Some Considerations regarding State Support of UVA

Some Considerations tending to show the propriety and necessity of the continued support of the University of Virginia, by the State.

The first idea of an University So early as 1779, upon the first revisal of our laws after the separation from England, Mr Jefferson, in conjunction with his co-re visors, Messrs Pendleton & Wythe, sought to incorporate into the Code of the infant State, a general system of education doing justice to all classes alike, and [subsening?] the wants of society in this parti cular.

This system is founded upon the principle that the educa tion of a people is a proper subject of anxiety and care on the part of the government, and that it is the interest of all, and the duty of those charged with the administrations of affairs that such public aid should be rendered as shall be required to effect the object. Such aid it was insisted, was more particularly indis pensable for the lowest and highest grades of institution, the intermediate grade being more capable of being provided for by the individual resources of those interested, although his plan was to give help to this also.

The policy presented by the projet of the law then submit ted, has been so often developed by Mr Jefferson himself, that it cannot be new, but sagacious and comprehensive as it is, if in worth while in their connection, to exhibit its outline, since in the opinion of its author, it was an essential part, (one of the four columns he called it), of a government truly Republican. 1 Jeff. Mem. 39.

The plan embraced I. Elementary Schools to be maintained at the public change, & to be free to all II. General Schools, (as he called them), coresponding to Academies & Colleges for the education of such as had time, means and inclina

Rents, about $3,450. Entrance-charges (Matriculation fee to), about 5,750. Charges for Diplomas, say about 250. Miscellaneous sources, say about 200. $9,630.

Thus it appears, that even with the annuity of $15,000, there will be a deficit, with the present number of students, of $3,550, which must be made up by limiting the expenditures, (necessary though they be), on some of the items that will best bear temporary diminution, e.g Repairs, Library, Insurance &c. until the increase of students shall bring the revenue to the required standard.

There is but one other way, besides a State appropriation, to maintain the University, and that in to assess an additional charge on each student, sufficient to raise the amount required, i.e with the number now here, about $65 a head! So oppression an addition to the expense would diminish the number of students, which would necessitate a still heavier burden, until, after perhaps some sickening fluctuations of future, the Institution must sink into irretrievable ruin.

Arguments in favour of Continuing the Annuity. The argument involves several topics, of which some of the most prominent only, will be refered to. First: The usefulness of the University as the Principal Education- al establishment of the Commonwealth.

No intelligent citizen of the State who is old enough to recollect what the condition of education was in Virginia 40 years ago, and will compare it with what it is now, can fail to acknowledge the wonderful improvement & advance which has taken place, nor it is believed, will any one deny that the University was the [source?] & [Spring?] whence it proceeded. Schools and Colleges have alike felt the healthful influence it excited and impact now an [instruction?] immea- surably superior in Kind & in degree, to that which formerly was

the best. The University itself, has steadily advanced under the generous impulse which began with it, and may now challenge a comparison with the best Institutions of America, not to say of Europe also.

Nor are the advantages confined by the University solely intellect- tual. It has achieved and is achieving Moral triumphs of a character to make the heart of the Christian Patriot glow with exultant thankfulness, whilst he anticipates for the rising youth of the State, and of the South, a place of education where to the highest attainments in knowledge, are added the profoundest appreciation, and the habitual practice of truth, uprightness, and every manly virtue.

1860-61 more than one third of the students, (upwards of 60 in number), were [professins?] of religion, of when almost all were zealously pious, and such was the good order, and so prevailing the purity of those ten amongst the young men, that it may [?] be said that a youth not already tainted with vice, would have been not less safe in their midst, than in his father's house. Falsehood especially, and want of [frailness?] towards the authorities, had for many years been incited with such severity of reprobation by the students themselves as to have been well-nigh banished rom their midst. In short all the robust and manly [?] flourished vigorously under the benign & vigilant guardianship of the public sentiment of the noble youths here assembled, and are flourishing still. The moral and religious, as well as the intellecttual traditions of the Institution, were kept alive during the war, by the handful of [halt?] & maimed young soldiers who resorted thither, and now the industry, zeal, and propriety of conduct which have marked the students of the present session, almost exceed belief, as it is believed to exceed all parallel. One of their number, mingling largely with his fellows, lately remarked that since the beginning of the session, he did not remember to have seen an art, or scare to have heard a sound, to "Hear the grace and blush of modesty."

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A prejudice once existed against the University that it was for the rich alone. This however, is believed to have been dissipated by the fact, now become well Known to the public, that a very large proposition of the Virginian Students, and not the least distinguished of them, have belonged to families in very moderate, and often in indigent circumstances, who frequently themselves earn the money with which they defray their expenses. The system of State students, also, which was first devised and recommended by the faculty, nearly 20 years ago, has assisted to remove this unfounded prejudice, many persons educated on their foundation, having already attained to prominent and responsible position of eminent usefulness. And it may be observed here, in passing, that the authorities have thought themselves obliged to admit this year, as usual, notwithstanding the perfectly destitute condition of the University, as many State Students as applied, [compiling?] that the Gen. Assembly, on its part, would provide the sum necessary to maintain the Institution. Indeed it is right to State, (without designing to make a parade of what was only an indispensable dictate of patriotic duty, in the present didtress), that the Faculty have permitted no one, whether State Student, or other, to be denied admittance for want of means to pay tuition fees.

Can an Assembly of Virginians, having sons & brothers & kinsmen to educate induce to think of suspending, and thereby of permanently disabling, and probably destroying an Institution, the greatest in all the South, which then diffuses amongst the Youth of the land an aroma of truth, integrity and manly piety, as well as a national, well digested, & most extended basis of sound learning? And to [earn?]-what? Why about 1 1/2 cents for each individual of the population!

It is sometimes objected to the University that it admits students who have been denied entrance, for want of preparation in the languages, into the Freshman Class of the colleges. But this is a necessary consequence of the district organization of schools, the absence of a prescribed curriculum, and the system of [Slective?] Studies, to all which is as ascribable much of the fame and usefulness of the University. It undertakes to bestow, (and it appeals to the world if it does not bestow), the very highest admissible attainments in each separate department of knowledge, which the student may wish to pursue, but it does not, and cannot exact any attainments at all, in subjects which the student has no wish to learn. When one proposes to study nothing but Ancient & Modern languages, and Moral Philosophy, to hold him obliged, before he can begin with these subjects, to know something of Mathematics, would be absurd and incongruous. And so if he wishes only to learn Mathematics, Chemistry & Nat Philosophy, it would be ridiculous to exact from him a preliminary acquaintance with the languages.

Insert from opposite page. The small number of graduates is also reckoned against the University. The number of those who attain to the supreme and comprehensive degress of Bachelor of Arts, and Master of Arts, is indeed small, and yet if the world were made acquainted with the examinations to which candidates for these degrees were subjected, the surprise would rather be that the number is so great. But there is no lack of graduates in the second schools. for second years before the war, the ap-