The Papers of John B. Minor, 1845-1893

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 residuum of personal estates of interstates, where there was no distribute, all of which by that and subsequent acts were solemnly dedicated to the encouragement 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 calculated 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, acceded to. Agents were dispatched into the adjacent Counties, & subscriptions obtained to the extent of about $60,000 (of which only 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 above 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 per annum, 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 [Jany?] 25, 1819, organized it substantially upon its present basis. (IRC (1819), p 90, c 34.)

The Literacy Fund has subsequently been increased, 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

of 1850-'57, e41 [?]9, and of 1853-4, c33, [?]1, $80,000 was set apart for pri= mary schools, $15000 to the Univerisym and $1500 to the Military Institute, VaCode (1860), C 79. [?]4,5.

During the war, an Act was passed by the Richmond Legislature appropriating $37,500, instead of $15,000, from the revenues of the Literary Fund, to the University, (Acts 1863-4, C20), of which three half yearly instalments it is believed, were paid. And one of the last acts of that government was a Statute increasing the appropriation to $75,000, of which of course nothing was received.

Present Condition of the Literary Fund. The Literary Fund has been diminished, but not destroyed by the events of the war. On the 30 September 1863, it appears from Auditor Thomas' Report, to have consisted of the following investments; viz

Bank of Virginia Stock, 2121 shares, at cost, less $30 W share, under act of 4 March 1846 $146,832.57

Farmer's Bank of Virginia Stock, 1054 shares, at cost 102,305.75 Northwestern Bank of Virginia 500 shares, at cost 50,000.00 Bank of the Valley 92 shares, at cost 10,134.00 [Fairmont?] Bank 1000 shares, at cost 50,000.00 Old James River Company 225 shares, at cost 96,950.00 Certificates of State, [viz?]

Old Military debt, 6pr cent, par value, [recognized & confirmed by [?] 1824-5, c29, & 1852-3, C17] $24,039.17 Bank loan 1814, (war of 1812, i.e money originally lent by the Banks for war purposes, and refunded by U States), [recognized & confd. by Statutes as above], 7pr cent 319,000.00 [?] Commonwealth, (Act 18 March 1856) 50.562.00 393,607,72 Internal Improvement debt, 5 pr ct., par value $155,200.00 cost 155,750.00

{Forward Total of Literary Fund $2,344,714.} {Stock of Bank of [?], Farmer's Bank & $293,607.72} {Confederate-States Stock 454,923.44 748,52} {Balance of investments, not apparently bad- $1,596,189.65}

These remaining securities which, all still, on hand, appear to be the identical ones in which the fund was invested in 1860, having been unchanged for {more than [80?]}many years, and it would seem that these can be regarded as unavailable, only upon the supposition that the State of Virginia does not propose to redeem her ob- jections! The annual revenue derived from them, will amount to about $112,000.

Necessary Annual Expenditures of the University.

The budget of necessary expenses, in the present status of the Institution, (which is reduced by two professors, & several Assistant Institutions, from what it was in 1860), may be thus summed up; viz.

For Instruction,- Professor's Salaries, (11 in number) $11,000. Demonstrator of Anatomy 500. $11,500. For Officer's Salaries,- Chairman $500. Porter & Superintendent of grounds 1,800. Librarian 600. Secretary of Faculty 200. Janitor 300. Secretary of Visitors 200. 3,000.

For Repairs of Improvements 5,000. For Labour employed, including attendance on Lect. Rooms &c. 500. For advertising & Printing 600. For Insurance $650; Fuel 7 Lights for Public Rooms, say $400 1,050. For Library, including General, Scientific, Medical & Law Depart. 2,000. For Schools of Chemistry, Nat. Philos. & Anat. Apparat. 400. For Interest on Debt of University (Say $38,500), say 2,300. For Expenses of Visitors, say 200. For Miscellaneous Expenses, say 1,000. $28,200.

Several of these items, it may be observed, are advanced

in aminn? since 1845, in unseprence? of the enlargement of the staff of institutions, and the intension of the holdings, and by reason also of the increase of the ditracy? + apparatus which the upanding reputation of the University renders indispensible. But comparing their statement with the annened table of artue? expenditures for five years ?fine the war, it will be apparent that no more over estimate has been made.

Statement of Annua Expense of University for 5 Years

( Drawn data table)

§(h) Lahus included in 'Repaid to.' Mstmition, during these years exceeds the amount now estimated for it, because there were then 13, instead of only 11 professors, and there were also assistant instructors, (made In of students), in several of them? Who???. And indeed, as the number of students increases, a proportionate enlargement of the Con?es of inatmioton? will again to requisite. Labour, + Rapairs of Improvements were much R?unllen in 1857, '58 and '58 by the Constitution of wate? con?s, the changes made in a view to abriviate the recurrence of the typhoid epidemic ?heih saye, expenditures were met in la?ye part, by a special appropriation by the Gen. Assembly of H 25,000, (Acts 1853-4, c 3b), and by the proceed of the sake of the forum den derisee? to the University, by the late Martin Dawses. To meet this expenditures of H28200, (which cannot be re? dueed? without an injury to the public semice proportined to the reduction), the resources, exclusion of the annuity, are a fortou? estimating the students at the present members, say 230, and reckon ing the cha??es as they now are; ??z