Jefferson's ideas, passed the House of Delegates on the 18th of February, 1817, but it was rejected by the Senate on the 20th of the same month. The measure was, however, noteworthy in some of its features. It provided for a board of public instruction, to be elected by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Delegates, and to have general educational control of Virginia. They were to establish and locate "the University of Virginia," together with a general system of colleges and academies. The bill also provided for a system of primary schools, and for the subdivision of counties into townships and wards, and of cities, boroughs, or towns into wards, when containing more than one hundred white families; if less, the corporation was to be comprehended in some township. As soon as a ward or township had provided a school-house worth $200, and a board of trustees for school management, the directors of the literary fund, to whom the school-house and lot must be conveyed, were authorized to pay over annually the sum of $200 for the teacher's salary and $10 for school books for poor children. Jefferson was always strongly opposed to such local distribution of the literary fund. He believed in the local maintenance of common schools; but the best experience of the Old World and of the New shows that localities vary so much in economic strength that county boards of equalization are sometimes a real necessity. A compromise between public bounty and local taxation is sometimes desirable.

ACADEMICAL DISTRICTS.

The bill of 1817 further provided for the division of Virginia, according to the census of free whites, into forty-eight "academical districts," containing one or more counties. Suitable and convenient academies actually existing were to be recognized as State institutions, when conveyed to the president and directors of the literary fund. While retaining their former trustees and local government, they became entitled to State aid. Where new academies were to be erected, the same line of policy was proposed as in the case of the primary schools. The academical district was obliged to furnish the necessary land, and at least three-fourths of the cost of the necessary buildings, which were estimated at $10,000. The management of the academy was to be intrusted to a board of thirteen persons residing within the district and appointed by the general board of public instruction. One-quarter of the cost of building and one-fourth of the salaries for teachers was to be paid from the literary fund. Noteworthy is the fact that the bill of 1817 authorized the acceptance of "the Anne Smith Academy, for the education of females," and permitted the establishment of similar institutions not exceeding five.

PLAN FOR NEW COLLEGES.

To the colleges then existing in the State four more were to be added, called, respectively, Pendleton, Wythe, Henry, and Jefferson, in con

venient and healthful localities, where sufficient land had been freely offered, and at least $35,000 had been subscribed for the college and its library. Trustees were to be invested with governing authority by the board of public instruction. The title to the land and college buildings was to be conveyed to the managers of the literary fund, which in turn should grant the college one-fourth as much money as had been locally subscribed, and one-fifth of the annual salaries of teachers and professors. William and Mary, Hampden-Sidney, and Washington Colleges were to be allowed to make proposals with reference to entering this general system of State colleges and of sharing State bounty in a similar manner.

IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY.

The bill of 1817 made inadequate provision for the University of Virginia, but the idea was clearly in view. The board of public instruction was authorized to fix upon a proper site, with primary regard "to the geographical centre of the Commonwealth, and to the principal channels of intercourse through its territory," together with health, economy, and such advantages as might arise from local philanthropy. At least fifty acres of land, $100,000 for buildings, and $10,000 for a library must be secured and placed at the disposition of the literary fund for university purposes. A general subscription throughout the State was authorized through the agency of county and corporation courts. Provision was also made for reports of all trustees to the board of public instruction, and for a general educational report to the General Assembly, concerning the state of education and embracing the University of Virginia.

The provisions of this bill, although never carried out, are interesting and instructive as showing one of the first definite plans in this country for an organized system of education under the control of the State. The bill laid chief stress upon common-school education, and gave it the preference in the distribution of public money. Jefferson, while the friend of common schools, would have made them self-supporting, and have reserved State bounty for the higher education and the University.

JEFFERSON'S BILL, 1817-18.

Mr. Mercer's bill, of which an analysis has just been given, was very unsatisfactory to Jefferson. He wrote to Cabell, October 24, 1817: “I received the pamphlet you were so kind as to have directed to me, containing several papers on the establishment of a system of education. A serious perusal of the bill for that purpose convinced me that, unless something less extravagant could be devised, the whole undertaking must fail. The primary schools alone on that plan would exhaust the whole funds, the colleges as much more, and a university would never come into question. However slow and painful the operation of writing is become from a stiffening wrist, and however deadly my aver17036-No. 2-6

sion to the writing-table, I determined to try whether I could not contrive a plan more within the compass of our funds. I send you the result brought into a single bill, lest by bringing it on by detachments some of the parts might be lost."

The following is a résumé of Jefferson's bill, which is not without suggestive value. The old lines of historic continuity are discernible in this plan, and it is clearly an advance upon the views advanced in the famous letter to Peter Carr. Jefferson proposed that the judge of the superior court, in every county, should appoint three visitors of primary schools. These visitors were to subdivide their respective counties into wards, comprehending "each about the number of militia sufficient for a company." The visitors were then to call ward meetings, and the majority vote of "the warders" was to determine the location of the school-house and how it should be built. A plurality vote was to elect a resident warden, to direct the process of building, and to care for school property. All persons liable to work on the highways were to be subject to the warden's call to work on the school-house, unless it should be built by pecuniary contributions. Ward meetings were to be held in the school-house after its completion. This place should become the centre of local government as well as of local education. The selection of teachers and the examination of schools were to be intrusted to the county board of visitors-a good device for economic and uniform management.

Jefferson then proceeded to distribute the several counties into nine collegiate districts. The president and directors of the literary fund, henceforth to be known as the board of public instruction, were to appoint a board of visitors for each collegiate district, with one member from each county in that district. These visitors were to view their district and report to the central board of public instruction the best sites for a college, and the latter board was to decide the matter. The visitors were then to be empowered to purchase the approved site, exercising, if necessary, through the county sheriff, the right of condemning private property for a public purpose. They were limited to $500 expenditure for grounds and to $7,000 for buildings. Each college was to have two professors, with salaries of $500 each, to be paid from the liter ary fund, with such additional fees from pupils as the visitors should determine. "In the said colleges shall be taught the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages, English grammar, geography, ancient and modern, the higher branches of numerical arithmetic, the mensuration of land, the use of the globes, and the ordinary elements. of navigation." The visitors were to have the appointing power and the general management of the college property. They could employ a steward and a bursar. Members of the board were to visit the college at least once a year and examine its management. The action of collegiate boards was subject to revision by the board of public in

struction.

PROPOSITION FOR A CENTRAL UNIVERSITY.

To these provisions for popular and collegiate education Jefferson added a proposition for a university, "in a central and healthy part of the State." With regard to the very delicate question of the site he draughted two forms of statement, one in general terms giving the power of selection to a board of eight visitors, subject to approval by the board of public instruction; and the other in specific terms providing for the acceptance of all the lands, buildings, property, and rights of Central College, whenever its board of visitors should authorize a transfer to the board of public instruction, for the purposes of a university. In the institution should be taught "history and geography, ancient and modern; natural philosophy, agriculture, chemistry, and the theories of medicine; anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology; mathematics, pure and mixed; military and naval science; ideology, ethics, the law of nature and of nations; law, municipal and foreign; the science of civil government and political economy; languages, rhetoric, belles lettres, and the fine arts generally; which branches of science shall be so distributed and under so many professorships, not exceeding ten, as the visitors shall think most proper." Each professor was to have apartments and a salary, not exceeding $1,000 a year, to be paid from the literary fund, with tuition fees from students. The visitors were to have the appointing power and the general control of the institution, subject to the board of public instruction.

To prepare the way for this bill, Jefferson addressed to the speaker of the House of Delegates a report of the visitors on the progress of Central College, already described in another connection. Of this instructive report two hundred and fifty copies were printed by order of the House and distributed. Jefferson wrote to Cabell, December 18, 1817: "I think you had better keep back the general plan till this report is made, as I am persuaded it will give a lift to that. Pray drop me a line when any vote is passed which furnishes an indication of the success or failure of the general plan. I have only this single anxiety in this world. It is a bantling of forty years' birth and nursing, and if I can once see it on its legs, I will sing with sincerity and pleasure my nunc dimittas."

PUBLIC EDUCATION.

The most cherished scheme of Jefferson's life was now to be launched anew upon the current of politics. He had attempted to promote university education in connection with William and Mary College, in the time of the American Revolution, but the project had been swamped. Now he was about to launch his own independent institution, bearing the name of Central College, but soon to be called the University of Virginia. With what anxiety the old man of seventy-five years watched the fate of his carefully drawn report on Central College, and of his bill for establishing a system of public education! In a letter to Cabell,

dated January 14, 1818, minutely explaining his plan for self-supporting elementary schools, Jefferson concludes: "A system of general instruction which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest. Nor am I tenacious of the form in which it shall be introduced. Be that what it may, our descendants will be as wise as we are, and will know how to amend and amend it until it shall suit their circumstances. Give it to us, then, in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon the thanks of the young, and the blessings of the old, who are past all other services but prayers for the prosperity of their country and blessings to those who promote it."

This letter was published by Cabell in the Richmond Enquirer, February 10, 1818. In every possible way Cabell propagated Jefferson's ideas. While the "enlightened few" heard and read with favor, there was in the Legislature, particularly in the House of Delegates, a strong opposition to Jefferson's bill. The printing of two hundred and fifty copies was only grudgingly allowed. The "back country" and western members were particularly stubborn. They wanted the capital of Virginia removed from Richmond to Staunton, and they were afraid that Central College would establish the idea of political centrality for the neighborhood of Charlottesville. "For two months," wrote Cabell, "certain persons have been training those members to oppose all that could come from you. The back-country spirit has been industriously excited." Cabell said the friends of Staunton and Lexington wished to keep down Central College. Sectional division and the clashing of local interests made him almost despair of any general plan. Jefferson's opponents admitted that his bill was a finished production in theory, but they were not willing to let it go into practice. The bill received very few votes in a House committee of the whole, and a substitute offered by Mr. Hill, of King William County, was recommended for adoption. FIRST APPROPRIATION FROM THE LITERARY FUND, 1818.

The House of Delegates at first favored a small appropriation from the literary fund for the education of the poor, and the application of the rest of the fund to the payment of the debts of the State. From such a Philistine view of an economic resource, long set apart for educational interests, the House at last rose, through the influence of agitation, to the idea of a compromise between the highest and lowest forms of education. Hill's substitute for Jefferson's bill proposed the appointment by local courts of school commissioners in every county, city, and corporate town, "to determine what number of poor children they will educate," and what should be paid for their education. The commis. sioners were to select the children and send them, with the assent of parents or guardian, to some convenient school, to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. The money for tuition, books, etc., was to come