Some Considerations regarding State Support of UVA

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