time expressing the hope
that provision would be made out of the public treasury
to meet the expense of the transfer; but he was quickly
condemned to disappointment, for the reply was returned
that the State was not in the financial shape to take on
so burdensome a charge. It was asserted too that no
pupils would be found who could understand lectures in
the French tongue; and furthermore, that this scheme,
62 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
like Quesnay's, was out of all just proportion to the popu-
lation of the community to be served.
All these objections had very properly been considered
by Jefferson to be of great weight when he was discoun-
tenancing the Richmond Academy, but he was now so
much in earnest that, when the Legislature failed to re-
spond to his wishes, he turned for aid to General Wash-
ington, who, having been presented by that body with
stock in the Potomac and James River Companies, had
announced his intention of giving it all away for the
promotion of higher education. Jefferson pressed upon
him the point, that, as the Treasury of Virginia would
pay the dividends on this stock, this State should have the
preference in the selection of the site for the National
University which Washington had so long carried in
his thoughts. This site might be chosen in the vicinity
)of the new Capital, if the influence of such a centre
should be decided to be essential to its dignity and suc-
cess. Washington at once disclosed that he was not in
sympathy with Jefferson's suggestion. He was con-
vinced, like the General Assembly, that the restriction
of the lectures to the French languages would destroy
the usefulness of the Genevan faculty in Virginia; and
moreover, as that faculty disapproved of the popular
freedom now enjoyed by the French, it was not prob-
able that they would find themselves in harmony with
their environment in the New World. But he was so
far impressed by Jefferson's appeal that he gave the
shares in the James River Company belonging to him
to the college at Lexington, with the understanding that
such of its students as should desire to obtain a more ad-
vanced education should seek it in that National Uni-
versity in the Capital which he intended endowing with
his shares in the Potomac Company.
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 63
When Jefferson reported to D'lvernois his failure to
enlist support for his plan, either public or private, an
echo of regret vibrated in the tone of his letter: "I
should have seen with peculiar satisfaction," he wrote,
" the establishment of such a mass of science in my coun-
try, and should probably have been tempted to approach
myself to it by procuring a residence in its neighborhood
at those seasons of the year when the operations of agri-
culture are less active and interesting." So far as can be
discerned, the scheme of the Geneva College left no im-
pression on his plans for his own university beyond per-
haps satisfying him that foreign professors would not
object to a permanent appointment in Virginia; and it
was, no doubt, this conviction which, many years after-
wards, led him, through Mr. Gilmer, to invite certain
English scholars and scientists to occupy chairs in the
seat of learning which he had founded at Charlottesville.
But he was careful then to introduce no instructors from
the continent, unless Dr. Blaettermann, who was resid-
ing in England, can be taken to be such, perhaps, be-
cause he recalled the objections which had been urged,
in 1794, by the General Assembly and by Washington
in opposition to the College of Geneva.
An influence that bore more directly on Jefferson's de-
sire for a system of higher education in Virginia, had its
spring with Du Pont de Nemours, whom he had known
familiarly while the American minister in Paris. Du
Pont reached the United States in 1800, and during his
sojourn there, was an acceptable visitor at Monticello
on numerous occasions. This accomplished Frenchman,
who had already given much meditation to the subject
in France, drew up a treatise on popular education, which,
at this time, was deeply engaging the thoughts of some
of the most distinguished men in America. Instruction
64 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
in the highest courses, as well as in the primary and sec-
ondary, was discussed in this memorable volume. These
advanced courses were to cover, besides other ground, all
the varied topics of professional and technical education.
The different institutions, representing every grade, from
common school to college, in which instruction was to be
given, were to be scattered here and there about the coun-
try at large; but the apex of the whole system was to be
the National University in Washington. This grand
central institution was to consist of four distinct schools :
(i) medicine; (2) mines; (3) social science and legis-
lation; and (4) higher mathematics. These schools
were to assemble in one large building, but to remain
always entirely separate. There was to be erected, in
addition, an imposing national library, and also a vast
national museum, with apartments reserved for the ses-
sions of a National Philosophical Society. This plan of
Du Pont was, no doubt, suggested by the system which
already prevailed in Paris; but it was also modeled some-
what on the scheme incorporated in the Bill of 1779 for
the diffusion of knowledge among the Virginian people.
'It brought up to Jefferson ideas that he had already ac-
quired by his residence abroad rather than ideas newly im-
ported, which he had not turned over before in his re-
flections on the subject of education in all its depart-
ments.
It was one of the most obvious peculiarities of all
Jefferson's schemes for the advancement of education
that he confined their practical, though not their theoreti-
cal, scope to the inhabitants of his native State. The Na-
tional University of Washington and Du Pont made no
appeal to him, perhaps because he feared lest such a seat
of learning should nourish those principles of consolida-
tion, which, as we have seen, he detested so vehemently.
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 65
It was possibly one reason for his turning a cold face
towards Quesnay that the Richmond Academy was not
intended to stand alone, but to possess branches in at least
three of the States north of the Potomac. To a clearly
defined extent, this institution was to have a national
bearing, a characteristic that was absent from the scheme
of the Swiss college, which he received with such prompt
and unreserved encouragement.
in. Bill of 1779
The first of all Jefferson's practical measures for pub-
lic education was the Bill of 1779, which carried no ex-
pressed purpose in its text that was to reach beyond the
borders of Virginia, yet, as it was based upon principles
that went down to the foundation of society, its scope, in
its broadest significance, was really as universal as the
scope of the Declaration of Independence itself. In tak-
ing up the subject of his share in the drafting of this bill,
we have come to the most interesting chapter in his career
as an educational reformer previous to the establishment
of the University of Virginia. By this measure, he
sought to create in his native State, even before the fires
of the Revolution had burnt out, a system of public in-
struction so far ahead of his times that the community
continued too unripe to receive it until the War of Seces-
sion had removed everyone of those impediments, which
he, with all his zeal and persistency, had found it impos-
sible to surmount. But the credit due him should not be
diminished but enhanced by the deferred consummation
of his complete design, for it proved that his foresight , x
was one hundred years in advance of the vision of the ' \
great body of his own countrymen. It was, however, no
new and untried theory that he endeavored to put in
66 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
practice. During several centuries, the concept that it
was the duty of the State to educate all its citizens had
prevailed in many coteries in Europe, but it was not until
the eighteenth century that the politico-economical value
of that concept was fully tested by Prussia and Austria
in a scheme of popular instruction scientifically ordered
and rigidly enforced. Massachusetts had adopted a sim-
ilar scheme as early as 1647. At first, the system in that
colony stood upon a religious platform; next, the purely
utilitarian view intruded; and then, finally, the belief that,
by universal education, the people could be trained to
govern themselves more wisely, and to preserve their
political freedom more securely.
The latter was the opinion which Jefferson himself
entertained. He wrote Washington, in 1786, that the
liberties of the community were only safe when they were
in the grasp of an "instructed people"; and that it
was the business of the State to give this instruction; and
that this could not be done successfully except in harmony
with a general plan. What he thought that general plan
should be was very lucidly expressed in the bill of 1779.
At the time that he drew up this bill, the schools of Vir-
ginia differed but little in quality from those in existence
there during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries:
there were the home schools for the children of affluent
planters taught by private tutors; the old field schools
for the children of the upper and middle classes alike;
and the College of William and Mary for the higher
training of all who aspired to it. Jefferson, in later
years, justly claimed for himself the credit of having
been the first citizen of the State to propose, in a formal
\ way, the substitution of a concatenated system of public
education for the unarticulated methods of private edu-
\ cation which he discovered in use in his youth. Early in
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 67
1776, while a member of the General Assembly, he was
chosen as the chairman of the committee appointed to
revise the laws of the new Commonwealth. After the
elimination of Mason by resignation, and of Lee by
death, this committee was composed of Wythe, Pendle-
ton, and himself, the three men whom the entire com-
munity acknowledged to be the most fully and nicely
equipped for the work in view to be found in Virginia;
but that work was really performed by Jefferson and
Wythe, pupil and master of old, who were keenly in sym-
pathy with each other in liberality of opinion, and quite
on a level in breadth of information. As a proof of
their insatiable appetite for their task, it is reported of
them that they went carefully through the whole collec-
tion of British and Colonial statutes, and drew out those
that seemed to them to be most apposite to the genius,
and most fostering to the peace and prosperity, of the
Virginian people.
Of the one hundred and twenty-six bills in which their
conclusions were precisely incorporated, the one for the
diffusion of knowledge was hammered into shape by Jef-
ferson alone. It was drawn up, in reality, in the form"!
of three bills, which provided ( i ) for the erection of I
primary schools, in which the children of all classes '
were to be taught the rudiments of education, and of !
colleges, in which all higher grades were to be open to/
older pupils; (2) for the establishment of a university in'
the broadest sense of the word; and (3) for the collec-
tion of a great library, to be used by students and readers
of all ages. Jefferson, in drafting this bill, did not nar-
row his gaze to the intellectual and moral advantages of
education only, but, looking forward, he was convinced
that he had raised a new bulwark for the defense of po-
litical freedom, by providing for the division of each
68 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
county into wards as the local unit for the elementary
schools.
An examination of the preamble of this famous bill
reveals that it was written under the influence of all those
emotions which were most inflamed by the Revolutionary
struggle that was still in progress. All persons in power,
fit states in substance, are invariably inclined to use that
I power for the ends of tyranny. How is this disposition to
I be combated? By educating the people so thoroughly
\ that they will be able to detect at once the encroachments
i of sinister and scheming office-holders, and to block them
before any permanent damage is done. Education too
will make the average office-holder himself more solici-
tous to guard the rights and liberties of citizens as well as
more competent to administer their affairs.
The practical clauses of the bill provided for the elec-
tion in every county of three persons to be known as alder-
men, who were to meet first at the court-house to divide
the county into hundreds, each of which was to embrace
a sufficient number of pupils to make up a school. The
site of the school-house having been chosen by the voters
of the hundred, the aldermen were to erect a suitable
building thereon, in which were to gather the children
for instruction in reading, writing, and common arith-
metic, and also in Roman, Greek, English and American
history. They were to be at no expense for this tuition
during the first three years of their attendance. Each set
of ten schools was to be under the supervision of officers,
with authority to appoint the teachers, to visit the several
school-houses, and to inspect and question the pupils;
and each school was to be subject to a competent over-
seer. Next the State was to be divided into groups of
counties with a view to the establishment of colleges for
secondary education. The overseers of the elementary
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 69
schools of each group were to choose the site for the col-
lege of that group, which they were required to construct
of brick or stone, with ten or twelve lodging rooms for
the use of double that number of pupils. A master and
usher were, in each college, to give instruction in the
Greek and Latin languages, English grammar, geography,
and the higher branches of arithmetic, for such was
the course which Jefferson thought to be sufficient for the
education of the average person who was in the posses-
sion of an easy fortune. Each college was to be under
the watchful and controlling eyes of a rector and board
of visitors, who were to select its teachers and administer
its finances.
The expense of gathering up food for the students, em-
ploying a steward, and hiring servants, was to be divided
among the pupils. Those among them who were at-
tending the classes gratuitously were also to be relieved,
through the public treasury, of the cost of subsistence,
while the balance of the expenses was to be met by the
parents of the pupils who were able to pay. Every ele-
mentary school in each group of counties was to have
the right to enter its most promising scholar each year,
without charge, in the college of that district, if his fa-
ther or guardian was too indigent to provide for his
necessary outlay. Annually, too, one third of the boys
thus advanced were to be dropped from the roll; and of
those who should succeed in remaining two years because
of their industry and talents, one was to be retained, with
the privilege of staying two years longer in the college.
The students who should thus signalize themselves were
to be chosen as seniors; and every year one senior was
to be selected from the whole number of those in attend-
ance at each college, to be sent on to William and Mary
University, for the bill, as we see, converted that in-
70 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
stitution into a university, there to be taught, clothed,
and boarded at the public charge. This regulation would
assure the presence annually in Williamsburg of about
twenty young men of no fortune, who had exhibited in
the colleges superior capacity and scholarship, and who
would, otherwise, have failed to receive the higher edu-
cation to which their ability and diligence justly entitled
them.
There were four remarkable features in this scheme
of public instruction. The first was that the pupils in
the elementary schools, which embraced the children of
the entire white population, were to be grounded in his-
tory, both ancient and modern. The reason given for
this provision was characteristic of Jefferson: by apprising
fthem of the experience of other times and other nations,
{they would be the better qualified to fortify themselves
against the intrigues of lurking tyranny. A second fea-
ture was that it would enable the poorest boys of talent to
enjoy every advantage of education that was in the reach
of the sons of the wealthy. And, thirdly, by giving an
opportunity to youths of promise to advance from the
lowest to the highest grade, that is to say, from the ele-
mentary school to the university, it would knit all parts
of the system firmly together. Finally, by imposing local
taxes for the support of the elementary schools, it would
establish a principle that would entirely relieve the State
treasury of their charge, and also ensure a more careful
attention to the proper use of the money to be raised, by
obtaining it exclusively from the parents of the pupils
immediately benefited.
By the terms of the second bill, the College of William
and Mary was to be transformed into a veritable univer-
sity. The courses of instruction laid off for it, in its al-
tered form, were to be distributed under the following
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 71
heads: the fine arts, applied science, municipal and foreign
law, theology, and also ecclesiastical history so far as it
was not coupled with sectarianism. No provision seems
to have been made for languages, perhaps because the
Greek and Latin tongues were expected to make up an es-
sential part of the curriculum of the district colleges.
Under the head of applied science, military and naval
science was to be taught; horticulture and agriculture too;
and also the practical relations of science to the arts and
manufactures, to medicine, surgery, and pharmacy.
It was Jefferson's opinion that the whole educational
scheme of 1779 failed to become law largely on account
of this second bill. He had hoped that, by arranging
for the elementary schools and colleges in a separate
measure, and by making the divinity course at the new
university purely historical, he would disarm the hostility
of the Presbyterians and Baptists, and bring them to a
hearty concurrence with his plans; but they soon began
to suspect that there was some secret purpose to favor
the Episcopalians by placing the old Episcopal College
at the apex of the public school system; and they coldly
turned their patronage away from the whole design. 1
But it is possible that the reluctance of the property-hold-
ers to shoulder the additional taxes, which, as will be seen,
cropped up in 1796, when the like plan was broached,
had much to do with the defeat of these educational bills.
Had Jefferson not been kept out of the State by his mis-
sion to France, and afterwards, by his occupancy of a seat
in Washington's Cabinet, his energy and persistency,
brought to bear directly on the spot, would, perhaps, have
led to the early adoption of his scheme of popular educa-
1 Jefferson wrote to Dr. Priestley, " As I had preferred that William
and Mary, under an improved form, should be the University, and it
was, at that time, pretty highly Episcopal, the Dissenters, after a while
began to apprehend some secret design of preference for that sect."
72 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tion, not simply in the letter, as was partially done in
1796, but in positive actual practice.
IV. Jefferson's Schemes of Popular Education
It was not until the close of his Presidential term in
1809, that Jefferson was so completely released from all
official responsibilities that he could fix his mind continu-
ously on the subject which had enlisted his earnest sym-
pathy and support so early in his political career. Hardly
had he taken up his residence under the poof of Monti-
cello, when he once more turns to that subject, and during
the remainder of his long life, it held a place in the very
centre of all his daily thoughts. In- no form did these
ponderings find a weightier expression than in his famous
letter to Peter Carr, in 1814. In that letter, he again
laid down the various lines which a system of public in-
struction, in his judgment, should follow. Again he
broadly declared, by way of introduction, that every citi-
zen was entitled to an education commensurate with his
condition and calling in life. How was this to be deter-
mined? By the social station to which he belonged.
The whole community was capable of division into two
classes: (i) the laboring class; and (2) the learned class.
Members of the first would require elementary tuition to
qualify them for the proper performance of their tasks;
members of the second would need it as an indispensable
forerunner to further study. So soon as the primary
school had been left behind, the laboring class were ex-
pected to begin the pursuit of agriculture, or serve ap-
prenticeships in different handicrafts, while, on the other
hand, the learned class were expected to enter the col-
leges, which were to be divided into General Schools and
Professional Schools, representing, respectively, the sec-
STRUGGLE FOE A UNIVERSITY 78
.
ond grade, and the third or most advanced grade of in-
struction.
The entire learned class was to receive their secon-
dary training in the General Schools, in which the high-
est branches of knowledge were to be taught. The round
of studies there was to embrace the languages, mathe-
matics, and philosophy. Provision was to be made in
the department of languages for lessons in history, both
ancient and modern ; and belles-lettres, rhetoric, and ora-
tory were also to be included in this department as well
as such special tuition as was suited to the needs of the
deaf and dumb. The course in mathematics was to em-
brace pure mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural his-
tory, and anatomy and the theory of medicine, while the
course in philosophy should take in ideology, ethics, the
law of nature and nations, government, and political
economy. The Professional Schools, to which all de-
ciding to follow a profession were to have access, after
passing through the General Schools, were to cover as
wide a field as the latter, but on a higher level; they were
to consist of three distinct divisions: (i) department of
fine arts, which was to embrace civil architecture, paint-
ing, sculpture, and the theory of music; (2) department
of military and naval architecture, projectiles, agriculture,
horticulture, technical philosophy, practice of medicine,
materia medica, pharmacy, and surgery; (3) department
of theology and ecclesiastical history, and municipal and
foreign law.
These several departments were designed to offer the
graduate of the General Schools the opportunity to ac-
quire the necessary knowledge of any one of the follow-
ing professional subjects: law, medicine, theology, agri-
culture, army and navy architecture, painting, and land-
scape gardening. In the school of technical philosophy,
74 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
instruction was to be given in the arts of the optician,
metallurgist, founder, cutler, druggist, vintner, distiller,
dyer, bleacher, soapmaker, tanner, powder-maker, salt-
maker, and glass-maker, and in all the other arts pur-
sued by practical tradesmen. In the same school, there
would be assembled students in geometry, pure mechanics,
statics, hydraulics, navigation, astronomy, optics, pneu-
matics, acoustics, physics, chemistry, natural history, bot-
any, mineralogy and pharmacy. All these branches of
study were to be maintained at the public expense. And
on appointed days, the entire corps of scholars in each
college were to be trained in manual exercises, and in
military evolutions and manoeuvres.
This letter to Peter Carr, of which we have given
only a meagre synopsis, contains the most complete de-
scription which Jefferson ever drew up of his plans for
public education. It reveals that his point of view had
not changed in spite of the interval of forty years since
1776, during which his observations and impressions of
scholastic institutions of every sort had been broadened
and ripened by foreign travel. He himself, in a letter
written to Governor Nicholas in 1816, referred to it as
a digest of all the information which he had been able
to gather on the subject upon which it bore; and it will
always possess an uncommon interest as foreshadowing
the courses of instruction which he introduced into the
lecture-rooms of the University of Virginia. In the teeth
of popular hostility, he persisted in pronouncing the local
school, supported by local taxation, to be the only proper
one for elementary tuition; and time and reflection, he
said, had but confirmed his opinion as to the correctness
of the general principle of subdividing the counties into
wards for this purpose.
Jefferson perceived very clearly that the sentiment of
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 75
the General Assembly, so soon as it took up the question
of public instruction in earnest, with the establishment of
the Literary Fund in 1810, gave the priority to elementary
education over collegiate and university education, at
the State's expense. Was it possible for the resources of
the Commonwealth to sustain the entire system as urged
by him? If that system was to be kept up, as a whole,
he was precisely right in thinking that the elementary
schools should be maintained by local taxation, and the
general funds of the State reserved for the support of
advanced tuition. And this opinion he again engrafted
in the bill which he was requested by Joseph C. Cabell,
in 1817, to prepare for submission to the General Assem-
bly during the session of 1817-1818. "If twelve or fif-
teen hundred schools," he wrote, " are to be placed under
one general administration, an attention so divided will
amount to a dereliction of them to themselves. It is
surely better then to place each school at once under the
care of those most interested in its conduct. In this
way, the Literary Fund is left untouched to complete at
once the whole system of education by establishing a col-
lege in every district of about eighty miles square, for
the second grade of education; and for the third grade, a
single university, where the sciences shall be taught in
their highest degree." The new bill which he presented
was at first entitled an Act for Establishing Elementary
Schools, but it was subsequently expanded in its scope to
take in numerous colleges and a university, and was then
entitled: A Bill to Establish a System of Public Educa- ^
tion. There is an undertone of pathos in the letter which
he wrote to Cabell when sending on its final draft: u I
wish it to be understood," he said, " that I do not inter-
meddle with public affairs. It is my duty, and equally
my wish, to leave them to those who are to feel the benefit
76 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and burden of measures. The interest I feel in the sys-
tem of education and wards has seduced me into the part
which I have taken as to them, and still attaches me to
their success. . . . There is a time to retire from labor,
and that time has come for me."
This bill differed only in petty details from the bill of
1779, or from the scheme of general education set forth
in the letter to Peter Carr, in 1814. First, a school was
to be established in each ward, in which the children of
that ward alone were to receive instruction during three
years at the common charge. The school-house and the
dwelling-house for the teacher were to be built by the
parents at their own expense. A log cabin was to be
considered sufficient in each instance, since the constant
shifting of the population was certain to render neces-
sary the frequent removal of both houses to some situa-
tion more convenient for the majority of the pupils in
attendance. A teacher capable of grounding these pupils
in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, was to
be employed at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars
a year, with an allowance of bread and meat for subsist-
ence. In selecting the instructors, the board of visitors,
who were to have charge of the schools, were always to
give the preference to members of the laboring class, such
as mechanics, overseers, and tillers of the soil; and among
these, the first choice should fall on persons who were
infirm in health, crippled in limb, or advanced in years.
Secondly, the State was to be divided into nine dis-
; tricts, in each of which a college was to be erected, to
be subject to a board of visitors composed of one member
from each county belonging to that district, and all under
the control of the President and Directors of the Literary
;Fund. There was to be built for each college a house
of brick or stone, to contain two rooms in which the reci-
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 77
tations were to be held, and four for each professor's use,
with sixteen dormitories for the accommodation of thirty-
two pupils. There were to be two instructors, at least;
and they were to be required to teach the Greek, Latin,
French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages, the
higher branches of mathematics, the mensuration of land,
the handling of globes, and the fundamental rules of navi-
gation. Each professor was to receive five hundred dol-
lars out of the Literary Fund of the State, with such ad-
ditions as should accrue from the tuition fees of the mem-
bers of his classes; who were also expected to pay rent for
their apartments and the charges for their board.
Thirdly, a university was to be established in a healthy
and central part of the State; and here all the divisions of
the useful arts were to be taught in their highest branches.
Visitors were to be annually nominated by the President
and Directors of the Literary Fund, now to be known
as the Board of Public Instruction; the site of the new
institution was to be chosen bv the first set of these visit-
ors ; but the plan of the buildings was to be furnished, or
at least, approved by the Central Board. The dormitor-
ies were to be so constructed as to admit of additions to
their dimensions as the number of students should in-
crease. The professors were not to exceed ten in num-
ber; and the fixed salary of each should be one thousand
dollars, to be swelled by the tuition fees of his pupils.
The courses of instruction were to embrace history,
geography, natural philosophy, agriculture, chemistry,
theory of medicine, anatomy, botany, zoology, mineral-
ogy, geology, pure and mixed mathematics, military and
naval science, ideology, ethics, the law of nature and na-
tions, municipal and foreign law, the science of civil gov-
ernment, political economy, languages, rhetoric, belles-
lettres, and the fine arts. The visitors were to have the
78 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
control of all the buildings; and they were also to appoint
and overlook all officers and agents; select the professors;
and draw up rules for the general discipline of the stu-
dents and regulations for their subsistence.
When Jefferson drafted this bill for public education
he was eager for the conversion of Central College into
the University of Virginia ; and he went so far as to insert
the name of the former seat of learning in the alternate
column opposite the words that required the choice of a
site for the projected university to be made in a central
and healthy part of the State. He did this with the hope
that the General Assembly would, if the bill were ac-
cepted, authorize the adoption of this secondary clause by
amendment.
The bill is significant from another point of view: now
that Jefferson was actively employed in building Central
College, and was looking forward to its transformation
into a great State university, which would need a large
annual appropriation for its support, he appeared to be
less generous and less enlightened in his attitude towards
primary education. Log cabins for schoolhouses and
crippled mechanics for teachers seem to be a rather scant
provision for elementary tuition; and in making such a
suggestion, he plainly had cheapness in view to an extent
that promised little for the real improvement of the class
that needed instruction most. He would hardly have
ventured on this suggestion, had he not apprehended that
an appropriation by the State at large for elementary edu-
cation would diminish the chance of obtaining an appro-
priation for university education. In 1820, when the
highest branch of his general plan had been adopted, and
the University of Virginia was in the course of erection,
his fear of a shortened State bounty for that institution
returned, and again he deprecated a large outlay for the
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 79
primary school. " The inhabitants of each ward," he
wrote to Cabell that year, in repetition of his old scheme,
" meeting together as when they work the roads, building
good log-houses for their school and teacher, and con-
tributing for his provision rations of pork, beef, and
corn in proportion each of his other taxes, would thus
lodge and feed him without feeling it ; and those of them
who were able, paying for the tuition of their own chil-
dren, would leave no call on the public fund but for the
tuition fee of here and there an individual pauper, who
would still be fed and lodged with his parents." l
There was an additional reason now, and a highly
characteristic one, too, why Jefferson advocated the
ward school: it would keep elementary education out of
the hands of fanatical preachers, " who, in the county
elections," he said, " would be universally chosen, and
the predominant sect of the county would possess itself
of all its schools."
But while he appeared to be inclined to favor the
higher institutions at the expense of the dignity and pros-
perity of the elementary schools at this particular mo-
ment of his career, he never swerved in his loyalty to his
general plan ; and he went so far as to write to Cabell, in
1823, that, were it necessary to give up either the primary
schools or the university, he would rather abandon the
university, " because it was safer to have a whole people
respectably enlightened than a few in a high state of sci-
ence, and the many in ignorance." ' The last," he added,
" is the most dangerous in which a people can be." He
saw at this time, with regretful clearness, that the re-
sources of the Literary Fund were not sufficient to sup-
port that entire system of public education which he had
so long urged, and he preferred that the second grade,
1 Date of letter, Nov. 28, 1820, Cabell Papers, MSS. University Library.
I
80 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
composed of the colleges, should be dropped, if any
lopping off had to be done, because the large body of
students who expected to attend these colleges, were the
offspring of parents of some fortune, who could easily af-
ford to send them to academies of repute already in exist-
ence. But how closely he still had the intermediate
schools in his old scheme at heart was revealed in the
plan which he sent to Cabell in 1824, when it was pro-
posed to remove the College of William and Mary from
Williamsburg to Richmond. He, as well as Cabell, was
hostile to that step as tending to jeopardize the success
of the University of Virginia, now on the point of throw-
ing open its doors. It seems that the College of William
and Mary possessed an endowment fund of one hundred
thousand dollars. Now, exclaimed Jefferson, we have an
opportunity of establishing the secondary colleges; let the
General Assembly strip the old institution of its fortune
and distribute it, in the form of endowment funds of
ten thousand dollars each, among the ten colleges which
should be erected in the ten districts into which Virginia
should at once be divided. This would relieve the cen-
tral treasury of the tax that would have to be imposed,
should these colleges have to be set up at the State's ex-
pense. The College of William and Mary might be
reserved as one of them; so might Washington College;
and so might Hampden-Sidney College too. Thus out
of one college, there might be created ten, every one of
which would be as useful as the mother of them all, now
reduced to the level of her own numerous offspring.
Cabell threw cold water on the proposition, because, in
his judgment, the pear of public opinion was not ripe for
it; and in addition, the colleges then in existence could
not be effectively insinuated into the projected system.
This, however, was not thought by Jefferson to be essen-
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 81
tial, as each district, in order to obtain its share of the
endowment fund, would, he anticipated, be willing to con-
tribute a site and the buildings for the institution assigned
to it. As the College of William and Mary was not re-
moved to Richmond, the liberal disposition of its funds
which he rather gratuitously suggested, ceased to be a
practical question. When, for the last time, he brought
forward his general plan for public instruction, he stood
only a little way from the closing year of his long life.
While it may be correctly said of him that he had shown
more energy in pushing that part of his scheme which
looked to the establishment of a university, nevertheless
he made no groundless claim when he asserted, in 1818,
that " a system of general education, which shall reach
every description of our citizens, from the richest to the
poorest, as it was the earliest, so it will be the latest of
all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to
take an interest." In his advocacy of that system, he
had remained singularly consistent to his original plan,
from 1779, when it was first publicly broached, down to
1825, when it was last brought up. First, there were to
be the elementary schools, which were to be confined to
the hundreds or wards into which every county was to be
divided; secondly, the grammar schools, which were
really classical academies or colleges; and thirdly, a State
university. " But I am not tenacious," he earnestly de-
clared in 1818, "of the form in which it (public educa-
tion) shall be introduced. Be that what it may, our
descendants will be as wise as we are, and will know how
to amend it until it shall suit their circumstances. Give it
to us in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon
the thanks of the young and the blessings of the old, who
are past all other but prayers for the prosperity of their
country and blessings for those who promote it."
82 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
V. Educational Measures Adopted
How far was this boon, which the venerable statesman
had striven so persistently and so disinterestedly through-
out his long career to bestow, conferred by legislative ac-
tion previous to the establishment of the University of
Virginia ? To what degree did his comprehensive scheme
fall short of legislative consummation, and why did it
fail to that extent? A variety of influences were working
to scotch his activities in this field, if not to make them
wholly abortive and fruitless. In a letter to Cabell,
dated February 4, 1826, he said, " I have been long sen-
sible, that while I was endeavoring to render our country
the greatest of all services, that of regenerating the
public education, and placing our rising generation on
the level of our sister states, which they have proudly
held heretofore, I was discharging the odious function of a
physician pouring medicine down the throat of a patient
insensible of needing it."
In reality, the patient declined to take any of the
medicine, except in a dose so small and so diluted as
to produce no perceptible improvement in his condition.
Although Jefferson informs us that the bill of 1779 was
received at first " with enthusiasm," it soon had no spark
of life in its bowels, and lay as it were still-born in the
minutes of the General Assembly for seventeen years. In
1796, a bill was introduced which was based in substance
on the principle of that of 1779, so far as the latter bill
related to elementary schools; and it was only to such
schools that the new measure applied. Each county hav-
ing been divided into districts, aldermen were to be chosen
by its voters to decide upon the expediency of summoning
the householders of each district together to pass upon
the question of erecting primary schools for that district.
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 83
If its citizens were found to be favorable to the establish-
ment of such schools, which every child within its
bounds was at liberty to attend three years without charge,
then a local tax was to be levied to meet the cost of
the school-house, its site, and the services of a teacher.
Unfortunately, an amendment granted the right to the
county court to determine the year in which the alder-
men were to be appointed, and until this was done, no
valid election could be held by the householders. This
clause, which was really inserted to sound the death-knell
of the bill, was a subtle political device at bottom. The
members of the General Assembly knew that the measure
was a popular one with the lowest class of voters, and an
unpopular one with the highest class, and they, therefore,
shifted the responsibility from themselves to the magis-
trates, without appearing to be at all opposed to the
wishes of their constituents. It is certain that the magis-
trates as a body felt no sympathy with any general plan
of popular education; and in addition, were not disposed,
as the representatives of the wealth of the community, to
shoulder the expense of providing free instruction for the
children of their less fortunate neighbors. They re-
fused to acknowledge the force of Jefferson's argument
that they would profit by public education because it would
people every countryside " with honest, useful, and en-
lightened citizens " ; nor did they discover any pertinency
to themselves in his suggestion that, as there were only
three generations between shirt-sleeves and shirt-sleeves,
their grandchildren, having fallen to the level of the
poor, would have to depend upon the taxes paid by the
rich for their restoration, through education, to the af-
fluence and social position of their grandfathers.
The opportunity opened up by this Act was used only
by those few counties which were sagacious enough to per-
84 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ceive the advantages which it would confer on all classes
of their population. On the other hand, into such com-
parative neglect did collegiate tuition in his native State
during the next few decades, gradually sink that Jeffer-
son thought himself justified in saying that the Old Do-
minion was in immediate danger of becoming the " Bar-
bary of the Union." " The mass of education in Virginia
before the Revolution," he exclaimed, with an undisguised
bitterness, " placed her foremost of her sister colonies.
What is her condition now? Where is it? We have to
import like beggars from other States, or import their
beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs." It was
estimated that, down to 1825, the number of pupils in
attendance at the three important colleges, William and
Mary, Washington, and Hampden-Sidney, did not an-
nually rise above one hundred and fifty. On the other
hand, nearly one half of all the matriculates of Prince-
ton, from year to year, at this time, were said to be young
men from Virginia; and it was calculated that a quarter
of a million of .dollars was, during every twelve months,
paid into the treasuries of Northern institutions by stu-
dents coming up from that State. Perhaps this was not
so great an evil in itself as Jefferson was inclined to think,
for, by drawing young men from the South into the North
even temporarily, it had a tendency to nourish a stronger
national feeling, and to lessen the narrow and mischiev-
ous spirit of provincialism. The reciprocation lay in the
large band of tutors from Northern States, who, during
this period, were employed in wealthy Virginian families;
they were, with few exceptions, graduates of Northern
colleges; and many of them bore old and honorable
names. It was not their scholarship, but their inherited
leaning towards Federalism, in most instances, that prob-
ably prompted Jefferson to describe them as " beggars,"
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 85
an epithet that did them, in the mass, as we shall see,
grave injustice.
Even if he exaggerated the need of more numerous
facilities for secondary instruction, which, in reality,
were fairly abundant, he was right in lamenting the
languishing condition of higher education and in condemn-
ing the very small provision for primary education which
existed in Virginia at this time. After his return to
Monticello, in 1809, his incumbency of the Presidency
having come to an end, he began at once to exert his in-
fluence to bring about an improvement; and a revival of
interest in the subject in the public mind was soon to be
noted. Governor Monroe, in 1801 and 1802, and Gov-
ernor Cabell, in 1806 and 1808, had, in their annual
messages, referred to the shrinkage of general education
in the State, but no popular response had followed. In
October, 1809, Jefferson was the guest of Governor Tyler,
a man ardently in sympathy with him in all his plans for
the public welfare, and it is possible that the conference
of the v two, on this occasion, was the root of the noble
message submitted by Tyler, in December of the same
year, to the General Assembly, in which he urged, with
earnest and far-sighted patriotism, the needs of Virginia
in the way of popular instruction. Tyler had been
among the most zealous supporters of the bill of 1779,
and had, at all times, upheld the plans which Jefferson
had framed for the curtailment of the general illiteracy.
That part of his message which related to education was
referred, in December, to a committee, who, in the fol-
lowing January, reported the bill that authorized the
establishment of the Literary Fund.
This beneficent measure, which alone enabled Jeffer-
son to carry out a part, fortunately the greater part,
of his splendid scheme of popular education, passed the
86 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
General Assembly on February 2, 1810. It provided
that all escheats, compositions, fines, penalties, and for-
feitures, should be especially reserved for the encourage-
ment of learning. Its author was James Barbour, who
was then the Speaker of the House, and afterwards a
distinguished figure in national politics. 1 The fund thus
created was designed primarily for the instruction of the
poor, but as the parents of indigent children were slow
to take advantage of it, it was, in time, expended chiefly
for the benefit of the higher seats of learning. During
the session of 181516, the remainder of the principal
of the debt due Virginia by the National Government
was transferred to the credit of this fund, which, by
December, 1817, had grown to nearly one million dollars.
So soon as it was created, the principal and interest were
put under the control of a Board known as the President
and Directors of the Literary Fund, a body which was
composed of the Governor of the State, the Lieutenant-
Governor, the Treasurer, Attorney-General, and Presi-
dent of the Court of Appeals, the foremost officials
and most responsible men in the Commonwealth. In
January, 1816, Cabell had shown Charles Fenton Mer-
cer, the Chairman of the Committee on Finance in the
House of Delegates, a copy of the letter written by Jef-
ferson to Peter Carr, in 1814, which gave in detail his
views as to the system of public education to be set un-
derway in Virginia. 2 This letter was also published in
1 Among the letters included in the Barbour Correspondence at Barbours-
ville, Va., is one from Governor Barbour, then in Washington, directing
his son at home to go through his papers for the original draft of the reso-
lution looking to the establishment of this Fund. This draft, he said,
was in his own handwriting.
2 J. C. Cabell writes from Richmond January 24, 1816: "Since writing
the enclosed letter, I have canvassed with Mr. Mercer of the House of
Delegates, to whom I had lent your letter to Mr. Carr. He seemed
much pleased with your view of the subject, and as he proposed to make
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 87
the Enquirer. It, no doubt, inspired the epochal resolu-
tion, adopted February 24, 1816, which required the
President and Directors of the Literary Fund to report
to the Legislature an elaborate scheme of public in-
struction. On December 6, 1816, this scheme was sub-
mitted, and was found to consist of a graded system of
schools; namely, elementary schools, academies, and a
university.
How had the Board arrived at a decision in harmony
at least with the framework of Jefferson's plan? The
President of that body was Governor Nicholas, a friend
and fellow-countyman. He had applied to Jefferson
for advice so soon as the report was ordered, and Jeffer-
son had suggested that he should read his letter to Peter
Carr as embodying his ripest thought about the subject
under investigation. While counsel was obtained by the
Board from many distinguished men, both in America
and in Europe, whose letters were formally delivered
with the report, its recommendations bore, in their
main features certainly, the perceptible stamp of Jeffer-
son's long projected system of public education. There
was the partition of the county into wards or townships
for the establishment of elementary schools; there was
the division of the State into districts for the establish-
ment of academies, in which the Latin, Greek and French
languages, mathematics, geography and astronomy were
to be taught; and there was provision for the erection of
a university, which would furnish advanced instruction
in the whole round of the arts and sciences. The same
opportunity was thrown open to indigent boys of promise
to pass on, at the public charge, from the lowest to the
a report to the House, concurs with me on the propriety of availing the
country of the light you have offered in this great interest of the coun-
try.'
88 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
highest grade. Above all, it must have been gratifying
to Jefferson to find that the Board urged that the site
of the university should be chosen in a central part of
the State; and that they adopted the plan for professor-
ships and courses of tuition which he had always ad-
vised, and which he believed in as firmly now as he had
done in the beginning.
In one important particular, however, the tenor of
the report must have caused him disappointment: it rec-
ommended that the income of the Literary Fund should
be first applied to the establishment of an elementary
school in each township; that an academy in each district
should be next founded; and that an appropriation should
be made for the university only in case the surplus re-
maining should be sufficient in volume. Twenty thou-
sand youths, the report asserted, were looking to the Lit-
erary Fund for primary education, and they could rightly
demand that they should be the first to be considered in
its annual distribution. This was altogether in har-
mony with Jefferson's opinion, too, should the money for
public instruction be limited to the Literary Fund; and it
was his calculation that the income from this Fund would
not furnish means enough for a general system of educa-
tion, which led him to advocate a local levy for the sup-
port of the elementary schools. But the upshot of the
bill of 1796 had shown very plainly what would be the
fate of any provision for local taxation; and in urging,
as the President and Directors of the Literary Fund did,
the education of all the poor at the expense of all the
people, they were bringing forward the only practical
scheme for the improvement of that part of the popula-
tion which had a far higher moral and civic claim upon
the benevolence of the Commonwealth than that more
fortunate part which would be able to seek the shades of
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 89
the projected academies and of the university at their own
expense.
Their recommendation, however, .wise and patriotic
as it was, was too radical for the spirit of that short-
sighted age. Charles Fenton Mercer, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, framed a bill which took in the most
important features of the Board's report. It passed the
House of Delegates, February 18, 1817, but was de-
feated in the Senate two days later, on the ground that
the expenditure of so large a sum of money should be
first submitted for approval to the popular vote. It had
reached the Senate at an unfortunate moment, for that
body, as Cabell, a member of it, has recorded, was now
impatient to break up and return to their homes. Be-
fore they adjourned, they ordered a general distribution
of the report of the Board of the Literary Fund.
Although the Mercer bill had been suggested, partly
by the letter to Peter Carr, and partly by the report of
the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, which
reflected Jefferson's views in general, it nevertheless con-
tained, like this report also, one stipulation of which he
disapproved. While it divided the counties into wards,
it required the Board to pay to the trustees of each ele-
mentary school two hundred dollars to cover the neces-
sary outlay for the teacher's salary, and also ten dollars
with which to purchase books for the pupils. The bill
called for the acquisition of fifty acres near the centre
of the State as a site for the university; and it appro-
priated one hundred thousand dollars for the buildings
and ten thousand for the library. Although provision
was thus made for the establishment of a university, and
also of a large number af academies, priority in the dis-
tribution of the money was still to be given to the support
of the elementary schools.
90 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
When the Mercer bill, after passing the House, mis-
carried in the Senate, Cabell requested Jefferson to put
his scheme for public education in a shape that would
allow of its being submitted to the General Assembly as
a substitute. He cheerfully complied. His first pur-
pose, he wrote, in October, 1817, "was to contrive a
plan which would conform to the real resources of the
State." " Unless something less extravagant," he said
of the Mercer bill, " can be devised, the whole under-
taking must fail. The primary schools alone in that
plan would exhaust the whole fund; the colleges as much
more; and a university would never come into existence."
We have already cited the details of the bill which Jef-
ferson now drafted. It followed closely the lines of all
his previous expressions on the subject. It was intro-
duced into the House of Delegates by Samuel Taylor, of
Chesterfield ; but on February 1 1 , ( 1 8 1 8 ) , it failed of pas-
sage, and a substitute, in the form of an amendment,
offered by Mr. Hill, of King and Queen county, was
adopted. This amendment restricted the expenditure of
the income of the Literary Fund to the education of the
poor. This had always been the disposition of the mem-
bers of the popular branch of the Legislature, who were
opposed to ward taxation for that purpose because they
believed it to be altogether repugnant to the wishes and
convictions alike of their most influential constituents.
The money that was to be appropriated under the Hill
amendment was to be distributed among the counties as
a bounty for the maintenance of charity schools. There
was some political animosity to Jefferson in the support
which this amendment received; and this seems to have
been most acute in the breasts of the delegates from the
western counties, who, finding that he had inserted in
his bill, in a parallel column, the name of the Central
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 91
College at Charlottesville as the site of the projected uni-
versity, took it for granted that, if this institution was
established there, the State capital would soon be re-
moved thither rather than beyond the Blue Ridge, as they
so earnestly desired. The opposition to his bill in the
House, of which he had been informed by Cabell,
caused a wave of unwonted despondency to pass over his
mind, for on February n, he wrote, " I believe that I
have erred in meddling with it (the educational provi-
sion) at all, and that it has done more harm than good.
A strong interest felt on the subject through my whole
life, ought to excuse me with those who differ from me
in opinion, and should protect me from unfriendly feel-
ings. Nobody more strongly than myself advocates the
right of every generation to legislate for itself, and the
advantages which each succeeding generation has over
the preceding one from the constant progress of science
and arts."
The amended bill soon reached the Senate. It was
first brought up before a committee composed of Chap-
man Johnson, John W. Green, and Joseph C. Cabell.
Cabell submitted two propositions: one, which had been
suggested by Jefferson, divided the State into academic
districts without any consideration of the existing col-
leges; the other, which sprang from Cabell alone, took in
these colleges as a part of the general system. He also
renewed the demand for a university in accord with the
tenor of the original bill. His colleagues pressed upon
him that he was aiming for too much, and that, at this
stage of the campaign for the entire scheme, it would
be wiser to insist only upon the restoration of a univer-
sity to the plan. The bill passed the Senate in this form
by a vote of fourteen to three; and on February 21
finally became law. Those members who favored only
92 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the instruction of the poor were forced to consent to the
establishment of a university, while those who favored a
university were compelled to give up for the present all
hope of securing a large number of district colleges to
serve as feeders for the proposed higher seat of learning.
It was a compromise won by the advocates of advanced
education in spite of those " local interests, factious
views, and lamentable ignorance," upon which Cabell re-
flected, with acute exasperation, in a letter to Jefferson
written at the time. 1
Forty-five thousand dollars was to be annually appro-
priated for the support of the elementary schools and only
fifteen thousand for that of the projected university.
School commissioners, to be appointed by the courts of
the counties, towns and cities, were to determine how
many children were to be taught, and also how much
money was to be paid out for that purpose by the differ-
ent treasurers, whose number was to be in proportion to
the needy white population. This was to be derived
from the annual appropriation of forty-five thousand dol-
lars; but all funds and properties in the hands of the
overseers of the poor, not otherwise assigned, were to
form an additional resource. The commissioners were
to return to the President and Directors of the Literary
Fund an annual report showing how many pupils there
were then in the schools, and estimating the sum that
would be required, the following year, to educate all
the penniless children in the State. Advantage was taken
in many counties and towns of the benefits offered by
this Act. It soon became the custom for teachers to
enroll the children of the poor in their schools, and at
the end of the session, send in a list of them to the nearest
1 The authority for this account will be found in a statement in Cabell's
handwriting included among the Cabell Papers in the University Library.
STRUGGLE FOR A UNIVERSITY 93
commissioner for approval ; this list was then handed over
to the sheriff; who, when all the lists had been received,
divided among the teachers proportionately to the num-
ber of their respective indigent scholars, the sum which
had been appropriated for the county out of the Literary
Fund.
Not until the War of Secession had altered the eco-
nomic and social condition of Virginia was the system of
public education in the lower grades, advocated by Jef-
ferson, put in practice. Not even then, however, were
the elementary schools made entirely dependent upon
even county taxation, but in confirmation of his foresight,
it has been noticed that the most efficient public schools
are to be found wherever local taxation has been relied
on chiefly for their support. 1 Not until 1906 was any
test made of that part of his scheme which created a
large number of district secondary schools; in the course
of that year, fifty thousand dollars, increased to one hun-
dred thousand later, was appropriated for maintaining a
system of such schools distributed among the Congres-
sional districts, with special provision for the training of
teachers.
Jefferson was not tp live to see the realization of his
great scheme for public education as a whole; but when
in February, 1818, the General Assembly voted in favor
of the establishment of a State university, he had suc-
ceeded in securing that part of it in which he was most
deeply interested, and the one which he was best equipped
to carry out by his own previous studies and observations.
It was certainly the part that supplemented most fully
the practical experiment in college building which, for
sometime previous to 1818, had seized upon his whole at-
tention, and absorbed all his physical and intellectual
1 See an address by Dr. Richard Mcllwaine, July 26, 1904.
94 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
powers. Before beginning the narrative of how Central
College was converted into the university which the Gen-
eral Assembly, in 1818, ordered to be established, it will
be necessary to turn back and follow up the noble record
that he had already made as the father of the promising
institution of learning which he had founded in the
shadow of his own home at Monticello. It will be seen
that he had not been satisfied to wait for the consum-
mation of his plans through legislative assistance, but, in
his leisure, taking hold of that section of them which he
was able to inaugurate himself, he had done so with a
clearness, persistence, and firmness of purpose, a concen-
tration of energy and a constancy of supervision, in spite
of his advanced years, which constitutes the most aston-
ishing chapter even in his own illustrious life.
SECOND PERIOD
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE
I. Jefferson's Preference for University Site
We have seen that, until the outset of his mission to
France, at least, Jefferson persisted in hoping that the
College of William and Mary could be lifted up to the
level of a real university, both in its standards of instruc-
tion and in the number of its professorships; and that
down to this point in time, he used every means in his
power to bring about the transformation. The change
in its curriculum which he had suggested, was certainly a
long step towards the desired conversion; but the upshot,
as the years passed, was disappointing in spite of the fact
that the college was in the enjoyment of the subtle advan-
tage which springs only from age, and was also, in the
beginning, situated at the very centre of the political
and social framework of the Commonwealth. The en-
largement of its field of studies failed to secure for it
that popularity with the members of all social classes and
all religious denominations, with which alone it could
win the highest prosperity.
When did Jefferson abandon the expectation that it
would become a university to the extent that alone would
satisfy his exacting requirements? When did the
thought that he might be able to found an entirely new
university, in the neighborhood of Monticello, invade his
mind? Now, as has been pointed out, he had, from early
manhood, felt a keen aversion to sectarianism in all its
95
96 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
shapes and voices. He was, of his own personal knowl-
edge, aware that the College of William and Mary had
been, and probably still was, as saturated with the va-
pours of Episcopalianism as Oxford itself. No influences
but his shrewd recognition of the sentimental value of
age in a seat of learning, the prestige of its situation at
first in the capital, and that affection for his alma mater
which still tarried in his breast, had, perhaps, impelled
him, even in the beginning, to plan for its elevation to
so high a point that it would satisfy the educational
wants of the whole State. But all these influences, pow-
erful as they once were, in making his attitude towards
the ancient college so favorable and so sanguine, must
have gradually weakened and fallen away as he per-
ceived, with ever increasing clearness, that popularity
with the old dissenting sects was not likely to be won
even by the proposed broadening of its curriculum; and
that the mere suppression of the theological school
would not suffice in itself to blot out the historic sense
of the unquestionable, though, perhaps, exaggerated,
wrongs which those sects had suffered in the past,
through the workings of the Episcopalian system. In
his own heart, he probably sympathized with their linger-
ing animosity, although he may have thought that they
were hardly justified by common patriotism in letting that
feeling deprive the new university of their support, with-
out which it could not hope to represent the whole com-
munity in its attendance of students. 1
1 Cabell, writing to Cocke, Nov. 21, 1821, said, "The decline of William
and Mary a few years previous to this was attributed partly to its
irreligious character ; and to meet this, the Bishop was put on its Board
of Visitors, and an Episcopalian clergyman elected professor." And
Jefferson writing to Cabell, Feb. 20, 1821, said, " I sometime ago put
in your hands a pamphlet proving indirectly that the College of William
and Mary was intended to be a seminary of the Church of England.
When I was a Visitor 'in 1779 ... we did not change the statutes
GERMINATION ACADEMY A^D COLLEGE 97
So deep was the impression made on him by this hos-
tility, coupled with his own wide and discriminating obser-
vations abroad, that, after his return from France, he
seems never to have seriously considered the College of
William and Mary in his plans for the establishment of
a great State institution. If that institution was not to
be the old college, still further remodeled and enlarged,
and with its seat unremoved from the ancient town of
Williamsburg, where was it to be placed? What other
locality was to become its site? Apparently, there was
never in his mind but one reply to this question: in the
vicinity of Charlottesville. If he was mortal enough to
be influenced by personal reasons in his selection of that
site, it was a form of selfishness that was fully redeemed
by the nobility of his aims. If there was one citizen of
the State, during those years when he was so persistently
nursing this " bantling," as he termed it, who was fully
equipped by broad philanthropy, liberal opinions, un-
failing love of knowledge, and an eager interest in edu-
cation, clarified by study and observation, to set up a
true university for his countrymen, that man was Thomas
Jefferson. The most signal stroke of good fortune for
this offspring of his spirit, throughout the first century
of its existence, was this: that its site was chosen so
close to his home at Monticello that he was able to
impress upon its structure, whether physical, moral, or
scholastic, the full force of his principles and his tastes.
While it may be acknowledged that it might, at a distance
from him, have caught his lofty tenets of political free-
dom and religious tolerance, and his devotion to science
in all its departments, there is no likelihood whatever
(relating to the church) nor do I know that they have been since changed.
On the contrary, the pamphlet I put in your hand proves that, if they
have relaxed in the fundamental object, they mean to return to it."
98 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
that, without his dominating personality and his inde-
fatigable supervision, it would have presented to the eye
to-day perhaps the most beautiful group of college build-
ings, the noblest academical setting, to be discovered on
the American Continent.
La Rochefoucauld, who was travelling in the United
States during the years from 1795 to 1797 inclusive, and
visited Monticello in the course of his tour, has recorded
the fact that there was then a rumor in circulation that
the General Assembly would soon establish a " new col-
lege in a more central part of the State." It was at this
time that the bill of 1796, which, as already shown, only
nominally assured a moderate degree of public instruc-
tion, was a subject of general conversation and debate.
Before two years had passed, the groundlessness of this
report had been proven; but Jefferson, in writing to Dr.
Priestley, expressed the hope that a new university,
planned on a " broad, liberal, and modern " scale, would
be erected " in the upper country, and, therefore, more
centrally for the State." He does not mince his words
in giving his reasons for wishing to turn his back on the
college in Williamsburg. " She is just well endowed
enough," he remarked to the same correspondent, " to
draw out the miserable existence to which a miserable
constitution has doomed her." He then repeats the prac-
tical objection which was coming to have an ever-increas-
ing influence with him in his view of its site. " It is,
moreover, eccentric in its position, and exposed to all the
bilious diseases, as all the lower country is, and, there-
fore, abandoned by the public care, as that part of the
country is, to a considerable degree, by its inhabitants." 1
1 Writing in 1788 Jefferson used the following words: "Williams-
burg is a remarkably healthy situation." This sentence is quoted by Dr.
Tyler in his History of Williamsburg.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 99
A few years afterwards, Jefferson, now President of
the United States, had an opportunity to express indi-
rectly an equally emphatic opinion in opposition to all
further efforts to develop the old college in preference to
founding a new university elsewhere. Joseph C. Cabell,
who was to be so honorably associated with him at a
later period in the establishment of such an institution,
had returned from Europe in May, 1806, after a tour
of the principal European countries, and having married
Miss Carter, a step-daughter of Judge St. George Tucker,
the first of that distinguished family to settle in Virginia,
had decided to make Williamsburg, where his wife had
resided, his permanent home. He was an alumnus of the
College, and through this connection and those domestic
bonds, soon became a warm partisan of a scheme having
its origin with De la Costa, a foreign savant, to erect
a museum of natural history in the former capital, and
to attach it to the professorship there which embraced
the various departments of that subject. The cost of
building and collecting was to be defrayed by private sub-
scription.
Isaac A. Coles, of Albemarle, Cabell's intimate friend,
was, at this time, Jefferson's private secretary, and in that
capacity stationed in Washington. Cabell was but a re-
cent acquaintance of the President, and he, doubtless, for
that reason hesitated to approach him by direct corre-
spondence, although aware of Jefferson's interest in
science. Possibly, too, he may have had some reason
for questioning the President's fidelity to his alma mater,
for reports of his views as to the need of a new seat of
learning, to be founded in a more central situation, must
have come to his ears. Cabell wrote to Coles instead.
The letter itself was, perhaps, not shown to Jefferson, but
the subject of it was, by Coles's admission in his reply,
100 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
discussed between them. The President thought " the
attempt premature," by which cryptic expression he prob-
ably meant that the museum should be reserved for the
institution which was yet to be established elsewhere.
He returned the same reply to De la Costa, when his
assistance was sought directly at a somewhat later date.
In the meanwhile, Coles had fully stated Jefferson's pres-
ent mental attitude towards the venerable college and
the hoped-for new university. " If I could bring my-
self," he wrote to Cabell, " to consider Williamsburg as
the permanent seat of science, as the spot where the
youth of our State, for centuries to come, would go to be
instructed in whatever might form them for usefulness,
my objection would, in great measure, cease. But the old
college is declining, and perhaps the sooner it falls en-
tirely, the better, if it might be the means of pointing out
to our legislative body the necessity of founding an insti-
tution on an extended and liberal scale. Instead of wast-
ing your time in attempting to patch it up, a decaying
institution, direct your efforts to a higher and more valu-
able object: found a new one."
Cabell, who had not yet been weaned from his alma
mater by close confidential intercourse with Jefferson, was
palpably nettled by the tone, and by the suggestions, of
his friend's letter. " If the great new university of which
you speak," he wrote in reply, " were in existence, or
could be expected to appear within the space of a few
years, then it would be prudent to defer the intended
museum and to connect the two objects. But knowing as
you do, the spirit of our Legislature, can you calculate
anything of the kind from them? I doubt very much
whether we do not evince more prudence in patching up
what we have than in reposing in indolence under the
expectation of what may never come. . . . We ought to
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 101
make the most of it, as it is all we have, indulging at the
same time the hope that the Legislature will either re-
move it to Richmond, or found a new one in the upper
country." *
One would hardly recognize in these partial and loyal
words, the presence of the man who was to be, after Jef-
ferson himself, the most influential instrument in the es-
tablishment of the university at Charlottesville, which
was comparatively to throw the College of William and
Mary into the academic shade. They show, however,
that he would not be averse to the erection of that uni-
versity in another part of the State, should the sentiment
of the General Assembly declare in favor of it. So soon
as he should directly pass under the spell of Jefferson's
personality, and catch the full inspiration of his devotion
to his great scheme, Cabell was to become as earnest a
supporter of all his plans for his projected seat of learn-
ing as Coles himself.
A few years after the date of these letters passing be-
tween the two friends, Jefferson committed himself def-
initely, over his own signature, to Charlottesville as the
site of the institution which he had so long carried in his
mind. Hitherto, in his correspondence at least, he seems
to have referred with politic vagueness to a site " in a
healthier and more central part of the State." But, in
1814, he mentions specifically his own vicinage as the
spot which might be chosen. " I have long had under
contemplation, and been collecting materials for a plan
of the University of Virginia," he wrote to Dr. Cooper,
" which should comprehend all the sciences useful to us,
and none others. . . . This would probably absorb the
functions of William and Mary College, and transfer
them to a healthier position; perhaps to the neighborhood
1 This letter will be found among the Cabell Papers, University Library.
102 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
of this place. The long and lingering decline of Wil-
liam and Mary, the death of the last President (Bishop
Madison), its location and climate, force on us the wish
for a new institution more convenient to our country
generally, and better adapted to the present state of
science." When these words were written, Jefferson, un-
known to himself, was within a few months of the prac-
tical inauguration of a scheme, started by others, but soon
adopted by himself, which was destined to expand, in
a comparatively short time, into the very institution
which he had been pondering over for so many years.
Before taking up the narrative of the very small acorn
which was to grow into so great a tree, it will be germane
to our subject, and conducive to a clearer understanding
of it, should we give a short description of the immediate
country in which the proposed university was now so soon
to be planted, a summary history of its settlement, and a
concise recital of the social influences which had governed
it down* to the establishment of that seat of learning.
n. History of the University Region
The whole region that formed the background of
Charlottesville, from whatever point of the compass it
might be viewed, differed altogether from the environ-
ment of the College of William and Mary. 1 Around
Williamsburg, one saw an almost perfectly level country
overgrown with a forest of varied species, broken in
many places by farms under cultivation or by abandoned
fields, and here and there deeply penetrated by winding
creeks that ran up into the land from the broad waters
of the York and James Rivers. The population that oc-
1 I was especially indebted, in the preparation of this chapter, to Rev.
Edgar Woods's excellent History of Albemarle County, a work that pos-
sesses, in many details, the value of an original document.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 103
cupied this region were descended from settlers who had
taken possession of it early in the seventeenth century,
while Williamsburg itself was the oldest town of historic
importance in the State, the former seat of government
and of colonial fashion, and retaining, even in its decay,
the glow of the culture and refinement which had dis-
tinguished it from the beginning.
Unlike this old city, standing upon the wide, wooded
coastal plain, Charlottesville was placed in a deep valley
spreading from the rampart of the Southwest Mountains,
on one side, to the chain of the Blue Ridge, on the other.
Towards the south, and not far off, rose the repulsive wall
of the Ragged Mountains, while towards the north, the
land rolled away as far as the eye could reach. The en-
tire surface of the country, thus pent in on all sides but
one, was broken up picturesquely by long, high-shouldered
hills, isolated mounts, uneven plateaus, and deep, nar-
row rocky gorges. Everywhere, it was liberally watered
by the romantic Rivanna and its brawling tributary
streams, flowing down between ridges that disputed the
way so successfully that the channels were forced to fol-
low abrupt and winding courses. The broad scene
taken in from some moderate height, that commanded the
whole without blending the details, was not surpassed
in Virginia for diversified beauty as the seasons, in pro-
cession, laid a green or russet or white finger on the face
of the landscape below. There, on the western skirts of
the valley rose the Blue Mountains, as changeful in color
as the mountains of Greece; now as deeply azure as the
Bay of Naples itself; now so faint and ethereal in hue
as to be almost invisible; now as gray and massive as a
cliff of the purest granite; now bare and bleak at the side
and crowned with fields of shining snow at the top. In
the interval, lay the floor of the valley itself, with a few
104 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
country residences and farm-houses scattered about it
here and there, and open fields in fallow or in wheat,
and pleasant groves of primaeval trees. There, in the
shadow of the Southwest Mountains at sunrise and of the
Ragged Mountains at sunset, stood the little hamlet of
Charlottesville ; and not far off flowed the Rivanna, show-
ing a narrow turbid glimpse of its surface as it turned to
pass onward to the James.
To the spectator, thus gazing around from one point of
the compass to the other, the rim of the sky appeared
fo rest upon the massive shoulders of mountain carya-
tides, with the vast field of the sky itself open to full view
as the troops of clouds glided across it, or the storms
brewed in its depths, or the last rays of the dying sun
flooded it with color. Sky and mountain and plain, all
offered themselves to the eye in stupendous shapes, and
only the presence of a large sheet of water was wanting
to make a scene upon which nature had bestowed every
beautiful and impressive feature in her gift.
Behind this physical charm, that appealed to the eye,
there lurked the suggestion of what man had done for the
scene that appealed even more romantically to the historic
sense. The University of Virginia was incorporated in
1819, and its classical group of buildings, that carry the
mind back to the remote age of Greece and Rome, was
not finished in 1825, when its doors were opened.
Ninety years before the cornerstone of the first pavilion
was laid, and less than one hundred before the Rotunda
was completed, the region now embraced in Albemarle
county was a primaeval wilderness, unoccupied and un-
claimed by a single white settler whose name has sur-
vived. The first patents to any parts of its virgin soil
were acquired in June, 1727. Only two were issued dur-
ing that year, and they were confined to the area of
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 105
ground lying on the eastern slopes of the Southwest
Mountains. Slowly, yard by yard, as it were, in the
course of many years, the settlements had been creeping
up the headwaters of the Pamunkey towards the north-
west, and the main stream of the James towards the west.
The third patent, obtained a few years later, embraced
land along the banks of the latter river. It was not until
1730 apparently that any part of the soil adjacent to the
Rivanna was appropriated. Only five patents were sued
out in 1730, and only three in the following year. It
was not until 1732 that the western base of the South-
west Mountains was arrived at: the land that afterwards
formed the site of the little town of Milton, which
became the port of entry for much of the material used
in the original construction of the University, was
taken up during this year. This was the nearest point to
the present town of Charlottesville so far reached by the
settler. Among the four patents granted in 1733, one
was obtained that spread from the mouth of Moore's
Creek to a boundary line running beyond the modern
estate of Pen Park, the birthplace of Francis Walker Gil-
mer, Jefferson's staunch coadjutor in the next century.
By 1734, the plateau of Pantops and Lego, overlooking
the valley of the Rivanna and visible from the present
Observatory Mountain, had been occupied by patentees;
and before the close of the year, Lewis Mountain, and
the land situated immediately towards the west, had been
acquired by Joseph Terrell and David Lewis.
Down to 1734, the patentees had, with barely an excep-
tion, been prominent men residing in Eastern Virginia,
who were influenced alone by the prospect of speculative
profit in engrossing such large areas of unappropriated
soil, and who made no actual settlement beyond the small
degree required by law. This was complied with by
106 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
placing on the lands a few tenants or slaves, who were
not expected to snatch more than their own support out
of the new ground. Enterprising and independent yeo-
men began to come in, in 1734, and now the real social
and economic development of the region took a start in
earnest. The swollen patent, however, continued to be
sued out by prominent gentlemen in Eastern Virginia,
only a very small proportion of whose number had any
intention of removing their homes to these back lands:
in 1735, for instance, the father of Patrick Henry was
a patentee; and in the same year, William Randolph
acquired the tract which included the modern estates of
Shadwell and Edgehill; Peter Jefferson, father of
Thomas, a tract of one thousand acres on the southern
bank of the Rivanna ; and Abraham Lewis, the tract which
takes in the present site of the University.
Not until this year, did the engrossment of the soil f
spread out as far as Buck Mountain Creek, which flows
into the Rivanna in the northwestern part of the present
county, and Ivy Creek which waters the middle portion.
Patents were now obtained to the lands lying around
Farmington and Ivy station. By 1737, the banks of
Mechums River had been reached. The area of ground
thus taken up, however, was not in the way of a solid
extension of boundaries; as we have seen, the site of the
University was not patented until after the present Bird-
wood estate had been appropriated; and in harmony with
the same fact, it was not until 1737 that William Taylor
obtained, by patent, title to the lands situated on Moore's
Creek which are supposed to have contained the present
site of the town of Charlottesville. By this time, nearly
every division of the county had been patented in a
very dispersed manner, to be extended gradually to
those intervening spaces which remained vacant because
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 107
holding out so much smaller inducements for preoccupa-
tion. As late as 1796, a patent was granted for twenty-
five thousand acres of land in Albemarle that was still
in the possession of the State.
How little perceptible change had been worked in the
face of the county by 1737 is revealed in the situation of
Peter Jefferson, who removed to his estate on the
Rivanna in the course of that year: the entire region about
him is described as having been, at the time, a slumbering,
savage wilderness; nor did any substantial transforma-
tion in its character take place before 1743, the year of
Thomas Jefferson's birth. If one had walked up from
Shadwell, during that year, to the top of a neighboring
height which commanded a view of the landscape as far
as the peaks of the Blue Ridge, he would have had un-
rolled below him a region almost as untouched by the
white man, and quite as unmoulded to the permanent
uses of civilization, as it had been one hundred years be-
fore, when it was only trodden by the feet of warring or
hunting Indians. How completely it was in the posses-*
sion of wild animals at the time of the first settlement is
apparent in the names which the pioneers bestowed on the
natural features of the valley. Many varieties of the
fourlegged denizens of the original forests are repre*
sented in these names. So numerous were deer that it is
recorded of one of the earliest settlers on the eastern
slope of the great Ridge that he had only to step across
the threshold of his cabin in the morning to obtain with
his rifle all the venison that would be needed for his food;
and that there was no exaggeration in this statement is
proven by the frequency with which Buck mountains and
Buck creeks are entered on the face of the first maps;
and equally indicative of the like condition is the number
of Elk runs, Beaver and Bear creeks, Buffalo meadows
108 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and mountains, within the same area of country. One
of the modern roads that crosses the Ridge followed,
when first laid down, a trail which herds of bison had
been tramping over during uncounted centuries. As late
as 1896, there were domiciled in Albemarle persons who
had conversed with a man whose father had watched a
long string of these animals wading the Roanoke River
at a ford situated less than two hundred miles from the
site of the University. 1 The Pigeon Tops of the pres-
ent day point to the haunts where the wild pigeons
gathered in flocks of hundreds of thousands, either to
roost or to feed on the acorns that had dropped to the
ground in the autumnal woods on the mountain sides.
There is no surviving proof of the existence of Indian
wigwams in Albemarle when the first settlement began,
but during Jefferson's boyhood, small bands of warriors
would sometimes pass through, and, in one instance at
least, revisited a mound standing on the banks of the
Rivanna, where their dead had been formerly buried.
A deed recorded in 1751, refers, in the definition of boun-
dary lines, to a spot where a pioneer had been scalped
by a lurking brave. It was not until 1744, seventy-five
years before the University was chartered, that the
county had filled up with people enough to justify the
General Assembly in organizing a court within its bor-
ders; it was not until 1762 that Charlottesville, named
for the queen of the monarch whom Jefferson was to ar-
raign in the Declaration of Independence, was incor-
porated; and down to 1820, it continued to be the only
post-office in all that region. In 1745, the number of
inhabitants within the boundaries of Albemarle was
thought to be about 4,250; by 1790, that number, as
1 So stated by Dr. G. B. Goode, in an address before the United States
Geographical Society, delivered at Monticello, in 1896.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 109
counted in the first census, had swelled to 12,585; by
1 8 10, to 18,268; and by 1820, when the University was
building, to 32,618.
ill. Early Social Life
The social and economic history of the first settlement
of Albemarle county was an exact continuation of that
transit of population and civilization in Virginia which
had been noted from the foundation of Jamestown. Not
only was this original movement westward to the moun-
tains more halting, but it was less crude in spirit than the
flood which, in our own times, has carried the American
frontier across an entire continent. It was not a migra-
tion of petty farmers and rough adventurers of all sorts.
Among the names of the early patentees of Albemarle, we
find numerous representatives of the oldest and most in-
fluential families in the Colony: Carters, Randolphs,
Lewises, Nicholases, Meriwethers, Walkers, Henrys,
Carrs, Hopkinses, Terrells, Eppeses, and others of the
like social eminence. While spacious areas of ground
were, at first, taken up by these families with a nominal
residence only, as we have seen, nevertheless it was not
many years before their younger scions began to lay the
corner-stones of their homes in this forest wilderness.
At no stage of its growth was it a scattered community
of wild hunters and trappers alone; on the contrary,
from the second decade at least, it was a community
whose principal citizens had brought up from Eastern
Virginia all the subservience to law, refinement of man-
ners, and high civic spirit, that had distinguished the
plantation homes in the older shires during many genera-
tions. The Meriwethers and Lewises, and the long
stream of gentle families who followed them, had pos-
110 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
sessed, from their first settlement in Virginia, all the so-
cial advantages which the Colony had to bestow; and
when they made their way up from the open country,
through the dark woods, and built their houses along the
slopes of the Southwest Mountains, and in the eastern
shadow of the Blue Ridge, they simply transferred to
those green and quiet sites all the points of view, all the
moral convictions, all the domestic habits, all the personal
demeanor, which had given such a distinct flavor to the
social life on the banks of the tidal rivers below. So
soon as the children of these first settlers had arrived
at maturity, and inherited the parental estates, there was
no substantial difference to be discerned between the
homes in which they dwelt and the original homes of their
fathers still standing in the counties lying towards the sea.
It would hardly be correct to accept Thomas Jefferson
as an average representative of this second generation
born in the valley of the Rivanna, for he stood high above
the multitude of his fellow Americans even in the oldest
communities; but in mere social culture and domestic re-
finement, apart from native talents and acquired knowl-
edge, he was not one whit superior to the representatives
of those families who had patented the virgin lands con-
temporaneously with his father.
If any one now living could have taken his stand on the
portico of Monticello, in 1825, on the day that the Uni-
versity threw open its doors to students, and gazed down
upon the broad map of the country below towards the
west, south, north, and northeast, his eyes would have
caught sight of many residences that were already cele-
brated in the social history of the State, not only for the
culture and refinement of their atmosphere, but for the
high distinction of many of the citizens who owned them.
First, would be discerned, on the banks of the Rivanna,
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 111
the site of Shadwell, the birthplace of Jefferson himself,
now marked by a group of sycamores, as the original
house had been consumed by fire. Beyond, on a height
that suggested its name, would be visible the walls of
Pantops erected in 1815, and occupied by James Leitch,
who married the granddaughter of Nicholas Lewis, one
of the original settlers. Close by was Lego, the home
of a second Lewis, whose wife was the daughter of the
explorer, Dr. Thomas Walker. Not far towards the
northeast stood Edgehill, the home of the Randolphs,
who had so named it in honor of the battle in which their
cavalier ancestor had fought so bravely yet so unavail-
ingly. Beyond Edgehill was to be seen Belmont, the
home of Dr. Charles Everett, a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, and the private secretary of Presi-
dent Monroe; next, Cismont and Cloverfields, with
the graveyard in which the older members of the Meri-
wether family were buried; Belvoir, the home of the
Nelsons, who had acquired it by a fortunate marriage;
Castle Hill, the home of the Walkers, and afterwards of
the Riveses, through a similar intermarriage; and Kes-
wick, the home of the Pages.
Looking in turn towards the west, north and south,
there rose, within the scope of the eye, the homes of the
Monroes, the Maurys, the Gilmers, the Coleses, the
Nicholases, the Barbours, the Madisons, the Lewises, the
Woodses, the Minors, the Terrells, the Carrs, and nu-
merous other families identified with that region, in
most instances, from the earliest years of the community.
Either then, or a short time after the University was
founded, there resided in houses in sight from the same
eminence, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declara-
tion of Independence, and third President of the United
States; James Madison, the Father of the Constitution
112 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and fourth President; James Monroe, the fifth Presi-
dent and author of the celebrated Doctrine which bears
his name; Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the House of
Representatives and Minister to the Court of St. James;
Thomas Walker Gilmer, Governor of the State and Sec-
retary of the Navy; Edward Coles, Governor of Illinois;
William C. Nicholas, Governor of Virginia and United
States Senator; Thomas Mann Randolph, member of
Congress and Governor of Virginia; James Barbour,
Governor of the State, United States Senator, and Min-
ister to Great Britain; Philip P. Barbour, Speaker of the
House of Representatives and Justice of the Supreme
Court; George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the
Northwest Territory; Meriwether Lewis, the explorer
of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers; William C. Rives,
United States Senator and twice Minister to the Court
of Versailles; Hugh Nelson, member of Congress and
Minister to Spain; William Short, Minister to the
Hague; and William F. Gordon, member of Congress
and author of the sub-treasury scheme. In this list of
distinguished citizens, there are to be found three Presi-
dents of the United States, seven Governors of Common-
wealths, seven envoys to foreign countries, two Speakers
of the Lower House of Congress, one Justice of the Su-
preme Court, one Secretary of the Navy, two Secretaries
of State, one Secretary of War, three United States Sena-
tors, one noted soldier, and an equally noted explorer.
In no commensurate area of the Republic, at that time,
could there have been descried so many men, either al-
ready celebrated, or destined, within a few years, to win
fame in political life. A region of country that had been
occupied only one hundred years surpassed the oldest
parts of Virginia and the other States alike, in the ac-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 113
knowledged eminence of its principal residents, on account
of their splendid public services.
The social life of the county was, at all seasons,
enlivened by constant personal intercourse between neigh-
bors, and at times by a succession of gaieties. Isaac
Coles, writing to Cabell from his home in Albemarle, in
1811, mentions that his hours were mainly " given up to
visits, Christmas dinners and Christmas balls ! " Judge
Dabney Carr, describing a recent sojourn in the county
in 1821, remarks, by way of apology for failing to reply
to Cabell, " I was in such a constant round of company,
dining to-day here, and to-morrow there, that I could not
find a moment for a letter." " From a long and inti-
mate knowledge of Albemarle county," Gilmer wrote to
George Long, in 1824, " I assure you, I know no place in
America where there is a more liberal, intelligent, hos-
pitable, and agreeable society, nor where respectable
strangers could receive a kinder welcome." Jefferson,
who had passed so much of his life in the most polished
coteries of the Old and the New World, held a similar
view: "The society in Albemarle," he stated to a
European correspondent in March, 1815, "is much bet-
ter than is common in country situations. Perhaps, there
is not a better country society in the United States. But
do not imagine this a Parisian or an academical society.
It consists of plain, honest, and rational neighbors,
some of them well informed, and men of reading, all
superintending their farms, hospitable and friendly, and
speaking nothing but English."
Charlottesville, situated on a gentle eminence that
sloped to the Rivanna, was a small collection of houses
built around the court-house square. It hardly possessed
the consequence of a village from the point of view of
114 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
population alone, but as the seat of justice, the site of sev-
eral general stores and the foremost lawyers' offices, and
the scene of popular assemblages when the court was in
session, or a political rally was holding, it formed the
central point in the civic life of the community. Apart
from the court-house itself, the two principal houses in the
little town were the Swann and the Old Stone taverns.
It was here that the promiscuous concourse of citizens
dined on court days; it was here that travellers, passing
through to the Valldy or the West, stopped to bait their
horses or to spend a night; and it was here also that the
rather liberal taste for strong waters prevailing in those
times could always find indulgence. The lawyers prob-
ably met some of their clients here; and here certainly
many important conferences of all kinds were held. The
most animated spot within the limits of the village out-
side of the court-house square itself was, on court days at
least, the porch of the Old Stone tavern, for this ordinary
was kept by one of the most popular citizens of the
county, Triplett Estes, the condition of whose affairs, as
we shall soon see, threatened, at one time, to have some
connection with the origin of the University of Virginia.
Albemarle county, before the Revolution, was di-
vided between Fredericksville and St. Anne's parishes;
and of the two, Fredericksville, which had been extended
from Louisa county, was laid off first. St. Anne's was
formed in 1762 by drawing its eastern boundary line
along the Rivanna to a point opposite Charlottesville;
and thence the line ran through the town westward to
the Blue Ridge. The parish itself was situated south of
this line. The history of these parishes is pertinent to
our subject, for the clergymen who filled their pulpits
were, in several instances, well known teachers before and
after the Revolution, and the sales of the glebes, when the
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 115
Church was disestablished, created an important fund for
the promotion of public education. The glebe of Fred-
ericksville, which seems to have embraced four hundred
acres, was purchased for four hundred pounds in colonial
currency. On the other hand, the glebe of St. Anne's,
which lay not far from the Green Mountains, was, per-
haps, not so extensive or so profitable.
IV. Origin of Albemarle Academy
The most famous school situated nearest to Charlottes-
ville previous to the Revolution was the one conducted
by the Rev. James Maury, who had been the rector of
Fredericksville parish at the time that it took in also the
county of Louisa. Dying in 1770, he was succeeded by
his son, Matthew Maury, as the clergyman of Trinity
parish, the new parish created in the first division of
Fredericksville, and as the headmaster of his school.
It was here that Jefferson received his earliest tuition
after leaving home. This school enjoyed a high repu-
tation for thoroughness many years before Albemarle
Academy was incorporated, and was, no doubt, patron-
ized, before and after the Revolution, by many families
in Albemarle county, although more or less inconvenient
to them on account of its remoteness. Another clergy-
man, Rev. Samuel Black, had established a school near
the foot of the Blue Ridge; and about 1760, James
Forbes was teaching in the neighborhood of Ivy.
But the need of a school in the immediate vicinity of
Charlottesville became so pressing by 1783, that the
first practical step was taken to establish an academy
there. There is no evidence that Jefferson suggested
this project, but there is proof that he felt so deep an
interest in it that he exacted of a friend in the county
116 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the promise that he should be informed of its prospects
of success during his own absence in Annapolis; and he
also assured his neighbors of his willingness to give per-
sonal aid by endeavoring to procure a tutor during his
travels in the North; and this promise he faithfully kept,
for while stopping in Princeton, he sought the advice of
Dr. Witherspoon, President of Princeton College; but no
tutor could be obtained there, as that institution had not
yet recovered from the confusion caused by the war. In
Philadelphia, a short time later, he renewed his search
by inquiring for an Irish instructor; but he was told that
the state of learning in Ireland was so low that few
natives of that country had sufficient accomplishments
for such employment; or if they should have, desired to
secure it. Jefferson, in his perplexity, now thought of a
Scotch tutor; but before resuming the hunt, he wrote back
to his< correspondent in Albemarle that he would not go
on until he had heard that the plans for the academy
were fixed upon so firm a basis that he would be justified
in empowering some person in Scotland to engage there
a competent teacher. " It was from that country," he
said, " that a sober, attentive man would be most cer-
tainly obtained." He was so soon called away by his
mission to France that he does not appear to have had a
chance for forwarding the design by further personal co-
operation; and afterwards, down to 1809, was so con-
stantly absent from home, owing to his official duties in
Washington, that he had not leisure to consider it fur-
ther in a practical way.
The purpose of establishing the school seems to have
slumbered for many years, but, in 1803, or on some day
just previous to it, the plan was revived, and so keen
was the interest now aroused, that, in the course of that
year, a charter was obtained and the school incorporated
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 117
as the Albemarle Academy. By this date, the popula-
tion of the county had substantially increased, and the
need of a good classical school must have been more ur-
gent than it had been twenty years earlier, when the
scheme was broached for the first time.
Did the new academy enter at once upon an existence
more solid than that of an academy on parchment? Ap-
parently, it did not. In 1802, an Act of the General As-
sembly laid down the manner in which the money accruing
from the sale of the glebe lands in Fredericksville and
St. Anne's parishes was to be secured for any permissi-
ble object: a majority of the freeholders and household-
ers of the county had only to submit a petition to the
overseers of the poor clearly defining their purpose. It
is possible that this Act was passed at the instance of per-
sons interested in the projected academy; but that the
fund was not appropriated is demonstrated by the fact
that, when, in 1814, the scheme was resuscitated by the
surviving trustees under the old charter, one of the first
steps taken was to apply to the General Assembly for
the possession of this fund, an indication that it had not
yet been disposed of, for it would certainly have been
used had the original design been carried out in 1803.
About this time, there was a school at Milton on the
Rivanna conducted by William Ogilvie, an excellent clas-
sical scholar of Scotch birth, who gave the earliest tuition
to the sons of many conspicuous families of Albemarle
and adjoining counties. In 1806, Professor Girardin de-
termined to resign his chair in the College of William and
Mary, and consulted Joseph C. Cabell, then in Williams-
burg, as to the most promising site for founding a large
school of his own. Cabell conferred with his brother,
Judge William H. Cabell: " Shall we place Girardin in
the academy at New Glasgow," he wrote, " or shall we
118 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
connect him with Ogilvie and establish them at Char-
lottesville? I wish to do the latter." * Now, it is quite
improbable that Cabell, whose birthplace and original
home was at Warminster, on the James River, not very
many miles away, would have suggested Charlottesville
as a suitable place of settlement for two distinguished
teachers like Ogilvie and Girardin had he known that
they would have to meet and overcome the rivalry of an
academy already in operation, and backed by an influen-
tial board of trustees and a large circle of wealthy
patrons.
Not until 1814 does the Albermarle Academy exhibit
the feeblest sign of practical life. When the project
was revived, only five of the first trustees, namely John
Harris, John Nicholas, John Kelly, Peter Carr, and
John Carr, took hold of it, for all the others had either
died, resigned, or emigrated to the West. The vacancies
in the list, the natural result of the lapse of a decade, had
not been filled as they arose; and this would certainly
have been done had the Academy, in reality, been under
way, since, in that case, it would have called for and re-
ceived the close supervision of a large and interested
Board. The original members had fallen off, it would
seem, because there were no duties to perform. Indeed,
the Academy so far had been merely a name.
What was the motive at the bottom of the resuscita-
tion of the charter? Quite probably the principal one
now, as during many years past, was that there was an im-
mediate need for the school; the subordinate one, per-
haps, was the desire to bolster up financially Triplett
Estes, the proprietor of the Old Stone tavern, the jovial
friend of all those citizens of the county who had eaten
of the dishes from his kitchen and drunk of the spirits
1 Cabell Papers, University Library.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 119
from his cellar. In a letter which George W. Randolph
wrote to Dr. James L. Cabell, in 1856, when the Stone
tavern was yet standing, he repeated the story of the
tentative purchase which had been told to him by Alex-
ander Garrett, one of the new trustees of the Academy
after its revival in 1814, and one, therefore, conversant
with all the details of this event at the time, though his
memory may have been weakened subsequently by age.
It was Mr. Garrett's impression, says Mr. Randolph,
that " the owners of the present Monticello House,
with which the Stone tavern had been incorporated be-
fore 1856, for the purpose of raising the value of
their property, and partly, no doubt, from public spirit,
undertook to establish an academy." x As the petition
which certain citizens of Albemarle, at a later day, ad-
dressed to the General Assembly sought the right to col-
lect funds by lottery to buy this house for the expressed
purpose of profiting Triplett Estes, it seems unlikely, as
Mr. Randolph reports, that any of the trustees had a
personal interest in the property beyond a mortgage.
On the contrary, the concern shown by Estes and his
friends in the proposed sale would appear to demonstrate
that he alone was to be the beneficiary. The building
itself was ample security for any lien which may have
rested on it.
As the scheme of the Academy had been under consid-
eration during many years, and as the need for it was
greater now than ever, the five surviving members of the
old board probably saw in Estes's offer a very uncommon
chance of securing the right kind of structure for the
projected school in Charlottesville, where alone they
perhaps thought it should be placed, and where alone
an edifice large enough for its purpose was likely to be
1 This letter will be found among the Cabell Papers, University Library.
120 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
found. If, in establishing the Academy, a popular citi-
zen, who happened to have the property wanted, could
also be assisted, the housing thus made attainable was not,
on that account, rendered less desirable or less satisfac-
tory to the trustees. Furthermore, those trustees were
aware that it would be necessary to turn to a lottery to
raise in part at least the fund which they would require.
That lottery was certain to be looked upon with more
favor in Albemarle and the adjacent counties if it were
associated in the minds of the citizens in general with
the expectation of succoring so worthy and so genial a
boniface as Estes.
So far as can be discovered, Jefferson had no part of
any kind in the consultations that led up to the first
meeting of the five trustees on March 25, 1814. He
went back to Monticello in 1809, and from that time be-
came a permanent resident of the county. There was an
interval of five years before the surviving members of
the old board reassembled. Why had he manifested no
interest in the charter of 1803, and, so far as we know,
why was he not previously approached by the trustees
with the view of enlisting his influential co-operation?
Apparently, during these years, he made no suggestion
with respect to the Academy; he gave no advice; nor did
he take any step whatever, either alone or along with
others, to revive the scheme. While his concern for the
advancement of education was never more lively than
during the immediate period that followed his return to
his home, it is quite possible that his long absences from
the county, and the dignity of the great offices he had
filled, had produced a certain aloofness in his intercourse
with his neighbors. There is little proof of any intimate
association on his part with the community around him.
He was not a public speaker, and so far as can be judged,
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 121
his attention was now absorbed by his correspondence,
his agricultural experiments, his domestic circle, and his
private visitors, who furnished him with the most culti-
vated and distinguished society. Had he been in close
affiliation with the trustees of the Academy, either before
or after he became a member of its board, it is not prob-
able that, when the Academy was converted into Central
College in 1816, he would have omitted the entire num-
ber from the governing body of the new institution, even
if he were anxious to increase the influence of that body
by placing on it only men known throughout Virginia.
Jefferson's participation in the memorable first meeting
of the surviving trustees at the Stone tavern was wholly
accidental and unexpected. It seems that, following his
habit after one o'clock in the day, he had left Monticello
for his afternoon ride, and had turned his horse's head
in the direction of Charlottesville. As he passed through
the village, he was seen from the Stone tavern by one of
the trustees, who, aware of his interest in education, and
justly thinking that his advice would be of substantial
service, suggested that he should be asked to dismount,
and take part in the discussion then going on in one of
the rooms in the inn. He cheerfully complied with the
invitation, got down from the saddle, and joined the
circle within. He first counseled them to fill at once all
the vacancies in the board; and this seems to have been
promptly done. His own name was inserted at the head
of the list, which ran as follows: Thomas Jefferson,
Jonathan B. Carr, Robert B. Streshley, James Leitch, Ed-
mund Anderson, Thomas Wells, Nicholas M. Lewis,
Frank Carr, John Winn, Alexander Garrett, Dabney
Minor, Samuel Carr, and Thomas Jameson. To this
list should be added the names of the surviving members
of the original board: John Harris, John Nicholas, John
122 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Kelly, Peter Carr, and John Carr. Further additions to
the number were made in the course of the ensuing twelve
months.
What were the histories of the principal men who com-
posed the reformed board? Without exception, they
were drawn from the body of the substantial and respon-
sible citizens of the county, those " plain, honest,
rational, and well-informed neighbors " of Jefferson, to
whom he referred in the letter, already quoted, written
this very month of the same year. Frank Carr was, at
one time or another, a physician, teacher, editor, and
farmer, and in the latter character filled the useful office
of secretary of the Albemarle Agricultural Society. He
also sat on the bench of magistrates and served as
sheriff. Edmund Anderson was a brother-in-law of
Meriwether Lewis, the famous explorer of the Missouri
and Columbia Rivers. Nicholas M. Lewis was a great-
grandson of Nicholas Meriwether, one of the earliest
landowners in Albemarle. His father had been a dis-
tinguished officer in the War of the Revolution, surveyor,
sheriff, and magistrate, and the adviser of the family at
Monticello during Jefferson's numerous absences from his
roof. John Winn had laid by a competence in mercan-
tile pursuits in Charlottesville, and had afterwards pur-
chased the valuable estate of Belmont, which he occupied
as his home. Alexander Garrett, who was to become
the bursar of the University, was, at one time, the deputy
sheriff and deputy clerk of the county. Peter Carr was
a member of the bar, and had formerly been associated
with Jefferson as his private secretary. John Kelly, like
John Winn, was a successful merchant, was very alert in
the affairs of his church, and enjoyed such a high repu-
tation for integrity and good sense that he was frequently
appointed to act as the administrator of estates. John
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 123
Nicholas, who was sprung from one of the first settlers,
was a grandson of Colonel Fry, who, with Peter Jeffer-
son, drafted the celebrated map of Virginia that is desig-
nated by their names. He owned a large area of land in
the neighborhood of the town, and for some years was
the clerk of the county in succession to his father. James
Leitch was, during a subsequent period, the proprietor
of the Pantops estate. Dabney Minor was a member
of a family that has always been actively and honorably
identified with every interest of the county. Samuel
Carr, whose pursuit was that of farmer, had sat on the
magistrates' bench and served as colonel of cavalry in
the War of 1812; and he also won political distinction as
a delegate and senator in the General Assembly. John
Carr was the first clerk of the circuit court of Albemarle,
and was also the clerk of the district court of Charlojites-
ville. Thomas Jameson, a descendant of one of the ear-
liest patentees of the lands on Moorman's River, was a
physician who practiced at the county seat and in its
vicinage. Streshley, Wells, and Harris, the three re-
maining trustees, were all citizens of respectable position
in the community, well fitted by character and intelligence
for the performance of the highly responsible duties
which they had undertaken.
Merchants, lawyers, physicians, farmers, clerks of
court, magistrates, sheriffs, members of the General As-
sembly, either then or yet to be, such were the men
who sat on the board of trustees of Albemarle Acad-
emy. With a few exceptions, they were sprung from
fathers or grandfathers who had come into the county
with the first immigration, and all were bound to its soil
by financial interests, ties of home and family, and the
associations of a life-time with kinsmen and friends. At
their head stood Jefferson, ready to give them the full
124 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
benefit of his long experience of men, and ripe wisdom in
the management of the most intricate public affairs.
There was not another among them who approached him
in personal distinction, or in knowledge of educational
principles; and all were willing to follow his serene and
farsighted leadership, now so essential to the success of
their plans.
v. Acts of Albemarle Academy Trustees
Adjourning on March 25, the trustees re-assembled
on April 5. The principal business transacted on that day
was the election of Peter Carr as President of the Board,
and of Frank Carr as Secretary, and the appointment
of a committee, with Jefferson as its chairman, to draw up
a code of general regulations for the government of
the Academy so soon as its doors should be thrown open
to students. A motion to choose at once the site for
its building was put off, in order, doubtless, to await the
report of the committee now selected to suggest the
means of obtaining the funds needed for the completion
and maintenance of the projected institution. Adjourn-
ing over from April 15, because barely a majority of the
trustees were present, Jefferson himself being one of
the absentees they re-assembled on May 3. Again
Jefferson did not attend; but as fifteen trustees answered
to their names at roll-call, matters of the first importance
were straightway called up for consideration and debate.
The committee chosen to devise a plan for procuring
money recommended that a lottery should be used for
that purpose. The terms adopted for this lottery dem-
onstrate the seductive manner in which it was to be em-
ployed: four thousand filled-in tickets were to be printed;
and as each was to be sold for five dollars, it was expected
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 125
that, by this means, the sum of $20,000 would be col-
lected for distribution as prizes. The largest of these
prizes was to amount to five thousand dollars; the next
largest to two thousand; and the third, fourth, and fifth,
to one thousand dollars each. The remaining ten thou-
sand dollars was to be divided into smaller sums for
prizes running all the way from one of five hundred dol-
lars to one thousand of five dollars respectively. The
profit was to be derived from twenty-six hundred and
eighty-five blank tickets, to be disposed of at the same
time as the prize tickets at five dollars a piece. The
drawing was to take place in Charlottesville eighteen
months after the sale of all the tickets had been com-
pleted; or if the trustees should so determine, at an earlier
date.
The report of the committee on rules and regulations,
which bore throughout the scholastic and administrative
stamp of its chairman, Jefferson, stated that the Acad-
emy's aim would be to provide higher instruction for
youths already thoroughly grounded in a course of read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic. It was to consist of such
studies, at first, as promised to be most useful; and as
the income of the institution should grow in volume, the
number of these studies was to be enlarged so as to em-
brace other and wider fields of knowledge. A commit-
tee of three was to be nominated yearly by the Board to
keep every branch of the tuition under observation; to
suggest what new departments should be added; to en-
force discipline among the students; to regulate the ex-
penses; and to overlook the entire domestic economy
of the Academy. Thomas M. Randolph, Jefferson's son-
in-law, was now a member of the Board, and he, Peter
Carr, and Jefferson, the three most conspicuous and influ-
ential trustees, were selected as the committee to petition
126 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the General Assembly for an appropriation, in support
of the Academy, out of the money that had arisen from
the sale of the glebe lands of St. Anne's and Fredericks-
ville's parishes. By an act passed February 13, 1811,
the county court of Albemarle had been authorized to
appoint a commissioner to invest the funds accruing from
this sale in the. stock of the Bank of Virginia. It seems
that only the interest, at this time at least, could be used
for the establishment of a public school or schools in the
county, in harmony with the provisions of the Act of 1796
for the education of the people. But before either prin-
cipal or interest could be disposed of, the consent of the
freeholders had to be obtained, as required by the Act
of 1802, already referred to. It was important for the
trustees of the Academy to secure this acquiescence before-
hand, since it would fortify their petition for the entire
sum when brought before the General Assembly. At
this moment, the money was already in the custody of
John Winn, a member of the Board, who had become the
commissioner by order of the court; and it seems now
to have only needed the approval of a majority of the
voters, and the authorization of the Legislature, to as-
sure the immediate diversion of the whole amount,
principal as well as interest, to the use of the Academy.
On June 17, a committee, composed of John Winn,
James Leitch, John Nicholas, Frank Carr, and Alexan-
der Garrett, was named to decide upon the most suitable
site for the institution. Should a new edifice be erected
on the most commodious and economical plan, or should
a house already in existence be chosen? The question
before the committee really was: should the Stone tavern
be purchased from Estes, or should they buy new ground
in the neighborhood of Charlottesville where no building
was already standing?
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 127
It is no cause for surprise to find that, when the trus-
tees re-assembled on August 19, Jefferson was present for
the first time since their second conference. The point
coming up for determination was the one which interested
him most. It is easy enough to comprehend that the
mind which conceived the splendid group of University
structures at a later date, shrank from the possibility of
a rough tavern, of no architectural beauty whatever from
cellar to garret, being accepted as the. correct housing for
the institution which he had already resolved to enlarge
into a great seat of learning. Fortunately, he was not
a common local politician, for had he been, he would
have looked upon the good will of a popular innkeeper
as important to the success of his political future, and,
therefore, not to be jeoparded; nor were his social re-
lations with that innkeeper such as to make him hesitate
to derange his plans. Jefferson concentrated his gaze
upon the paramount claims of his own great scheme; and
he was too sagacious to yield one inch, even in the ob-
scurity and uncertainty of its initiation. As he was on a
footing of friendship with all the members of the build-
ing committee, it is reasonable to presume that he was
consulted by them when they came to draft their report;
unquestionably, its tenor was in harmony with his own
wishes and convictions; and when it was handed in, he
was in the room to support it with the weight of his in-
fluence with the board. The report took the ground that
it was not advisable to purchase a building within the
town, but that an unoccupied site, at least half a mile
from its boundaries, should be bought. The Academy,
however, in making this selection, was not to be compelled
to pay a higher price than it would have been required
to do had an improved and convenient situation in Char-
lottesville been preferred. As there were now no funds
128 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
in the board's possession, the committee recommended
that the choice of the site should be put off until a defi-
nite offer could be submitted.
The expectation of obtaining funds was based on three
petitions to be sent to the General Assembly: the first,
for the appropriation of the money from the sale of the
glebes, now in the custody of Commissioner Winn; the
second, for a dividend accruing from the interest of the
Literary Fund; and the third, for a lottery.
The first two of these petitions had already been drawn
by Jefferson, Randolph, and Carr. The petition for the
lottery was signed by one hundred and forty-seven citizens
of Albemarle county, who did not disguise the fact,
even in the document itself, that one of the purposes they
had in view was to make certain the collection of funds
sufficient for the purchase of the Old Stone tavern, in
order to assist its genial proprietor financially. There was
no word of disapproval by Jefferson of that petition on
this account, although it is altogether probable that he had
no patience with this particular side of it. With another
of its clauses, however, he was warmly in sympathy; in-
deed, this section seems to have received its tone from
his own exasperated and outspoken opinion of the im-
poverished means of acquiring a higher education in his
native Commonwealth. " We have too long slept in
unpardonable apathy," it ran, " over the crying and la-
mentable fact that, in the rich, populous, and liberal State
of Virginia, there stands not one literary academy calcu-
lated to command the education of her youth. . . . We
see our youth flying to foreign countries (Yale, Prince-
ton and other Northern colleges) to obtain that of which
they are deprived at home: a liberal education. We
behold them asking of foreigners (the North) what
their fathers refuse them. It is calculated, in an alarm-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 129
ing degree, to alienate the young from the spot of their
nativity, to instil into their young, open, and unsuspect-
ing minds, opinions and sentiments inimical to the inter-
est and happiness of their parent country (Virginia), for
we see that they have too frequently returned back into
the bosom of that country with a respect and affection
for everything abroad, the effect of which is a contempt
and disrespect for everything at home." 1
These words have the characteristic ring and flavour of
Jefferson in writing about Northern institutions of learn-
ing at that time, or in commenting upon the supposed
monarchical designs of the Federalist leaders.
After the meeting of the Board on August 19, his in-
terest in the plans for the Academy grew rapidly warmer
and far more personal. On September 7, nineteen days
subsequently, he penned the famous letter to Peter Carr,
the president of the board of trustees, from which quo-
tations have already been made, as offering the most pre-
cise and voluminous statement by himself of his views on.
education. That letter demonstrates in the clearest man-
ner that his mind was now deeply engaged with the
thought of converting the projected academy into the
university which he had so long been contemplating.
"What are the objects of our institution?" he asks.
" Let us take a survey of the general field of science,"
he replies to his own question, " and mark out the field
we mean to occupy at first, and the alternate extension of
our views beyond that, should we be able to render it as
comprehensive as we would wish. . . . We must select
the materials from the different institutions of others
which are good for us, and with them erect a structure
whose arrangement shall correspond with our own con-
1 This document is preserved, in the form of a copy, among the Cabell
Papers, University Library.
130 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ditions, and admit of enlargement. With the first (pri-
mary) grade of education, we shall have nothing to do.
The sciences of the second grade are our first object:
(i) languages, including history; (2) mathematics, in-
cluding chemistry, zoology, botany, mineralogy, anatomy,
and the theory of medicine; and (3) philosophy. To
adapt them to our slender beginnings, we must separate
them into groups comprehending many sciences each,
and greatly more in the first instance than ought to be
imposed on, or can be completely conducted by, a single
professor permanently. They must be subdivided from
time to time as our means increase, until each professor
shall have no more under his care than he can attend to
with advantage to the students and ease to himself.
In the further advance of our resources, professional
schools must be introduced and professorships established
in them also."
Jefferson asserts, in the same remarkable letter, that
he had " lost no occasion to make himself acquainted with
the best seminaries in other countries, and with the opin-
ions of the most enlightened individuals on the subject
of the sciences worthy to be taught in the new institu-
tion." So keen was the interest which he now felt in
its expected evolution into a great seat of learning, that,
for the first time, he began to regard with just apprehen-
sion the possible dissipation of the moneys, derived from
the sale of the glebes, that had been deposited in the sev-
eral State banks. Were such banks safe places of cus-
tody? " Perhaps, the loss of these funds," he wrote
Cabell, only three weeks after the date of the letter to
Carr, " would be the most lasting of the evils proceeding
from the insolvency of those banks." There is a sug-
gestion of pathos in this solicitude about a sum so small
and so inadequate for the development of the noble
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 131
scheme which he had in mind; but he was clearly aware
of the opposition which he would have to overcome be-
fore he could hope to obtain even a meagre legislative
appropriation; and he was, therefore, the more earnestly
disposed to husband the few petty resources for public
education which he knew could not be disputed or with-
held. In the prosecution of his plans, he seems to have
gone so far as to submit to the trustees of the Academy
a sketch for the building of a separate pavilion for each
separate school, with the entire number grouped along
three lines of a square, and in each a spacious lecture-
"hall and two apartments for the use of the professor who
would occupy it. 1 This is an additional proof of how
little he was thinking of the small local academy, and how
much of the university which he intended to take its
place. The Academy, indeed, was a mere figure of straw
in his scheme, to exist only for such time as would b'e
required to procure the charter of the College, which
was to forerun the University somewhat as the Academy
was to forerun the College.
VI. The Academy Converted into a College
Did the papers sent to David Watson, the delegate
from Louisa, by Peter Carr, as president of the board
of trustees, to be submitted to the General Assembly at
the session of 1814-15, contain a petition for the con-
version of the Academy into Central College? At this
time, Charles Yancey and Thomas Wood represented
the county of Albemarle in the Lower House, and Joseph
1<( A plan for the institution," he wrote Cabell in January, 1816, "was
the only thing the trustees asked or expected of me." Jefferson when
he used these words was evidently referring to the beginning of his
association with the Academy scheme. His later activities in connection
with that scheme were unremitting.
132 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
C. Cabell in the Senate. Why was it that David Watson,
the delegate of a neighboring county, was preferred for
an important service that did not concern directly his
own constituents? He was probably a friend of Carr's,
and perhaps more influential than the Albemarle dele-
gates; but to pass the latter by was a slur upon them
which the future interest of the new seat of learning ap-
parently did not justify. Why were not the papers en-
closed first to Cabell, the senator for that district? Pos-
sibly because Cabell, having married and resided in Wil-
liamsburg, was supposed to be a staunch friend of the
College of William and Mary, the prospects of which
were certain to be damaged by the establishment of. a
college in Albemarle. In spite of this fact, it is prob-
able that, had Jefferson been consulted, he would have
recommended Cabell as the principal steersman, for Ca-
bell also represented the district, and although, at that
time, not intimately known to him, was sufficiently known
to raise a high opinion of his talents in Jefferson's mind.
An unnecessary delay would have been avoided had
Carr enclosed the papers to Cabell, for, during the whole
session of 1814-15, Watson held them back without giv-
ing any explanation of his dilatoriness. Jefferson wrote
to Cabell on January 5 (1815) that the petition had not
been presented to the General Assembly, and he gave
expression to his regret, for he thought that, had it been
submitted and received favorably, a small appropriation,
in addition to that asked for, might havel)een obtained,
which would have enabled the trustees to erect in Char-
lottesville what he said would be " the best seminary in
the United States." In his impatience, Jefferson sent
Cabell copies of all the papers, with the exception ap-
parently of the petition for the lottery, which had been
reposing in Watson's inert hands, for, with characteristic
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 133
foresight, he had been careful to retain duplicates of the
originals. The package forwarded contained : ( i ) a let-
ter that described the plans for the institution; (2) Jef-
ferson's reply to the observations of Dr. Cooper on this
plan; (3) the trustees' petition; and (4) the draft of the
Act which the General Assembly was expected to pass.
It was stated in the petition that the resources relied
upon by the trustees were the proceeds of the projected
lottery; the fund, with the interest added, accruing from
the sale of the glebes of Fredericksville and St. Anne's
parishes; and the dividend from the profits of the Liter-
ary Fund of the State as pro-rated to Albemarle county.
The additional aid which Jefferson, but for Watson's
neglect, had hoped to procure from the General Assembly
was a loan of seven or eight thousand dollars for a period
of four or five years. He declared that, with this amount
of money available, he would be in a position to engage
three of the ablest characters in the world to fill the higher
professorships, " three such characters," he said, " as
are not in a single university of Europe " ; and for those
of languages and mathematics, able instructors could also,
at the same time, be employed. " With these charac-
ters," he exclaims, " I should not be afraid to say that
the circle of sciences composing the second and final
grade would be more perfectly taught here than in any
institution of the United States." In these words, we
have again that almost pathetic touch to which we have
previously referred: the contrast between the magnitude
and nobility of his designs for higher education in Vir-
ginia, and the smallness of the funds at his disposal.
This was the inception of that protracted struggle for
State appropriations for the most beloved and treasured
scheme of his illustrious life, which was not to end until
he sank on his deathbed at Monticello, and which, at-
134 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tended throughout by alternate dejection and encourage-
ment, was pursued with an unselfish persistence and de-
votion that forms one of the most inspiring chapters in
the history of American education.
Before the Academy was merged in the College, his
correspondence with his most loyal and zealous coadjutor
in this prolonged appeal for assistance, began. " I had
no hint from any quarter," Cabell wrote on March 5,
1815, " that I was expected to bestow particular care on
the business. There was nothing which should have de-
feated the petition unless objected to by some of the
people of Albemarle, who might not wish to appropriate
the proceeds of the sale of the glebes to the establishment
of the Academy at Charlottesville; or a few members of
the Assembly who might have other views for the dispo-
sition of the income of the Literary Fund; or from East-
ern delegates from the lower counties, who may have
fears for William and Mary. ... I hope that there
would be no other effect produced by the plan on William
and Mary than that necessarily resulting from another
college in the State." This petition, the second of the
documents which Jefferson sent to Cabell in Richmond,
contained a prayer for the substitution of a college for the
Academy, and as this was a copy of the original petition
which Carr enclosed to the Louisa delegate, Watson, the
original petition itself must also have been of precisely the
same tenor. It was re-submitted, with the other papers,
to the General Assembly at the beginning of the session of
1815-16, but now under Cabell's general direction. On
December 18, he wrote to Isaac Coles as follows: " Not-
withstanding my unabated regard for the institution of
William and Mary, I shall do everything in my power to
give success to Mr. Jefferson's scheme of a college now
pending before the Assembly. The more the better. He
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 135
has drafted a beautiful scheme of a college at Charlottes-
ville."
The patron of the bill in the Lower House of Assem-
bly was Thomas W. Maury, one of the delegates from
Albemarle. When the debate upon it began, antag-
onism at once arose to that clause which asked for an ap-
propriation out of the profits of the Literary Fund in
proportion to the population of the county. This op-
position was based on the presumption that the public
uses to which this fund was to be applied had not yet
been determined; and on Cabell's advice, this provision
was struck out as not likely at that time to be adopted.
All the other clauses were ultimately approved by the
House. Before the measure, however, could reach the
Senate, Yancey, the other representative of Albemarle
in the lower body, seeking out Cabell, requested him to
offer an amendment to it, when called up in the upper
chamber, that would eliminate the clause empowering
the trustees of Central College to carry out the main
requirement of the law of 1796 by fixing the exact date
for putting in operation the general plan for public edu-
cation in Albemarle. Mr. Yancey was worried by the
apprehension that his constituents would be displeased
should they find themselves placed on a different footing
in this respect from the freeholders and householders of
the other counties, all of whom enjoyed the right to des-
ignate the time by popular vote. Cabell seems to have
belittled the grounds for this fear; but he shortly after-
wards discovered that the Governor of the State, a
shrewd politician, held the same opinion as Yancey.
His hope of securing the final passage of the bill in
the form in which the Lower House had left it, was soon
dissipated; discussion in the Senate brought out at once
an expression of hostility to that clause which clothed the
136 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
proctor of the College with all the functions of a justice
of the peace within the academic precincts. Cabell hur-
ried off a letter to Jefferson the very day the bill was
reported in the Upper House (February 16, 1816), to
find out why this stipulation had been inserted. His
purpose was to silence the unfriendly senators. Jefferson,
in his reply, which was delayed until the 24th, pointed out
that he had simply suggested the adoption of a rule which
had always prevailed in every great European seat of
learning; and that if the proctor was a man of integrity
and discretion, which might be presumed from his selec-
tion for his office, he was just as likely as the neighbor-
ing justices of the peace to prove himself entirely trust-
worthy in the exercise of all his judicial powers. Another
desirable feature was, that, acting as he would do in
the privacy of the College, -he would be able to shield
culprits among the immature students from the disgrace
of the commen prison by confining them to their rooms,
when their offenses were not very heinous. " My aim,"
Jefferson added, " was to create for the young men a
complete police of their own, tempered by the paternal
affection of their tutors." Nowhere, in his opinion,
would such a local police be so much required, for the
history of the College of William and Mary had demon-
strated, both before and after the Revolution, that stu-
dents and town boys would be constantly kicking up rows
and breaking out into riots to gratify their mutual feel-
ing of animosity. Should the proctor, in the perform-
ance of his magisterial duties, expose himself to the charge
of either partiality or remissness, the nearest magistrate
could quickly and easily interpose.
Jefferson's argument failed to convince the opposing
senators, and the clause was stricken out by Cabell; and
the like fate also befell at his hands that clause to which
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 137
both Mr. Yancey and the Governor had expressed their
emphatic objection as being impolitic and untimely.
Would the Senate, unlike the Lower House, be willing
to vote in favor of any kind of appropriation for the bene-
fit of the new College? Cabell thought that their con-
sent could be only obtained to a plausible subterfuge.
At that time, a Mr. Broadwood had acquired a great
reputation in the country below Richmond by his success
in teaching the deaf and dumb. " Why not invite him to
Charlottesville," Cabell wrote Jefferson in January, " and
establish him in the house which Estes has offered to
sell? Would it suit your purpose to get an Act passed
for a lottery to purchase that house for an establishment
for the deaf and dumb as a wing to Central College? "
So convinced was Cabell that only in some indirect way
resembling this could an appropriation be assured, that
he wrote to Jefferson again on the same subject before
time sufficient had passed for a reply to be returned to his
first letter. " It is barely possible," he remarks on this
second occasion, " that the General Assembly may give
the Central College something for teaching the deaf and
dumb. I am endeavoring to prepare the more liberal
part for an attempt at an amendment of a professorship
of the deaf and dumb. Thus far it is well received, but
it may be baffled. I have thought that such a plan might
engage the affection of the coldest member." Could
there be a more pertinent commentary on the obstacles,
that, on every side, confronted the advocates of popular
education in Virginia than this scheme, which Cabell
brought forward only in a spirit of despair? But Jeffer-
son, while he was anxious to get assistance from the public
treasury, was unwilling to lower the dignity of his great
plan by obtaining that aid on conditions which were in-
consistent with its true character. In his reply, he can-
138 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
didly stated, that, in his opinion, Charlottesville offered
no special advantages that would justify Mr. Broadwood
in removing his school thither. A large town, like Rich-
mond, was far preferable for such an establishment.
The aims of an academic college and the aims of a school
for the deaf and dumb were fundamentally different.
The one was designed for science, the other for mere
charity. " It would," he added, " be gratuitously taking
a boat in tow which may impede but cannot aid the mo-
tion of the principal institution."
Before the bill was put upon its final passage, Mr. Poin-
dexter, who represented the Louisa and Fluvanna district,
submitted a resolution that the share of those counties
in the sum accruing from the sale of the Fredericksville
and St. Anne's glebes, so far as these parishes overlapped
the area of that district, should be reserved for their
use, and as the proportion was small, Cabell thought it
advisable to assent; and he was swayed in doing this
further by his own conviction that the new college should
rely upon State appropriations rather than upon such
meagre resources as were set forth in the bill for its
creation.
Albemarle Academy was converted into Central Col-
lege by an Act of Assembly dated the fourteenth of Feb-
ruary, 1816. Among the influences which are said to
have hastened the passage of the bill was the success that
had crowned the canvass to obtain subscriptions for the
Academy; and also the announcement that the great polit-
ical economist of France, Say, having expressed his will-
ingness to remove his home to Albemarle, would, in that
event, quite certainly consent to be employed as a pro-
fessor in the new seat of learning. Perhaps, the most
curious fact associated with the incorporation of the Col-
lege was the strong probability, at one time, that it would
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 139
be established without the elimination of the Academy.
So much for the hold which Triplett Estes had on the af-
fections of the one hundred and forty-seven citizens of
Albemarle who had been urging the lottery as a means of
raising the fund needed to buy his property in Charlottes-
ville! An independent bill was submitted in the Senate
authorizing the lottery to be carried out, and providing
that, if the Visitors of the new college should prefer the
Old Stone tavern as a site, they should have the right to
buy it with the proceeds of the lottery. Should they fail
to do so, however, this sum could be used to secure that
site for the revived Academy. Cabell offered an amend-
ment that me proceeds should be put absolutely at the
disposal of Central College even if the Visitors should
decide that it would be improper to locate the institution
in the Estes house or unwise to purchase that house even
at a reasonable price. Cabell feared that, if the bill
should become law without this amendment, there would
arise a conflict between the Academy, which, under the
terms of that bill, would have to be placed in the Old
Stone tavern, and the Central College, created by an
entirely different Act, under the provisions of which its
Visitors were impowered to choose a site wherever their
judgment should guide them. The bill for the lottery
was rejected by the Senate, and with it disappeared all
danger of the threatened duality.
VII. Jefferson's Foresight for the College
One of the conspicuous qualities of Jefferson's many-
sided mind was a far-sightedness that was at once minute
and imperialistic in its scope. His possession of this char-
acteristic to an extraordinary degree has come to light in
the course of our previous narrative, but perhaps it was
140 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
never more clearly evinced than in the name which he
gave to the new college, and in his choice of the men who
were to be coupled with himself in its organization and
development. Had he styled it Albemarle College, he
must have put aside all hope of ultimately obtaining a
larger support from the State than would be granted to
any other of the local academies. At the best, the most
sanguine expectation that he could nurse would be, that,
in time, it would rise to the respectable but not pre-
eminent rank of Washington and Hampden-Sidney Col-
leges.
Jefferson had a State university really in view, and as
such an institution could be only founded with the assist-
ance of the Commonwealth, he wisely decided to give
the new seat of learning the name that would approxi-
mate the closest to the broad meaning of the words,
"University of Virginia "; in short, a name that, from
the very start, would lift it above the common level of
the academies and colleges already in existence, by cloth-
ing it with the dignity of an institution rightly bidding,
in the opinion of all, for the patronage of the Virginians
in the mass. By such a name alone, the supreme con-
venience of its situation, in those days of stage coach and
private carriage, would be indicated to every citizen in
the State who had a son to educate. But Jefferson looked
upon this last fact as important only because it would be
promotive of his main object. He anticipated that, when
the struggle for the site of the university, which he was
confident would be built in the future, began, the people
would have become accustomed to thinking of the col-
lege at Charlottesville as the only really central seat of
learning underway in Virginia, and for that reason, if
for no other, possessing the prior claim to final conversion
into a great State institution. In other words, he reck-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 141
oned the value of the temporary success to Central Col-
lege chiefly in the light of its increasing the chance of the
College's transformation into the University, when the
hour was ripe for that long forecasted event.
There was a choleric debate going on, at this time, as
to the wisdom of removing the capital from Richmond to
some place which would better subserve the convenience
of the Virginian people by its more central situation.
The advocates of Staunton were active to uproariousness
in urging the superiority of her claim on this score; and
some of them even put out a plain threat, that, unless the
seat of administration was transferred to the west of
the Blue Ridge, those parts of the Commonwealth would
confederate to erect a new State. It is not improbable
that, in the midst of this scramble for preference, Jeffer-
son harbored the hope that Charlottesville would be
selected as the new metropolis; and had he been a mem-
ber of the General Assembly at this hour, and as young
as he was in 1776, he might have secured the simultane-
ous establishment of both the capital and the university
on the banks of the Rivanna, in his native county. He
had shown how important he considered the association
of the two to be at the time that he was endeavoring to
broaden the course of study at the College of William and
Mary, when Williamsburg was still the seat of govern-
ment. Being fully aware, through his frequent corre-
spondence with Cabell, of the ferment in the General As-
sembly over the question of removing the Capital, he
clearly foresaw the opposition which both Staunton and
Lexington would stir up to the erection of the university in
the eastern shadow of the Ridge, Staunton because it
would interfere with the success of her campaign to ac-
quire the new seat of administration; and Lexington be-
cause it would put an end to the realization of her ambi-
142 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tion to become the site of the proposed State institution.
In giving the name " Central College " to the new seat
of learning, Jefferson, in a spirit of quiet calculation, de-
fied the political aspirations of the one town, and the
academic aspirations of the other; and at the same time,
tacitly announced to the entire Commonwealth that, when
the hour should arrive for locating the university, he was
going to make a bid for the site on the score of this cen-
trality, to which he knew no rival could pretend.
But he was not satisfied with creating but one favor-
able condition, at the very start, to sustain the claim
which he expected to bring forward just so soon as the
General Assembly should decide to establish a university:
his next step was to join with himself in the directorate
of his new college men of such preeminence in the social
and political affairs of the Commonwealth that their per-
sonal distinction would be a powerful agency in winning
popular respect for it, thus influencing public sentiment in
support of his ultimate designs.
One of the baffling questions that offers itself in this
somewhat obscure initial stage of our history is : how did
Jefferson succeed, apparently so amicably, 1 in getting rid
of the very estimable board of trustees of Albemarle
Academy? That board embraced, as we have seen, fif-
teen or sixteen citizens of the county who deservedly en-
joyed a high degree of repute in their own community.
Was no bad feeling aroused in them when the seat was
withdrawn so abruptly from under them? No reason for
their elimination that could have been submitted, how-
ever sound from a practical point of view, could have been
entirely acceptable to their sensibilities. Were they too
1 Some of the trustees of the old Academy actually sent a petition to
Governor Nicholas requesting the appointment of the men whom Jefferson
had selected for the College Board. Va. Cal. State Papers, X, p. 437.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 143
numerous? This was a fault which could have been re-
moved by reduction. Were they lacking in influence?
To intimate that they were was perhaps too delicate an
assertion to make even by innuendo. The plausible and
soothing explanation that was given by Jefferson was
probably this : ( i ) that the original board was too large,
and that it was better to drop all its members than to
irritate the many by choosing only a few from its num-
ber to serve on the second board: (2) that the only solid
hope of enlarging the scope of the new college was by
drawing together for its support a board which would
represent, not one county, but the entire State; and (3)
that the conversion of the College into a university, which
could only be accomplished by such means, would confer
both a sentimental and a material advantage on the peo-
ple of Albemarle county. It was, perhaps, this ulterior
scheme, well known to every member of the old board,
that softened the chagrin which must have been felt by
them as a body. In one alone did exasperation against
Jefferson show itself in action, and in that instance, this
may have been due to political and not to personal irrita-
tion. John Kelly was the exception. When an offer was
made for his land near Charlottesville for the purpose
of using it as the site of the College, he seems to have
declined it with a brusqueness that was decidedly offen-
sive; and this conduct was emphasized by the fact that
he was conspicuous in the religious life of the com-
munity.
The Board of Visitors of Central College comprised
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Da-
vid Watson, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and John Hart-
well Cocke. Jefferson and Madison, besides their ex-
traordinary services in other lofty public positions, had
each occupied the Presidency during eight years in critical
144 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
times. Mr. Monroe was, at the hour of his appointment,
the actual incumbent of that exalted office. The careers
and the characters of these three distinguished statesmen
belong to the history of the whole country, and are too
well known to call for any description here. The repu-
tations of the other three members of the Board were
confined to Virginia. It is not necessary to dwell on
the character of David Watson, or the events of his life,
as he seems, either from indolence or ill health, to have
taken no part in the labors of the Board; and a substitute
was ultimately found for him, apparently with his full
approval. There was a wide gulf between his conduct
in this respect, whether voluntary or involuntary, and
that of the remaining members of the body, Cabell and
Cocke, Jefferson's two most faithful and persevering co-
adjutors, the one in assisting him to obtain the appro-
priations from the General Assembly, which were indis-
pensable to the success of the University; the other, in
aiding him in its actual construction. The indefatigable
services of both to the institution continued during a pe-
riod of many years after the death of the " sachem," as
they admiringly called him in the privacy of their cor-
respondence ; and they stand in its history second only to
him in the energy, devotion, and intelligence of their
unceasing efforts in its behalf. That history would not
be adequately treated without a full account of their ca-
reers to show the reader the spirit and the calibre of the
two men, to whom, after Jefferson, the University was
most deeply indebted, either for its foundation, or for
its prosperity during its formative years. It is only by
examining the honorable record of their lives that we can
clearly understand why, after choosing a famous former
President of the United States, and an actual President,
as members of the new board, he should then have se-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 145
lected two younger men, whose reputations were limited
to the area of their native State.
Vlll. Joseph C. Cabell
Joseph Carrington Cabell, who was born in the tu-
multuous atmosphere of the Revolution, was the grand-
son of William Cabell, an English gentleman who emi-
grated to Virginia, patented a principality in the valley
of the upper James, and founded a family of social and
political importance in itself, and of remarkable ramifi-
cations by inter-marriage. Joseph's mother was sprung
from the Carrington family, which occupied a correspond-
ing position of distinction in the general history of the
Colony and State. The course of his education followed
the normal groove of those times, first, he sat under a
tutor in his father's house; next, attended two private
schools in Albemarle county; and then, after one term
passed at Hampden-Sidney College, recommended per-
haps by its nearness to his maternal kinsfolk, he entered
the College of William and Mary. Here he soon won
the affectionate interest of the venerable president, Bishop
Madison, by his accurate scholarship, uncommon talents,
and genial temper. The same superior qualities made an
equally strong appeal to his companions among the stu-
dents; his friends felt for him a tenderness so deep and
true that it continued to soften the tone of their letters
to him many years after they had become absorbed in
their callings; and that they were entirely worthy of him
in character and abilities alike, is proven by the eminence
which they reached in their native State, Isaac Coles,
private secretary of President Jefferson; Henry St.
George Tucker, Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeals;
Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Senator of the United States;
146 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Philip P. Barbour, Justice of the Supreme Court; Chap-
man Johnson, Robert Stanard, and John T. Lomax,
famous lawyers; and finally, John Hartwell Cocke.
Graduating in 1798, he began the study of the law under
St. George Tucker, professor of jurisprudence and poli-
tics in the College; but seems to have found constant
distractions in the gaieties and political demonstrations
that diversified the life of the little town.
Cabell was fettered throughout life with a delicate
constitution. Alarming pulmonary weakness began to
assail him even before his final departure from Williams-
burg. In 1 80 1, he made his first voyage for the restora-
tion of his strength; his tour, in this instance, did not
carry him further than Norfolk; but after spending sev-
eral months in the office of Daniel Call, in Richmond,
during the autumn of that year, he made a second voyage,
which reached as far as Charleston, where he passed the
winter. His taste for travel, which had its earliest stim-
ulus in this search for health, was not yet satisfied, for,
during the following summer (1802), he visited the prin-
cipal resorts in the mountains of Virginia, and in the
.autumn, set out on horseback on a long journey; Turkey
Island, on James River, was his first goal; from that place,
he rode to Fredericksburg, Mt. Vernon, Western Mary-
land, Harper's Ferry, and Winchester; and from Win-
chester returned to his home. He derived so little per-
manent benefit from this excursion in the open air that he
decided to pass a winter in Southern France. " While I
am compelled to spend time and money in pursuit of
health," he wrote his father, Colonel Nicholas Cabell, in
November ( 1802) " is it not better, at the same time, to
travel for improvement, and where can I turn my atten-
tion with more propriety than to the two most cultivated
countries on earth, England and France ? "
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 147
During the detention of his ship in the port of Norfolk
by unfavorable winds, he made his first and last applica-
tion for a Federal office. James Monroe had been ap-
pointed by the President to settle the irritating differences
which still hung on between the United States, on the one
side, and France and Spain, on the other. Cabell sought
the position of private secretary to the envoy, or the
secretaryship of legation attached to the mission, should
the former place have been already filled. " I hope," he
wrote Monroe, " that you will favor the views of one who
has impaired his constitution in the pursuit of science,
and who now goes to Europe chiefly with the view to
widen the sphere of his knowledge." But this high-
minded aspiration for office was frustrated so soon as it
expressed itself. Arriving at Bordeaux in February,
1803, very much debilitated by a rough voyage, he, nev-
ertheless, at once resumed his journey to Paris, and after
he reached that city, had opportunities to enjoy many of
the public and private pleasures which it offered, wit-
nessed a brilliant review of troops by Napoleon; dined
with Volney and Kosciusko; and went on long rambles
through the streets with Robert Fulton, who had come
over from London to continue his experiments with the
submarine in the waters of the Seine. Fulton urged his
companion to interest himself in internal improvements
on his return to Virginia; and the advice was not lost,
as the course of Cabell's future career will reveal.
During a visit to Italy, with the view of inspecting the
celebrated universities of that country, Cabell, while
stopping in Naples, was brought into delightful inter-
course with Washington Irving. They strolled through
the famous museums and palaces of the city together,
climbed to the crater of Vesuvius, and were nearly suffo-
cated with gas from its crevices by a sudden shift in the
148 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
wind. Together they slowly travelled to Rome, where
they passed Holy Week in the enjoyment of all those cere-
monies of the Church which made that part of the year
so splendid in the Eternal City. After his return to
Paris, in the same genial companionship, Cabell started
upon a second tour, which carried him, by measured
stages, into Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland, and later
still into England, where he was introduced into the lit-
erary circle that had as its centre the unconventional Wil-
liam Godwin.
By the advice of his physician, he dropped his books,
and filled up his time with lectures and conversation only.
His principal aim was always the acquisition of knowl-
edge, especially in the several departments of natural
science, and this led him to sit at the feet of Cuvier and
other eminent professors, in the study of zoology, vege-
table chemistry, chemistry proper, anatomy, and mineral-
ogy. " France," he wrote, " presented to my view all
the branches of natural history under the aspects of new
and captivating splendor." He assisted an American
friend, M acClure, in collecting a valuable quantity of min-
erals, in the course of which they explored together the
hills of Auvergne, and sauntered as far as the Alps; and
in order to extend and perfect his information about bot-
any, he spent a winter at the University of Montpelier,
famous at that time for the thoroughness of its instruction
in this province of Nature. . So keen was his interest in
education that he visited Pestalozzi at Yverdon to ob-
serve the original methods of that celebrated teacher of
the young. His intimacy with Washington Alston stimu-
lated his native taste for the fine arts; he made detours in
his travels to inspect the most renowned galleries; and
during his stay at Rome, purchased many engravings of
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 149
Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican, and also of the noblest
paintings by Poussin, Guido, and Domenichino.
When Cabell was on the point of setting out from Vir-
ginia for Europe, his brother, William H. Cabell, had
warned him " not to suffer anything to shake his attach-
ment for his own country, or to render him dissatisfied
with the American state of society, manners, and cus-
toms." ' The moment you feel any disposition of the
kind," he concluded, " fly back to America." There was
no need of this counsel, amiably designed as it was. Ca-
bell's thoughts, in all his travels, researches, and studies
abroad, were principally directed towards serving his na-
tive State by gathering up all sorts of knowledge that were
likely to be useful to it when applied for its benefit later
on. He returned to the United States in the spring of
1806, after an absence of three years, which had quad-
rupled his stores of information without weakening his
loyalty to the land of his birth. He brought back with
him a letter of introduction to Dr. Barton, of Philadel-
phia, who possessed a wide reputation for his attainments
in the sciences of botany and natural history. Through
a letter of introduction from Barton, Cabell for the first
time, made the personal acquaintance of Jefferson, whose
reception of him was marked by uncommon warmth and
cordiality, for Cabell was a friend of his secretary, Isaac
Coles; belonged to a family of high social station in Vir-
ginia; and was known to be interested in the sciences
which appealed most directly to the President's taste.
Jefferson tried to induce him to enter the Federal service,
offered him in turn the consulate at Tunis, the Under-
Secretaryship of State, the Secretaryship of Orleans Ter-
ritory, and finally, the Territorial Governorship ; but Ca-
bell had been too long abroad to be seduced into accepting
150 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
offices that would further prolong his absence from Vir-
ginia, with which he was now anxious to identify himself
again in both social and civic life.
He soon found a charming wife in Williamsburg in
the stepdaughter of the eminent jurist, St. George
Tucker, the daughter of Mrs. Tucker by her marriage
with George Carter, in early life. Mrs. Tucker herself
was a daughter of Sir Peyton Skipwith. In the veins of
the youthful and lovely Mrs. Cabell there ran, from these
two sources, the most aristocratic blood to be found in a
State that could rightly boast of the gentle descent of its
leading families. She was also the wealthiest heiress in
Eastern Virginia; her Corrotoman estate spread over an
area of nearly seven thousand acres of land, peopled by
several hundred slaves and many white tenants; and in
some years, the products of its soil swelled in volume to
four thousand bushels of wheat and three thousand bar-
rels of corn.
Although the laws of the State, at that time, vested in
the husband the property of the wife, Cabell kept the
splendid estate thus acquired entirely detached from his
own; administered its affairs in his name as trustee with
the most scrupulous care; and at his death, it reverted to
her trebly augmented in value through his sagacious man-
agement. With his own inheritance thus largely in-
creased, he was in the position of a man of handsome for-
tune, who could follow his own inclinations in the pursuit
of a calling, without being harassed by the necessity of
earning his daily bread. Should he begin again the study
of law? " Watkins Leigh was here yesterday," wrote
W. H. Cabell to him in April, 1807, " and said that you
ought not to think of law except as a politician, or except
as it will advance your political aims. He thinks there
is a moral obligation on every man in your situation to be
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 151
a politician." St. George Tucker, who was one of the
best, wisest, and most accomplished men of that day, held
a different opinion : he urged Cabell, with characteristic
earnestness, to aim at eminence in the law. Cabell re-
plied that he " meant to begin as a lawyer, and allow the
passage of time to settle the question whether or not he
should diverge permanently into the field of politics."
In the meanwhile, he resolved to attend the course of lec-
tures on jurisprudence which Judge Nelson was delivering
in Williamsburg, where Cabell was now residing with his
wife ; but this turned out to be only an excellent prepara-
tion for the political career upon which he was so soon
to embark, and which he was to pursue so usefully and so
honorably for so many years. His most intimate friends,
Watkins Leigh, Isaac Coles, and John Hartwell Cocke,
understood the predominant bent of his tastes. " You
have been a wanderer long enough," wrote Coles in De-
cember, 1807, " it is now fit that you should have a home.
. . . Build a box on your Warminster farm and become
a candidate for the Legislature from Amherst."
He adopted this counsel, went back to his native county,
offered himself for office, was successful, and took his seat
in the House of Delegates in December, 1808. He con-
tinued a member of that body during two very notable
terms, and was one of the committee that reported in
favor of the establishment of the Literary Fund, the most
vital legislative stroke of those times. He represented
the new county of Nelson in the Lower House; but, in
1810, was elected to the Senate as the member for the
district composed of the counties of Albemarle, Flu-
vanna, and Nelson. He retired from that body in 1829,
and from 1831 to 1833, sat again in the House of Dele-
gates, as that division of the General Assembly was the
one in which he could uphold and push the interests of
152 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the James River and Kanawha Canal to the most signal
advantage. In 1833, he was pressed to become a candi-
date for the Governorship, but declined to permit his
name to be used; and although an opportunity was fre-
quently open to him to enter Congress, he was content to
be of use to his State exclusively within its own borders.
He pointedly discouraged the effort to bring about his
nomination in 1822, with these simple and modest words,
" I have devoted the prime of my life to the service of
our district. I shall endeavor to close my course with
fidelity to my friends. . . . My mind feels relieved, now
that the world will be pleased not to regard my zeal on
certain subjects as sprung from a thirst for office and
popular favor."
In political as well as in personal intercourse, Cabell
was in the closest harmony with Jefferson. We shall
soon come to that epic chapter in the history of the Uni-
versity which records their great struggle, with tongue and
pen, to obtain the necessary appropriations for its con-
struction; but they were together interested in numerous
other questions of hardly less importance in principle.
In their voluminous correspondence, they are discovered
exchanging views on all sorts of subjects: on the right
of one generation to bind another by legislative enact-
ment; on whether a member of the House of Representa-
tives could legally represent a district in which he did
not reside; or whether it was expedient to divide a State
into townships rather than into counties. " My object,"
wrote Cabell, in 1814, " is to be useful to my country in
the station which I occupy (Senate), and in availing my-
self occasionally of your valuable aid, it would be highly
improper to disturb the tranquility of your retirement,"
and he, therefore, assures the venerable statesman of the
scrupulous privacy in which all his letters would be kept.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 153
Again and again he seeks that aid, either for a general or
a particular purpose bearing directly on his legislative
duties. In September, 1814, before setting out for Rich-
mond, he writes, " I would wish to carry some useful
ideas with me when I join the Senate, and I take the lib-
erty once more to ask you to furnish me with such sugges-
tions as you may deem useful." And a few weeks after-
wards, he writes again, evidently in acknowledgment of
Jefferson's prompt compliance with this previous request,
" I should be extremely thankful for any further com-
munication you may, at any time, be pleased to make me,
feeling myself always highly gratified and instructed by
any views which you take of any subject."
Cabell's sense of integrity as a public servant was so
pure and delicate that it amounted at times to feminine
sensitiveness. " Why will you suffer your peace of mind
and your happiness," wrote his brother, William H. Ca-
bell, in 1 8 14, " to be at the mercy of any man who chooses
to assail you, or to make even an insinuation against the
propriety of your conduct? I believe I should be less
concerned, were I convinced that ninety-nine one hun-
dredths of the world thought me a villain than you would
if you thought an obscure individual, one thousand miles
away from you, believed you only incorrect." *
The faithful and lofty spirit that animated him
throughout his political career is transparent in all he
did, spoke, and wrote. " I think the greatest service a
man can render," he remarked in one of his letters, " is
to speak the truth and to show that is his only object,"
and these simple words epitomized his personal as well
as his political motives. " You have pursued an erect
1 The firm course pursued by Cabell in the controversy over the removal
of the College of William and Mary, to be described later on, proved
that he could be serenely indifferent to criticism, and even to obloquy, if
he was sustained by the approval of his own conscience.
154 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and honorable course," said Cocke to him, in 1819, " and
as an enlightened and high-minded public servant ought,
you must be satisfied with the approbation of your own
conscience." Such was the attitude towards him of all
who had observed his actions, whether calculated to bring
to him universal popularity or general disfavor.
There were three great public interests of which Cabell
was an ardent and indefatigable supporter: Internal Im-
provements, Education, and Agriculture. We have al-
ready mentioned Robert Fulton's advice to him to make
the question of Internal Improvements a part of his po-
litical platform on his return to the United States. He
lived long enough to earn the name of the DeWitt Clinton
of Virginia by his unwearied exertions for the revival,
construction, and extension of the James River and Kana-
wha Canal, which, before the building of many railroads
in the Commonwealth, was looked upon as an enterprise
as imperial in its scope as the Erie Canal itself; and
justly so, for had it been situated in a community of large
financial resources, and not been obstructed by a vast
mountain crossing, it would have been extended to the
Ohio and Mississippi, and by pouring the wheat and corn
of the West into the lap of Norfolk, would have made
that city a second New York, and changed the destinies
of the State. Previous to 1821, only twenty miles of
the canal, beginning at Richmond, where it united with
tidewater, had been completed, and that only partly
at public expense. With the assistance of Chapman
Johnson, the distinguished lawyer, Cabell drew up a
charter for the new James River and Kanawha Canal
Company, and then undertook to obtain popular support
for the resuscitated enterprise. From the shores of
Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio, he travelled through county
after county, addressing the people from the steps of the
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 155
court-houses in the spirit of another Peter the Hermit, as
was said at the time, and earnestly soliciting subscriptions
to carry the bed of the proposed waterway far beyond
the crest of the Alleghanies. Under his Presidency, the
line was constructed westward for a length of two hun-
dred miles. In the administration of its affairs, he ex-
hibited, according to Governor Wise, a man particu-
larly competent to judge him correctly, " such conspicu-
ous zeal, ability, and decision, such unsullied integrity and
becoming dignity, and yet so much amenity, with so
choice, vigorous, and discriminating an intellect, and bore
himself with so much honor and justice, that he carried
with him, in his retirement, the universal respect, confi-
dence, and regard of those who knew him."
Cabell's interest in general education in Virginia was
not limited to one great seat of learning: he used his
influence on every occasion, and by every means, to im-
prove all the facilities for secondary and primary instruc-
tion also, and for both sexes too. At the hour that he
was the Atlas of the fortunes of the University in the
General Assembly, he was acting as one of the trustees
of the Charlottesville Ladies' Academy. He apparently
went so far as to have the methods of Pestalozzi adopted
in the schools of Nelson county; and he also made a
patient investigation of the Lancasterian system, which
was based on the social principle. He also planned to
erect so ambitious an institution as a college at War-
minster in the immediate neighborhood of his home at
Edgewood, and would probably have successfully carried
out this scheme by means of a public lottery, had not his
friends united in warning him of its supposed impractica-
bility, which dispirited him for its further prosecution.
" My great object," he wrote to one of the critics, who
had described the projected college as a lighthouse in the
156 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
sky, owing to the remoteness and seclusion of the site
chosen for it, " was to prove how much could be effected
by studious measures judiciously directed, and to encour-
age their introduction into other parts of Virginia."
Cabell's unfailing support of all bills before the Gen-
eral Assembly to improve the condition of agriculture in
Virginia had its stimulus in part in his keen interest in the
diversified operations of his own plantation. In corre-
spondence with Cocke, his most intimate friend, who was
an enthusiastic farmer, he is repeatedly making or reply-
ing to inquiries that played about all sides of the farmer's
life. Fruit trees, grass, wheat, tobacco, buildings, tim-
ber, rams, overseers, hedges, lime, machinery and ploughs,
one after another, are the subjects upon which special in-
formation was either sought or given. In September,
1818, he writes to another friend, Isaac Coles, that he is
too busy with surveying his lines to compose certain essays
which he had promised to read before the Agricultural
Society. " Confound politics," he exclaimed in a letter
to Cocke, in 1821, "welcome my native fields." "I am
jogging on here," he wrote to the same correspondent, in
1828, from Edgewood, " riding over my farms and
superintending the servants." He was not in sympathy
with the impatient sentiment that prevailed among many
Virginians, about 1830, in favor of Abolition, because
he was convinced that slavery was so intertwined with
all the roots of the community's life that it could not be
torn up without jeopardizing the health, even should it
not destroy the existence, of every associated interest.
But no master was ever more benevolent or more watch-
ful in his relations with his slaves; in 1848, when he was
far advanced in years, a typhoid epidemic broke out on
his plantation; notwithstanding his physical infirmities,
he passed four or five hours daily on horseback engaged in
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 157
visiting the sick, comforting them with kind and encourag-
ing words, and administering their medicines with his own
hands. He declined to accept Cocke's invitation to
Bremo at this time. " It is quite inadmissible for us," he
replied, " to leave those dependent on our care for their
lives to visit even the most valued friends."
Cabell died in 1856, and the last scene of his life was
consistent with the noble tenor of it throughout.
" Never," reported his nephew, N. F. Cabell, who was
present at the closing hour, " have I seen more dignity,
calmness, and resignation to the divine will." His death
was appropriately announced by the Governor of the
State, who spoke of him as emphatically and peculiarly
" the Virginia Statesman," the man whose entire public
services had been absorbed in building up and advancing
the general welfare of his native commonwealth. Hav-
ing possessed the close personal friendship of Jefferson,
Madison and Monroe, he had caught that spirit of wise
moderation, in both word and act, which had given them
such preeminence as political sages. And there was some-
thing too about his temper and demeanor that recalled
to those who knew him a still loftier example of manhood
and statesmanship. " No one could be much with Mr.
Cabell," remarks a friend of his in his last years, " with-
out seeing that he had taken George Washington for his
model. In his principles and his conduct, in the dignity
of his character, and even in the gentlemanly and becom-
ing particularity of his dress, you could not fail to observe
the resemblance." 1
IX. John Hartwell Cocke
John Hartwell Cocke is not to be credited with as con-
spicuous services in assisting in the foundation of the Uni-
1 Letter of T. H. Ellis in Richmond Whig, September, 1856.
158 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
versity as Cabell, but the work which he, as one of the two
members of the committee of superintendence, performed
in aiding in its building and initial development, gives
him a place in its early history second only to that of his
friend, the principal coadjutor of Jefferson. The family
to which he belonged had been planted in Virginia in the
seventeenth century, and had always stood in the first rank
for fortune and refinement. .Inheriting, like Cabell, a
competent estate, he was left at liberty to follow his own
tastes, which all leaned towards the pursuits of a country
gentleman. Unlike Cabell, he was destitute of political
aspirations; and he was drawn into enterprises of a public
character more by a high and keen sense of civic respon-
sibility than by any desire to raise his own personal
repute. He first appears in a public capacity in April,
1813, as captain of artillery. "After theorizing in the
nineteen manoeuvres," he jocularly wrote Cabell from the
field, " I am now making an excursion to the theatre of
the war to see a little practice." That he really possessed
military talent is evident by his promotion to the rank of
Brigadier before the war was brought to an end; and in
fact, he won such solid distinction as a soldier that his
name was, in 1814, canvassed in the General Assembly for
the office of Governor, until he positively refused to per-
mit its further use. " We need," said Randolph Har-
rison, in a letter to Cabell, " an active, intelligent, zealous
patriot, and one possessing a good deal of military skill
and ardor. There is no man in the State who unites all
these qualifications in so eminent a degree as John Hart-
well Cocke."
Cocke, like Cabell, was a broadminded advocate of
public improvements of all kinds, and, in 1823, visited
New York in order to inspect the new Erie waterway, and
to obtain practical information for opening up the ob-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 159
structed navigation of the upper James River. A few
years afterwards, he warmly supported a scheme to launch
a fleet of small iron steamboats on the turbulent bosom
of that stream ; and he was placed upon the earliest board
of directors appointed for the administration of the affairs
of the James River and Kanawha Canal.
Cocke's approval of popular education was so keen that
he threw the full weight of his influence in favor of every
attempt that was made to establish a State university;
he was chosen by the Governor, at Jefferson's request,
as a member of the Board of Visitors of Central College ;
and he was retained on the University Board in spite of
his protesting his disqualification, from lack of experi-
ence, to meet the increased responsibility. " As to my
personal views," he declared, with characteristic modesty
and unselfishness, " God forbid that I should permit such
grovelling motives to interfere with what I believe to
be the public interest." His enlightened opinion touch-
ing education extended to primary and secondary instruc-
tion also. He established near his beautiful home at
Bremo, in 1820, a seminary for boys under the age of
fifteen, and drew up for its government a set of rules
marked by excellent judgment. It was, however, his
own high character that was the principal ground of the
confidence which this school inspired in its patrons. " My
calculations for my son's improvement," wrote Robert
Saunders, of Williamsburg, to him, in 1819, " are made
more on his situation with you than on the talents and fit-
ness of the tutor. I am frank enough to say, without
intending to compliment you, that I prefer your superin-
tending eye to the benefit he might derive from the best
classical scholar I might know in Virginia."
But far more multiform in its scope than the Bremo
Academy was the gymnasium, on the most thorough Ger-
160 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
man model, which he strove so earnestly to set up at
Monticello, in the hope of encouraging the erection of
many others resembling it to serve as great preparatory
schools for the University of Virginia, which, at that time,
were very much wanted. 1
The spirit of the most catholic philanthropy animated
Cocke throughout life. He was deeply interested in the
labors of the Bible, Tract, and Sunday School Societies,
and frequently made the toilsome and irksome journey
to New England simply to attend the great conventions
of those bodies periodically held in the principal cities of
those States. The familiar social intercourse with in-
fluential Northern men of the different religious denom-
inations which these occasions rendered possible, created
in him a less prejudiced attitude of mind towards the
Northern States than was to be perceived among the Vir-
ginians at large. " While we nurse an angry spirit in-
stead of a conciliatory one towards them," he wrote to
Cabell as late as 1855, "the distance between us will
continue to grow." But it was not merely this temper,
which so wisely deprecated the further feeding of the
spreading and consuming sectional fires, that distinguished
Cocke from the personal friends about him. He was the
boldest and most persistent advocate in his native State at
that time of the adoption of universal prohibition. Ami-
able ridicule, sneering derision, and silent contempt for
the doctrine, which, in the next century, was to be incor-
porated in the statute book of Virginia, did not shake his
loyalty to his convictions on this subject, or divert him
from publicly and emphatically expressing them. " Of
all the events in our history," he said, " the Maine Law
1 This was after Jefferson's death. The plan was to purchase Monti-
cello, which, at that time, could "have been bought for six thousand '
dollars. A letter from Codke in the Rives Correspondence gives all the
details of this plan. A similar school was to be established in Norfolk.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 161
and its progress strikes my mind as the most important " ;
and he predicted that the great moral revolution which it
represented would pervade all Christendom. Governor
Preston, Andrew Stevenson, and Cabell, his intimate
friends, never let a chance slip without prodding him,
with high good humor, for his obsession; but Cocke's
sole reply was to send them another flight of pamphlets
barbed to a nicety against King Alcohol. At the very
moment that they, in the spirit of that drinking age,
were laughingly condemning his habits of abstemious-
ness as repugnant to good fellowship, they honored
the benevolent motives in which all his actions had their
fountainhead. " I appreciate your feelings in your soli-
tary home," wrote Cabell, in 1848, " and do not wonder
that you roam about the world to soothe your feelings
by doing good to your fellowmen."
Cocke was as firm and outspoken an opponent of duel-
ling and slavery as he was of intemperance. Against the
first, he directed his pen with all the literary and reason-
ing skill at his command; and the latter he was in the habit
of bitterly stigmatizing as a " curse " to his native State.
Only a man of invincible moral courage could have openly
taken such a stand in those intolerant times. As early as
1821, he pressed upon the representative in Congress
from his district the advisability of an amendment to the
Constitution that would allow an appropriation to be
made for the transfer of Southern negroes to Africa as
the only means of practical emancipation then available.
Ten years afterwards he wrote, " I have long and still
do steadfastly believe that slavery is the great cause of all
the great evils of our land, individual as well as national,
and every man of common foresight and reflection is
obliged to admit that we or our posterity are inevitably
destined to be overwhelmed unless the cause is removed.
162 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
. . . How is it that all will not agree to go faithfully
and honestly about the work of removing this blot upon
our national escutcheon; this cancer that is eating into the
vitals of the Commonwealth? " He was in favor of sub-
mitting a petition to the National Government in order
to obtain the assistance of the country at large, for he said
that the vast and complicated task of extirpation could not
be successfully prosecuted in the " straight-jacket which
the States Rights gentlemen have put on us." He did
not join in the outcry of exasperation and execration,
which, in the South, greeted the publication of Uncle
Tom's Cabin, for he anticipated that it would hasten the
end of the institution which it attacked so subtly, and
which he himself detested so heartily. Writing, in 1846,
he declared that he expected, should he survive to a great
age, " to see such changes in Virginia touching slavery
that it would now be deemed to be madness " to predict;
and as his death did not occur until after the War of
Secession, his own eyes beheld the abysmal ruin which he
had forecasted one third of a century before it actually
took place.
Cocke, in the spirit of all the Virginians who occupied
the same rank in society, found a wholesome delight in
the pursuit of the different branches of agriculture. As
far back as 1809, he wrote to Cabell that his time was
" divided between his family, his farms, his garden, and
his books " ; and that he did not have a moment " to be
troubled about politics." " I would not change my situa-
tion," he exclaims, " with the most puissant prince of the
House of Napoleon." He exhibited this characteristic
spirit of independence even in his views of his own calling.
Tobacco was still the principal crop of the region in which
his home was situated, and it had already gone far to-
wards depreciating the fertility of its lands. There was
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 163
no public sentiment, however, favorable to its abandon-
ment. Cocke, as he expressed it, " dared to sport a new
idea " about this staple by urging that it should be no
longer cultivated; and he was probably influenced in doing
this by the hope that, not only would an improvement of
the soil follow, but that the vices of chewing and smoking
would, in the end, be seriously curtailed, even if they did
not entirely disappear. He spoke of tobacco tillage and
the use of slave labor as the twin evils of agriculture in
Virginia, and until both should come to a stop, the State,
he predicted, would enjoy no prosperity. The laws prac-
tically debarred him from emancipating his bondsmen to
their advantage, but, in 1855, he could say with perfect
veracity that not one tobacco plant was then grown on a
single foot of soil which he had inherited from his ances-
tors.
Although the name of General Cocke has passed into
obscurity because he steadily declined to be elected to high
office, yet in power of foresight, he was the most remark-
able of all his Virginian contemporaries of his own gen-
eration. He not only urged a more conciliatory attitude
towards the North, and more frequent intercourse with
its people, as a means of removing mutual antagonisms,
but he confidently anticipated the success of numerous
causes which were, in his day, looked upon with chilling
indifference or outspoken aversion, but which have become
an accepted part of the solid structure of our present so-
cial and political life. He warmly supported every plan
to raise the standards of education in all departments,
from the lowest to the highest; he advocated with never
ceasing energy and devotion the wisdom of adopting
universal prohibition; he condemned the barbarism of
duelling, which had destroyed some of the most accom-
plished and chivalrous sons of Virginia, and had gilded
164, HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the spirit of lawlessness by making it gentlemanly; he
endeavored, by his own example, to discourage the culture
of the tobacco plant as ruinous to the soil of his native
State ; but above all, he solemnly, repeatedly, and consist-
ently declared himself in favor of peaceably abolishing
the institution of slavery before its forcible removal
should overwhelm every interest of the Commonwealth.
Ought we to be surprised that Jefferson, the apostle of
liberal principles, should have chosen this farsighted citi-
zen to be one of the Visitors of the untrammeled institu-
tion which he was about to found? l
x. Site of the College Selected
The space that has been used in describing the person-
alities of Jefferson, Cabell, and Cocke is fully warranted
in the light of a fact that will become increasingly percep-
tible as our theme advances; namely, that the establish-
ment of the University of Virginia was not dictated by an
irresistible popular impulse, but was due primarily to
the unwearied exertions of Jefferson and Cabell; and its
actual construction to Jefferson, assisted throughout with
ability and fidelity by the modest Cocke in the background.
Unless we take in the public spirit that had previously
animated these men, we cannot arrive at a perfectly ac-
curate conception of all the influences in which the institu-
tion had its origin. We have now to relate the story of
the practical work which was done in founding it, for, as
we shall see, the incorporation of Central College was
really the incorporation of the University; the history of
the College is the history of the University in its chrysalis
state, which must be studied if we are to understand cor-
1 Cocke had acquired, on his own estate at Bremo, a practical knowl-
edge of building. This fact also, no doubt, was not forgotten by Jefferson.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 165
rectly the first phase of its existence. It is in this phase
that we discern the embryo of the nobler structure to fol-
low; the springs as it were of the stream which was so
soon to begin to flow in full volume; the slender sapling
that was so soon to grow into a fruitful tree.
Among those features inherited from the College which
became highly characteristic of the University was its of-
ficial organization, its system of administration, its plans
for buildings, and its requirements for professors. The
provisions of the Act of Incorporation of Central College
show as plainly as the design for its construction how long
the thought of a university had been simmering in Jeffer-
son's consciousness, for when the real university was de-
termined upon a few years afterwards, the only altera-
tions made in those provisions were such as were called
for by the widening of the scope of the original scheme.
One of the first clauses in the charter of Central College
reveals that it was this future university, and not the pres-
ent college, that he had most vividly in mind : the Gover-
nor of Virginia was to be the patron of the new seat of
learning; and there was to be a board of six visitors by
his appointment. Jefferson himself informs us that this
provision was inserted for the explicit purpose of " divest-
ing the situation of the College of all local character and
control, and placing it under the will of those who repre-
sented the Legislature." The visitors were to hold of-
fice for a term of three years; were to come together at
least once in the course of each twelve months; were to
possess the right to choose a treasurer and proctor; to
select the professors, determine their salaries and fees,
and prescribe their courses of instruction; to lay down
rules for the discipline of the students, and adopt regula-
tions for their lodging and board; to overlook in a gen-
eral way the officers, agents, and servants in the perform-
166 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ance of their respective duties; and, finally, to draw up
such by-laws as would be needed to conserve the general
welfare of the institution, and protect and increase its
estate.
The treasurer was to continue in office during the
pleasure of the Board, and was only to pay out moneys
in obedience to their specific or general instructions. The
title to all the college property was to be invested in the
proctor as trustee; suits were to be brought in his name;
and he alone was to receive donations and subscriptions.
He was to be the custodian of the buildings and all other
estate in the College's possession; the provider and dis-
penser of the food and fuel that would be required by
the students; the immediate overseer of the agents and
servants; and the personal medium through whom all the
orders, laws, and regulations of the Board were to be car-
ried out.
By the Act of Incorporation, Central College became
the beneficiary of all the rights and claims of Albemarle
Academy. The only certain income which it could expect
to enjoy at an early date consisted of the subscriptions,
which had been pledged, chiefly, it would seem, by the citi-
zens of the surrounding region; and the money accruing
from the sale of the glebe lands in Fredericksville and St.
Anne's parishes. No steps had been taken as yet to swell
these funds by means of the lottery which had been author-
ized. It was due to the emptiness of its coffers that, al-
though the College was chartered in February, 1816,
more than twelve months passed before the Board of Vis-
itors assembled. If the proceeds of the glebe -sales had
been received from the commissioner of the county in the
meanwhile, the amount was looked upon by them, previous
to that meeting, as too small to justify them in buying a
site and laying the foundation stone.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 167
Apparently, it was not until April 8, 1817, that the
Visitors endeavored to hold a sitting, and even on that
occasion, only three were present; namely, Jefferson, Ca-
bell and Cocke. As a quorum was wanting, no business
was transacted beyond fixing upon May 5 as the date for
the convening of the whole Board; but the real purpose of
the three Visitors was perhaps to inspect a site for the
College which had been offered to Jefferson, and which
he, probably, thought should be secured, at least option-
ally, at once. This was done; and when the full Board
met on the day appointed, one of their first acts was to
ratify this provisional purchase. Jefferson's preference
had been for the ground situated on the first ridge lying
to the east of the present site of the University, property
that belonged to John Kelly, a member of the former
board of trustees of Albemarle Academy. Kelly is
said to have been a Federalist in political creed; and for
this reason, it is reported, the purpose for which the land
was to be bought, and Jefferson's connection with it, were
kept secret when the tender for it was made. It is quite
probable, however, that he had a more personal motive
for disliking the master of Monticello. We learn from
the recollections of Alexander Garrett, that, when the first
suggestion came up of converting Albemarle Academy
into Central College, the trustees, presumably Kelly
among them, proposed that the new institution should be
named Jefferson College, and that Jefferson emphatically
objected to this, and recommended " Central College "
instead. If Kelly, as one of the trustees, was ready to
honor his distinguished neighbor so signally at this time,
there must have been some reason besides his Federalism
why he, one year later, was so brusque in declining the
tender for his property; and that reason, as we have al-
ready surmised, was his possible resentment at the sum-
168 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
mary dropping of the old board of trustees. So soon
as he found out that Jefferson was behind that offer, he
turned his back on all further negotiation: " I will see
him at the devil," he exclaimed, " before he shall have it
at any price." When this rough and abrupt reply was
carried to Jefferson, he quietly remarked, " The man is
a fool, but if we cannot get the best site, we must be con-
tent with the best we can get." l
Perhaps, he would not have taken his disappointment
so philosophically had he not felt that the land belonging
to John M. Perry, lying to the west of Charlottesville
also, but at a somewhat greater distance, afforded a fairly
satisfactory substitute. This site was formed by a nar-
row ridge that sloped gently from north to south. It
fell sharply away from the eastern edge of the small
plateau at its top, and from the western edge spread
downward here and there in a declivity quite as marked.
Although this site was on very high ground, the view of
the Blue Ridge must have always been screened more or
less by the former Carr's Hill and the present Preston
Heights. The Southwest Mountains, which were then,
as now, directly in the scope of the vision, shut out the
horizon too closely at hand to make the scene in that
quarter as impressive as the grand spectacle of the Blue
Ridge would have done in the other, had a site been
obtainable which would have offered an unobstructed
outlook on that splendid chain. In a country distin-
guished for its magnificent landscapes, the spot chosen for
the Central College commanded not one entirely; not
even from the future northern portico of the Rotunda.
This was the first drawback. The second lay in the
1 Letter of George W. Randolph to Dr. James L. Cabell, Cabell Papers,
University Library. Kelly was not a " fool." His high standing as a
man of character and business ability, previously mentioned, clearly
demonstrated the contrary.
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 169
fact that the trend of the slope required that all the
buildings, with the exception of those on the northern line,
the southern line was expected to remain open,
should face east and west. The architect Latrobe pointed
out the practical disadvantage of this arrangement before
the first pavilion had been erected. " Everyone," he
wrote Jefferson in August, 1817, " who has had the mis-
fortune to reside in a house, especially if it constituted
a part of a range of houses, facing east and west, has
experienced both in summer and winter the evils of such
an aspect. In the winter, the accumulation of snow on
the east, and the severity of the cold on the west, to-
gether with the absence of the sun during three fourths of
the day, and in the summer, the horizontal rays of the
morning sun heating the east side and the evening sun
burning the west side, of the house, render such a situation
highly exceptional." To this critical but thoroughly
practical suggestion, Jefferson replied by saying that " the
lay of the ground was a law of nature to which they
were bound to conform," but that the objection urged
could be partially overcome, first, by placing but one fam-
ily room in each pavilion in front, and one or two in flank,
and leaving apertures for windows in the southern wall.
The lecture-room below, he added, could be given " the
same advantage by substituting an open passage adja-
cent instead of dormitory." He conceded, however, that
" the dormitories admitted of no relief but Venetian
blinds to their windows and doors." " There," he said,
" the heat would be less felt because the young men would
be in the school-rooms most of the day."
There was perhaps a third drawback, one, however,
that had so little practical importance that it does not
seem to have come up for consideration in the selection
of a site for the proposed group of buildings. If anyone
170 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
will take position at the foot of the last terrace of the
Lawn towards the south, and follow the east and west
lines of the pillars in front of the pavilions and dormi-
tories, as far as the line of the Rotunda, the impression
is a more or less blended one, since the pillars, in that
perspective, appear to run together to such an extent as
to form to the eye a continuous white mass. The nobil-
ity of the Rotunda alone relieves the too solid effect of
the almost indistinguishable individual features of the
pavilion and dormitory fronts. Had the academic vil-
lage been erected in a circular form, after the model of
the great square of St. Peter's at Rome, the result would
probably have been more striking because then each
pavilion and each column of the arcades would have stood
out distinctly from their respective fellows, with the Ro-
tunda rising in stately dignity at the northern opening of
the architectural circumference. But neither the nature
of the ground, nor the bent of Jefferson's taste, nor the
practical character of his scheme, whether for the build-
ings or for the professorships, permitted this finer and
more impressive disposition of the numerous structures
he had in view. In his earliest plans, there was no ar-
rangement for the East and West Ranges, for, in the
beginning, he was contriving simply for Central College,
which might or might not become the University of Vir-
ginia, with its far broader need of accommodation for an
ever increasing number of teachers and pupils. Had he
been designing for what was certainly to be the supreme
State institution so soon as finished, with a large attend-
ance of students and an ample endowment fund assured,
it is remotely possible that the plan for the new seat of
learning would have taken this nobler circular form at the
start. But, as already stated, it would have been first
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 171
necessary to choose a wider and more level site than the
one selected for the site of a college with an obscured
future. 1
The first parcel of land, which covered an area of forty-
seven acres, was, at the time of the purchase, an impover-
ished, disused field. The second parcel, amounting to
one hundred and fifty-three acres, and situated about five-
eighths of a mile from the first, contained a large quan-
tity of valuable timber and stone for building, the rea-
son in part for its acquisition, since it was not needed as
the site of any of the projected structures. It was also
expected to form the watershed for the reservoir which
was to supply the cisterns within the precincts.
The first parcel had been patented, in 1735, by Abra-
ham Lewis, as a segment of a tract embracing eight
hundred acres. In the course of the previous year, David
Lewis and Joel Terrell, his brother-in-law, had acquired
title to three thousand acres, which took in the whole
of Lewis Mountain, situated on the western flank of the
present University site. At an early date, George Nich-
olas, son of the colonial treasurer, Robert Carter Nich-
olas, had purchased a tract of two thousand acres, which
included, among other sections of these first patents, that
portion on which the University buildings now stand. In
1790, James Monroe bought the part to which the pres-
ent Monroe Hill belongs. Twenty-four years after-
wards, John M. Perry purchased of John Nicholas,
then filling the office of county clerk, the actual site of
the University, and after holding it only three years, dis-
posed of it to the Visitors of Central College. Perry
was always addressed with the title of Captain, and had
1 We say " remotely possible " because Jefferson's preference for straight
lines was one of the fundamental characteristics of his architectural taste.
172 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
sat on the bench of the county magistrates. He was a
man whose business branched out in many directions,
which would seem to indicate that he possessed at least
the qualities of energy and industry, he was the owner
of large areas of ground, the proprietor of mills, and a
professional contractor. It was this combination of in-
terests, perhaps, that made him more inclined than John
Kelly to accept the offer of the Visitors for his two par-
cels of land, for he not only thereby sold a respectable
number of worn-out acres at a satisfactory price, but, in
doing so, created for himself the prospect of securing
profitable jobs in the course of the future building. His
residence at Montibello, in the immediate neighborhood,
enabled him to give his personal attention without incon-
venience. As we shall see, he, as well as his son-in-law,
George W. Spooner, had an important share in the con-
struction of the College and University alike.
There seems to have been at first a cloud on the title
to the site, for it was not until June 23, 1817, that a
valid conveyance of it could be made to Alexander Gar-
rett as the trustee. On that day, Garrett, by the written
order of Perry, paid to John Winn $1,066.81 of the
money due for the area sold. That both tracts had
passed into the possession of the College by September
1 6, 1817, is confirmed by Perry's acknowledgment dif
a deferred payment by Garrett, the late proctor of the
College, for Nelson Barksdale was now the incumbent of
that office.
XL The Subscription List
Having acquired a suitable site for the College, the
next step was to erect the requisite buildings. Before de-
scribing the remarkable architectural plan which Jeffer-
son had already drafted for use, it will be necessary to
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 173
dwell at some length on the sources upon which the Board
were relying for the .funds that would be indispensable for
so expensive an undertaking. The most important was
the subscription list. Although a canvass had, with con-
spicuous success, been made among the citizens of Albe-
marle county and the surrounding region before the in-
corporation of Central College, yet so far as it appears,
none of this money had been paid before May 5, 1817,
when the Visitors convened with a quorum for the first
time. It was at once perceived by them that a much
larger sum would be required for the new college than
was anticipated when the scheme had not as yet passed
beyond the stage of an academy. Jefferson, with charac-
teristic energy and promptness, submitted to the Board
the preamble for a new subscription list, the tone of
which reflected the extreme importance that he attached
to education. The right of self-government, he declared,
was among the greatest of political blessings, and only
an intelligent and instructed people could preserve it for
themselves. How was information to be disseminated
among them? By multiplying the number of seats of
learning, and thus bringing at least one within the con-
venient reach of every parent or guardian. Central Col-
lege, he concluded, would " facilitate the means of educa-
tion to a considerable extent of country " ; and it was
further recommended, he said, by the salubrity of its
climate, and by other local advantages. The subscriber
was asked to make a contribution payable as a whole on
April i, 1818, or in four equal instalments, the first to
be handed in on that date, and the remainder, in annual
succession, during the ensuing three years.
Jefferson, Cabell, and Cocke led off with a subscription
of one thousand dollars apiece. So speedy was the
success following the appeal, that an early meeting of the
174 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Board was desirable to authorize the beginning of the
building. Albemarle county alone had pledged, through
its principal citizens, the sum of nineteen thousand dol-
lars. " We are already sure of enough," Cocke in-
formed Cabell, in a spirit of high satisfaction, " to lay
the foundation of what I trust may be improved to be
a noble work." Cabell himself had, in the meanwhile,
been indefatigable in distributing the subscription lists
in many parts of Virginia, he had sent copies to, among
others, Colonel Lewis, of Campbell county, Dr. Cabell,
of Lynchburg, Edmund Winston, John Camm, Stirling
Claiborne, Hill Carter, David Garland, Robert Rives,
Henry St. George Tucker, William Brent, and Ellyson
Currie, all of whom were influential citizens in their sev-
eral communities. Brent and Currie were residents of
the Northern Neck, which had not even yet recovered
from the ravages of the marauding British fleet; but this
did not discourage Cabell from asking them to solicit
subscriptions at the meetings of the county courts in their
district.
Colonel Lewis, of Campbell, made a counter proposi-
tion. It appears that he was the owner of a virgin gold
mine situated in Buckingham county at a spot not far
from Cabell's home near Warminster. " It is the richest
mine of that metal ever discovered," he wrote, with hr n-
est enthusiasm. He offered to convey a half interest in
this amazing underground storehouse of wealth to Cen-
tral College on condition that the whole was to be drawn
for in a lottery, in which twenty thousand tickets were to
be used, at a valuation of ten dollars a ticket; or ten
thousand issued at a valuation of twenty dollars. The
profit would, on this calculation, amount to two hundred
thousand dollars, which was to be equally divided between
Lewis and the College. The scheme, seductive as it was,
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 175
failed to dazzle Cabell's judgment, probably because the
mine was situated so close to his own plantation that he
had reason, from his own observation, to be skeptical as
to its richness. Only a week later, he was visiting Buck-
ingham courthouse, and still interested in the more pro-
saic method of procuring funds by solicitation in person;
but neither he nor his friend, Eppes, the member of Con-
gress from that district, was encouraged by the upshot.
Jefferson too, about this date, found serious impedi-
ments in the same path. The main obstruction which
he had to surmount, he wrote Cabell in Septemb.er, 1817,
was the " idea that it was a local thing, a mere Albe-
marle Academy. I endeavor to convince them it is a
general seminary of the sciences meant for the use of the
State. In this view, all approve and rally to the object.
But time seems necessary to plant this idea firmly in their
minds."
When the report of the Visitors was drawn up on
January 6, 1818, the total amount of the subscriptions
had grown to $35,102; and to this should be added
$3,195.86 derived from the sale of the glebes and now
in the custody of the court commissioner. Unhappily,
the larger proportion of the voluntary contributions was
payable in four annual instalments; none were due until
April I, 1818 ; and some not until three years should have
passed after that date. At least one-half of the total
amount would be needed in the summer of 1818; and in
anticipation of this fact, Jefferson, on January 15, asked
Cabell, then in attendance in the Senate in Richmond, to
obtain a loan from the banks of ten to twenty thousand
dollars on the security of the subscription lists; but the
application was turned down until the Board should con-
sent to give their personal endorsement. Although ad-
ditional subscriptions continued to come in, this had no
176 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
influence in removing the uneasiness with which Jeffer-
son regarded the situation in several of its aspects. " I
should be much relieved," he wrote Cabell on the i6th,
" if the members of the Board, in the want of visitorial
full meetings, would individually call here whenever they
happen to pass. Even separate conferences with them
would lighten my mind of some of its load."
Taking the returns of the subscription as a whole, there
seems to have been no permanent reason for dissatisfac-
tion. In Albemarle county, where every prominent fam-
ily put its name in the list, the amount of the several
contributions ranged from one thousand dollars to
twenty dollars; seven citizens pledged themselves each
for the former sum and eleven for five hundred dollars
respectively; there were one hundred and twenty-nine
subscribers in all, and the total sum promised was $27,-
440.33. In Richmond city, there were only eleven sub-
scribers, and the largest amount pledged was five hundred
dollars. Most of these contributors were bound to Jef-
ferson by ties of kinship or personal loyalty. The amount
pledged by the eleven aggregated $2,225.00. In Staf-
ford county but one subscriber was secured, and in Win-
chester, but four, who together pledged themselves for
eight hundred dollars. All these subscribers were per-
sonal friends of Cabell. In Amherst and Buckingham
counties, there was only one subscriber respectively, and
each pledged himself for a small sum. In Cumberland
county, which faced on the fertile low grounds of James
River, and contained the homes of many wealthy and
cultured families of gentle descent, the number of sub-
scribers rose to twenty-five. The sum contributed by
them was $2,190.00. In Fluvanna, there were fourteen
subscribers, among them General Cocke, and their
offerings amounted to $2,590.00; in Goochland, twenty
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 177
subscribers, with a total contribution of $1,185.00; in
Louisa, six, with a total of $1,400.00; in Lynchburg,
seven, with a total of $1,300.00; in Nelson, eighteen,
with a total of $2,952.00; in Orange, two, one of whom
was Madison, with a total of $1,030.00.
The list of the subscribers is a notable one, not simply
from a social point of view, but also for the high public
spirit and esteem for learning which their contributions
so plainly indicate. In the list for Albemarle, we dis-
cover the following respected names : Carr, Divers, Coles,
Dawson, Duke, Garrett, Gordon, Garth, Harper, Harris,
Kinsolving, Lindsay, Maury, Randolph, Lewis, Leitch,
Minor, Monroe, Morris, Nicholas, Patterson, Shackel-
ford, Waddell, Southall, Watson, Shelton, Walker,
Winn, Wertenbaker, Wood and Woods; in Stafford
county, Brent; in Winchester, Carr, Holmes, Lee,
and Tucker; in Buckingham, Eppes; in Cumberland,
Bondurant, Deans, Daniel, Harrison, Hughes, Page,
Skipwith, Trent, Thornton, Walker, and Woodson;
in Fluvanna, Cocke, Scott, Cary, Fuqua and Winn; in
Goochland, Carter, Garland, Pickett, Pleasant, Pendle-
ton, Sampson, Randolph, and Watkins; in Loudoun,
Mason; in Louisa, Morris, Minor, Trueheart, and
Watson; in Lynchburg, Harrison, Pollard, and Yancey;
in Nelson, Rives, Galloway, Digges, Garland, Lewis,
McClelland and Mosby; and in Orange, Madison.
Many of the local subscribers, with the full concur-
rence of the Board of Visitors, were anxious to pay the
entire amount of their contributions in a form that was
suggested by the needs of the College in the course of its
building. W. D. Garth, for instance, furnished many
feet of dressed plank in return for the release of his
pledge; Reuben Maury supplied a large quantity of
farm products on the same acceptable condition; so did
178 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Garland Garth; and so did James Dinsmore with his
work as contractor. 1 As we shall see, a small number of
the subscriptions, chiefly because of death, insolvency, or
emigration, remained unpaid until as late as 1824, when
a collector was appointed at a handsome percentage to
obtain by suit or solicitation such as had not as yet been
settled. In order to swell the amount that was confi-
dently expected from the subscription list, the Board of
Visitors, at the meeting held on May 5, 1817, approved
the plan for the lottery which had been drawn up by the
trustees of Albemarle Academy; and they instructed the
proctor to carry it into execution at once through such
agents as he should appoint. The proceeds of the sale of
the voluminous tickets were to be deposited in the Bank
of Virginia in Richmond. It is to be inferred that the
lottery scheme remained in abeyance, for there is no
reference to any income acquired by this means. The
passage of the bill, in 1818, providing for the establish-
ment of a university, and appropriating an annual fund
of fifteen thousand dollars for its support, may have
caused the lottery to be put off indefinitely.
XII. Plan for the Buildings
But a far more important transaction of the Board at
this meeting was the adoption of Jefferson's plan for the
buildings. This plan, it seems, had been carefully
1 The following also obtained an acquittance in the like mannet .
John Dunscomb, bacon $45-75
Edward Anderson, plaster 19.80
C. Everett, oats 29.00
J. H. Terrell, corn 55-oo
Thomas Draffin, plank 45-oo
J. C. Ragland, medical services 42.60
N. H. Lewis, plank 8.25
Reuben Maury, plank 10.99
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 179
thought out by him many years before. 1 We learn from
a letter which he wrote the architect, Latrobe, in 1817,
that he had formed his general idea of an academic vil-
lage about fifteen years before, in response to a request
from Littleton Waller Tazewell, at that time a member
of the General Assembly, which was then disposed to con-
sider the founding of a university for the State. It was
this plan which he had submitted to the trustees of East
Tennessee College in 1810, when they had asked of him
an appropriate design for that institution; he had then
described it as follows: " a small and separate lodge for
each professorship, with only a hall below for his class,
and two chambers above for himself; these lodges to be
joined by barracks for a certain portion of the students,
opening into a covered way to give a dry communica-
tion between all the parts, the whole of these arranged
around an open square of grass and trees."
The same plan, except that one side was left open,
was submitted to the trustees of Albemarle Academy
and accepted by them. The exact description of it as
adopted by the Board of Visitors of Central College was
in these words: " a distinct pavilion or building for each
separate professorship; these to be arranged around a
square; each pavilion to contain a school-room and two
1 Semmes, in his biography of John H. B. Latrobe, refers to an article
written by Bernard C. Steiner on the subject of the Rev. Samuel Knox.
In this article, Steiner expresses the belief that Jefferson was influenced
by Knox's Essay on a System of National Education in reaching a decision
as to the proper constitution and style of architecture for the University
of Virginia. Dr. Fiske Kimball, in a letter to the present writer, makes
the following comment on this suggestion: "When one comes to ex-
amine, with open mind, the architectural proposals of Knox, a series
of concentric squares facing inwards, with a tower in the center, the
certain resemblances' which Steiner picks out seem insignificant compared
with the fundamental difference of type, especially when Jefferson's prelim-
inary studies, rather than the finished product, are taken into considera-
tion,"
180 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
apartments for the accommodation of the professor's
family, and other reasonable conveniences." It will be
perceived that there was, in this curt statement, no ref-
erence at all to a Rotunda on the north line of the square;
indeed, the original scheme called for no difference what-
ever between that line and the other lines in the general
character of its buildings.
In drafting this first plan of his academical village,
which was to contain pavilions on each closed side of the
square, with dormitories between, there were two prac-
tical advantages that Jefferson kept clearly and constantly
before him. The foremost was that this arrangement
would sensibly diminish the possibility of serious loss by
fire. Had the dormitories and the professors' apart-
ments been crowded into one large building, there would
have been a perpetual hazard of the structure being burnt
up as a whole; this fate did overtake the central build-
ing of the University of Missouri in 1893; and, in 1895,
it also befell the Rotunda and its annex at the University
of Virginia itself. In the time of Jefferson, there was
less facility for smothering an incipient conflagration,
and the danger of one was then far more justly alarming
because of its certain fatal consequences, should it occur.
But the second and most influential reason in Jefferson's
mind for the academic village was the ability which this
plan created to prolong the east and west lines of the
square indefinitely. He was forced to consider the eco-
nomic aspects of the situation primarily from the point
of view of the cost of supplementary buildings. The
scheme of a square open at its southern end was nicely
adapted to the financial condition of the College; one
pavilion or two pavilions, ten dormitories or twenty,
could, from year to year, or decade to decade, be added
on to the east and west side, or to both sides, as the in-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 181
crease in the number of students, in the course of time,
should justify it. Suppose that, instead of this flexible
arrangement, one large dormitory building had been
erected. Did that allow in itself room for extension?
Either an unsightly wing would have to be attached, or
a second two-story barrack would have to be constructed,
a combination that would hardly have conformed to those
canons of taste which were sacred in Jefferson's eyes. 1
With his acute sense of architectural beauty and his
taste for building, his mind must have been elated by
the prospects of gratifying both, which opened up to him
when the Visitors of Central College, on May 5, 1817,
recorded their approval of his noble plan and appointed
Cocke and himself a committee with full authority,
jointly or severally, to carry it out in detail. Not since
the completion of Monticello had he possessed such an
opportunity to show his extraordinary aptitude for archi-
tecture, without being trammeled by the intervention of
others. In his designs for the Capitol at Richmond, and
for public edifices in Washington and private residences
in Virginia, there was always some one with the power to
modify or push aside his recommendations. In this new
field, he was quite as unhampered as he was in construct-
ing his own home, for Cocke, his colleague on the build-
ing committee, while he did not, from a practical point
of view, approve the plan in many particulars, never un-.
dertook to interfere or obstruct; 2 and this seems to have
1 Another advantage, which, in his opinion, it possessed was that it
would diminish the chances of infection. He thought also that one large
structure would absorb too great a proportion of the building fund.
2 " The more I see and reflect upon the plan and details, the further
I find myself from joining you in your admiration of it. Depend upon
it, if you live to see it go into operation, its practical defects will
be manifest to all." Cocke to Cabell, December 8, 1821. That at least
one of these defects became irksome to the members of the Faculty as
early as September, 1826, is demonstrated by their urging upon the
Board, at that time, the expediency of attaching to each pavilion the two
182 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
been the attitude also of the Board of Visitors as a whole.
All recognized with Madison that the whole scheme of
the University belonged to Jefferson, and that his wishes
in regard to it should govern their action without ques-
tion or dispute.
Jefferson wrote to Cabell, his most sympathetic corre-
spondent, that, in his judgment, a remarkable " material
basis " for the University was necessary " for its intel-
lectual superstructure." It will be recollected that he
had once asserted that it was not more costly to build a
beautiful house than to build an ugly one, and he tacitly
refused to contract his general plan on the score of econ-
omy except to take brick or stone as a substitute for
marble, which alone was really in harmony with his
splendid design. There was a time, even in the history
of Central College, when he was harassed with the
thought of his inability to secure the funds which he
needed for his projected pavilions and dormitories, but
this prospect never caused him to draw back to a com-
moner level. Indeed, his disposition, after the projec-
adjoining dormitories. "The occupation of these dormitories as at present
by the students," they said, " subjects the professors to noise an<| inter-
ruption when preparing for the discharge of their official duties, and
always breaks in on the privacy of their families. Nor does the good
character of those who may occupy such dormitories afford any security
against these inconveniences, as they are all subject to be visited by
the idle and disorderly, over whom they can exercise no control. The
neighborhood of a professor, so far from proving a check to their
irregularities, either loses its first influence from familiarity, or by the very
sense of restraint it imposes, provokes a spirit of defiance and renders many
disorderly for no other reason than to show they are not afraid to be so.
The necessary occupations of a family must also sometimes prove an
interruption to the student, and yet oftener afford an excuse to the many
who gladly seek one for a relaxation of diligence. Such a state of
things cannot but encourage habitual disrespect to the professors, and in
many ways lead to unfriendly feelings between them and the students.
They cannot forbear to express the conviction that the smaller the
number of students who are permitted to occupy the rooms on the
Lawn, the more favorable it will be to the good order of the institution
as well as to the comfort of themselves and their families."
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 183
tion of the first pavilion, the plainest of all, was to grow
more ambitious in the character of his principal struc-
tures as a means of further enhancing the beauty of the
whole group. That group, when finished, was, as we
shall see, to be marked by great variety, not only in small
details, but in general outlines; and it was in planning
this variety that his architectural talents had found the
widest scope for exercise and gratification. He did not
disguise, to himself the fact that this variety, by its strik-
ing combinations, would arouse the opposition of the
ignorant and tasteless from its very novelty. " That the
style and scale of the buildings," he remarked in one of
his reports to the General Assembly, " should meet the
approbation of every individual judgment was impos-
sible from the various structure of various minds. . . .
We owed the State to do, not what was to perish with
ourselves, but what would remain and be preserved
through other ages."
The question now offers itself: how far were the de-
tails of Jefferson's general plan altered by him at the
suggestion of others after the Visitors had authorized
the erection of the first pavilion? Up to that date, the
scheme in its entirety appears to have been precisely the
same as he had formed it in the beginning. So far as
we now know, not even a hint had as yet been obtained
from any one with any pretension to architectural train-
ing. The nearest models to his proposed group in ex-
istence were the cloistered retreats in Europe that had
come down from the Middle Ages. These were dis-
tinguished for similar quadrangles and colonnades, with
dormitories or cells opening into covered ways, which ran
the whole length of the quadrangles. The real inspira-
tion, however, as we shall see, sprang from another and
more ancient source.
184 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
But that Jefferson received suggestions after May 5,
1817, when the first pavilion was determined upon, which
were reflected in the final construction of some of the
buildings, is now very clearly proven. Four days sub-
sequent to the meeting of the Visitors, he wrote to Wil-
liam Thornton, the distinguished architect, whom he had
known in Washington: " What we wish," he said, " is
that these pavilions, as they will show themselves above
the dormitories, shall be models of taste and good archi-
tecture, and of a variety of appearance, no two alike, so
as to serve as specimens for the architectural lecturer.
Will you set your imagination to work, and sketch some
designs for us, no matter how loosely with the pen, with-
out the trouble of referring to scale or rule, for we want
nothing but the outline of the architecture, as the inter-
nal must be arranged according to local convenience? A
few sketches, such as may not take you a minute, will
greatly oblige us."
It is palpable that Jefferson was seeking, not formal de-
signs that would materially alter the fundamental char-
acter of his whole scheme, but simply hints or sketches
that would further enhance its beauty by variety. Two
sketches seem to have been sent to him by Thornton, ac-
companied by suggestions, some of which were accepted
and others ignored. Thornton counseled that the front
of the first pavilion should be supported by arches next
to the ground, with Doric columns above the arches;
and this advice was adopted; but not so the advice given
at the same time, that the lecture-room should be placed
at the top of the house, and the height of the house in-
creased, changes which were recommended to be fol-
lowed in all the pavilions. Thornton further thought
that the roofs of the dormitories should be made to slope
outward from a parapet, and that the arcades in front
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 185
should be supported, not with piers, but with columns,
such as are now to be seen there. An equally important
suggestion was that a single Corinthian pavilion should
be built on the north line of the square, which would thus
become the most conspicuous structure on the three closed
sides of that square. Apparently, under Jefferson's orig-
inal plan, more than one pavilion, with adjacent dormi-
tories, had been designed to fill up the whole of this
north line.
Jefferson was not satisfied with Thornton's aid alone,
but also wrote to Latrobe, his associate in public building
during his Presidency, and perhaps the most competent
professional architect in the United States at this time.
He gives him the same general description of his plan
which he had given Thornton, but with several additional
details; thus he mentions the width and depth of each
pavilion; and furthermore, points out that there is to
be a colonnade running the entire length of all the struc-
ures as high as the lower story of the principal ones. As
in his letter to Thornton, so in this letter to Latrobe, he
asks only for outlines, however loose or rough, of fronts;
the interior arrangements, he repeats, will be governed
by convenience alone. A few sketches only, he concludes,
were desired. Latrobe was so much flattered and grati-
fied by Jefferson's request for assistance, that, unlike
Thornton, who replied rather promptly, he delayed his
answer until June 17 in order to study the plan which had
been submitted to him. So bulky were the drawings that
he made in the course of this study that he did not
venture to enclose them by mail. Jefferson was visiting
his estate in Bedford county when Latrobe's letter reached
Monticello; and it was not until July 16 that he acknowl-
edged its arrival. " I did not mean to give you this
trouble," he wrote, " but since you have been so kind as to
186 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
take it, I shall turn it to good account. I am anxious
to receive your first draft as soon as possible because we
must immediately lay the first stone, as the first pavilion
must be finished this fall."
The magnificenct conception of placing a structure of
the most imposing character in the middle of the north
line had its origin, it would seem, with Latrobe. " The
centre building," he wrote on July 24, " ought to exhibit
in mass and detail as perfect a specimen of good archi-
tectural taste as can be devised." 1 Thornton, it will
be recalled, had simply suggested that a single Corinth-
ian pavilion should be erected there instead of the less
imposing pavilions, with adjacent dormitories, which had
been projected by Jefferson; who seems, however, to
have been at once favorably impressed with Latrobe's
nobler proposal: "We will leave the north side open,"
he replied on August 3, " so that, if the State should
establish there the university they contemplate, they may
fill it up with something of the grand kind." It was char-
acteristic of his architectural taste that the " something "
which he finally adopted was on the model of the Pan-
theon.
The original plan had provided only two rooms for
the accommodation of each professor. It has been sup-
posed that Jefferson, having in mind the early principle
of the College of William and Mary, favored the employ-
ment of unmarried instructors alone, and, therefore, was
only inclined to furnish bachelor quarters for each mem-
ber of the teaching staff. The quick eye of Latrobe
caught this defect in the plan at once, but Jefferson, in
his reply, explained it away by pointing out that the back-
1 Latrobe thus describes his proposed central building: " Below, a couple
or four rooms for janitors or tutors. Above, a room for chemical or
other lectures. Above this, a circular lecture room under the dome."
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 187
side of each pavilion was left without windows, in ex-
pectation of an addition of two or three apartments,
should they be required for a man of family.
The roll of Latrobe's drawings arrived on October 6.
Two more pavilions having been authorized by the
Board, Jefferson, on the i4th, wrote to him, " Wfc shall
certainly select their fronts from these (drawings). . . .
Some of your fronts would require too great a width for
us because, the aspects of our fronts being east and
west, we are obliged to give the largest dimensions to our
flanks, which look north and south." The influence of
Latrobe is distinctly reflected in pavilions in and v,
and it possibly comes out also in several of the pavilions
erected after the incorporation of the University; but this
cannot be positively stated owing to the loss of the draw-
ings. It is most strongly suspected in pavilion x, which
closely follows ill; and also in pavilion vm. While
both Thornton and himself left the stamp of their genius
on some of the important details of the general design,
Latrobe especially, by his recommendation of pavilions
at the angles and of a great dominating building at the
central axis, perceptibly modified and improved it, the
credit of the general architectural conception of Central
College belongs to Jefferson. His fundamental inspira-
tion lay, not in the suggestions of contemporaries, valu-
able as they were, but in the monumental works of Greece
and Rome as delineated in the plates of Palladio. This
fact will disclose itself more clearly when we come to de-
scribe the progress of the whole design after Central
College had been converted into the University of Vir-
ginia.
188 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
xiii. The Actual Building
The Board of Visitors of the College, it will be re-
called, authorized on May 5 (1817) the erection of
the first pavilion, and empowered a special committee,
composed of Jefferson and Cocke, to supervise the suc-
cessive stages of construction. The first step was to lay
off the plat of ground selected for the site of the insti-
tution. It was not until July 18 that Jefferson staked
out his plan. The theodolite was fixed in the ground at
the middle point of the northern line of the square, on
which now rises the circular walls of the Rotunda. In
the beginning, there had to be embraced in the survey
an area sufficient to allow twenty dormitories to be at-
tached to each of the pavilions projected for the three
lines. The same area was still required when the num-
ber of pavilions for the east and west lines, respectively,
was increased to five, for, at the same time, the number
of dormitories to be attached to each pavilion was re-
duced to ten. At this period, as we have mentioned, the
site was simply an open worn-out field rising high and dry
by itself, and without any obstructions in the way of trees
or bushes. The lay-off was completed under Jefferson's
eye, and certainly partly, if not entirely, with his actual
assistance. Ten working men, quite probably hired
slaves, were promptly turned in to change the surface,
with spade and hoe, to the exact condition required for
the foundation of the several buildings. The design of
East and West Ranges, as distinguished from East and
West Lawn, had not yet been considered; the lay-off in
the beginning was confined to the present lawn and the
sites of the structures that were to confront it.
It was not until October 6 (1817) that the corner-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 189
stone of the first pavilion, the modern Colonnade Club,
was put in place. It is a fact tending to arouse some
speculation that the site of this pavilion should have been
selected at so obscure a point in the lines forming the
three sides of the square. Why was it not chosen nearer
the northeast or northwest corner? Why not on the
ground now occupied by the Rotunda? According to
the original plan, no pavilion was to be erected at a
corner, but Latrobe seems to have altered Jefferson's
resolution in this detail. The suggestion from Thornton
in favor of a very handsome Corinthian pavilion at the
centre of the northern line, and from Latrobe of a
Rotunda there, may also have decided him at this time
to reserve this spot for a more imposing use in the
future.
The morning that was to witness the ceremony of lay-
ing the corner-stone was at first fair, but the clouds later
on began to gather; happily, however, only to disperse
and leave the weather clear again. The county and supe-
rior courts, with their promiscuous attendance of citizens,
set upon business or amusement, were in session in Char-
lottesville; but when informed of the impending event,
the judges left the bench, and accompanied by the crowd
of hangers-on, repaired to the scene. The doors of
all the stores were locked, private houses shut up, and the
entire population of the little town darkened the road to
the College. They were animated, some by an interest
in learning, some by a spirit of diversion, and some, per-
haps, by a desire to gaze at a group of three men com-
posed of two former Presidents of the United States,
Jefferson and Madison, and the present incumbent of that
office, Monroe. Among the persons who occupied the
seats of prominence at the ceremony was David Watson,
190 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
a member of the Board of Visitors, who seems, on this
occasion, to have shown his first, and, with one excep-
tion, his last interest in Central College.
The corner-stone was laid with the customary state by
Lodges 60 and 90. Rev. William King was the chaplain,
John M. Perry, the architect, and Alexander Garrett, the
worthy grand-master. President Monroe applied the
square and plumb, the chaplain asked a blessing on the
stone, the crowd huzzaed, and the band played " Hail
Columbia." Corn was now scattered, and then Valen-
tine W. Southall delivered the address to the general au-
dience. With the grand-master's address to the Visitors,
the ceremony was concluded.
Alexander Garrett, as proctor, had already contracted
with John M. Perry for the erection of the first pavilion.
It was to be built of brick and was to contain one large
room on the lower floor, two on the upper, and offices
and a cellar in the basement. All the carpenter's and
joiner's work was to be done by Perry; and he was also
to supply the lumber as well as the ironmongery. Pay-
ment was to be made in three instalments: two hundred
dollars to be delivered in cash at once; five hundred so
soon as the roof was raised; and the remainder when the
house was accepted as satisfactorily finished. This con-
tract is interesting for a reason additional to its being the
first : it not only bore the signature of Jefferson, but it was
witnessed by William Wertenbaker, then a young man,
but afterwards to become one of the most useful and
honored officers of the institution through more than half
a century.
Jefferson had early taken steps in person to procure
bricklayers of the highest expertness. With that pur-
pose in view, he, during his sojourn at Poplar Forest, in
Bedford county, in the summer of 1817 visited Lynch-
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 191
burg, for " they have there," he wrote Latrobe, on July
1 6, " the new method of moulding the stock-brick in
oil, and execute with it the most beautiful brick which I
have ever seen."
So dilatory were the workmen in constructing the first
pavilion that he grew doubtful as to whether it would be
finished before the ensuing January. He rode down to
the College on alternate days, although, at this time, in
his seventy-fifth year, to quicken the laborers by the stim-
ulus of his presence. " I follow it up," he wrote Cabell
on October 24, " from a sense of the impression which
will be made on the Legislature by the prospect of its im-
mediate operation. The walls should be done by our
next court, but they will not be by a great deal." In the
following December, while again stopping at Poplar
Forest, he visited Lynchburg a second time to hire brick-
layers to construct the two additional pavilions which the
Board of Visitors had ordered to be erected. At that
time, this class of workingmen were asking fifteen dollars
a thousand for laying place-brick and thirty for laying
oil-stock, there having been recently a sharp advance in
prices owing to the increased charge for corn. Jeffer-
son entered into a provisional engagement with Matthew
Brown, a local builder, to pay him as much as was obtain-
able for similar jobs in Lynchburg; but he hoped that, for
a contract involving the purchase and use of three hundred
thousand to four hundred thousand bricks, a cheaper un-
dertaker might be found in Richmond; and for that rea-
son he urged Cabell, then attending a session of the Sen-
ate, to look about for one in that city. " Pray make a
business of it," he wrote, " make such a bargain as you
can and inform me immediately." Cabell, although as-
sisted by Major Christopher Tompkins, a builder of ex-
perience, was unable to conclude a satisfactory arrange-
192 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ment, and Jefferson, in consequence was constrained to
close with Brown.
He preferred to use slate for roofing, and in June,
1818, corresponded with Colonel Bernard Peyton, of
Richmond, for the purpose of obtaining a man with suf-
ficient practical information to pass correctly upon the
quality of the products of certain quarries in Albemarle
county and willing to undertake the contract for cover-
ing the pavilions and dormitories, should that quality
sustain the requisite test. One Jones, of Wales, who
had already done work of this character in Charlottes-
vills, had removed to Richmond, and it was he whom
Jefferson was anxious to employ. It was soon shown
that the stone in the strata around the College was not
suitable for a delicate tool, it proved both expensive
and tedious to chisel it. In July, 1817, Jefferson had
been authorized by the Board of Visitors on his own
motion to import a stone-cutter from Italy; he had de-
cided to construct the two additional pavilions on a more
ornate and ambitious model than the one followed in the
first pavilion; and for this reason,Vhe thought that it
would be imprudent to depend exclusively on the domestic
workingman, and that he ought to go abroad for the
most highly trained skill that could be found there. One
of the most competent of the domestic builders was James
Dinsmore, whom Jefferson had, in 1798, discovered in
Philadelphia and brought to Monticello, where he re-
mained as his principal employee in house joinery for ten
years. " I have never known," said Jefferson, " a more
faithful, sober, discreet, honest, and respectable man."
Associated with Dinsmore at Monticello was John Neil-
son, whom Jefferson had also come to know in Philadel-
phia, in 1804, and who continued under contract to him
during a period of four years. Both of these men were
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 193
at one time in the service of Madison at Montpelier; but
Neilson was, at the beginning of the building at Central
College, engaged in working for General Cocke; and it
was not until the construction of the University itself was
fully underway that he took an important part in it, in
partnership with Dinsmore.
Jefferson was sanguine that the first pavilion, with its
dormitories, would be completed before the end of 1817,
but it was not finished by August 4, 1818, although it
was, on that date, reported to be " far advanced." A
second pavilion, with its dormitories too, was expected,
without good reason, however, to receive the final
stroke of the hammer and trowel by the ensuing January
(1818).
xiv. The First Professors Elected
Long before these pavilions, with their annexes, were
built, Jefferson had been revolving the anxious question
as to how the professorships were to be filled, and which
of them, if necessary, should have the preference. The
Board of Visitors, at their meeting on October 7, 1817,
the day following the laying of the corner-stone of the
first pavilion, had decided as to who should be the
occupants of the one already going up, and the two addi-
tional ones which they had just concluded to erect. The
first they determined to set aside for the professor of
languages, belles-lettres, rhetoric, oratory, history and
geography; the second for the professor of chemistry,
zoology, botany and anatomy; whilst the third, until
wanted for the remaining professor, should be converted
into a boarding house, to be rented to a respectable
French family on condition that only the French language
should be spoken there by the students in the course of
their meals. At the meeting of the Board of Visitors
194 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
three months afterwards, there seems to have been a re-
adjustment of this assignment of houses : on that occasion,
there were submitted estimates of the cost of four
pavilions, with dormitories attached, the pavilions to
be reserved for the use of the professors of languages,
physiology, mathematics, and ideology, respectively. It
was determined that, should there be, before the follow-
ing April, a failure to collect the whole amount that was
due by written promise, this being the only fund that
was expected to be available for the construction of the
buildings, then the money needed to pay the salaries
of the professors of chemistry and languages, the first
who were to be appointed, should be obtained by floating
a loan with the banks on the security of the property of
the College, and the several instalments of the subscrip-
tions as they should fall in.
Writing on January 18, 1800, to Priestley, Jefferson
said, " We should propose to draw from Europe the first
characters in science by considerable temptations, which
would not need to be repeated after the first set had pre-
pared fit successors, and given repiltation to the institu-
tion. From some splendid characters, I have received
offers most perfectly reasonable and practical." It will
be recalled that, at one time, he had just reason to be
confident that he would be able to secure the talents of
Say for a chair in Central College so soon as incorpor-
ated; and also that he had sanguinely fixed his eye on
other aliens of equal celebrity. It seems like an unex-
pected and puzzling anti-climax to discover that the first
man who was invited to become a professor in that col-
lege was a clergyman and an American, Dr. Samuel Knox,
of Baltimore; at a meeting of the Board, held on July
28, 1817, several weeks before the corner-stone of the
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 195
first pavilion was laid, he was named for the chair of
languages, belles-lettres, rhetoric, history, and geography,
a multiplicity of courses that called for the most ver-
satile accomplishments in the teacher. As remuneration
for the performance of these laborious duties, he was to
receive a fixed salary of five hundred dollars, and the sum
of twenty-five dollars for each pupil; and since the field
to be traversed by him was wide and popular, the accumu-
lation of fees on this account was expected to be very
large.
Dr. Knox, either appalled by the burdens which the
task of teaching in so many departments of knowledge
would impose on him, or repelled by the non-sectarian
character of the projected institution, briefly, vaguely, but
discreetly, replied that "he had gone out of business";
which would seem to prove that he had been a professor
as well as a preacher by calling. His shadowy figure en-
joys this distinction in the history of the University
down to the War of Secession: he was the first clergyman
who was asked to fill one of its chairs during that period.
Some years afterwards, Jefferson appears to have made
it plain to Francis Walker Gilmer that, in his search for
English scholars, the application of no minister of the
Gospel was to be considered with favor.
On October 7, about two months after Knox's refusal,
the compass was boxed by the Board of Visitors, under
Jefferson's prompting, in extending to Dr. Thomas
Cooper, an invitation to become the professor of chem-
istry and law. Cooper, if not openly and frankly an in-
fidel, was so vague and shifty in his religious beliefs that
he acknowledged that he himself could not state definitely
what they were. He seems to have been a very erratic,
if not unsavory character, on the whole, in spite of his in-
196 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
disputable learning and versatile talents. 1 Jefferson en-
thusiastically admired him for more than one acquire-
ment. For instance, he was so much impressed by a
judicial decision which Cooper had delivered that he pre-
dicted, in a letter to Cabell, that it would " produce a
revolution on the question treated; not in the present day,
because old lawyers, like old physicians and other old
men, never change opinions which it had cost them the
whole labors of their youth to form; but when the young
lawyers sit on the bench, they will carry Cooper's doctrine
with them." " The best pieces on political economy
which have been written in this country," he added, " were
by Cooper. He is a great chemist, and now proposes
to resume his mineralogical studies."
Was Cooper the marvelous political economist, jurist,
and chemist that Jefferson pronounced him to be? Jef-
ferson's insight was sometimes rather awry, as his un-
qualified encomiums on Ossian and the obscure economist,
Tracy, prove. It is not beyond the range of probability
that Cooper's general attainments were overrated by
some of the communities of the New World in which he
lived simply because their culture was not yet sufficiently
discriminating, as in the Old, to detect the superficiality
amid the rather glittering pretensions. But whether he
was a man of as phenomenal parts as Jefferson and others
supposed, it is not to be denied that he had, throughout
his career, exhibited a rough contempt for the sentiments
and feelings of others; and that discretion in expressing
his own views was a quality which he seemed to esteem
but little, and show but rarely. He was an Englishman
by birth, who had begun his active life as a member of
1 " I find the impression very general," Cabell wrote Jefferson, Feb. 19,
1819, " that either in point of manners, habits or character, he is defective.
He is certainly rather unpopular in the enlightened part of society."
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 197
the bar; and even in his youth, was so radical and so ram-
pant in his opinions that he was sent on a sympathetic
mission to Revolutionary France as the representative of
eight British democratic clubs. He became a friend and
disciple of Priestley at an early date on account of their
similar relish for scientific researches, for unorthodox
religious beliefs, and for a freedom in political affairs
that verged on extreme republicanism. Priestley suf-
fered for his liberal opinions by their bringing down on
his head the fury of the mob that pulled his Unitarian
chapel to pieces and set the torch to his home. In his
very natural disgust, he resolved to seek an asylum in
the less heated atmosphere of the United States; Cooper,
who also found Birmingham at this time an uncomforta-
ble spot, accompanied him; and both settled in a quiet
back region of Pennsylvania.
Jefferson had been first interested in Priestley in conse-
quence of his heterodox writings, which had largely in-
fluenced his own religious creed; and he had been further
drawn to him by the fact that he was one of the first per-
sons of his nation to perceive the importance of physical
science in education. The religious and political perse-
cution to which he had been ruthlessly subjected recom-
mended him still more warmly to Jefferson, who detested
every form of oppression, intolerance, and injustice, no
matter how erratic, unworthy, or humble the object of it
might be. Association with Priestley in scientific tastes,
and in a common martyrdom for opinion's sake, was all
that was needed to rivet his good-will and respect for
Cooper, now a citizen of Pennsylvania, and this was fur-
ther justified by the reputation which Cooper had won
as a judge, and afterwards as a professor in Dickinson
College and a lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania.
He is said to have been imprisoned at one time by the
198 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Federalists, doubtless under the Alien and Sedition Acts;
and this, naturally enough, further magnified his merits
in the eyes of Jefferson, whose feelings towards that party,
it will be recalled, were tempered by little of his custom-
ary philosophy. The Board of Visitors, when they con-
vened on October 8, 1817, in order to secure Cooper's
services, by making it most advantageous to his pecuniary
interests to accept their appointment, agreed to reimburse
him for the expense of transporting his collection of books
and minerals to Central College, and to continue to pay
him interest, at the rate of six per cent., for the use of
his philosophical and chemical apparatus and mineralogi-
cal specimens, until there should be surplus enough (after
the indispensable charges upon the funds of the College
had been defrayed) with which to buy the entire quan-
tity; and should this surplus not arise within a defined
time, then the purchase was to be made with money to be
borrowed from the banks. The cost of materials needed
in the course of the chemical lectures was to be taken over
by the Board.
Jefferson was made very sanguine by this liberal offer,
and on the I4th, about a week later, wrote cheerfully to
Francis Walker Gilmer, " Our Central College looks up
with hope. Cooper, I think, will accept a professorship
in it. We are in quest of a Ticknor for languages, but
have not yet found one. If left to ourselves, we shall
be better than William and Mary, but if the Legislature
adopts us for the University, we will then be what we
should be. I have considerable hope they will do it and
at the coming session."
These words let out into the light an important, if
not the principal, reason for Jefferson's urgency in hurry-
ing the first three buildings to a finish and for his pre-
mature nomination of professors: he wished to be in a
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 199
position to say, just so soon as the discussion over the
establishment of a university should begin in the General
Assembly at its approaching term, that Central College
was now, in reality, a working institution, in possession
of teachers, dormitories, and pavilions; and that it only
needed the necromantic touch of the wand of the State
treasury to expand almost at once into a great seat of
learning. It will be recalled that he did endeavor to turn
the property of the College over to the Commonwealth
by the bill for general education, which he submitted in
the winter of 1818; that effort failed, as we have seen;
but a second was to end in the desired success, at the
meeting of the Assembly in the winter of 1819, by the
adoption of the Rockfish Gap Report.
By his shrewd stroke of making the Governor of the
State the patron of the College, Jefferson secured the
tactical advantage of laying before the General Assem-
bly annually a complete record of those proceedings of
the Board of Visitors which formed the history of the
institution during the previous twelve months. This of-
fered a regularly recurring opportunity of arousing an in-
terest in the College in the minds of the persons who had
the most power to serve it. In the -report for January
6, 1818, he dwells on the plans that had been adopted
for filling the several chairs. " Our funds already cer-
tain," he wrote, " will enable us to establish, during the
ensuing season, two professorships only with their neces-
sary buildings; and to erect a pavilion, and if the out-
standing subscription papers fulfil our hopes, the dormi-
tories also for a third; depending for the salary, as well
as for the salary and buildings for the fourth, on future
and unassured donations. The four are to be languages,
mathematics, physiological and ideological sciences."
Each of these important professorships, on account of
200 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
its fixed remuneration of five hundred dollars, and the cost
of the pavilion and the dormitories to be attached to it,
would call for an expenditure at the start of at least
$8,333.30. Jefferson was not at all content with the
thought of limiting the number of chairs to four, as he was
aware that it would be impossible for this number of in-
structors to find the time to teach in every subdivision of
the extensive and pregnant subjects which would be as-
signed to them. " To do this as it should be done,"
he said, " to give all its development to every useful
branch of all the departments, and in the highest degree
to which each has already been carried, would require a
greatly increased number of professors, and funds far
beyond what can be expected from individual contribu-
tors. For this, the resources at the command of the Leg-
islature alone is adequate."
XV. Fight Against Cooper
By February, 1818, the prospect of retaining Cooper
had become overclouded. An acute hostility to his ap-
pointment had already been expressed by members of the
religious denominations. During the following autumn,
after the Report of the Rockfish Gap Commission, in
favor of converting Central College into the State Uni-
versity, had been drafted for delivery to the General
Assembly, Abbe Correa endeavored to strengthen Coop-
er's position by trumpeting his great attainments.
" Learning and love of science and of its diffusion," he
wrote Francis W. Gilmer, " are as different as light and
caloric. They are not always united. I have met
through life many a phosphoric savant who did not com-
municate heat. Judge Cooper does both." The Uni-
versity having been chartered, his reappointment came up
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 201
again for discussion by the Board at a meeting held at
Montpelier, the home of Madison. In the teeth of
weather graphically described by General Cocke as the
" most snowy that he had ever seen," Jefferson rode on
horseback over the clogged country highways to be pres-
ent; he was now close upon his seventy-sixth birthday;
but neither the infirmities of old age, nor obliterated
roads, nor a nipping wind, were suffered to create insur-
mountable obstructions to the journey. It was not sim-
ply that he wished to hasten the progress of the buildings,
he was acutely interested in Cooper's prompt reelection
because that would allow two professorships to be in-
augurated practically at once.
Chapman Johnson, one of the most astute lawyers of
the State, and a very accomplished and winning man, had
taken David Watson's place on the Board. He, together
with Cabell and Cocke, were averse to Cooper's reap-
pointment. Cabell had written to Jefferson and hinted a
doubt about the expediency of the choice, but if he was
employed, said he, he should not be permitted to come
alone. Nevertheless, Cabell thought that Jefferson
should be sustained if he had committed himself to
Cooper; and this seems to have been Johnson's attitude,
too, when he learned from R. H. Lee, of Staunton,
who had been one of Cooper's pupils, that his character
was entitled to unquestionable respect. Cocke, however,
was not so rmgch inclined to yield, though pained by the
position in which his conscientious objections put him.
" The thought of opposing my individual opinion," he
wrote Cabell on March i, 1819, " upon a subject of this
nature against the high authority of Mr. Jefferson and
Mr. Madison, has cost me a conflict which has shaken
the very foundations of my health, for I feel now as if I
should have a spell of sickness. But I could not act
202 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
otherwise, for if I had expired under the trial, I should
have held out to the last."
Jefferson, however, was not to be turned in his resolu-
tion; he urged that the new institution was bound in law
to enter into a contract with Cooper, should he accept
the proposal which had been made to him. 1 " More-
over," he added with the extravagance which tinged his
impressions quite frequently when the spirit of the parti-
san was aroused in him, " Cooper is acknowledged by
every enlightened man who knows him to be the greatest
man in America in the powers of his mind, and in acquired
information, and that without a single exception. I un-
derstand that a rumor unfavorable to his habits has been
afloat in some places, but I never heard of a single man
who undertook to charge him with present or late in-
temperance, and I think rumor is fairly outweighed by
the counter-evidence of the great desire shown at William
and Mary to get him; that shown by the enlightened
men of Philadelphia to retain him; and the anxiety of
New York to get him; that of Correa to place him here,
who is in constant intercourse with him; the evidence
I received on his visit here, when the state of his health
permitted him to eat nothing but vegetables and drink
nothing but water; his declaration to me at the table that
he dared not drink ale or cider or a single glass of wine,
and this in the presence of Correa, who, if there had
been any hypocrisy in it, would not have failed to tell
me so."
Jefferson carried his point, and on March 29, 1819,
1 Writing to Cabell Feb. 19, 1819, Jefferson says, "Our engagement
with Dr. Cooper obliges us to receive him, and I shall propose to let
an usher of our nomination and under our patronage, give a grammar
school for the senior classes in Charlottesville on his account altogether,
receiving nothing from the College. In that case, Cooper may take the
highest or higher classes and may open his law school."
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 203
Cooper, who, it will be remembered, had been elected
professor of chemistry and law in Central College,
was appointed to the diversified chair of chemistry, min-
eralogy, natural philosophy, and law, in the recently in-
corporated University; he was guaranteed a salary that
was not to fall short of $3,500 in amount; and the Board
agreed to purchase his apparatus at cost, and twenty-five
hundred specimens of his mineralogical collection at fifty
cents apiece. Furthermore, the annual expense of all
articles consumed in the experiments of his chemical lec-
tures was to be defrayed by the institution, provided that
it did not exceed two hundred and fifty dollars. There
was but one condition in modification of this contract;
namely, that payment for the mineralogical specimens
was to be deferred until more schools had been created,
and more professors engaged; but, in the meanwhile, an
annual interest of six per cent, was to be paid on the sum
of the purchase money. When this liberal agreement
was entered into, there was a prospect that the first lec-
ture would be delivered at the University in the spring of
1820; but by October, 1819, it was clearly foreseen that
this would be impracticable, and the Board, through the
committee of superintendence, Jefferson and Cocke,
so informed Dr. Cooper; who consented to put off
the commencement of his duties to a later date, without
any compensation beyond the advance of fifteen hundred
dollars for his subsistence. This was to be deducted from
the first instalment of salary after he should begin to
discharge his functions; but he reserved the right to oc-
cupy a pavilion in the meanwhile. Jefferson, who, in the
first instance, had been too impatient to contract with
him, looked upon these terms as moderate and reason-
able. Cocke, the other member of the committee, de-
murred to Cooper's establishing his domicile at the Uni-
204 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
versity before he could be usefully employed there, since
it was calculated, he said, " to injure the institution at a
time when it stood in need of every friend who could
rally around it."
The deep aversion of the religious sects now again
raised a threatening voice. Cooper had published an
edition of Dr. Priestley's works, in the preface to which
he had given expression to views flagrantly unorthodox. 1
Dr. John H. Rice, editor of the justly influential Evan-
gelical Magazine, who, as we shall soon see, had taken an
energetic part in creating a popular sentiment favorable
to the passage of the University bill, came out with a
vigorous but temperate article condemning Cooper's em-
ployment as a teacher of youth. The quotations which
he submitted from Cooper's writings were such as to
shock the minds of a conservative people like the Vir-
ginians; and he was, therefore, sustained by public opin-
ion in the assertion that, as the University was a State in-
stitution, the different denominations who joined in sup-
porting it had a right to be offended by the selection of
professors whose heresies struck, as they thought, at the
foundations of " social order, morals, and religion."
Jefferson's choler was quickly and thoroughly aroused by
these clerical reflections on Cooper, who, he declared with
bitterness, had been charged with Unitarianism " as pre-
sumptuously as if it were a crime." " For myself," he
wrote General Robert B. Taylor, " I am not disposed to
regard the denunciation of these satellites of religious
inquisition "; but his colleagues differed in view from him,
and when the mortified Cooper offered his resignation,
1 " I fear that Cooper's appointment," William H. Cabell wrote to his
brother, Joseph, March 21, 1820, " will do the University infinite injury.
His religious views are damnable, as exhibited in a book published by
him shortly after the death of Priestley. You will have every religious
man in Virginia against you."
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 205
they wisely and discreetly accepted it. He received the
remainder of the fifteen hundred dollars promised him,
of which seven hundred and fifty had already been antici-
pated by him. His final communication with the Board
was marked by both dignity and manliness : " Whatever
my religious creed may be, and perhaps I do not exactly
know it myself, it is a pleasure to reflect that my conduct
has not brought, and is not likely to bring, discredit on
my friends."
Jefferson did not disguise his chagrin over this mis-
carriage. " I have looked to him," he wrote General
Taylor, in May, 1820, " as the corner-stone of our edi-
fice. I know of no one who could have aided us so much
in forming the future regulations for our infant institu-
tion, and although we may hereafter procure from Eu-
rope equivalents in the sciences, they can never replace
the advantages of his experience, his knowledge of the
character, the habits, and manners of our country, his
identification with its sentiments and principles, and the
high reputation he has obtained in it generally." Such
was the unlucky upshot of the only formal arrangement
which was entered into to procure a professor for Central
College. The contract was passed on to the University,
where it ended in the disaster which has been described.
The later experience with Professors Long and Key, who
did not remain until the end of the terms for which they
were employed, confirms the pertinency of Jefferson's
reasons for so ardently wishing to engage Cooper so far
as those reasons related to his residence of many years
n the country, and to his sympathy with Republican doc-
trines and institutions. From other points of view, his
resignation, perhaps, was no cause for regret. He
seemed to flourish most in a storm-centre created by him-
self; but that was not the atmosphere which would have
206 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
brought respect and prosperity to an infant seat of learn-
ing, with a reputation yet to be made and confirmed.
xvi. The Bill for Conversion
In the midst of all these plans for building pavil-
ions and dormitories and engaging professors, how did
Jefferson expect to acquire the funds which would be
needed for so many purposes? The subscription list
was his only immediate reliance, and knowing how slen-
der and inadequate it was, he began to direct a wist-
ful eye towards the State treasury, which now possessed,
in the Literary Fund, a source of large income for the
benefit of public education. He was convinced that no
institution of permanent importance could be sustained
by private contributions alone; and this, as we have al-
ready pointed out, was a powerful motive with him in
hastening the completion of the College, for as long as it
was without pavilions, dormitories, and instructors, no
appeal could be made to the General Assembly for assist-
ance with any prospect of success.
When, in the winter of 1817-18, Jefferson's bill for
general education was submitted, with an alternate clause
for the adoption of Central College as the university then
talked of, Cabell hoped that, should that clause be ignored
and no university authorized, a separate bill asking for
an appropriation for the College would be more fortu-
nate. " I have often observed," he wrote shrewdly to
his chief at Monticello, " a disposition in the Assembly
to console the disappointed by granting them something
on the failure of a favorite scheme. Miserable omen for
science and literature that their friends should fly to such
a sentiment on such an occasion, yet it would be better to
do this than to fail altogether." It was his plan, should
GERMINATION ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 207
the conversion be refused, to obtain an annuity, ranging
from $3,500 to $5,000, from the Literary Fund for the
College, to be used for the support of its professorships,
while the money from the subscriptions might be reserved
for the construction of the buildings. But he soon found
that there were many obstacles in his path. On February
6, 1818, he again wrote to Jefferson, "The friends of
Staunton and Lexington wish to keep down the Central
College. I believe that they would oppose the appro-
priation of a dollar to it. Should it get even a little
amount, it would be established, and one year more would
throw Staunton out of the chase altogether, and Lexing-
ton in the background. For these reasons, I think the
back country will oppose a small appropriation to the
Central College with nearly as much zeal as it would the
establishment of the University at that place."
After struggling against this illiberal attitude, and wit-
nessing the defeat of Jefferson's bill, Cabell became so
much disheartened that he doubted the expediency of pe-
titioning for the desired annuity at this session. " Let it
be done at the next," was his frequently reiterated advice.
Such was the character of the present House, he said,
that it was questionable whether it would grant the Col-
lege even the right to hold a lottery. " Certain inter-
ests," he continued, " have conspired to cause the As-
sembly to turn its back on literature and science. A por-
tion of the middle country delegation, by cooperating
with these interests, have darkened our prospects on this
occasion. These, it is thought, are opposed to the Cen-
tral College, partly because of their hostility to some
of the persons who support it, or from other motives but
little more commendable. It is of infinite importance
to the best interests of the State to send some able and
virtuous men to the next Assembly." And again he said,
208 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
" If I had the cooperation of some four or five men, such
as I could describe, everything could be effected." And
again, " Our only safe course is to look around and select
suitable persons and to try and prevail on them to come
into the next Assembly. It is a subject of infinite delicacy
and should be handled with great discretion."
Whilst Jefferson's bill, which really aimed at the con-
version of Central College into a State university, was
thrown out at this session, nevertheless an Act was passed,
as a substitute, that authorized the establishment of a
great seat of learning for the whole Commonwealth, and
the selection of a commission to choose its site. The
struggle for that site was to be adjourned to Rockfish Gap,
and the conference there was to be attended by Jeffer-
son. For the first and last time in the history of this
protracted controversy, he was to be present in person on
the ground where the battle was actually fought; and
the complete success which crowned his participation in
that occasion, demonstrates that the influence of his
tongue could be quite as powerful as the influence of his
pen, whenever he considered it wise to exert it.
THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY
r. Rock fish Gap Commission
It was on February 21, 1818, that the bill for the estab-
lishment 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 re-
quired 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 Commis-
sioners. 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 Commission-
ers 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 Com-
missioner 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 Charlottes-
ville, 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,
209
210 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
who were in the minority, cast their votes as a body in
favor of a western site.
But Cabell was not satisfied with creating all these
propitious conditions in advance: he was acutely solici-
tous that Jefferson should serve as a member of the Board;
and that he should induce Madison to consent to his ap-
pointment also. The influence of these two distinguished
men, Cabell rightly anticipated, would carry extraordi-
nary weight with their associates. Deeply interested as
Jefferson was in the approaching conference, he debated
with hesitation for some time the wisdom of his becom-
ing a Commissioner. " There are fanatics both in re-
ligion 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 mod-
esty. It is the cool and deliberate act of my own judg-
ment. I believe that the institution would be more popu-
lar without me than with me, and this is the most impor-
tant 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 unani-
mously 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 influ-
ence. The full membership of that body embraced Creed
Taylor, of Cumberland, Peter Randolph, of Dinwiddie,
William Brockenbrough, of Henrico, Archibald Ruther-
ford of Rockingham, Archibald Stuart, of Augusta, James
Breckinridge, of Botetourt, Henry E. Watkins, of Char-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 211
lotte, James Madison, of Orange, A. T. Mason, of Lou-
doun, Hugh Holmes, of Frederick, Philip C. Pendleton,
of Berkeley, Spencer Roane, of Hanover, James M. Tay-
lor, of Montgomery, John G. Jackson, of Harrison,
Thomas Wilson, of Monongahela, Philip Slaughter, of
Culpeper, W. H. Cabell, of Buckingham, N. H. Clai-
borne, of Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle, W.
A. G. Dade, of Prince William, William Jones, and four
other Commissioners, who sent word that they were un-
able to be present to take part in the deliberations. But
it was remarked at the time that the absentees repre-
sented that part of the State which had always been loyal
to the College of William and Mary.
The specific duty imposed on this Board by the Legis-
lature was to report to that body ( i ) a site for the Uni-
versity; (2) a plan for the building of it; (3) the
branches of learning which should be taught therein; (4)
the number and character of the professorships; and (5)
such general provisions for the organization and govern-
ment of the institution as the General Assembly ought to
adopt. All these requirements were precisely in har-
mony with Jefferson's wishes, and they had quite prob-
ably 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 prop-
erty, which may be offered through them to the President
and Directors of the Literary Fund for the benefit of
the University."
On Saturday, August i, the Commissioners assembled
at the Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This
spot had been selected as lying on the great natural line
212 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
of division between the western and eastern sections
of Virginia; and as the Gap was crossed by a public road
that was very much frequented, and was near the centre of
the State, it could be reached by an equality of exertion
from the Potomac and the Carolina border, from Chesa-
peake Bay and the Ohio River. In our own age of
rapid, easy, and constant transit by steam, it is difficult to
take in fully the inconveniences and discomforts which
all the Commissioners had to endure in order to attend
the Conference. There were lines of stages, it is true,
running from Richmond to Western Virginia, and from
Lynchburg to Washington, or the reverse, but it was nec-
essary for many of the Commissioners who were not trav-
elling in their own carriages to go some distance before
they could connect with one of these cumbrous public
coaches. After it had been caught at some small road-
side tavern, a journey of two days was required, in some
instances, before the Gap could be reached. The rough
jolting, the deep stallings, the blinding dust, and the in-
clement weather, which was so often encountered in these
primitive vehicles, must have been irksome and fatiguing
to men already past their prime. General Breckinridge,
of Botetourt, Mr. Claiborne, of Franklin, and Mr. Tay-
lor, of Montgomery, who were compelled to come all the
way from the Southwest, or Judge Cabell, Judge Creed
Taylor, or Mr. Watkins, from the equally remote South-
side, quite probably traversed the intervening ground in
their own carriages, driven by their own servants. Mr.
Holmes, of Frederick, Judge Jackson, of Harrison, Mr.
Pendleton, of Berkeley, and Mr. Wilson, of Mononga-
hela, were able to make the journey more easily, whether
by stage or private coach, since good turnpikes had been
constructed through the Alleghanies and down the Val-
ley; but not so with those whose homes were situated
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 213
east, south, or north of Charlottesville, for, in these
regions of the State, the roads were often in a condition of
aboriginal imperfection. August was chosen as the
month for the Conference, not only because the weather
was certain to be then at its best, and the highways more
passable, but also because the larger number of the per-
sons to attend it were judges or lawyers, who, during that
month, were in the habit of taking their annual vacation.
This too was the time of the year when the mountain
resorts were most visited, and some of the Commission-
ers, following their annual custom, could, after participat-
ing in the Conference, continue their journey to the Sul-
phur, the Hot, or the Sweet Springs.
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 to-
wards 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 extensive-
ness and in its fertility even more than it, at this time, ac-
tually 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 pano-
rama, 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
214 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
character and fix in site. Where they saw an hundred
people now, there would be a thousand tomorrow; and
they were not too sanguine in anticipating that the seat
of learning which they were about to locate, would shed
its kindly light, either directly or indirectly, over them all
for centuries.
But if the magnificence of the views from these moun-
tain heights was in harmony with the noble enterprise
which they had come to launch, the actual place of meet-
ing 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 architec-
tural beauty. Around it, however, there must have been
always a scene of extraordinary liveliness, for the regu-
lar 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 anima-
tion 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 pub-
lic dining-room, an apartment which possessed no other
pieces of furniture besides a long, rough table and numer-
ous well-worn split-bottom chairs, such as were then in
common use in the log-huts of the mountaineers. Jef-
ferson, 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 BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 215
proceedings were, from start to finish, characterized by
so much smoothness and harmony. There was a sharp
antagonism in the views advanced as to the proper site
for the new university, but no bitterness entered into this
diversity of opinion; or if it really existed below the
surface, it was held in check by the silent force of the
quiet and impartial bearing of the chairman, who, as all
were aware, was so earnestly in favor of Charlottesville's
selection, and yet who did not permit an opposing parti-
zanship in others present to ruffle his temper or to color
his decisions. " If any undue influence (in favor of
Central College), was exercised," Judge T. G. Jackson,
the Commissioner from the Harrison district, has re-
corded, " there certainly never was an instance of greater
forbearance or moderation in its exercise. Mr. Jeffer-
son did not even intimate a wish at any time or in any
shape except when his name was called and his vote
given." *
The choice to be made did not concern simply the wel-
fare of literature and education. Had that been the sole
issue, the dignity of it would have explained the self-re-
straint 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 dis-
cussed, 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 antag-
onism which such a thought was so calculated to raise did
1 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 descen-
dants in West Virginia has failed to disclose whether this diary is still
in existence.
216 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
not crop up in word or act; and there was apparently a
common desire, even in pushing individual and sectional
preferences, to do so in a spirit, and in a manner, worthy
of the great purpose which had brought them together.
The first day of the session seems to have been given
up to a debate on the advantages which each of the
three places canvassed, Staunton, Washington Col-
lege, and Central College, possessed as a site for the
projected university. It was admitted by all that there
was no difference in the fertility and salubrity of the re-
spective regions in which they were situated; the decision,
therefore, rested upon the two vital points: (i) which
of the three could offer the most opulent inducements
in the way of buildings and endowments; and above all,
(2) which of the three was nearest to the centre of the
State. If any proposal was made in the name of Staun-
ton by her representative, Judge Archibald Stuart, it
was only done in the form of a promise of a future ap-
propriation of money and land; but Washington College
and Central College alike were in a position at once to
contribute substantially, in both buildings and endow-
ments, to the new institution, should either be chosen
as its site. Washington College offered to transfer one
hundred shares in the stock of the James River Com-
pany, the thirty-one acres on which its buildings were
standing, its philosophical apparatus, its expected inter-
est in the funds of the Cincinnati Society, the libraries
of its two debating societies, and three thousand dollars
in cash. In addition, the people of Lexington at large
gave their bond to contribute the sum of $17,878. But
a more valuable donation still was the estate of 3,331
acres of agricultural land, twenty-two acres of suburban
property, fifty-seven slaves, and all his remaining person-
alty, which John Robinson, a citizen of Rockbridge,
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 217
would convey to the President and Directors of the Lit-
erary Fund for the benefit of the university after his
death, should Washington College be preferred.
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, aggre-
gating $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 prop-
erties 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 Col-
lege 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 de-
cision 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 sub-
stantial advantages in buildings and endowments to offer
218 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
at once. The information which he was now to use so
effectively had been collected with characteristic compre-
hensiveness and minuteness: through Alexander Garrett,
he had written to each court clerk in Virginia, and from
him obtained a statement of the distance of his county-
seat from some well known town in the State, whilst addi-
tional facts relating to transportation, highways, and
population had been gathered up from the same or sim-
ilar obscure but reliable sources. With this mass care-
fully sifted and skilfully arranged to guide him, he had
patiently and industriously constructed a large map, which
indicated alike the geographical centre of the State and
the centre of its population. This map was the most
esteemed part of his baggage in his journey to Rockfish
Gap.
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. 1 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 decisfon announced a few days afterwards.
What did the map demonstrate? First, that, if a
straight line was drawn from the mouth of the Chesa-
1 Recollections of Alexander Garrett. See Letter of George W. Ran-
dolph to Dr. James L. Cabell, Cabell Papers, University Library. The
map is said to have been made of cardboard.
peake Bay to the Ohio River, by way of Central College,
Rockfish Gap, and Staunton, there would be a difference
of only 15,000 individuals between the population south
and the population north of its course. On the other
hand, the number of persons inhabiting the region north
of a line drawn from the same point through Lexington
to the Ohio River was 91,009 in excess of the number
residing south of that line. There were 150,121 more
white people to be found to the east of a line drawn from
south to north along the crest of the Blue Ridge than
were to be found to the west of it Draw the like north
and south line through Staunton, and the numerical su-
periority in favor of the east would be 221,733. Draw
it again through Lexington, and the eastern majority
would be 175,191. If, however, it was drawn through
Central College, the majority would be only 36,315. In
other words, whether the line was drawn from east to
west, or south to north, through Central College, the
numerical difference between the two sections of the di-
vided population would approach nearest to equality. 1
On the other hand, if the decision was to be governed by
a comparison of distances, then the argument in its favor
was quite as strong, according to the figures of the same
necromantic map. From Staunton to the boundary line
of North Carolina, as the crow would fly, was one
hundred and twelve and a half miles, and from Staunton
to the Potomac, one hundred and ten, a difference of
two and a half miles. In the case of Lexington, the dif-
ference between the two like reaches was fifty-two and
a half miles. On the other hand, the difference in the
case of Central College was only eleven and a half miles,
about nine miles more than marked the situation of
1 These figures are given in a statement by Cabell among the Cabell
Papers in the University Library.
220 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Staunton, but forty-one and a half miles less than dis-
tinguished that of Lexington. It was Lexington, not
Staunton, which caused Jefferson the most serious appre-
hension, and it was the pretension of Washington College
that he was really aiming to prick.
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 Methu-
selahs 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 ac-
companiment.
After carefully examining the map, the Commission-
ers agreed to defer their decision as to the site from Sat-
urday until Monday, and in the meanwhile, a very dis-
tinguished committee was appointed to draw up the state-
ment 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 gov-
ernment. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, General Breckinridge, Judges Roane, Stuart,
and Bade. 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 221
of its clauses had accompanied the map to Rockfish Gap,
under cover of the same portmanteau stored away in the
boot of his carriage. If any amendments to these par-
ticular parts were offered by members of the committee,
no record of that fact has survived; and all had probably
too much discernment to think that any change would im-
prove the substance of that remarkable document.
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 pro-
visional donation by John Robinson; and second, the in-
sertion of the name of Central College as the place finally
adopted as the site for the projected university. This de-
cision 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 Lexing-
ton; 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 popu-
lar 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.
n. 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
222 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
body, and not of details, such as would have been more
suitable had it been addressed to a learned academy."
But however briefly and succinctly couched, it is perhaps
the most pregnant and suggestive document of its kind
that has been issued in the history of American Education.
Few men of his day had given the penetrating and dis-
criminating thought to the subject which he had done;
here, in a very narrow compass, will be found the kernel
of every conviction that he had reached as to the proper
college architecture, the true aims of both elementary and
advanced instruction, the branches of learning that
should be taught in a university, the inadvisability of sec-
tarianism in its management, the methods of govern-
ing its students, and the duties which should be incum-
bent upon its board.
As this report was drawn with direct reference to the
University of Virginia, and afterwards shaped the gen-
eral character of its whole system, a synopsis of its most
salient features will be distinctly pertinent to our sub-
ject. In proposing a plan for the architectural setting
of the institution as required by the Legislature, Jeffer-
son simply repeats the scheme which he was already car-
rying out in the lawn, pavilions, and dormitories of
Central College. To it, however, he adds a large build-
ing " 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 conspicu-
ous benefits to accrue from elementary and advanced
instruction respectively, and combats the perverse idea of
those persons who consider the sciences as useless ac-
quirements, or at least, such as the private purse alone
should pay for. On the contrary, he said, a great estab-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 223
lishment in which all the sciences should be embraced
was far beyond the means of the individual, and it must
either derive its being from public patronage or not
exist at all. In such an establishment, the following
courses should, in his judgment, be introduced: (i) the
ancient languages, including Hebrew, as well as Latin
and Greek; (2) the modern languages, French, Span-
ish, Italian, German and Anglo-Saxon ; (3) mathematics,
algebra, fluxions, geometry, and architecture; (4)
physico-mathematics, mechanics, statics, dynamics, pneu-
matics, acoustics, optics, astronomy and geography; (5)
physics or natural philosophy, chemistry, and mineral-
ogy; (6) botany and zoology; (7) anatomy and medi-
cine; (8) government, political economy, history, and
the law of nature and nations; (9) municipal law; and
(10) ideology, general grammar, ethics, rhetoric,
belles-lettres and the fine arts.
Jefferson was regretfully aware that, without more pre-
paratory 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 re-
marks in the Report, could be suggested than the pres-
ence, 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 lan-
guages, they may be so numerous that the characteristics
which should belong to it as a seat of higher learning,
will be submerged in those of an ordinary grammar
school. He pressed upon the consideration of the Gen-
eral Assembly the expediency of erecting a system of in-
termediate academies, for, unless they were set up, the
224 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
University would be overwhelmed with pupils not at all
fitted by their previous schooling to uphold its scholar-
ship.
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 Re-
port that only a single professor for both medicine and
surgery was possible at first, as the population of Char-
lottesville 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 the-
ory 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 profes-
sors should be chosen, and that a maximum for their
salaries should be determined. Whilst no formal pro-
vision 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 train-
ing in the handicrafts should be given.
From some points of view, the most distinctly Jeffer-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 225
sonian recommendation was the one that a system of
government should be devised for the students which
should be entirely devoid of every form of coercion. All
sense of fear should be banished. " The human charac-
ter," so the Report asserted, " is susceptible of other in-
citements to correct conduct more worthy of employ and
of better effect. Pride of character, laudable ambition,
and moral dispositions are innate correctives of the indis-
cretions of that lively age. A system founded on reason
and comity will be more likely to nourish in the minds of
our youth the combined spirit of order and self-respect."
The Report, still following closely Jefferson's previ-
ously expressed opinions, further recommended that all
questions concerning qualifications for entrance, the ar-
rangement 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 proper-
ties of the University; the appointment of all the neces-
sary agents; the selection and removal of professors; the
prescribing and grouping of the courses of instruction;
the adoption of regulations for the government and dis-
cipline 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 clos-
ing, advised that the board should convene twice a year;
that it should nominate a rector; and that it should en-
joy the right to use a common seal, to plead and be im-
pleaded in all courts of justice, and to receive subscrip-
tions and donations, real and personal. Appended to
226 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the document were two statements, one indicating the
amount of property which John Robinson was willing to
devise to Washington College, should it be chosen as the
site of the new university; the other, the amount which
the Central College was ready to deliver at once, on the
same condition as to itself.
ill. 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 fol-
lowed 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 disen-
tangled 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 BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 227
delegation from the region of the Kanawha River were
frankly well disposed towards the measure.
The advocates of the Lexington site in the committee
urged, with persistence, that the clause recommending
Central College should be expunged, and a blank sub-
stituted 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 com-
mittee were especially vehement in questioning the cor-
rectness of Jefferson's way of arriving at the centre of
population. They were supported by Chapman John-
son, 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 Chesa-
peake 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 inhabi-
tants 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, Rock-
fish Gap, and Staunton."
Some of the advocates of Lexington shrewdly laid off
the southern half of the State in the form of a parallel-
ogram and the northern half in the form of a triangle.
This method, Jefferson gently intimated, was suggested
228 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
by ingenious minds seeking to force the situation in favor
of their preferred site. As the whole State was in a tri-
angular shape, why should not each half be made to
conform to that fact instead of only one? If the line
of equal division was drawn straight from east to west,
Lexington would be thrown out of the contest at once
by its distance from the centre of population. Not so
Charlottesville. Run that line north and south, again
would Lexington be thrust out, but again would Char-
lottesville successfully stand the test. " Run your lines
in whichever direction you please," exclaimed Jefferson,
triumphantly, " they will pass close to Charlottesville,
and for the good reason that it is truly central to the
white population."
At the third meeting, the Committee declined to strike
the words " Central College " from the bill. The meas-
ure was then reported to the House in its original form;
but here it again ran upon the ugly snag that had threat-
ened 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 opportu-
nity 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 substi-
tute 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 in-
formed by his colleague in the Senate from Clarksburg
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 229
that the entire delegation from the Northwest with one
exception, twenty-one members, had determined to
stand by the recommendation of the committee; this
was about the iyth of December; and although Christ-
mas was so close at hand, and most of the members were
departing for their homes, when not too remote, he de-
cided to stand to his post in Richmond. His health had
been so much undermined by his assiduity that he was ad-
vised to spend the holiday season at Williamsburg with
his wife's family, for the sake of the change; but he em-
phatically refused to do so. " Even if the danger of
my life existed which my friends apprehend," he said,
" I could not risk it in a better cause." He urged the
supporters of the bill in the House to hold it up until the
opening of the New Year. At the same time, he was
very much alarmed lest his opponents should continue to
gain strength by wily intrigue and unscrupulous bargain-
ing. Once more, indeed, he began to fear the complete
failure of the measure through the working of these
malignant agencies. He was fully aware that, in the
strongly cohesive delegation from the eastern counties,
there were at least twenty-six members who were ex-
pected, under the influence of their loyalty to the interests
of the College of William and Mary, to show themselves
hostile to the establishmment of a university at all, by
casting their votes against the bill, whether in the original
or the amended form. There was thought to be but one
provision that could ward off this blow: the appropriation
of five thousand dollars annually to the use of that insti-
tution. This was Cabell's not unprejudiced impression,
for the antagonism which he had to overcome had left
him in an exasperated and jaundiced mood. " The best
informed of these partizans of the ancient college," he
wrote Jefferson, " whilst they, their sons, connections, and
230 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
friends have been educated at William and Mary, quote
Smith, the Edinburgh Review, and Dugald Stewart, to
prove that education should be left to individual enter-
prise, the more ignorant part pretend that the Literary
Fund has been diverted from its original object, the
education of the poor, and accuse the friends of the
University of an intention to apply all the funds to the
benefit of the University."
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 dis-
tinguished 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 suf-
ficient physical force to put down large bodies of young
men, should they fall to rioting.
By January i, 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 has-
ten their return, and in the meanwhile, he sought encour-
agement 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 " ;
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 231
and this was also the spirit of the men who had remained
at their posts. " I had indulged the hope," wrote Wil-
liam F. Gordon to his wife on Christmas day, " that I
could have gone home about this time, but the importance
of our University bill is so great to Virginia, and partic-
ularly to Albemarle county, that I feared to leave it."
In a letter to Jefferson a few days earlier, Cabell had said,
" I have passed the night in watchful reflection and the
day in ceaseless activity. ... I have conveyed from per-
son to person intelligence of our view, and endeavored
to reconcile difference of opinion and to create harmony.
... I have called on and influenced the aid of powerful
friends out of the Legislature, such as Roane, Nicholas,
Brockenbrough, Taylor, and others. I have procured
most of the essays in the Enquirer''
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 coad-
jutors, outside of the Assembly itself, in this protracted
contest, was the Rev. John H. Rice, the most distin-
guished Presbyterian divine in the State. Perhaps his
most notable service at this time took the form of a let-
ter over the signature of Crito, which he contributed to
232 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the issue of the Enquirer for January 9, 1819. "Ten
years ago," he wrote, " I made certain inquiries on the
subject (the pecuniary loss to Virginia from the absence
of a State university) and ascertained, to my conviction,
that the amount annually carried from Virginia for pur-
poses of education alone exceeded $250,000. Since that
period, it has been greater. Take a quarter of a million
as the average of the last eight and twenty years, and
the amount is the enormous sum of $7,000,000. But
had our schools been such as the resources of Virginia
would have well allowed, and her honor and interest
demanded, it is by no means extravagant to suppose that
the five States that border on ours would have sent as
many students, as under the present wretched system,
we have sent to them. Thus this reaches another
amount of $7,000,000. Let our economists look to that
14,000,000 of good dollars lost to us by our parsimony.
Let our. wise men calculate the, amount outside of our
losses, and add it to this principal."
Dr. Rice made no plea for a particular site for the
University, because he thought that this should be de-
cided by the General Assembly, of which he was not a
member; but his reasoning for the creation of the in-
stitution itself was a powerful influence towards the over-
throw 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 show-
ing the centre of population in the State; but when the
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 233
last speech had been finished, and the motion was put
whether the clause relating to Central College, as the
proposed site of the University, should be accepted or
discarded, the vote stood sixty-nine in favor of rejection
and one hundred and fourteen in favor of retention.
The brilliant Briscoe G. Baldwin was then a delegate
from Augusta, of which Staunton, one of the competitors
for the University, was the county-seat. So soon as the
decision of the House was announced, he rose from his
chair, and, in proposing that the bill should be adopted
unanimously, appealed to the Western delegation to dis-
miss all local prejudice, to repress all spirit of partizan-
ship, and to join with the majority in acquiescing in the
entire measure as it stood. His speech was so eloquent
in its utterance of the noblest patriotic emotions that
most of his hearers were melted to tears. Cabell, who
had been present in the chamber before the roll was
called, had retired to avoid the shock to his feelings,
should the upshot be adverse. The final vote on the pas-
sage of the bill was taken on the following day (January
19), and only twenty-eight of the one hundred and sixty-
nine members present persisted in their opposition.
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 2Oth, " the vig-
orous 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 coun-
teracted."
On the 2 ist, the measure, having reached the Senate,
was referred to a very able committee. When at last
234 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
reported, a motion to strike out of the text the choice of
Central College was lost by a vote of sixteen to seven.
It finally passed the Senate on the 25th by a vote of
twenty-two to one, an indication of more enlightened
views in that body as a whole than prevailed in the
House. The discussion of its different provisions had
continued uninterruptedly through two days; and so
strenuously did Cabell participate in the debate that a
blood vessel in his lungs, which he had formerly ruptured,
opened again, and he was compelled to sink to his
seat.
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 pres-
ent 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 Uni-
versity 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. Wil-
liam 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 235
the exception of Washington, lives to see the consumma-
tion of all his wishes in the establishment of an institu-
tion which will be a lasting monument to his fame."
Jefferson himself received the announcement of the re-
alization of his hopes of so many years with the philo-
sophical moderation so characteristic of him when his
faculties were not disturbed by the red flag of Federal-
ism 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 accommoda-
tions 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 crea-
tion of a university was retained: the annuity was again
fixed at fifteen thousand dollars. Among the character-
istic features of the subsequent government of the insti-
tution 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
236 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
under this clause that this unique method of administra-
tion came into existence.
The first Board of Visitors, which, as the Act re-
quired, was appointed by the Governor, consisted of
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John H. Cocke,
Joseph C. Cabell, Chapman Johnson, James Breckin-
ridge, and Robert B. Taylor. The Board of Central
College, it will be recollected, embraced only five mem-
bers, and all of these, with the exception of David Wat-
son, 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 citi-
zen 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 Staun-
ton, 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 mem-
ber 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 ac-
tion of the Governor and Council, who thought it wise
to select only a majority of the Board from the neigh-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 237
boring region and the remainder from the other parts of
the State. This had a tendency to diminish the chance
of sectional carping; and it also conferred on the insti-
tution the distinction of being governed by a larger num-
ber of influential public men than could be found within
the bounds of any single group of counties. The line of
exclusion seems to have been drawn in the first appoint-
ments sharply against judges and members of Congress;
but in the course of time this rule was entirely abandoned
as to the latter at least.
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 per-
form their former functions until superseded by the com-
ing together of the new Board. The proceedings of
this meeting were far from being merely nominal, in an-
ticipation 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 (i) 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 treas-
238 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
urer, with the authority to act as bursar also; and that he
should receive from the State the annuity payable for the
present year ( 1819).
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 princi-
ples. 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 al-
teration 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 opportu-
nity 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 memor-
able session were Thomas Jefferson, rector, Peter Minor,
secretary, Alexander Garrett, bursar, and Arthur S.
Brockenbrough, proctor. Jefferson and Cocke were re-
appointed 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 239
should, in the beginning, be restricted to building, and
that as little as possible should be reserved for the en-
gagement of professors, until a sufficient number of
pavilions, hotels, and dormitories had been provided to
accommodate them and the pupils expected.
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 univer-
sity. The Board, on March 29, instructed the com-
mittee 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 Perryconveyed
the first lot of forty-eight acres; and not Wml May 9,
1825, more than five years afterwards, that he signed
the deed to the remaining lot of one bflndred 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 communi-
cating 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 prop-
erty 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
240 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
it. One of the first provisions of the new Board, under
his inspiration, was to arrange for this purchase, which,
when accomplished, put an end to the risk of future in-
terference.
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. 1 These four
parcels of land increased to the extent of one hundred
and eighty-four acres the domain already in the posses-
sion 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.
V. Course of Construction
Although Central College had been raised to the plat-
form of a university, the general outline of the original
plan of building underwent but few alterations. Jef-
ferson 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 Perry field: and in the letter written
by him to William C. Rives, only three days after the
r 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 says that the old Staunton Road wound around
near the University cemetery to assure a better grade.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 241
University was incorporated, he simply canvasses the
ability of the Board of Visitors to provide during that
year for the building of two pavilions, with their dor-
mitories, besides those already in course of erection. It
it true that the Report referred specifically to an edifice
of large size " in the middle of the grounds," to be used
for certain purposes carefully enumerated, but, as we
have already pointed out, this structure, in the form now
known to us, had been suggested, in a general way, by
Latrobe, and accepted as a part of the plan.
The first and only really important modification that
was made in the setting was in April, 1820, when Jeffer-
son, 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 sev-
enty-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 win-
dows 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 ulti-
mately determined to change the plan to the one after-
242 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
wards followed, in which the East and West Ranges,
facing outward, turn their back yards upon the back
yards of the Lawn. Another modification of the orig-
inal plan left the projected Rotunda with a lawn on
either side. These two small areas of open ground,
which, with the actual site of the Rotunda itself, had, in
Jefferson's earliest scheme, been reserved for pavilions
and dormitories, were, in the end, occupied by wings,
which, during many years, were in normal use as gym-
nasia.
Taking the noble group of buildings in the mass as
completed, they enable us to understand clearly Jeffer-
son'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. Jeffer-
son 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 mathe-
matics. It was, however, in the peculiarities of the sur-
rounding buildings that the fundamental lessons of the art
were to be learned. " The introduction of chaste mod-
els," 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 order,
was considered as a necessary foundation of the instruc-
tion 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 distin-
guished member of Congress, that the capitals and
bases recently arrived from Italy should be exempted
from custom duties because they were designed as much
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 243
for illustration as for practical use. With perfect pro-
priety, said he, these monuments might have been placed
" in our museum for an indefinite period." This was
not done, he added, " because we thought that, to show
their best effects, they would nowhere be exhibited so
advantageously as in connection with their columns and
the super-incumbent entablature. We, therefore, de-
termined that each of the pavilions . . . should present
a distinct and different sample of the art. And these
buildings being arranged around three sides of a square,
the lecturer, in a circuit, attended by his school, could ex-
plain to them successively these samples of the several
orders."
There was another practical reason which Jefferson
gave in justification of that splendid but costly architec-
tural scheme. It was his conviction that, without a " dis-
tinguished 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 some-
what fanciful notion, for certainly the only alien profes-
sors 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 serv-
ices of the ablest and ripest American scholars. 1 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 recommenda-
1 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.
244 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tions for it, such as he was led to bring forward to com-
bat the weight of the ignorant provincial criticisms leveled
at it. He himself had said that it was as inexpensive to
build a beautiful house as it was to build an ugly one.
Within the privacy of his own breast, he probably agreed
with good judges of subsequent generations in thinking
that the architectural charm of the University of Vir-
ginia, like the immortal poet's thing of beauty, was a joy
forever in itself that called for no additional reason to
justify its existence.
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, Corin-
thian 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, Co-
rinthian 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 pur-
poses, but still preserved with fidelity, the art of the orig-
inals, 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 de-
parture, 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
him, in his relation to the architecture of the University,
that, instead of working, like the disciples of Inigo Jones,
downward from Palladio to the debased Georgian imita-
tions of the classic, he worked upward from that great
artist to the purest and most refined types of the classic.
" He removed from the classic forms of the Caesars," says
Dr. Lambeth, summing up his merits in this particular
in a remarkable phrase, " the architectural rubbish of the
centuries." His bent was towards the Roman classical,
when all or nearly all his contemporaries exhibited a
leaning towards the Georgian, Italian, Vitruvian, Gothic,
or Renaissance styles. In his report to the General As-
sembly in November, 1821, he modestly declares that he
had no " supplementary guide but his own judgment " ;
and while he does not seem to have looked for even
grudging approval in the general public, yet some in-
stances of high and generous appreciation of the beauty
of his buildings soon came to his knowledge to gratify
him. John Tyler, the younger, being a citizen of the
Peninsula, and residing not far from the College of Wil-
liam and Mary, had not been friendly to the University,
yet after inspecting the completed group, he was " so
much impressed with the extent and splendor of the estab-
lishment," according to Judge Semple, who reported his
words to Cabell, and Cabell to Jefferson, that he re-
gretted that he had not been a member of the last Assem-
bly to vote for the cancellation of its bonds.
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, writ-
ing 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
246 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
by Tyler and Minor, expressed very pertinently the sur-
prise of Virginians of that day, who had travelled lit-
tle, and had few very fine models of residential architec-
ture in their own State to educate their taste, when they
viewed the classical buildings which Jefferson had caused
to rise in the shadow of Observatory Mountain. Tick-
nor was perhaps a more competent judge, for he had
passed many years in Europe, had visited all its famous
capitals, and had examined all its edifices of celebrity.
He had thus become both fastidious and discriminating.
In 1824, he happened to be a guest at Monticello, and,
accompanied by his host, rode down to inspect the Univer-
sity edifices. At this time, ten pavilions, with their dor-
mitories, and four hotels, with dormitories also attached,
had been finished; and the Rotunda too was so far com-
pleted as to stand forward with a very noble aspect. In
a letter to W. H. Prescott, Ticknor described the group
" as a mass of buildings more beautiful than anything
architectural in New England, and more appropriate to
a university than are to be found, perhaps, in the world."
And it is the general opinion of more modern experts
in the art that this extreme statement of the accomplished
Bostonian was not exaggerated. " Although it cannot
be but regretted," remarked Stanford White, of our own
day, " that it was not possible to use marble where wood
and stucco painted white take its place, yet as the use of
marble was necessarily impossible, the mind, reverting to
the period when the buildings were erected, forgives the
homely substitute in delight at the charming result."
And on another occasion, he spoke of the physical setting
of the University of Virginia as the " most perfect and
exquisite group of collegiate buildings in the world." Dr.
Fiske Kimball, summing up the merits of the structures
in the mass, has characterized the whole as the " greatest
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 247
surviving masterpiece of the classic revival in America,
the most magnificent architectural creation of its day on
this side of the Atlantic." l
Even the persons who were most enthusiastic in com-
menting on the extraordinary beauty of Jefferson's con-
ception 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, 2 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 en-
gaged with their books in their several apartments. The
long, flat roofs of the Lawn, under the thawing of recur-
ring 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 al-
most 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
1 In a private letter to the author.
2 The early sessions extended into July. Originally, indeed, the vaca-
tion was confined to the winter.
248 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
courses, that their halls would not, at any one time, fur-
nish seats for all their pupils. Naturally, these profes-
sors would find the repetition of the same lecture on the
same day to the students who had been shut out highly
irksome; and the necessity of such repetition, should it
arise, was certain to throw the whole table of recitation
hours into confusion. Cabell, as early as April, 1819,
suggested that the Greek, Roman, and French model of
an oval room, with seats rising one above another, would
give a large area for use; but it was pointed out to him
that such a disposition of space would render the apart-
ment unserviceable to the professor and his family during
those hours when the lecture was not proceeding. There
was then left but one way of removing the difficulty,
the enlargement of the lecture-room; but as that would
upset the plan which Jefferson had adopted, Breckin-
ridge, Cabell, and Cocke, who were impatient with the
existing defect, felt that they must not only act with
caution, but must also act together. ' We should move
in concert," remarks Cabell in a letter to Cocke, " or we
shall perplex and disgust the old sachem." As the size
of the rooms was not altered, the old sachem, it is to be
inferred, remained obdurate to the proposal; indeed, to
make the change effective, the scheme of each pavilion
would have had to undergo a structural modification,
which would have added substantially to the already high
cost of building.
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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 249
bear that shut out the students from them except as social
visitors. There seems, however, to have been a more
practical reason for the change than this, as we shall
see hereafter.
Not only was Jefferson the author of the common
plan for Central College, and its successor, the Univer-
sity of Virginia, but, in spite of the burden of his increas-
ing years, he continued to act as the practical superin-
tendent of the building down to the completion of the
entire group of structures, with the exception of the Ro-
tunda, 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 specifica-
tions 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 a far greater scale in the construction of the
University buildings; he was now as able to test the
quality of brick, stone, mortar, and lumber, and to calcu-
late their value, as the most expert artisan on the ground,
while his taste in ornamentation was reflected in the
250 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
beautiful details which still adorn the interiors of the pa-
vilions.
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 commit-
tee 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 author-
ized 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 founda-
tion. 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 put-
ing up modillions in the cornice of his pavilion. Mr.
Oldham is making his frame." *
1 This letter will be found among the Proctor's Papers.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 251
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, 1 8 2 1 , six pa-
vilions, 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 in-
trusion, erected. A few capitals also had not as yet ar-
rived from Italy. By October 6, 1823, all these de-
ficiencies had been supplied. But the Rotunda had still
to be carried through the last stage of construction.
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 em-
ployed 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 construc-
tion after the University had been incorporated. Each
pavilion in Jefferson's scheme 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 re-
quired to erect each of the district colleges called for in
his famous scheme for popular education. In a very
252 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
definite sense, he looked upon each of the University
schools as a distinct institution, not unlike the projected
academies, and, therefore, the man who built one of these
pavilions, which typified in brick and mortar a single
school, was entitled to as much credit as if he had erected
the main structure of a district college.
Starting with the pavilion situated at the northern end
of West Lawn, we find that the bricks used in its con-
struction were laid by Phillips and Carter, of Richmond,
whilst its woodwork was from the hand of James Old-
ham. 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. 1
1 Proctor's Papers.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 253
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 ex-
tensive part in their erection, as a whole, than any other
person employed in the work. Spooner, who was asso-
ciated with him in his carpentry, appears first under con-
tract 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, after-
wards the White House of the Confederacy, was a monu-
ment of Carter's mechanical skill; and he had manufac-
tured 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 Uni-
versity, 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,
254 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
and had visited Charlottesville at once to offer his bid in
person; and Jefferson had accepted that bid on the con-
dition of his procuring his brickmakers and bricklayers
from the North. It was perhaps due largely to them,
and to the superior opportunities for training that had
been open to them there, that the work with which Ware
was credited, received such warm encomiums.
Subordinate to the contractors, there were at least
three stonecutters who deserve some notice: John Gor-
man and Michael and Giacomo Raggi. Our first view
of Gorman is in Lynchburg, where, before he was in-
duced to come to the University by Jefferson, he had been
employed in a large marble quarry. Having been heart-
ily 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 al-
ways 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 im-
ported 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 author-
ity 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 255
Thomas Appleton, the American consul at Leghorn.
They arrived in Baltimore in June, 1819. They proved
to be expensive from the very start: it was necessary to
advance them a large sum of money before they sailed;
and this was swelled by another draft on the bursar to
pay the cost of the journey from Maryland to Virginia.
The stone which they were called upon, after their arrival,
to chisel, had nothing in common with their native mar-
bles; and this was perhaps one reason why Micheli, at
least, showed almost at once a lazy callousness to the re-
quirements of his contract. Previous to July 16, some
test of their abilities had been made, for writing on that
day to the proctor, Jefferson said, " If Mr. Micheli
should be sufficiently advanced in his carving of a capital
to judge of its success by to-morrow morning, I would
ride up in the morning to see it." One month after-
wards, Spooner, in a letter to Brockenbrough, then absent
in Richmond, remarked rather pointedly that the " Ital-
ians are going on at the same gait, earning fifty cents a
day." Their services, in the end, promised to be so un-
profitable, owing primarily to the unfit nature of the
stone which they had to work in, that, in September, 1820,
the committee of superintendence decided to release them
both, although the contract of one had still to run for
eighteen months and of the other, for twenty. Giacomo
had given only fourteen months of labor; Micheli, only
twelve ; and on that ground, the committee refused to pay
the sum that would be due for their homeward passage.
Although Micheli Raggi, the least industrious and trust-
worthy of the two, had been in the University's employ-
ment for twelve months, he had been the cause of an ex-
penditure on his account of $1,390.56. Giacomo Raggi
did not accompany his brother to Italy; or if he did, he had
256 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
returned to Charlottesville by November 22, 1821, for,
by that date, the outlay for his board and lodging had
again become a charge on the funds of the University. 1
VII. How Materials Were Procured
If we except the marbles imported from Italy, the
fundamental materials for the construction of the pa-
vilions, 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 founda-
tions 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 endeav-
ored 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 quan-
tities 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, re-
quested Thomas R. Conway, who was interested in a
quarry situated near that city, to send him a sample of
1 Giacomo was still at the University in 1831. He was, during that
year, engaged with work for Dr. Patterson.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 257
a Tuscan base and capital made of his product, and also
asked 'him to blast out blocks suitable for the Corinthian
and Ionic capitals. The Italians were so successful in
carving a beautiful Corinthian leaf out of this stone that
Brockenbrough wrote to Cocke in November (1819)
that he had no doubt of his ability to obtain in this new
quarter all the capitals wanted. On December 8, two
blocks were sent from Richmond by Conway, one of which
weighed 5,572 pounds, and the other, 2,856 pounds.
They proved to be very difficult to chisel, and the capi-
tals fashioned from them were decided to be too brittle to
withstand the disintegrating influence of heat and cold.
But that hope of procuring the right material in Virginia
was not yet relinquished was disclosed, a few months later,
by the search which Gorman and one of the Italians to-
gether made in Augusta, and probably in other counties of
the Valley, for stone better adapted to the carving of
Corinthian capitals. All the specimens, however, which
were tested in this excursion, turned out to be disappoint-
ing.
As early as October, 1819, Cocke had urged the dismis-
sal 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 Apple-
ton, 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.
258 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
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 manufactur-
ers 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 to 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, ceil-
ings, joists, rafters, floorings, and sills. Nelson
Barksdale, the former proctor, provided lumber of all
sorts for the same general purpose; so did several mem-
bers 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 Brockenbrough and Hume. The painting and glaz-
ing 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 ac-
count for the building of the pavilions, dormitories, and
hotels were the charges for transportation. Many arti-
cles used in their construction were brought overland from
Richmond, and as the number of wagons on the road in-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 259
creased and fell off with the seasons and the volume of
trade, tedious delays were thus often caused in obtaining
even indispensable materials. The principal highway
from the Valley passed through Rockfish Gap, and thence
zigzagged westward by way of Charlottesville to the
capital of the State. Caravans of lumbering, canvas-
covered vehicles jolted along in spring, summer, and au-
tumn, backwards and forwards, over this road; and the
waggoners were as well known on their route as the coach-
men who drove the tallyhoes between London and Ox-
ford in the early part of the last century, were on that
great turnpike, or the captains of the Mississippi steam-
boats, in more modern times, were on that stream.
Many belonged to the German stock that had settled on
the banks of the Shenandoah, as their names, Jacob Craft,
Jacob Shuey, Philip Koiner, and the like, indicate. Kegs
and barrels made up the freight usually conveyed in these
wagons, while small articles were put in the heavy stages
that carried passengers to and from Richmond. All pon-
derous goods were necessarily transported by the lines
of batteaux that navigated the James River; some of
these batteaux, when of light draft, were poled up the
Rivanna to Milton, where their cargoes were unloaded,
to be sent to the University by wagon; but, in many cases,
the boats stopped at Scottsville, on James River, and
from thence their large packages were carted up to Char-
lottesville overland.
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,
260 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
who was responsible for the safe keeping of the neces-
sary supplies for the men and horses, and also for all the
carts and tools. There seems to have been a large garden
full of vegetables under cultivation for the benefit of the
laborers; and the overseer was required to have it prop-
erly sowed, planted, and tended in season.
vni. The Building of the Rotunda
The various details dwelt upon in the preceding chap-
ter 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 construc-
tion is equally distinct from theirs. Most of the build-
ings of the University were erected simultaneously, and
all were practically completed before the excavations be-
gan 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 de-
cided to raise an imposing structure in the middle of the
north line, this scheme was altered, instead of the orig-
inal 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 beau-
tiful 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 Jef-
ferson's mind, finally took, that building was more dis-
tinctly characteristic of his classical taste than any other
standing on the ground. It must have been as perceptible
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 261
to him as to Thornton and Latrobe that a stately edifice
rising on this conspicuous site would enhance the imposing
aspect of the whole group; and it is quite probable that,
in the beginning at least, when there was so slim a
prospect of the College ever becoming a university, his
omission of such a structure was due, as already intimated,
to the dictation of economy. It is easy to conceive of
the artistic delight which he must have felt in planning
for such a building; and it was due to him alone, appar-
ently, that the Pantheon was adopted as the model.
That temple was considered by many to be the noblest
specimen of the architecture of antiquity surviving to the
present day; and it was reproduced with perfect fidelity
in the plates of Palladio, so well known to Jefferson.
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 Co-
rinthian 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 com-
pelled to use the humble materials of brick and mortar in-
stead of brick and concrete; plaster and white-wash in-
stead 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
262 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
by fourteen steps, which to the eye lifts it up from the
ground, and imparts to it a lighter and loftier aspect.
By thus elevating the floor of its portico, the height of its
cylindrical dome was so far increased as to be equal in
degree to the diameter. This diameter is one half of
the Pantheon's in extent, and the area of the edifice is
about one fourth more contracted than that of its proto-
type. At first, it was Jefferson's design, as already
stated, to lay off a lawn on either side of the Rotunda, but
low-roofed gymnasia were afterwards substituted for
them, not perhaps because they enhanced the beauty
of the central building, but more probably because the
space was too valuable to be left in a purely ornamental
state.
The Rockfish Gap Report recommended that the Ro-
tunda 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 sub-
serve 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 lec-
ture-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 be-
low the highest floor for the objects for which they were
intended, there being no demand for music and draw-
ing 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 domes-
tic awkwardness, to these vacant apartments in the Ro-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 263
tunda. The first step towards this was the order of
the Board of Visitors that the rooms should be kept for
such schools as were attended by so many students that
they could not be conveniently accommodated in a pa-
vilion lecture-hall; and on the same occasion, an apart-
ment in the basement was fixed upon as the future chemi-
cal laboratory. 1
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 ex-
penditure " 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 construc-
tion 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 pos-
session. Cocke, as a member of the committee of super-
intendence, had criticized the disjointedness of the terms
1 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 Septem-
ber, 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.
264 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
in accord with which the pavilions, dormitories, and ho-
tels had been built, and he now begged Cabell to support
him in the resolution " not to permit the last grand build-
ing to be carried on in the loose and undefined manner as
to the contracts, which, in the previous parts of the work,
had been productive of so much disappointment to us, and
had been the just cause of so much dissatisfaction to the
public." The persons who, in the beginning, submitted
bids were either too lacking in capital to dispense with the
aid of advances by the University, or they demanded a
fifty per cent, increase in the figures of their estimates.
Neither Jefferson nor the proctor, perhaps, from
Cocke's warning, thought it judicious to accept any of-
fer on these conditions, and for that reason, the Rotunda
was practically erected, piece by piece and stage by stage,
by the University itself, instead of being turned over in
the end to the Board of Visitors, an edifice completed but
still one to be paid for.
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 Philadel-
phia 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 writ-
ten in February to Cocke by Neilson, we learn that Jeffer-
son 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 Neil-
son were the principal agents in carrying through the
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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 265
made all the purchases; and it was also held responsible
for the accuracy of the bricklaying. 1 The charges for
measuring all the building work periodically as it went
forward were borne in equal shares by the University
and the contractors.
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, Jeffer-
son and Cocke, as the committee of superintendence, en-
tered into a contract with Giacomo Raggi, which obliged
him to obtain in person in Italy for that edifice ten Co-
rinthian and two pilaster bases of Carrara marble. He
was to receive sixty-five dollars for each of the Corin-
thian, 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;
1 A large proportion of the plastering was done by Joseph Antrim ; of the
glazing by Lawber; and of the stone work by Gorman.
266 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
but so improvident had he been, in spite of a high wage,
that, in leaving for Richmond by coach on his way to
Italy, he was compelled to ask for an advance of fifty
dollars from the proctor to settle his tavern bill on his
expected departure from that city, and also to cover the
cost of his ocean passage. The contract proved to be
futile and valueless, for while Raggi seems to have gone
to Leghorn with the purpose of carrying it out, he failed,
no doubt from impecuniosity, in fulfilling what had
been required of him. The marbles were finally pro-
cured with the assistance of Thomas Appleton, and, in
the course of 1825, were sent over in two vessels, one of
which made port at Boston, and the other at New York.
When he informed the proctor of the arrival of the ship
at Boston, General Dearborn, the Collector of Customs,
who had been the Secretary of War in Jefferson's Cab-
inet, and who, from this fact, was interested in the Uni-
versity, repeated Mr. Appleton's statement to him that
the capitals " would be found probably superior in dimen-
sions, but certainly equal in architectural perfection to any
in the United States " ; and that they were copies of those
which adorned the Pantheon at Rome. There were
twenty-four ponderous cases, and Dearborn recom-
mended that a petition should be addressed to Congress to
admit them free of duty. As the custom charges would
run as high as $2,057.15, exemption from payment would
save a large amount that might be applied to some use-
ful purpose. There seems to have been two consign-
ments unloaded at New York: one, of six cases; the other,
by a different vessel, the Caroline, of thirty-one.
The marbles were transported to Richmond from Bos-
ton and New York by vessel, and there turned over to
Colonel Bernard Peyton, the agent of the University, wlio
seems to have looked upon the responsibility of taking
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 267
care of them as a very clumsy and perplexing burden.
So prodigiously heavy were the capitals and bases that it
was found very arduous to transfer them from the dock
to the canal basin, from which the batteaux plying up the
James set out. They weighed from three to five tons,
and the question arose : were the boats wide and staunch
enough to take them on board without risk? They were
finally carried up the river and unloaded at Scottsville,
and from that village were borne by wagons to the Uni-
versity. It required the services of a very capable over-
seer to bring about their safe delivery; and such was Ly-
man Peck, who superintended their removal on board the
batteaux, their passage up stream, and finally their con-
veyance overland. Several weeks were consumed in ac-
complishing the entire task after the marbles had left
the Richmond wharf. It was not until April 19, 1826,
six months at least after their arrival in the dock there,
that Colonel Peyton was able to report that, before the
end of the ensuing week, the last capital would have been
forwarded by water. Already the marbles which had
reached the University were in the course of being put in
their appointed places.
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. Wert-
enbaker silently brought him a chair. It seems very ap-
propriate that his last association in his own person with
268 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the university which he loved so absorbingly should have
been w.ith the noblest of all its buildings.
Dinsmore and Neilson were sometimes disposed to act
impatiently in their intercourse with the Faculty. They
were pointedly complained of, on one occasion, as reply-
ing 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 deaf-
ening noise raised by their tools. Dinsmore was re-
quested to remove a workingman whose hammer ren-
dered 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 pres-
ence 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 prob-
able 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 Dins-
more and Neilson, who were endeavoring to hurry for-
ward 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 269
the whole building. The adjacent gymnasia, however,
were still in the course of construction. In November,
the proctor was able to announce that the Rotunda, al-
though the work on it was not entirely concluded, was
in actual use; and that the professor of chemistry was
now in possession of two rooms on the floor below. A
third room was used for the purpose of both chemistry
and natural history; and there was, in addition, a large
lecture-room. There were still to receive the last touches
one large and one small oval room, as well as the general
entrance hall. It was not until 1832 that the stone
steps were finally erected, but, in the meanwhile, wooden
ones had certainly been in use as a temporary substitute.
So defective did the fireplaces, by 1827, turn out to be,
that the Faculty, in disgust, petitioned the Board to set
up stoves, and the ingenuity of Bonnycastle was sharply
tested to find a remedy for the smoking chimneys.
IX. Additions to Main Building
The Rockfish Gap Report had recommended that anat-
omy 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 to-
wards 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 neces-
270 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
sary to build with strict economy, the proctor, who, in
the absence of General Cocke, was overseeing the work,
complained to him of an expensive Chinese railing
which had been put up on the edge of the roof. So
rapid did the construction go forward that the hall seems
to have been ready for use by February of the following
year, only twelve months after the foundation stone was
laid.
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 be taught by the object lesson of
one of the University's structures. " The concave ceiling
of the Rotunda," he remarked, with a characteristic ab-
sence of humor, " is proposed to be painted sky-blue,
and spangled with gilt stars in their position and magni-
tude 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 be 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 stir-
rups is to be 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 build-
ing that influenced Jefferson to go slowly in advising the
erection of an observatory, which, in size at least, should
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 271
be in proportion to the other structures. In 1820, he
calculated that ten and even twelve thousand dollars
would be needed; and the only prospect of obtaining so
large a sum at this time lay in collecting the balance of
the subscription money, to be supplemented by the rents
expected from the hotels and dormitories so soon as
the institution should open its doors. This prospect van-
ished in a short time; and three years afterwards, Jef-
ferson was disposed to convert the house occupied by the
proctor on Monroe Hill into the building desired. The
isolation and elevation of its site appeared to adapt it
to such a purpose. Not long before his death occurred,
he, with characteristic care and minuteness, after examin-
ing the plans of all the principal establishments of this
kind then in existence, drew up one of his own. The edi-
fice was to be constructed so massively in its foundations
and walls that it would be impossible for it to be liable
at any time to disturbing vibrations. There was to be a
cupola to shelter the telescope, with openings towards
every point of the horizon, and thus, in every direction,
looking out on a very wide expanse. A very high atti-
tude for the site, however, would not be required, as the
sky line at the University was not, as in Europe, shut in
by numerous houses, both public and private. On the
reservoir mountain there existed a site which combined
in itself all the favorable conditions that were indispen-
sable, except that the remotest limits of the eastern heav-
ens were concealed by the barrier of the Southwest Range.
For that reason, Jefferson seems to have, at one time,
canvassed the expediency of placing the observatory on
the top of one of these intervening peaks. A small
structure was erected on the reservoir mountain about
March, 1828; but it appears to have served no practical
purpose owing to the lack of a proper fitting out, and
272 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
in 1859, lt was pulled down, and the materials which
entered into it were carted away for building elsewhere.
A small brick house was erected on a knoll just south of
Monroe Hill, was equipped by Lukens, of Philadelphia,
and put in charge of Dr. Patterson, who took many ob-
servations there, and there did other astronomical work
in connection with his classes in natural philosophy.
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 ob-
taining 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 Obser-
vatory 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 Univer-
sity. 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 practi-
cable, 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 diver-
sifying the beauty of the University grounds. He sug-
gested 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 thou-
sand 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.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 273
Either the work of laying them was delayed, or they had
to be replaced or renewed in part, for both in August,
1821, and in May, July, and November, 1832, the Uni-
versity was subjected to the expense of hauling logs and
pipes. In the meanwhile, a number of cisterns had been
constructed here and there within the precincts by Hugh
Chisholm and William Phillips; and there were also sunk
wells that required as many as ten thousand bricks to be
brought from the Perry kiln.
There has already been a brief allusion to the gardens
which lay in the rear of the ten pavilions. The walls en-
closing 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 land-
scape. 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 plan-
ning 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 rea-
son 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 dis-
274 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tance is as much as six or seven feet; and the strength
of their framework is proven by the endurance of most
of the first material used, during a period of nearly one
hundred years.
In providing for the buildings for the new seat of learn-
ing, 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 com-
mittee to buy a clock and bell, should Congress consent to
remit the duties on the capitals imported from Italy. 1
The order for the bell given to Willard was counter-
manded by Cocke after Jefferson's death, and an order
for a triangle at first substituted; but the clock was
1 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.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 275
finally made by Willard in accord with the elaborate in-
structions which Jefferson had given in his letter to
Coolidge in June, 1826. In the spring of 1827, the
clock appears to have been put in place, for it was dur-
ing that year that Willard visited the University for the
purpose. A bell seems to have been ordered at first
from Joseph White, of New York, but it did not give
satisfaction. In November, 1827, a bell was shipped
by Mr. Coolidge 1 from Boston, and this was probably the
one which remained in constant use until 1886, when
having cracked, it became necessary to discard it; but it
still survives as a venerable relic of the many years dur-
ing which it sounded through the precincts of the Uni-
versity, and over the surrounding region of country.
. When, in the spring of 1819, the appointment of a
proctor was under discussion, Governor Preston, recom-
mended Arthur S. Brockenbrough, a member of a dis-
tinguished 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 judi-
cious, economical, and industrious, a man of correct
taste, who had been trained in building; and in character,
unexceptional, and in disposition, amiable." These en-
comiums 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 quali-
fications he exhibited. His responsibilities covered a
large field of small details arising continuously, and call-
276 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ing for sound judgment and expert information to meet
them correctly and promptly. Jefferson pointed out
how intricate were the duties of the office in his letter
inviting Alexander Duke, in 1819, to undertake them.
" They are of two characters so distinct," he said, " that
it is difficult to find them associated in the same person.
One part ... is to make contracts with workmen, sup-
erintend their execution, see that they are, according to
plan, performed faithfully and in a workmanlike man-
ner, settle their accounts and pay them off. The other is
to hire common laborers, overlook them, provide subsis-
tence, and do whatever else is necessary for the institu-
tion." i
It is true that Jefferson relieved Brockenbrough of
much drudgery that would have fallen on him had Jef-
ferson 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 cel-
lar 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 per-
form 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 re-
quiring 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 pre-
1 The original of this letter is in the possession of Judge R. T. W.
Duke, Jr. (1919).
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 277
cincts. Brockenbrough, on the other hand, resided on
the ground; the affairs of the University rested upon
him, from morning to night, through the entire week,
regardless even of the Sabbath; and when his two supe-
riors were not present, he alone was responsible for the
correct and orderly progress of the buildings. The ac-
counts of his office, which still survive, are very volumin-
ous, and they embrace every side of the original expendi-
tures for construction.
That his temper was sometimes harassed by the ex-
asperating intricacies of his duties crops out in the his-
tory of his relations with some of the workingmen. W.
J. Coffee, whose artistic eye and hand fashioned the orna-
mental parts of the entablatures of the pavilion drawing-
rooms, roundly denounced him, on one occasion, as " ill-
bred, 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 endeav-
oring 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 re-
278 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
specting the dormitories and hotels, and also the hos-
pital, which had been projected but not yet begun.
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 ma-
terials 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 gov-
erned many of the charges in the building of the Uni-
versity, 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 knowl-
edge 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
THE BUILDING OF THE tfNIVERSITY 279
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, con-
sented 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 Pennsyl-
vania dollar. Perry, testifying, in 1830, in the suit of
James Oldham, said that he recalled " that it was dis-
tinctly understood that the last work let at the Univer-
sity 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 mod-
erate 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 cur-
rency 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
280 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
price was expressed in American units. Richard Ware,
in 1820, bought 2,424 feet of W. D. Meriwether at the
rate of thirty dollars the thousand; but this was probably
undressed, as flooring plank furnished by Nelson Barks-
dale, the same year, was valued at forty-five dollars for
the same number of feet. The shingles for the kitchen
roofs were purchased at the rate of three dollars and
seventy cents the thousand and scantlings at the rate of
thirty-four dollars. In 1819, John M. Perry agreed to
furnish three hundred thousand bricks in return for four-
teen dollars the thousand for place-brick, and twenty-
four dollars for oil-stock, while the charge of Carter and
Phillips for the same proportions was respectively
eleven dollars and fifty cents, and twenty dollars. The
accounts reveal that the University was able to manu-
facture one hundred and eighty thousand bricks within
the space of a month; and the expense of doing this was
estimated at $539.68. This seems to have taken in the
wage of the moulder, the hire of the laborers, and the
cost of their food, as well as the cost of the fifteen cords
of wood consumed in the making.
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 Rich-
mond, 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, ill, v and vni had cost $1,784.00; and that
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 281
the charge for the same number yet to arrive would
be $2,052.00. The freight upon thirty-one boxes from
Leghorn amounted to $264.00. In April, 1823, four
Ionic capitals for pavilion II cost $60.00 apiece ; four Cor-
inthian for pavilion ill, $180.00 each; six Ionic for
pavilion v, $55.00 each; and two Corinthian for pavilion
vili, $110.00 each. Jefferson estimated that the outlay
for transportation added fifty per cent, to the expense at
the quarry. In 1825, the cost of ten whole and two half
capitals for use in the Rotunda amounted to $6,270.27.
The wages of ordinary stonecutters, in 1820, was
twenty-five cents for each superficial foot. It was, how-
ever, 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 mar-
gin 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 door-
sills, 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
282 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
complicated machine which he used to bind the tin, which
he told us was a patent machine costing forty dollars, and
not to be had in the United States. At that stage of
our business, I got him to come and cover a small house
for me. Seeing his machine at work and how simple the
object was, I saw that the same effect could be produced
by two boards hinged together. I had this done accord-
ingly, and it did the work as neatly, and something
quicker, than his forty dollar machine, while this could be
made for fifty cents. Any person will learn to do it in
a day as well as in a year."
This letter brings into light, not only Jefferson's unre-
mitting 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 dis-
credit 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. 1
The cost of all the materials used in the construction
was very much increased by the high charge for wagon-
age 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 se-
rious expense on account of the quantity of lumber and
1 Bargamin, of Richmond, was the contractor for the copper sheeting
used on the dome.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 283
the like weighty articles dumped by carts within the pre-
cincts of the University. The hardware purchased in
Richmond was transported by wagon at an average re-
turn of one dollar the hundred pounds ; and this was also
the rate for blocks of stone. If the overland freight con-
sisted of but one or two casks, the charge was seventy-
five cents the hundred pounds. On one occasion, Wil-
liam Estes hauled twenty-five boxes of tin from Rich-
mond for eighteen dollars and fifty-eight cents; and this
seems to have been the rate customary with his associates
on the road: William Dietrick, James Myers, and
Thomas Priddy. There is on record a charge by another
wagoner, John Craddock, of forty cents the hundred
pounds in the instance of one box of general merchandise
and six boxes of tin. The rate for articles of ordinary
weight brought by boat to the Milton landing was usually
about fifty cents the hundred pounds; on four barrels of
Roman cement transported thither in 1821, and from
thence carted to the University, the aggregate charge was
six dollars. When the Ionic and Corinthian capitals
were imported in 1823, the boatage from Richmond to
Scott's landing in Albemarle, was found to be very expen-
sive, Peter Rutherford and William Megginson were
the owners of the batteaux used, and to one of them the
sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars was paid;
and, no doubt, the same amount to the other. Not less
than six persons were employed for the wagonage to the
University, each of whom received five dollars for every
day of service. Some were occupied with the work at
least eight days and some only four. If the hauling was
from the immediate neighborhood, and the materials
were wood, rock or lumber, the charge by the day ranged
from four dollars to five.
One of the continuous expenses which had to be met
284 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
was the hire of slaves and the purchase of provisions for
their support. In 1820, the outlay on this score
amounted to $1,099.08; in 1821, to $1,133.73; in 1822
to $868.64; an d m !S25 to $681.00, a steadily falling
scale from year to year. The charge for each negro .was
gauged by his age and physical condition. Sixty dollars
was the average amount. When the slave was returned
at the end of his time, he had to be fitted out with outer
and underclothing, and double-soled shoes. The monthly
wages of a white or free colored laborer ranged from
ten to sixteen dollars. These men were either boarded
by the University at a weekly rate, or they were supplied
with meal and bacon, large quantities of which were
bought for them, and also for the slaves, at the rate of
ten cents the pound for the bacon, and two dollars the
barrel for the corn. John Herron, the overseer, re-
ceived one hundred and twenty dollars annually for his
services; and this income was increased by his wife, an
industrious seamstress, whose time was chiefly taken up
with sewing for the hired workingmen.
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 edi-
fices 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 ex-
penditure for the pavilions which had been finished was
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 285
$8,982.49; for sixteen of the dormitories, $13,898.35,
and for nineteen others, $11,083.63. The estimated
amount to be paid for the pavilions not completed was
$33,563.15, and for dormitories in the like condition,
$39,462.60. Down to this time, the total estimated
cost of buildings unfinished was $110,911.49; the actual
cost of buildings finished, $84,188.51. The divergence
between the expended outlay and the actual outlay for
such structures as were completed before November 29,
1821, is thus explained in the report of the Board drawn
up on that day: 'The two (first) pavilions and their
dormitories were begun and considerably advanced when
all things were at their most inflated paper prices, and,
therefore, have been of expanding cost; but all the build-
ings since done on the more enlarged scale of the Uni-
versity have been at prices of from 25 per cent, to 50 per
cent, in reduction. It is confidently believed that, with
that exception, no considerable system of buildings in
the United States has been done on cheaper terms, nor
more correctly, faithfully, and solid of execution, accord-
ing to the value of the materials used."
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 " intelli-
gent 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 econ-
omy in the expenditures; but it is probable that the oppos-
ing opinion of Cocke, who was not so much under Jef-
286 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ferson's influence, and who had had practical experience
as a builder, was, in the main, correct. There can be no
doubt, however, that Jefferson was rigidly accurate in
saying, as he did do in the course of the construction,
that, with the exception of one payment of seventy-five
cents, every penny had been fully accounted for in prop-
erly signed vouchers. Cocke's disposition to question
arose from his disapproval of some of the details of the
style of architecture adopted, which required so much
to be spent in apparently useless ornament. The ex-
pression " raree show," which he jocularly applied to the
whole grouping, indicated that he thought that some of
the sacrifices of money for sake of mere beauty were un-
necessary. He was looking at the structure from the
point of view of a man who was scrupulously keeping his
eye on the amount of the balance in bank, whereas Jeffer-
son never really considered that balance at all, because, in
his anxiety to carry out his whole scheme in its perfection,
he was sanguine that the General Assembly could be whee-
dled into providing the funds in the end. As a member of
the committee of superintendence, Cocke, a very prudent
and conservative man of business, would have crept for-
ward in the expenditures with even more caution than if
the buildings had been his own property, and not the prop-
erty of the University. Cabell occupied no such relation
to the actual construction as this, and he was naturally
more complacent in accepting Jefferson's perfectly honest
but too hopeful estimates, and more indignant than Cocke
or Chapman Johnson when public criticism was leveled
at the sachem for being too liberal in the use of the large
sums already put at his disposal.
The following tables show the actual cost of the pavil-
ions, hotels and dormitories, which were in existence when
the University was thrown open.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 287
Dormitories
$78,509.58
Pavilions
Hotels '
I.
$9,992.05
Hotel A
$4,499.21
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 Uni-
versity 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 pro-
nounced 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 nec-
essary 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 Fight 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
288 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
was converted into a University, the only means of col-
lecting 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 out-
look from the start. The General Assembly foresaw
that, in incorporating the institution, it would be impera-
tive 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 remain-
ing 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 sat-
isfied 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 appropria-
tion of very large sums by the Commonwealth, in addi-
tion 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 coad-
jutor, Cabell, and their few unwavering supporters in
the Legislature, never suffered any sort of set back, how-
ever 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 Rich-
mond) over stormy rivers and frozen roads," he wrote,
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 289
" 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 op-
posing 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 ( I ) the disposition of the General As-
sembly 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 him-
self, 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 insti-
tutions like Hampden-Sidney College and Washington
College; (5) the belief among the several denominations
that the University was friendly to irregligious tenden-
cies; 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 ex-
isted 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 Jeffer-
290 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
son, 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 elas-
ticity 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 Tele-
mon of that sacred war. I know several of his enlight-
ened 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 es-
tablish 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 Black-
burn, R. M. T. Hunter, and Philip Doddridge, were
some of the other high-minded and public-spirited men,
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 291
who, either in the Senate or the House, could, like Gor-
don himself, be always relied upon to use their influence
with their colleagues to ensure the passage of any meas-
ure that was favorable to the interests of the University.
With characteristic promptness and singleness of pur-
pose, Jefferson began the fight for the appropriations of
large sums to the University only three days after its in-
corporation. 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 main-
tained in action by a moderate annual sum. Could it
have any ill effect to try this proposal with the Legisla-
ture?" Cabell, and very probably Rives also, disap-
proved 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 dis-
comfiture. " 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 appro-
priation." But Jefferson was not disposed to accept this
advice. " We should go on in our duty," he said stur-
dily, " and hope the same from them, and leave on them
the blame of failure." And it was not until Cabell
292 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
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 mean-
while, having been in session during several weeks with-
out making the appropriation so eagerly desired and
expected, Jefferson began to grow impatient and re-
proachful. " 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 edu-
cation, 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 unappro-
priated after there had been paid out the regular annu-
ities to the University and the public schools. It seems
that this surplus had now swelled to forty thousand dol-
lars. 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 fin-
ishing the group of buildings. Security for the payment
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 293
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 of addi-
tional pavilions and dormitories. And the Visitors fur-
ther determined to borrow of the Literary Fund the ad-
ditional twenty thousand dollars which the General As-
sembly 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 redemp-
tion. He soon began to swing the club which he was
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 com-
pleted, for if it were known that the University was ob-
taining an income from this source, the members of the
294 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
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 mainte-
nance 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 appli-
cation to these objects, due care shall be taken to pre-
serve 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 annu-
ity shall be adequate. If, on the other hand, the Legis-
lature 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 uni-
versity; that its early commencement will promote the
public good ( i ) by offering to our youth, now ready and
panting for it, art early and near resource for instruc-
tion, and (2) by arresting the heavy tribute we are an-
nually paying to other States and countries for the article
of education, and shall think proper to liberate the pres-
ent 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 com-
petent; or by the same epoch, to carry into full execution
the whole object of the law, if an enlargement be made of
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 295
its participation in the General Fund adequate to the full
establishment contemplated by the law."
These words, respectful as they are, barely veil Jef-
ferson'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 Lit-
erary 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 chil-
dren 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 dol-
lars, 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
182021 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
296 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
that the condition of the Literary Fund was, at this time,
so parched that its revenue would, perhaps, not be suf-
ficient 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 him-
selve " 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 en-
tirely rational announcement with a Spartan's remon-
strance. " 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 mortifica-
tions are temporary; the benefit, eternal. If any mem-
ber of our College of Visitors could justifiably withdraw
from this sacred duty, it would be myself, who quadra-
gems stependls 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 BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 297
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 (182021),
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 build-
ings, and thus enabling the University to throw open its
doors at an earlier day than had, for some time, been an-
ticipated. 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 be counted with. This feeling, on
his part, was aggravated at this time by the opposition
which the friends of that institution raised to the pas-
sage of the Act of February 24, a fact which should
be borne in mind when we come, at a later stage, to de-
scribe 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 re-
moving from Williamsburg to Richmond, a step, at that
time, apparently imperative, if it was to continue to exist
at all. Cabell happened to be seated in the Senate cham-
ber, just above the hall of the House of Delegates, when
the Loan bill passed the latter body; and his first intima-
tion of its success was obtained from the tumultuous clap-
298 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ping of hands with which the upshot of the voting was re-
ceived by its supporters.
XII. Fight for Appropriations, Continued
There is an amusing side to the almost nervous eager-
ness 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 atti-
tude towards appropriations for the University was very
much in the spirit of the Frenchman's definition of grat-
itude: 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 Univer-
sity 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 be sufficient to finish the
buildings. We must not come here again on that sub-
ject. These successive applications for money to finish
the buildings give grounds of reproach to our enemies,
and draw our friends into difficulties with their constitu-
ents." 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 299
salaries of the professors. " The popular cry," he adds,
" is that there is too much finery, too much extrava-
gance." In April, he was convinced that the Univer-
sity had lost ground of late among the great body of the
people. How was the public confidence in the institution
to be restored and strengthened? " By a call upon all
the friends of literature and science in the State to see
that their influence was directed to the choice of the very
best men in each community for the next Assembly."
He repeated with alarm the censorious utterances of the
Presbyterians at Hampden-Sidney College, and of the
Episcopalians at the College of William and Mary. " I
learn that the former sect, or rather the clergy of that
sect, in their synods and presbyteries talk much of the
University. They believe, I am informed, that the
Socinians are to be installed at the University for the
purpose of overthrowing the prevailing religious opinions
of the country." It is quite possible that this prepos-
terous suggestion had its fountain-head, not so much with
the denomination to which it was attributed by rumor,
as with the opponents of further loans to the University
within the ranks of the General Assembly itself. Not
long after the session of 1821-22 began, Mr. Griffin, of
the House of Delegates, endeavored, in a private inter-
view with Cabell, to ascertain whether the University
would desist from asking for more appropriations, should
the Legislature consent to cancel its bonds. On that con-
dition alone would the debt be released. Cabell declined
emphatically to give the pledge, and his supporters in the
Assembly, anticipating Jefferson's indignation at such a
proposition, heartily approved his reply.
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
300 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
his immediate disposal. When, during the session of
1821-22, Cabell asked him to write to numerous influ-
ential members of the Assembly in support of the Uni-
sersity, he replied, " You do not know, my dear sir, how
great is my physical inability to write. The joints of my
right wrist and fingers, in consequence of an ancient dis-
location, are become so stiffened that I can write but at
the pace of a snail. The copying of our report and my
letter lately sent to the Governor, being seven pages, em-
ployed me laboriously a whole week. The letter I am
writing has taken me two days. A letter of a page or
two costs me a day of labor, and of painful labor." But
this fact did not permanently curb his industry, or dimin-
ish his assiduity in pushing the cause which he had so
closely at heart. Estimating in January, 1822, the
amount still required for the completion of the buildings
at $55,564, he started in to secure the release of the an-
nuities for the years 1822 and 1823 from the interest
charges imposed by the Legislature; and he even had
the quiet hardihood to ask for a substantial increase in
the allotted fifteen thousand dollars. In the meanwhile,
the obstacles which Cabell as spokesman had to overcome
grew more numerous and alarming. He still ascribed
many of the stones in his way to the influence of the
clergy. " William and Mary," he wrote in January,
1822, "has conciliated them. It is represented that
they are to be excluded from the University. ... I
have made overtures of free communication with Mr.
Rice, and shall take occasion to call on Bishop Moore.
I do not know that I shall touch on this delicate point
with either of them. But I wish to consult these heads
of the church and ask their opinions."
While Cabell, in this state of perplexity, was turning
from one group of opponents to another, in the hope of
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 301
bending them all to his purpose, he received a sugges-
tion from Jefferson which, for a short interval, shifted
his attention elsewhere. It appears that, during the war
of 1812-15, when the British, having landed on the
Patuxent, were threatening to invade the Northern Neck,
the State, not having time to obtain pecuniary assistance
from the National Government, borrowed a large amount
from the Richmond banks, upon which it had since been
compelled to pay a high rate of interest. After the war,
a claim was entered at Washington for the reimburse-
ment, not only of the principal, but of this interest also.
The principal was promptly paid, but not the interest.
It was the State's claim to the latter which Jefferson
hoped would be transferred in part at least to the Uni-
versity. The accumulated interest due amounted to sev-
eral hundred thousand dollars; but so small was the
prospect of its being paid that Cabell said that an effort
to secure it was " like working for a dead horse." Nev-
ertheless, he was convinced that a petition for the appro-
priation of this prospective fund was the only one which
the Assembly, at that time, would consider with favor.
"The members," he wrote in January (1822), "seem
liberal in giving lands in the moon. . . . Some of our
friends are much dissatisfied with what is called the in-
tended Dead Horse bill; but all estimate it is better than
nothing."
But Jefferson and himself did not allow so precarious
a hope as this to keep them from pressing for some sub-
stantial advantage from the General Assembly. In Feb-
ruary (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 prin-
cipal and interest by means of the amount to be collected
from the Central Government. There was now a fac-
302 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tion in the Assembly which was urging the transfer to the
State treasury of the entire Literary Fund, on the ground
that the sum annually granted for the education of the
poor had been loosely spent; and this wing, combining
with those members who were opposed to giving aid to
the University, was successful in defeating, not only the
bill which would have liquidated the University's debt,
should the Government pay the interest claim, but also
the bill suggested by Jefferson, which, had it been enacted,
would have authorized the interest charge on the Univer-
sity annuity to be temporarily suspended. Perhaps, the
Legislature was not so niggard as it appears to have been
from this action, for there was still a widely dispersed
report that economy had not been shown so far in the
erection of buildings; and that this wastefulness was
likely to continue.
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 ob-
tain the General Assembly's consent to a loan of fifty
thousand dollars for tlie 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 be 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 inter-
rogatory to Jefferson : ; ' Which would you prefer, the
remission of the principal debt or an advance for the erec-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 303
tion of the Library?" Very emphatically and charac-
teristically, and shrewdly too, Jefferson replied,
' Without question, the latter. Of all things the most
important is the completion of the buildings. The re-
mission of the debt will come of itself. It is already re-
mitted in the minds of every man, even of the enemies
of the institution. . . . The great object of our aim from
the beginning has been to make the establishment the
most eminent in the United States, in order to draw
to it the youth of every State, but especially of the
South and West. . . . The opening of the institution in
a half state of readiness would be the most fatal step
which could be adopted. It would be an impatience de-
feating its own object by putting on a subordinate char-
acter in the outset, which never would be shaken off, in-
stead of opening largely and in full system. Taking our
stand on commanding ground at once will beckon every-
thing to it, and a reputation once established will main-
tain itself for ages. To secure this, a single sum of fifty
or sixty thousand dollars is wanting. If we cannot get it
now, we will at another trial. Courage and patience is
the watchword."
This sagacious advice, accompanied by words so con-
vincing and so inspiriting, prevailed. Cabell wrote on
the 3Oth 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 as-
sumption 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
304. HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
adopted by the Senate on February 5 (1823). During
the discussion in the House, William F. Gordon highly
distinguished himself in his advocacy of the measure; and
on February 10, he submitted a resolution calling upon
the Committee of Finance to report " the best means of
paying off the debts of the University " ; but, the members
being of the opinion that enough assistance for the pres-
ent had been extended to the institution, it was rejected
by a large majority; and that majority was still larger
when a similar resolution, offered by George Loyall, was
voted upon the ensuing day. There was an impression
in the Assembly that the friends of the University were
asking for too much at one session, and this soon created
a disposition to censure and obstruct them; but, in self-
defense, they urged, that, as they had found both the
House and the Senate more kindly disposed towards the
University than they had been during several years, it
seemed to be only the part of common sense to take the
utmost advantage of the prevailing and, perhaps, evanes-
cent, feeling.
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." l 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 comple-
tion of the buildings, both Cabell and Cocke were ap-
prehensive lest the " old sachem " should be contemplat-
ing another call upon the Legislature for financial aid.
1 The word " Library " is used here in the sense of " Rotunda."
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 305
" It appears to me," Cabell wrote to him, " that the plan
you have adopted of engaging for the hull of the Library
is a prudent one. I earnestly hope that the house may be
got in a condition to be used with the proceeds of the last
loan, and that we may be able to make this assurance to
the next Assembly when we apply for the remission.
Mr. Doddridge requested me to state that he had sup-
ported this third loan, but that his patience was worn out,
and that another application could not and would not be
received. . . . There is a powerful party in this State
with whom it is almost a passport to reputation to con-
demn the plan and management of the University. . . .
Perhaps, this may be the result of old political con-
flicts."
Some impression seems to have been made on Jeffer-
son 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 in-
cumbrances. 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 nec-
essary for an interval of twenty-five years to go by before
the principal could be expected even to approximate liqui-
dation. " This," Jefferson remarked, with dry sarcasm,
" is a time two distant for the education of any person
306 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
already born, or to be born for some time to come; and in
that period, a great expense will be incurred in the mere
preservation of the buildings and the apparatus."
In December ( 1823), Cabell was able to say with con-
fidence 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 determina-
tion to keep the University shut up until it was fully com-
pleted, 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 181215. 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 182324, no prospect of obtaining a further
sum for building; but as the purchase of books and ap-
paratus 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 appropria-
tion for that purpose out of the surplus of the Literary
Fund. " Am I right in supposing," he inquired of Jef-
ferson 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 be adopted? I am thinking of
it." " Perhaps," he writes three days later, " forty thou-
sand dollars would be more apt to succeed." Jefferson
was confident that not a cent less than the latter sum
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 307
would be required. While the two friends were debating
as to the exact amount to be asked of the General As-
sembly, that body became so impatient for the University
to begin its career that, in January, 1824, it relieved the
Board of the obligation to pay interest on its bonds and
imposed the whole amount of that charge upon the sur-
plus revenue of the Literary Fund. This proved that
Jefferson had whirled his club with success; but how was
the fifty thousand dollars needed for the purchase of
books and apparatus to be obtained?
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 pe-
titioning 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 re-
newed on condition that the bank should pay the Uni-
versity a bonus of fifty thousand dollars. Seventeen of
the Senators went over to his side; the rest bitterly op-
posed him. Elsewhere also, as he expressed it, he stirred
up " a hornet's nest." The whole number of the stock-
holders, 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 suc-
cess. 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
308 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
University's benefit, fifty thousand dollars of the money
which the National Government was expected to pay.
Before this sum could be collected it would be neces-
sary for him to concentrate on Congress the full force of
his extraordinary powers of persuasion. A bill, intro-
duced 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 be recovered, was to be spent.
The claim offered the only prospect of obtaining the
funds needed, for Cabell admitted that the General As-
sembly's liberality was exhausted. He visited Washing-
ton 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 influ-
ence 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 be advanced out of the Literary Fund, in an-
ticipation 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 BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 309
pursuit of a legislative appropriation. In a letter which
Cabell wrote Jefferson from Williamsburg in May, 1824,
there occurs the following curt but pregnant sentence:
" A scheme is now in agitation at this place, the object
of which is to remove the College of William and Mary
to the City of Richmond." He acknowledged that, with
the exception of the professor of law, every member of
the Faculty favored the transfer. The College, in spite
of the broadening of its courses of instruction, and the
devotion and ability of President Smith, had been dwin-
dling in prosperity, and it was expected that transplanta-
tion to Richmond, where a practical school of medicine,
rendered possible by hospital facilities, could be engrafted
on it, would arrest the progress of this decay, which
threatened it with ultimate ruin. It was anticipated too
that the new site in the capital of the State would restore
some of that prestige which it had formerly derived from
its location at the seat of Government.
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 prepara-
tory 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 feel-
310 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ing subsides, and loyalty to the supposed interests of the
University comes back. " Are we," he adds, " to suffer
the labors of so many years to be blasted by an unneces-
sary and destructive competition? Most assuredly, we
must not."
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 Wil-
liam 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 administra-
tion 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.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 811
As Richmond was necessarily the first city of Virginia, so
an old and highly endowed college, like the College of
William and Mary, replanted there, must also become the
first seat of learning in the State.
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 Hamp-
den-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 Charlottes-
ville. Without such buildings, he believed that it would
be hopeless to engage European professors of the first or-
der of talents and learning, and without that cast of in-
structors, the institution, being young, would start with-
out 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, al-
though 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
312 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
of hospital facilities. Without those facilities, a medical
school, independently of anatomy, must always remain
principally an historical school, a school of theory, a de-
scriptive rather than a practically illustrative school.
Richmond, on the other hand, even in those times, offered
the clinical advantages which the village of Charlottes-
ville entirely lacked. Was not the University's medical
school bound to sink at once to a subordinate position,
should the College of William and Mary be put in pos-
session of all the facilities for a practical medical educa-
tion which that city abundantly afforded? A second, and
perhaps as important a reason for his opposition, was to
be discerned in the fact that the capital of the State was
the home of John Marshall and of a coterie of Federal-
ists of great distinction. Their influence, in time, might
control the whole political spirit of the transplanted Col-
lege, and thus be able to spread the poison of their danger-
ous principles of a centralized government throughout
the atmosphere of Virginia and the South.
So soon as Jefferson had fully taken in the menace which
he was convinced would follow the removal of the Col-
lege, 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 prin-
ciple 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 frustra-
tion of the ancient College's plan of re-establishment else-
where, 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 edu-
cation, and that one on a better plan, and in a better sit-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 313
uation, must be provided, what was so obvious as to em-
ploy, for that purpose, the funds of the one abandoned,
with what more was necessary to raise the new establish-
men? And what so obvious as to do now what might
reasonably have been done then, by consolidating the two
institutions and their funds? . . . The hundred thou-
sand dollars of principal which you say still remains to
William and Mary, by its interest of $6,000, would give
us the two deficient professors, with an annual surplus
for the purchase of books."
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 mod-
ify 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 un-
der the control of the General Assembly. What did he
mean by the expression, " control of the General Assem-
bly " ? Its purport, he said, was that the Assembly should
have the power to " reduce the capital of the College, leav-
ing a moiety here (Richmond), and transferring the resi-
due to Winchester and Hampden-Sidney, or other points in
314 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the State connected with the general system." ** It
would be utterly impracticable," he added, " to procure
any portion for the University "; and he, with great ear-
nestness, urged Jefferson to abandon " every such idea, if
any plan of the kind had ever been formed."
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 re-
flection, 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 Gov-
ernor of the State, and during many years, the President
of the Court of Appeals. His letter is worthy of repro-
duction in full as throwing a vivid light on the social pen-
alties which Cabell was now inviting by his apparently
unreasonable and inequitable loyalty to the supposed in-
terests 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 315
them and the University. Here is a good opportunity
of soothing the public mind by showing that there is no
disposition to sacrifice everything to the University, but
that the advancement of the cause of literature had been
the real principle. iThe friends of William and Mary
ask no money from the Legislature. They ask only that
the College may be removed to a place where its present
funds may be employed advantageously for the public,
and I think, and all with whom I have conversed, think,
advantageously to the University. . . . The short and
long of the affair is that I really think it would ill become
the friends of the University, who have got for that
institution so much of the public money, now to oppose
the wishes of a large portion of the State to remove an-
other institution, already endowed, to a place where it
will be made more useful to the public than it is now.
... As a friend of the University, I would, if I were
in the Assembly, aid the removal with all my heart, and
I should be happy, if you could take the same view of the
subject. I believe it would tend to remove some of those
jealousies and heart burnings which your earnest zeal for
the University, has, however unjustly, excited towards
you. To oppose the removal is attributed to motives of
interest, to that sort of feeling that actuated the dog in
the manger, and to seize on the funds without the con-
sent of the professors would be to abandon all respect for
those laws which protect property. ... I have taken up
more time on this subject, because I have been much con-
cerned at the strange lengths, as they seem to me, to which
your zeal for the University has unknowingly carried you,
- lengths to which, I believe, no man in the Common-
wealth is willing to go, except, perhaps, a Visitor of the
University, lengths which excite the surprise and con-
cern of all your friends."
316 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Having finally determined to oppose the transplanta-
tion of the College, Cabell refused to yield to the remon-
strances and reproaches of friends, and remained indif-
ferent 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 re-
moval, the funds in its possession would be distributed.
As he looked at it, there was some benefit to be expected,
no matter what should be the upshot of the controversy:
if the College remained in Williamsburg, there would be
no further cause for apprehension on the score of compe-
tition; if, on the other hand, it was re-established in Rich-
mond, 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 academ-
ies. 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 academ-
ies, 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 com-
petition with the district colleges." This letter was
shown to numerous members of the General Assembly.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 317
Chapman Johnson promptly and emphatically denied the
State's right, under the charter of the College, to dispose
of the latter's funds as Jefferson had suggested. It was
generally thought that, whether the Commonwealth pos-
sessed this right or not, a distribution, during that term,
at least, would not be authorized by the Legislature. In
the meanwhile, a resolution was submitted, but not
pressed, that pointed out the supposed injustice of permit-
ting the College's transfer to Richmond without forfeit-
ing a portion of its endowment for the benefit of other
sections of Virginia. Early in the session, Cabell re-
ported that the College's petition was losing ground, but
that there was no prospect as yet of the adoption of Jef-
ferson's plan for the use of its funds. ' This measure,"
he said, " was too bold for the present state of the public
mind. We will not bring it forward as an original prop-
osition, but should there be occasion, as a substitute for
the measure of removal to this place. The hostile party
. . . report that you have sent orders to the Assembly
to plunder the College and bribe the different parts of
the State."
Jefferson's sensibilities seemed to have been wounded
by the animus rather than by the pertinency of this accu-
sation. " 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 (to-
wards 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 my-
self. ... It is from posterity we are to expect remunera-
tion for the sacrifice we are making for their service, of
318 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
time, quiet, and present good will. And I fear not the
appeal. The multitude of fine young men, who will feel
that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of character
and station they shall be able to attain from the result
of our efforts, will ensure us their remembrance with grati-
tude."
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 sys-
tem of district academies. " Delay is all we want," he
exclaimed, " so as to get, the representatives of the peo-
ple 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 re-
plied, 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 319
for Public Education which had been drafted by Jefferson
in 1817. The object of this was to be able, when the trap
was sprung, to point out that the plan was not a new one,
but had been matured some years before the question of
removing the College to Richmond had come up, or the
suggestion put forth of dividing its funds for the benefit
of the district academies. He again admitted that the
public mind was " not prepared for so bold a measure ";
" but," he added, " if I am not mistaken, it will enable us
to defeat the scheme of removal."
His prediction turned out to be correct, for, on Febru-
ary 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 disappoint-
ment, " 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 contro-
versy. 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 history of the University
of Virginia which is dar-kened by the spirit of an illiberal
and ungenerous policy, a policy, indeed, only relieved
from the taint of positive unscrupulousness by the fact that
820 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
it was dictated, not by personal selfishness, but by the
supposed welfare of a great institution, struggling to get
upon its feet, in the midst of numerous influences destruc-
tive, not simply of its success, but of its very existence.
The Committee on Claims in the House of Represen-
atives 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 dormi-
tories and other buildings offered the supplementary re-
source 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 Legisla-
ture 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 181718. The Garland bill, now before the
General Assembly, authorized the establishment of twen-
ty-four district colleges ; but the Jefferson bill was consid-
ered 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 com-
plete 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 As-
sembly, a very considerable sum was collected from the
persons who had signed the original subscription list.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 321
We referred, in the history of Central College, to the
large amount which was promised by the friends of learn-
ing in many parts of the State for the erection of that in-
stitution. As the time for the payment of these contri-
butions was spread over several years, most of the instal-
ments only matured after the incorporation of the Uni-
versity. On November 23, 1822, the balance still due
was estimated at $18,440. By September, 1823, $4,-
828.77 of this sum had been paid in; $2,069.88 more
was collected by September, 1824; $2,734.89 by Sep-
tember, 1825; and $644.85 by September, 1826. The
residue outstanding on September 30 of that year was
$8,161.68. So long as there were other funds available
for the building, the Board of Visitors determined that
it would be inexpedient to press those among the sub-
scribers who were delinquent; but when there arose a
danger of these obligations lapsing, an agent was em-
ployed to collect the remaining sums. In the end, of the
$43,808 originally subscribed, only $4,500 proved to be
desperate, and a large proportion of this had become so
only because some of the subscribers had emigrated to
other States or had sunk into insolvency. The Board
had considered it unwise to base on the last collections
any stipulations which required punctuality in their fulfil-
ment. They had reserved this money while still unpaid
as a supplementary and contingent fund, to form a part
of the general revenue as it dribbled in, and only to be
used in covering up errors in estimating the cost of par-
ticular buildings.
xiv. System of Education
The founding of the University of Virginia was not
confined solely to erecting a stately group of edifices,
322 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
which would, with equal splendor and comfort, furnish
dwelling-houses for the teachers and pupils, and halls for
the lectures, recitations, and scientific experiments. The
adoption of a course of studies, the selection of profes-
sors, the purchase of a useful library, and the organization
of a system of administration, were as preliminary and as
essential to the completion of that work as the laying of
the brick and stone, the hoisting of the capitals, the
moulding and painting of the entablatures, the construc-
tion of pillar and portico, cornice and arcade, sloping roof
and rounded dome. These we now propose to consider
in turn, in detail, as supplementary to the actual building.
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 Visit-
ors, 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 pov-
erty 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, com-
prised 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 Lan-
guages: French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English in
its Anglo-Saxon form, while modern history and mod-
ern geography were also to be included in the same
course; III. Mathematics in all its branches, to which
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 323
was to be appended military and civil architecture; IV.
- Natural Philosophy: the laws and properties of bodies
in general, such as mechanics, statics, hydrostatics, hy-
draulics, pneumatics, acoustics, and optics; and the sci-
ence of astronomy was also to be attached to this chair;
V. Natural History: the sciences of botany, mineral-
ogy, zoology, chemistry, geology and rural economy;
VI. Anatomy and Medicine: the sciences of anatomy
and surgery, the history of the progress and theories
of medicine, physiology, pathology, materia medica,
and pharmacy; VII. Moral Philosophy: the science of
the mind, general grammar, and ethics; and VIII.
Law: common and statute law, chancery law, fed-
eral law, civil and mercantile law, law of nature and
nations, and the principles of government and political
science.
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 dis-
tinct 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 scien-
tific than vocational. It reflected an equal respect for
the humanistic studies, which are essential to the intellec-
tual 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 for 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.
324, HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
There was the classical course for mental discipline; there
was the scientific course for practical knowledge in gen-
eral; there was the vocational course for equipment for a
special pursuit. Utilitarian and rationalistic in spirit as
Jefferson was, he did not regard all education as only use-
ful so far as it prepared its recipient for a calling in life.
The culture of the moral and intellectual sides of the
individual was, in his view, of incalculable benefit in it-
self, independently of its influence in sharpening the ca-
pacity for winning success in some future business or pro-
fession. Pestalozzi, it will be remembered, placed the
Latin and Greek languages in the class of studies that
were interesting only as curiosities. On the other hand,
Jefferson, who admired the methods of that revolutionary
teacher, and had as just an esteem for Real Knowledge
as the Germans themselves, nevertheless reckoned the
value of classical learning as high as Milton or Johnson,
and would have looked upon his system as radically in-
complete had not the ancient languages been included; and
he would have considered it to be equally defective had
not the most important natural sciences also been brought
within its scope.
Apart from the catholicity and perfect equilibrium that
distinguished the course of studies thus selected, the gen-
eral scheme possessed three practical features of an un-
common character: (i) 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 unhamp-
ered 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 re-
quiring that the men to be selected should be so broadly
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 325
qualified that they could converse with ease with each col-
league on the subject which that colleague was employed
to teach ; and yet by this division into schools, he created
a powerful influence for the production of specialists,
which his elective system was to confirm and make abso-
lute.
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, 1 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 dis-
1 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.
326 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
trict colleges, but still, like the district college, a link in
the chain of a system. The tendency of his mind seemed
to be to disapprove of whatever leaned towards consolida-
tion. His preference was always for numerous bodies
held together by some sort of centripetal power, but exist-
ing and moving in their own separate orbits. The prin-
ciple that he advocated in the relations of the States, he, in
a different way, put in force in the establishment of these
new schools, and in the regulations which he devised for
their practical working. Had he been an astronomer
also, it might be said of him that, as an upholder of states-
rights, and as the creator of university schools, he had
caught his inspiration while following the revolutions of
the Heavens, where every star is at once dependent and
independent.
In the curriculum that prevailed in other colleges, defi-
nite courses were assigned to the freshman, sopho-
more, junior, and senior years respectively, and no depar-
ture from the rule was tolerated. On the other hand, in
the system of schools which Jefferson created for his uni-
versity 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 BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 327
or all of the schools; or if he had the physical strength
and the intellectual capacity as well required for so ex-
traordinary a feat, he might spend only one year in win-
ning, or strenuously striving to win, the whole number of
diplomas which the institution awarded. Each school
was to confer its own diploma, and the acquisition of this
single diploma was to entitle the winner as much to the
designation of " Graduate of the University of Virginia "
as if he had gathered in the entire eight. This fact very
naturally tended to increase further the dignity of the
separate school.
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 re-
marked in a letter to CabeH, " 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 un-
dertake 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 con-
firmed by common sense. With all his versatility of
knowledge, Jefferson was too wise to think that he pos-
sessed the exact as well as the varied information required
of one who was called upon to select the text-books for
S28 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
such a diversity of courses as those embraced in the round
of at least seven of the schools. The obvious part of
discretion was to leave their choice to the experts who
were to fill these professorships. In the subjects of law
and political economy, on the other hand, he not only felt
that he was as much of a specialist as any man who might
be chosen to teach those subjects, but he was fully de-
termined that such principles alone should be imparted in
both as were satisfactory to his convictions.
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 dis-
criminating 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 politi-
cal theories, his attitude of liberal impartiality vanished at
once. A limitation of thought and action took its place. 1
The intolerance which he justly condemned in sectarian-
ism, 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 Gov-
ernment on a footing of historical and academic equality,
put its emphatic imprimatur upon the Republican theory,
1 In this expression reference is not intended to Jefferson's general prin-
ciples 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 circum-
stances.
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 329
with the result of giving the University a definite bias,
from a purely party point of view, from the start, a
bias which, fortunately for the broad and universal useful-
ness of its general work, was restricted to a single school.
If he went too far in his insistence upon the inculcation of
his own partisan convictions only in the new University,
time has corrected the possible evil effect of this exclu-
siveness by transferring some of his dogmas to the domain
of past history, and leaving those that have survived in
practice to be studied in a spirit of impartial compari-
son.
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 for-
ward to the time when many subjects which received but
meagre consideration in his day would become an indis-
pensable part of every general scheme of higher educa-
tion. He foresaw, for instance, the importance of tech-
nical philosophy, manual training, agriculture, horticul-
ture, veterinary surgery, and military science, to desig-
nate 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
330 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
case of astronomy. 1 Had the condition of the University
at the beginning allowed it, he would have set up Schools
of Commerce, Manufacture, and Diplomacy. He did
plan for thorough instruction in the theory of music and
other arts of a similar embellishing nature. It can be
asserted with accuracy that there have been few, if any,
large divisions of learning added to the courses of study
in any of the higher American institutions since the estab-
lishment of the University of Virginia, which Jefferson
did not suggest in the various schemes of general educa-
tion that he formulated from time to time in his long
career, and for which his system of independent schools
was so precisely adapted.
Thirdly: The adoption of the elective principle was
tht 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 impedi-
ment 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 fore-
saw, that, in time, with the vast expansion of knowledge,
it either would become impossible in practice in his uni-
. versity, or would have to be so stretched that it would
amount to the general right of election.
1 Since this was written, a School of Fine Arts has been established at
the University of Virginia by the liberal endowment of Paul Goodloe
Mclntire.
In 1816, Dr. Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, ven-
tured 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, ap-
proximated 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. 1 Now, however, it was flung down as a tacit
challenge to Dr. Dwight amid far more imposing sur-
roundings, and with far brighter prospects of success,
than had ever greeted it before in America. It was tQ
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 particu-
1 " 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.
332 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
lar vocation to which they are destined. We shall, on
the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lec-
tures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary
qualifications only and sufficient age."
Jefferson had a clear perception of the difference be-
tween the college and the university. It was not a part
of his original plan that his own institution was to under-
take 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 bach-
elor 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 prac-
tical reasons, an unavoidable departure from its funda-
mental character. It was special culture and not general
culture, which he had primarily in view, although the sys-
tem permitted also of general culture in the highest mea-
sure, 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 di-
rected his most earnest gaze; it was rather to the ambi-
tions of those who had come up to acquire knowledge
along some special line, scientific or classical, that ap-
pealed 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 be more or less closely related to it.
It was not because of any defect in Jefferson's scheme
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 333
that the University of Virginia was, in the beginning,
more of a college than a university. The ideal college
stands midway between the school and the university;
the college looks backward, the university looks for-
ward; the one treats of the conservation of truth, the
other of its discovery or of vocational training. The
University of Virginia, at the start, when, in theory, it
was so purely a university, was more taken up with in-
struction than with research; with undergraduate studies
than with graduate. This was due primarily to the in-
complete system of secondary education prevailing in
Virginia at that time, upon which, it will be recalled,
Jefferson had, with palpable exaggeration, .animadverted
with sarcastic bitterness, a shortcoming which so far
as it existed, his own institution was, in time, as we shall
see, so largely to correct. If the full fruit of such a
system of instruction as he framed for his own seat of
learning is to be garnered, then the community which it
is to benefit should contain, not simply public or private
secondary schools, however meritorious, but numerous
colleges of a high order to pour a constant stream of stu-
dents into the reservoir of the University at the top.
Jefferson sought to create these institutions by urging
the General Assembly to adopt a scheme of district col-
leges, which would have enabled the student to complete
his undergraduate studies before beginning his graduate
studies at Charlottesville.
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
334 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
display the utility of which it is capable, and be secure of
having its proper support." Professor Dunglison had ar-
rived at the sane conviction: " It will be an important
event for the institution when efficient academies are es-
tablished to do away with the necessity of the profes-
sors of ancient and modern languages and mathematics
fulfilling those duties which ought previously to have been
performed in the schools." Jefferson himself could not
repress his impatience in contemplating this fact : " We
were obliged to receive last year," he wrote to W. B.
Giles in December, 1825, " shameful Latinists in the clas-
sical school of the University, such as we will certainly
refuse as soon as we can get from better schools a suf-
ficient number of the properly instructed to form a class.
We must get rid of the Connecticut tutor." 1
At this trnie, 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 in-
fluence 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 Wash-
ington and Hampden-Sidney apparently looked 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.
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 be-
1 In the history of the Fifth Period, we shall show how seriously
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 335
lieve that America is so faultless that it cannot be im-
proved upon, at least, not so from without. No one
could surpass him in unselfish devotion to his own coun-
try; and yet no one was more candid in acknowledging
its deficiencies, and more anxious to correct them, even if
the only way was to introduce foreign substances, talents,
and devices. Whether it was an Italian species of rice,
or an English variety of vegetable or thorn for hedges;
whether it was a Scotch threshing machine, or a French
barometer; whether it was an English strain of rams,
bulls, or boars, or the ward system of New England;
whether it was a novel chemical discovery in a Parisian
laboratory, or a serpentine wall noted in a casual stroll
through an English garden; whether it was the entire
faculty of a Swiss university, or the philologians, mathe-
maticians, and scientists of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edin-
burgh, his inquisitive eyes looked abroad unerringly for
the best in the practical or intellectual life of every for-
eign land in order to employ it for the betterment of his
own. He was resolved to make the genius of every race
contribute to the beauty, the commodiousness, and the
enlightenment of the sphere in which his own people
moved. In politics and ethics alone did he seem to feel
that there was no need of foreign illumination and forti-
fication.
Jefferson was a provincial in his intensely partisan in-
terest in the welfare of his own country, but he was a cos-
mopolite 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
Jefferson overstated the lack of facilities for a good secondary education
in Virginia at the time the University began its career.
336 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
to America in a scientific or scholarly way can I gather up
here for the promotion of its wealth, its comfort, its
moral and intellectual condition? There was no limit to
the personal inconvenience which he was ready to defy to
obtain information which he knew would be beneficial to
the existing and the future generations.
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 adop-
tion 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 stan-
dard 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 his-
tory of achievement are so fecund in imparting. With-
out 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 candi-
date was: Is he highly qualified? Nor was he to be ac-
cepted as so qualified simply because he knew thor-
oughly his own topic. On the contrary, Jefferson in-
sisted that " he should be educated as to the sciences gen-
erally; able to converse understandingly with the scientific
men with whom he is associated; or to assist in the coun-
cils 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 in-
stitution."
It is to be inferred from this expression of opinion, that
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 337
Jefferson was inclined to estimate breadth of acquirements
more highly than mere specialism, however profound.
Such amplitude of accomplishments were more common
in his day than it is in our own, and the success of his
original selection of professors was, in no one particular,
more conspicuously illustrated than in the facility with
which the majority of them could pass from the chair of
languages to the chair of mathematics and from the chair
of mathematics to the chair of natural philosophy. It
was his conviction that something besides lucrative sal-
aries and comfortable accommodations was needed to
ensure the acquisition of a faculty of the highest reputa-
tion for talents and learning. He thought, with a just
refinement of view, that scholars of extraordinary merit
are influenced to accept a chair as much by the distinction
of the university to which that chair belongs as by the
actual emoluments that went with it. What was the only
means by which this distinction could be created before
professors of celebrity had been chosen? By the nobility
of its architectural setting. No doubt, as we have pointed
out, Jefferson found an acute satisfaction in stately edi-
fices apart from their practical utility, but there is also
reason to suppose that, in adopting the classical style in
his own seat of learning, he also had before his mind's
eye the reputation for imposing beauty which that style
would give. Such a reputation was an important asset in
itself. " Had we built a barn for a college and log-huts
for accommodations," he said somewhat scornfully,
" should we ever had the assurance to propose to a Euro-
pean professor of the first order?"
He knew from his own personal observation while
abroad that, among the most splendid structures in Eu-
rope, were those that housed the ancient colleges and uni-
versities; and he could easily comprehend the feeling of
338 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
repulsion which the first view of the rude barracks even
of great institutions like Princeton, Yale, and Harvard,
would arouse in the breast of a fellow of Magdalen Col-
lege, Oxford, or Trinity College, Cambridge. It was
partly in order to create the deepest impression for
beauty that he insisted that the University should remain
shut up until the entire round of buildings had been com-
pleted, when alone the effect of the whole in its perfection
could be fully taken in and discriminatingly relished.
This seemed to him to be the more imperative because
Charlottesville, at this time, was a small village, with no
architectural charm and no social advantages; and while
the surrounding country contained a large number of re-
fined and well educated families, and many attractive
homes, yet all of them were too dispersed to make the
pleasing impression on cultivated and travelled strangers
which they would have done, had they been closely and
conveniently grouped.
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 di-
rected his gaze so soon towards the universities of Eu-
rope. 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 in-
structors who were already in sympathy with American
political principles and social customs, and who, he knew,
would be satisfied with the still raw American environ-
ment because they were born to it. As early as March,
1819, the Board of Visitors, under the spur of his prompt-
ing, instructed the committee of superintendence to over-
339
look no opportunity of engaging for the University
" American citizens of the first order of science in their
respective lines " ; and during the following year, both
Mr. Bowditch and Mr. Ticknor, of Massachusetts, were
approached with offers of definite professorships. Na-
thaniel Bowditch, who was famous as a self-taught mathe-
matician and navigator, and as the translator of Laplace's
Mechanique Celeste, had already declined to enter the
faculty of either Harvard or West Point. Ticknor was,
perhaps, the most accomplished man in the United States
at that time ; had travelled far and wide in the Old World ;
and was to win a great reputation as a teacher and as a
writer. Each refused such liberal inducements to accept
as a pavilion, an annual salary of two thousand dollars,
and a fee of ten dollars for each student belonging to his
class, with a total emolument of twenty-five hundred
dollars specifically guaranteed.
The failure to secure these distinguished men seems to
have discouraged Jefferson in his pursuit of American pro-
fessors. " 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 obtain-
ing 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 pro-
fessor was, at that time, certain to be invested with the
greater prestige because he would be able to show a
diploma from some one of the famous European universi-
340 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
ties; or what was a still higher distinction, had even occu-
pied a chair in one of them.
Naturally, Jefferson concentrated his earliest atten-
tion 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 with-
out 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 his-
torical scholars like Robertson, or classical scholars like
Porson and Parr, or scientists like Playfair. They, he
said, " occupied positions which could not be bettered any-
where." 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 un-
ceasing; and he was sanguine that there would be found
among them some, who, as he said, would prefer a com-
fortable certainty in Virginia to a precarious stipend in
England. So universal and so relentless, indeed, was
this competition in the struggle there for a moderate in-
come, 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 certifi-
cates to enable a friend or protege to get into a live-
lihood."
Jefferson was well-informed as to the English universi-
ties which must be sounded by him in his search for the
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 341
competent professors who were needed: to Oxford, he
must go for the classical scholar; to Cambridge for the
mathematical; to Edinburgh, for the anatomical expert;
and perhaps to that city also for the teacher of natural
philosophy and natural history. The professor of mod^
ern languages should be procured from one of the conti-
nental seats of learning.
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 recom-
mended 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 in-
quire as to his character and qualifications. It is possi-
ble that, at one time, Jefferson was sanguine that all the
professors could be selected through the intermediary of-
fices 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, re-
lied 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 suc-
cessfully the mission which was now to be performed.
Cabell asked for time to consider the request. " I can-
not conceal," he wrote, " the gratification I feel at the con-
fidence 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
342 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
into private citizenship again; his affairs had begun to
suffer alarmingly from the neglect that had followed his
long absences from home; and he had also pleasing visions
of devoting the leisure hours of his future plantation life
to science and literature. The suggested visit to Europe
would not be inconsistent with these agricultural and
scholarly plans, for it would not absorb a longer period
than six months at the most. Cabell, in the end, how-
ever, determined, with Jefferson's hearty approval, to
remain in public office; and this decision, fortified, doubt-
less, by his constant anxiety about his health, caused him
to decline the invitation to undertake the foreign mission. 1
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 re-
sult 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 influ-
ences; 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 accom-
plishments and public services. Distinction in literature,
1 Cabell, writing to Jefferson, October 27, 1823, said that he had recently
bought one of his brother's plantations. This led him to consider aban-
doning public life. " I have thought it advisable to inform you of the
purchase, and its probable consequences, that you might not be unprepared
with a fit person to execute your views in Europe."
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 343
science or politics was the beckoning star of their aspira-
tions; they had, from their earliest youth, nursed a gener-
ous ambition to win personal renown by such achievements
in at least one of these walks as would be distinctly pro-
motive of the happiness and prosperity of their fellow-
men.
Cabell and Gilmer resembled each other even in their
flaws of temperament: the one exhibited on the thresh-
old 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 mar-
riage, 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 impres-
sion 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.
S44, HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
xvi. Francis Walker Gilmer
Gilmer 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 bot-
any 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 en-
joyed 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 knowl-
edge 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 345
first time since his childhood, although the two had very
often, during the interval, exchanged letters. Wirt soon
formed an enthusiastic opinion of his capabilities and
his attainments. " In learning, he is a prodigy," said he.
" His learning is of a curious cast, for having no one to
dfrect his studies, he seems to have devoured indiscrim-
inately everything that came in his way. He had been re-
moved from school to school in different parts of the
country, had met at all those places with different col-
lections of old books, of which he was always fond, and
seemed also to have had command of his father's medical
library, which he had read in the original Latin. It was
curious to hear a boy of seventeen years of age speaking
with fluency, and even with manly eloquence, and quoting
such names as Bochaave, Van Helmont, Van Sweiten, to-
gether with Descartes, Gassendi, Newton, and Locke, and
discanting on the system of Linnaeus with the familiarity
of a veteran professor."
Bishop Madison quite naturally was solicitous to asso-
ciate 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, plan-
ning 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 way-
wardness of spirit in the pursuit of his purposes. He
346 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
speaks of his " natural indolence," and fear that it will
interrupt the proposed course of reading, although under-
taken with no higher object than mere pleasure. In the
spring of 1811, he plunges into a debate with himself
whether or not he should seriously begin the study of
law, but before doing so, he decided, with a character-
istic disposition to diverge from his main path, to read
Xenophon as giving a part of that moral science which,
from its affinity to jurisprudence, should, in the order of
things, he said, precede its study.
His friends, among whom were many men of distinc-
tion, fortified him with words of encouragement: "I
consider you," wrote W. M. Burwell, a representative in
Congress from Virginia, " destined to be eminently use-
ful." " 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." 1
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
1 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.
had also won distinction by his success as an author; in-
deed, the British Spy had already given him a national
reputation, independently of his forensic triumphs. Per-
sonally, he was the most delightful of companions; and
this geniality, with his influential connections by marriage
and by friendship, made him perhaps the most notable
figure in the highest social group of the city. The charm-
ing benefits which Gilmer reaped from his familar asso-
ciation with this accomplished man was only one part of
his social harvest: he became intimate with the families
of the Wickhams, Hays, McClurgs, Brockenb roughs,
Cabells, and Gambles, and others of equal standing;
formed a close friendship with Tazewell and Upshur;
shouldered a musket in the defence of the city against
British invasion; and barely got off with his life from the
burning of the Richmond theatre, which snuffed out so
many useful and distinguished lives.
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 Correa; and as they
had many tastes in common, their friendship quickly
ripened. Correa was a Portuguese, who, for some years,
had acted as secretary of the Lisbon Academy, but sympa-
thizing 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 re-
mained 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
348 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
to deliver lectures on this topic. At a subsequent period,
he served as the Portuguese minister at Washington; and
having become an intimate of Jefferson, he was frequently
a visitor at Monticello.
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.
" Correa," said he, with generous enthusiasm, " knows all
the languages, all the sciences. He is the most extraor-
dinary man who ever lived." The two very often ex-
changed 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 Correa constantly
sending him letters that breathe both affection and ad-
miration. " 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 Correa,
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 Correa
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 acknowledg-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 349
ment of its paternity on the title page, was published in
Baltimore, and the authorship soon leaking out, it led
to an interesting correspondence with several persons of
literary distinction. George Ticknor had already made
his acquaintance, no doubt at Monticello, and per-
ceiving his genial disposition and extraordinary literary
and scientific culture, had been drawn to him with affec-
tionate sympathy. In 1815, Gilmer planned a short
tour in Europe. " Shall you set yourself down," wrote
Ticknor, " amidst the literary society of Paris, and pass
there in solitary study, or intellectual intercourse, the
greater part of the time you can allow yourself to be
abroad ... or shall you visit with a classical eye and a
classical imagination, the curious remains of art and an-
tiquity in Italy?" It 1817, Ticknor stopped over in
Geneva purposely to purchase for him a set of French
and Latin volumes in tally with a list which had been
sent to Dabney Carr Terrell, a young Virginian, then a
student in the university of that city; and during his stay
at Gottingen, he was warmly interested in buying for him
additional works relating to jurisprudence and political
economy. Ticknor's generous friendship for Gilmer
never grew cold. In a letter written the same year,
he revealed his affectionate solicitude for him by beg-
ging him to take care of his health. ' The world," he
said, " expects a great deal from your talents. I have
placed a portion of my happiness on the continuance of
your life."
Another correspondent was the versatile Hugh L.
Legare, who, like himself, had an almost inordinate es-
teem 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.
350 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
George Tucker, Judge Carr, and Judge Holmes, three
men of remarkable attainments themselves, who felt for
him an almost fraternal affection. But in spite of the
genial attractions of their society, and the goodwill and
respect of the community at large, he began to grow res-
tive by the end of the second year. Where should he
next settle, was the question that then arose to perplex
his mind. He consulted his friends. Judge Cabell
urged him to come back to Richmond. " Wirt," he
wrote, " has removed to Washington, and his business to
start with will fall to you." " Hard study, hard labor,
and patient waiting," he added, " are necessary to suc-
cess. I have no doubt of your success if you will be but
true to yourself." Gilmer's progressive weakness of the
lungs was one of the causes of his increasing restless-
ness. " You can easily fulfil expectations," Cabell con-
tinued, " if you will preserve your health by adapting your
habits to .the nature of your accommodations."
He thought at first of establishing himself in Balti-
more. 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 law-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 351
yer, was in possession of a small income from invested
funds and the hire of negroes, a fact, which, by re-
moving the spur to constant exertion in his profession,
allowed him to become more enamored of the literary
pursuits in which his heart was really embarked.
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 Rich-
mond bar. He had not been long settled in that city
when he was mentioned for the presidency of the Col-
lege 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 some-
what 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 san-
guine expectations of his friends. Wirt, whose amiable
temper, perhaps, led him to form an exaggerated esti-
mate 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 pre-
dict 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
352 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
receiving a very favorable report of one of his earliest
arguments, after the removal to Richmond, expressed his
gratification at the reputation which Gilmer was rapidly .
winning. " I hear you have broken a lance with the At-
torney-General. Did you unhorse him? They tell me
there was no pomp, no ostentation, no bombast, no
pedantry about you, no verbiage for verbiage's sake,
but that your words were full of thought, your manner,
manly and moderate, yet energetic and cogent."
During one year, Gilmer served as the official reporter
of the Court of Appeals, and his name was even sug-
gested 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 medita-
tions were, as formerly, constantly directed towards lit-
erature and science. " I had not the least suspicion of
your talent for poetry," wrote Correa, who had just re-
ceived a copy of verses from his pen. Later, he is found
rebutting Jeremy Bentham, and the self-complacent Edin-
burgh 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 Ab-
bey, and listening unseen to a conference between the mar-
ble figures, which had turned to flesh and blood and re-
sumed their powers of motion and speech. In a second
essay of a scientific cast, he offered an ingenious explana-
tion of the phenomenon of the lunar rainbow.
He never lost his keen taste for the study of botany.
Correa, 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 accom-
pany him to the neighborhood of Charleston, for the
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 353
same purpose. These invitations apparently were not
accepted simply because Wirt protested. " Your future
success," he said, " must depend on disproving the whim-
sicality and instability which the mind is apt enough, with-
out any overt act, to attach to genius." Gilmer seems
to have nursed a vague plan of establishing some sort of
botanical school in the Alleghanies. " What in the
deuce," wrote Correa, " put you in the mood of a rural
establishment in the mountains, with herb hunting, and
lectures, and do nothing? " A letter from Thomas M.
Randolph, written to him in 1818, mentions their former
wanderings in the vicinity of Richmond in search of
flowers; and a jocular note of Littleton W. Tazewell,
some years later, quizzes him about a box full of rare
blossoms which he had just received from Charleston,
with directions to send it on to his address.
It was, during this year, that he became a candidate
for the Secretaryship of Florida; but his motive appar-
ently was not to secure a semi-tropical field for the grati-
fication of his botanical curiosity, but to settle himself in
a region that would prove more favorable to his preca-
rious 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 rep-
utation 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 perform-
ance of his mission to England, which will be subse-
quently described. His pursuits continued to be of a des-
ultory cast. We find him in correspondence with Philip
Norborne Nicholas, who retailed, for his amusement,
854 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
the social gossip of Washington and the floating public
news of the hour; with William Pope, of Powhatan
county, the local humorist, who wrote that John Ran-
dolph had recently spoken of him as the " best informed
man of his age in Virginia " ; with Abel P. Upshur, Sec-
retary of State in Tyler's Administration; with Benjamin
Watkins Leigh, who consulted him confidentially about
the agitation of his name as a candidate for the Senate;
and with Captain Thomas Miller, a cultivated English-
man, who asserted that he had received more " informa-
tion and pleasure " from Gilmer's conversation than
" from all the people he had seen in all his travels."
These kind words, coming from men of such public dis-
tinction or private worth, must have been deeply sooth-
ing 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 chit-
chat 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 en-
couraged him, after his return, by saying that, as a result
of the trip, he was " less hoarse and coughed less." " I
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 355
am perfectly persuaded," he added, probably with
feigned hopefulness, " you want nothing but a tranquil
mind, and mild climate to restore you." Gilmer had
spoken of visiting Philadelphia to consult Dr. Physic.
Johnson urged him instead to seek the affectionate nurs-
ing of his friends in Albemarle. " Make up your mind,"
he said, " to get well or to go to Heaven without another
murmur or complaining word, and you will find the pre-
scription worth a thousand times more than all the doc-
tors can do or say for you." Gilmer wisely followed this
advice, for his case was beyond the skill of the most
competent physician; only a few months later, the re-
ligious state of his mind was revealed in his gift of plate
for the altar of the Episcopal church in Charlottesville.
On February 15 (1826), General Cocke reported his
condition as so low, in the opinion of Dr. Dunglison, that
he could not survive a fortnight. His last thoughts
seemed to have travelled to the kindest and most affec-
tionate of all his friends, the genial, the generous, the
true-hearted William Wirt. " Farewell to you," the
dying man wrote, with his brother Peachy's assistance,
" and to all a family I have esteemed so well. I have
scarcely any hope of recovering, and was but a day or
two ago leaving you my last souvenir. I have not written
to you because I love and admire you, and am too low
to use my own hand with convenience." Wirt's reply
was full of an agonized tenderness. " I have learned,"
he wrote, " that your disease has taken a turn alarming
to your friends. But this note surpasses all my fears.
. . . You have the love and present prayers of every
member of my family. God Almighty bless you. If
we have to part, I trust it will not be long ere we shall
meet again to part no more."
The last scenes in Gilmer's life remind us in many
ways of the closing hours in the life of Keats. Both
died young, both unmarried, and both of the same
disease; and although the verses of the poet assured him,
as he knew, an immortal chaplet of fame, there was, in
his fading consciousness, that pang of thwarted hopes and
unfulfilled desires which also wracked the heart of the
young Virginian, sinking under the same deadly malady.
As Keats's haunting sense of his own futility was
summed up in the mournful epitaph which he wrote for
himself, " Here lies one whose name was writ in water,"
so the pathetic words engraved upon the tomb of the ac-
complished, aspiring, and high-minded Francis Walker
Gilmer express all the sadness of a spirit, which only
found surcease from the disappointments of hope and
ambition when the frail body which had imprisoned it
had been consigned to its native sod:
" Pray, Stranger, allow one who never had peace while he lived,
The sad Immunities of the Grave,
Silence and Repose."
xvil. 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 be sought for and contracted with were to
be the professors who were to occupy the chairs of mathe-
matics, the ancient languages, anatomy and physiology,
which should take in the history of the main theories of
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 357
medicine also, physics, with astronomy added, and
natural history, embracing botany, zoology, mineralogy,
chemistry, and geology.
Gilmer was impowered to offer to each a fixed salary
of a thousand dollars as the minimum, and fifteen hun-
dred 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 appar-
atus for the use of the mathematical, chemical, physical,
and astronomical classes. As the University was ex-
pected to be in a condition to receive students by Febru-
ary i, 1825, it was hoped that he would be able to en-
gage all the professors by the middle of November, 1824.
His power of attorney was dated April 26, 1824. A let-
ter 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 Revo-
lution, 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 sup-
plementary letter, was equally complimentary. " He
will quickly recommend himself," he said, " by his en-
lightened and accomplished mind, his pleasing disposi-
358 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
tion and manners." " It is a sufficient testimonial of
his merits," he added, u that he was selected for this
mission " ; and Rush was asked to bring him into commu-
nication with persons in England of the type of Sir James
Mackintosh, who would be able to point out the schol-
ars to be approached.
With numerous copies of the Rockfish Gap Report in
his baggage, as Jefferson's gifts to his English corre-
spondents, like Dugald Stewart and Major John Cart-
wright, 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 res-
tive 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 ab-
sorbed 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 de-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 359
scribed by him as " the fittest " at Cambridge and Edin-
burgh, one of whom was Dr. Martin Davy, master of
Caius College, and a friend of Dr. Parr's. Brougham
offered to introduce Gilmer to Davy in London; and was
so solicitous for his success as to put him on " his guard
against the various deceptions or rather exaggerations "
which would be practiced upon him, should he let the
purpose of his mission " be known to any but a very
few."
Before leaving London, Gilmer signed a contract with
Dr. Blaettermann, who, not expecting the appointment,
had recently rented and furnished a large house. 1 It is
to be noted that he was not guaranteed the salary of
twenty-five hundred dollars which Gilmer had been au-
thorized 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 Blaet-
termann 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 for-
eign accent, which may have aroused a feeling of preju-
dice 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
1 Writing, April 26, 1824, to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson said, "We still
have an eye on Mr. Blaettermann for the professor of Modern Lan-
guages, 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.
360 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
himself to follow no additional calling during the period
of his engagement.
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
latter'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 at-
tention was paid in that institution to natural history.
While busy pushing this vital inquiry, he was the recip-
ient 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 in-
formation, 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 pleas-
ant 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
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 361
of Gray's Elegy, from the belfry of which he heard, at
nine o'clock, the curfew tolling across the fields " the
knell of parting day." A little later, he was writing a
letter to William Wirt from the room at Stratford in
which Shakespeare was born. The lower floor of the
house was, at that time, used as a butcher's stall; and so
neglected was the great poet's fame in his native town
that Gilmer had to inquire of half a dozen passers-by be-
fore he was able to find the grave.
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 sup-
posed, not so much from the variety of the applica-
tions, as from the difficulty of inducing men of real abili-
ties to accept our offer. . . . Education at the Univer-
sities has become so expensive that it is almost exclu-
sively 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 extraor-
dinary 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 per-
suade one of these, even if poor, to repress so far the
impulse of youthful ambition as to accept a professor-
ship 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 fel-
lows 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
362 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
in securing competent men was the necessity, created by
poverty, which forced the University of Virginia to
assign several subjects to the same professor, chem-
istry and astronomy, for instance, to the already labori-
ous chair of natural philosophy. A second obstacle was
the shortness of the vacation in that institution; and
above all, the season at which it fell. In Oxford and
Cambridge, all study ceased between July i and October
10. " If the heat is insufferable in England," he ex-
claims, "what must it be in our July, August, and Sep-
tember, when there is to be no vacation ! " He admitted
that, at this hour, he felt discouraged and depressed.
" Whether I can find professors elsewhere in England
is most doubtful; in the time (fixed by the Board of Visi-
tors), I fear not. I shall not return without engaging
them, if they are to be had in Great Britain or Germany.
I have serious thoughts of trying Gottingen."
Leaving Oxford in this mood, Gilmer visited Dr.
Parr in his home at Hatton. Parr was too infirm to be
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 matricu-
lated 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 profes-
sorship of mathematics. It was the favorable reply to
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 363
this letter which reached Gilmer in Edinburgh, and gave
him a feeling of encouragement in place of the dejection
which had so harassed him. Key confessed that, at the
request of his father, himself a physician in large prac-
tice, he had determined to withdraw from the pursuit
of pure science and literature. " Indeed," he added,
" nothing but your liberal proposition would have in-
duced me once more to turn my thought to that quarter.
... I shall be happy, should I find it in my power to
agree to your offer. The manners, habits, and senti-
ments of the country, will, of course, be congenial with
my own. . . . Nor would it at all grieve me, in a political
point of view, to become, if I may be allowed that honor,
a citizen of the United States."
Although Key suggests in this letter that the final ar-
rangement 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 arrange-
ment? 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
364. HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
should follow no other calling that would be a source of
emolument to himself; and he was entitled to such an
advance of funds as would defray the expense of his pas-
sage to Charlottesville.
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 Gil-
mer 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 impres-
sion on Key in recalling it after his arrival in Virginia.
Repeating Jefferson's sanguine prediction, Gilmer as-
serted 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 mathemat-
ical 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 impecu-
nious probation.
So soon as Gilmer arrived in Edinburgh, he person-
ally interviewed a number of persons who had been rec-
ommended 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,
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 365
his letter to Gilmer would appear to be distinctly pre-
sumptuous and condescending: " I stated to you," he
wrote, " that it appeared to me that even the temporary
superintendence of a person of name from Europe might
contribute to give eclat and consistency to your infant
university. On reflecting since on this matter, I feel not
averse, under certain circumstances, to offer my own serv-
ices. I am prompted to engage in such a scheme, partly
from a wish to revisit some old friends, and partly from
an ardent desire to promote the interests of learning and
liberality. I could consent to leave Edinburgh for half
a year. I could sail from Liverpool by the middle of
April, visit the colleges in the New England States, New
York, and Philadelphia, and spend a month or six weeks
at Charlottesville. I should then bestow my whole
thoughts in digesting the best plans of education, etc.;
give all the preliminary lectures in mathematics, natural
philosophy, and chemistry; and besides, go through a
course comprising all my original views and discoveries in
meteorology, heat, and electricity. Having put the
great machine in motion, I should then take my leave to
visit other parts of the Continent. But I should continue
to exercise a parental care over the future of the uni-
versity, and urge forward the business by my correspon-
dence. To make such a sacrifice as this, I should expect
a donation of at least one thousand pounds, which would
include all my expenses on the voyage."
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
366 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
he soon found it necessary to unite under one instructor.
Buchanan objected to a session prolonged through the
entire summer, on account both of the heat and the ob-
stacle which it would create to his revisiting his native
country at the only season when it would be convenient
for his British friends to entertain him. He finally de-
clined the invitation; and so did Dr. Craigie, who was of-
fered the chair of anatomy, for which he was extraordin-
arily well equipped. It is not a cause for surprise to find
that Gilmer was disposed to feel somewhat bitter over
his failures. ' When I saw needy young men," he wrote
Jefferson afterwards, " living miserably up ten or twelve
stories, in that wretched climate of Edinbrough, reluc-
tant to join us, I did not know where we could expect to
raise recruits."
It seems, however, that not all the scholars were so im-
poverished. The pedagogic calling in Scotland had be-
come 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 ster-
ling. 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 Phila-
delphia 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 can-
not 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 at-
tractive as Cambridge or Oxford. While there, he was
entertained by the distinguished advocate, Murray, a
kinsman of Lord Mansfield; and was also kindly re-
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 367
ceived by Lord Forbes, a retired officer of the army.
The numerous acquaintances made by him were, he said,
astonished to discover that he had been in Great Britain
only six weeks or seven weeks, " and yet spoke English
quite as well as they, to say the least. I believe many
of them, on both sides the Tweed, would give a good deal
for my accent and articulation, which, I assure you, are
nothing improved by this raw climate, which makes every
one hoarse." Gilmer had an opportunity to be intro-
duced to Jeffrey, and so pleasing was the impression which
he made upon that celebrated critic, his wife, and the
members of their particular coterie, that he was pro-
nounced by them to be the most winning and popular
American who had ever visited Edinburgh.
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.
Long's 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
368 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
part of America, in which the University of Virginia was
situated," he inquired, " open up the prospect of his fam-
ily obtaining a satisfactory asylum there? Were new-
comers there liable to be carried off by a dangerous epi-
demic disorder? Were common articles of food, ap-
parel, and furniture cheap there? Was the scheme
of the University a permanent or experimental one?
Would the fixed fee of fifteen hundred dollars possess any
chance of doubling when the institution got fully under-
way? Was the society of Albemarle or Charlottesville
so good as to compensate an Englishman, in some degree,
for the only comfort which an Englishman would hesi-
tate to leave behind him? What vacation would the
professors be granted, and at what seasons? What
would be the costs of the voyage, and who would defray
them? What sort of outfit for it would be required? "
Such were some of the pertinent questions put by Long.
" I have no attachment to England as a country," he con-
cluded; " 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 Amer-
ica, 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 Long's acceptance to Jefferson, Gilmer
stated that there were two objections to him: (i) 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 lan-
guages, should instruction in the Hebrew tongue be pro-
nounced indispensable: (2) as an alumnus of Trinity, it
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 369
would be necessary for Long to return to that college in
July, 1825, to stand the examinations for his master-
ship of arts, the condition of his retaining his fellowship.
Both of these obstacles to his appointment could be easily
surmounted, the one by leaving him, after his arrival in
Virginia, to acquire the requisite acquaintance with
Hebrew; the other, by giving him permission to be pres-
ent at Cambridge at the time that had been assigned.
In accepting the chair of ancient languages, Long stated
that " he took it for granted that the professors were
not compelled to subscribe to any particular religious
principles, or aid in propagation of any doctrine or spec-
ulative tenets, about which sects differ." " Allay your
fears, I pray about religion," replied Gilmer. " Far
from requiring uniformity, we scrupulously avoid having
clergymen of any sort connected with the University, not
because we have no religion, but because we have too
many kinds. All that we shall require of each profes-
sor is that he shall say nothing about the doctrines which
divide the sects."
When Gilmer submitted his original offer to Long, he
also, by way of precaution, wrote to Rev. Henry Drury,
of Harrow, soliciting his assistance towards filling the
chair of ancient languages, should Long be unable to
accept it. It will be seen from this that a clergyman's
aid was not despised by him, but no offer of a minister
of the Gospel to become a professor was seriously con-
sidered. On September 15, he wrote to Jefferson that
he was in a position to engage the services of another
most competent man for the ancient languages, but as
he was a clergyman, he had turned his name down as in-
eligible. This was probably the person whom the head-
master of Shrewsbury School, Samuel Butler, afterwards
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, had recommended; or
370 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
it may have been the brother of the Rev. Henry Drury
himself, also a clergyman, who was warmly urged by the
Rev. Henry for the chair, although he was honest enough,
at the same time, to acknowledge that the Rev. Benja-
min's principal reason for wishing to emigrate was that
he was up to his neck in a slough of irremediable pecu-
niary embarrassments.
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 be-
tween 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, in-
dependent 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 en-
forced except at discretion, and for good reasons appear-
ing 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 re-
ceipts 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 dimin-
ishing the salary? Ought not the limit to be at the very
least forty-five hundred dollars. ... I have just written
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 371
to Liverpool to take my place with the packet that leaves
that port on (October) i6th."
The last sentence is a proof that Key had no intention
of withdrawing from the engagement because of a sup-
posed 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 prac-
tise 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, af-
terwards a prominent physician in London, and during
many years, interested in the progress of popular edu-
cation. Birkbeck suggested the name of Robley
Dunglison, widely known already a.s 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, prom-
ised 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 Wool-
wich with conspicuous ability and learning. As Bonny-
castle 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.
372 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
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 be-
tween 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 un-
der 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 re-
flection on this professor's capacity in a letter which Gil-
mer received in January, 1825, from George Marx, the
member of the banking firm which had honored his let-
ters 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 effi-
ciency 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 recom-
mended."
By the nineteenth of September, Gilmer was in a posi-
tion to report that he had succeeded in engaging four of
the five professors sought for. It had been his expecta-
tion that he would certainly be able to embark for home
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 373
at an earlier date, but, said he, " At this season of the
year, no man in England is where he ought to be, except
perhaps those of the Fleet and of Newgate. Every lit-
tle country school-master, who never saw a town, is
gone, as they say, to the country; that is to Scotland, to
shoot grouse, to Doncaster to see a race, or to Chelten-
ham to dose himself with that vile water. With all these
difficulties, and not without assistance, but with numerous
enemies to one's success (as every Yankee in England is),
I have done wonders. I have employed four profes-
sors of the most respectable families, of real talent,
learning, etc., a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
and a M.A. of the same University. Then, they are
gentlemen, and what should not be overlooked, they all
go to Virginia with the most favorable prepossessions
towards our country. If learning does not raise its
drooping head, it shall not be my fault. For myself, I
shall return to the bar with recruited health and re-
doubled vigor. I shall study and work and speak and do
something at last that shall redound to the honor of
my country. My intercourse with professional and lit-
erary men here has fired again all my boyish enthusiasm,
and I pant to be back and at work. Virginia must still
be a great nation. She has genius enough; she wants only
method in her application."
It only remained to procure a professor of natural his-
tory. 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 Septem-
ber 20, expressed regret that his engagements with the
Royal Institution made it impracticable for him to con-
sider the offer before the ensuing May. In the mean-
while, he intimated, his brother William Harwood, who
had given instruction in natural history, might take the
374 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
place as a temporary stop-gap, or as the permanent in-
cumbent, should it not be convenient for himself to leave
England in the spring. A few days later, however, Dr.
Harwood stated that there was an acquaintance of his in
Bristol, whose name he failed to mention, who was
well fitted by his attainments to assume the chair. This
proved to be Frederick Norton. On the same occasion,
he again recommended his brother William, who sup-
ported his claim in a letter over his own signature. " I
confess," he wrote, " that I shall have much pleasure in
accepting the appointment provided that my qualifications
may meet your approval. I have been long devoting
myself to the study of natural history, but more especially
to the branch, geology. I am not so familiar with nat-
ural history, but I flatter myself with a pretty good ac-
quaintance with chemistry."
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 (Octo-
ber 5).
During the last week of his sojourn in England, Gil-
mer's time had not been altogether taken up with the
pursuits of possible candidates for University professor-
ships. Among the distinguished persons whom he met
in general society was Thomas Campbell, who was inter-
ested in America from the association of at least one of
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY 375
his poems with its scenery, and also from the presence of
a brother there. Campbell was prevented from enter-
taining him at his own home by the mental condition of
his son. Gilmer, on several occasions, dined with Major
John Cartwright, the author of a laborious disquisition
on the English Constitution, and a man of radical lean-
ings, as proven by his sympathy with American and
Spanish rebels, and by his advocacy of the reform of Par-
liament and abolition of slavery. He, like Dr. Parr, was
more interested in suggesting a list of editions to be
bought for the University library, than in proposing the
names of possible professors. Dugald Stewart had been
paralyzed in 1822, but he expressed the hope, in a letter
dictated to his daughter, that Gilmer would sail from a
Scotch port, as this would give the infirm old philoso-
pher the opportunity to make his acquaintance. " I am
sorry," he said, " to think that my good wishes are all
I have to offer for his (Mr. Jefferson's) infant establish-
ment." Dr. Parr was so much pleased with the young
Virginian that he promised to " marry him in England
without requiring the payment of a fee." In a letter to
Gilmer only a few days before he embarked, he said,
" To Mr. Jefferson present, not only my good wishes,
but the tribute of my respect and my confidence. I shall
write of him what Dr. Young said of Johnson's Rasselas,
' It was a globe of sense.' I use the same word with the
same approbation of Mr. Jefferson's letter to me."
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 pros-
trated by seasickness, and in this unhappy condition, fell
376 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
into a raging and devouring fever aggravated by want of
medicine, food, rest and attendance. " I am reduced to
a shadow," he said, " and am disordered throughout my
whole system." A carbuncle appeared on his left side and
as the ship-doctor was too incompetent to lance it, he
himself was forced to lay open the angry lump with a pair
of scissors and with his own hands. " We had no caustic
and had to apply bluestone, which was nearly the same
sort of dressing as the burning pitch to the bare nerves
of Ravillac. All the way, I repeated,
' Sweet are the uses of adversity.'
Such is the martyrdom I have endured for the Old Do-
minion! 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 pro-
fessor for the vacant chair of natural history, the only
chair which he had been compelled to leave still unpro-
vided for when he set out from England.
END OF VOLUME I
FEINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OT AMERICA
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EFERENCE
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History of the University
of Virginia Centennial ed.
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