The Papers of John B. Minor, 1845-1893

possessions of the University. The University is not only the principal educational establishment of Virginia, but it is acknowledged to be the great leading institution of the South, to which the West also manifests a disposition to be tributary. If he who makes a nation's songs may be said to be its ruler, what more personal influence may not be ascribed to the institution which educates & forms the plastic mind of its youth? Is it not a noble mission for this venerable, and most venerated commonwealth, to train the young men of neighboring States, along with its own heroic youth, to deeds of high emprize, of unselfish magnanimity, of fearless truth, & of lofty principle, at the same time that if extends to them the richest intellectual calture, & attainment? Is it not worthy of the majestic fame of Virginia, and especially now, sitting in serene & uncomplaining dignity, amidst the ashes of her desolation, to be the nursing mother not of her own sons only, but of there of her sister States also, conveying to them there lessons of seek-abrogation, patience, forbearance moderation, endurance, and determined persistency in right, which have made her, at least in her children's loving eyes, the gem and the admiration of the world!

This mighty engine of usefulness, and of State-honors and influence, is now in our hands,-placed there by the sagacious foresight of former Legislatures, and conformed to us by the long and arduous, but the humble and unpretending this of a succession of public servants, for forty years. Shall it be now relinquished;-now, when Virginia has lost so much of substance, of territory, and more than all, of her glorious youth, when she is as it were, "childless & crownless in her voiceless woe", -is it a fit time to strip her of one, -and that not the least,- of her claims to honor, influence & precedence? Will the Legislature of 1865 transmit itself to after ages as having undone the work of her greatest and best of of her greatest and best, of Jefferson, Madison, Cabell, Johnson, Breckenridge, Baldwin, Jaylor, Rice, and a multi= tude besides of her most honored dead?

tion, that the amount of money annually carried from Virginia, for purposes 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 $7000,000. But had our schools been such as the resources of Virginia would have well allowed, and her honors and interest demanded, it is by no means extravagant to suppose that the [fair?] States which bind on ours would have sent as many students to us, as under the present wretched system, we have sent to them. This then, makes another amount of $7000,000! Let our economists look to that. Fourteen millions of good dollars lost to us by our parsimony!! Let our wise men calculate the interests of our losses, & add it to this principal! They will then see what are the fruits of this precious speculation". ('Jefferson & Cabell' Corresp. p. 167.)

These are the words of one of the most distinguished men, as he was among the most eminent and revered [divines?] that {this} Virginia,- not unfruitful of great men,- has ever produced. The estimate, made in 1879, refers to a period ten years earlier. If half a million of dollars were lost {then}, with our then population, and the degree of appreciation of finished education then existing, would it be unreasonable to double the amount now, when the population is so much increased in this & in adjacent States, and the desire of knowledge is so much more universal, and craving? Nor will this estimate seem so extravagant when it is remembered that the numerous schools, the offshoots & feeders of the University, to which so many southern & western youth {were} have been accustomed to resort, must share the fate of the parent institution, prospering, enlarging, multiplying, as she prospers and expands, or languishing & expiring as she languishes & dies.

Surely it is an uncalculating economy that would incur this prodigious loss to save 1 1/2 cents to each citizen!

The authorities of the University are well aware of the financial

difficulties with which the people and the government of Virginia are struggling, and they would be ashamed to propose any addition to the brothers of their afflicted countrymen merely from considerations of private interest. They are themselves, profoundly convinced that [best?] public interests, connected with the intelligence, elevation, honors, influence, and advancement of Virginia, for an indefinite period of time, imperatively demand the continued maintenance of the University, at the public change, (the only way, so far as they can see, in which it can be maintained), but if the General Assembly do not share this conviction, the persons connected with the University, whilst they are not indifferent to their peculiar concern in the result, can yet conscientiously declare that they shall lament the result more for public, than for private reasons.

To the objection arising from the [monied?] embarrassments of the Commonwealth, it is submitted-

That the University is scarcely less a necessity, than an Execution, a Legislative, or a Judiciary, and ought to be provided for accordingly;

That it is a Safe economy to expend $15,000 to save $500,000, or perhaps $750,000 to $1000,000;

That if it be proposed to pay any interest on certificates of States debt, few can stand on higher ground than those held by the Literacy fund, & that if it is not designed to pay the interest or any portion of it, the expenditures being limited the actual sum required for the present wants of government, can hardly be so great as to require the abandonment of the University;

That the more impoverished the people, the more indispensa-

ble it is to provide by the contribution of the State, (which will fall lightly upon individuals), for the support of the more important Institutions of learning, because otherwise, the number of persons who can afford the expense of liberal education being smaller than usual, {both for the} existence of the institutions, would be jeoparded, and learning would fatally decline. {and for that learning may not}

Summary of the Views and Considerations already Stated.

The views and considerations already Stated, may then be summed up:

1. The scheme of public Education proposed by Mr Jefferson in 1779, kept steadily in view by him thenceforward throughout his eventful life, and often developed to his friends, contemplated always, primary instruction, and an University as inseparable elements. Even amidst the throes incident to the birth of the University, he was not unmindful of that "train of learning" which had been so anxiously commended by him to the cherishing nurture of his countrymen. 'Jeff. & Cabell' Corresp. 102, 185, 434. Let it not be said therefore, that the University was conceived, or brought forth in a spirit of hostility to the education of the poor!

2. The plan of the University was desired with reference to the impartment of the highest attainments in every branch of useful knowledge, anticipated by many years, the demand for schools of applied science amongst us, & was organized didtinctly and expressly, with a view to {the} gradual expansion & development by the introduction, indefinitely such schools as occasion, and the exigencies of society might justify & require thus proving the extraordinary foresight of its founder, and thereby inviting an unwavering confidence in the adaptation of the Seminary to meet all demands upon it.

tion for further education, assisted from the treasury, but supported chiefly by the fees of those who attended them, and embracing a very thorough course of general institution in Languages, Ancient and Modern, in Natural science in all its departments, in History, and in Philosophy, Mental, Moral, & Political.

III. An University, in which shall be taught in the highest degree, each branch of knowledge, whether calculated to enrich, Stimulate and adorn the understanding, or to be useful in the arts and practical business of life. For this a layer contrition would be necessary from the public treasury, because a much layer expenditure is requisite for buildings, repairs, salaries of offices, and incidental {expenses} charges, and local and individual interests are less concerned, in proportion, in maintaining it. Only one is required for the State. More would be in {this State's} way, one of another. Sectarian and sectional jealousy would cause private contributions to be reluctantly and scantily doled out, and if they could be obtained, it would scarcely be safe to exempt so powerful an agent from the public control.

A distribution of these varied subjects is suggested under the following heads;

I. The Fine Arts. Embracing Civil Architecture, Gardening (Landscape & Ornamental), Painting, Sculpture, and the Theory of Music.

2. Applied Science. Embracing Military & Naval Science, including the theory of projectiles, Rural Economy, (including Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Veterinary Art), Technical Philosophy, including the application of Science to Arts & Manufatured, the Practice of Medicine, [Materia Medica?], Pharmacy and Surgery.

3. Law, Municipal, International &, in its general principles, Theory & Practice, and Theology & Ecclesiastical History so far as

3. The mortifying and alarming [-line?] of education in Virginia, previous to the erection of the University, as attested by Rev Dr Rivce, (Jeff. & Cab. [Coresp.?]157, note *), & Mr Jefferson, (Jd. 185, 201), and by our own recollections.

4. That the bulk of the Literacy fund is not pledged to primary education, more than to the University. The first appropriations, of $45000 to one, & $15000 to the other, were made by the same Act. The former has been increased as the fund has increased, the latter remains as at first. Now that the fund is diminished, the reduction should surely fall on that interest which has profited by its enlargement.

5. The Literacy fund does not seem to be wholly wasted, and initially extinct, as has been assumed. With certain exceptions acknowledged to be lost, it is believed to depend on the same securities, and the same faith as for more than 30 years prior to 1860.

6. The necessary expenditures of the University cannot practically be met otherwise than by {the upper} continuing the appropriation hitherto accorded to it. If that be witheld it must, so far as can be seen, cease to exist, with the present session.

7. The inestimably usefulness of the University in educa- ting the youth of Virginia, and of the South, in the largest sense of the word,- morally, as well as intellectually,- a work in which the effective co-operation of other seminaries of the State, collegiate & Academic, is warmly acknowledged, but in which the University may without annoyance, claim, not only the first place, but a place which no existing institution can supply.

8. the extinction of the University could impair the [?] and influence of Virginia with her sister States of the South & West, which since the war, more than before, are disposed to regard her with affectionate esteem, and to commit their sons to her for educati knowledge is always power, and to educate the youth of a State in emphatically, in the best sense, to rule it. The more reduced the forturns of one Commonwealth, the less can it afford to abdicate the seat of such an Empire.

9. Suspension of the Institution is probably the extinction of the reputation and success which it attained under farming auspices, not susceptible of renewal, and endangers even its existence, except as a mere local seminary.

10. Several economical considerations-

The Commonwealth having expended not less than $500,000 in permanent buildings, to say nothing of apparatus & library, cannot design to leave them uncared for, to sink into decay & ruin. But to protect & preserve them will cost from $5,000 to $7,000, and $8,000 or $10,000 more will maintain the Institution in active, & most beneficent opration.

The maintenance of the University will keep within, and bring into the State, according to Dr Rice's estimate, not less, in the aggregate, than half a million annually, which would otherwise be lost to us. And this vast saving is effected by an outlay of only $15,000, which is about 1 1/2 cents to each individual.

Reduced as are the circumstances of the great body of the people of Virginia, they peculiarly require the help afforded by the public contributions, (which at the rate just mentioned, of 1 1/2 cents to each person, is not felt), to sustain their principal literacy institution, where alone, within the limits of the {most} State, the most liberal education is to be obtained.

admissible without tending to sectarianism.

It is worthy of observation how skillfully, in the plan of this University, he has wrought into one institution, the system of institution, which in his earlier speculations, he had proposed to assign to seminaries of different grades. It is also to be observed that he has anticipated, by more than half a Century, the existing demand for schools of applied science, and has created in the University, a nucleus susceptible of indefinite expansion and development in this direction, It is further worthy of remark, as illustrative of his Statesmanlike fertility of resource, that when as a School of Theology, however guarded, could not have failed to excite lively jealousies, he proposed to evade the difficulty by inviting the several Christian denominations to found schools of Theology in the vicinity of the University, with permission to their students to enjoy the benefits of the University, as if matriculated in it.

In 1796 an Act was passed, (with a preamble setting out with much rhetorical embellishment the public & individual advantages of Education), which provided for the first branch of Mr Jefferson's scheme, namely a system of free primary schools, but concluded its enacting clauses, with the [felo de se?] proviso that it should not go into effect in any county, until approved by the acting justices thereof. (2 Stats. at [Large?] (new series/, 3.) This approval was not [recorded?] in a [single?] county & the act [fell?] still-born.

After that the subject of general education lost interest in the Commonwealth for many years. Schools & colleges declined in the standard of their instruction, and consequently in the number of {students} pupils, and the Youth of Virginia who desired ven a decent modicum of collegiate attainment, were constrained to resort to institutions outside of the Commonwealth, whither they annually carried more than a quarter of a million of dollars. More than half of the students at Princeton were Virginians, ('Jefferson & Cabell' Correspond. 201.) and many found

their way to New England.

Relations of the University with the Literacy Fund.

The first movement towards the formation of a Literacy Fund was made in 1870. It was to be derived from escheats, forfeiters, confiscations, personal property derelict, certain fines, and the [?] of personal estates of interstates, where there was no distribute, all of which by that and subsequent acts were solemnly dedicated to the [?] of learning, but soley through the medium of schools for the poor. (Acts 1809-10, c 14 [?] 1 & 3; Acts 1810-11, c 9. [d?]2.).

In 1815 a very large addition was made to the Fund, out of moneys received from the United States, in re-inbursement of expenses increased in the war, and to this portion of the fund, constituting immensely the larger part, no condition was ever annexed of undivertible application to the poor, (Acts 1815-16, c3, [s?]5), and by the Act of February 1818, which appropriated $45,000 to primary schools, and $15,000 to an University, the distinction between the fund, as originally constituted, and the accession then recently derived from the United States, is very prominently marked, (Acts 1817-18, C11, [s?]4, 8, 9.); as indeed, it also is in the Revised Code of 1819, (IR, C, 1819, p 82 [?], C 33. [?]12, 20 [?].).

In February [1876?], a resolution was adopted instructing the President & Directors of the Literary Fund to digest and report to the next General Assembly, a system of Public Education calculat3ed to give effect to the appropriations mmade to that object, during that session, and therefore, and to comprehend in such system, the establishment of an University to be called "the University of Virginia", and such additional Colleges, Academies & Schools as shall diffuse the benefits of education throughout the Commonwealth. (Acts 1815-16, p 266.)

This Resolution owned its inspiration, at least indirectly, to Mr Jefferson. A Seminary called "The Albe

marle Academy", had subsisted in Charlottesville since 1803, but having fallen into a declining condition, an attempt was made in 1814 to revive it, and the board of trustees being in session with that view, Mr Jefferson was seen to side past, when same one proposed to invoke his counsel. It was done accordingly, and his suggestion to convert the languishing academy into a college was, after some demur, and many misgivings, acce ded to. Agents were dispatched into the adjacent Counties, & subscriptions obtained to the extent of about $60,000 (of which on ly somewhat over $40,000 [?] ultimately available), and at the Session of the General Assembly in 1815-16, a charter was obtained by the name of the "Central College" (Acts 1815-16, c 76.), which seems to have given rise to the Resolution [?] stated, which was adopted ten day afterwards.

The Resolution elicited a report, (founded upon a very extended consultation with prominent men of thought and learning of this and other States), recommending a plan of education not dissimilar to that proposer by Mr Jefferson in 1889, and a bill to carry it into effort, was passed, I believe, by the House of Delegates, but lost in the Senate.

The next year, the Act of February 1818 appropriated from the revenues of the Literacy Fund, $45,000 [Wannum?], to the primary education of the poor, and $15,000 to endow and support an University. (Acts 1817-18, C11 [S?]4, 8 to 11), and the Institution having been located in the course of that year, by Commissioners, on the site of the Central College, (which was merged in it), an Act of [?] 25, 1819, organized it substantially upon its present basis. (IRC (1819), p 90, c 34.)

The Literacy Fund has subsequently been increa sed, not only by annual accretions, but also by certain seems paid to the State by Act of Congress. Act of March 5, 1846 (Acts 1845-6, C 40. [?] 8), and of March 19, 1847, (Acts 1846-'7, c 28. [?] 18). So that the principal amounted in 1861, to no less a sum the $2,344,714.81, and the annual income to upwards of $114,000, of which by Acts