course of education finished, deserves the countenance and support of each State." These are the two principal resolutions in full: Resolved, therefore, That the appropriation by the said George Washington of the aforesaid shares in the Potomac Company to the university intended to be erected in the Federal city is made in a manner most worthy of public regard and of the approbation of this Commonwealth. Resolved, also That he be requested to appropriate the aforesaid shares in the James River Company to a seminary at such place in the upper country as he may deem most convenient to a majority of the inhabitants thereof.1 These resolutions settled the question. September 15, 1796, Washington wrote to Governor Brooke that after careful inquiries to ascertain the place in the upper country most convenient to a majority of its inhabitants, he has destined the James River shares to the use of Lib. erty Hall Academy, in Rockbridge County. We accordingly find this item in his will: The 100 shares which I hold in the James River Company I have given, and now confirm in perpetuity, to and for the use and benefit of Liberty Hall Academy, in the county of Rockbridge, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.3 Before the disposition of the shares in the improvement companies was finally closed, Washington was called upon to consider the boldest scheme recorded in our educational history. The faculty of the College of Geneva, Switzerland, were ill at ease under the political conditions then existing in that country growing out of the French Revolution, and one or more of its members originated the brilliant proposal of migrating in a body to the United States, provided suitable encourage. ment were offered. In a word, it was a proposition to transplant to America one of the most famous of European seats of learning. In view of the facts already stated, it was natural that the scheme should be laid before Washington. It reached him by two different channels. John Adams, while on foreign duty, had become acquainted with M. D'Ivernois, one of the professors of the college, and he was very appropriately made a medium for transmitting the Genevan idea. Adams submitted the papers to Washington, and Washington replied under date of November 27, 1794, neither accepting nor declining the proposition.1 Thomas Jefferson, while minister at Paris, had also made M. D'Ivernois's acquaintance. He was known to be deeply interested in science and in the College of Geneva, and was also in close sympathy with French ideas and the French spirit. Very naturally, the Genevan professor sounded him also on the subject. More definitely, he pro 'Sparks, XI, 25, note. 'Sparks, XI, 172. 3 Augusta Academy was founded by the Hanover Presbytery, at Mount Pleasant, about the year 1772. After a few years, it was located at Lexington and its name changed to Liberty Hall Academy. Later its name was changed to Washington College, and still later to Washington and Lee Univer sity. The legislature has watched carefully over Washington's donation, and it now yields 6 per cent on $50,000. See a sketch of the institution in H. B. Adams's "Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia," Chapter XXII, by Professors White and Harris. 4Sparks, XI, 1. posed the transplantation of the college to Virginia and to Jefferson's own county. November 22, 1794, Jefferson laid the scheme before Wilson Nicholas, a member of the Virginia assembly, requesting him to consult privately such members of the assembly as he thought proper, and then to follow his own judgment in the premises. Jefferson spoke of the expense and of the difficulty of communicating instruction to American youth in French and Latin, but added that owing to his long absence from the State he was not a competent judge of the force of these objections. In due time Nicholas informed him that a canvass had been made, and that the scheme was pronounced impracticable. Mr. Jefferson accordingly explained the situation to M. D'Ivernois in a letter dated February 6, 1795.2 Apparently, this should have been the end of this extravagant project. But Jefferson now bethought him of the fund that Washington held in trust for an educational purpose; and February 23 he wrote the President an extremely interesting letter in relation to the subject, sketching the members of the Genevan faculty, one by one, and discussing the question of removal, especially in its economical aspect. He thinks that if Washington will devote the shares to the carrying out of the scheme, it will give it "in the outset such an eclat, and such solid advantages, as would insure a very general concourse to it of the youths from all our States, and probably from the other parts of America which are free to adopt it."3 It is perfectly clear that Mr. Jefferson did not think the scheme impracticable. Still, he did not indorse the proposition in the terms that D'Ivernois had made it. He wrote: The composition of the academy can not be settled there. It must be adapted to our circumstances, and can therefore only be fixed between them and persons here acquainted with those circumstances, and conferring for the purpose after their arrival here. For a country so marked by agriculture as ours, I should think no professorship so important as one not mentioned by them, a professor of agriculture, who, before students should leave college, should carry them through a course of lectures on the principles and practice of agriculture; and that this professor should come from no country but England. Indeed, I should mark Young as the man to be obtained. These, however, are modifications to be left till their arrival here. The reply that he received, dated March 15, left him in no doubt as to Washington's view of its practicability. After recounting the advantages that would accrue to the national university from locating it in the Federal city, and stating that he has already decided to devote the James River shares to some Virginia seminary, Washington continues thus: Hence you will perceive that I have in a degree anticipated your proposition. I was restrained from going the whole length of the suggestion by the following considerations: First, I did not know to what extent or when any plan would be so matured for the establishment of a university as would enable any assurances to be given to the application of M. D'Ivernois. Secondly, the propriety of transplant. ing the professors in a body might be questioned for several reasons; among others, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson; IV, 109. 2 Ibid., IV, 113. Sparks, XI, 475. because they might not all be good characters, nor all sufficiently acquainted with our language. And again, having been at variance with the leveling parties of their own country, the measure might be considered as an aristocratical movement by more than those who, without any just cause that I can discover, are continually sounding the bell of aristocracy. And, thirdly, because it might preclude some of the first professors in other countries from a participation, among whom some of the most celebrated characters in Scotland, in this line, might be obtained.1 But on one point Washington expressed himself more fully to Adams than he did to Jefferson. My opinion with respect to emigration is that, except of useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men or professions, there is no need of encouragement; while the policy or advantage of its taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for by so doing they retain the language, habits, and principles, good or bad, which they bring with them. Whereas, by an intermixture with our people they or their descendants get assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws; in a word, soon become one people. Our story now descends from the lofty heights to which M. D'Ivernois and Mr. Jefferson have raised it, to its former prosaic level. As the year 1796 wore on, Washington was revolving in his mind his Farewell Address. As is well known, he consulted Alexander Hamilton as to the substance and the style of this address. Writing September 1, he expressed his regret at the omission from a rough draft that he had previously transmitted to Hamilton of a subject in which he was deeply interested. I mean education generally, as one of the surest means of enlightening and giving just ways of thinking to our citizens, but particularly the establishment of a university, where the youth from all parts of the United States might receive the polish of erudition in the arts, sciences, and belles-lettres; and where those who were disposed to run a political course might not only be instructed in the theory and principles, but (this seminary being at the seat of the General Government) where the Legislature would be in session half the year, and the interests and polities of the nation of course would be discussed, they would lay the surest foundation for the practical part also. But that which would render it of the highest importance, in my opinion, is, that the juvenal period of life, when friendships are formed, and habits established, that stick by one, the youth or young men from different parts of the United States would be assembled together, and would by degrees discover that there was not that cause for those jealousies and prejudices which one part of the Union had imbibed against another part-of course, sentiments of more liberality in the general policy of the country would result from it. What but the mixing of people from different parts of the United States during the war rubbed off these impressions? A century, in the ordinary intercourse, would not have accomplished what the seven years' association in arms did; but that ceasing, prejudices are beginning to revive again, and never will be eradicated so effectually by any other means as the intimate intercourse of characters in early life, who, in all probability, will be at the head of the counsels of this country in a more advanced stage of it. To show that this is no new idea of mine, I may appeal to my early communications to Congress; and to prove how seriously I have reflected on it since, and how well disposed I have been, and still am, to contribute my aid toward carrying the measure into effect, I inclose you an extract of a letter from me to the governor of Virginia on this subject, and a copy of the resolves of the legislature of that State in consequence thereof. I have not the smallest donbt that this donation (when the navigation is in complete operation, which it certainly will be in less than two years) will amount to 1,200 or 1,500 pounds sterling a year, and become a rapidly increasing fund. The proprietors of the Federal City have talked of doing something handsome toward it likewise; and if Congress would appropriate some of the western lands to the same uses, funds sufficient, and of the most permanent and increasing sort, might be so established as to invite the ablest professors in Europe to conduct it.1 Hamilton advised that it would be better to bring the university forward in the annual speech at the opening of the approaching session of Congress. In this view Washington acquiesced, though with some reluctance. He wrote the 6th of September: If you think that the idea of a university had better be reserved for the speech at the opening of the session, I am content to defer the communication of it until that period; but, even in that case, I would pray you, as soon as convenient, to make a draft for the occasion, predicated on the ideas with which you have been furnished; looking, at the same time, into what was said on this head in my second speech to the First Congress, merely with a view to see what was said on the subject at that time; and this, you will perceive, was not so much to the point as I want to express now, though it may, if proper, be glanced at, to show that the subject had caught my attention early. But, to be candid, I much question whether a recommendation of this measure to the Legislature will have a better effect now than formerly. It may show, indeed, my sense of its importance, and that is a sufficient inducement with me to bring the matter before the public in some shape or another at the closing scenes of my political exit. My object for proposing to insert it where I did (if not improper) was to set the people ruminating on the importance of the measure, as the most likely means of bringing it to pass.2 The Farewell Address, accordingly, makes no mention of the univer sity, but contains the golden sentences so often quoted: Promote as an object of primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. One of Washington's favorite ideas was the establishment of a military school. He remembered vividly the almost total lack of educated American officers in the Revolutionary army, especially of engineers, and also the sore embarrassments growing out of the influx of foreign officers. In 1793 he had recommended to Congress as a "national feature of the military system to be created the provision of an opportunity for the study of those branches of the military art which can scarcely ever be attained by practice alone;" and he now brought the two ideas forward in his last annual speech to Congress, delivered December 7, 1796. He devotes two paragraphs to the university. The assembly to which I address myself is too enlightened not to be fully sensible how much a flourishing state of the arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity and reputation. True it is that our country, much to its honor, contains many seminaries of learning highly respectable and useful; but the funds upon which they rest are too narrow to command the ablest professors, in the different departments of liberal knowledge, for the institution contemplated, though they would be excellent auxiliaries. The works of Alexander Hamilton, VI, 147, 148. 2 Ibid., VI, pp. 149, 150 Amongst the motives to such an institution, the assimilation of the principles, opinions, and manners of our countrymen, by the common education of a portion of our youth from every quarter, well deserves attention. The more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particulars, the greater will be our prospects of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important, and what duty more pressing on its legislature, than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.' The fears that Washington expressed to Hamilton were fully justified by the event. Congress treated the university as it had done beforewith silence. In his will Washington fully relates the history of the shares in the navigation companies that he held; he also argues at some length the university question, expressing once more his regret that American youth should resort to foreign countries in quest of education; and then disposes of the Potomac shares in this item: I give and bequeath, in perpetuity, the 50 shares which I hold in the Potomac Company (under the aforesaid acts of the legislature of Virginia), toward the endowment of a university, to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the General Government, if that Government should incline to extend a fostering hand toward it; and, until such a seminary is established, and the funds arising on these shares shall be required for its support, my further will and desire is, that the profit accruing therefrom shall, whenever dividends are made, be laid out in purchasing stock in the Bank of Columbia, or some other bank, at the discretion of my executors, or by the Treasurer of the United States for the time being, under the direction of Congress; provided that honorable body should patronize the measure; and the dividends proceeding from the purchase of such stock are to be vested in more stock, and so on, until a sum adequate to the accomplishment of the object is obtained; of which I have not the smallest doubt before many years pass away, even if no aid or encouragement is given by legislative authority, or from any other source.2 The executing of his will was Washington's last act in relation to a university. Congress took no steps to make the above provisions effectual. Dr. Goode says: "The value of the bequest was at the time placed at 5,000 pounds sterling, and it was computed by Blodget that, had Congress kept faith with Washington, as well as did the legislature of Virginia in regard to the endowment of Washington College, his donation at compound interest would in twelve years (1815) have grown to $50,000 and in twenty-four years (1827) to $100,000, an endowment sufficient to establish one of the colleges in the proposed university." The Potomac stock paid but one dividend. Still, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and later the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, were developments of the project. Dr. H. B. Adams suggests that "the actual fate of Washington's endowment of a national university would be a good subject for a Congressional inquiry, when other scientific subjects are exhausted." 3 'Sparks, Vol. XII, p. 71. 2 Sparks, Vol. I, p. 572. 3 William and Mary College, 44. |