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THOMAS JEFFERSON'S VIEWS 
 
 ON 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN C. HENDERSON 
 
 AMS PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
8% 
 
 Reprinted from the edition of 1890, New York 
 First AMS EDITION published 1970 
 Manufactured in the United States of America 
 
 International Standard Book Number: 0-404-03236-2 
 
 Library of Congress Catalog Number: 76-137239 
 
 AMS PRESS INC. 
 
 NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Admonition to Friends of Civil Liberty . . i 
 
 II. 
 
 A State should have a University 37 
 
 III. 
 
 Jefferson's Ideal University 131 
 
 IV. 
 
 "Our Colored Brethren" 213 
 
 v. 
 
 A Jeffersonian Amendment to the Constitution 
 
 of the United States 312 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 On one of the dark days of 1778, when the people 
 of the United States were engaged in a portentous 
 struggle with the British Crown, Thomas Jefferson arose 
 in the Assembly of Virginia, and presented to his col- 
 leagues a carefully framed bill, designed to establish in 
 Virginia public schools, and academies or colleges, and a 
 university. He was a man of fair complexion. His hair 
 was of a brownish cast. He stood about six feet two and 
 a half inches in height. He might have been taken for 
 a highly cultured Scotchman. Indeed not less than 
 three of his instructors had been Scotchmen. In the 
 year 1776 he had draughted the Declaration of American 
 Independence, and had pledged his life, his fortune, and 
 his honor to the maintenance of the principles which it 
 contained. But as he stood before the Assembly, he 
 realized that, however great might be the sacrifices made 
 by the people of a republic to secure to their posterity the 
 blessing of civil liberty, they must ultimately fail in doing 
 so, unless they made suitable provision for the public 
 education of their youth. The importance of a good 
 public-school system to a republic he laid before his 
 colleagues with an earnestness that spoke eloquently of 
 his devotion to the interests of civil liberty. Years after- 
 wards, when he was the American Minister to France, 
 alluding to his educational bill in a letter to Washington, 
 he wrote, under date of January 4th, 1786: " I never saw 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 one received with more enthusiasm than that was, in the 
 year 1778, by the House of Delegates, who ordered it 
 printed. And it seemed afterwards, that nothing but the 
 extreme distress of our resources prevented its being car- 
 ried into execution, even during the war." 
 
 Jefferson during his long life filled many public posi- 
 tions. He was a member of the Legislature, and, during 
 a critical period in the history of Virginia, the governor 
 of his State. Before the Declaration of Independence, 
 and again at a later period, he was a member of the Con- 
 tinental Congress. He lived at a time when the principles 
 of government were studied to a very remarkable extent 
 in America and in France. For a number of years, dur- 
 ing the momentous period which ushered in the great 
 French Revolution which ultimately convulsed the na- 
 tions of Europe, he was the American Minister to France. 
 For about four years he was Secretary of State, during 
 the formative period of the government of the United 
 States when Washington was President. For four years 
 Jefferson was the Vice-President, and for eight years the 
 President, of the United States. It is found by letters of 
 Jefferson's, which were written to correspondents in dif- 
 ferent parts of the world, that his belief in the importance 
 of public schools to republics was not a mere inspiration 
 of a moment, but that during a long life he was animated 
 with the same earnest, consistent, and noble desire to 
 serve the cause of civil liberty in all parts of the world by 
 helping in the great work of securing to youth the intelli- 
 gence which he believed was the only safe basis for 
 republican institutions. 
 
 I have been greatly aided, in writing this book, by 
 facilities for study which I have enjoyed in the Astor 
 Library, of New York. Often have I felt deeply grateful 
 to the Astor family as I have thought of the magnificent 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 treasure-house of books that they have thrown open to 
 the public. Although I have, while collecting material 
 for this book, been shown kindly courtesy in the library 
 of the British Museum, and have visited I hardly know 
 how many collections of books in State Capitols and 
 in universities, I have, I think, seldom if ever visited a 
 better managed library than is the one founded by the 
 Astors. To its superintendent, Mr. Robbins Little, 
 I take pleasure Jn expressing in this public manner my 
 appreciation of the facilities of research which I have en- 
 joyed within its walls. To the librarian, Mr. Frederick 
 Saunders, who has given to the world a number of books 
 — among which is the beautiful volume entitled " Evenings 
 with the Sacred Poets," — I desire to express my gratitude 
 for kindly favors. Indeed, to every one of the gentlemen 
 connected with that library I feel indebted for kindly 
 courtesy. 
 
 In respect to the source from whence I have obtained 
 the letters quoted in this volume, I will say that, as a 
 rule, almost every one of them can be seen in one or the 
 other oi the following volumes : 
 
 " Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the 
 Papers of Thomas Jefferson," edited by his grandson, 
 T. J. Randolph, in the year 1829. "The Writings of 
 Thomas Jefferson," " Published by the Order of the Joint 
 Committee of Congress. on the Library, from the Original 
 Manuscripts Deposited in the Department of State," in 
 Washington, D. C, in the year 1854. " The Early His- 
 tory of the University of Virginia, as Contained in the 
 Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell, Hith- 
 erto Unpublished ; with an Appendix, Consisting of Mr. 
 Jefferson's Bill for a Complete System of Education, and 
 Other Illustrative Documents . . . " Published in 
 Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1856, by J. W. Randolph. 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Although Jefferson held some views in respect to the 
 education of youth which are scarcely, if at all, mentioned 
 in this volume, — such as the importance of young people 
 being taught anatomy or physiology, and such as the 
 kind of instruction which American young women should 
 receive, — and although comparatively little is said of his 
 earnest wish to see the United States government found 
 a great university in the city of Washington, — such as 
 Washington and Madison may be said to have advised, in 
 a peculiarly impressive manner, their country to estab- 
 lish, — and in short, although this volume does not claim 
 to do full justice to Jefferson's patriotic labors in behalf 
 of public education, yet it gives an idea of how one of the 
 most distinguished of American statesmen regarded the 
 value of public, unsectarian schools to the people of the 
 United States. It also gives an idea of what, in the best, 
 and in the truest, sense of the term, " Jeffersonian princi- 
 ples " demand that American statesmanship shall do in 
 respect to duly cherishing the interests of learning in all 
 parts of the Republic of the United States. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S VIEWS 
 
 ON 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 
 
 i. 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 It is, one may well believe, not too much to say that 
 every land has had at times well-meaning friends of civil 
 liberty. In lands afflicted with a despotic form of gov- 
 ernment there have sometimes arisen men who by the 
 heroism with which they have made sacrifices to secure to 
 their fellow-citizens a well-ordered form of self-government 
 have given eloquent proof of the sincerity of their patriot- 
 ism. Their wish to emancipate the land of their birth 
 and of their love from the bondage of a heartless despot- 
 ism has been most noble — has been indeed worthy of the 
 highest praise ; — but, sadly often, after having taken part 
 in revolutions in which rivers of blood have flowed and 
 in which uncounted treasure has been expended, they 
 have not only failed to secure the priceless blessing of 
 self-government, but they have with anguish seen even 
 their efforts to secure to their country a well-ordered re- 
 publican form of government result in bringing upon their 
 countrymen a more terrible form of despotism than that 
 from which they had sought deliverance even at the awful 
 cost of revolution. These patriots, from Jefferson's point 
 i. i 
 
2 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 of view, as will presently be seen, have sadly often made 
 a fatal mistake in the way which they have adopted to 
 secure the inestimably valuable blessing for which they 
 have longed. They have failed to realize the intimate con- 
 nection that must ever exist between civil liberty and at 
 least a certain degree of intellectual culture. It may well 
 be interesting to a thoughtful student of the science of 
 government to notice the convictions of such a statesman 
 as was Thomas Jefferson respecting the possibility of illit- 
 erate nations enjoying the blessing of self-government, 
 and of the way in which friends of civil liberty — especially 
 the way in which the government of a Republic — should 
 look upon public schools. 
 
 Among Jefferson's correspondents was the learned and 
 very celebrated Baron Alexander von Humboldt, whose 
 brother Karl Wilhelm Humboldt was the first Minister of 
 Public Instruction of Prussia after the disastrous battle of 
 Jena — a battle which one might have supposed would 
 prove the utter ruin of Germany. Karl Humboldt was 
 called by Frederick William III. to help in regenerating 
 almost ruined Prussia by establishing a good school sys- 
 tem. The system which he adopted is still to a large 
 extent in use in Germany. There is reason to infer that 
 he adopted his educational system in part from ideas 
 which he received from Jefferson. Jefferson in a. book 
 which he published, entitled " Notes on Virginia," dwelt 
 upon an educational bill which he had himself presented 
 in the Legislature of Virginia in the year 1778. This 
 book was published in France. Karl Wilhelm Humboldt 
 who resided in Paris probably there met with the book. 
 Jefferson, as will presently be seen, presented a copy of 
 the work to Karl Humboldt's celebrated brother who at 
 one time was himself requested by the king of Prussia to 
 act as Minister of Public Instruction. Baron Alexander 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 3 
 
 von Humboldt was Jefferson's guest for three weeks when 
 he visited the United States. 
 
 It may readily be supposed that Jefferson's views re- 
 specting public education would be highly interesting to 
 the Humboldts. Whoever will read the conclusions of 
 Jefferson on public education as expressed in his " Notes 
 on Virginia," and compare the public-school system which 
 he suggested in his justly celebrated " Bill for the Better 
 Diffusion of Knowledge," and will compare them with the 
 educational system which one of the Humboldts especially 
 helped to give to Prussia, may well feel that American 
 statesmanship has exerted a vastly weightier influence on 
 Germany's history than is generally known. 
 
 Two days after retiring from the Presidency of the 
 United States, Jefferson wrote a letter to Alexander von 
 Humboldt, — a part of which reads thus : " You have wisely 
 located yourself in the focus of the science of Europe. I 
 am held by the cords of love to my family and country, 
 or I should certainly join you. Within a few days I shall 
 now bury myself in the groves of Monticello, and become 
 a mere spectator of the passing events. On politics I 
 will say nothing, because I would not implicate you by 
 addressing to you the republican ideas of America, deemed 
 horrible heresies in Europe." 
 
 In another letter to Baron Humboldt, under date of 
 April 14th, 181 1, Jefferson wrote: "The interruption of 
 our intercourse with France for some time past, has pre- 
 vented my writing to you. A conveyance now occurs by 
 Mr. Barlow or Mr. Worden, both of them going in a 
 public capacity. It is the first safe opportunity offered of 
 acknowledging your favor of September 23rd, and the 
 receipt at different times of the Illrd part of your valua- 
 ble work 2d, 3rd, and 5th, livraisons and the IVth part of 
 2d, 3d, and 4th, livraisons, with the Tableaux de la 
 
4 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 Nature, and an interesting map of New Spain. For 
 these magnificent and much esteemed favors, accept my 
 sincere thanks. They give us a knowledge of that country 
 more accurate than I believe we possess of Europe, the 
 seat of a science of a thousand years. It comes out, too, 
 at a moment when those countries are beginning to be 
 interesting to the whole world. They are now becoming 
 the scenes of political revolution, to take their stations as 
 integral members of the great family of nations. All are 
 now in insurrection. In several the Independents are 
 already triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so in 
 all. What kind of government will they establish ? Are 
 their chiefs sufficiently enlightened to form a well guarded 
 government, and their people to watch their chiefs? 
 Have they mind enough to place their domesticated In- 
 dians on a footing with the whites ? All these questions 
 you can answer better than any other. I imagine they 
 will copy our outlines of confederation and elective gov- 
 ernment, abolish distinction of ranks, bow the neck to 
 their priests, and persevere in intolerantism. * * * But 
 unless instruction can be spread among them more rapidly 
 than experience promises, despotism may come upon 
 them before they are qualified to save the ground they 
 will have gained. Could Napoleon obtain, at the close of 
 the present war, the independence of all the West India 
 Islands, and their establishment in a separate confederacy, 
 our quarter of the globe would exhibit an enrapturing 
 prospect into futurity. You will live to see much of this. 
 I shall follow, however, cheerfully my fellow laborers, 
 contented with having borne a part in beginning this 
 beatific reformation. * * * In sending you a copy of my 
 ' Notes on Virginia,' I do but obey the desire you have 
 expressed. They must appear chetif enough to the 
 author of the great work on South America. But from 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 5 
 
 the widow her mite was welcome, and you will add this 
 indulgence — the acceptance of my sincere assurances of 
 constant friendship and respect." 
 
 It was natural that Jefferson should observe with inter- 
 est the efforts of the people of South America to free 
 themselves from the withering sway of the monarchs of 
 Spain. One may well doubt whether in the history of the 
 world a people can be named who have suffered at the 
 hands of despots as terribly as had South America from 
 the government of Spain. James Monroe, some time 
 before announcing what is known as the Monroe doctrine, 
 sent a secret Commission of Inquiry to South America to 
 report to the United States Government the condition and 
 political prospects of the Spanish Provinces. Whoever will 
 look over the State papers presented to the United States 
 government by this important Commission will see that 
 the accounts which they give of cruelty and of tyranny on 
 the part of the Crown of Spain are indeed dreadful. Ittis 
 surprising how little is generally known by citizens of the 
 United States, of the history of the war of Independence 
 in South America — a war in which it has been estimated 
 that a million of lives were lost. * It would not perhaps 
 be too much to say that in Jefferson's day the population 
 south of the United States was four or five times as large 
 as was the population in the English-speaking division of 
 America. Henry Clay, on March 24th, 1818, delivered in 
 Congress a speech in which he urged that the United 
 States should, in addition to what it had already done, 
 recognize the independence of a Spanish State and send 
 to it a Minister. The speech was very eloquent and 
 forcible. It is said to have " burst on Spain herself, and 
 
 * See account of the struggle for liberty of the Spanish American States in 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, also Memoirs of Gen. Miller in the Service of Peru, 
 by John Miller (London, 1S29). 
 
6 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 on all Europe, as a clap of thunder from the skies." In 
 his speech Clay sketched the vastness and natural gran- 
 deur of the immense territory known as South America, 
 and reviewed the history of the persecution which the 
 people for three hundred years had been made to suffer at 
 the hands of Spain : — how they had had to submit to a 
 debasing course of education, — how useful books had been 
 kept from them ; — and then he characterized the awfulness 
 of the atrocities of the Spanish forces in South America 
 in a deeply impressive manner. This celebrated speech 
 was borne to South America and the governments of the 
 Spanish States voted thanks to Henry Clay. Songs were 
 sung in his honor and monuments were erected to his 
 memory. The South American General Bolivar, who has 
 often been called "The Washington " — " The Liberator" 
 — of South America commanded the speech of Henry 
 Clay to be read to his army. 
 
 Let a single instance here suffice to give an idea of the 
 horrors which too often characterized the war for inde- 
 pendence in South America. At the capture of the city 
 of Guanaxuato, the Spanish officer, Don Felix Maria Gal- 
 leja is said to have ordered the prisoners who had been 
 taken in battle, — as well as the defenceless citizens of 
 the town, — men, women and children — to be driven into 
 the great square, and several thousand of them — it has 
 even been said that the number was fourteen thousand — 
 were butchered by having their throats cut. Such a wo- 
 fully tragic scene is one not to be dwelt upon, nor are the 
 dreadful retaliatory measures adopted by Bolivar a sub- 
 ject which it is fit to here present in all its horrid details. 
 The Spanish officer defended his course, — which however 
 he is said in official communications to the Spanish Crown 
 to have exulted over, — on the ground that he could not 
 afford to spare powder and bullets in putting to death 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 7 
 
 the enemies of his Catholic Majesty.* Should it here be 
 stated that a high Roman Catholic ecclesiastic once 
 estimated, that under the Spanish rule in South America, 
 fifteen millions of the wretched people, who had been 
 reduced to slavery, owing to the hardships incidental to 
 the cruel bondage to which they were subjected, miser- 
 ably perished, some idea might be formed of the horrors 
 of the tyranny under which they had long groaned. A 
 well written history of South America would be particu- 
 larly interesting to the American citizen. A Motley has 
 given some faint idea of the acts of the Spanish Monarchy 
 and of the Inquisition in Holland, but where has there 
 arisen a writer of equal gracefulness of style, and of 
 equal research, to give an account of the same awfully 
 instructive history in South America? However wretch- 
 edly poor were the people of South America, yet for a 
 long period, whenever any of them collected a little 
 money they were tempted to part with it for indulgences, 
 — or " Bulls" as they were called by the ignorant people. 
 Thus their scanty means were made to flow toward Rome 
 where an Italian Pontiff lived in regal splendor. The 
 student of history is apt to be more and more surprised 
 as he finds how immense was the number of these " Bulls " 
 which were sent to South America. It was natural that 
 such an intelligent lover of civil liberty as was Jefferson, 
 should view with interest the struggle which was taking 
 place in South America. 
 
 On December 6th, 1S13, writing to Humboldt, Jeffer- 
 son said: "The livraison of your astronomical observa- 
 tions, and the 6th and 7th on the subject of New Spain, 
 
 * See " Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution : Including a Narrative of 
 the Expedition of General Xavier Mina," etc., etc. By William Davis 
 Robinson — a citizen of the United States who was himself in South 
 America during a part of the war. 
 
8 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 with the corresponding atlasses, are duly received, as had 
 been the preceding cahiers. For these treasures of a 
 learning, so interesting to us, accept my sincere thanks. 
 I think it most fortunate that your travels in those coun- 
 tries were so timed as to make them known to the world 
 in the moment they were about to become actors on its 
 stage. That they will throw off their European depen- 
 dence I have no doubt ; but in what kind of government 
 their revolution will end I am not so certain. History, I 
 believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people 
 maintaining a free civil government. This marks the 
 lowest grade of ignorance, of which their civil as well as 
 religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own 
 purposes. The vicinity of New Spain to the United 
 States, and their consequent intercourse, may furnish 
 schools for the higher, and example for the lower classes 
 of their citizens. And Mexico, where we learn from you 
 that men of science are not wanting, may revolutionize 
 itself under better auspices than the Southern provinces. 
 These last, I fear, must end in military despotisms. The 
 different casts of their inhabitants, their mutual hatred 
 and jealousies, their profound ignorance and bigotry, will 
 be played off by cunning leaders, and each made the 
 instrument of enslaving the others." 
 
 To Humboldt, on the 13th of June, 1 8 1 7, Jefferson 
 again wrote, and alluded to Spanish American affairs. 
 " The physical information you have given us," he said, 
 "of a country hitherto so shamefully unknown, has come 
 exactly in time to guide our understandings in the great 
 political revolution now bringing it into prominence on 
 the stage of the world. The issue of its struggles, as 
 they respect Spain, is no longer matter of doubt. As 
 it respects their own liberty, peace and happiness, we 
 cannot be quite so certain. Whether the blinds of big- 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 9 
 
 otry, the shackles of the priesthood, and the fascinating 
 glare of rank and wealth, give fair play to the common 
 sense of the mass of their people, so far as to qualify 
 them for self-government, is what we do not know. Per- 
 haps our wishes may be stronger than our hopes. The 
 first principle of republicanism is, that the lex majoris 
 partis is the fundamental law of every society of indi- 
 viduals of equal rights ; to consider the will of the society 
 announced by the majority of a single vote, as sacred as 
 if unanimous, is the first of all lessons of importance, 
 yet the last which is thoroughly learnt. This law once 
 disregarded no other remains but that of force, which 
 ends necessarily in military despotism. This has been the 
 history of the French revolution, and I wish the under- 
 standing of our Southern brethren may be sufficiently 
 enlarged and firm to see that their fate depends on its 
 sacred observance. 
 
 " In our America we are turning to public improvements. 
 Schools, roads, and canals are everywhere either in opera- 
 tion or contemplation. * * * We consider the employ- 
 ment of the contributions which our citizens can spare, 
 after feeding and clothing, and lodging themselves com- 
 fortably, as more useful, more moral, and even more 
 splendid, than that preferred by Europe, of destroying 
 human life, labor and happiness." 
 
 To Monsieur Dupont de Nemours, Jefferson on April 
 15th, 181 1, wrote saying, 
 
 "Another great field of political experiment is opening 
 in our neighborhood, in Spanish America. I fear the 
 degrading ignorance into which their priests and kings 
 have sunk them, has disqualified them from the mainte- 
 nance or even knowledge of their rights, and that much 
 blood may be shed for little improvement in their condi- 
 tion. Should their new rulers honestly lay their shoul- 
 
IO 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 ders to remove the great obstacles of ignorance, and 
 press the remedies of education and information, they 
 will still be in jeopardy until another generation comes 
 into place, and what may happen in the interval cannot 
 be predicted, nor shall you or I live to see it." 
 
 One of Jefferson's most intimate friends was General 
 Kosciuszko. In a brief sketch of the life of this distin- 
 guished Polish friend of America, Jefferson wrote: "The 
 workings of his mind on the subject of civil liberty were 
 early and vigorous ; before he was twenty, the vassalage 
 of his serfs filled him with abhorrence, and the first act 
 of his manhood was to break their fetters." As Jefferson 
 hated slavery and longed to see it abolished in the 
 United States, Kosciuszko's abhorrence of slavery en- 
 deared him all the more to him. Sympathizing with the 
 Americans in their struggle with the British Govern- 
 ment, he obtained in Paris a letter from Benjamin Frank- 
 lin to Washington. Not long after his arrival in the 
 United States, being an accomplished officer, he was made 
 an engineer with the rank of Colonel in the American 
 army. He planned works on a range of hills called 
 Bemis Heights, in the State of New York. These works 
 Burgoyne's army twice unsuccessfully attacked before 
 surrendering to the Americans. Kosciuszko also planned 
 Fort Putnam at West Point — a fort whose interesting 
 ruins are still sometimes visited by the excursionist or 
 thoughtful traveller. After rendering other services to the 
 United States, and receiving the thanks of Congress, he 
 returned to Poland. In Poland he was made a Major- 
 General. It is not necessary here to dwell upon the 
 causes of the wars which preceded the final partition of 
 Poland. To do so it would be necessary to dwell upon 
 the sad religious history of Poland, upon the evils exist- 
 ing in a nation made up of nobles and serfs ; upon the 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 II 
 
 degradation to which an illiterate people sink, and to the 
 dangers to which a people are exposed whose very in- 
 competency for self-government invites foreign inter- 
 ference in their political affairs. Kosciuszko naturally 
 wished to see the Poles as free as were Americans. 
 Whether he took the best method to accomplish his wish 
 need not here be discussed. As a general he became 
 greatly distinguished. On a memorable day in the his- 
 tory of Poland he was wounded and fell bleeding to the 
 earth. Soon afterwards occurred the final partition of 
 Poland. A few years after this last event Kosciuszko, 
 still suffering from his wounds, visited the United States, 
 and received many honors. In Europe he also was 
 treated with high respect. In a conversation with the 
 Emperor of Russia he besought him to give to Poland a 
 constitution, and to establish schools for the education of 
 the peasants. Jefferson in a letter to Mr. Jullien, dated 
 July 23rd, 18 1 8, spoke of Kosciuszko as "The brave 
 auxiliary of my country in its struggle for liberty, and," 
 Jefferson continued, " from the year 1797, when our par- 
 ticular acquaintance began, my most intimate and much 
 beloved friend. On his departure from the United States 
 in 1798, he left in my hands an instrument, appropriating 
 after his death, all the property he had in our public funds, 
 the price of his military services here, to the education 
 and emancipation of as many of the children of bondage 
 in this country, as it would be adequate to." This trust 
 imposed upon him by his Polish friend Jefferson accepted. 
 Kosciuszko greatly admired Jefferson and sometimes 
 called him his " Dear Aristides." When Kosciuszko died 
 the women of Poland went into mourning. The Senate 
 of Poland caused a tomb to be erected which is still a 
 grand monument. In the rotunda of the great Capitol at 
 Washington is a bust of this distinguished friend of liberty. 
 
12 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 To Kosciuszko, on April 13th, 181 1, Jefferson in a letter 
 said, " Peace then has been our principle, peace is our in- 
 terest, and peace has saved to the world this only plant of 
 free and rational government now existing in it. If it 
 can still be preserved, we shall soon see the final extinc- 
 tion of our national debt, and liberation of our revenues 
 for the defence and improvement of our country. * * * 
 Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public 
 debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, &c, 
 the farmer will see his government supported, his children 
 educated, and the face of his country made a paradise. 
 * * * And behold ! another example of man rising in 
 his might and bursting the chains of his oppressors, and 
 in the same hemisphere, Spanish America is all in revolt. 
 The insurgents are triumphant in many of the States, and 
 will be so in all. But there the danger is that the cruel 
 arts of their oppressors have enchained their minds, have 
 kept them in the ignorance of children, and as incapable 
 of self-government as children. If the obstacles of bigotry 
 and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that 
 common sense will suffice to do everything else. God 
 send them a safe deliverance." 
 
 To John Adams on May 17th, 18 18, Jefferson wrote : " I 
 enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolu- 
 tion of South America. They will succeed against Spain. 
 But the dangerous enemy is within their own breasts. 
 Ignorance and superstition will chain their minds and 
 bodies under religious and military despotism. I do 
 believe it would be better for them to obtain freedom 
 by degrees only ; because that would by degrees bring on 
 light and information, and qualify them to take charge of 
 themselves understanding^ ; with more certainty, if in 
 the meantime under so much control as may keep them 
 at peace with one another." 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 13 
 
 When Jefferson was in France he sent a long letter, 
 dated May 4th, 1787, to John Jay. In this letter he 
 alluded to a conversation which he had had with a Mexi- 
 can, who wished to interest him in a proposed revolution 
 in Mexico. He wrote : " I was still more cautious with 
 him than with the Brazilian, mentioning it as my private 
 opinion (unauthorized to say a word on the subject other- 
 wise) that a successful revolution was still in the distance 
 with them ; that I feared they must begin by enlightening 
 and emancipating the minds of their people." 
 
 Jefferson's highly judicious advice to his Spanish breth- 
 ren to begin their revolution by " emancipating and 
 enlightening the minds of their people " * was worthy of 
 a great statesman. Who can imagine what happy results 
 would to-day be enjoyed in Cuba and in all South Amer- 
 ica, and in Spain itself, if all friends of civil liberty had 
 exerted themselves to establish schools and libraries, and 
 had cherished the interests of learning ; — and had been 
 friends of religious liberty, without which true civil liberty 
 cannot exist. When Jefferson gave from the fulness of 
 his heart the advice to his Spanish friends to " begin " the 
 great revolution in which they were called to engage, " by 
 enlightening and emancipating the minds of their people," 
 the Inquisition was doing a sad work in Spanish America. 
 It held sessions in Mexico, Lima and Carthagena, and 
 anathematized many books. No books, not even periodi- 
 cals, not printed in the Spanish language, were permitted 
 to go into circulation until examined by the commissioners 
 of the Inquisition — an institution whose history is so aw- 
 ful that one may well shudder as he lifts for an instant the 
 veil under which its bigotry — its innumerable cruelties 
 
 * I was once pleased to learn from my bookseller that a book entitled 
 " Our National System of Education," which I had published in 1877, had 
 been bought by some one to send to Cuba. 
 
14 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 and murders — is permitted in great measure to rest. 
 Monsieur Dupont, in his work entitled " Voyage dans 
 1'Amerique," * draws attention to the fact that to sell 
 a forbidden book was punished as a crime. For the first 
 offence a bookseller was banished from the place in which 
 his business had been carried on, and was fined one hun- 
 dred ducats, and he was forbidden to sell or deal in books 
 of any kind for two years. Should he repeat his " crime," 
 — so-called, — he received a heavier punishment. As the 
 fines were deposited in the coffers of the Inquisition there 
 was a strong temptation on the part of the so-called 
 " Holy Office " to find in books which they examined, 
 heresy, immodesty, or disrespect to the government. If 
 a person received a catalogue of books from abroad, he 
 had to send it to the " Holy Office," which was not bound 
 to restore it. Any man's house could be visited by the 
 commissioners of the Inquisition, to search for prohibited 
 books. Although in some lands even the poor man can 
 feel that " his house is his castle," yet over an immense 
 area in America commissioners of the so-called " Holy 
 Office " could enter any house at any hour of the day or 
 night, and search in every nook and corner to see whether 
 there was a book which the wretched people had been 
 forbidden to read. Monsieur Dupont points out that 
 monks and the Romish clergy were allowed to read some 
 of the books condemned by the " Holy Office," but not 
 all. In 1790 the number of books which the people were 
 forbidden to read, and which w^re placed upon the 
 Spanish Index expurgatorius, numbered at least five thou- 
 sand four hundred and twenty. The works of at least 
 
 * See Mr. Charles Lindsey's interesting work entitled " Rome in Canada. 
 The Ultramontane Struggle for Supremacy over the Civil Authority." 
 Sold by Lovell Brothers, Toronto, 1877, Mr. Lindsey quotes from Mr. 
 Dupont's Travels. 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 15 
 
 that number of authors were on the forbidden list. If a 
 person was merely punished by the public laws of the 
 land — however cruel and tyrannical they were, — he yet 
 escaped much if he was saved from being dragged to the 
 dungeons of the Inquisition ! 
 
 To a Mr. Coray, who wished to promote the cause 
 of liberty in which the people of Greece were, under very 
 interesting circumstances, engaged, Jefferson wrote a long 
 letter of advice, under date of Oct. 31st, 1823. Alludingto 
 what his correspondent had written respecting the people 
 of Greece, he wrote : " You have certainly begun at the 
 right end towards preparing them for the great object 
 for which they are now contending, by improving their 
 minds and qualifying them for self-government. For this 
 they will owe you lasting honors. Nothing is more likely 
 to forward this object than a study of the fine models of 
 science left by their ancestors, to whom we also are all 
 indebted for the lights which originally led ourselves out 
 of Gothic darkness." 
 
 Among Jefferson's correspondents was Lafayette. 
 There was much about Lafayette to make Jefferson love 
 him. Believing that titles of nobility made improper 
 distinctions among men who were created equal, this 
 devoted friend of liberty relinquished the proud title of 
 Marquis. When a young man, although possessed of a 
 splendid fortune, he turned away from the luxurious 
 courts of Europe to give his best efforts to the cause of 
 liberty. Great was the sensation produced in Europe 
 when it was known that Lafayette, a member of one of 
 the most illustrious families of France, had enlisted in 
 the cause of freedom. Congress made him a Major- 
 General, dating his commission from July 1st, 1777. He 
 served on the staff of Washington, who " loved him as if 
 he were his own son." He was at times given important 
 
i6 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 commands. It is not necessary to here dwell upon 
 Lafayette's great services in the War of Independence and 
 of the honors which he received from the American 
 nation. Suffice it to say that when John Adams and 
 Franklin were arranging terms of peace with Great 
 Britain, Lafayette with twenty-four thousand troops and 
 sixty vessels of the line, was at Cadiz, ready to sail for 
 America, if peace should not be concluded. Partly 
 through the influence of Lafayette, France gave to the 
 American cause — if the estimate of Calonne, the French 
 minister of finance is to be believed, — about twelve 
 hundred millions of francs. It is but just to say, how- 
 ever, that Jefferson, in his Autobiography, declared that 
 Calonne admitted that the United States ought not to be 
 debited with more than forty-five millions of francs. 
 
 When a great man is spoken of, it is sometimes interest- 
 ing to pause for a moment to contemplate his character. 
 From Lafayette's correspondence, some opinion can be 
 formed of his character. On Feb. 22d, 1786, writing to 
 John Adams he said: "In the cause of my brethren, I 
 feel myself warmly interested, and most decidedly side, 
 so far as respects them, against the white part of mankind. 
 Whatever be the complexion of the enslaved, it does not, 
 in my opinion, alter the complexion of the crime which 
 the enslaver commits ; a crime much blacker than any 
 African face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety and 
 concern to find that this trade is sometimes perpetrated 
 under the flag of liberty, our dear and noble stripes, to 
 which virtue and glory have been constant standard 
 bearers."* On the 10th of May, 1786, Washington, who 
 himself wished the abolition of slavery, wrote from Mount 
 Vernon a letter to Lafayette, in which he said : " The 
 benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so con- 
 
 * " Works of John Adams," vol. viii., p. 376. 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 17 
 
 spicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder at any 
 fresh proofs of it ; but your late purchase of an estate in 
 the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the 
 slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your 
 humanity. Would to God a like spirit might diffuse 
 itself generally into the minds of the people of this 
 country." * 
 
 When Jefferson left France he left Lafayette struggling 
 in behalf of civil liberty. The friends of the cause of 
 liberty in France met with such success that Washington 
 in a letter to Madam Graham, dated Jan. 9th, 1790, said : 
 " The renovation of the French constitution is indeed one 
 of the most wonderful events in the history of mankind, 
 and the agency of the Marquis de Lafayette in a high 
 degree honorable to his character. My greatest fear has 
 been, that the nation would not be sufficiently cool and 
 moderate in making arrangements for the security of that 
 liberty, of which it seems to be fully possessed." 
 
 To Washington, Lafayette wrote a letter under date of 
 March 7th, 1791, in which he thus spoke: "Whatever 
 expectations I had conceived of a speedy termination of 
 our revolutionary troubles, I still am tossed about in the 
 ocean of factions and commotions of every kind ; for it is 
 my fate to be attacked on each side with equal animosity ; 
 on the one by the aristocratic, slavish parliamentary, 
 clerical, in a word, by all the enemies to my free and lev- 
 elling doctrine, and oh the other by the Orleans factions, 
 anti-royal, licentious, and pillaging parties of every kind ; 
 so that my personal escape from amidst so many hostile 
 bands, is rather dubious, although our great and good 
 revolution is, thank Heaven, not only insured in France, 
 but on the point of visiting other parts of the world, pro- 
 vided the restriction of public order is soon obtained in 
 
 * "Works of Washington," by Sparks, vol. x., p. 177. 
 
i8 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 this country, where the good people have been better 
 taught how to overthrow despotism, than they can under- 
 stand how to submit to raws." On March 15th, 1792, La- 
 fayette wrote to Washington thus : " The danger for us 
 lies in our state of anarchy, owing to the ignorance of the 
 people, the number of non-proprietors, the jealousy of every 
 governing measure, all which inconveniences are worked 
 up by designing men, or aristocrats in disguise, but both 
 extremely tend to defeat our ideas of public order. * * * 
 The Assembly is wild, uninformed, and too fond of pop- 
 ular applause. * * * The farmer finds his cares allevi- 
 ated and will feel the more happy under our constitution, 
 as the Assembly is going to give up its patronage of one 
 set of priests. * * * Licentiousness, under the mask of 
 patriotism, is our greatest evil, as it threatens property, 
 tranquillity, and liberty itself." * 
 
 The madness of the French at the period of which La- 
 fayette wrote, the manner in which they overthrew their 
 Constitution and beheaded Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi- 
 nette — whose lives Lafayette had once saved ; the ease 
 with which a Robespierre and a Napoleon ruled them ; 
 the terrible scenes which were enacted in Paris ; the wars 
 in which France engaged — wars in which Jefferson esti- 
 mated that from eight to ten millions of lives were lost — 
 need not here be dwelt upon. When the men known as 
 Jacobins came into power Lafayette was obliged to give 
 up his command in the army and to flee from France. 
 While passing through Austria he was arrested and treated 
 with cruelty worthy of a despotism. He was cast into a 
 dungeon. In this dark Austrian place of confinement he 
 wa^s kept it is said nearly three years. The cell of the 
 illustrious French patriot was three paces broad and five 
 and a half long. Deprived of even a pen and ink he 
 
 * Sparks' " Life of Washington," vol. x., p. 502. 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 19 
 
 managed one day to mix some soot and water and with a 
 toothpick to secretly write on a piece of paper which 
 providentially came into his possession to a Princess who 
 sympathized with him, the words : " I know not what dis- 
 position has been made of my plantation at Cayenne, but 
 I hope that Madame Lafayette will take care that the 
 negroes who cultivate it shall preserve their liberty." 
 Pale and weak — a deeply suffering prisoner though he 
 was — deprived of the air of heaven, his great soul did not 
 wish the poor slaves which he had set free at his own ex- 
 pense, to be re-enslaved. A part of the time his wife, who 
 was worthy to be the wife of a hero, shared his imprison- 
 ment. She was a woman who added lustre to his name. 
 She was however but a tender woman and could not bear 
 the suffering through which she was called to pass. Her 
 devotion to her husband ultimately affected her health 
 and cost her her life. Her mother, her grandmother, and 
 her sister were executed by a ferocious populace on the 
 gallows. She herself would have been executed had it 
 not been for the death of Robespierre — a monster of 
 iniquity, who had been educated by Jesuits as had an 
 astonishingly large number of the men to whom France 
 owed some of the worst features of this dreadful period 
 in her history. Strange it was that the French at this 
 time should have been so destitute of wisdom as to let a 
 few leaders rivet upon them new chains of bondage, when 
 in the United States three of the Presidents of the Amer- 
 ican Congress during the war for Independence were 
 descended from the Huguenots, as was the distinguished 
 Alexander Hamilton. Washington after having tried to 
 effect Lafayette's liberation through American ministers 
 at foreign Courts and by a special mission to Berlin finally 
 wrote, not as the President of the United States but as 
 George Washington — a man — to the Emperor of Germany, 
 
20 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 to whose jurisdiction Lafayette had been removed, a noble 
 letter. Whether this letter received the courtesy of a 
 reply, or whether it was instrumental in causing Germany, 
 when she finally surrendered Lafayette at the command 
 of Napoleon, to deliver him to an American Representa- 
 tive may not now be known. To Lafayette's son Wash- 
 ington opened his own home. 
 
 After his imprisonment Lafayette again became one of 
 the most distinguished friends of liberty in France, and 
 continued to exert himself in behalf of civil and religions 
 freedom. Napoleon in vain tried to tempt him to side 
 with him in the interests of despotism. Louis XVIII., 
 who had secret designs respecting America and against 
 the cause of liberty in Europe not generally known, 
 ordered his Solicitor General to accuse Lafayette, who at 
 the time was a member of the House of Deputies of 
 France, of treason. The accusation was formally made. 
 Lafayette rising demanded a public inquiry in the Parlia- 
 ment of France before the nation. He proposed that his 
 accusers should lay before the nation their charges and 
 that he should submit to France without reserve what he 
 had to say of the charges and that he should single out 
 his adversaries no matter what their rank. The Bourbon 
 king quailed before the challenge and the accusation was 
 dropped, but the Bourbon king succeeded in preventing 
 Lafayette from being for a time re-elected to the French 
 Parliament. Lafayette in the mean time visited the 
 United States and received such an ovation as no man 
 had ever before received. Congress insisted upon his 
 receiving as a small return for the money which he had 
 once expended himself on the people of the United 
 States, two hundred thousand dollars, in addition to ten 
 thousand dollars which it had sent him when in prison, 
 and in addition to a whole county of land. At a formal 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 21 
 
 reception given by Congress to this illustrious Frenchman, 
 Henry Clay in the course of his address of welcome said : 
 " The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Provi- 
 dence would allow the Patriot, after death to return to his 
 country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes 
 which had taken place — to view the forests felled, the 
 cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the 
 highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the 
 advancement of learning, and the increase of population. 
 General, your present visit to the United States is the 
 realization of the consoling object of that wish." The 
 distinguished orator, as he proceeded assured the guest of 
 the Republic that in one respect he would find the people 
 of America unaltered and that was in their affectionate 
 and ardent gratitude to Lafayette and in their devotion to 
 liberty. Lafayette in his feeling reply spoke of how the 
 United States reflected " on every part of the world the 
 light of a far superior civilization. 
 
 Lafayette after travelling three thousand miles in the 
 United States returned to France, where he continued to 
 exert himself in behalf of religious liberty, and in behalf 
 of other great reforms. He became the acknowledged 
 leader of the great revolution of 1830, and the Com- 
 mander-in-chief of the National Guards. He placed Louis 
 Philippe on the throne " a monarchy surrounded by re- 
 publican institutions." He died full of honors and full of 
 years and was buried beside the loving wife of his youth. 
 
 On Feb. 14th, 1815, Jefferson writing to Lafayette said : 
 " A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to be 
 expected by your nation, nor am I confident they are 
 prepared to preserve it. More than a generation will be 
 requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws 
 favoring the progress of knowledge in the general mass 
 of the people, and their habituation to an independent 
 
22 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 security of person and property, before they will be capa- 
 ble of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity 
 of a sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests 
 for preservation. Instead of that liberty which takes root 
 and growth in the progress of reason, if recovered by mere 
 force or accident, it becomes, with an unprepared people, 
 a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one. Possi- 
 bly you may remember, at the date of the jeu de paume, 
 how earnestly I urged yourself and the patriots of my 
 acquaintance, to enter then into a compact with the King, 
 securing freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial 
 by jury, habeas corpus, and a national Legislature, all of 
 which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and 
 let these work on the amelioration of the condition of the 
 people, until they should have rendered them capable of 
 more, when occasions would not fail to arise for com- 
 municating to them more. This was as much as I then 
 thought them able to bear, soberly and usefully for 
 themselves. You thought otherwise, and that the dose 
 might still be larger. And I found you were right ; for 
 subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitu- 
 tion of 1 791. Unfortunately, some of the most honest 
 and enlightened of our patriotic friends, (but closet politi- 
 cians merely, unpracticed in the knowledge of man,) 
 thought more could still be obtained and borne. They 
 did not weigh the hazards of a transition from one form 
 of government to another, the value of what they had 
 already rescued from those hazards, and might hold in 
 security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving up 
 the certainty of such a degree of liberty, under a limited 
 monarch, for the uncertainty of a little more under the 
 form of a republic. You differed from them. You were 
 for stopping there, and for securing the constitution which 
 the National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 23 
 
 were right ; and from this fatal error of the republicans, 
 from their separation from yourself and the constitution- 
 alists in their councils, flowed all the subsequent suffer- 
 ings and crimes of the French nation." 
 
 Again writing to Lafayette on May 14th, 18 1 7, Jeffer- 
 son said : " But although our speculations might be in- 
 trusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable, and mine 
 are sincerely offered for the well-being of France. What 
 government she can bear, depends not on the state of 
 science, however exalted, in a select band of enlightened 
 men, but on the condition of the general mind. That, I 
 am sure, is advanced and will advance ; and the last 
 change of government was fortunate, inasmuch as the 
 new will be less obstructive to the effects of that advance- 
 ment. * * * I wish I could give better hopes of our 
 Southern brethren. The achievement of their indepen- 
 dence of Spain is no longer a question. But it is a very 
 serious one, what will then become of them? Ignorance 
 and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self- 
 government. They will fall under military despotism, 
 and become the murderous tools of the ambition of their 
 respective Bonapartes ; and whether this will be for their 
 greater happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to 
 judge. No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them 
 and all mankind exercising self-government, and capable 
 of exercising it. But the question is not what we wish 
 but what is practicable ? As their sincere friend and 
 brother, then, I do believe the best thing for them, would 
 be for themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under 
 guarantee of France, Russia and the United States, allow- 
 ing to Spain a nominal supremacy, with authority only to 
 keep the peace among them, leaving them otherwise all 
 the powers of self-government, until their experience in 
 them, their emancipation from their priests, and advance- 
 
24 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 ment in information, shall prepare them for complete 
 independence." 
 
 John Adams and Jefferson had not always thought 
 alike regarding the ultimate success of the French Revolu- 
 tion. On July 13th, 1813, Adams thus wrote to Jefferson : 
 " The first time that you and I differed in opinion on any 
 material question was after your arrival from Europe ; 
 and that point was the French Revolution. 
 
 "You were well persuaded in your own mind that the 
 nation would succeed in establishing a free republican 
 government. I was as well persuaded in mine, that a 
 project of such a government, over five-and-twenty millions 
 of people, when four-and-twenty millions and five hundred 
 thousand of them could neither read nor write, was as 
 unnatural, irrational, and impracticable as it would be 
 over the elephants, lions, tigers, panthers, wolves, and 
 bears, in the royal menagerie at Versailles. Napoleon 
 has lately invented a word which perfectly expresses my 
 opinion at that time and ever since. He calls the project 
 Ideology ; and John Randolph, though he was, fourteen 
 years ago, as wild an enthusiast for equality and fraternity 
 as any of them, appears to be now a regenerated proselyte 
 to Napoleon's opinion and mine, that it was all mad- 
 ness." 
 
 The venerable John Adams again wrote to Jefferson on 
 Aug. 15th, 1823, and again alluding to France, said : " Not 
 long after the denouement of the tragedy of Louis XVI., 
 when I was Vice-President, my friend, the Doctor,* came 
 to breakfast with me alone. He was very sociable, very 
 learned and eloquent on the subject of the French Rev- 
 olution. It was opening a new era in the world, and 
 presenting a near view of the millennium. I listened, I 
 heard with great attention, and perfect sang froid. At 
 
 * Franklin. 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 25 
 
 last I asked the Doctor : ' Do you really believe the 
 French will establish a free, democratic government in 
 France?' He answered, ' I do firmly believe it.' 'Will 
 you give me leave to ask you upon what grounds you 
 entertain this opinion ? Is it from any thing you ever read 
 in history? Is there any instance of a Roman Catholic 
 monarchy of fivc-and-twenty millions of people, at once 
 converted into intelligent, free, and rational people?' 
 1 No, I know of no instance like it.' ' Is there any thing 
 in your knowledge of human nature, derived from books 
 or experience, that any empire, ancient or modern, con- 
 sisting of such multitudes of ignorant people, ever were, 
 or ever can be, suddenly converted into materials capable 
 of conducting a free government, especially a democratic 
 republic?' ' No, I know of nothing of the kind.' 'Well, 
 then, Sir, what is the ground of your opinion ? ' " Adams 
 then, continuing his letter, gives a reference to Scripture, 
 which Dr. Franklin significantly made, and a method 
 which the philosopher suggested, to prevent a people's 
 being troubled by kings. Doctor Franklin, however, him- 
 self suggested some reasons for doubting the success of 
 the Revolution. 
 
 To this last letter Jefferson replied on Sept. 4th, 1823. 
 " Your letter of August 1 5th," he wrote, " was received in 
 due time with the welcome of everything which comes 
 from you. With its opinions on the difficulties of revolu- 
 tions from despotism to freedom, I very much concur. 
 The generation which commences a revolution rarely 
 completes it. Habituated from their infancy to passive 
 submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, 
 they are not qualified when called on to think and provide 
 for themselves ; and their inexperience, their ignorance 
 and bigotry make them instruments often, in the hands of 
 Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and 
 
26 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 purposes. This is the present situation of Europe and 
 Spanish America. But it is not desperate. The light 
 which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing, 
 has eminently changed the condition of the world. As 
 yet, that light has dawned on the middling classes only of 
 the men of Europe. The kings and the rabble, of equal 
 ignorance, have not yet received its rays ; but it continues 
 to spread, and while printing is preserved, it can no more 
 recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt 
 to recover the right of self-government may fail, so may 
 a second, a third, &c. But as a younger and more in- 
 structed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and 
 more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent 
 one of the ever renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. 
 In France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the 
 second by Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII. and his 
 holy allies: another is yet to come, and all Europe, 
 Russia excepted, has caught the spirit ; and all will attain 
 representative government, more or less perfect. * * * 
 To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, 
 and years of desolation pass over ; yet the object is worth 
 rivers of blood, and years of desolation. For what inherit- 
 ance so valuable, can man leave to his posterity? " Jeffer- 
 son then speaks of the hope that he had, that the people 
 of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, and Greece, 
 would be blessed with a measure of liberty. Continuing, 
 he added : " You and I shall look down from another world 
 on these glorious achievements to man, which will add to 
 the joys even of heaven." 
 
 In a letter which Jefferson, under date of April 15th, 
 181 1, wrote to Monsieur Pagonel he said: "I received 
 through Mr. Wardon the copy of your valuable work on 
 the French Revolution, for which I pray you to accept 
 my thanks. That its sale should have been suppressed is 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 27 
 
 no matter of wonder with me. The friend of liberty is 
 too feelingly manifested, not to give umbrage to its ene- 
 mies. We read in it, and weep over, the fatal errors 
 which have lost to nations the present hope of liberty, 
 and to reason the fairest prospect of its final triumph over 
 all imposture, civil and religious. The testimony of one 
 who himself was an actor in the scenes he notes, and who 
 knew the true mean between rational liberty and the fren- 
 zies of demagogy, is a tribute to truth of inestimable 
 value. The perusal of this work has given me new views 
 of the causes of failure in a revolution of which I was a 
 witness in its early part, and then augured well of it. I 
 had no means afterwards, of observing its progress but the 
 public papers, and their information came through chan- 
 nels too hostile to claim confidence. An acquaintance 
 with many of the principal characters, and with their fate, 
 furnished me grounds for conjectures, some of which you 
 have confirmed, and some corrected. Shall we ever see 
 as free and faithful a tableau of subsequent acts of this 
 deplorable tragedy ? Is reason to be forever amused 
 with the hochets of physical sciences, in which she is 
 indulged merely to divert her from solid speculations 
 on the rights of man, and wrongs of his oppressors ? It is 
 impossible. The day of deliverance will come, although 
 I shall not live to see it. The art of printing secures us 
 against the retrogradation of reason, and information. 
 The examples of its safe and wholesome guidance in 
 government, which will be exhibited through the wide- 
 spread regions of the American continent, will obliterate 
 in time, the impressions left by the abortive experiments 
 of France. With my prayers for the hastening of that 
 auspicious day, and for the due effect of the lessons of 
 your work to those who ought to profit by them, accept 
 the assurance of my great esteem and respect." 
 
28 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 As might be supposed the condition of the people of 
 Spain did not altogether escape Jefferson's notice. In 
 that beautiful but benighted country but a very small 
 proportion of the population could read and write. The 
 Roman Catholic Church and the State were united. Only 
 one who has studied the results in such a country as 
 Spain can know what such a union means. While the 
 people were miserably poor the wealth of the hierarchy 
 was almost beyond computation. Wherever the eyes of 
 a traveller turned they would be apt to see oppression and 
 degradation. 
 
 Writing to Lafayette on Nov. 4th, 1 823, Jefferson said : 
 "Alliances, Holy or Hellish, may be formed, and retard 
 the epoch of deliverance, may swell the rivers of blood 
 which are yet to flow, but their own will close the scene, 
 and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I 
 trust that Spain will prove, that a nation cannot be con- 
 quered which determines not to be so, and that her suc- 
 cess will be the turning of the tide of liberty, no more 
 to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of 
 society in Europe can bear a republican government, I 
 doubted, you know, when with you, and I do now. * * * 
 But the only security of all, is a free press. The force 
 of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted 
 freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must 
 be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the waters 
 pure." 
 
 On Dec. 14th, 181 3, Jefferson wrote a letter to Don 
 Valentine de Torunda Corunna, in which alluding to the 
 condition of Spain he said, " Give equal habits of energy 
 to the bodies, and science to the minds of her citizens, 
 and where could her superior be found ? " 
 
 On April 28th, 18 14, Jefferson wrote an encouraging 
 letter to his friend Le Chevalier de Onis, the Spanish 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 2 9 
 
 Minister, in which he dwelt upon the Constitution which 
 had been adopted by the Spanish patriots. After ex- 
 pressing a regret at the union of Church and State, for 
 which it provided and an aristocratic feature of the in- 
 strument which an American ought not to approve, he 
 continued : " But there is one provision which will im- 
 mortalize its inventors. It is that which, after a certain 
 epoch, disfranchises every citizen who cannot read and 
 write. This is new, and is the fruitful germ of the improve- 
 ment of everything good, and the correction of everything 
 imperfect in the present constitution. This will give you 
 an enlightened people, and an energetic public opinion 
 which will control and enchain the aristocratic spirit of 
 the government. On the whole I hail your country as 
 now likely to resume and surpass its ancient splendor 
 among nations." 
 
 Jefferson's hopes for Spain's well-being were disap- 
 pointed. One of the first acts of Ferdinand VII. when 
 the so-called Holy Alliance again put upon his head a 
 crown was to decree, on May 4th, 1814, that the Cortez 
 should be abolished and that its acts should be considered 
 null and void, and that the Spanish Constitution should 
 be publicly burned. 
 
 Among Jefferson's correspondents as has been seen 
 was the learned diplomatist and brilliant writer on ques- 
 tions of political economy and agriculture — Monsieur 
 Dupont de Nemours. In 1772 this distinguished French- 
 man, who had received various titles and decorations from 
 foreign princes, was invited to Poland by King Stanislas 
 Augustus, and made secretary of the council of public 
 education and governor of the king's nephew — Prince 
 Adam Czatoryski. Dupont, two years later, was recalled 
 to France by Turgot, the Comptroller General who 
 wished his learned countryman's assistance in the man- 
 
30 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 agement of the finances of France. It is said that most 
 of the principles upon which the French Treasury is con- 
 ducted to this day were derived from the measures which 
 Dupont attempted to carry out. He it was who nego- 
 tiated with the English envoy, Dr. James Hutton, the 
 treaty of 1782, which recognized the independence of the 
 United States. In 1786 he also negotiated a highly 
 important commercial treaty. For these services the 
 French Government conferred upon him high distinctions. 
 He took a very interesting part in the French Revolu- 
 tion. In 1789 he was a member from Nemours to the 
 States General and later he was a member of the Con- 
 stituent Assembly. Twice he was elected President of 
 that body. He, however, being opposed to the extreme 
 revolutionists came near being executed — his life being 
 saved by the downfall of Robespierre. As an illustra- 
 tion of the sad condition of affairs in the Assembly it 
 may here be stated that when the learned Dupont arose 
 to show the evil of a proposed measure respecting the 
 finances of France, he was mobbed on leaving the Cham-, 
 ber and his life was with difficulty saved. Although he 
 declined honors offered him by Napoleon he was instru- 
 mental in bringing about the treaty of 1803 by which the 
 vast territory of Louisiana was purchased by the United 
 States. He wrote various papers on highly important 
 scientific subjects for learned societies. In 18 14 this distin- 
 guished man was Secretary of the provisional government 
 of France and at the restoration he became Chancellor of 
 the State. 
 
 About the time that Jefferson was President of the 
 United States, Monsieur Dupont visited America. At 
 Jefferson's especial request Dupont wrote and published 
 a plan of national education for the United States. In 
 the preface to his work he states that he had prepared 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 31 
 
 and published the work at the instance of, or to use his 
 polite French expression, at the command of, Thomas 
 Jefferson and in the closing lines of his volume he again 
 alludes to Jefferson in a very complimentary manner and 
 states that he had requested him to write the volume. 
 This book is said to have exerted an important influence 
 in France where its recommendations were partially 
 adopted. Dupont enlarged with eloquence upon some 
 of the principles which Jefferson had himself brought 
 forward in the Assembly of Virginia in 1779. Dupont 
 wished the President of the United States to add to his 
 Cabinet a Secretary of Education, and had other plans 
 which would be interesting to dwell upon. Some of the 
 work which he probably would have had a Cabinet officer 
 perform is, at the present day, accomplished by the 
 admirable Bureau of Education in Washington, which 
 was founded largely by efforts of General Garfield. 
 Jefferson himself had a cherished plan for what may be 
 called national education — a plan which it is proposed to 
 unfold in another division of this volume — apian which is 
 designed to secure public education to all parts of even a 
 continental republic. 
 
 In a letter to Dupont de Nemours, under date of 
 April 24th, 1 8 16, Jefferson wrote: "In the constitution 
 of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortez, there was a 
 principle entirely new to me, and not noticed in yours, 
 that no person born after that day, should ever acquire 
 the rights of citizenship until he could read and write. It 
 is impossible sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this 
 provision. Of all those which have been thought of for 
 securing fidelity in the administration of the government, 
 constant reliance to the principles of the constitution, 
 and progressive amendments with the progressive ad- 
 vances of the human mind, or changes in human affairs, 
 
32 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 it is the most effectual. Enlighten the people generally, 
 and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will 
 vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Although I 
 do not, with some enthusiasts, believe that the human 
 condition will ever advance to such a state of perfection 
 as that there shall no longer be pain or vice in the world, 
 yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, and 
 most of all, in matters of government and religion ; and 
 that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be 
 the instrument by which it is to be effected. The con- 
 stitution of the Cortez had defects enough ; but when I 
 saw in it this amendatory provision, I was satisfied 
 all would come right in time, under its salutary oper- 
 ation. No people have more need of a similar provision 
 than those for whom you have felt so much interest. No 
 mortal wishes them more success than I do. But if 
 what I have heard of the ignorance and bigotry of the 
 mass be true, I doubt their capacity to understand and 
 to support a free government ; and fear that their emanci- 
 pation from the foreign tyranny of Spain, will result in a 
 military despotism at home. Palacios may be great ; 
 others may be great; but it is the multitude which pos- 
 sesses force ; and wisdom must yield to that." 
 
 This letter of Jefferson's, there is reason to suspect, 
 exerted an important influence in France. Dupont was 
 accustomed in Paris to meet a circle of pleasant and dis- 
 tinguished statesmen and Academicians — among whom 
 was the learned Guizot, who, although a Protestant was 
 at a later period made Minister of Public Instruction in 
 France, and was able to accomplish more in establishing 
 schools in his native land than had perhaps any French- 
 man before his time. This learned circle used to meet 
 on Wednesdays at the home of the aged Madame 
 d'Houdetot who received them at dinner. One might 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 33 
 
 almost fancy that Jefferson's letter was talked about at 
 such a "gathering. Guizot wrote a history of education in 
 France. He also wrote a life of Jefferson in which he 
 speaks in high terms of his devotion in the work of build- 
 ing up a school system in Virginia. Guizot before his 
 death exerted his influence to induce France to adopt 
 what are known as obligatory school laws. In March, 
 1852, the venerable Guizot, who had held peculiarly 
 high stations in France, writing to his eldest daughter, 
 said : " I shall certainly, if I live, allow myself the satis- 
 faction of leaving a record, not only of what I did, but 
 what I thought and proposed to do during the four years 
 that I was Minister of Public Education. It is one of the 
 passages of my life to which I attach the most importance, 
 and I wish to leave a full and accurate account of it." 
 Guizot must have been especially interested in the 
 account which Dupont published in the year 1800 of the 
 attention given to religious instruction outside of the 
 schools of America. After paying a high compliment to 
 the people of United States — indeed speaking of them too 
 flatteringly — stating that there are not more than four 
 people out of a thousand who cannot write legibly, and 
 contrasting with their learning the astounding illiteracy of 
 the people of Spain, of Portugal and of Italy and even of 
 the people of Germany and France, and stating that in 
 Poland not more than two men out of a hundred could 
 write while in Russia not one out of one hundred could 
 write, he remarks that the people of England, of 
 Holland and of the Protestant cantons resemble the 
 people of the United States because they read much in 
 the Bible, and that parents consider it their duty to teach 
 their children from its pages, and that youth are intel- 
 lectually cultivated by sermons, by a liturgy in their 
 own language, and by moral teachings and a worship 
 2 
 
34 
 
 AN ADMONITION TO 
 
 derived from the Bible, and also that the minds of 
 the people are even trained by argumentations of va- 
 rious kinds. He states that in the United States a 
 large proportion of the public read the Bible and the 
 newspapers. Dupont gave an interesting description of 
 family worship in the United States and of the opportu- 
 nities which the people, and even the youth, enjoyed of 
 becoming acquainted, through periodicals, with observa- 
 tions on politics, philosophy ; — with the details of agricul- 
 ture, and with the arts and with travels ; — with navigation, 
 and with extracts from all the good books which appear 
 in America and in Europe and with much other informa- 
 tion. In a peculiarly happy French manner, however, 
 Dupont intimated that nevertheless public instruction in 
 the United States was not so good but that it could be, 
 and ought to be, improved. He wished to see a Univer- 
 sity established in which the studies would be higher and 
 even more useful than those pursued in the college. He 
 held that a University and colleges and common schools 
 would be helpful to each other and would support each 
 other. He spoke of the reward which Americans would 
 reap who established a University, and of the reward 
 which would be enjoyed by all who established colleges, 
 and then added that all who founded good primary 
 schools would receive the benediction of Heaven, the 
 veneration of posterity, and would have the joy of a 
 happy conscience. In the preface to his volume he 
 speaks of the great service which Monsieur Cuvier had 
 rendered France by publishing an account of the admi- 
 rable primary schools which the people of Holland had 
 established, and evidently wished to himself render his 
 country a similar service by making known to them that 
 America might soon be expected to have schools rivalling 
 in excellence even the schools of Holland. He drew 
 
FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 35 
 
 attention to the importance of these institutions of 
 America, and stated that they were worthy of the pro- 
 found consideration of all men animated by a wish to 
 promote the welfare of their nation. 
 
 What were Jefferson's views respecting the practica- 
 bility of illiterate nations satisfactorily governing them- 
 selves ? To state in a condensed form his conclusions, he 
 believed as will be seen in a letter dated Jan. 16th, 1816, 
 which will be more fully quoted in the next division of 
 this volume, that, " If a nation expects to be ignorant and 
 free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was 
 and never will be." He believed, as has been seen in one 
 of his letters to Lafayette, that, " Ignorance and bigotry, 
 like other insanities, are incapable of self-government." 
 
 Believing as Jefferson did, it was natural for him to 
 write — as it has already been seen that he wrote from 
 Paris, under date of Jan. 4th, 1786, to Washington, who 
 himself proposed to found some schools, — as follows: " It 
 is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe 
 but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too, 
 of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This 
 it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general 
 plan." In his book entitled " Notes on Virginia " — which 
 Baron Humboldt characterized as a " classical work," — 
 after describing the school system which it was proposed 
 to establish in Virginia, Jefferson states that, " Of the 
 views of this law none is more legitimate, than that of 
 rendering the people the safe, as they are the only legiti- 
 mate guardians of their liberty." In a letter dated NoV. 
 29th, 1 82 1, — as will be seen in due time — Jefferson drew 
 attention to the innumerable blessings which nations 
 reap from supporting in a worthy manner institutions 
 of learning. He then said that " experience * * * 
 teaches the awful lesson, that no nation is permitted to 
 
36 AN ADMONITION TO FRIENDS OF CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 live in ignorance with impunity." * It may be proper 
 to here again notice Jefferson's reasoning as contained in 
 his bill " For the Better Diffusion of Knowledge," of 
 1779. It may in part be condensed thus: For various 
 very weighty reasons the " public happiness " demands 
 that a people who wish to enjoy the blessings of good 
 government should be possessed of a very considerable 
 amount of knowledge. If they are not, then men who 
 are at once wicked and ambitious will impose upon their 
 credulity and step by step steal from them their rights. 
 " But," Jefferson adds, " the indigence of the greater 
 number disabling them from so educating, at their own 
 expense, those of their children, whom nature hath fully 
 formed and disposed to become useful instruments of the 
 public, it is better that such should be sought for and 
 educated at the common expense of all, than that the 
 happiness of all should be confided to the weak and 
 wicked." 
 
 * " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, Rich- 
 mond, Va., 1856, p. 470. 
 
II. 
 
 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 It was a cherished conviction of Thomas Jefferson's 
 that in a Commonwealth provision should be made for 
 universities wisely suited to modern times, no less truly 
 than for primary schools. As President of the United 
 States he signed bills making large appropriations of land 
 for the exclusive benefit of academies, seminaries and 
 colleges. To Washington, who had in view the devoting 
 of a quite large amount of money to the founding, or to 
 the support of, institutions of learning, Jefferson wrote 
 a letter on Feb. 23rd, 1795, in which he laid before him a 
 plan for the transferring of a great European college to the 
 national Capital. All the professors of the celebrated 
 College of Geneva — an institution which after exerting a 
 wide influence in Europe was temporarily suppressed 
 during the French Revolution — wished to transplant the 
 college to America. In this letter * Jefferson character- 
 ized the College of Geneva as one of the eyes of Europe, 
 the University of Edinburgh being the other. 
 
 In the year 1783, Jefferson, although bowed with grief 
 owing to the recent de~ath of his wife, had with others 
 endeavored to established a grammar school in Albemarle 
 county, Virginia. A charter was obtained for this acad- 
 emy, in the year 1803, but it can hardly be said to have 
 been fairly founded until the year 18 14. In that year 
 
 * " Washington's Works," vol. xi., p. 473. 
 37 
 
38 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 friends of education held a meeting and Jefferson, who 
 was present, was elected one of the trustees of "Albe- 
 marle academy." At another meeting Jefferson was 
 appointed a member of a committee to draught a petition 
 to the Assembly of Virginia requesting that Virginia 
 appropriate certain public lands in Albemarle county for 
 the support of the institution. This he accordingly did, 
 and also prayed the Legislature of Virginia to make 
 a yearly appropriation of money for the support of this 
 proposed seat of learning. He also requested that the 
 institution should be allowed to call itself " Central 
 College." The Assembly of Virginia granted only a part 
 of the petition ; but, Central College came into life with a 
 Board of Managers which included James Monroe, who 
 was at the time President of the United States, Ex- 
 Presidents Jefferson and Madison, and Joseph C. Cabell 
 who when Governor of Virginia — as Monroe when Gov- 
 ernor before him had done — had encouraged the people 
 to establish a good school system for the State. Jefferson 
 and Madison and Monroe, although they could very ill 
 afford to do so, gave each a thousand dollars to the infant 
 institution. Six other gentlemen gave each a thousand 
 dollars to the college and other friends gave smaller 
 amounts. Towards the college thirty-five thousand 
 dollars was subscribed and money was raised by other 
 means than by subscription. 
 
 In a communication to the Legislature of Virginia, 
 dated Jan. 6th, 1818, — written by Jefferson and signed by 
 Madison and Monroe and Cabell and by Jefferson and 
 two other officers of Central College, — the college was 
 offered as a gift to the State of Virginia, providing the 
 State would convert the college into a university. In 
 this communication Jefferson pointed out that to found a 
 university would require " funds far beyond what can be 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 39 
 
 expected from individual contributions : " — funds for 
 which, he added, " the revenues at the command of the 
 Legislature would alone be adequate." He then continued: 
 " And we are happy to see, that among the cares for the 
 general good, which their station and the confidence of 
 their fellow-citizens have made incumbent on them, this 
 great political and moral want has not been overlooked. 
 By a bill of the last session, passed by one branch, and 
 printed by the other for public consideration, a disposi- 
 tion appears to go into a system of general education, of 
 which a single University for the use of the whole State is 
 to be a component part. A purpose so auspicious to the 
 future destinies of our country, which would bring such a 
 mass of mind into activity for its welfare, cannot be con- 
 templated without kindling the warmest affection for the 
 land of our birth, with an animating prospect into its future 
 history. Well directed education improves the morals, 
 enlarges the minds, enlightens the councils, instructs the 
 industry, and advances the power, the prosperity, and the 
 happiness of the nation. But it is not for us to suggest 
 the high considerations, which their peculiar situation will 
 naturally present to the minds of our law-givers, encour- 
 aging a pursuit of such incalculable effect ; nor would it 
 be within the limits of our dutiful respect to them to add 
 reasonings or inducements to their better understanding 
 of what will be wise and profitable to our country." * The 
 suggestion of the aged Jefferson and of his distin- 
 guished colleagues wasv adopted by the Legislature and 
 thus was born " The University of Virginia." The Assem- 
 bly did not act, however, before engaging in an earnest 
 debate. It appointed Jefferson and Madison, and some 
 other gentlemen, members of a Commission to report to 
 
 * " Early History of the University of Virginia." J. \V. Randolph, 
 Richmond, Va. , 1S56, pp. 402-3. 
 
40 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 it a suitable location for the State University. Jefferson, 
 as Chairman of the Commission, made a long and valua- 
 ble report, in which he spoke of the benefits which a 
 republic derives from establishing primary schools and 
 institutions of different grades of learning. In this very 
 able report he said : " The Commissioners were first to 
 consider at what point it was understood that university 
 education should commence." He then continued : " Cer- 
 tainly not with the alphabet, for reasons of expediency 
 and impracticability, as well from the obvious sense of the 
 Legislature." He then pointed out with great ability the 
 high objects which tl e different grades of education were 
 to subserve and the grand and beneficent results which 
 a nation would reap from a good school system. The 
 grammar schools or colleges, which he characterized as 
 " institutions intermediate between the primary schools 
 and University," he called " the passage of entrance for 
 youths into the university." He sketched an outline of 
 the studies which might be pursued with advantage in the 
 different grades of institutions, and pointed out the great 
 and peculiar benefits which each of the grades of learning 
 would be instrumental in bestowing upon a people. In 
 this long and singularly able report, he presented reasons 
 for erecting the university in the centre of the Common- 
 wealth on the site occupied by Central College. In the 
 Legislature of Virginia Cabell held with Jefferson that 
 the best interests of the cause of intellectual culture in 
 Virginia would be subserved by erecting the buildings 
 which were to be dedicated to learning, near to Charlotte- 
 ville, which was near the home of Jefferson, and he labored 
 with great ability to induce the Legislature to agree upon 
 the proposed site. As the vote was being taken mem- 
 bers of the Assembly spoke with warm eloquence. Judge 
 Briscoe G. Baldwin, a member of the opposition to Cabell 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 41 
 
 withdrew his objections, and : " In the name of Virginia, 
 in the name of the dear land of his nativity, by that proud 
 and dignified character which she had always borne," he 
 conjured the members to " unite in the vote for the uni- 
 versity. Great in arms," he declared, " great in charac- 
 ter, she requires only to be great in science. Let us 
 raise," he continued, " a pillar of fire to conduct her foot- 
 steps. If we make a retrogade movement now, if having 
 accumulated a fund for education we refuse to appropriate 
 it in this honorable way, we may, with the old Castilian, 
 live to blush for our country. Let us, then, unite ; let us 
 do our duty. He shall have lived to little purpose who 
 does not know that in political matters delay breeds dan- 
 ger. There is a tide in the affairs of nations as of men. 
 Let us, then, all unite — let us erect a temple in which our 
 youths may assemble in honor of science. Virginia ! dear 
 land of my birth ! protectress of my rights ! to thy glory 
 let us consecrate the present hour ! " Cabell in a letter 
 to Jefferson, under date of Jan. 1 8th, 18 19, speaking 
 of this debate said: " Having left the House before the 
 critical vote on the site, to avoid the shock of feeling, 
 which I should have been compelled to sustain, I did not 
 hear Mr. Baldwin. But I am told the scene was truly 
 affecting. A great part of the House was in tears ; and 
 on the rising of the House, the Eastern members hovered 
 around Mr. Baldwin ; some shook him by the hand : 
 others solicited an introduction. Such magnanimity in a 
 defeated adversary excited universal applause." 
 
 At the first meeting of the Board of Visitors, Jefferson 
 was requested to become the Rector of the University. 
 He consented to do so. He himself drew the plans for 
 the edifices which were to be arranged in a parallelogram 
 and connected with each other by piazzas. Each of the 
 
 Ibid., p. 150. 
 
42 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 buildings was to be of a different style of architecture and 
 to illustrate the styles of architecture of different ages. 
 The small village near where Jefferson lived was to become 
 an academic town. The houses for the professors were 
 artistically located. Every day when the weather was 
 fair and the venerable statesman was strong enough to do 
 so, he might be seen riding on horseback to inspect the 
 rising walls of the new centre of learning, or looking at 
 them through a telescope from a terrace near his mansion. 
 Sometimes he would give the workmen plans, drawn by 
 his own hand, to guide them in their work. 
 
 Ex-President John Adams, when about eighty-two 
 years of age, wrote letters of encouragement to the aged 
 Jefferson. In one of these letters, dated May 26th, 1 8 1 7, 
 he said: " I congratulate you, and Madison, and Monroe, 
 on your noble employment in founding a University. 
 From such a noble triumvirate, the world will expect 
 something very great and very new ; but if it contains 
 anything quite original, and very excellent, I fear the 
 prejudices are too deeply rooted to suffer it to last long, 
 though it may be acceptable at first." 
 
 During the years in which the buildings of the Univer- 
 sity of Virginia were being erected it would once in a 
 while happen that the Legislature would not appropriate 
 as much money for the fane of knowledge as the Board 
 of Visitors desired. On April 9th, 1822, Jefferson wrote 
 to General Breckenridge, saying: " Our part is to pursue 
 with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right 
 or left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, 
 assured that the public approbation will in the end be 
 with us. * * * If, however, the ensuing session should 
 still refuse their patronage, a second or a third will think 
 better, and result finally in fulfilling the object of our 
 aim, the securing to our country a full and perpetual in- 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 43 
 
 stitution for all the useful sciences ; one which will restore 
 us to our former station in the confederacy. * * * The 
 public opinion is advancing. It is coming to our aid, and 
 will force the institution on to consummation. The num- 
 bers are great, and many, from great distances, who visit 
 it daily, as an object of curiosity. They become strength- 
 ened if friends, converted, if enemies, and all loud and zeal- 
 ous advocates, and will shortly give full tone to the public 
 voice. Our motto should be, " Be not wearied in well- 
 doing." Although Jefferson spoke thus encouragingly 
 he had declared to Cabell, under date of Jan. 28th, 1 8 19 : 
 " It is vain to give us the name of a University without 
 the means of making it so." 
 
 In a paper to the Directors of the "Literary Fund," 
 dated Nov. 29th, 1821, Jefferson, alluding to the archi- 
 tecture of the university buildings, said : " We had, there- 
 fore, no supplementary guide but our own judgments, 
 which we have exercised conscientiously, in adopting a 
 scale and style of building, believed to be proportioned 
 to the respectability, the means, and the wants of our 
 country, and such as will be approved in any future con- 
 dition it may attain. We owed to it to do, not what was 
 to perish with ourselves, but what would remain, be re- 
 spected, and preserved through other ages, and we fondly 
 hope that the instruction which may flow from this insti- 
 tution, kindly cherished, by advancing the minds of our 
 youth with the growing science of the times, and elevat- 
 ing the views of our citizens generally, to the practice of 
 the social duties and the functions of self-government, 
 may ensure to our country the reputation, the safety and 
 prosperity, and all the other blessings, which experience 
 proves to result from the cultivation and improvement 
 of the general mind ; and, without going into the monitory 
 history of the ancient world, in all its quarters, and at all 
 
44 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 its periods, that of the soil on which we live, and of its 
 occupants, indigenous and immigrant, teaches the awful 
 lesson, that no nation is permitted to live in ignorance 
 with impunity. " * 
 
 The correspondence of Jefferson respecting the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia was large. A volume of five hundred 
 and twenty eight pages, made up of letters and papers in 
 large measure respecting the university, written by Jef- 
 ferson, and J. C. Cabell, has been by the publisher J. W. 
 Randolph, given to the public. 
 
 Who can estimate the value of academies, colleges, 
 and universities to nations? In his sixth Annual Mes- 
 sage to Congress, Jefferson, urging the founding of a 
 great university at Washington, said : "A public institu- 
 tion can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely 
 called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all 
 the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the 
 country, and some of them to its preservation." To 
 these words of Jefferson's might be added words by John 
 Adams in his " Principal Republics of the World " upon the 
 imperative necessity to a republic to support public uni- 
 versities. The institutions of learning which were founded 
 in America at a time when the people were poor, have 
 by the statesmen which they have given to the world, 
 more than repaid the United States, for all the money 
 which has ever been expended upon them. In 1774 an 
 American Congress convened at Philadelphia, to take into 
 consideration the grave misunderstanding existing be- 
 tween England and her Colonies. This Congress issued 
 State papers which will forever excite the admiration of 
 the student of history. The important arguments which 
 they contain were clothed in words which for their ele- 
 gance and force would have done honor to a Cicero. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 470. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 45 
 
 Pitt, the celebrated English minister — one of the greatest 
 statesmen of his age, — in a speech delivered in Parliament, 
 among other remarks upon this distinguished Continental 
 Congress, said : " I must declare and avow, that in all 
 my reading and study, — and it has been my favorite 
 study : I have read Thucydides, and have studied and 
 admired the master states of the world, — that for solidity 
 of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, 
 under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or 
 body of men can stand in preference to the General 
 Congress at Philadelphia." * These words of the eloquent 
 Pitt might well have led members of Parliament to ask 
 themselves how it happened that the statesmen of Amer- 
 ica were of such a high order of men. To such a ques- 
 tion it might have been answered that in the Anglo-Saxon 
 branch of the human family in America that society had 
 not only been embellished and elevated but had been 
 made stable, and in some degree wise, by means of insti- 
 tutions of learning ; — by means of the people wisely 
 cultivating the minds which God had given them. 
 Whoever will review the lives of the members of the 
 Congress of 1776 — the Congress in which the Indepen- 
 dence of the Colonies from the Crown of England was 
 declared, — will see that a large number of these distin- 
 guished men had studied within walls of learning of a 
 high grade. Any one who will review the history of 
 these men will be deeply impressed as he observes the 
 educational advantages which many of them had enjoyed. 
 Of the fifty-five men who were charged with the highly 
 momentous work of framing the Constitution of the 
 United States, at least nine had studied in Princeton 
 College, four in Yale, three in Harvard, two in Columbia, 
 one in the University of Pennsylvania, and five, six, or 
 
 * Hanyard's " Parliamentary Hist.," vol. xviii., p. 151. 
 
46 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 seven in the University of William and Mary. In that 
 distinguished company Scotland had also a representa- 
 tive, who had studied in three of her universities. There 
 was one member who had studied in Glasgow, another 
 had been a student in Christ Church, Oxford, who with 
 three other of the members had been students of law in 
 the Temple — indeed, it is said that forty-five of the mem- 
 bers of this Congress had received collegiate instruction. It 
 would be highly instructive to note how some, if not 
 indeed all, of the remaining number of these men had 
 studied in grammar schools or had indirectly received 
 benefits from institutions of the highest grades of learn- 
 ing. For instance, Benjamin Franklin had studied in a 
 grammar school in which it is not perhaps too much to 
 say that a higher course of secular instruction was given 
 than is to be obtained even in some institutions called 
 universities in Roman Catholic countries. He was a man 
 whose fame as a philosopher and man of letters was es- 
 tablished in America and in Europe. He had moreover 
 studied in the library in Philadelphia which he had helped 
 to found — an institution which might be called a silent 
 university. He had been the means of founding, about 
 the year 1749, an academy in Pennsylvania which had 
 become the university of that commonwealth. He had 
 been an ardent scientific student. He had been made a 
 Fellow of the Royal Society in England and had received 
 the degree of Doctor from Oxford, Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews — some of the greatest of the universities of 
 Great Britain : — not to speak of other honors which had 
 been conferred upon him. In a letter to the first Presi- 
 dent of King's College — now Columbia, — Franklin had 
 written: "I think, with you, that nothing is more im- 
 portant to the public weal than to form and train up 
 youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are, in 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 47 
 
 my opinion, the strength of the State, — much more so 
 than riches and arms, which, under the management of 
 ignorance and wickedness, often draw on destruction in- 
 stead of providing for the safety of the people ; and 
 though the culture bestowed on many should be success- 
 ful with few, yet the influence of the few, and the service 
 in their power may be very great." Franklin's labors in 
 behalf of education had been one of his noblest under- 
 takings. Also in the Convention in which the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States was framed there was Roger 
 Sherman, who had never been enabled to go to college. 
 He had nobly learned the trade of a tallow chandler, and 
 also that of shoemaker. Left an orphan in his youth he 
 had provided for his mother during her long life. He 
 had with his earnings provided for his younger brothers 
 the blessings of college instruction. He had managed 
 to study law and to be duly admitted to the bar. For 
 years he had furnished the astronomical calculations for 
 an almanac published in New York. In the church which 
 he attended he had been made a deacon. As treasurer 
 of Yale College he showed his interest in its welfare. 
 He had served his State in various high capacities and 
 had for many years been the Mayor of New Haven. For 
 many years he had been a member of the Upper House 
 of the Legislature of Connecticut. He had been a judge 
 of the Court of Common Pleas and for twenty-three 
 years, a judge of the Superior Court. He had been a 
 member of the Continental Congress in 1774 and in every 
 other Continental Congress except when prevented going 
 to Congress by a law of rotation then in force. He had 
 signed the Declaration of Independence and also the first 
 Constitution of the States. Next to Franklin he was 
 the most aged member of the Convention. It would be 
 interesting to here pause to contemplate the culture 
 
48 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 which each member of the distinguished assembly had 
 received through a wise policy which had been early 
 adopted in the colonies of fostering letters. George 
 Washington had only indirectly been helped in acquiring 
 knowledge through institutions of a high grade of learn- 
 ing. He had, however, acquired in many respects a 
 remarkably good education. Suffice it here to say that 
 many years before he became a member of the convention 
 he had had the title of LL.D. conferred upon him. As 
 I write I have before me a printed copy of the words 
 with which the learned faculty of Harvard College con- 
 ferred the degree upon him. It was declared that he was 
 a man whose " knowledge and patriotic ardor are mani- 
 fest to all," and that he " merits the highest honor, Doc- 
 tor of Laws, the law of nature and nations, and the civil 
 law." Washington did not approve of titles of nobility, 
 which was perhaps one reason why he would not append 
 to his name his title of LL.D. His life-long interest in 
 the welfare of the University of William and Mary in 
 Virginia and of his connection with it for years as its 
 Chancellor need not here be dwelt upon. He was espe- 
 cially interested in the science of government and agri- 
 cultural science. Before going to the Convention he had 
 written, or copied from papers which it has been claimed 
 were written by Madison, a description of the forms of 
 government of many lands. The Constitution of the 
 United States, formed though it was by a singularly gifted 
 body of men, was, before being adopted by the " people," 
 examined by many assemblies, in which were a large 
 number of representatives of the seats of learning of the 
 new world. 
 
 In the highly valuable and quite lengthy Report 
 which Jefferson when in his seventy-seventh year, as 
 Chairman of a Commission to select a site for a State 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 49 
 
 University, with the concurrence of Madison and col- 
 leagues, wrote, or, finished, at an inn, on August 1st, 1818, 
 and sent to the Legislature of Virginia, after, in a learned 
 manner, dwelling on the very important objects which 
 would be attained by founding elementary schools, he 
 added : " And this brings us to the point at which are to 
 commence the higher branches, of education, of which the 
 Legislature requires the development; those, for exam- 
 ple, which are, 
 
 " To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on 
 whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so 
 much to depend ; 
 
 " To expound the principles and structure of govern- 
 ment, the laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, 
 those formed municipally for our own government, and a 
 sound spirit of legislation, which, banishing all arbitrary 
 and unnecessary restraint on individual action, shall leave 
 us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights 
 of another ; 
 
 "To harmonize and promote the interests of agricul- 
 ture, manufactures and commerce, and by well informed 
 views of political economy to give a free scope to the 
 public industry; 
 
 " To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, 
 enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into 
 them the precepts of virtue and order; 
 
 " To enlighten them with mathematical and physical 
 sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the 
 health, the subsistence, and comforts of human life ; 
 
 " And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection 
 and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to 
 others, and of happiness within themselves. 
 
 " These are the objects of that higher grade of educa- 
 tion, the benefits and blessings of which the Legislature 
 
50 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 now propose to provide for the good and ornament of 
 their country, the gratification and happiness of their 
 fellow-citizens, of the parent, especially, and his progeny, 
 on whom all his affections are concentrated." * 
 
 The more one duly reflects upon the benefits which 
 Jefferson pointed out will be reaped by nations who 
 cherish the interests of useful learning, the more he will 
 be astonished at the greatness of their value. It may be 
 well to here consider some of the innumerable ways in 
 which nations are paid back the money which they 
 expend on institutions of a high grade of learning. When 
 nations, needing on some great occasion the services of 
 men of intelligence and culture, are enabled to call upon 
 citizens who have passed through a high school, a college 
 or a university, they have an assurance that the men 
 whom they propose to entrust with momentous duties 
 have at least received a certain amount of mental cultiva- 
 tion. In the year 1 87 1 , a highly interesting scene — a 
 scene over which the historian may be expected to 
 linger with pleasure, and to dwell with peculiar satisfac- 
 tion upon the holy influence which it will exert upon the 
 history of the world, was enacted in the attractive city 
 of Geneva in Switzerland. The city of Geneva, over 
 which sweeps the energizing air borne from the Alps or 
 from the beautifully picturesque lake upon which it looks, 
 has witnessed scenes upon which have hung, in large 
 measure, the destinies of the cause of civil and religious 
 liberty in the world, but one may doubt whether it has 
 ever witnessed a single short act in the great drama of 
 history, which has been followed by such momentous 
 results, as the one which was enacted in the year 1871 — 
 a scene in which almost every — if not indeed every — 
 actor was a graduate of some American, or English, or 
 
 * Ibid., p. 435. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 5 1 
 
 European seat of learning. A band of men assembled 
 to settle by arbitration a fearfully grave dispute upon the 
 satisfactory settlement of which may be said to have per- 
 haps hung the peace of the two Anglo-Saxon divisions of 
 the human race, — indeed to no inconsiderable extent, the 
 peace of the world. This is not the place to dwell upon 
 the deep feeling with which the people of the United 
 States viewed the injuries which they had received from 
 Great Britain, or upon the vastness of the losses which 
 the Republic had suffered, from armed vessels which 
 the British Government, notwithstanding treaties, and 
 obligations of peace and of honor, when the United 
 States was engaged in a civil war — a war in which the 
 most sacred interests of the human race were involved, 
 — had permitted to be built, manned, and harbored in 
 British ports, to do all the injury that they could to the 
 Republic in its hour of sore trial. Nor is this the place 
 to dwell upon all the horrors which might have followed 
 if this ill-will had been allowed to smoulder until it should 
 break out into flames of war — until the people of Great 
 Britain and of the United States, upon whom the Al- 
 mighty has stamped the lineaments of brotherhood, had 
 done themselves the deadliest injury in their power. A 
 calm and intelligent discussion before a Court of Arbitra- 
 tion — most of the members of which were disinterested 
 and learned judges —whose decision was binding upon 
 Great Britain and upon the United States — in a manner 
 recognized by the world as just, wise and highly honor- 
 able to both nations, not only set at rest the cause of 
 quarrel, but opened the way for a reconciliation between 
 the two nations, at once impressive and sacred, and 
 cleared a path for all the blessings which follow in the 
 train of peace. Moreover, an example was given to all 
 nations — an example which may be expected, in critical 
 
52 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 junctures which may arise in the history of any nation, to 
 prevent the evils flowing from war. 
 
 It is certainly wise for republics to take all measures 
 that need to be taken to secure such a diffusion of a high 
 grade of knowledge as is demanded by their best interests. 
 The youth who has been instructed in institutions of 
 learning by the State may indeed perhaps win an honor- 
 able renown as a statesman which may be valuable to him 
 personally, but in doing so he must become the servant of 
 the people. By preserving the liberties, guarding the 
 property, augmenting the happiness of communities, the 
 statesman may render the commonwealth services of 
 priceless value. 
 
 Leaving for the present the interesting contemplation 
 of the grandeur of the work which colleges have been 
 enabled to accomplish by helping to give wisdom to the 
 patriotic representatives of nations, the connection be- 
 tween a high grade of culture and what may be called a 
 certain class of inventions, may well attract the attention 
 of the thoughtful philanthropist. As a youth who has 
 studied in a common school will have in some respects 
 a wider range of thought than one who has never been 
 taught to read and write, so one who has been instructed 
 in a grammar or high school, in a college or university, 
 may be expected to have, in some respects, a wider sweep 
 of thought than one who has simply received what is 
 called a primary school education. It has often happened 
 that a young man who has been enabled to study in a 
 grammar school or in a university has had faculties de- 
 veloped which might never have manifested themselves 
 to the world, had he simply been taught how to read and 
 write and cipher. The services which men who have 
 enjoyed the advantage of being instructed in learned 
 centres of thought have rendered the world by applying 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 53 
 
 the discoveries of science to the useful purposes of life 
 is well worthy the careful consideration of the statesman. 
 
 No one can realize the indebtedness of the world to 
 institutions of a high grade of learning, who has not 
 traced the history of inventions which without the aid of 
 science could never have been made. Innumerable con- 
 sequences, direct and indirect, flow from every new truth 
 respecting the properties of matter made known to man. 
 The more one considers the extent to which the discov- 
 eries of science are applied to the affairs of every-day 
 life, the more he will be amazed at the lofty mission in 
 which institutions of a high grade of learning are engaged. 
 Every citizen in the United States enjoys in one way or 
 another, blessings which have come to him through the 
 instrumentality of science. It is interesting to a thought- 
 ful mind to consider the advantage it is to any nation 
 to have among its citizens men capable of intelligently 
 engaging in the work of making, with the aid of science, 
 mechanical combinations, which multiply the products of 
 industry, beneficially affect commerce, increase the com- 
 forts of life, and very greatly contribute to the prosperity 
 and well-being of commonwealths. 
 
 It may here be instructive to pause to consider — even 
 though but little effort be made to unfold them in their 
 fulness, — a few of very many illustrations which might be 
 given, of the services which institutions, of what may be 
 called, a higher grade of learning, have, directly or indi- 
 rectly, rendered the industrial arts. A contemporary of 
 Jefferson's, — but four years his senior, — was James Watt, 
 of Scotland. The father of this gifted man was a car- 
 penter and shipwright. His mother was an estimable 
 woman who herself gave much attention to the education 
 of her son. The schools of Scotland were open to her 
 youth — schools which were probably better than any in 
 
54 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Europe, unless the schools of Holland be excepted. In 
 the exciting days of the great Reformation, John Knox 
 had declared, in language now become quaint, " That no 
 father, of what estate or condition that ever he may be, 
 use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their 
 youthhead, but all must be compelled to bring up their 
 youth in learning and virtue." In 1696, Scotland had, as 
 Holland had done before her, established a public-school 
 system, which in innumerable ways proved to be an in- 
 valuable blessing to her people — indeed to the world. In 
 due time, James Watt entered the grammar school of the 
 town of Greenock, in which he lived. There he studied 
 not only English and Mathematics, but also Greek and 
 Latin and other studies which were destined to be useful 
 to him in life. He also enjoyed the advantage of having 
 at his command in his father's house some scientific books. 
 
 Young Watt finished his course at the grammar school, 
 and, in accordance with his father's advice, undertook to 
 learn a trade. He proposed to become a maker of mathe- 
 matical instruments. With this end in view he went 
 to Glasgow, but, in that city — now famous for its culture 
 and wealth, — there was then found no one in business 
 who could give him the instruction which he sought. 
 Some relations he had in Glasgow were happy in en- 
 joying the acquaintance of the highly learned Thomas 
 Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Univer- 
 sity of Glasgow. This distinguished man whose elo- 
 quent and fascinating book, " On the Improvement 
 of Society by the Diffusion of Knowledge," is not 
 the least valuable of the services which he rendered the 
 world, gave Watt excellent advice, which resulted in his 
 spending some time in London in acquiring his trade. 
 On his return to Glasgow Prof. Dick and his associate 
 professors arranged that Watt should have a place in the 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 55 
 
 university building in which he could make and sell 
 mathematical instruments and in which he could repair 
 the valuable instruments used in illustrating the lectures 
 of the professors. The university even possessed a 
 model of an engine which illustrated the very limited 
 application which had been made of steam, up to that 
 period, to the mechanic arts. 
 
 Watt enjoyed the great privilege of using the valuable 
 library of the university, and the professors and students 
 threw open what stores of books they themselves pos- 
 sessed to the poor yet energetic and already in some 
 respects learned young man. He became a member of 
 a club which numbered among its members the literati 
 of Glasgow, — including Adam Smith who was for years 
 a professor of the University of Glasgow as well as a 
 distinguished writer on Political Economy, — Prof. Robert 
 Simson, the celebrated restorer of the most important 
 treatises of ancient geometers, the learned professors 
 Anderson and Dick, and Prof. Joseph Black, the 
 discoverer of latent heat, who in the opinion of the 
 very distinguished scientist, Arago, should be classed 
 among the most eminent chemists of the eighteenth 
 century. These gentlemen used to visit Watt's room 
 in the university. The bosom friend of the ingenious 
 mathematical instrument-maker of the university was 
 John Robison, who was a student but would have been, 
 had it not been for his youth, made an assistant to 
 Prof. Dick. John Robison became an eminent professor 
 in the University of Edinburgh, but he is perhaps still 
 more distinguished as the originator of the Encyclopedia 
 Britannica. Students were accustomed to go to Watt, 
 very much as though he were a professor, to be aided in 
 their studies. In order to the better master scientific 
 problems he studied German and Italian, so as to read 
 
56 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 what was written in those languages on scientific ques- 
 tions. His friend John Robison suggested to him, and 
 counselled with him, on the feasibility of constructing a 
 locomotive, or " fiery chariot " as it was playfully called 
 by Watt. 
 
 Prof. Black having experimented with water had made 
 a marvellous discovery out of which many very interest- 
 ing consequences flowed. Little do people realize that 
 even in ice there is, besides water, an imponderable sub- 
 stance, called caloric, so perfectly hidden and distributed 
 that the most sensitive thermometer will not reveal its 
 existence. Heat, imperceptible to known senses, one of 
 the constituent principles of ice ! No wonder that cer- 
 tain facts about steam puzzled Watt, who had been ex- 
 perimenting with the model of the so-called Newcomen 
 engine owned by the university. Prof. Black, however, 
 explained to him the interesting phenomena of latent heat, 
 and in a remarkably kind manner encouraged the young 
 man to continue to endeavor to construct a steam-engine 
 which would be of practical utility to the world. 
 
 After spending six years in the university building 
 Watt changed his abode, taking to himself a wife ; still, 
 however, keeping up his connection with the university 
 and still being known for a number of years as its mathe- 
 matical instrument-maker. The experiments which he 
 continued to make with steam were so expensive, that he 
 was obliged to borrow money from time to time from 
 Prof. Black. The professor's salary in the university, 
 however, was not large and his means were not sufficient 
 to enable him to do all that it was necessary to do in 
 constructing a steam-engine, especially in an age when 
 making machinery was very much more expensive than 
 it is at the present day. Dr. Black, happily, had a learned 
 friend — Dr. Roebuck — who possessed considerable means 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 and was of an enterprising disposition. To Dr. Roebuck 
 he explained the scientific principles on which Watt had 
 planned a steam-engine. Dr. Black finally succeeded in 
 inducing Dr. Roebuck to become financially interested 
 with Watt in his difficult undertaking. Dr. Roebuck 
 proved a kind friend to Watt and advanced quite a large 
 amount of money to him, receiving for so doing an inter- 
 est in the invention. Watt's friend, Robison, has left on 
 record the following statement : " I remember Mrs. Roe- 
 buck's remarking one evening ' Jamie is a queer lad, and 
 without the Doctor, his invention would have been lost ; 
 but Dr. Roebuck wont let it perish.' " Watt's trial en- 
 gine — owing in large measure to the difficulty, incidental 
 to the period, in securing the services of workmen capable 
 of making, with sufficient exactness, its various parts — 
 was not a success. Dr. Roebuck, becoming embarrassed in 
 business, was not able to continue to bear his share of the 
 expenses and Dr. Black had to loan Watt the money with 
 which to secure his first patent for the steam-engine. At 
 this juncture, rendered peculiarly sad by a cause which 
 need not here be dwelt upon, a gentleman — Prof. Small — 
 who had been an instructor in the University of William 
 and Mary, of Virginia, and had returned to Scotland, 
 rendered Watt invaluable services. Prof. Small had been 
 very kind to Jefferson when at the university and the 
 exalted esteem in which Jefferson when President of the 
 United States held the worthy Scotchman, who had 
 brought to America Scotch learning, may be inferred 
 from a long letter of affectionate counsel to his grandson, 
 Thomas Jefferson Randolph, dated Nov. 24th, 1808. The 
 statesman, after speaking of the great temptations through 
 which he had, as an orphan, passed, continued : " I had 
 the good fortune to become acquainted very early with 
 some characters of very high standing, and to feel the in- 
 
58 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 cessant wish that I could ever become what they were. 
 Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself 
 what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do 
 in this situation ? What course in it will insure me their 
 approbation? I am certain that this mode of deciding 
 on my conduct tended more to its correctness than any 
 reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and 
 dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a 
 moment which of two courses would be in character for 
 them." If it was happy for Jefferson to have Prof. Small 
 as his instructor and warm friend it was especially happy 
 for Watt to have him as his bosom friend to whom he 
 could confide every burden of his heart. Prof. Small 
 offered to help Watt to the extent of his means, and 
 finally induced his friend and partner, Matthew Boulton, 
 an accomplished manufacturer, to purchase Dr. Roebuck's 
 interest in Watt's, — as yet unsuccessful, — invention of a 
 steam-engine. Very many scientific facts had to be ex- 
 amined before the wonderful contrivance which was in 
 the inventor's mind could be completed. The thorough- 
 ness of the experiments made are attested by the specifi- 
 cations of the various patents which were granted Watt. 
 Prof. Small who was in reality a partner of Boulton and 
 Watt, died just as Watt had succeeded in making a suc- 
 cessful steam-engine. One of his last acts was to draw a 
 Bill, petitioning Parliament to give Watt certain rights 
 without which he could not go to the expense of putting 
 up works in which to build steam-engines. 
 
 The esteem which Watt felt for the learned friends 
 which he had made in the University of Glasgow may be 
 illustrated by some incidents recorded by Samuel Smiles 
 in his fascinating biography of Watt.* There were men 
 who attempted to deprive Watt of the rewards which 
 
 * " Lives of Boulton and Watt," p. 464. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 59 
 
 were justly his, for having after very many years of labor, 
 given to the world, — one might almost say, — his magical 
 contrivance. Watt wrote to his old friend Dr. Black, 
 that Prof. Robison had left his class of Natural Philosophy 
 in the University of Edinburgh and had travelled a long 
 distance to testify respecting the invention of the steam- 
 engine and had done " wonders." It may be added that 
 when Prof. Robison returned to Edinburgh his natural 
 philosophy class received him with three cheers. The 
 professor gave them a short account of the trial, charac- 
 terizing it as, " not more the cause of Watt v. Horn- 
 blower, than of science against ignorance." " When I 
 had finished," the professor added in a letter to Watt, " I 
 got another plaudit, that Mrs. Siddons would have rel- 
 ished." * When Dr. Black heard of the issue of the trial, 
 tears coursed down his face. " It 's very foolish," he 
 said, " but I can't help it when I hear of anything good 
 to Jamie Watt." Dr. Black, not long after he had re- 
 ceived a letter from Watt, was found sitting in his chair, 
 dead. Watt sorrowfully wrote to Prof. Robison respect- 
 ing Prof. Black : " I may say that to him I owe, in a 
 great measure, what I am ; he taught me to reason and 
 experiment in natural philosophy, and was a true friend and 
 philosopher, whose loss will always be lamented while I 
 live. We may all pray that our latter end may be like 
 his; he has truly gone to sleep in the arms of his Creator, 
 and been spared all the regrets attendant on a more linger- 
 ing exit. I could dwelljonger on this subject but regrets 
 are unavailing, and only tend to enfeeble our own minds, 
 and make them less able to bear the ills we cannot avoid. 
 Let us cherish the friends we have left, and do as much 
 good as we can in our day ! " f 
 
 One of the galaxy of learned men who may be said to 
 
 * Ibid., p. 64. 
 
 f Ibid., p. 465. 
 
6o A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 have aided Watt in solving some of the great problems 
 with which he had to deal in his attempt to apply some 
 profound discoveries of various sciences to the mechanic 
 arts, was an American philosopher and statesman. Benja- 
 min Franklin was representing the United States in 
 Europe when Watt was endeavoring to construct a steam- 
 engine. Franklin introduced by letter Prof. Small to Mr. 
 Boulton. The learned Matthew Boulton — who was a 
 distinguished manufacturer, associated with him Prof. 
 Small and the professor's friend Watt. Boulton had 
 before Prof. Small prevailed upon him to become inter- 
 ested in Watt's steam-engine — indeed at one of the 
 darkest hours in Watt's life — sent to Franklin a model of 
 a steam-engine requesting Franklin to give an opinion to 
 him respecting the possibility of perfecting on scientific 
 principles such a mechanical contrivance as the proposed 
 engine. Franklin had received in a free grammar school 
 in New England, a better education than could be 
 obtained in his day in quite a large number of European 
 universities. He was recognized as one of the most 
 eminent scientists of his age and was connected with the 
 Academy of Sciences of France. Although his reputation 
 as a philosopher may be considered as having been some- 
 what cast into the shade by his distinction as a statesman, 
 his influence as a philosopher has been remarkably far- 
 reaching. To Boulton, Franklin wrote a very encouraging 
 letter and made suggestions which have been very widely, 
 — if not universally, — adopted in the fire-places of steam- 
 engines. This letter was not only valuable on account of 
 its wise suggestions, but was highly interesting for the 
 encouragement which it gave to Boulton to believe that 
 science could overcome the difficulties in the way of con- 
 structing a steam-engine, — indeed, had it not been for 
 this letter, Prof. Small might never have been enabled to 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 6 1 
 
 induce Boulton, who may be said to have been one of the 
 most gifted and able manufacturers in very important 
 respects, in England, to become interested with Watt in 
 carrying to a successful issue, his highly useful invention. 
 
 Watt lived to be eighty-three years of age and received 
 many honors. The University of Glasgow conferred 
 upon him the title of LL.D. and educated for him a 
 son. During the very many years in which he had been 
 engaged in the work of reducing steam to man's servi- 
 tude, he had made many and great sacrifices. Although 
 he had in the meantime made quite a large number of 
 valuable inventions, and although he had become distin- 
 guished as an engineer and had presented to the city of 
 Glasgow, in whose service he had been at times engaged, 
 a plan by which the Clyde River, which was then but a 
 trout stream, has been made into one of the busiest 
 water-highways of the world, yet he had been kept so im- 
 poverished by his experiments with steam that he had to 
 borrow from his friend Prof. Black the means with which 
 to secure the papers for his first patent for a steam-engine. 
 Although his friend Robison had secured for him a 
 position as engineer by the Russian Government at such 
 a large salary that wealth was within his grasp, he had 
 declined the position in order to serve the world by giving 
 to man a mechanical combination of inestimable value, 
 which he believed science capable of constructing. Watt 
 in a sad hour had felt that he was not accomplishing any 
 good for his fellow-man. When he had unbosomed this 
 feeling to Prof. Small he had been encouraged to go on, 
 and when his darkest hour had come upon him the kind 
 professor had offered to help him to the extent of his 
 means and had followed up his words by acts of great 
 kindness. But if Watt felt that he was doing no good 
 when he was engaged in applying profound principles of 
 
62 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 science to the mechanic arts, not so thought the world 
 when his great mission in life was ended. 
 
 Scarcely a fortnight after Watt's death Lord Jeffrey in 
 an Edinburgh paper* voiced a feeling ascription of praise 
 to a great benefactor of the human race. In the course of 
 his warm tribute to James Watt, he said : " This name 
 fortunately needs no commemoration of ours, for he that 
 bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and 
 unenvied honors ; and many generations will probably pass 
 away, before it shall have gathered " all its fame." We 
 have said that Mr. Watt was the great Improver of the 
 steam-engine ; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in 
 its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be 
 described as its Inventor. * * * By his admirable contriv- 
 ance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for its force 
 and its flexibility, — for the prodigious power which it can 
 exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility, with 
 which that power can be varied, distributed and applied. 
 The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin, and 
 rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and 
 crush masses of obdurate metal before it — draw out, with- 
 out breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship 
 of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin 
 and forge anchors, — cut steel into ribands, and impel 
 loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves. 
 
 " It would be difficult to estimate the value of the 
 benefits which these inventions have conferred upon this 
 country. There is no branch of industry that has not 
 been indebted to them ; and, in all the most material, 
 they have not only widened most magnificently the field 
 of its exertions, but multiplied a thousand-fold the 
 amount of its production. It was our improved steam- 
 engine, in short, that fought the battles of Europe, and 
 
 * The Scotsman, Sept. 4th, 1819. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 63 
 
 exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous con- 
 test, the political greatness of our land. It is the same 
 great power which now enables us to pay the interest of 
 our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which 
 we are still engaged [1819], with the skill and capital of 
 countries less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor 
 and narrow views of its importance. It has increased 
 indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments; 
 and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the world, 
 the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed 
 the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which 
 no limits caft be assigned ; completed the dominion of 
 mind over the most refractory qualities of matter; and 
 laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of 
 mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours 
 of after generations. It is to the genius of one man, too, 
 that all this is mainly owing! And certainly no man ever 
 bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not 
 only universal but unbounded ; and the fabled inventors 
 of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the 
 erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred 
 less important benefits on mankind than the inventor of 
 our present steam-engine." 
 
 If Lord Jeffrey, as early as the year 18 19, could say 
 that the steam-engine had multiplied the productions of 
 British industry a thousand-fold, how should one describe 
 at the present day, its value to mankind? Suffice it to 
 say that machinery in modern times accomplishes prob- 
 ably more and better work in England alone — to say 
 nothing of what it performs in other divisions of the 
 globe, — than could the hands of all the men and women, 
 and the labor of all the beasts of burden, in the world, 
 before the invention of the steam-engine. While in the 
 last century some nations, under sadly mistaken views of 
 
64 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 economy, or for other equally unhappy reasons, refused 
 to support grammar schools or universities, Scotland has 
 no reason to regret the money which she expended in 
 supporting public primary and grammar schools, and 
 on maintaining a university. It was more natural that 
 Scotland with its free schools should give to the world 
 such a cultured intellect as that of Watt's, than it would 
 have been for any other country in Europe to have done 
 so, — Holland — a land of heroic history, to whom Scot- 
 land herself may be regarded as indebted for her public 
 school system — alone excepted. 
 
 It would be well to compare the puny strength of man 
 with that of the steam-engine — to make an estimate of 
 the money value of a single invention to Great Britain. 
 To make such a calculation would require a vast array of 
 astonishingly instructive figures. Suffice it to say that 
 these figures, when summed up, would make a grand 
 total which would eloquently illustrate the wisdom of 
 that statesmanship which guards well the interests of 
 high culture — which provides as did Jefferson's educa- 
 tional bill of 1779, that youth especially gifted with 
 genius and virtue — as often found in families of the poor 
 as in those of the rich — " should be rendered by liberal 
 education * * * without regard to wealth, birth, or other 
 accidental condition or circumstance," if they so desired, 
 " useful instruments of the public." * In an able defence 
 of such a wise policy Jefferson in his " Notes on Virginia," 
 added, to use his own words, that " by our plan which 
 preserves the selection of the youth of genius from among 
 the classes of the poor we hope to avail the State of 
 those talents which nature has sown as liberally among 
 the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if 
 not sought for and cultivated." I will here incidentally say 
 
 ♦Jefferson's " Bill for the Better Diffusion of Knowledge," of 1779. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 65 
 
 that Jefferson had perhaps been helped by Prof. Small, 
 whom Scotland had given for a time to the United 
 States, to duly appreciate the importance to nations of 
 right views respecting the wisdom of securing to the 
 people the far-reaching blessings of a wise intellectual 
 culture. 
 
 Watt when endeavoring to subject to man's servitude 
 the mysterious power which steam was capable of exert- 
 ing had at times fancied that he was doing no good in 
 the world and had sorrowfully confided to Prof. Small 
 his sorrow. But if Watt at times thus looked upon his 
 great work, not so, at the last, did the people of Great 
 Britain. At his death it was deemed eminently fitting 
 that a monument should be erected to his memory in 
 Westminster Abbey — among the statues of many of Great 
 Britain's most illustrious sons. On the colossal statue 
 erected to his honor, is written, the following epitaph : 
 " Not to perpetuate a name which must endure while the 
 peaceful arts flourish, but to show that mankind have 
 learned to honor those who best deserve their gratitude, 
 the King, his Ministers, and many of the Nobles and 
 Commoners of the realm, raised this monument to James 
 Watt, who directing the force of an original genius early 
 exercised in philosophic research to the improvement of 
 the steam-engine, enlarged the resources of his country, 
 increased the power of man, and rose to an eminent place 
 among the most illustrious followers of science, and the 
 real benefactors of the world. Born at Greenock, 1736. 
 Died at Heathfield, in Staffordshire, 1819." 
 
 Westminster Abbey was not to be the only place which 
 was to have a statue of Watt. In Greenock, Scotland, 
 where Watt received a free education, is a library in which 
 are books which Watt presented to the town. The visitor 
 as he enters this treasury of knowledge sees a statue of 
 3 
 
66 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 the illustrious mechanician which was erected in his honor 
 by the citizens of Greenock who assuredly did not regret 
 having maintained a free grammar or high school in their 
 midst. In Glasgow a grand colossal statue in bronze on a 
 beautiful granite base testifies to the honor which Glasgow 
 feels at having been the place in which the great idea of 
 giving to mankind the modern steam-engine was conceived. 
 
 Thinking of James Watt, Sir Walter Scott broke, one 
 might almost say, into rapture. " It was my fortune," he 
 says, " to meet him, whether in the body or in spirit it mat- 
 ters not. There were assembled about half a score of our 
 Northern Lights. * * * Amidst this company stood 
 Mr. Watt, the man whose genius discovered the means of 
 multiplying our national resources to a degree perhaps 
 even beyond his own stupendous powers of calculation 
 and combination ; bringing the treasures of the abyss to 
 the summit of the earth; giving the feeble arm of man 
 the momentum of an Afrite ; commanding manufactures 
 to rise, as the rod of the prophet produced water in the 
 desert; affording the means of dispensing with that time 
 and tide which waits for no man ; and of sailing without 
 that wind which defied the commands and threats of 
 Xerxes himself. This potent commander of the elements, 
 the abridger of time and space, this magician whose 
 cloudy machinery has produced a change on the world, 
 the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are per- 
 haps only now beginning to be felt, «was not only the 
 profound man of science, the most successful combiner 
 of powers and calculator of numbers as adapted to practi- 
 cal purposes, was not only one of the most generally 
 well informed, but one of the best and kindest of human 
 beings." 
 
 Without dwelling longer on the praise bestowed on 
 James Watt by his contemporaries, suffice it to say that 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 67 
 
 the more one reflects upon the vastness of the service 
 which the man who invented the modern steam-engine 
 rendered to the human race the more it will be realized 
 that the world has reason to be thankful that Scotland 
 adopted the wise policy of securing to her youth the 
 blessing of something more than merely, what is com- 
 monly called, a primary education. 
 
 It may here be remarked that Watt and Prof. Robison 
 and others had attempted to construct a travelling 
 engine — or, as it is called in modern times, a locomotive, 
 — indeed Watt had taken out a patent for such an 
 invention. During Watt's life and for some years after 
 his death, the so-called steam-carriage was but a rude, 
 unwieldy, machine, that withal travelled at such a snail's- 
 pace as to be profitably used for few, if for any purposes. 
 One might doubt whether Watt and his learned associates 
 ever pictured to themselves the fiery-horse of modern 
 times — a mighty industrial agency effecting a revolution 
 in the domain of human industry, — capable of even tire- 
 lessly dragging comfortable coaches, almost as fast, if 
 not indeed faster, than the eagle flies, between distant 
 cities, or across continents, — doing more work than tens 
 of millions of human laborers and horses could perform. 
 The locomotive unites States and Territories, some of 
 which might have remained separated forever, while others 
 might have been to this day deserts, but for its useful aid. 
 Indeed, the locomotive may yet be instrumental in nation- 
 alizing — of uniting in a common citizenship — the people 
 of continents. The gentlemen around whose heads gathers 
 much of the fame of having invented the modern locomo- 
 tive were George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephen- 
 son. I had prepared an historical sketch of these mechani- 
 cians and engineers illustrating somewhat minutely ways 
 in which indirectly and directly they were indebted to 
 
68 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 institutions of higher learning for much of their success 
 in life. Suffice it, however, to say that the indirect in- 
 fluence exerted by institutions of higher culture, such as 
 academies and libraries and universities, is sometimes 
 even vaster and more interesting than is their direct 
 influence. One who will trace the sacrifices made by 
 George Stephenson to give his son Robert a high educa- 
 tion will be apt to feel that there is a silent eloquence in 
 the noble structure in England known as the Stephenson 
 Memorial which, with its surrounding grounds, marks the 
 spot where stood the humble cottage in which Robert 
 Stephenson was born, — a structure in which youth of both 
 sexes receive school instruction and in which there is a 
 reading-room for mechanics. 
 
 A visitor to the great building in Washington in which 
 are preserved the models of the thousands of inventions 
 which have been given letters-patent by the Government 
 of the United States, will see quite a good many simple 
 contrivances which might have been invented — in some 
 instances perhaps have been made, — by men or women 
 who did not even know the letters of the alphabet. He 
 would also see many inventions which he would recognize 
 as the work of men, or of women, possessed of an intimate 
 acquaintance with scientific truths. He would see surgi- 
 cal articles, engineering, astronomical, and other contriv- 
 ances, which he would instinctively feel were made by 
 men or women possessed in no ordinary degree of scien- 
 tific knowledge. Should the visitor examine, for example, 
 such a piece of mechanism as that of the first electric 
 telegraph instrument which Prof. Morse gave to the 
 world, he could infer with certainty that such a scientific 
 invention could not have been made by any one unable 
 to read and write. What a part that instrument has 
 already played in the history of the world ! Its work is 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 69 
 
 like unto those of magic ! It is impossible to estimate 
 fully the value of such a scientific invention to mankind ! 
 
 The part which institutions of higher learning have 
 acted in giving to the world the electric telegraph will be 
 found by the careful student of Political Economy to be the 
 more interesting, and the greater, the more searchingly it 
 is examined. He will find that many, if not indeed every 
 philosopher whose scientific experiments contributed to 
 make it possible for man to sufficiently understand the 
 mysterious powers which are brought into exercise in the 
 electric telegraph, had been indebted for much, if not for 
 all, of his education to institutions of higher learning. 
 That certain phenomena, such as that amber and some 
 other bodies when rubbed possess singular properties, 
 attracted the attention of some learned men of two thou- 
 sand and more years ago. The mysterious force which 
 could be awakened by friction came to be called electricity. 
 Its study and that of kindred phenomena became in time 
 an abstruse science. Electricity is an imponderable, subtle 
 agent which may be even said to pervade all matter and 
 to be ever ready, if excited, to display its existence. 
 Much that one would wish to know respecting electricity, 
 science has not yet disclosed. She has even long declined 
 to satisfy the curiosity of man by telling him whether elec- 
 tricity is a material agent, or merely a property of matter, 
 or whether the secret of its power is due to the vibrations 
 of an ether. She has secrets for those who serve her 
 which may be as interesting as are any that she has yet 
 disclosed. 
 
 The inventor of the first electric telegraph instrument 
 was Samuel Finley Breese Morse. One of his grand- 
 fathers had been President of Princeton College and his 
 father was a clergyman of wide learning who when a 
 youth had graduated at Yale College. In due time 
 
70 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Finley Morse — as he was sometimes called — was sent 
 to Yale College. The Legislature of Connecticut had 
 from the year 1701 taken a deep interest in providing for 
 the support of its college. Although in the year 1755 
 the yearly appropriation of funds was for a time discon- 
 tinued on account of financial embarrassment brought 
 upon the Colony by the Canadian war, yet this loss to 
 the college had been in some degree made good by the 
 Legislature making a larger appropriation in the year 
 1792 for its principal seat of learning than it had ever 
 made before. The institution which had received many 
 gifts from citizens was also more closely identified with 
 the government of Connecticut than it had ever been 
 before. With the handsome fund which the State appro- 
 priated for the college, real estate was bought, three new 
 academical buildings and a house for its president were 
 erected, and a handsome addition made to its already 
 valuable library. New professorships were established, 
 and what is perhaps at present most worthy of notice " a 
 complete philosophical and chemical apparatus " was pro- 
 vided for this already celebrated centre of learning. 
 Among the studies to which young Morse was introduced 
 in college was the interesting science of electricity. The 
 professor of natural philosophy in Yale College was the 
 learned Prof. Jeremiah Day. In his lectures, Dr. Day 
 dwelt carefully on electricity.* Mr. Irenaeus Prime, in a 
 very interesting biography of the distinguished inventor 
 of the electric telegraph, states, after giving a record of the 
 lectures delivered and the text-books used on electricity, 
 by Prof. Day, that one of the professor's experiments 
 with electricity " was the germ of the great invention that 
 now daily and hourly astonishes the world, and has given 
 
 * Testimony given by Prof. Day in a court of law in the highly interesting 
 " Life of Samuel F. B. Morse," by Samuel Irenaeus Prime, p. 19. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 7 1 
 
 immortality of fame to the student who twenty years 
 afterward, conceived the idea of making this experiment 
 of practical value to mankind." Morse himself, alluding 
 to one of the professor's experiments thus spoke : " It was 
 the crude seed which took root in my mind, and grew 
 up into form and ripened into the invention of the Tele- 
 graph.'' Morse's able biographer adds : " But there was 
 at the same time, in the faculty of Yale College, another 
 illustrious man, to whom more than to Dr. Dwight or Dr. 
 Day, Mr. Morse was indebted for those impressions which 
 resulted finally in his great invention. Benjamin Silliman 
 long held front rank among men of science." After pay- 
 ing a graceful tribute to Prof. Silliman's learning the 
 biographer presents some highly interesting testimony 
 delivered in a court of law by Prof. Silliman, respecting 
 the care and thoroughness with which Morse had pursued 
 the study of certain branches of electrical science. To 
 the Rev. Mr. Morse, — the father of Samuel F. B. Morse, 
 — Prof. McLean, of Princeton College, had sent for publi- 
 cation a paper on electricity which might well excite the 
 mind of the young man. After leaving college young 
 Morse continued to pursue his studies in electricity 
 studying under Prof. Dana of the University of New 
 York and under Prof. Renwick of Columbia College. 
 
 Morse, however gifted in intellect, was poor. His 
 father had had his scanty means swept away by having 
 indorsed for a friend. Thus to his sons he had bequeathed 
 a debt instead of a fortune. After leaving college young 
 Morse having taken lessons in painting was enabled to 
 earn a subsistence by painting portraits. In order to ac- 
 quire training as an artist he spent some years in Europe 
 taking lessons of celebrated painters. In the year 1832 
 when on his way from France back to his native land, 
 while conversing upon Benjamin Franklin's experiments 
 
72 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 with electricity, a great thought came to him — a great 
 thought respecting electricity which deeply agitated him. 
 Henceforth, his mind was to be in travail until the elec- 
 tric telegraph should be born. He withdrew from every 
 one and noted in his pocket-book the wonderful plan 
 which he had conceived. At night when he retired, 
 sleep refused to throw her kindly mantle on him. He 
 felt that the Deity had suddenly called him to act a great 
 part in the history of civilization. From this period for 
 many years, Morse was to heroically labor to impress 
 upon the public mind, less gifted in some respects than 
 his own, the value to the human race of an electric tele- 
 graph. He was poor. Although he believed that he 
 possessed the secret of bringing the inhabitants of distant 
 parts of the world into instantaneous communication, and, 
 although he might well feel that wealth and fame were 
 hovering about him, he was too poor to make the costly 
 experiments which the incredulous public required before 
 it would credit the new surprise which science had in store 
 for mankind. His situation became forlorn, and he had 
 a family of three motherless children to provide for. 
 Sad-hearted, — day after day was passing over his head. 
 Should death overtake him all his labors for the human 
 race might be lost to the world. Let a curtain here hide 
 the sorrows and struggles of unrecognized genius. 
 
 Happily, in the year 1835, Morse was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of the Literature of Design in the University of the 
 City of New York. This university fronts Washington 
 Square. It would be highly interesting to notice, in 
 passing, the services which this noble seat of learning has 
 rendered the world. The Rev. John Hall, of New York, 
 — a graduate of Belfast College, Ireland, — whose devotion 
 to the cause of true learning and whose high Christian 
 character may well remind one of the noblest virtues of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 73 
 
 the Puritans, — is the Chancellor of the university — a 
 university which is still rendering the Empire State and 
 the world inestimable service. May it long be blessed 
 with prosperity ! 
 
 Prof. Morse was enabled — especially living as he did in 
 a university building — to make, in spare hours many ex- 
 periments with his electric telegraph instruments. He 
 was enabled to improve the system of telegraphic signs, 
 and alphabet and sounds which his highly trained mind 
 had devised. 
 
 Prof. Morse, in a letter* in which he alluded to his 
 going to the university, said : " There I immediately 
 commenced, with very limited means, to experiment upon 
 my invention." He then, after describing the apparatus 
 which he employed in his experiments, continued : "With 
 this apparatus, rude as it was, and completed before 
 the first of the year 1836, I was enabled to and did 
 mark down telegraphic intelligible signs, and to make 
 and did make distinguishable sounds for telegraphing ; 
 and having arrived at that point, I exhibited it to some 
 of my friends early in that year, and among others to 
 Prof. Leonard D. Gale who was a college professor of 
 the University. * * * Up to the autumn of 1 837 my 
 telegraphic apparatus existed in so rude a form that I felt 
 a reluctance to have it seen. My means were very limi- 
 ted — so limited as to preclude the possibility of construct- 
 ing an apparatus of such mechanical finish as to warrant 
 my success in venturing upon its public exhibition. I 
 had no wish to expose to ridicule the representative of so 
 many hours of laborious thought." 
 
 Not the least of the advantages which Morse as a Pro- 
 fessor in the University of the City of New York enjoyed 
 was that of the fellowship, to some extent, of men of 
 
 Ibid., p. 292. 
 
74 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 science. Prof. Gale became his confidential friend and 
 partner. In 1 837, Prof. Daubney of the University of 
 Oxford, being on a visit to the United States, and some 
 friends, including the learned Henry A. Tappan who was 
 one of the faculty of the university, and at a later date 
 President of the University of Michigan, were invited to 
 see experiments on the telegraph. Among the students 
 who were privileged to see the experiments was a Mr. 
 Alfred Vail, who recognizing to some extent the value of 
 the telegraph, induced his father and brother to advance 
 funds with which to make experiments of such a nature 
 as would make it impossible for the public not to recog- 
 nize the value of the invention. He also became a part- 
 ner of Prof. Morse's — a partnership which he had in after 
 years reason to value in the highest degree and to return 
 ardent thanks to the professor for the blessing which he 
 had been instrumental in conferring upon him. 
 
 In the meantime rumors having got abroad of the 
 wonders which could be performed by telegraphy, Mr. 
 Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the United States Treasury, 
 issued a circular to naval officers and to men in certain 
 departments of the civil service of the United States, and 
 to others, to furnish him with reliable information respect- 
 ing the services which the best telegraphic system which 
 had as yet been devised in any part of the world might 
 be made to render the Republic. To the circular which 
 Prof. Morse received he replied in a long letter in which 
 he unfolded the wonderful possibilities of the electric 
 telegraph. Secretary Woodbury replied under date of 
 Dec. 6th, 1837, that he was satisfied that the telegraph 
 would be valuable to commerce as well as to the govern- 
 ment. He added: "It might most properly be made 
 appurtenant to the Post-Office Department; and during 
 war, would prove a most essential aid to the military 
 operations of the country." 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 75 
 
 Prof. Morse showed his invention to many scientists 
 and was always attentive to any suggestions which they 
 made. Thus, he may not only be said to have called to 
 his aid whatever suggestions he might thus obtain, but to 
 have also received the indorsement of so many men of 
 science that a dignity surrounded his invention which 
 necessarily commanded a consideration . at the hands of 
 the United States Government. For example, the Frank- 
 lin Institute of Philadelphia — a learned Society which 
 Franklin had helped to found — appointed a Committee 
 to carefully examine the invention and to report to the 
 Society its conclusions. One of them, Robert M. Patter- 
 son had been a correspondent of Jefferson's, to whom the 
 aged statesman had contributed some highly philosophic 
 thoughts pointing out improvements of vast importance 
 to civilized nations which might be made in the system 
 of weights and measures in general use in the transactions 
 of commerce. Patterson was the Professor of Natural 
 Philosophy, of Chemistry, and of Mathematics in the 
 University of Pennsylvania — a university which, as has 
 been said, owed its origin to Franklin. At a later period 
 he was one of the professors of the University of Virginia. 
 He was also President of the American Philosophic So- 
 ciety as well as a member of the Franklin Institute. An- 
 other member of the Committee was Roswell Park, a 
 professor in Natural Philosophy of the University of 
 Pennsylvania. Prof. Walker of the Philadelphia High 
 School, Isaiah Lukens who was a very able mechanician, 
 and two other scientists connected with the United States 
 mint, — one of them being at a later period at the head of 
 the Department of Weights and Measures of the United 
 States, — made a body of men whose conclusions might 
 well command the attention of the most incredulous 
 minds. This learned Committee reported to the Institute 
 with high admiration that not only had electricity, by 
 
j6 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Morse's invention, been reduced to subserviency to man's 
 wishes, but that the invention was capable of being made 
 of such value to the Republic, that the National Govern- 
 ment should advance the means with which to test its 
 possibilities on a large scale% When Prof. Morse informed 
 by letter one of his brothers of the action of the Franklin 
 Institute his accomplished brother wrote back to him, 
 saying : " Your invention, measuring it by the power 
 which it will give man to accomplish his plans, is not only 
 the greatest invention of the age, but the greatest inven- 
 tion of any age. I see, as an almost immediate effect, 
 that the surface of the earth will be net-worked with wire, 
 and every wire will be a nerve, conveying to every part 
 intelligence of what is doing in every other part. The 
 earth will become a huge animal with ten million hands, 
 and every hand a pen to record whatever the directing 
 soul may dictate. No limit can be assigned to the value 
 of the invention." Young Mr. Vail, Prof. Morse's former 
 student who had become his partner, on hearing what the 
 Franklin Institute had said about the telegraph though it 
 was but in miniature form, wrote on March 19th, 1837, to 
 him saying : " I feel, Professor Morse, that if I am ever 
 worth anything, it will be wholly attributable to your 
 kindness — I now should have no earthly prospect of hap- 
 piness and domestic bliss had it not been for what you 
 have done, which I shall ever remember with liveliest 
 emotions of gratitude, whether it is eventually successful 
 or not. I can appreciate your reasonable and appropriate 
 remark that there is nothing certain in this life ; that it is 
 a world of care, anxiety, and trouble, and that our depen- 
 dence must be placed upon a higher power than of earth." * 
 The high confidence reposed in Prof. Morse by the 
 Franklin Institute, and the letters from distinguished 
 
 *Ibid., p. 338. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 77 
 
 scientiests, helped to open the way for the inventor to 
 bring the electric telegraph to the attention of the Federal 
 Government. When he visited the national Capitol, the 
 Congressional Committee of Commerce, to whom Con- 
 gress, acting on an official communication of the Secretary 
 of War, had referred the consideration of the electric 
 telegraph, treated him with much consideration, placing 
 the private room of the Committee at the disposal of the 
 inventor. The President of the United States and the 
 members of his Cabinet visited Morse to see a telegraph 
 in operation. The Chairman of the Committee — Mr. J. 
 O. F. Smith — reported favorably on the electric telegraph, 
 and then in order to be enabled to do so honorably, ten- 
 dered his resignation to Congress, and bought himself an 
 interest in the patent and went with Morse to Europe to 
 obtain patent-rights in the old world. In Europe 
 Prof. Morse astonished even the Savants by the scientific 
 and ingenious manner in which he applied electricity to 
 the practical purposes of life. In the Academy of 
 Sciences of France he was treated with high consideration. 
 To the members of that distinguished society he showed 
 his invention, receiving their criticisms and admiration. 
 In Europe he met the learned and venerable Humboldt. 
 This celebrated scientist had himself experimented with 
 electricity and had published to the world the secret of 
 the power exerted by a species of fish — that which is 
 sometimes in modern times, called the electric eel. He 
 had given a graphic account of the combats which are 
 sometimes waged by the gymnoti — or the so-called electric 
 eel, — which reaches a size of five or six feet in length, — 
 and the wild horses in the vicinity of the Colabozo, South 
 Africa, — a combat in which the formidable denizen of the 
 water would occasionally strike terror into the hearts of 
 the horses and paralyze or kill the poor brutes. Morse 
 
78 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 also met at the same dinner table with Humboldt, the 
 illustrious Arago who had also made valuable experiments 
 with the mysterious forces of electricity. In a letter 
 which Morse wrote from his sick-room at the unveiling of 
 a statue of Humboldt he recalled his experience in the 
 Academy of Sciences of France. He wrote : " I sat at a 
 short distance from Baron Humboldt and I can never 
 forget the feelings of encouragement, in those anxious 
 moments, when, after the lucid explanation of my Tele- 
 graph to the Academy by M. Arago, the Baron Humboldt 
 arose, and, taking my hand, congratulated me and thanked 
 me before them all." Morse then alluded to his last con- 
 versation with Humboldt in which the venerable sage 
 spoke with enthusiasm of American science and expatiated 
 with warmth upon the scientific labors of Maury and 
 Dana — characterizing one of Dana's books as one of the 
 most valuable contributions to science of the age. It was 
 natural that such a society as that of the Academy of 
 Sciences of France should look with great gratification 
 upon Morse's electric telegraph. Mr. Smith, Morse's 
 partner, when thinking of how little the Government of 
 the United States was doing in the meantime, in the 
 matter of practically encouraging Morse, recalled a scene 
 which had once taken place in the Academy of Sciences of 
 France. On March 20th, 1800, Volta the philosopher, had 
 explained to the Academy a discovery which he had made 
 respecting electricity. When a committee announced the 
 result of their examination of the discovery, Napoleon, 
 who as President of the Academy was at the time pre- 
 siding, at once arose from his chair, and moved to suspend 
 the rules of the learned Society respecting the formalities 
 it was accustomed to observe, and to at once confer a 
 gold medal on the illustrious scientist. The proposition 
 was carried by acclamation, and Napoleon on the same 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 79 
 
 day presented the philosopher with two thousand crowns. 
 It may here be added that Napoleon offered a prize of 
 sixty thousand francs to any one who would make as 
 valuable a discovery respecting electricity as had Franklin 
 or Volta. Napoleon also provided for a yearly prize of 
 three thousand francs for the best experiments with what 
 is called the galvanic fluid. This is not the place to linger 
 to give an account of the experience of the American in- 
 ventor in Europe. In France the patent which he procured 
 was practically worthless. The despotic government of the 
 period was afraid to allow the people to employ an agent 
 which might be useful to them in combining at a given 
 instant against the government. A time was to come when 
 Napoleon III. was to act in some respects in a highly gener- 
 ous manner to Morse and was to unite with other govern- 
 ments in making him a pecuniary return for his invention, 
 but in the meanwhile Prof. Morse was becoming poorer 
 and poorer. When he finally, after making an arrange- 
 ment with the Russian government which in time might 
 be worth something to him, returned to America he found 
 that during the years that he had been absent from his 
 native land his government had given little or no atten- 
 tion to the telegraph. 
 
 Without pausing to dwell upon the professor's struggle 
 with poverty, — or of the new testimonials which men of 
 science presented to him respecting his invention, — or 
 of the electrical experiments which Prof. Henry of Prince- 
 ton College, — who in his department had perhaps no 
 superior in the world, — made for Prof. Morse, it is inter- 
 esting to note that Congress finally — amidst jeers in the 
 House of Representatives — appropriated by a majority of 
 but six votes, thirty thousand dollars to enable Prof. Morse 
 to construct a telegraph on a scale which would prove to 
 the world whether it was or was not of value to a great 
 
80 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 nation. In the United States Senate the bill passed in 
 silence as the clock was about striking midnight on the 
 last night of a session. Prof. Morse was a man of deep 
 Evangelical convictions. He had sat in the gallery of 
 Congress when his invention had been treated with 
 derision*. From the Senate chamber he had retired on 
 Feb. 24th, 1842 — the last day of the session — as night 
 was settling on the Capitol of the United States. A 
 Senator had informed him that between one and two 
 hundred measures would have to be passed upon before 
 the appropriation for a telegraph could be taken up and 
 that it was impossible for the Senate to act upon an electric 
 telegraph bill. Sad-hearted and with only twenty-five 
 cents in his pocket — without money with which to return 
 to New York, — Morse retired to enjoy a tranquil slumber. 
 He firmly believed that a Divine providence would not 
 forsake him. 
 
 There has been a temptation felt on the part of some of 
 Morse's biographers to consider the pleasantly affecting 
 manner in which the news of what had been done for him 
 in the Senate just before midnight, was conveyed to him 
 by a young lady, as being romantic. The truth is, how- 
 ever, that the young lady was very young and the 
 daughter of an old college friend at whose house he was a 
 guest — a friend who was the United States Commissioner 
 of Patents and who had labored among his friends in the 
 Senate while Morse was asleep and had had the pleasure 
 of seeing the bill to give the telegraph a trial, pass just as 
 the Senate was about being dissolved. His daughter 
 Miss Ellsworth, was doubtless a kind-hearted girl who 
 broke the news to the professor in a peculiarly kind 
 manner and it was fitting that Prof. Morse should give to 
 the world a proof of the beautiful friendship which ex- 
 isted between himself and Miss Ellsworth by engaging 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 8 1 
 
 that she should be the first one to send a message on the 
 telegraph when it should be formally tested in the 
 presence of the world. In due time President Polk, who 
 was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, 
 signed the bill which was to appropriate thirty thousand 
 dollars to enable Prof. Morse to ultimately prove to the 
 world not only that man could instantaneously correspond 
 with his fellows though separated by fifty or one hundred 
 miles, but that he could in a fraction of a second corre- 
 spond with friends who might be living in the most 
 distant tropics or in either of the hemispheres. 
 
 Well it was that the Government of the United States 
 had not longer delayed to give due attention to the 
 electric telegraph. To a friend Prof. Morse wrote : 
 " My personal funds were reduced to a fraction of a 
 dollar, and, had the passage of the bill failed from any 
 cause, there would have been little prospect for another 
 attempt on my part to introduce to the world my new 
 invention." With energy Prof. Morse set to work to 
 connect by telegraph Baltimore and the national capital. 
 He made many experiments with electricity on a scale 
 which had before been beyond his means to make. On 
 Aug. ioth, 1843, he wrote to John C. Spencer, Secretary 
 of the Treasury, that he had proved the truth of a law of 
 electricity which was destined to be of the grandest con- 
 sequence in telegraphy. After describing his experiments 
 he informed the Secretary of War that his experiments 
 had been performed in the presence of Professors Ren- 
 wick, Draper, Ellet and Schaeffer and his assistants Pro- 
 fessors Fisher and Gale ; and that Professors Silliman, 
 Henry, Torrey and Dr. Chilton would have been pres- 
 ent had they not been detained by their official duties. 
 He added : " The practical inference from this law is, 
 that a telegraphic communication on the Electric Mag- 
 
82 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 netic plan may with certainty be established ACROSS 
 THE ATLANTIC Ocean ! " Prof. Morse further added : 
 "Startling as this may now seem, I am confident the 
 time will come when this project will be realized." The 
 Secretary of War replied that he was gratified with the 
 results of his experiments and that he trusted that the 
 country would have reason to be satisfied with his labors. 
 In the meanwhile the heaviest trial in some respects which 
 Prof. Morse had yet had to bear settled upon him. He 
 had intended to cover the telegraph wires with a coating 
 of lead and to lay them under ground all the way from 
 Washington to Baltimore. After spending in so doing 
 about twenty-three thousand dollars of the government 
 appropriation of thirty thousand dollars he had made the 
 startling and at first very sad discovery that the electric 
 current would not take kindly to his arrangement for 
 underground wires. His friends about him feared that his 
 mind and strength would give way. Years before he had 
 suggested to Secretary Woodbury a plan for using posts 
 to support the wires. He decided to try such a plan, but 
 he had to encounter the difficulty of doing so in a way 
 which would keep captive the electric current until it had 
 performed his bidding. The professor had to decide upon 
 a practicable plan by which the wires when they touched the 
 posts would be insulated. Two plans were suggested to 
 him, one, by Alfred Vail, and the other by Mr. Ezra 
 Cornell — who afterwards founded the University which is 
 called by his name and is now one of the wealthiest uni- 
 versities in the great State of New York. Mr. Cornell 
 was a man of energy and of remarkable business and 
 practical intelligence. He had studied at a public school 
 and had at one time of his life been a school teacher. He 
 had acquired habits of thought which were to be very 
 useful to Mr. Morse. Mr. Cornell, who was engaged by 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 83 
 
 Morse to help him in various ways, showed remarkable 
 intelligence. He also privately studied about electricity 
 in the Congressional library. The plan for insulating the 
 wires with the aid of glass where they were supported by 
 poles did not receive the preference by Prof. Morse, over 
 the plan suggested by Mr. Vail. The sorely tried profes- 
 sor gave directions that expensive measures which the 
 new plan demanded should be taken. Happily at this 
 critical juncture Morse visited Prof. Henry of Princeton 
 College. Prof. Henry showed him that he had made a 
 mistake in adopting the plan for insulating the wires 
 which he had decided to adopt, and that the mistake must 
 end in disaster as had his first plan of covering the wires 
 with lead and earth — but that if he would adopt the one 
 of the two plans which he had rejected he would be en- 
 abled to accomplish his purpose. Prof. Morse returned to 
 his work, countermanded the expensive measures which 
 he had decided to apply to the wires, and adopted the 
 plan endorsed by Prof. Henry. Sad indeed it would 
 have been for Morse had he been obliged to spend on 
 costly experiments so much money as not to have 
 enough left with which to complete his telegraph between 
 Washington and Baltimore. 
 
 On May 24th, 1844, under circumstances peculiarly 
 exciting and agreeable, the telegraph was formally opened. 
 Miss Ellsworth was called upon to send to Prof. Morse 
 the first message. She knew that he was imbued with 
 the faith of the Puritans and that through all the trials 
 through which he had passed he had looked for the sup- 
 port and the blessing of the Almighty. With great deli- 
 cacy she selected a part of a verse from the Bible to flash 
 over the wire to her friend. Her message was: "What 
 has God wrought?" A member of Congress named 
 Seymour, who was afterwards Governor of Connecticut, 
 
84 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 at once claimed the slip of paper on which the first mes- 
 sage was received, on the ground that Miss Ellsworth 
 was a native of Hartford. The mystic paper was depos- 
 ited in the Hartford Museum or Athenaeum, where it is 
 still preserved. It is not necessary to here dwell upon 
 the services rendered to the people of the United States 
 by the first telegraph line built in America. Congress 
 soon after its completion passed a second appropriation to 
 keep it in operation. If about this period one could 
 have been permitted to look into Miss Ellsworth's diary 
 he would have seen in it a little poem in Prof. Morse's 
 handwriting. The words read : 
 
 TO MISS A. G. E. 
 
 THE SUN-DIAL. 
 
 " Horas non numero nisi serenas." 
 
 " I note not the hours except they be bright." 
 
 The sun when it shines in a clear cloudless sky 
 Marks the time on my disk in figures of light. 
 
 If clouds gather o'er me unheeded they fly, 
 " I note not the hours except they be bright." 
 
 So when I review all the scenes that have past 
 Between me and thee, be they dark, be they light, 
 
 I forget what was dark, the light I hold fast, 
 " I note not the hours except they be bright." 
 
 Washington, March, 1845, Samuel F. B. Morse. 
 
 In Prof. Morse's character there were many features 
 which were highly praiseworthy. There was one idea 
 which he long cherished and would not sacrifice until 
 compelled to do so by a hasty act of a Congress which 
 was strangely-long incredulous respecting the value of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 85 
 
 his wonderful invention. Prof. Morse believed that in a 
 republic the telegraph should form part of a postal sys- 
 tem. It would be instructive to here dwell upon the 
 danger to which the liberties of a people are exposed by 
 monopolies. In the daily business of life the merchant 
 could perhaps be ruined by having rivals in trade favored 
 in transmitting intelligence. Circumstances might arise 
 in which a telegraph or railroad company might ignore 
 the interests of a community — isolating it even from the 
 rest of the world until it reduced it to abject submission 
 to its will. In a well-ordered government a civil service 
 wisely organized by law, could attend to certain interests 
 of the people in a way which is perhaps little imagined 
 by ordinary citizens. So many evils had Jefferson known 
 to occur in Europe from the power wielded by secular 
 and religious corporations — even travelling when in the 
 old world in lands in which one fourth or much more of 
 all the real estate was exempt from taxation on the 
 ground that it was owned by a Romish ecclesiastical cor- 
 poration — by which arrangement the poor were obliged 
 directly or indirectly to pay not only their own taxes but 
 also the taxes of this corporation, — and in various ways 
 to be to a great extent controlled and impoverished by 
 legislation which enriched corporations by placing the 
 people at their mercy ; — that he, when the Constitution 
 of the United States was about being adopted, expressed 
 the opinion in one or more of his letters that a provision 
 should be inserted in the Constitution of the Republic 
 by which the people would be protected from the evils 
 flowing from the existence of monopolies. Morse was 
 unwilling to sell to private parties the invention of the 
 electric telegraph until the United States Government 
 had considered the propriety of accepting the invention 
 at a price trifling compared with its real value to the 
 
86 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 United States. Morse's proposition to add the telegraph 
 to the United States postal system was referred by Con- 
 gress to the Postmaster General the Hon. Cave Johnson. 
 This gentleman did not at once realize the wonderful 
 value of a well-developed telegraph system to a nation. 
 In his Report to Congress he said : " Although the inven- 
 tion is an agent vastly superior to any other ever devised 
 by the genius of man. * * * yet the operation of the 
 telegraph between this city [Washington] and Baltimore 
 has not satisfied me that under any rate of postage that 
 can be adopted, its revenues can be made to cover its 
 expenditures." On receiving this report Congress de- 
 clined the valuable offer made by Morse to give it a finer 
 postal service than had ever been adopted by any nation. 
 The postal service of the United States has a far higher 
 mission to perform than merely to raise a revenue by 
 means of postage stamps. The great truth that the 
 postal system of the United States by promoting the 
 circulation of knowledge and by enabling people to com- 
 municate with each other on innumerable subjects pro- 
 motes the dissemination of knowledge no less truly than 
 do institutions of valuable learning in the land, is not, it is 
 to be feared, as widely realized as it should be even to this 
 day. Thus Morse was compelled to become interested 
 with private companies and soon, one might almost say, 
 a princely income commenced to flow to him. 
 
 This is not the place to dwell upon the honors which 
 were conferred upon Prof. Morse by learned societies and 
 by many governments. It is doubtful whether any 
 American scientist had ever before received as many 
 medals and honors of various kinds as were bestowed 
 upon the inventor of the electric telegraph. It would be 
 highly interesting and would still further illustrate the 
 'connection which exists between the services rendered by 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 87 
 
 the sciences taught, and the breadth of mind encouraged, 
 by institutions of a high grade of learning, should one 
 point out the part acted by the energetic Cyrus W. Field 
 and Prof. Morse, in uniting the hemispheres by telegraph 
 — a work the grandeur of which may well impress one's 
 mind more and more, as one attempts to realize it in its 
 true greatness. 
 
 It was a happy moment in the life of Prof. Morse when 
 in 1859, to an assembly in the University of New York — 
 at which were present the Prince of Wales, who was visit- 
 ing the United States, and the Duke of Newcastle, — he 
 made an address in the course of which he thus spoke: 
 "The infant Telegraph, born and nursed within these 
 walls, had scarcely attained a feeble existence, ere it 
 essayed to make its voice heard on the other side of the 
 Atlantic. I carried it to Paris in 1838. It attracted the 
 warm interest not only of the Continental philosophers, 
 but also of the intelligent and appreciative among the 
 eminent nobles of Britain, then on a visit to the French capi- 
 tal. Foremost among these was the late Marquis of North- 
 ampton, then President of the Royal Society, the late dis- 
 tinguished Earl of Elgin, and in a marked degree the noble 
 Earl of Lincoln. The last named nobleman in a special 
 manner, gave it his favor ; he comprehended its important 
 future, and, in the midst of the skepticism that clouded 
 its cradle, he risked his character for sound judgment in 
 venturing to stand godfather to the friendless child. He 
 took it under his roof in London, invited the statesmen 
 and the philosophers of Britain to see it, and urged for- 
 ward with kind words and generous attentions those who 
 had the infant in charge. It is with no ordinary feelings, 
 therefore, that after the lapse of twenty years I have the 
 singular honor this morning of greeting with hearty wel- 
 come, in such presence, before such an assemblage, and 
 
88 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 in the cradle of the Telegraph, this noble Earl of Lincoln, 
 in the person of the present Duke of Newcastle." * 
 
 Of all the many titles and honors which were showered 
 upon Prof. Morse there was perhaps none which gave him 
 greater pleasure than did the title of LL.D. conferred 
 upon him by Yale College. To President Day of Yale 
 College, who had been one of his college professors and 
 had on Aug. 27th, 1846, communicated to him the action 
 of the college, Morse wrote : " Permit me to return, 
 through you, my sincere thanks to the honorable corpora- 
 tion for the high honor they have conferred upon me at 
 the last commencement, in bestowing upon me the degree 
 of Doctor of Laws. I esteem it doubly valuable as ema- 
 nating from my much-loved and venerated alma mater. In 
 the success with which it has pleased God to crown my 
 telegraphic invention, it is not the least gratifying cir- 
 cumstance that you consider the invention as reflecting 
 credit on my collegiate instruction, and I may therefore 
 say that, in reviewing the mental processes by which I 
 arrived at the final result, I can distinctly trace them back 
 to their incipiency, in the lessons of my esteemed instruc- 
 tors in natural philosophy and in chemistry. Later 
 developments in electro-magnetism in the lectures of 
 Prof. J. F. Dana were, indeed, the more immediate 
 sources whence I drew much of my material, but this was 
 dependent for its efficacy on my earlier college instruction. 
 Be pleased to accept my sincere thanks for the flattering 
 and friendly manner in which you have communicated to 
 me the act of the corporation. In common with all the 
 friends of learning, I sincerely deplore the necessity, which 
 you conceive to exist, of your resignation of the Presi- 
 dency of the college over whose interests you have so 
 
 * " Life of S. F. B. Morse." By S. I. Prime, pp. 392-3. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 89 
 
 long watched. May the blessing of God accompany you 
 in your retirement ! " 
 
 Not only by inventing an electric telegraph did Morse 
 endeavor to serve his country. His literary labors were 
 very interesting. As professor in the University of New 
 York his lectures to the students have been regarded as 
 "models of graceful rhetoric and elaborate argument." 
 He published many papers in periodicals on various sub- 
 jects. There was one subject to which he gave special 
 study and endeavored to bring to the attention of Ameri- 
 can citizens. When in Rome and in some other parts of 
 Europe he had seen a vast amount of illiteracy, supersti- 
 tion and deep degradation, which he believed was caused 
 by the teachings of Roman Catholicism. He had been 
 led by knowledge which he had acquired in Europe to 
 firmly believe that the form of government of the vast 
 Italian corporation ruled by the Pope and Cardinals — the 
 Popes having for hundreds of years been Italians and so 
 arranged affairs that a vast majority of the Cardinals, who 
 elect the Pope, should be Italians, — was in the worst 
 sense of the word despotic and opposed to the teachings 
 of the Bible, and that it looked with especial hatred upon 
 liberty in Church and State in America, — and that it had 
 decided to war against the public schools and institutions 
 of higher learning in the United States and to employ 
 whatever talent it could command to prejudice, — by 
 arguments sometimes so subtle that they would not always 
 be recognized as emanating from priestcraft, — the people 
 of America against the principles of government held 
 sacred by Washington and Jefferson and their col- 
 leagues, — principles of the greatest value to the most 
 important interests of useful learning and of civil and 
 religious liberty. Thus believing he wrote a great many 
 valuable papers on Romanism — papers which were calcu- 
 
90 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 lated to set right any one who had wavered in judgment 
 respecting the value of free institutions to American 
 citizens. Many of these instructive contributions to the 
 press were ultimately edited in book-form, under the title 
 of " Foreign Conspiracy against the Liberties of the 
 United States: revised and corrected, with Notes by the 
 Author." This volume passed through numerous edi- 
 tions. In the year 1837, he edited, and published with 
 an introduction by himself, a book entitled: "Confes- 
 sions of a French Catholic Priest, to which are added 
 Warnings to the People of the United States, by the 
 same Author." On the title-page Morse put a sentence 
 which he had heard from the lips of Lafayette — a sen- 
 tence which, when its authenticity was questioned, he 
 proved to be true by producing the written testimony of 
 living witnesses in whose presence Lafayette had made 
 the remark. The sentence read : " American liberty can 
 be destroyed only by the Popish clergy." — " Lafayette." In 
 1841, Morse published a volume of papers which he had 
 first given to the world through a daily paper, entitled : 
 "Our Liberties defended ; the Question discussed ; is the 
 Protestant or Papal System most favorable to Civil and 
 Religious Liberty?" Another book which he published 
 was entitled : " Imminent Dangers to the Free Institu- 
 tions of the United States through Foreign Immigration, 
 and the Present State of the Naturalization Laws. By 
 an American." He also published other learned papers 
 to which attention need not here be particularly drawn. 
 Morse also introduced into the United States the wonder- 
 ful method of taking pictures by the aid of the sun 
 and subtle chemical combinations. He may be said to 
 have taken the first photographic picture ever taken in 
 America. He and his distinguished colleague in the 
 University of the City of New York, Prof. John William 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 9 1 
 
 Draper, realized that while Daguerre's marvellous inven- 
 tion of photogenic drawing could give pictures of statu- 
 ary and architectural objects it could not be applied to 
 landscape scenery or used in a satisfactory manner in 
 taking portraits. Prof. Draper conducted a series of 
 very learned and highly interesting experiments in the 
 laboratory of the university and succeeded in vastly im- 
 proving the already wonderful invention. The wonders 
 wrought by photography and its inestimable value to the 
 astronomer and its value in many ways to the civilized 
 nations would open an interesting subject for contempla- 
 tion. In recent times electricity is often employed in 
 photography. Photographic pictures of the interior of 
 mines and of caverns as well as of landscapes and of innumer- 
 able objects often in modern times in an instant speak to 
 one in a way which surpass the powers of the most elo- 
 quent orator or the most labored pages of the most ele- 
 gant author. 
 
 Prof. Morse was a member of the Presbyterian Church 
 and was a man of decided religious convictions. He gave 
 liberally of his means to charities. To a grandson he 
 wrote in 1868 : " The nearer I approach to the end of my 
 pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the Divine ori- 
 gin of the Bible, the grandeur and sublimity of God's 
 remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the 
 future is illumined with hope, and joy." In the same 
 year he wrote to his brother: "The Saviour daily seems 
 more precious; his love, his atonement, his divine power, 
 are themes which occupy my mind in the wakeful hours of 
 the night, and change the time of 'watching for the morn- 
 ing ' from irksomeness to joyful communion with him." 
 
 The last public act of the inventor of the electric tele- 
 graph was to be present, although eighty years had com- 
 bined to make his head snowy white, at the unveiling of 
 
92 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 a statue to Franklin. He ended an address by saying 
 of Franklin : " May his illustrious example of devotion 
 to the interest of universal humanity be the seed of 
 further fruit for the good of the world ! " 
 
 On April 2d, 1872 Prof. Morse's spirit was summoned 
 into the presence of its Creator. This is not the place to 
 dwell upon the high honors paid to the illustrious dead. 
 It may be stated that his imposing obsequies caused sad- 
 ness not only in the great city of New York. The Legis- 
 latures of Massachusetts and of New York paid him 
 especial honor. His death was held to be a national 
 bereavement. On April 16th, both Houses of Congress, 
 the President of the United States and his Cabinet, the 
 Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States and 
 the Governors of the different States assembled in the 
 national Capitol. After James G. Blaine, who was assisted 
 by the Vice-President of the United States and presided 
 at the impressive scene, had made an address he was fol- 
 lowed by other speakers whose words deepened the 
 solemnities of the day. A large portrait of the great 
 inventor of the telegraph, which occupied a place in the 
 legislative hall of the Republic, brought to the minds of 
 the great assembly of statesmen the figure of Prof. 
 Morse. Around the painting were written the words, 
 " What hath God wrought ? " Telegrams of sympathy 
 during the impressive services were received from many 
 parts of the world and were read aloud by Mr. Cyrus 
 W. Field. After the service had been opened by prayer, 
 Speaker Blaine said : "Less than thirty years ago, a man 
 of genius and learning was an earnest petitioner before 
 Congress for a small pecuniary aid, that enabled him to 
 test certain occult theories of science which he had labori- 
 ously evolved. To-night the representatives of fifty mil- 
 lion people assemble in their legislative hall to do homage 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 93 
 
 and honor to the name of ' Morse.' Great discoverers 
 and inventors rarely live to witness the full develop- 
 ment and perfection of their mighty conceptions, but to 
 him whose death we now mourn, and whose fame we 
 celebrate, it was in God's good providence vouchsafed 
 otherwise. The little thread of wire placed as a timid 
 experiment between the national capital and neighboring 
 city grew and lengthened, and multiplied with almost 
 the rapidity of the electric current that darted along its 
 iron nerves, until, within his own lifetime, continent was 
 bound unto continent, hemisphere answered through 
 ocean's depths unto hemisphere, and an encircled globe 
 flashed forth his eulogy in the unmatched elements of a 
 grand achievement." When Blaine ceased speaking he 
 announced the names of eminent statesmen who were to 
 take part in the solemn memorial service. James A. Gar- 
 field, when his name had been announced, impressively 
 said : " The grave has just closed over the mortal remains 
 of one whose name will be forever associated with a 
 series of achievements in the domain of discovery and in- 
 vention the most wonderful our race has ever known, — 
 wonderful in the results accomplished, more wonderful 
 still in the agencies employed, most wonderful in the 
 scientific revelations which preceded and accompanied 
 their development." As Garfield approached the close 
 of his remarks, he spoke of electricity as " that chainless 
 spirit which fills the immensity of space with its invisible 
 presence, — which dwells in the blaze of the sun, follows 
 the path of the farthest star, and courses the depths of 
 earth and sea, — That mighty spirit," he added, " has at 
 last yielded to the human will. It has entered a body 
 prepared for its dwelling. It has found a voice through 
 which it speaks to the human ear. It has taken its place 
 as the humble servant of man, and through all coming 
 
94 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 time its work will be associated with the name and fame 
 of Samuel F. B. Morse. * * * The future of this great 
 achievement can be measured by no known standards. 
 Morse gave us the instrument and the alphabet. The 
 world is only beginning to spell out the lesson, whose 
 meaning the future will read." 
 
 One might ask what truths would Garfield have had the 
 world learn from such an invention as that given to the 
 world by Prof. Morse ? He would have had statesmen 
 observe the wisdom of nations cherishing the interests of 
 the arts and sciences. But a very short time before taking 
 part in paying the last sad honors to Prof. Morse, he had in 
 Congress urged with eloquence the wisdom of the United 
 States Government extending aid to the cause of educa- 
 tion throughout the Republic — especially in some of the 
 States of which a majority of the voters could not read 
 and write. When speaking at the service in memory of 
 Prof. Morse, Garfield justly exclaimed : " The electro- 
 magnetic telegraph is the embodiment — I might say the 
 incarnation — of many centuries of thought — of many 
 generations of effort to elicit from Nature one of her 
 deepest mysteries. No one man, no one country, could 
 have achieved it. It is the child of the human race, — ' the 
 heir of all the ages.' How wonderful were the steps 
 which led to its creation ! " Garfield then proceeded to 
 review with high eloquence the steps which had ushered 
 into the world the discoveries respecting electricity until, 
 as he expressed it, " the work of the inventor began." 
 He mentioned by name the illustrious scientists whose 
 philosophic experiments had made it possible to apply 
 electricity to telegraphy. Almost every one — if not in- 
 deed every one — of the great men whose names he men- 
 tioned, had made the acquaintance of science in State 
 institutions of higher learning, — and a goodly number of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 95 
 
 the men whose names he named had been themselves 
 university professors. 
 
 It is interesting to here notice that while Morse was 
 laboring in the United States to give to the world an 
 electric telegraph a somewhat similar effort was being 
 made in Europe. A student at the University of Heidel- 
 berg had seen an experiment performed by one of his 
 German professors which had suggested to him a kind of 
 electric telegraph. He and Prof. Wheatstone had 
 formed a partnership and had invented an electric tele- 
 graph, which, though much inferior to Prof. Morse's 
 invention, deserves honorable mention. Even if they 
 had never adopted any of Prof. Morse's ideas their in- 
 vention would doubtless have subserved some useful 
 purposes. 
 
 It would be instructive to dwell on many of the highly 
 interesting applications of electricity to some of the arts 
 and sciences. By Prof. Graham Bell's invention of 
 the telephone — an invention which has been improved by 
 Prof. A. E. Dolbear, — articulate speech can be trans- 
 mitted for even hundreds of miles, so that one can have 
 whispered into his ear the low notes of good-will and 
 affection in the familiar tones of his most cherished 
 friend, — can literally converse with distant dear ones. 
 Suffice it, however, to conclude these remarks about elec- 
 tricity by saying that if Yale College, which has given to 
 the world hundreds of useful men, had never educated 
 any other youth than Morse she would have returned to 
 Connecticut more than all the money which that State 
 has ever expended on her high schools and on Yale 
 College. 
 
 It would be interesting to dwell upon the money value 
 of useful inventions to nations. Even the incidental ways 
 in which the members of a community are benefited by 
 
96 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 the electric telegraph and by photography, is worthy of 
 the consideration of the student of social science. For 
 example, classes of workmen receive employment in 
 making magnetic telegraph instruments and in manufac- 
 turing from ore wire ; another class of people are em- 
 ployed as telegraph operators, or as photographers. In 
 this latter class of citizens are to be found, in some 
 instances, women. In the present stage of civilization 
 the thoughtful statesman may well view with concern the 
 condition of many of the gentler sex who are thrown 
 upon their own exertions for support. In a selfish world 
 they have often sadly few ways of earning for themselves 
 an honorable subsistence. In at least some instances 
 women are employed as telegraph operators, or assume, 
 without compromising a single womanly feeling, the 
 beautiful and appropriate avocation of taking photo- 
 graphs. Suppose that one hundred thousand men and 
 women are employed as telegraph operators receiving for 
 their work, on an average, five hundred dollars, a year, 
 fifty millions of dollars are thus yearly divided among an 
 estimable class of citizens. Surely the poor have an inci- 
 dental, no less truly than a direct interest, in nations 
 cherishing the interests of the arts and sciences ! 
 
 To place a just money value on inventions which pro- 
 mote the happiness and comfort of communities — even 
 sometimes save life, — would be almost, or quite, impos- 
 sible. Yet approximations, valuable to the student of 
 social well-being, can justly be made. John Marshall, — 
 the second Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, — once calculated that the cotton-gin, in- 
 vented by Eli Whitney — a young man who after studying 
 in the public schools of Connecticut, graduated in Yale 
 College, became a school teacher, and died in the year 
 1825, — had saved the United States, five hundred millions 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 97 
 
 of dollars. George Sewall Boutwell, who as a financier and 
 statesman, occupies an honorable place in American his- 
 tory, computed the value to the United States of Whit- 
 ney's invention up to about the year 1859, at one thousand 
 millions of dollars. Should this calculation be extended 
 to the year 1880, the figures would become so immense 
 as to make it difficult for one to appreciate their vastness. 
 A basis on which to estimate the value of such an inven- 
 tion as the cotton-gin can be afforded in part, in the 
 following manner. When Whitney, in 1792, after gradu- 
 ating at Yale College went to Georgia it took an ordinary 
 slave about one day to clean up a pound of green-seed 
 cotton. Whitney was happy in enjoying the acquaint- 
 ance of the gifted widow of Gen. Greene — one of the most 
 distinguished generals of the war for Independence. She, 
 having urged him and encouraged him in the kindly 
 manner which is one of the charms of the gentler sex, to 
 endeavor to invent some contrivance for freeing the 
 fleecy material from its undesired attendants, he invented 
 a machine which would do many hundreds of times as 
 much work as could the most skilful fingers of any human 
 being. In the year 1880 there were at least several times 
 as many millions of bales of cotton produced in the 
 United States as there were pounds before Whitney's 
 invention enriched the world. 
 
 When science creates new and useful industries she 
 deserves to be credited by the thoughtful citizen with 
 the wealth which she thus bestows upon the human race. 
 For example, in recent years petroleum, or rock oil, has 
 been made valuable to mankind by the achievements of 
 scientists and of ingenious inventors. This singular oil 
 had been known and looked upon with wonder by the 
 ancient Egyptians and by the Assyrians. Even Herodo- 
 tus, Pliny and Dioscorides were interested enough in its 
 4 
 
98 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 mysterious appearance to allude to it in their writings. 
 It was to be found in ancient times, as it is to be found 
 to-day, in Italy, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, on the 
 slopes of the Caucasus in Burmah, and from the Atlantic 
 coast of the American continent to the Pacific Ocean. 
 Even the mariner might have seen it as it bubbled up in 
 the ocean in sight of the crater of Vesuvius, or as it 
 glistened on the waters off the coast of what is now 
 known as Venezuela and Southern California. Some of 
 the American Indians were acquainted with some of its 
 mysterious properties. In the night, rendered more 
 sombre by the shadow of over-hanging trees, the Indians 
 have been known to gather on the banks of a stream 
 whose bosom was covered with oil. They would, when 
 about to engage in war, mix with the oil a paint and 
 anoint their dusky bodies or triumphantly shout as they 
 illumined the dark stream by setting fire to the oil which 
 floated on its waters. For a long period even American 
 citizens were to see rivers of oil going to waste, content 
 with occasionally bottling a little of it as medicine. 
 
 In 1855, the learned Benjamin Silliman, Jr., who after 
 graduating in Yale College became one of its professors 
 and added to the lustre already shed upon the name of 
 Silliman by his distinguished father, was engaged by 
 Messrs. Eveleth and Bissell of New York, to scientifically 
 examine rock oil. Prof. Silliman produced, as the result 
 of his scientific experiments, a paper in which he pointed 
 out the value of petroleum to the arts and the mode 
 of treatment to which the crude oil should be sub- 
 jected to make it yield results useful to man. Not, how- 
 ever, until the year 1859, did people awake, even to a 
 limited degree, to a realization of the vastness of the 
 mineral wealth which science had just revealed to the 
 world. When in the year 1859, oil wells commenced to 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 99 
 
 yield princely fortunes to their owners, a scene of wild 
 excitement was enacted in Pennsylvania. Thousands of 
 people rushed to fields and hills in whose depths were 
 subterranean rivers of wealth. Villages were called into 
 existence one might almost say instantaneously. Men 
 got rich suddenly and often parted with their newly 
 acquired gold as though it had been a plaything. In 
 time, however, the excitement subsided and a new, yet 
 an immense, industry recovered from its intoxication. 
 The invention of lamps suited to the use of the new kind 
 of oil gave a great impetus to the petroleum industry. 
 The first patent for lamps was made in 1859 an ^ during 
 that year some forty inventions for lamps and patent 
 burners and for appliances in general for using oil, were 
 patented. In i860, although the mutterings of the 
 approaching storm of civil war much occupied the minds 
 of thoughtful people, seventy-one such inventions were 
 made. In 1861, fifty three new patents were granted at 
 Washington, and in 1862 one hundred and one patents 
 were issued to facilitate the employment of petroleum in 
 lamps. Each succeeding year increased the number of 
 inventions by which the refined oil is made useful to the 
 human race. To speak of the valuable inventions which 
 have been made for transporting petroleum great dis- 
 tances, and the innumerable ways in which the refined oil, 
 — or kerosene as it is called, — and of the way in which 
 the products that remain when the oil is refined, are 
 applied to the arts, would be to write a chapter which 
 might well excite the interest of the student of political 
 economy. In twenty years' time the petroleum industry 
 became a source of vast wealth to the United States. 
 Many thousands of men have been enabled to support 
 their families by the means which have flowed to them 
 through the newly opened industry. Pennsylvania alone 
 
IOO A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 received up to the year 1879, — to say nothing of what it 
 and different parts of the United States, have received 
 since 1879, an ^ to sa y nothing of the lowness of the price 
 at which it at times sold vast quantities of oil, — $293,872,- 
 162. Up to 1879, at l east $488,079,842 worth of oil was 
 exported from the United States to different parts of the 
 world — to say nothing of the value of the oil used in the 
 United States. But these figures represent but a small 
 part of the benefit received by mankind from the service 
 rendered by scientists and by inventors in making petro- 
 leum useful to the nations of the earth. The art of 
 refining petroleum has been introduced from the United 
 States into different lands. One may almost say that 
 wherever mercantile enterprise can make itself felt there 
 kerosene is apt to be found. Light has been brought to 
 millions of people who had once to spend their evenings 
 in partial, if not in complete, darkness. — Thus the hours of 
 day have been lengthened to many households. The old, 
 often unprofitable and dreary, winter evenings of many 
 homes, have become hours of happy recreation or of 
 study and improvement. Many bold whalers whose ships 
 were wont to vex every sea and to dare even the perils of 
 the Arctic regions, have been, in a measure, relieved from 
 their arduous toil, and the persecuted yet inoffensive 
 whale has been left in some degree in peace. The substi- 
 tution of the light of kerosene for the ancient pine-knot 
 or tallow dip is one of the many revolutions which science 
 has been instrumental in bringing about in recent years. 
 The wealth which petroleum since it was touched by the 
 hand of science has given to the United States, was all 
 the more valuable, coming as it did when the Republic 
 was impoverished by civil war. 
 
 It would be interesting to dwell upon what science has 
 done in the last century in metallurgy : — to show, for 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. IOI 
 
 example, how the manufacture of iron — a metal of price- 
 less value to mankind — has been wonderfully aided by 
 the chemist, and how even the iron age — interesting as it 
 is in the history of civilization — is giving way to a steel 
 age, and how by a chemical discovery steel rails are 
 made which endure more than thirty times the wear and 
 tear that iron rails can bear, thus enabling the locomotive 
 to travel with a safety and speed and with an economy 
 scarcely to be hoped for in times when rails were made of 
 iron ; — and how ships by being built of steel are made 
 lighter, stronger and in various ways safer in case of col- 
 lision as well as capable of carrying a greater amount of 
 freight than the finest ships of their size of iron. Let it 
 suffice, however, to say that if science has cost nations 
 something for her maintenance she has returned to all 
 who have cherished her many times that cost even in 
 money. 
 
 Many of the services rendered by men whose minds 
 have been broadened in centres of learning have more 
 than a money value. Wonderful discoveries in medicine 
 have been made by which the ravages of desolating 
 epidemics are stayed and by which literally many millions 
 of lives have been saved. Every new discovery of such a 
 nature, has a value which is interesting alike to all the 
 citizens of a land. In every country there is an amount 
 of preventable sickness that is very costly to the public. 
 This sickness, much of which could be prevented by 
 sanitary science, was estimated by Chadwick in 1842 
 to amount even in England alone to ,£14,000,000 sterling 
 per annum — not to speak of indirect losses. In England, 
 France and Germany it is calculated that in 1880 the 
 people on an average lived, six years longer than they 
 did fifty years earlier.* 
 
 * " The Progress of the World," by M. G. Mulhall, F.S.S., 1S80, p. 3. 
 
102 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The science of navigation is deeply indebted to the 
 universities of a past age. The astronomer — as for ex- 
 ample Prof. Galileo, — who scanned through the telescope 
 — an instrument which has a very interesting history — 
 the star-lit depths of space and penetrated some of the 
 secrets of the immeasurable abysses of the heavens, gath- 
 ered material for making a mystic guide-book and for 
 converting the moon and*stars into lighthouses, by which 
 the mariner is to-day enabled to make his way across the 
 trackless waste of waters. By his subtle calculations the 
 astronomer has made discoveries which affect every op- 
 eration of trade in which the navigator has a part to 
 perform. If Columbus, as is claimed by many of his 
 biographers — including a member of his own family — 
 studied in the University of Pavia, the fact is interesting 
 inasmuch as that university was celebrated for the atten- 
 tion given in it to the science of navigation. It was a 
 university that might well prepare a youth to render the 
 world a priceless service. The discovery of the American 
 continent was not merely valuable to the old world be- 
 cause of its precious metals. Its agricultural products 
 alone — including plants new to Europeans — was an in- 
 valuable blessing to the old world. Even the quinine 
 tree, valuable as it is in medicine, is probably vastly less 
 valuable to Europeans than is the American potato — a 
 vegetable which in innumerable cases has banished the 
 sad sickness known as scurvy from the habitations of the 
 poor. The potato is found to yield thirty times in weight 
 to the acre as much as does wheat. Next to wheat it 
 may be said to rank as a food product in the world. It 
 is in short the bread of very many millions of people. 
 
 It has already been noticed that Jefferson believed that 
 one of the greatest blessings which institutions of a high 
 grade of learning render nations is that of educating youth 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 103 
 
 to become statesmen. A few statistics may here illustrate 
 in some faint degree the indebtedness of the United States 
 to high schools and colleges for legislative wisdom. At 
 the annual commencement of the somewhat unknown 
 University of North Carolina in 1855, it was found that 
 among its alumni gathered together, there were six Gov- 
 ernors. It was found that among the alumni of the 
 institution had been a President and a Vice-President 
 of the United States, a Secretary of the Navy, a Minister 
 to France, a Treasurer and a Comptroller of the State, 
 two of the three Supreme, and six of the seven Superior 
 Court Judges, the Attorney General, and nearly a fourth 
 of the members of the General Assembly of the State of 
 North Carolina. Up to about the year 1884, among the 
 graduates of Princeton have been at least one President 
 of the United States, two Vice-Presidents, one Chief- 
 Justice, four Associate Justices, five Secretaries of State, 
 four Secretaries of the Navy, five Attorney Generals, 
 more than pne hundred and twenty Judges of the State 
 courts, more than one hundred and fifty Members of Con- 
 gress and twenty foreign Ambassadors. It has already 
 been noticed that of the fifty-five statesmen who at one 
 of the most critical periods of American history, were 
 charged with the momentous work of framing a Constitu- 
 tion for the United States, at least nine of them had 
 studied in Princeton College. Probably the history of 
 very many other seats of learning in the old world and in 
 America would illustrate, more forcibly than have the sta- 
 tistics which have just been presented, the silent influence 
 which institutions of a high grade of learning exert upon 
 communities and upon the world. It has been estimated 
 that at least about one fourth of all the members of Con- 
 gress, during the first one hundred years of the Republic's 
 history were once college students. 
 
104 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Colleges, as has been seen, do not merely educate men 
 to be statesmen. They give to the world engineers, 
 authors, lawyers, physicians, chemists, and men with 
 faculties so trained that they are prepared to cast light 
 upon various questions of deepest interest to the human 
 race. Many of these men are better qualified to serve 
 the communities in which they reside than it would have 
 been possible for them to be had there been no generous 
 provision made for their mental culture. Of all the ser- 
 vices which institutions of a high grade of learning have 
 rendered the world there is none more interesting and 
 important than the blessing which they have rendered by 
 qualifying men to examine and appreciate the claims of 
 the Christian religion and to put a just value upon the 
 pretensions and superstitions of false religions. One 
 may well observe with ever increasing interest, how 
 large is the number of the ministers of Evangelical 
 Christianity who have studied and taught in universities. 
 Among these men, to whom in the Divine providence 
 the world owes the deepest gratitute, might be men- 
 tioned Wickliff, who translated the Bible into English ; 
 the martyrs John Huss and Jerome of Prague ; Luther, 
 who did a work in Germany, which the more it is 
 examined the grander and more important to mankind 
 it is found to be ; Calvin who as a Reformer successfully 
 contended for many of the great truths of Christianity; 
 and a host of learned ministers of the Gospel whose 
 eloquence has been consecrated to one of the most 
 important objects which can enlist the affections of 
 noble souls. 
 
 One of the many incidental advantages which a uni- 
 versity renders a State which has a school system similar 
 to the one which Jefferson labored to secure in Virginia, 
 is that it helps to maintain, or to raise, the standard of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 105 
 
 study in the common schools and in the high schools or 
 colleges. A youth realizing that one of the rewards 
 which he will obtain by being faithful in his studies, is 
 the privilege of entering the grammar school and of 
 ultimately entering the university, has a reward for 
 faithfulness in his employment set before him which- 
 encourages him in the happiest manner to cheerfully and 
 earnestly endeavor to attain at least a certain standard of 
 excellence in all his studies. 
 
 Although Jefferson had never seen many of the great 
 scientific inventions which are of priceless value to civil- 
 ized nations, — had never seen a locomotive, or heard of 
 employing electricity as an agent to bear messages under 
 the ocean or around the world in an instant, yet the 
 venerable statesman had seen science accomplish many 
 wonders. In the able paper which he sent to the 
 Legislature of Virginia in August, 1818, respecting a suit- 
 able site for a University in Virginia, he, after alluding to 
 rewards which a commonwealth may be expected to reap 
 from such an institution, continues: " The commissioners 
 are happy in considering the statute under which they 
 are assembled as proof that the Legislature is far from 
 the abandonment of objects so interesting. They are 
 sensible that the advantages of well-directed education, 
 moral, political and economical, are truly above estimate. 
 Education generates habits of application, of order and 
 the love of virtue ; and controls, by the force of habit, 
 any innate obliquities in our moral organization. We 
 should be far, too, from the persuasion that man is fixed, 
 by the law of his nature, at a given point ; that his im- 
 provement is a chimera, and the hope delusive of render- 
 ing himself wiser, happier or better than our forefathers 
 were. As well might it be urged that the wild and un- 
 cultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour and bitter fruit 
 
106 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 only, can never be made to yield better ; yet we know 
 that the grafting art implants a new tree on the savage 
 stock, producing what is most estimable both in kind and 
 in degree. Education, in like manner, ingrafts a new man 
 on the native stock, and improves what in his nature was 
 vicious and perverse into qualities of virtue and social 
 worth. And it cannot be but that each generation suc- 
 ceeding to the knowledge acquired by all those that 
 preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions and dis- 
 coveries, and handing the mass down for successive and 
 constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge and 
 well-being of mankind, not infinitely, as some have said, 
 but indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix and 
 foresee. Indeed, we need look back half a century, to 
 times which many now living remember well, and see the 
 wonderful advances in the sciences and arts which have 
 been made within that period. . Some of these have 
 rendered the elements themselves subservient to the 
 purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke of his 
 labors, and effected the great blessings of moderating his 
 own, of accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, 
 and extending the comforts of life to a much enlarged 
 circle, who had before known its necessaries only. That 
 these are not the vain dreams of sanguine hope, we have 
 before our eyes real and living examples. What, but 
 education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our 
 indigenous neighbors? And what chains them to their 
 present state of barbarism and wretchedness, but a 
 bigoted veneration for the supposed superlative wisdom 
 of their fathers, and the preposterous idea that to look 
 backward for better things, and not forward, as it should 
 seem, to return to the days of eating acorns and roots, 
 rather than indulge the degeneracies of civilization ? And 
 how much more encouraging to the achievements of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. icy 
 
 science and improvement is this than the desponding 
 view that the condition of man cannot t?e ameliorated, 
 that what has been must ever be, and that to secure 
 ourselves where we are, we must tread, with awful rever- 
 ence, in the footsteps of our fathers. This doctrine is 
 the genuine fruit of the alliance between Church and State ; 
 the tenants of which, finding themselves but two well in 
 their present condition, oppose all advances which might 
 unmask their usurpations, and monopolies of honors, 
 wealth and power, and fear every change, as endangering 
 the comforts which they now hold. Nor must we omit to 
 mention among the benefits of education, the incalculable 
 advantage of training up able counsellors to administer 
 the affairs of our country in all its departments, legislative, 
 executive and judiciary, and to bear their proper share in 
 the councils of our national government ; nothing more 
 than education advancing the prosperity, the power and 
 the happiness of a nation.* In this same paper, Jefferson 
 said: " Some good men, and even of respectable informa- 
 tion, consider the learned sciences as useless acquirements ; 
 some think that they do not better the condition of man ; 
 and others that education, like private and individual 
 concerns, should be left to private individual effort; 
 not reflecting that an establishment embracing all the 
 sciences which may be useful and even necessary in the 
 various vocations of life, with the buildings and apparatus 
 belonging to each, is far beyond the reach of individual 
 means, and must either derive existence from public 
 patronage, or not exist at all. This would leave us, then, 
 without those callings which depend on education, or 
 send us to other countries to seek the instruction they 
 require." 
 
 * " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, Rich- 
 mond, 1S56, pp. 432-7. 
 
I08 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Without pausing to dwell upon all the arguments which 
 Jefferson, from time to time, incidentally urged respecting 
 the value of colleges and of universities to the United 
 States, it may be well to somewhat briefly notice that if 
 colleges were not public, the rich could indeed send their 
 youth to whatever fanes of knowledge they pleased, no 
 matter how expensive it was to do so, but youth in mod- 
 erate circumstances in life would, to a great extent, be 
 excluded from such halls of learning. If the rich alone 
 should enjoy the advantages of a collegiate education 
 they might, to too great an extent, become practically an 
 aristocracy. The statesmen who framed the Constitution 
 of the United States provided that titles of nobility should 
 not be given to any citizen of the Republic. At the close 
 of the war for Independence the officers who had taken part 
 in the war formed themselves into an organization which 
 they named " The Cincinnati." They had medals struck 
 for the members of the Society. The decorations were 
 perhaps especially prized by the foreign officers who had 
 taken part in the war. Washington laboriously, and with 
 great earnestness, exerted his influence to cause the Soci- 
 ety to dissolve, or, at least, to provide that under no cir- 
 cumstances should it be permitted to contain a germ 
 which might develop into an Order of nobility. Wash- 
 ington conferred again and again with Jefferson regarding 
 this Order. I will here present an extract from a letter 
 which Jefferson wrote to Washington from Paris on Nov. 
 14th, 1786. Jefferson thus spoke of the Society of the 
 Cincinnati : " What has heretofore passed between us on 
 this institution, makes it my duty to mention to you, that 
 I have never heard a person in Europe, learned or un- 
 learned, express his thoughts on this institution, who did 
 not consider it as dishonorable and destructive to our 
 governments ; and that every writing which has come out 
 
a state Should have a university. 109 
 
 since my arrival here, in which it is mentioned, considers 
 it, even as now reformed, as the germ whose development 
 is one day to destroy the fabric we have reared. I did 
 not apprehend this, while I had American ideas only. 
 But I confess that what I have seen in Europe has 
 brought me over to that opinion ; and that though the day 
 may be at some distance, beyond the reach of our lives 
 perhaps, yet it will certainly come, when a single fibre left 
 of this institution will produce an hereditary aristocracy, 
 which will change the form of our governments from the 
 best to the worst in the world. To know the mass of evil 
 which flows from this fatal source, a person must be in 
 France ; he must see the finest soil, the finest climate, 
 the most compact State, the most benevolent character of 
 people, and every earthly advantage combined, insuffi- 
 cient to prevent this scourge from rendering existence a 
 curse to twenty-four out of twenty-five parts of the inhabi- 
 tants of this country. W,ith us, the branches of this insti- 
 tution cover all the States. The Southern ones, at this 
 time, are aristocratic in their dispositions ; and, that that 
 spirit should grow and extend itself, is within the natural 
 order of things. I do not flatter myself with the immor- 
 tality of our governments, but I shall think little of their 
 longevity unless this germ of destruction is taken out." 
 It is pleasant to be able to state that this Society which 
 Washington and Jefferson looked upon with misgiving, 
 finally dissolved and gave the money which it had ac- 
 quired, amounting to a good many thousands of dollars, 
 to a college that had been named after Washington — a 
 college to which Washington himself had given a hand- 
 some donation. Some of the evils connected with the 
 existence of an aristocracy are the following. The 
 aristocracy control the Government. Laws are too often 
 enacted which, however favorable to the aristocracy, are 
 
IIO A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 injurious to the interests of the common people. For 
 example, "the nobles in France before the Revolution, 
 managed to enact laws by which the property of nobles 
 could not be taxed. The common people were thus 
 obliged not only to pay their own taxes but the taxes of 
 the nobles as well. The nobles invested themselves with 
 peculiar honors. For instance no one could be an officer 
 in the army who was not a noble of a certain grade. 
 The history of every nation teaches that, under certain 
 circumstances which may arise, an aristocracy is capable 
 of enacting laws which may effect the destruction of the 
 happiness, of the liberties, and even of the lives of the 
 common people — may even be tempted to endeavor to 
 reduce their fellow-citizens to a state of vassalage — may 
 even be betrayed into thinking of themselves as a superior 
 species and into assuming offensive pretensions. The his- 
 tory of every nation in the world teaches that, no matter 
 how lovely in character some members of an aristocracy 
 may be, the existence of an order of n6bility in a land 
 is responsible for direful evils, — is an infringement on 
 human liberty and a greater evil than benefit even to the 
 favored few: — is a system which can justly claim no en- 
 couragement from the spirit of the Christian religion and 
 is at war with just principles of good government. 
 
 In a nation in which all men are equal the people enjoy 
 the advantage of the talents of the poor as well as of the 
 rich. When the people of the United States declared to 
 the world, as they did when they adopted their National 
 Constitution, that no order of nobility should exist under 
 the United States flag, they presented a strange spectacle 
 to the nations of the world who had become accustomed 
 to seeing the innumerable evils which ever result from 
 creating wrong artificial distinctions among men. A 
 Government " of the people, by the people, for the 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 people," * was indeed, a hundred years ago, an interesting 
 sight to the world. 
 
 In a very able and eloquent discourse, delivered in 
 Chautauqua county. New York, July 26th, 1837, on the 
 importance of raising the standard of education through- 
 out the land, William H. Seward said : " The aristocracy 
 with which the world has been scourged was never one 
 that was produced by science and learning. * * * If at 
 this day, wealth sometimes usurps the place of intellect 
 and appropriates its honors, it is only because public 
 sentiment is perverted, and requires to be corrected by a 
 higher standard of education. But, although education 
 increases the power and influence of its votaries, it has no 
 tendency like other means of power to confine its advan- 
 tages to a small number ; on the contrary, it is expansive 
 and thus tends to produce equality, not by levelling all to 
 the condition of the base, but by elevating all to the asso- 
 ciation of the wise and good." 
 
 Seward's sentiments regarding creating, in some re- 
 spects, an equality among citizens are certainly noble and 
 wise. Is it not so plain as scarcely to need illustration, 
 that if halls of learning are ever open to the sons and 
 daughters of all American citizens, that youth will have 
 opportunities to qualify themselves to guard their own 
 interests, the cause of learning, of liberty, and of good 
 government, in their country; but, that if institutions of 
 learning are closed to the youth of parents in moderate 
 circumstances, no matter how talented and noble they 
 may be, and opened only to the rich, that the State would 
 deprive itself of the advantages of the wisdom and services 
 of a class of people from whom have arisen a host of 
 patriots who have been one of the glories of the nation. 
 
 * Abraham Lincoln's speech at the dedication of the Cemetery at 
 Gettysburg. 
 
112 
 
 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 In a republic there cannot be a surplus of wisdom and 
 true learning. The prosperity and strength of a State 
 depend more upon having intelligent and virtuous citizens 
 than it does upon possessing valuable mines of gold and 
 silver. If only the rich were privileged to send their 
 youth to colleges then, inasmuch as riches are confined 
 principally to chief cities, there would sadly often be a 
 dearth of highly educated men in small towns and vil- 
 lages and in rural districts. The successful working of a 
 republican government requires that there should be few 
 districts devoid of high intelligence. Free colleges and 
 universities disseminate over a State men of culture who 
 directly or indirectly help in guarding the important 
 interests of the commonwealth and in diffusing knowl- 
 edge. It is a mistake to suppose that the only ones bene- 
 fited by free institutions of learning are those who 
 attend them. The good physician who ministers to the 
 sick and blesses his neighbors in their hours of severest 
 need and suffering, or by advice on sanitary matters saves 
 a community from an epidemic, is not the only one who 
 is blessed by the university. The engineer who builds 
 bridges and works of invaluable utility to generations 
 repays to the State many times the cost of his instruction 
 in the public shrine of learning. The lawyer who main- 
 tains the dignity of law without which savagery would 
 characterize a community — without which the widow and 
 the orphan would in many cases have no protector, — helps 
 to distribute to others than himself the blessings of 
 higher education. Can a more unjust objection to high 
 schools, academies and colleges be conceived than that 
 their benefits are monopolized by those who study within 
 their walls? These monuments of learning in which the 
 lamp of knowledge is kept trimmed and burning give 
 light to minds which in their turn diffuse intelligence, and 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 1 3 
 
 blessings flowing from knowledge, in all parts of the 
 Republic. Why should the blessings of knowledge be 
 curtailed by being confined only to the sons of wealthy 
 families? Would the intelligent and patriotic poor be 
 pleased at having these institutions of liberal culture 
 closed to their youth ? Let the fountains of learning be 
 ever free to the children of citizens in moderate circum- 
 stances who are to be a blessing, it may be, to the nation 
 no less truly than are the children of parents blessed with 
 wealth. All honor to the many noble-hearted people of 
 wealth who have shown themselves friends of letters and 
 of the human race by giving of their means and time to 
 found and maintain the cause of learning on the earth ! 
 What would science have done without this class of 
 friends ! 
 
 1 When Jefferson was in Europe he had observed with a 
 statesman's eye the condition of its people. Writing 
 from France to his distinguished friend and former 
 instructor, George Wythe on April 13th, 1786,* he spoke 
 feelingly of the "ignorance, superstition, poverty, and 
 oppression of body and mind, in every form " which he 
 declared was firmly settled on the mass of the people." 
 He then, from the condition of the countries of Europe, 
 derived a warning for the people of the United States. 
 He said : "I think by far the most important bill in our 
 whole code, [Code for Virginia] is that for the diffusion of 
 knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation 
 can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and hap- 
 piness. If anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests 
 are good conservators of the public happiness, send him 
 here. It is the best school in the universe to cure him of that 
 folly. He will see here, with his own eyes, that these 
 
 * " Memoirs and Writings of Jefferson," edited by Thomas Jefferson Ran- 
 dolph, vol. ii., p. 43. 
 
114 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy against 
 the happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipo- 
 tence of their effect cannot be better proved, than in this 
 country, particularly, where, notwithstanding the finest 
 soil upon earth, the finest climate under heaven, and a 
 people of the most benevolent, the most gay and amiable 
 character of which the human form is susceptible ; where 
 such a people, I say, surrounded by so many blessings 
 from nature, are loaded with misery, by kings, nobles, and 
 priests, and by them alone. Preach, my Dear Sir, a crusade 
 against ignorance ; establish and improve the law for 
 educating the common people. Let our countrymen 
 know, that the people alone can protect us against these 
 evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose 
 is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid 
 to kings, priests and nobles, who will rise up among us 
 if we leave the people in ignorance." 
 
 Jefferson believed that strong-minded, well informed, 
 and moral men were needed in a republic. He believed, 
 as can be seen by the " Bill for the Better Diffusion of 
 Knowledge " which he introduced into the Assembly of 
 Virginia in 1779, that in all classes of citizens worthy and 
 virtuous youth were to be found who could be fitted by 
 education, to, as he expressed it, " guard the sacred deposit 
 of the rights and liberties of their fellow-citizens." * He 
 added : " It is better that such should be sought for and 
 educated at the common expence of all, than that the hap- 
 piness of all should be confided to the weak and wicked." 
 
 * " And to avail the Commonwealth of those talents and virtues which 
 nature has sown as liberally among the poor as rich, and which are lost to 
 their country by the want of means for their cultivation. Be it further en- 
 acted as follows," etc., etc. The heading of a division respecting grammar 
 schools or colleges, in a very lengthy bill which Jefferson in his old age, 
 framed. See "Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Ran- 
 dolph, Richmond, Va., p. 426. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 1 5 
 
 He then in his bill made especial provision by which this 
 class of youth should be enabled to receive collegiate and 
 university instruction. 
 
 While dwelling for a moment on the interest which 
 citizens in moderate circumstances in life — indeed, all 
 lovers of liberty — should have in supporting public insti- 
 tutionS of learning it may here be interesting to supple- 
 ment the remarks by Jefferson which have just been 
 quoted, by noticing the views of James Madison and of 
 William H. Seward on the wisdom of the people of a 
 republic providing high grades of instruction for their 
 youth. Madison's public declarations, when, as President 
 of the United States, he repeatedly recommended to 
 Congress the erection of a national university, and his 
 sentiments on the value of colleges and universities to 
 nations, as expressed in the reports of the University of 
 Virginia in his official connection with its management, 
 need not here be repeated. A letter of his dated Aug. 
 4th, 1822, to W. T. Barry, may here however be noticed. 
 After briefly acknowledging a letter and circular which he 
 had received, he said : 
 
 " The liberal appropriations made by the Legislature of 
 Kentucky for a general system of education cannot be too 
 much applauded. A popular Government, without popu- 
 lar information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a pro- 
 logue to a farce or a tragedy ; or, perhaps, both. Knowl- 
 edge will forever govern ignorance ; and a people who 
 mean to be their own governors must arm themselves 
 with the power which knowledge gives. 
 
 " I have always felt a more than ordinary interest in 
 the destinies of Kentucky. Among her earliest settlers 
 were some of my particular friends and neighbors. And 
 I was myself among the foremost advocates for submit- 
 ting to the will of the ' District ' the question and the 
 
Il6 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 time of its becoming a separate member of the American 
 family. Its rapid growth and signal prosperity in this 
 character have afforded me much pleasure; which is not 
 a little enhanced by the enlightened patriotism which is 
 now providing for the State a plan of education embra- 
 cing every class of citizens, and every grade and department 
 of knowledge. No error is more certain than tne one 
 proceeding from a hasty and superficial view of the sub- 
 ject : that the people at large have no interest in the 
 establishment of academies, colleges, and universities, 
 where a few only, and those not of the poorer classes, can 
 obtain for their sons the advantages of superior education. 
 It is thought to be unjust that all should be taxed for the 
 benefit of a part, and that, too, the part least needing it. 
 
 "If provision were not made at the same time for every 
 part, the objection would be a natural one. But, besides 
 the consideration, when the higher seminaries belong to a 
 plan for general education, that it is better for the poorer 
 classes to have the aid of the richer, by a general tax on 
 property, than that every parent should provide at his 
 own expense for the education of his children, it is certain 
 that every class is interested in establishments which 
 [give] to the human mind its highest improvements, and 
 to every country its truest and most durable celebrity. 
 
 "Learned institutions ought to be favorite objects with 
 every free people. They throw that light over the public 
 mind which is the best security against crafty and dan- 
 gerous encroachments on the public liberty. They are 
 the nurseries of skilful teachers for the schools distributed 
 throughout the community. They are themselves schools 
 for the particular talents required for some of the public 
 trusts, on the able execution of which the welfare of the 
 people depends. They multiply the educated individuals, 
 from among whom the people may elect a due portion of 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. WJ 
 
 their public agents of every description ; more especially 
 of those who are to frame the laws ; by the perspicuity, 
 the consistency, and the stability, as well as by the just 
 and equal spirit of which the great social purposes are to 
 be answered. 
 
 "Without such institutions, the more costly of which 
 can scarcely be provided by individual means, none but 
 the few whose wealth enables them to support their sons 
 abroad can give them the fullest education ; and in pro- 
 portion as this is done, the influence is monopolized which 
 superior information everywhere possesses. At cheaper 
 and nearer seats of learning, parents with slender incomes 
 may place their sons in a course of education, putting them 
 on a level with the sons of the richest. Whilst those who 
 are without property, or with but little, must be peculiarly 
 interested in a system which unites with the more learned 
 institutions a provision for diffusing through the entire 
 society the education needed for the common purposes of 
 life. A system comprising the learned institutions may 
 be still further recommended to the more indigent class 
 of citizens by such an arrangement as was reported to the 
 General Assembly of Virginia, in the year 1779, by a 
 committee appointed to revise laws in order to adapt 
 them to the genius of Republican Government. It made 
 part of a ' Bill for the more general diffusion of knowl- 
 edge,' that wherever a youth was ascertained to possess 
 talents meriting an education which his parents could not 
 afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense, 
 from seminary to seminary, to the completion of his 
 studies at the highest. 
 
 " But why should it be necessary in this case to distin- 
 guish the society into classes, according to their property? 
 When it is considered that the establishment and endow- 
 ment of academies, colleges, and universities, are a pro- 
 
Il8 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 vision, not merely for the existing generation, but for 
 succeeding ones also ; that in Governments like ours, a 
 constant rotation of property results from the free scope 
 to industry, and from the laws of inheritance; and when 
 it is considered, moreover, how much of the exertions and 
 privations of all are meant, not for themselves, but for 
 their posterity, there can be little ground for objections 
 from any class to plans of which every class must have its 
 turn of benefits. The rich man, when contributing to a 
 permanent plan for the education of the poor, ought to 
 reflect that he is providing for that of his own descend- 
 ants; and the poor man, who concurs in a provision for 
 those who are not poor, that at no distant day it may be 
 enjoyed by descendants from himself. It does not require 
 a long life to witness these vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
 " It is among the happy peculiarities of our Union, 
 that the States composing it derive from their relation to 
 each other and to the whole a salutary emulation, without 
 the enmity involved in competitions among States alien 
 to each other. This emulation, we may perceive, is not 
 without its influence in several important respects ; and in 
 none ought it to be more felt than in the merit of diffus- 
 ing the light and the advantages of public instruction. 
 In the example, therefore, which Kentucky is presenting, 
 she not only consults her own welfare, but is giving an 
 impulse to any of her sisters who may be behind her in 
 the noble career. 
 
 " Throughout the civilized world nations are courting 
 the praise of fostering science and the useful arts, and 
 are opening their eyes to the principles and the blessings 
 of Representative Government. The American people 
 owe it to themselves, and to the cause of Free Govern- 
 ment, to prove, by their establishments for the advance- 
 ment and diffusion of knowledge, that their political 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 19 
 
 institutions, which are attracting observation from every 
 quarter, and are respected as models by. the new-born 
 States in our own Hemisphere, are as favorable to the 
 intellectual and moral improvement of man as they are 
 conformable to his individual and social rights. What 
 spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable than 
 that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for 
 their mutual and surest support?" 
 
 As the aged Madison proceeded in his letter to his 
 Kentucky friend, he spoke of the difficulties which Vir- 
 ginia had encountered in the establishment of a satisfac- 
 tory school system, and advised his friend to give atten- 
 tion to the example set by the Eastern States which had 
 less to contend with than had Virginia in the work of 
 education. He ventured to suggest that in Kentucky 
 the grade of instruction given to the poor might be 
 raised by adding to reading, writing and arithmetic 
 " some knowledge of geography ; such as can easily be 
 conveyed by a globe and maps, and a concise geographi- 
 cal grammar." He then continued: "And how easily 
 and quickly might a general idea, even, be conveyed of 
 the solar system, by the aid of a planatarium of the 
 cheapest construction. No information seems better 
 calculated to expand the mind and gratify curiosity than 
 what would thus be imparted. This is especially the 
 case with what relates to the globe we inhabit, the 
 nations among which it is divided, and the characters 
 and customs which distinguish them. An acquaintance 
 with foreign countries in this mode has a kindred effect 
 with that of seeing them as travellers, which never fails, 
 in uncorrupted minds, to weaken local prejudices and 
 enlarge the sphere of benevolent feelings. A knowledge 
 of the globe and its various inhabitants, however slight, 
 might, moreover, create a taste for books of travels and 
 
120 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 voyages; out of which might grow a general taste for 
 history — an inexhaustible fund of entertainment and 
 instruction. Any reading not of a vicious species must 
 be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill 
 up the leisure of the laboring classes." The venerable 
 Madison then with a kind and graceful conclusion brought 
 his letter to a close. 
 
 On the 16th of February, 1829, when Madison lacked 
 one month of being seventy-eight years of age, he wrote 
 a note to Samuel S. Lewis, President of the " Washington 
 College Parthenon " Association. In this note, while 
 tendering his acknowledgments for the honorary mem- 
 bership which had been conferred upon him, he took 
 occasion to say that his " lengthened observations " made 
 him " more and more sensible of the essential connection 
 between a diffusion of knowledge and the success of 
 Republican institutions." On September 6th, 1830, 
 Madison wrote to Thomas W. Gilmer regarding the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia and the primary schools of the State. 
 He wished there to be " a sympathy between the incipient 
 and the finishing establishments provided for public 
 education." He spoke of " a satisfactory plan for pri- 
 mary schools " as being " a vital desideratum in our Repub- 
 lics." He spoke also of the difficulties which had to be 
 encountered in establishing a satisfactory school system 
 in the Southern States. The aged patriot declared that 
 »he " should be proud of sharing in the merit " of devising 
 improvements that would make the common-school sys- 
 tem of Virginia more effective. He wished every one 
 associated with the University of Virginia " to take a 
 warm interest in the primary schools." In this letter 
 Madison spoke of his age and of his infirmities, and 
 expressed his belief that the work to be done for the 
 cause of education would be taken up by abler hands 
 than his own. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 121 
 
 William H. Seward, who as a statesman in some re- 
 spects much resembled Jefferson, in a discourse on 
 " Education," delivered in 1837, m Chatauqua county, 
 New York, stated that : " It is obvious that there must 
 always be various grades of education, and corresponding 
 grades in the institutions in which it is obtained ; and 
 that all these will flourish only when all shall be duly 
 maintained : " — that, " They must and will have a recipro- 
 cal influence upon each other." 
 
 One may well feel hesitation in presenting extracts 
 from Seward's eloquent deliverances on the educational 
 needs of the Republic when he reflects that only when the 
 great New York statesman's discourse is seen in full, can 
 justice be done to the eloquence of his language. He 
 held that the standard of education in the common schools 
 and in the academies and colleges of the State of New 
 York should be raised. He thought that " an undue 
 feeling of contentment and self-complacency," regarding 
 the subject pervaded the community. He declared that 
 citizens of the Republic ought " to possess a measure of 
 knowledge, not only as great as is enjoyed by the citizens 
 or subjects of other States, but at least as much superior 
 as their power and responsibilities are greater." He held 
 that youth were generally dismissed from school " at the 
 very period when their education has only commenced." 
 Seward, after sketching a high grade of instruction which 
 seemed to him feasible to give to every youth in the 
 United States, continued: "All this education at least 
 must have been contemplated by the founders of this 
 government. Do you think they regarded the scarcely 
 more than mechanical acquirements of reading and writ- 
 ing as constituting that standard of education which was 
 to sustain this exquisitely organized, yet most liberal of all 
 governments? No; I understand them rather as requir- 
 ing, that the people could well comprehend and justly 
 
122 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 approve or condemn, all the measures of administration." 
 Seward declared that " Great as the undertaking to 
 establish such a standard of education seems to be, it is 
 inconsiderable, compared with what has already been 
 accomplished. It is only about three hundred years since 
 a Bible, now so cheap as to be found in the hands of the 
 most humble of the race for whom it had been promul- 
 gated more than fifteen hundred years, was obtained only 
 by the tedious and laborious multiplication of manuscript 
 copies, and was sold at a price that rendered it a sealed 
 book to all but the affluent. Books of the bewil- 
 dered sciences and arts, that had been obtained, were 
 still more rare, and were more valuable than a thou- 
 sand times their present cost. Even the ability to read 
 and write was a qualification so rare, that it entitled its 
 fortunate possessor to be the counsellor of kings, and to 
 an exemption from the capital punishment adjudged 
 against felony. If at that period some philanthropist had 
 predicted that in the close of the eighteenth century, in a 
 country then undiscovered, a race would exist among 
 whom the Bible would be found in every family ; and a 
 greater number of books in a single city than the world 
 then contained ; that all the population of a great empire 
 would be able to read and write their native language ; 
 that the boasted mysteries of all science then known to 
 the few, who pursued their solitary studies in cloisters, 
 would be revealed to all the world, with ten thousand 
 discoveries never yet "dreamed of in their philosophy"; 
 would not the prophecy have been thought more vision- 
 ary than my present belief, that with the aid of earnest 
 and wisely-directed effort, all the acquirements of aca- 
 demical and collegiate education of this day, may, within 
 less than half a century, constitute the ordinary proficiency 
 acquired in our (common) schools. * * * It is certain that, 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 23 
 
 by means of persevering improvement in the system of 
 instruction, the standard of knowledge that has obtained 
 among us may be continually elevated. * * * Let us im- 
 agine this whole people educated to the extent that I have 
 supposed practicable ; and then can we conceive the im- 
 mense and glorious change which would have come upon 
 the condition of our country ! Then indeed would our 
 public councils be worthy the dignity of a race that has 
 asserted and maintained their capability of self-govern- 
 ment." Seward said that it was his belief that it was " a 
 measure quite as indispensable and of as great efficiency, 
 to elevate the standard of our colleges and academies, and 
 to increase the number of students received in them " as 
 it was to care for " our common schools." 
 
 It may here be incidentally noticed that Seward wrote 
 quite a history of public education in the State of New 
 York. The words of such thoughtful and learned states- 
 men as Jefferson and Seward respecting the provision for 
 the education of youth which should be made in a repub- 
 lic, are interesting to the student of political economy — 
 especially inasmuch as a certain class of people, prominent 
 among whom are to be mentioned the Roman Catholic 
 hierarchy, — especially Jesuits, — are endeavoring to per- 
 suade, sadly often with success, American citizens to give 
 up their public-school system, or to at least be satisfied 
 with a low grade of public education. 
 
 And now to return to Jefferson's labors in the cause of 
 education in his native State. It was natural that one 
 who wished as truly as he did a good educational system 
 to be made " the key-stone of the arch of our Govern- 
 ment," * should be deeply interested in the founding of 
 the University of Virginia. He wished the organization 
 
 * Jefferson's letter to Adams, Oct. 28th, 1813 (In " Memoirs of Jefferson," 
 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph). 
 
124 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 of the school system of Virginia to be so thorough that 
 the common schools and the University could, as he 
 expressed it in a letter to Gen. Breckenridge, dated Feb. 
 15th, 1821, "go on hand in hand forever." In this same 
 letter he said : " Nobody can doubt my zeal for the 
 general instruction of the people. * * * I never have pro- 
 posed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of 
 instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the whole sys- 
 tem." * To Joseph C. Cabell, Jefferson wrote on Jan. 1 3th, 
 1823 : "Were it necessary to give up either the Primaries 
 or the University I would rather abandon the last, because 
 it is safer to have a whole people respectably enlightened, 
 than a few in a high state of science, and the many in ig- 
 norance. This last is the most dangerous state in which a 
 nation can be. The nations and governments of Europe 
 are so many proofs of it." f Writing to Cabell again on 
 the following 28th of January he proposed to secure the 
 necessary means with which to complete the university 
 and then to push the interests of the common schools and 
 to have provision made " systematically and proportion- 
 ally," for " all the other intermediate academies." Under 
 date of Jan. 22d, 1820, writing to Cabell, Jefferson had 
 thus spoken : " Kentucky, our daughter, planted since 
 Virginia was a distinguished State, has a University with 
 fourteen professors and upwards of 200 students; while 
 we, with a fund [the Literary Fund] of a million and a 
 half of dollars, ready raised and appropriated, are higgling 
 without the heart to let it go to its use. If our Legisla- 
 ture does not heartily push our University, we must send 
 our children for education to Kentucky or Cambridge. * * * 
 All the States but our own are sensible that knowledge is 
 
 * Ibid. 
 
 f " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, Rich- 
 mond, 1856, p. 267. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 25 
 
 power. * * * The efforts now generally making through 
 the States to advance their science, is for power ; while we 
 are sinking into the barbarism of our Indian aborigines, and 
 expect, like them, to oppose by ignorance the overwhelm- 
 ing mass of light and science by which we shall be sur- 
 rounded. It is a comfort that I am not to live to see 
 this." In another letter to Cabell, under date of Dec. 
 25th, 1820, Jefferson pointed out the fact that knowledge 
 is power. " I lately saw in a newspaper," he said, " an 
 estimate in square miles of the area of each of the States, 
 of which the following is an extract : " Virginia 70,000 
 square miles, Massachusetts 7,250, Connecticut 4,764, 
 Delaware 2,120, Rhode Island' 1,580." By this it appears 
 that there are but three States smaller than Massachu- 
 setts ; that she is the twenty-first only in the scale of size, 
 and but one tenth of that of Virginia ; yet it is unquestion- 
 able that she has more influence in our confederacy than 
 any other State in it. Whence this ascendency ? From her 
 attention to education, unquestionably. There can be no 
 stronger proof that knowledge is power, and that igno- 
 rance is weakness. Quousque tandem will our Legislature 
 be dead to this truth ? " 
 
 Jefferson was aided in the great work of founding the 
 University of Virginia by a number of friends of learning. 
 For instance the learned Rev. John Rice of Virginia — a 
 distinguished Presbyterian minister and the editor of a 
 literary and religious periodical in Richmond — took up his 
 gifted pen in behalf of the policy of founding the uni- 
 versity. One of the points to which he drew attention 
 was that Virginia was incurring pecuniary losses by not 
 having suitable institutions of learning of her own. He 
 charged her with being guilty of the "most culpable 
 negligence " in the matter. He pointed out that instead 
 of saving money by not having institutions of learning of 
 
126 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 her own and thus compelling youth to go to other States 
 for instruction, she gained less than she lost. He then 
 dwelt upon one of the ways in which she lost by such a 
 policy. He said : " This is no light matter. Ten years ago 
 I made extensive enquiries on the subject, and ascertained 
 to my conviction, that the amount of money annually 
 carried from Virginia, for purposes of education alone, ex- 
 ceeded $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 
 $7,000,000. But had our schools been such as the 
 resources of Virginia would have well allowed, and her 
 honor and interest demanded, it is by no means extrava- 
 gant to suppose, that the five 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 seven millions! Let our 
 economists look to that. Fourteen millions of good dol- 
 lars lost to us by our parsimony ! ! Let our wise men 
 calculate the annual interest of our losses, and add to this 
 principal ! They will then see what are the fruits of this 
 precious speculation. In the language of the craft, it may 
 well be said 'Verily, it is a losing job.'"* In addition 
 to the Rev. Mr. Rice's appeal for the university another 
 gifted writer published an able paper respecting the uni- 
 versity, which he signed "A Friend to Science." The 
 author's real name was Joseph C. Cabell. He ended the 
 article by paying an eloquent tribute to Jefferson. After 
 dwelling upon the interest taken in public education by 
 Jefferson, he said : " Where is the man with heart so cold 
 as not to glow at the recital of views so generous and so 
 exalted? The name of this great and good man will 
 
 * " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, Rich- 
 mond, Va., p. 157. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 127 
 
 descend with his works to the latest times, and will be 
 hailed with rapturous enthusiasm by the friends of liberty 
 and learning in every quarter of the civilized globe." It 
 may be doubted whether even the distinguished writer 
 who signed himself a " Friend of Science " knew how de- 
 votedly Jefferson had labored in the cause of education 
 for nearly or quite half a century. 
 
 Jefferson realized in some degree the grandeur of the 
 work in which the people of the United States were 
 engaged in establishing a Republic which should illustrate 
 to the world the blessings of liberty and of self-govern- 
 ment. He keenly realized that if the citizens of all parts 
 of the United States did not cherish the cause of learning, 
 the Republic, — notwithstanding its hopes of grandeur 
 and of happiness, — would be exposed to humiliation, to 
 disgrace, and in many respects to degradation. He would 
 sometimes forecast with sadness the future of the United 
 States. He could almost see, at times, the horizon grow- 
 ing black with coming ruin and with the approach of 
 desolating calamities. While he would indeed sometimes 
 thank God that the evil day would not come in his gen- 
 eration yet he did not give way altogether to hopeless, 
 enervating fear. On the contrary, he would rally his 
 energies and seek to help the youth of the land to become 
 intelligent enough to successfully cope with the dangers 
 which he saw that they might some day have to encounter. 
 He felt that the life or death of the Republic depended 
 upon whether or not she cherished the interests of learn- 
 ing. It is told of a soldier who while the battle of Get- 
 tysburg was in progress lay wounded on a height from 
 which he could overlook the scene of battle. As the 
 soldiers surged backwards and forwards the scene became 
 to him grand and overwhelming. He felt that the destiny 
 of the great Republic of the new world, hung trembling 
 
128 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 in the balance ! It was with somewhat similar feelings 
 that Jefferson watched the efforts of the friends of edu- 
 cation in Virginia, — and the opposition which they 
 encountered, — as they endeavored tq establish a good 
 school system in the Commonwealth. As a statesman he 
 not only believed that "well directed education improves 
 the morals, enlarges the minds, enlightens the councils, 
 instructs the industry, and advances the power, the pros- 
 perity, and the happiness " * of a nation, — as nothing 
 could do better f — but that "no other sure foundation 
 can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happi- 
 ness." X He believed, as has been seen, not only that the 
 sciences, "advance the arts, and administer to the health, 
 the subsistence, and comforts of human life," § but that 
 the most important laws which were on the statute books 
 of Virginia were her laws having in view the instruction 
 in useful learning of her youth, and that the money she 
 would expend in maintaining a good school system would 
 be money well spent. He believed, as has been seen, 
 " That the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not 
 more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to 
 kings, priests, and nobles, who will rise up among us, if 
 we leave the people in ignorance." In short, Jefferson 
 had noticed — and only those who have thoughtfully 
 studied the history of nations can fully understand the 
 force of his words, — that the history of every nation and 
 of every age " teaches the awful lesson, that no nation is 
 permitted to live in ignorance with impunity." 
 
 * Report to Legislature of Virginia Jan. 6, 1S18. — See " History of the 
 University of Virginia as Contained in Letters of Jefferson and Cabell," 
 pp. 402. f " Early History of the University of Virginia," p. 437. 
 
 \ Letter to George Wythe, April 13, 1786. In " Memoirs and Writings 
 of Jefferson." By Randolph. 
 
 § Report to Legislature of Virginia, Aug. 1st, 181S. — " Early History of 
 the University of Virginia." J. W. Randolph, 1S56, p. 435. 
 
A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 1 29 
 
 It was with deep feeling that the aged Jefferson wrote, 
 under date of Jan. 31st, 182 1, to Cabell, who had written 
 to him that he thought of retiring from the Assembly of 
 Virginia : " But the gloomiest of all prospects is the 
 desertion of the best friends of the institution, for deser- 
 tion I must call it. I know not the necessities which 
 may force this upon you. Gen. Coke, you say, will 
 explain them to me ; but I cannot conceive them, nor 
 persuade myself they are uncontrollable. I have ever 
 hoped that yourself, Gen. Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson 
 would stand at your posts in the Legislature until every- 
 thing was effected, and the institution opened. If it is 
 so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence 
 of our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we 
 expect to proceed at all, reducing our moving power? 
 I know well your devotion to your country and your 
 foresight of the awful scenes coming, on her, sooner or 
 later. With this foresight, what service can we ever ren- 
 der her equal to this? What object of our lives can we 
 propose so important ? What interest of our own which 
 ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, (labor,) 
 on what in the single life which nature has given us, can 
 these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to 
 our country ? The exertions and the mortifications are 
 temporary; the benefit eternal. If any member of our 
 college visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred 
 duty, it would be myself, who quadragenis stipcndiis jam- 
 dudum pcractis, have neither vigor of body nor mind left 
 to keep the field ; but I will die in the last ditch, and so 
 I hope you will, my friend, as well as our firm-breasted 
 brothers and colleagues, Mr. Johnson and Gen. Brecken- 
 ridge. Nature will not give you a second life wherein 
 to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear, and 
 very dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but view the 
 5 
 
I30 A STATE SHOULD HAVE A UNIVERSITY. 
 
 sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the lesser 
 duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the 
 greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy labors 
 until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with 
 old Simeon, ' nunc dimittas, Domine.' " 
 
 This pathetic exhortation of the aged statesman of 
 Monticello to Cabell was not without effect. Gen. 
 Dade,* in the Senate of Virginia in 1828, speaking of 
 Joseph C. Cabell's connection with the University of 
 Virginia, said : " In promoting that monument of wis- 
 dom and taste [he] was second only to the immortal 
 Jefferson." 
 
 ♦See " Life of Thomas Jefferson," by Henry S. Randall, LL.D., p. 464. 
 
III. 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The amount of thought and the self-sacrificing labor 
 which Jefferson gave to the great work of breathing a 
 noble spirit into the university which was to add new 
 honors to the name of Virginia, was an eloquent proof of 
 his conviction of the priceless worth of useful knowledge 
 to citizens of a republic. 
 
 What studies will be most useful in laying the founda- 
 tion of the acquirements and habits of mind which will be 
 most valuable to American citizens is a question worthy 
 of far greater consideration by thoughtful parents and 
 statesmen than, it is to be feared, it in many cases re- 
 ceives The question becomes all the more perplexing 
 when one bears in mind how limited is the time that 
 youth can attend educational institutions. 
 
 When colleges and universities were first established in 
 Europe they were adapted, as a rule, to a condition of 
 society very different from that of the people of the 
 United States in the nineteenth century. Jefferson lived 
 in an age when great revolutions and changes convulsed 
 the civilized world. He had seen empires and kingdoms 
 rise and fall. He had seen States in the old world dis- 
 membered, overrun with armies and revolutionized in 
 some degree, by various political causes. He had breathed 
 an air which emboldened thoughtful men of learning to 
 fearlessly review the errors and virtues of past gener- 
 
 131 
 
132 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 ations. He felt that educational establishments in 
 America might be modelled on a broader, a better, a 
 much nobler basis than were some of the so-called 
 seminaries of learning of the old world. He recognized 
 the great truth that on some parts of the globe it may be 
 wise to pursue various branches of learning unneeded in 
 others. A time had been in Europe when if the uni- 
 versities rendered the world invaluable service, they did so 
 in spite of a certain spiritual and temporal despotism to 
 which they were in many instances subjected — a despot- 
 ism which dreaded the results which impartial historical 
 and scientific investigation would lead to and looked 
 with displeasure and with threats of persecution upon 
 professors such as Galileo and some of his most learned 
 associates, and which even insisted that if the Bible was 
 studied at all it should be interpreted by many and often 
 contradictory and unreliable writers — some of whom were 
 styled " the Fathers," — rather than that the student 
 should with a fearless and honest spirit seek untrammelled 
 and unvexed with despotic rules, for truth. As a man of 
 independent character Jefferson realized that the mis- 
 chievous relics of the dark ages should not be allowed a 
 place needed by the proper demands and improvements 
 of a progressive age. He realized that new and vast 
 regions of knowledge were being explored, and that 
 discoveries were being made which were worthy of the 
 regard of statesmen who were interested in the founding of 
 good educational establishments, and that American citi- 
 zens should be encouraged to attain higher and yet higher 
 degrees of useful culture. He wished the great Republic 
 of the new world to be enriched with every blessing which 
 the noblest gifts of useful learning could bestow upon her. 
 
 William E. Gladstone — whose name may with all the 
 more freedom be mentioned as he is justly held in singu- 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 133 
 
 larly high esteem in America as well as in England and 
 Europe — has declared that " The proper work of uni- 
 versities, could they perform it, while they guard and 
 cultivate all ancient truth, is to keep themselves in th' 
 foremost ranks of modern discovery, to harmonize con- 
 tinually the inherited with the acquired wealth of man- 
 kind, and to give a charter to freedom of discussion, while 
 they maintain the reasonable limits of the domain of 
 tradition and of authority."* Jefferson could not but 
 have agreed with much that the learned and eloquent 
 Gladstone has said about great educational establish- 
 ments. If he was as bold, or bolder, than the great 
 English statesman in introducing improvements and in 
 cherishing noble views respecting the grandeur of the 
 mission of universities, he was yet very cautious and care- 
 ful in the work of grouping together liberal and judicious 
 courses of instruction in the new university which he was 
 taking a prominent part in securing to his native State. 
 
 Among the many questions which the Virginian states- 
 man had to consider was, " How much time should be 
 devoted by students to the study of Greek and Latin ? " 
 It is a question upon which to this day distinguished 
 statesmen and men of letters have expressed different 
 opinions. Jefferson planned that students should have 
 much liberty in choosing for themselves the courses of 
 study which they should be led to believe would be most 
 usefuLto them in after life. He would have a young man 
 have, to at least a certain extent, an aim in life. He 
 wished him to be helped by wisely arranged courses of 
 instruction provided by the university, to form broad and 
 intelligent views respecting useful learning and to a certain 
 extent to anticipate right ambitions of a mature manhood. 
 
 * " The Might and Mirth of Literature," by W. E. Gladstone, John De 
 Roy, collector, p. 25. 
 
134 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 To certain departments of the temple of knowledge he 
 would allow young men to enter without any knowledge of 
 the Greek and Latin languages. While he did not expect 
 young men having many different aims in life to engage 
 in a common course of study he, for a numerous class of 
 young men, considered an acquaintance with Greek and 
 Latin to be of high importance. It is widely kn.own that 
 in modern times some thoughtful men have felt that in 
 many American colleges an unwisely large proportion of 
 time is given to the study of the dead languages. I was 
 once pleasantly surprised to receive through a book-store 
 which had printed a book entitled " Our National System 
 of Education," which I had published in 1877, a kind note 
 from James Abram Garfield and a couple of pamphlets 
 which he had himself published. One of these pamphlets 
 was an able address which he had delivered on " College 
 Education " at Hiram College on June 14th, 1867. In 
 this address, while he spoke in high terms of the value of 
 an acquaintance with the classics and alluded to the pleas- 
 ure with which he himself, as a professor, had taught 
 them, he yet freely and strongly expressed the conviction, 
 that a larger proportion of time, as a rule, was given to 
 classical studies in American colleges than was consistent 
 with the highest wisdom. He pointed out some of the 
 many branches of knowledge with which it is of very 
 great importance that American youth should be ac- 
 quainted, and spoke of the impossibility of their receiving 
 due instruction in various very important branches of 
 learning if they were compelled to give an unfair propor- 
 tion of their time to dead languages. Garfield illustrated 
 his address with very weighty proofs of the truth of the 
 position which he maintained and declared that in Amer- 
 ican colleges, the dead languages held a place, " in obedi- 
 ence to the tyranny of custom," which was not defensi- 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 135 
 
 ble. He declared further that " each new college is 
 modelled after the older ones, and all the American col- 
 leges have been patterned on an humble scale after the 
 universities of England." Of course Garfield was careful 
 to make evident that he did not mean that the study of 
 Greek and Latin was not of very great usefulness to culti- 
 vators of literature and especially to ministers of the 
 Gospel. He meant, however, that so many useful studies 
 had claims on the attention of youth that it was not wise 
 to insist that half their time and more, up to manhood 
 should be exclusively devoted to the study of the classics. 
 He further pointed out that there were " a family of mod- 
 ern languages almost equal in force and perfection to the 
 classic tongues, and a modern literature, which, if less 
 perfect than the ancient in aesthetic form, is immeasurably 
 richer in truth, and is filled with the noblest and bravest 
 thoughts of the world." He added that " When univer- 
 sities were founded, modern science had not been born." 
 He maintained that the place which classical studies bear 
 to other learning should be readjusted. Garfield was 
 careful to add, however, that " There are most weighty 
 reasons why Latin and Greek should be retained as a part 
 of a liberal education." He then made in behalf of these 
 studies an eloquent and able plea. u These studies then," 
 he continued, " should not be neglected : they should 
 neither devour nor be devoured. I insist," he added, 
 " they can be made more valuable, and at the same time 
 less prominent, than they now are. A large part of the 
 labor now bestowed upon them is not devoted to learning 
 the genius and spirit of the language, but is more than 
 wasted on pedantic trifles." Before presenting Jefferson's 
 views on the wisdom of giving the classics an honorable 
 place in the course of study of a certain class of youth, it 
 may here be noticed that Mr. Charles Francis Adams Jr., 
 
i3 6 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 and other able writers have expressed opinions respecting 
 the value to youth of a knowledge of Greek and Latin 
 which will be found to contrast in some respects with 
 those which were ardently held by Jefferson. 
 
 The value of an acquaintance with the dead languages 
 when contrasted with much that it is desirable that 
 American youth should know, has been attacked by wit. 
 The Rev. J. D. Beugless, in a very interesting paper 
 entitled, " What Our Universities should Teach," which 
 was published in the July number of the entertaining 
 and ably edited Overland Monthly, 1869, — a Californian 
 magazine, — takes what may be called radical ground 
 against youth devoting much time to the study of the 
 classics. In his entertaining style, he writes: " Just here 
 we recall an incident which aptly illustrates this whole 
 controversy. Some years ago, in a time famous for 
 steamboat racing on the Mississippi, two travellers, A 
 and B, fell into a conversation. Said A to B : ' Have you 
 ever studied Latin ? ' ' No, Sir,' was the reply. ' Then 
 you have lost one fourth of your life, sir.' ' Did you 
 ever study Greek ? ' ' No, sir.' ' There is another 
 quarter of your life lost.' ' But you have studied 
 mathematics?' ' No, sir.' 'Another quarter' — In the 
 midst of this last sentence the boiler burst. ' Have you 
 ever learned to swim ? ' shouted B. ' No, no, sir, I 
 have n't,' exclaimed A. ' Then there is all of your life 
 lost,' rejoined B, and swam ashore." 
 
 However highly Jefferson esteemed for a certain class 
 of youth an acquaintance with Latin and Greek, he did so 
 in a way in which Garfield would probably have agreed 
 with him. The study of such languages as Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin give a certain discipline to the intellect 
 and give a student a profounder comprehension, than peo- 
 ple generally acquire, of the meaning of many English 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 137 
 
 words. In this last respect an acquaintance with these 
 languages may indirectly be of singular value to the 
 statesman when called upon to frame enactments and to 
 lawyers and judges when settling questions of law. It 
 has been estimated that at least thirty per cent of the 
 words in the English language are derived from Latin." 
 Even to pure English roots of words Latin suffixes are 
 found joined. In a thousand incidental ways an ac- 
 quaintance with the classical languages may prove of 
 very great value to the jurist and to the statesman. In 
 a large library in which these words are being written is a 
 department of law. In this division of the library are 
 great volumes which are collections of the Bulls of the 
 Popes in Latin. Some of these missives have made 
 nations tremble. They have at times played a strange, 
 sad part in history. They have given law to millions of 
 those who have regarded with awe whatever issued from 
 the lips of a Roman Pontiff. The titles of various na- 
 tions to a large part of the continent of America have 
 been based upon Papal missives. If Protestants have 
 regarded as a superstition worthy of pity or contempt 
 many of the claims of the Papacy not so have a vast 
 number of people. The student of International law — 
 indeed every statesman and citizen, — should know far 
 more about these dusky volumes than is generally known. 
 Then would they know how to act wisely in various con- 
 troversies which are likely to occur wherever the hierarchy 
 of the religion of Rome has power. One can but appre- 
 hend that, as a rule, Ecclesiastical law is not taught in 
 American law schools as its importance demands that it 
 should be and as it is taught in some of the great univer- 
 sities of Germany. The thoughtful American citizen and 
 statesman who turns his gaze upon the conflict between 
 Church and State, which has long raged and is still in ex- 
 
138 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 citing progress in Europe and in South America, will feel 
 that it may at any moment be of the highest importance 
 that the jurists and statesmen of every land which values 
 civil liberty should be acquainted with the great principles 
 involved in the issue. In Germany no one is allowed to 
 be a lawyer who is unacquainted with Latin and has 
 passed through a university. Indeed, in Germany one 
 may often find students consulting in the original Latin 
 the celebrated Institutes of Justinian, which have been 
 for centuries the basis of the systems of jurisprudence in, 
 one may say, many lands. It has been declared by the 
 widely known scholar Dr. Max Miiller, — and Dr. Eliot, 
 President of Harvard College agrees with the declaration, 
 — that, " In Latin we have the key to Spanish, Portu- 
 guese, French and Italian. Any one who desires to learn 
 the modern Romance languages — Italian, Spanish and 
 French — will find that he actually has to spend less time 
 if he learns Latin first, than if he had studied each of the 
 modern dialects separately and without this foreknowl- 
 edge of the common parent." If, however, Dr. Miiller 
 deems it just to thus speak of the Latin language, how 
 shall one speak of the value of a knowledge of Greek, 
 -which language has been regarded as bearing, to at least 
 some extent, the same relation to German that Latin 
 does to some other languages? An intelligent Christian 
 with even a limited acquaintance with the Greek grammar 
 may be helped much in obtaining an intelligent acquaint- 
 ance with some of the expressions which he finds in the 
 New Testament. Matters respecting questions of religion 
 are so important that Christians may well gladly welcome 
 knowledge which may help them to the better understand- 
 ing what the Almighty has caused to be written for the 
 instruction of his children. The Greek language has, inde- 
 pendently of many other claims to consideration, that of 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1 39 
 
 being the speech in which the New Testament has been 
 written. Even to a cultured heathen the Bible, as a book 
 which exerts a vaster influence for good than any other 
 book in the world, can but have a peculiar interest. 
 
 The revival of the study of Greek and Hebrew — from 
 which latter language English is indebted for many of its 
 beautiful idioms, — marks a very important epoch in the 
 history of the world. An historical incident may here be 
 presented which has exerted a vast influence upon the 
 human race and is intimately united with a series of 
 mighty events of singular interest to the student of the 
 history of civilization and to lovers of liberty. Just be- 
 fore and in the early part of the sixteenth century, in the 
 shades of Oxford University, — an educational establish- 
 ment already venerable with age, and worthy of world- 
 wide honor, because of the statesmen, and the saintly 
 Wickliff, — who has been called "The Morning Star of the 
 Reformation," — whom it had given to the world, — might 
 have been seen a group of highly cultivated professors, 
 each one of whom would daily be a central figure around 
 which would gather some scholars who were one day to 
 leave the impress of their lives upon the history of civili- 
 zation. In the group of great teachers might have been 
 seen William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre, and Thomas Colet. 
 Without pausing to describe each one of the learned men 
 who shed lustre upon the great University of Oxford, — a 
 home of learning which might be characterized as one of 
 the most important of all the centres of intellectual ac- 
 tivity in Great Britain, if not indeed of the world at that 
 period, — it may here be stated that Thomas Colet was the 
 eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, who was several times Lord 
 Mayor of London. Sir Henry had had twenty-one chil- 
 dren, all of whom had died except Thomas — who was one 
 day to be called " the good Dean Colet." Thomas being 
 
140 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 rich and longing to see the youth of London instructed, 
 founded a school — which is still in existence — for one 
 hundred and fifty-three young people, and endowed the 
 establishment with what would be equal in modern times 
 to about $150,000 to $200,000. In the instruction of its 
 scholars he took a personal interest. It was, however, as 
 one of the instructors, — and as the Dean — of the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford that he was to accomplish much of the 
 noblest work of his life. Among the students who listened 
 at times to Colet's instructive lectures was Sir Thomas 
 More who was to give to the world his singularly able 
 work entitled " Utopia," — a book in which he was to 
 describe an ideal Republic with such eloquence and ability 
 that it was to exert for centuries a singularly wide and 
 beneficent influence on the thoughts of many statesmen 
 in America and in England, where some of the sugges- 
 tions which it contained were to be realized. Although 
 Sir Thomas More was never, as far as is known, suffi- 
 ciently under the influence of Colet to join with him in 
 longing to see Europe enjoying an open Bible and to see 
 Roman Catholicism converted into a regenerated and pure 
 religion, yet a time was to come when even More — a 
 persecutor though he was — was to declare of Colet that 
 " For centuries there hath not been among us any one 
 man more learned and holy." 
 
 Among Colet's students was to be found a youth who 
 had a peculiarly sad history, and whom even the exhorta- 
 tions of the kind Dean were not to be successful in causing 
 to take a far bolder stand in favor of Evangelical religion 
 than he did take. Not a little however, of what was good 
 in the life of Erasmus has been attributed to the influence 
 of Colet. Erasmus indeed had had a sad life. Before he 
 was born his father, supposing — owing to a falsehood 
 that had been told him — that she who was about to be- 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 141 
 
 come a mother had died, in a fit of melancholy became 
 a monk. Although he was not allowed by his Church to 
 recognize his almost more than orphan son, yet, despite 
 all the difficulties in his way, he succeeded in securing 
 him in some respects, a very high education. Although 
 Erasmus was to bitterly grieve the old professor at Ox- 
 ford by acting a timid part in the arena of history, and to 
 fail sadly in taking the stand which he should have taken 
 respecting some great religious questions, yet he was to 
 give the public a revised text of the new Testament in 
 Greek which was to do much towards thoroughly awaken- 
 ing Europe from the spell cast upon it by the dark ages. 
 While at Oxford Erasmus wrote : " Here I have met with 
 humanity, politeness, learning not trite and superficial, 
 but deep, accurate, true old Greek and Latin learning, 
 and withal so much of it, that, but for mere curiosity, I 
 have no occasion to visit Italy." Erasmus then speaking 
 of one of the professors said that in him he admired " an 
 universal compass of learning." Of another he said, his 
 "acuteness, depth, and accuracy are not to be exceeded." 
 
 Among the students who were to listen with deep 
 attention to the eloquence of Colet — rendered especially 
 impressive by its earnestness — was a youth named Wil- 
 liam Tyndale. With a profound faith in the truths of 
 Christianity and a fearless faith in the revelations of 
 science Colet labored to inaugurate true biblical study. 
 He pointed out with sadness the ignorance of Bible 
 truth, and the wickedness wofully common, among the 
 clergy of his day. On Feb. 1 2th, 1 5 12, a great convoca- 
 tion gathered in the Cathedral of St. Paul's in London. 
 The convocation had practically been assembled by Car- 
 dinal Wolsey's direction, partly with a view of suppress- 
 ing by persecution heretics — as all who did not believe 
 in Roman Catholicism were called. Dean Colet was 
 
142 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 requested to preach the sermon. His first words fell like 
 a thunderbolt upon the ears of. haughty bishops. His 
 sermon was wonderfully bold as he spoke of reforms 
 which were needed in the Romish church. Had it not 
 been for the protection of his friend, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and of the King of England, the hatred of foes 
 might have quickly wrought his ruin. At once learned, 
 eloquent, bold and earnest in Christian work, of a beauti- 
 ful and winning character, ever ready to encourage youth 
 to act a truly noble part in life, Colet's influence in the 
 circle in which he moved and gave instruction was to be 
 felt at times in the happiest manner. Well might William 
 Tyndale listen with the generous responsiveness of a 
 noble heart to the words of the venerable Dean. 
 
 William Tyndale, however humble was his demeanor, 
 was descended from a noble family. His grandfather, 
 Baron de Tyndale, had been involved in the wars be- 
 tween the proud houses of York and Lancaster. Having 
 escaped from a disastrous field of battle, he had lived for 
 a time in concealment. The gentle Alicia, the daughter 
 and sole heiress of a wealthy family, had married the dis- 
 guised Baron. A son had been born to the happy pair, — 
 a son who in time inherited the family wealth and be- 
 came the father of two sons — one of whom became a dis- 
 tinguished merchant and the other, who was William, 
 was to make the name of Tyndale historic. Although 
 several branches of the Tyndale family were honored 
 with knighthood, it is not upon them but upon the life of 
 William that the historian is wont to especially linger. 
 
 William Tyndale was born about the year 1477. From 
 a child he was instructed in grammar, logic and philoso- 
 phy. At a very early age he entered the already vener- 
 able University of Oxford and became so proficient in the 
 Greek and Latin languages that he was enabled to read 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 143 
 
 to his fellow-students in St. Mary Magdalen Hall, and to 
 the students of Magdalen College, the New Testament. 
 William not only studied in Oxford but also entered the 
 celebrated University of Cambridge where he is said to 
 have taken a degree. After leaving the university, Wil- 
 liam formed a lasting friendship with the noble John 
 Frith, who, although his junior in years also studied at 
 Cambridge and was possessed of rare scholarly attain- 
 ments, of deep piety, and was characterized by beautiful 
 and noble manners. He was withal a very earnest-hearted 
 reformer, and was to be associated with Tyndale in giving 
 to the world many a valuable contribution to religious 
 literature. 
 
 William Tyndale became a friar and was set apart as a 
 Roman Catholic priest to the nunnery of Lambley. The 
 question has sometimes been asked whether one can ever 
 expect reforms to originate among Roman Catholic ecclesi- 
 astics. It should be remembered that again and again it 
 has happened that reforms have been inaugurated even 
 among this description of men. It has been seen that 
 Tyndale before becoming a Romish ecclesiastic had ob- 
 tained a knowledge of Greek, which was to be to him a 
 key to the weightiest secrets of the Bible. 
 
 Tyndale was invited to become a chaplain in the hall of 
 Sir John Welch, a knight of Gloucestershire, and also to 
 act as the tutor of the knight's children. At the table of 
 the lord of the manor Tyndale would at times meet the 
 prelates and clergy of the country — would meet, — to use 
 the words of an historian, — " abbots, deans, archdeacons, 
 with divers other doctors and great beneficed men." He 
 was grieved and humiliated to see how ignorant these men 
 often showed themselves of the truths of the Bible. He 
 was even sometimes betrayed into urging them to at least 
 acquaint themselves with the truths contained in the New 
 
144 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Testament. At last the clerical visitors to Squire Welch 
 preferred to resign the good cheer of the knight's table 
 rather, as it was expressed by Fuller, " than to have the 
 sour sauce of Master Tyndale's company." Tyndale's 
 demeanor was at times singularly gentlemanly and pru- 
 dent. For example, when the knight's lady, somewhat 
 ruffled at seeing the prelates unable to hold a satisfactory 
 argument with the learned tutor, asked him whether it 
 was probable that she would prefer his judgment to that 
 of the wealthy prelates, he politely refrained from reply- 
 ing. When, however, he soon afterwards translated from 
 Latin into English a valuable religious work, he dedi- 
 cated the manuscript to Sir John and his gentle partner. 
 This handbook, called " The Pocket-dagger of the Chris- 
 tian Soldier," which he thus translated into the English 
 language, taught that Christianity does not consist in the 
 reception of certain dogmas taught by certain ecclesiastics 
 of the Romish Church, or in the observance of ceremo- 
 nies, but in yielding service to the Saviour. The work 
 was read with interest and the knight and his gentle 
 helpmate were converted to Evangelical Christianity. 
 Tyndale, however, did not always succeed in holding his 
 peace. Once when conversing with a Romish ecclesiastic 
 respecting the Pope, his clerical friend exclaimed : " We 
 had better be without God's laws than the Pope's." Tyn- 
 dale, who believed that the Pope was a man who made 
 unchristian pretensions, indignantly replied : " I defy the 
 Pope and all his laws ; and, if God give me life, ere many 
 years the ploughboys shall know more of the Scriptures 
 than you do." Naturally having made such a speech he 
 became an object of persecution. Leaving the mansion 
 of his kind friend Sir John Welch, he preached, it is said, 
 to crowded houses in Bristol. But his name was to be- 
 come historic, not because of his eloquence, however noble 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 145 
 
 that was to be, but because of the mighty influence he 
 was to be instrumental in exerting by giving to the Anglo- 
 Saxon race a translation of the New Testament and a part 
 of a translation of the Old Testament, in language which 
 will probably for ever, in great measure, leave its impress 
 upon — or mould — the English tongue and beneficially 
 affect the character of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 Without pausing to here dwell upon the thrillingly 
 interesting lives of Tyndale and of his noble helper 
 Erith, — lives which became the more interesting as they 
 neared their martyrdom, — or to notice the strangely in- 
 teresting history of the various translations of the Bible 
 into English, — suffice it to say that the more the well- 
 informed American citizen contemplates the influence of 
 the widely familiar English Bible, — in which, if the Eng- 
 lish reader misses some of the beauty of the language as 
 it was first given by God to man, he can still in his own 
 language hear the words of the Eternal as he speaks to 
 his children, — the more he will realize how happy it has 
 been for the human race that the study of the dead lan- 
 guages has been given an honorable place in the uni- 
 versities of Great Britain. What Tyndale did for the 
 English-speaking race a professor in the great Sorbonne 
 in Paris was to do for the French, a professor of the 
 University of Wurtemberg was to do for the Germans and 
 professors of other universities were to do for different 
 divisions of the human race. 
 
 Luther in the year 1524, in a very forcible and eloquent 
 address which he sent to all the councillors of all the cities 
 of Germany, pointing out the duty of magistrates inter- 
 esting themselves in securing to youth the blessing of 
 school instruction, urged upon his countrymen, with a 
 force to which Germans to this day respond, that the 
 study of Greek and Latin and Hebrew should be intro- 
 
I46 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 duced into the German schools. " What use," said the 
 great Reformer, " is there, it may be asked, in learning 
 Latin, Greek, and Hebrew? We can read the Bible very 
 well in German." " Without language," he declared, "we 
 could not have received the Gospel. * * * Languages 
 are the scabbard which contains the sword of the Spirit ; 
 they are the casket that contains the jewels. * * * If 
 we neglect the languages, we shall not only eventually 
 lose the Gospel, but be unable to speak or write in Latin 
 or in German. No sooner did men cease to cultivate 
 them than Christendom declined until it fell under the 
 power of the Pope ; but, now that languages are again 
 honored, they shed such light that all the world is aston- 
 ished, and every one is forced to acknowledge that our 
 Gospel is almost as pure as that of .the Apostles them- 
 selves." * 
 
 That Luther and the Reformers should have looked 
 upon the cultivation of such languages as Hebrew and 
 Greek and even of Latin as rendering a priceless service 
 to the cause of Christianity, was natural. That many 
 statesmen, feeling that in every land there must be among 
 the people an intimate relationship between intelligent 
 views respecting religious truths and of good government 
 believe that, independent of various other considera- 
 tions, if the study of any languages is helpful in aiding 
 people to form right religious views, it indirectly renders 
 a State a great service. As the soldiers of an army 
 must be disciplined and prepared to do effective work 
 by being made to go through evolutions and to take part 
 in military manoeuvres in many cases of no particular 
 use in themselves save for the possible benefit which the 
 State may some day realize from having a well-instructed 
 
 ♦"History of Reformation in Sixteenth Century" by J. H. Merle 
 D'Aubigne, pp. 173, 174. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 147 
 
 army at its disposal, so the minds of a certain class of 
 American citizens should be disciplined and prepared for 
 usefulness in various ways to the State. " The learning 
 Greek and Latin," Jefferson wrote in his book entitled 
 " Notes on Virginia," " is going into disuse in Europe. I 
 know not," he continued, " what their manners and cus- 
 toms may call for; but it would be very ill-judged in us 
 to follow their example in this instance. * * * I do not 
 pretend that language is science. It is only an instrument 
 for the attainment of science. But that time is not lost 
 which is employed in providing tools for future opera- 
 tion." To these condensed views of Jefferson's let it here 
 suffice to notice a letter which he wrote, under date of 
 Aug. 24th, 1 8 19, to John Brazier, a Greek scholar, respect- 
 ing the value of a knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages to American youth. The letter illustrates some 
 of the feelings which the venerable statesman experienced 
 when providing instruction in Latin and Greek for a cer- 
 tain class of the youth of Virginia. He said : " Among 
 the values of classical learning, I estimate the reading the 
 Greek and Roman authors in all the beauties of their 
 originals. And why should not this innocent and elegant 
 luxury take its preeminent stand ahead of all those ad- 
 dressed merely to the senses. I think myself more 
 indebted to my father for this than for all the other luxu- 
 ries his cares and affections have placed within my reach ; 
 and more now than when younger and more susceptible 
 of delights from other sources. * * * To the moralist 
 they are valuable, because they furnish ethical writings 
 highly and justly esteemed. * * * To these original 
 sources he must now, therefore, return, to recover the 
 virgin purity of his religion. The lawyer finds in the 
 Latin language the system of civil law, most conformable 
 with the principles of justice of any which has ever yet 
 
I48 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 been established among men, and from which much has 
 been incorporated into our own. The physician as good 
 a code of his art as has been given us to this day. * * * 
 The statesman will find in these languages history, poli- 
 tics, mathematics, ethics, eloquence, love of country, to 
 which he must add the sciences of his own day, for which 
 of them should be unknown to him ? And all the sciences 
 must recur to the classical languages for the etymon, and 
 sound understanding of their fundamental terms. For 
 the merchant I should not say that the languages are a 
 necessity. Ethics, mathematics, geography, political 
 economy, history, seem to constitute the immediate 
 foundations of his calling. The agriculturist needs ethics, 
 mathematics, chemistry and natural philosophy. The 
 mechanic the same. To them the languages are but 
 ornament and comfort. I know it is often said there 
 have been shining examples of men of great abilities in 
 all the businesses of life, without any other science than 
 what they had gathered from conversations and inter- 
 course with the world. But who can say what these men 
 would have been had they started in science, on the shoul- 
 ders of a Demosthenes, or Cicero, of a Locke or Bacon, or 
 a Newton ? To sum the whole therefore, it may truly be 
 said that the classical languages are a solid basis for most, 
 and an ornament to all the sciences. 
 
 " I am warned by my aching fingers to close this hasty 
 sketch, and to place here my last and fondest wishes for 
 the advancement of our country in the useful sciences 
 and arts, and my assurances of respect and esteem for the 
 Reviewer of the Memoire on Modern Greek." 
 
 However often taught in a way subject to just criti- 
 cism, Jefferson wished the study of the classics to be 
 neither condemned nor eulogized save with discrimina- 
 tion. 
 
JEFFERSON 'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 I49 
 
 The study of mathematics Jefferson held in high 
 esteem. This important science has a history whose com- 
 mencement goes backward for thousands of years. That 
 a goodly number of cultured Greeks had made interesting 
 progress in mathematical knowledge is well established. 
 The Grecians, it is supposed by some writers, were in- 
 debted for this knowledge to the Egyptians. Others 
 would suggest that there is a strong probability that the 
 people of Hindustan and of China had possessed valua- 
 ble mathematical knowledge in a remote age and that 
 modern civilization is probably especially indebted to 
 the Orient for its knowledge of algebra. The historic 
 Roman Empire having become a wreck and various revo- 
 lutions sweeping over a large part of Europe, the science 
 of mathematics was ultimately led to seek, for some cen- 
 turies, refuge from barbarism and neglect in the bosoms 
 of Mussulmans. The professors of Islam, after conquer- 
 ing a territory twice or thrice the size of all Europe,— 
 committing deeds of woful and almost incredible cruelty, 
 — turned their furious zeal into the cause of learning. 
 Without pausing to dwell upon the great universities and 
 vast libraries which Mahometans, in the golden age of 
 their religion reared, suffice it to say that the followers 
 of Mahomet recognized the value to mankind of the 
 science of mathematics. The great Caliph Almamon 
 caused the relics of Grecian science to be sought for and 
 translated into Arabic. As an absolute sovereign he 
 exhorted his subjects to acquire an acquaintance with the 
 volumes which he provided for their welfare. If the 
 Arabians did not add as much to mathematical science 
 as they did to some departments of useful learning, yet 
 it is to them that modern civilization is supposed to be 
 indebted for the mystic numerals — sometimes called 
 Arabic figures — used in arithmetic and to a great extent 
 
ISO 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 in all branches of mathematics. In the Arabic seats of 
 learning youth of various religious beliefs were sometimes 
 to be found enjoying a scholarly fellowship. Even Pope 
 Sylvester II., whom some Roman Catholic historians are 
 wont to regard as having been an uncommonly learned 
 man for his age, and who was even accused, by the igno- 
 rant populace by whom he was surrounded, of using magi- 
 cal arts, when a youth acquired a part of his education 
 at one of these Mahometan establishments of learning. 
 Even young women were to be seen in these universities 
 enjoying the same advantages as did their brothers. 
 Indeed it is recorded that the devoirs paid by the most 
 distinguished men to the ladies of their choice were often 
 as truly in homage of their intelligence as to the charms 
 of their beauty and of their virtue.* Unhappily, the 
 Saracens, after suffering greatly by the wars of the Cru- 
 sades, which misguided, so-called Christians waged against 
 them, — wars in which millions of lives were lost, — and 
 after enduring in Spain bitter persecution culminating in 
 half a million of them — at the instance of the Inquisi- 
 tion — being compelled to leave by way of the sea under 
 circumstances of cruelty so awful that the historian may 
 well shudder as he contemplates its enormity, — the im- 
 poverished Mussulmans made the fatal mistake of not ade- 
 quately providing institutions of learning for their youth. 
 
 Without pausing to dwell upon the improvements which 
 have been made during recent centuries in mathematical 
 science, suffice it to say that in all lands and by all intel- 
 ligent communities, the inestimable value to nations of an 
 acquaintance with the science of mathematics is in a good 
 degree appreciated. To the astronomer who turns his 
 telescope towards the abyss of space ; to the navigator who 
 recognizes the sun in its meridian splendor, and many of the 
 
 * Philobiblius' " Hist, of Education." 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 stars, as friendly sign-boards in the heavens to point out 
 to him his way across the waters of the deep ; to the 
 engineer who builds any one of a thousand different 
 structures useful to man ; to the mechanician who makes 
 inventions, sometimes of priceless worth to mankind, — 
 and indirectly to every one who enjoys the privilege of 
 living surrounded with the advantages of modern civiliza- 
 tion, — the science of mathematics is a blessing worth 
 preserving. 
 
 The University of Virginia was to have a department 
 of mathematics in which youth, who chose to do so, 
 could — sometimes laboriously indeed — prepare them- 
 selves for future usefulness to the world. There, the 
 student's mind, if given to idle wandering, was to be dis- 
 ciplined and invigorated and given an exactitude of judg- 
 ment on various subjects, while at the same time it was 
 to be furnished with mystic knowledge which would aid 
 it, sometimes, in philosophic enquiries of deep concern 
 to humanity. 
 
 In the University of Virginia the various useful sciences 
 which are embraced under the name of natural philosophy 
 — including chemistry — were to be fearlessly, honestly, 
 and earnestly taught. The authority of no man, whether 
 he was celebrated, and had been held in as high esteem 
 in mediaeval institutions of learning as was Aristotle, or 
 whether he was arbitrary and powerful as were certain 
 hierarchs, was to be valued beyond its worth. Sciences 
 were also to be taught about which Aristotle and Italian 
 Pontiffs had been as ignorant as babes. Students were 
 to be taught how to examine in an intelligent and just 
 manner, by philosophical experiments, various phenomena 
 worthy of the consideration of the godlike mind of man. 
 
 It is wonderfully strange that men and women, sur- 
 rounded for thousands of years by the wonders of 
 
152 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 creation, should not have studied more closely than they 
 have the handiwork of the Almighty and his ordainings, 
 commonly called laws, respecting the government of the 
 material universe. In all ages, doubtless, there have been 
 enquiring minds who have looked with mysterious in- 
 quisitiveness at various phenomena. They have become 
 fascinated as they have made, and in many instances 
 recorded and classified, observations of one kind and 
 another respecting the materials of which the world is 
 composed. Thus each generation has added to the 
 knowledge of mankind respecting the mysteries of crea- 
 tion. There have been, perhaps indeed, wonderful arts 
 and sciences lost to the world because past generations 
 have not always been as considerate as they should have 
 been about providing for their transmission to their pos- 
 terity, or, because the iron hand of despotism has been 
 permitted to hold a withering sway over the best inter- 
 ests of the human family, yet the world to-day owes a 
 debt of gratitude to many a student of bygone ages. 
 
 Millions upon millions of men and women have looked 
 on clear nights at the glories of the varied heavenly 
 canopy over them, as by ones and twos a vast assemblage 
 of worlds have, to a certain extent, illumined the night. 
 That the sun as it shone in its splendor in the day had 
 certain peculiarities ; — that, for example, its rays warmed 
 the earth and enabled the husbandman to' accomplish 
 much that without its friendly aid could not be accom- 
 plished by man, would be noticed and in time recorded. 
 Though man with all his wonderful dormant capabilities 
 lived until comparatively recent times without a telescope 
 and without other marvellous instruments with which the 
 civilized nations of to-day are blessed, and could not with 
 the unaided eye know how orderly and interesting are the 
 wonderful movements of the celestial bodies, could not, 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 153 
 
 perhaps, realize the greatness of the distances from the 
 earth to the planets and mighty suns — so-called fixed 
 stars — upon which he gazed ; indeed though man before 
 the invention of the telescope and other astronomical 
 instruments could not know of many of the wonders of 
 the illimitable heavens which are known at the present 
 day to science, yet he could and did make and record 
 many an observation which has added to the intellectual 
 wealth of his fellow-man. Thoughtful men engaged in 
 pastoral employment and looking at times after their 
 flocks at night, or travellers obliged to sleep under the 
 starry skies, would learn to note the time of night when 
 certain brilliant luminaries would arise above the horizon 
 or assume certain positions in the great heavens, and thus 
 be enabled to assure themselves from time to time of the 
 number of hours which would pass ere the welcome sun 
 would cast his golden light upon their way. They would 
 learn to welcome the brilliant star -which heralded the 
 morning. In their admiration of its beauty they would 
 name it Venus. By collecting and intelligently grouping 
 together facts respecting the celestial, bodies, valuable 
 knowledge would be obtained. These studies would in 
 time be called the science of astronomy. Age after age 
 new and wonderful facts respecting the great orbs which 
 sweep through space would be noted. For various 
 reasons some of these observations would require hun- 
 dreds or even thousands of years to satisfactorily make. 
 Who would have believed that a time would come when 
 youth in a very short time could learn from competent 
 instructors in universities, truths — some of them of great 
 practical utility to the human race — which had required 
 ages of observations and study by men, some of whom 
 were as gifted and devoted in labor as were Copernicus, 
 Galileo, Kepler and Herschel, to discover ! 
 
154 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Millions upon millions of people have realized that they 
 were surrounded by mysterious phenomena. Why, when 
 the heavens would grow black with the approaching storm, 
 would the darkness sometimes be for an instant dissipated 
 by the flash of the zigzagging lightning, which would 
 perhaps strike to the earth a human being or in an instant 
 shatter a lofty tree? When the man of science dis- 
 covered what was the mysterious agent which was 
 employed in producing lightning he was enabled, to a 
 certain extent and in a miniature degree, to artificially 
 produce lightning. He was enabled to even devise 
 a way by which he could summon lightning from the 
 clouds and command it to do man no injury. Men of 
 science in time asked themselves why the agent which 
 produces lightning and manifests itself in various ways 
 should not be employed in performing useful services for 
 men. Reasoning thus a student of the science of elec- 
 tricity gives the world, with aid wisely extended to him 
 by the State, the art of electrical telegraphy, by means of 
 which a person in one part of the world can instantane- 
 ously hold intercourse with his fellows in many other 
 parts of the world. It is true that no electric telegraph 
 such as exists to-day was known in Jefferson's time, 
 but the statesman's penetrating wisdom realized that 
 electrical phenomena were deserving of careful investiga- 
 tion by man, and so he especially named, in a communica- 
 tion to the Legislature of his native State, electricity as 
 one of the subjects respecting which instruction was to be 
 given in the university which he and his colleagues were 
 rearing for the youth of Virginia. 
 
 The atmosphere, as a vast areal sea, covers the earth. 
 Man, whose condition on the earth is really that of a 
 creature at the bottom of a vast ocean, feels the air as it 
 fans the sad or joyous brow, or in fury bows the forest or 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 155 
 
 ruffles into angry billows the bosom of the ocean. Of 
 what is it composed? Has it peculiarities which an 
 intelligent being can find out ? Strange it is that al- 
 though ages upon ages have passed since man first 
 breathed air, yet until Jefferson's friend Priestley in 1774 
 discovered that air was composed principally of the gases 
 which are now known as oxygen and nitrogen, — a discov- 
 ery of inestimably great importance, even often being a 
 means of saving life, — it was unknown to the human race. 
 Yet such knowledge as this, and many other highly im- 
 portant facts growing out of it, can now be taught in a 
 few lessons, and convincing illustrations of its value be 
 made apparent, in every well-regulated seat of learning 
 in the world. The branch of natural philosophy called 
 pneumatics treats not only of the properties of the air, 
 but also of those of other elastic fluids. Without pausing 
 to speak of various sciences in detail or of the greatness 
 of the dormant capabilities of man, suffice it here to 
 notice that each branch of the natural and physical 
 sciences has had given to it a name of its own. For 
 example, the student who receives instruction relating to 
 the pressure and equilibrium of such unelastic, or almost 
 unelastic, fluids as water or mercury, is said to be study- 
 ing hydrostatics. The youth who turns his attention to 
 that part of mechanics which treats of forces in action as 
 opposed to forces in equilibrium is said to be studying 
 dynamics. It is hardly necessary to more than simply 
 state that each science is intimately related to all the 
 other sciences. It would be difficult to calculate exactly 
 which one of many sciences is the most important to the 
 human race. The mechanician may give a valuable con- 
 tribution to the wealth of his country, but perhaps he will 
 find that the geologist by a single discovery of metal- 
 liferous deposits has opened up a new industry and has 
 
1 5 6 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 been enabled to add more even than he has himself to the 
 well-being of society. But undoubtedly some departments 
 of learning may at times be worthy ,of especial encourage- 
 ment. Imperfectly educated statesmen, it is to be feared, 
 too often do not realize the value to the world of the 
 abstract sciences. It was not so, however, with Jefferson. 
 In his sixth Annual Message to Congress, when urging 
 the founding of a great national university at Washing- 
 ton, he said : " A public institution can alone supply those 
 sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary 
 to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to 
 the improvement of the country, and some of them to its 
 preservation." 
 
 The well-informed student of the natural and physical 
 sciences knows that the world has been created and is 
 governed in many respects by wise economic Divine 
 ordainings which are commonly, but somewhat loosely, 
 called laws of nature. Who will duly estimate the value 
 to mankind of every new secret of nature which the 
 scientist discovers? Who will say that the Almighty has 
 not ordained physical laws of which the wisest natural 
 philosophers of this age are as yet unacquainted, — laws 
 which when discovered will be made to minister in new 
 ways to human needs. The man who discovers that cer- 
 tain phenomena are the result of certain causes may so 
 arrange matters as to prevent one of the ordinarily act- 
 ing causes from producing its effect. He can then, not 
 improbably, witness a new phenomenon. By varied ex- 
 periments he may learn how to produce results which 
 may be of practical utility to society. If he succeeds in 
 making known to the world an hitherto unknown ordi- 
 nance which the Almighty has established, he deserves 
 the gratitude of his fellows. The newly discovered law, 
 the natural philosopher knows, will hold good, under like 
 
JEFFERSON 'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 157 
 
 circumstances, in the most distant parts of the illimitable 
 universe. For example, if under certain circumstances 
 electrical phenomena are produced in this world, the nat- 
 ural philosopher who has observed the unity of plan, — 
 the economic system — adopted by the Creator of the 
 universe, knows that under the same circumstances elec- 
 trical phenomena must take place throughout the wide 
 domains of the universe of which this world forms a part. 
 
 One of the sciences which as far back as the year 1779, 
 especially attracted Jefferson's attention and which he 
 aided in having introduced into the University of William 
 and Mary, with whose management he was officially con- 
 nected, was chemistry. The science of modern chemistry 
 was in his day scarcely more than in its infancy. He 
 naturally wished it to be duly cultivated in Virginia's 
 State University. Who will estimate the wealth which 
 the cultivation of this science in modern times has brought 
 to the United States. With its aid metals of great value 
 are economically obtained from ores which hitherto were 
 so refractory as to be useless. With the aid of chemistry 
 steel can be made far more cheaply than iron was made 
 in Jefferson's day. It is perhaps not too much to say 
 that the art of economically making steel rails — which 
 will stand ten or even sometimes over thirty times more 
 wear and tear than will iron rails, — and of making steel 
 ships which are far stronger as well as lighter than are 
 iron vessels, and therefore capable of carrying heavier 
 cargoes, is worth to the world hundreds of millions of 
 dollars. In innumerable ways many useful arts may be 
 said to owe their existence to the cultivation of the science 
 of chemistry. 
 
 Of course the great educational establishment which 
 Jefferson planned was to be provided with fitting instru- 
 ments and apparatus with which to make very many 
 
I5» 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 scientific experiments. In mediaeval times it was far too 
 common in educational institutions to make no adequate 
 provision for making experiments with the aid of scientific 
 apparatus and thus establishing or correcting current 
 statements respecting mysteries of nature. A youth 
 might even fancy that it was a sin to suspect that some 
 authorities such as Aristotle or certain Romish ecclesias- 
 tics were sometimes very far from being infallible in many 
 of their utterances. In modern times youth are, or 
 should be, taught that truth has nothing to fear by sub- 
 jecting it to examination. Youths are encouraged to 
 examine for themselves phenomena. However interest- 
 ing it may be to listqn to a traveller gifted with descrip- 
 tive talents as he tells of scenes in distant lands, it is 
 often still more instructive — and the knowledge acquired 
 in often exacter, — to see these scenes with one's own 
 eyes. However interesting it may sometimes be to listen 
 to a man who tells of the wonders of the starry heavens, 
 it is still more interesting to see these wonders when aided 
 with instruments which have the mystic power of bring- 
 ing one a thousand and more times nearer than mortals 
 with unaided vision can approach to their wondrous 
 presence. Often as the student has looked for the first 
 time through a telescope, at the glories of the heavens, 
 he has uttered a cry of wonder! Often, within the last 
 few years, as students have been aided in their examina- 
 tion of celestial phenomena by the marvellous spectro- 
 scope, which science has in recent times put into their 
 hands, they have seen with their own eyes the demonstra- 
 tion of wonders which some of the most distinguished 
 men of science in the bygone ages have never known ! 
 By being introduced to philosophical instruments the 
 students are made to feel at home in a workshop of science 
 and are qualified to intelligently examine, in any part of 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 159 
 
 the world, many of the wonders of creation. Let a pro- 
 fessor be imagined telling a student about electrical 
 phenomena and not possessing instruments with which 
 to exhibit any of the electrical mysteries with which man 
 is surrounded ! A happy event it was in the life of Benja- 
 min Franklin that at the same time that he listened for the 
 first time to an English gentleman discoursing upon elec- 
 tricity he was shown an electrical apparatus and invited 
 to aid in making experiments. He became interested in 
 the phenomena which he saw and supplied himself with 
 similar electrical apparatus and made one experiment 
 after another until he made discoveries respecting elec- 
 tricity of deep interest to the world. 
 
 Suppose students at a university are told of minute life 
 which is sometimes brought to the surface of the earth by 
 even worms, where human beings or animals which have 
 died of various diseases have been buried, and should be 
 told that this minute life could be artificially bred and in 
 time introduced into the blood of man or of beast — 
 somewhat as vaccine is introduced into the human system 
 to protect it against small-pox, — to protect man and beast 
 against the ravages of cholera or of various other diseases, 
 — suppose that many equally wonderful facts should be 
 told students, — they might listen indeed with attention 
 or, it might be, with incredulity. Should a professor, how- 
 ever, by means of a microscope enable students to see 
 for themselves varieties of minute life, they would have 
 profounder and more practical views of the wonders 
 revealed by' science than they could possibly have if their 
 lesson was not illustrated by suitable instruments. 
 
 Often with deep interest would nations hear that men 
 were making physical experiments, if they realized the 
 vastness of the extent to which such experiments in time 
 would be likely to affect the well-being of mankind. For 
 
l6o JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 example, with what interest would they have watched Dr. 
 Black when making experiments with water and steam by 
 which he was enabled to give to the world the theory of 
 latent heat — a theory which he was enabled to explain 
 to Watt and to thus help him to give to the world the 
 modern steam-engine. The philosophical instruments 
 with which Dr. Black and Watt experimented in the ven- 
 erable University of Glasgow indeed cost that celebrated 
 seat of learning money, but the money thus expended was 
 returned many times to the world. Doubtless there were 
 once people who criticised Yale College for spending a 
 considerable part of a fund which it received from 
 the State of Connecticut, for philosophical apparatus. 
 But who would do so after one of its students, Prof. 
 Morse, had given to the world a mystic and invaluable 
 electric telegraph ? 
 
 One of the branches of learning which Jefferson consid- 
 ered especially worthy of a place in an American univer- 
 sity was what he called the science of government. Man 
 is a social being. He cannot long live separated from his 
 fellows. A large number of people to live happily 
 together and to realize the greatest advantage from their 
 association need to make wise regulations for their com- 
 mon welfare. The history of the human race has shown 
 that to organize a government such as will best promote 
 the happiness of all who are interested in its maintenance, 
 is a task requiring much wisdom The art of government 
 has received the attention of at least some thoughtful 
 minds in every generation for thousands of years. In past 
 ages there have quite often been framed wise laws which 
 have been a blessing to humanity. In many respects, 
 however, the condition of man for thousands of years has 
 been far from being as happy as it might have been. 
 Often has it happened that he has been obliged to obey, 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 161 
 
 to a greater or less extent as a slave, some military- 
 chieftain or some tyrant who by monstrous wickedness 
 has succeeded in holding thousands of the human family 
 in subjection. Even superstitions, degrading as they are 
 false, have been by various means employed to help to 
 accomplish the enslavement of the populace. Christianity 
 when she came to earth in unsullied purity from the 
 Father of the human race had the inspiration of heaven in 
 her lips, the nobility and love of Divinity in her eye, the 
 loveliest gentleness in her mien, and was the bearer of the 
 kindliest blessings to humanity. But in her name a certain 
 class of misguided men, who, often without knowing the 
 truth themselves have in reality been teachers of false 
 religions to the ignorant, have joined hands with tyrants 
 with the understanding that each was to help the other in 
 maintaining their unholy power. To speak of all the ills 
 which man has suffered from civil and religious tyranny 
 would be to present a dark part of the picture of the 
 history of the world — only exceeded, perhaps, by the wild 
 scenes of anarchy which have sometimes taken place 
 among an unlettered and oppressed people. 
 
 Jefferson believed that man was endowed by his Crea- 
 tor with certain rights which should be regarded as inalien- 
 able prerogatives. For example he believed that every 
 human being should be allowed to worship his Creator 
 without being tormented with such an institution as was 
 the Spanish Inquisition, and that nations had a right 
 to frame for themselves just Constitutional forms of gov- 
 ernment. Every one blessed with intelligence can readily 
 realize that his happiness and welfare can be affected by 
 the government under which he lives. Whether he lives 
 in a community in which the freedom of the press is not 
 secured to him ; — whether he is, or is not, protected by 
 some such wise law as that known as habeas corpus, so 
 6 
 
l62 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 that he may not be arrested and kept in prison without 
 an opportunity of defending himself; — in short whether 
 he lives in a land in which the will of an irresponsible 
 despot is allowed to be supreme, or whether he lives in a 
 land in which he enjoys such rights as the Virginian 
 statesman regarded as inalienable, is of momentous con- 
 sequence to him. A large part of the world, Jefferson 
 believed, was in his day incapable, on account of their 
 lack of intellectual culture, of enjoying such a form of 
 government as exists in the United States. He believed, 
 however, that even the most degraded people were en- 
 titled to enjoy certain rights which would soon fit them to 
 enjoy the blessing of civil liberty. To fully define civil 
 liberty is not as easy a work as some might suppose. 
 The learned Dr. Lieber in one of his valuable treatises on 
 " Government " * has held that, " it chiefly consists in 
 guaranties (and corresponding checks), of those rights 
 which experience has proved to be most exposed to inter- 
 ference, and which men hold dearest and most important." 
 It will readily be seen that even according to this limited 
 definition, the work of the statesman of a republic is of 
 high importance to the human family and cannot be 
 performed without a certain amount of wisdom. 
 
 When an enslaved and unlettered people rise against 
 a despot and hurl him from the seat in which he has 
 intrenched himself, scenes of frightful anarchy are sadly 
 often followed in their turn by new scenes of despotism. 
 The world has been wofully slow to learn the lesson which 
 Jefferson learned by observing the revolutions of his day 
 — in which millions of people perished, — that statesmen 
 who wish to meliorate the condition of the enslaved 
 should feel it to be an indispensable part of their noble 
 work to provide for the enlightenment of the intellects of 
 
 * Vol. i., p. 54, 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 l6 3 
 
 their degraded countrymen. He had seen deeds of awful 
 violence and bloodshed perpetrated by well-meaning 
 patriots in different lands in their attempts to depose 
 despotism and to secure to their countrymen the blessings 
 of good government. He had known of many martyrs 
 who had given their lives for, as they supposed, liberty, 
 when they themselves were imperfectly qualified by edu- 
 cation and knowledge to be reformers. He had thought 
 upon the condition of the hundred and fifty or more 
 millions of the people of Africa who live in wretchedness 
 and amidst constant danger of strifes, — of wars in which 
 hundreds of thousands of prisoners are yearly sold into 
 hopeless slavery — and had even calmly considered the 
 practicability of America's giving to Africa arts and 
 sciences and the blessings of civil liberty and of self-gov- 
 ernment. He knew that in no land were highly learned 
 statesmen born in a day. He had mingled with states- 
 men whom he had seen do a work for America which 
 surpassed in beneficence the work of many of the greatest 
 philanthropists whose deeds have been preserved in 
 history. He felt that the statesman no less truly than 
 the Christian minister could labor for the happiness and 
 welfare of mankind. 
 
 The legislator is invested with power which may injure 
 or benefit nations, — may sometimes be even so great that 
 he may be enabled to bequeath ruin, or much happiness, 
 to posterity. Wide indeed is the range of objects with 
 which he should be conversant, and long and laboriously 
 must he labor if he would wish to act the part of the 
 noblest ideal of a statesman. He must visit libraries, he 
 must at times collect statistics by which the better to 
 understand social tendencies and phenomena as well as to 
 have some knowledge of the resources of his own and of 
 foreign nations. He may even have to travel in his own 
 
164 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. * 
 
 and in foreign lands to make observations of various 
 kinds which may enlarge the range of his thoughts. He 
 will at times have occasion to summon to his aid the facts 
 brought to light by many sciences and to acquaint him- 
 self with many a lesson to the world recorded on the 
 pages of history. Useful and noble should the science 
 of legislation be esteemed to be by American citizens. 
 Upon it one may almost say all other sciences depend to 
 a great extent for their life and cherishment. In the 
 statesman's hands are sometimes placed the safeguards of 
 life, of liberty, of letters, as well as of the useful arts and 
 sciences. 
 
 Jefferson believed that the best interests of the world 
 especially demanded that America should be possessed 
 of able statesmen. He believed that the golden age of 
 American destiny was not in the past but in the future. 
 He believed that European governments should not be 
 allowed, under any pretence, to acquire territory on the 
 American continent or to acquire any islands which lie 
 off its coasts. He realized that a wise American policy 
 should be carried out by which English, and not Euro- 
 pean languages, would spread over the American conti- 
 nent — a policy which would make it unnecessary for the 
 people of America to maintain large standing armies and 
 which would make the likelihood of war breaking out 
 between the new and the old world very much less than 
 would be the case if unwise artificial barriers between 
 parts of America — some of them under the domination of 
 European governments — were allowed to exist — barriers 
 which would give rise to border-difficulties and mar the 
 bright vision, which the people of the United States should 
 cherish, of a continent consecrated to civil liberty and 
 to a wise constitutional self-government. He looked upon 
 permanent national debts with abhorrence. He felt that 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 1 65 
 
 republics should rid themselves of national debts as 
 soon as practicable, — indeed he believed that one gener- 
 ation should not fetter another with debt. He realized 
 that if the citizens of a commonwealth wish to enjoy 
 certain advantages they should raise money needed to 
 successfully carry out their wishes and that every mem- 
 ber of a community should cheerfully bear his share of 
 necessary public expenses. A nation at times has its 
 power, its wealth and happiness increased in the degree 
 in which taxes are wisely imposed and justly collected. 
 It often thus receives far more than an equivalent for 
 its sacrifices. When a nation has a debt it not only 
 has to pay a stated interest on its debt, — which of itself 
 may be to a no inconsiderable extent a drain upon its 
 resources even in ordinary times, to say nothing of crit- 
 ical periods in its history, — but it has to pay what may 
 be called a second percentage by paying an army of offi- 
 cials to collect the revenues out of which to pay the 
 interest, — which it cannot help sometimes doing in a way 
 vexatious and costly to the people. There was a par- 
 ticular reason which made Jefferson hope that American 
 statesmen would endeavor to protect the United States 
 from being heavily burdened with debt. He had a 
 cherished hope that the time would come when the 
 United States Government would be enabled to afford to 
 systematically raise a revenue to be collected by duties 
 on imported luxuries, for the express purpose of pro- 
 moting the interests of education throughout the length 
 and breadth of the Republic. When he himself was 
 President of the United States he had signed bills giving 
 millions of acres of land to the cause of public schools 
 and of colleges, but he keenly felt — as will be noticed in 
 another division of this volume — that the national gov- 
 ernment should yearly and on a systematic and judicious 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 plan help every section of the Republic to provide for 
 the intellectual culture of youth. He would have no 
 American have any excuse for growing up illiterate, 
 and he would have no one allowed to vote who 
 could not read. He was wont to cherish a plan of gov- 
 ernment by which every community was, in a large meas- 
 ure, within a certain sphere, to govern itself. He justly 
 regarded, however, such a subject as that of education in 
 a great republic to be of national concern no less truly 
 than of local interest. Grand indeed were some of Jef- 
 ferson's hopes for his country's future. No wonder that 
 he wished American youth blessed with opportunities to 
 do so to study the philosophy of government and to 
 qualify themselves to help to enable the Republic of the 
 Western Hemisphere to realize in times of peace and of 
 war its grandest and noblest possibilities ! 
 
 That the American statesmen who were Jefferson's 
 contemporaries were remarkable for their wisdom respect- 
 ing civil liberty will doubtless be conceded by even many 
 Europeans. They welcomed well-written books on the 
 philosophy of self-government. Thanks to the consider- 
 ate and very valuable gifts of some Puritan friends in 
 England, the library of Harvard College was especially 
 rich in such a class of literature. The English Baptist- 
 Puritan, Thomas Hollis, who made many valuable gifts 
 to Harvard College, wrote feelingly to Mr. Mayhew, say- 
 ing : " More books especially on government are going for 
 New England. Should these go safe it is hoped that no 
 principal books on that first subject will be wanting in 
 Harvard College, from the days of Moses to these times." 
 During the war of Independence it was customary for 
 the legislature of Massachusetts to annually invite one 
 of the clergymen of the Commonwealth to preach a dis- 
 course to them. These sermons have recently been 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 167 
 
 wisely published in book form and are a very valuable 
 contribution to the interpretation of passages in the 
 Bible on government. T-hey point out the duty, and the 
 limit to the obligation, of citizens of a commonwealth 
 to obey rulers. One could wish that even in this day 
 such a book could find its way into the hands of every 
 thoughtful lover of liberty. Among the patriots of the 
 Revolutionary period there was a widespread feeling that 
 in a republic it was of high importance that youth 
 should have broad and right views respecting the philoso- 
 phy of government. As one especially likes to be enabled 
 to hear such worthies express for themselves their views 
 respecting such a subject, it may be proper to here pause 
 for a moment to duly note some of them. Washington, 
 who notwithstanding his many occupations found time 
 to act for years as the Chancellor of the University of 
 William and Mary, very earnestly urged upon the Re- 
 public the importance of teaching youth the science of 
 government. In the last Annual Message which he, as 
 President of the United States, delivered to Congress, 
 after recommending the founding of a great national 
 university in the city of Washington, he added : " 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 legis- 
 lature, than to patronize a plan for communicating it to 
 those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties 
 of the country." When Washington's will was opened 
 it was found that after making provision for several 
 institutions of learning, and pointing out how he wished 
 a part of his estate to be devoted to aiding a national 
 university, if Congress should decide to found such a 
 centre of learning, he especially spoke of the valuable 
 
1 68 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 opportunity it would afford to youth to acquire, as he 
 expressed it, " knowledge in the principles of politics 
 and good government." This recommendation of Wash- 
 ington to provide for a great national university which 
 would have a department in which to help to rear learned 
 American statesmen was twice repeated by James Madi- 
 son. 
 
 As early as Jan. 1st, 1769, the learned Benjamin 
 Franklin had written to Lord Karnes, saying : " I am 
 glad to find you are turning your thoughts to political 
 subjects, and particularly to those of money, taxes, 
 manufacture and commerce. The world is yet much in 
 the dark on these important points ; and many mischiev- 
 ous mistakes are continually made in the management of 
 them. Most of our acts of Parliament, for regulating 
 them, are, in my opinion, little better than political 
 blunders, owing to ignorance of the science, or to the 
 designs of crafty men, who mislead the legislature, pro- 
 posing something under the specious appearance of pub- 
 lic good, while the real aim is to sacrifice that to their 
 private interest. I hope a good deal of light- may be 
 thrown on these subjects by your sagacity and acuteness." 
 Such reflections as these by Franklin were practical and 
 earnest. In 1777, John Jay, who at that dark period of 
 American history was Chief-Justice of the State of New 
 York, at the first sitting of the court at Kingston after 
 the adoption of the first Constitution of the United 
 States or Colonies, in a charge to a grand-jury, said : 
 " But let it be remembered that whatever marks of 
 wisdom, experience, and patriotism there may be in your 
 constitution, yet, like the beautiful symmetry, the just 
 proportions, and elegant forms of our first parents before 
 their Maker breathed into them the breath of Life, it is 
 yet to be animated, and till then, may indeed excite 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 169 
 
 admiration, but will be of no use, — from the people it 
 must receive its spirit, and by them be quickened. Let 
 virtue, honor, the love of liberty and of science, be, and 
 remain, the soul of this constitution ; and it will become 
 the source of great and extensive happiness to this and 
 future generations. Vice, ignorance, and want of vigi- 
 lance, will be the only enemies able to destroy it. Against 
 these provide, and, of these, be forever jealous. Every 
 member of the State ought diligently to read and study 
 the constitution of his country, and teach the rising 
 generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will 
 sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better 
 prepared to defend and assert them." * 
 
 Very much in the same spirit as the learned Jay spoke 
 to the people of New York the patriotic Dr. Ramsay 
 spoke to the people of South Carolina. On the 4th of 
 July, 1778, in an oration which he delivered in Charleston, 
 he said : " The arts and sciences which languished under 
 the low prospects of subjection, will now raise their droop- 
 ing heads, and spread far and wide, till they have reached 
 the remotest parts of this untutored continent. It is the 
 happiness of our present constitution, that all orifices be 
 open to men of merit, of whatever rank or condition, and 
 that even the reins of State may be held by the son of 
 the poorest man, if possessed of abilities equal to the 
 important station." In his oration he spoke of the time 
 " when the single NO ! of a king three thousand miles 
 distant was sufficient to repeal any of our laws, however 
 useful and salutary ; and when we were bound in all cases 
 whatsoever by men, in whose election we had no vote, 
 and who had an interest opposed to ours, and over whom 
 we had no control." Dr. Ramsay also said : " We are 
 
 * See this eloquent charge of Jay's in " Principles of the Revolution," 
 by Hezekiah Niles, p. 182. 
 
lyo JEFFERSON ' S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 no more to look up for the blessings of government 
 to hungry courtiers, or the needy dependents of British 
 nobility ; but must educate our children for these exalted 
 purposes. When subjects, we had scarce any other share 
 in government, but to obey the arbitrary mandates of a 
 British Parliament. But honor, with her dazzling pomp, 
 interest with her golden lure, and patriotism with her 
 heartfelt satisfaction, jointly call upon us now to qualify 
 ourselves and posterity for the bench, the army, the navy, 
 the learned professions, and all the departments of civil 
 government." He pointed out that, " in our present happy 
 system, the poorest school-boy may prosecute his studies 
 with increasing ardor, from the prospect, that in a few 
 years he may, by his improved abilities, direct the deter- 
 minations of public bodies on subjects of the most stu- 
 pendous consequence." In this oration Dr. Ramsay 
 declared that " A few years will now produce a much 
 greater number of men of learning and abilities, than 
 we could have expected for ages, in our boyish state 
 of minority, guided by the leading-strings of a parent 
 country." 
 
 He then added, " How trifling the objects of deliberation 
 that came before our former legislative assemblies, com- 
 pared with the great and important matters, on which they 
 must now decide." Dr. Ramsay further ably pointed out 
 that " the weight of each State, in the continental scale 
 will ever be proportioned to the abilities of its representa- 
 tive in Congress. Hence an emulation will take place, each 
 contending with the other, which shall produce the most 
 accomplished statesmen. From the joint influence of all 
 these combined causes, it may strongly be presumed, that 
 literature will flourish in America, and that our inde- 
 pendence will be an illustrious epoch, remarkable for the 
 spreading and improvement of science. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 171 
 
 " A zeal for the promoting of learning unknown in the 
 days of our subjection, has already begun to overspread 
 the United States. In the last session of our Assembly, 
 three societies were incorporated for the laudable purpose 
 of erecting seminaries of education. Nor is the noble 
 spirit confined to us alone. Even now, amidst the tumults 
 of war, literary institutions are forming all over the con- 
 tinent, which must light up such a blaze of knowledge, as 
 cannot fail to burn, and catch, and spread, until it has 
 finally illuminated with rays of science the remotest 
 retreats of ignorance and barbarity." * 
 
 To the eloquent words of a past century which have 
 just been quoted it may here be noticed that at the time 
 when the Constitution of the United States was being 
 framed there was a feeling among distinguished American 
 statesmen that the literature on the science of govern- 
 ment, worthy of a subject so important to the cause of 
 liberty, was sadly meagre. Among Washington's papers, 
 after his death were found what might be called a lengthy 
 manuscript written in his own handwriting giving " An 
 Abstract of the General Principles of Ancient and Modern 
 Confederacies," with comments on the " vices " which 
 history had shown had been by time developed in them. 
 It is held by a biographer of James Madison that Madison 
 was the author of this work and that it had been sub- 
 mitted to Washington who had copied it for his own 
 benefij:. The work showed an amount of research which 
 would have been creditable to any scholar. John Adams 
 who was a foreign minister when the Constitution of the 
 United States was about being framed wrote — too hur- 
 riedly to give the attention to style which he would 
 fain have 'given his work, but in time to enable 
 
 * Ibid., 375-383- 
 
172 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 him to take part in the exchange of views respecting 
 a form of government suitable for the American con- 
 tinent, — his " History of the Principal Republics of the 
 World." In this valuable contribution to literature, he 
 collected, with, one might almost say marvellous industry 
 which indicated a wide range of reading, many historical 
 facts. He took occasion to draw attention to the impor- 
 tance to nations of studies respecting the art of govern- 
 ment. He wrote : " The arts and sciences in general, during 
 the three or four last centuries, have had a regular course 
 of progressive improvement. The inventions in mechanic 
 arts, the discoveries in natural philosophy, navigation, and 
 commerce, and the advancement of civilization and hu- 
 manity, have occasioned changes in the condition of the 
 world, and the human character, which would have aston- 
 ished the most refined nations of antiquity. A continua- 
 tion of similar exertions is every day rendering Europe 
 more and more like one community or single family. 
 Even in the theory and practice of government, in all the 
 simple monarchies, considerable improvements have been 
 made. The checks and balances of republican govern- 
 ments have been in some degree adopted by the courts of 
 princes." Adams, as he proceeded, after alluding briefly 
 to the improvements in government that had been made 
 in England and adopted in the United States, added : 
 " In so general a refinement, or more properly, reforma- 
 tion of manners and improvement in knowledge, is it not 
 unaccountable that the knowledge of the principles and 
 construction of free governments, in which the happiness 
 of life, and even the further progress of improvement in 
 education and society, in knowledge and virtue, are so 
 deeply interested, should have remained at a full stand 
 for two or three thousand years ? " As he continued, he 
 alluded to his own work. He wrote : " If the publication 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 of these papers should contribute to turn the attention of 
 the younger gentlemen of letters in America to this kind 
 of inquiry, it will produce an effect of some importance 
 to their country. The subject is the most interesting 
 that can engage the understanding or the heart ; for 
 whether the end of man, in this stage of his existence, be 
 enjoyment or improvement, or both, it can never be at- 
 tained so well in a bad government as in a good govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Enough has now been said to illustrate how desirable it 
 was believed to be by distinguished statesmen of a bygone 
 generation, that American youth should study the com- 
 prehensive science of government. It is pleasant to be 
 able to state that in modern times such branches of study 
 are especially taught in Columbia College, in Cornell 
 University, and in a number of institutions of learning in 
 the United States and that the Constitution of the United 
 States is studied in quite a thorough manner in a goodly 
 number of the high schools of the land. Still it is to be 
 feared that American youth are too often satisfied with 
 simply manifesting their patriotism by thoughtlessly 
 walking in some torch-light procession or in some other 
 equally unintellectual manner. Too many young men 
 are unable to intelligently speak upon affairs of national 
 importance which are likely to influence for good or 
 evil the history of the American continent and the 
 destiny of coming generations. That civil and religious 
 liberty will have, from time to time, battles to fight on 
 the American continent may be considered almost cer- 
 tain. Jefferson felt that young men should be encour- 
 aged even in the courses of reading in which they should, 
 for their own pleasure, be led to engage, to be duly influ- 
 enced by patriotic and philanthropic considerations. 
 Writing to Kosciuszko under date of Feb. 26th, 1810, he 
 
174 
 
 JEFFERSON' S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 spoke of the young men to whom he had thrown open his 
 large library. He wrote : " In advising the course of 
 their reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on 
 the main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness 
 of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils 
 and government of their country, they will keep ever in 
 view the sole objects of all legitimate government." 
 
 There is one branch of useful literature which Jefferson 
 regarded as of vital importance to citizens of a republic 
 and which he believed should be taught in each of the 
 divisions of the school system which he had draughted 
 for Virginia. This branch of useful learning is history. 
 He wished youth to be introduced to historical studies 
 and to be thus helped to form a taste for elevating read- 
 ing. One of the ways in which man differs from the brute 
 creation is that he is able to record for his own welfare 
 and for that of his posterity hjs own experience and ob- 
 servations. Every human heart has an unwritten history 
 of its own ; a part of which is of a personal nature and is 
 not to be revealed save to the Divine Searcher of all 
 hearts, but much of a man's experience may be of great 
 value to some fellow voyager through life. One can but 
 feel at times a sense of sadness as he realizes how short 
 in the eternity of time is a human life. What observa- 
 tions one can make in life respecting his fellow-mortals 
 and of various scenes in the affairs of a great community 
 are often, necessarily, incomplete and often superficial — 
 indeed the truth in many instances may be entirely differ- 
 ent from everything that had been suspected. Strictly 
 speaking very much — if one may not indeed say mostly 
 all — knowledge is derived from recorded observations 
 made by men who have had exceptional opportunities for 
 collecting reliable facts. Often a noble wish to be useful 
 to at least some members of the great human family has 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 175 
 
 impelled a considerate person to carefully record facts 
 respecting some events about which he believes it to be 
 important that others should be informed, — indeed upon 
 some of which momentous events to nations have hinged. 
 One might endeavor to imagine the feelings which have 
 prompted various monumental piles to be erected and 
 picture-writing and hieroglyphics to be engraved on rocks, 
 but suffice it to say that the historian has, at times, been 
 enabled to lift the veil which hides the past from the 
 vision of the living, and to cause a panorama to pass be- 
 fore the statesman's eyes which has been instrumental in 
 admonishing him respecting the course which he should 
 take if he would avoid mistakes made by men in bygone 
 times, and of showing him how to promote the best inter- 
 ests of his country. 
 
 The historian aims at presenting correctly many facts 
 respecting human affairs with some degree of complete- 
 ness and as a whole. He sometimes reveals secrets that 
 the public had never suspected. He gives information, 
 which he has perhaps spent much of his life in collecting, 
 which enables one to sometimes view various important 
 affairs from a vantage-ground of great value to them. 
 If it be true that prejudices have their rise in false views 
 of things, he helps to remove these wrong prepossessions 
 in the kindest of ways. 
 
 If certain despotic governments by an artful policy 
 prevent the great mass of the people from studying his- 
 tory, all the more important it is that American youth 
 should be early helped to form a taste for historical read- 
 ing. As a man looks into the " ghostly shadows of by- 
 gone ages " he' sees how some men have made mistakes 
 in life and how others have acted the part of heroes. 
 As he reviews the records of the long struggle between 
 despotism and liberty he may well have his heart glow 
 
176 
 
 JEFFERSON' S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 with a warmer appreciation of such liberties as he enjoys. 
 As he reviews such fascinating historical volumes as those 
 of the eloquent Motley's " Rise of the Dutch Republic," 
 he sees how baneful despots can be to a people's welfare, 
 and gets some faint idea of how terrible has been the 
 struggle between superstition and liberty, and instinc- 
 tively is apt to feel how much he has to be thankful that 
 Church and State are not united in his own land, and how 
 dangerous to the best interests of a free people it would 
 be to introduce sectarian despotism into American insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Happily many historians have written in a style so 
 interesting that one has but to be introduced to their 
 volumes to be deeply interested in them. Thoughtful 
 young men may well have it impressed upon their minds 
 that the highest ideal of a noble youth forbids that 
 history should be read merely for the pleasure of learning 
 interesting events in the lives of men and women, and of 
 nations. It should be read, at times, in a philosophic 
 manner and various thoughtful deductions from the 
 events of the past should be made and laid to heart. 
 It was not merely in desultory reading of history that 
 Jefferson would have American youth engage, — although 
 even such reading might bring with it many a blessing 
 and be probably vastly better than simply reading ordi- 
 nary novels, — but he wished them to have a purpose in 
 view. He wished them to read with the noble and patri- 
 otic object of the better qualifying themselves to pro- 
 mote the liberties and the happiness of their fellow- 
 citizens. There are doubtless various ways of reading 
 history with profit. One of many methods may here be 
 mentioned. A student, after a proper preparatory course 
 of studies by which some of the cardinal points and 
 great epochs which have characterized the drama of 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 177 
 
 history have passed somewhat briefly before him, — thus 
 giving him some idea of the lives of leading nations as a 
 whole, — could be advised when reading history by him- 
 self, to at times do so with well-defined and specific ends 
 in view. Let him propose to himself a question to be 
 solved, a doubt to be proved well founded or otherwise, 
 a problem to be examined, the satisfying of his curiosity 
 respecting some points upon which his mind should be 
 well established. Let him be taught to philosophize as 
 he reads ; — to thoughtfully form his own inferences of 
 the effects of certain forms of government and of 
 various laws on the mechanism of society and upon the 
 current of a nation's life. One might propound to him- 
 self such questions as : What is the influence exerted on 
 civilization by different systems of religious belief? 
 What form of religion is most friendly to liberty, to 
 letters, and to the arts and sciences ? Are there any facts 
 in history which would justify an American or any friend 
 of civil and religious liberty, dreading that the wiles of 
 priestcraft in commonwealths may very injuriously affect 
 the best interests of the people ? What are the causes 
 which have been instrumental in making any particular 
 nation great or degraded ? One who seeks light upon sub- 
 jects such as these, and upon many others which might be 
 named, and seeks for facts which will help him in forming 
 right conclusions respecting them with something of the 
 earnestness with which an excited Indian seeks his game, 
 finds that one series after another of interesting and in- 
 structive events pass before his vision. Many a fond 
 illusion will be dispelled while patriotism is enlightened. 
 As when a man travels in the interior of the American 
 continent to inform himself respecting mines from which 
 mineral wealth is obtained, will, often in a peculiarly 
 pleasant manner, incidently see much varied scenery, — 
 
1 7 8 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 at one time travelling over thirsty plains, at another time 
 finding himself surrounded by landscapes beautiful and 
 grand beyond all that he could have imagined, will, it 
 may be, have the pleasure of having his eyes attracted 
 to some sections of country which he may discover are 
 worthy of a special visit on some future occasion, so 
 whoever will set out to historically examine any one of 
 many subjects such as have been suggested, will inci- 
 dently — sometimes in a very pleasant manner — learn 
 much about varied scenes, and experiences, through which 
 human beings have passed. His mind will be enriched 
 with an experience which had he had to depend upon his 
 own generally disconnected observations of society, he 
 might not be enabled to learn, were his life prolonged a 
 thousand years. 
 
 Should a person have his curiosity excited over such a 
 question as, Why do arts flourish more in one land than 
 in another ? he would consult books and libraries in what 
 might appear to a looker-on to be a somewhat random 
 manner, but in reality in a way at once instructive and 
 entertaining — and occasionally even highly fascinating. 
 He would perhaps at the same time find that his studies 
 were becoming more and more comprehensive and that 
 he had been led insensibly into paths of historical research 
 from which he could take, in a peculiarly pleasurable 
 manner, a wide survey of the vast drama of human pro- 
 gress and be enabled to philosophically detect many of 
 the causes which influence for good or evil the best inter- 
 ests of the human race. If he is honest in his desire to 
 truly satisfy his own mind he will learn to examine the 
 authorities upon which different historians base their 
 statements respecting various important subjects and con- 
 firm or revise or even reverse the judgment of some of 
 the narrators of history. By such exercise his mental 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1 79 
 
 faculties will often be strengthened. He will learn to 
 appreciate at their proper value writers who instead of 
 referring to their authorities for the truthfulness of some 
 of their questionable statements, remark, in a loose man- 
 ner, that their information has been collected from "too 
 many sources to name them." A well-taught student 
 may be taught to have a carefulness of thought which an 
 uninstructed person sadly often does not possess. 
 
 Should the question be raised, What is the weightiest 
 of all reasons for teaching history in public schools ? per- 
 haps it might justly be answered that independent of the 
 Historical facts learned by youth in their school days, are 
 in many cases, to be especially prized the good results 
 which flow from youths being introduced to such an 
 elevating branch of learning and helped in forming a 
 taste for such literature. Doubtless many a thoughtful 
 person who has spent many a well-employed hour in 
 looking over the records of the past, will testify that he 
 might have remained a stranger to the pleasures and ad- 
 vantages flowing from such study, had he not happily 
 been made acquainted with historical books in his school 
 days. Jefferson felt that, even if youth should do no 
 more than read some well-chosen selections from the 
 histories of various countries, including that of their own, 
 some of them would derive much benefit from doing so. 
 In the volume which he published entitled, " Notes on 
 Virginia," he spoke of the educational system which he 
 had draughted for his native State. In words somewhat 
 similar to those which he had addressed in 1779 to the 
 Legislature of Virginia, he spoke of the great importance 
 of a commonwealth's supporting a public-school system. 
 Alluding to the proposed school system he said : " Of 
 the views of this law none is more important, none more 
 legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as 
 
i8o 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 they are the ultimate guardians of their own liberty. For 
 this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they [a 
 certain class of the youth of Virginia] will receive their 
 whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly 
 historical." He then added: " History by apprizing them 
 of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will 
 avail them of the experience of other times and other na- 
 tions ; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and de- 
 signs of men ; it will enable them to know ambition under 
 every disguise it may assume ; and knowing it to defeat 
 its views. In every government on earth is some trace 
 of human weakness, some germ of corruption and de- 
 generacy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness in- 
 sensibly open, cultivate, and improve. Every government 
 degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people 
 alone. The people themselves are its only safe deposi- 
 tories. And to render even them safe, their minds must 
 be improved to a certain degree." 
 
 The views of Jefferson respecting the importance of 
 history being taught in the public schools of a republic 
 will be more and more seen to have great force the more 
 one realizes the value of historical knowledge to the cause 
 of liberty and of good government. In a republic such 
 as the United States, in which all citizens may exert an 
 influence in shaping the destiny of the American conti- 
 nent, and in influencing the measures of legislatures and 
 of Executives, a knowledge of history should be widely 
 diffused among the people. In the noblest days of the 
 great Roman Republic, it was held to be a very important 
 matter that the youth who wished to qualify themselves 
 for stations of power in public life and to employ them- 
 selves usefully in the administration of public affairs, 
 should at least be acquainted with the history of their 
 own country. A time came, however, when Marius 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 181 
 
 could sarcastically intimate that the citizens of the great 
 Roman Republic had so far degenerated, that their dis- 
 tinguished men did not begin to read history until they 
 were already elevated to high offices of state. He de- 
 clared that " they first obtained the employment, and 
 then bethought themselves of the qualifications for the 
 necessary discharge of it." 
 
 The evil in the Republic of Rome which Marius sadly 
 noticed, it is to be feared exists, to too great an extent, in 
 some parts of the United States. In the address which 
 Garfield delivered on June 16th, 1867, — to which allusion 
 has been made, — he criticised very earnestly the neglect 
 of the study of history by the rising generation in the 
 United States. He spoke earnestly of the lack of his- 
 torical knowledge which was prevalent in the United 
 States at the breaking out of their great civil war. As he 
 continued, he said : " Seven years ago there was scarcely 
 an American college in which more than four weeks out 
 of the four years' course was devoted to studying the 
 government and history of the United States. For this 
 feature of our educational system I have neither respect 
 nor toleration. It is far inferior to that of Persia three 
 thousand years ago. The uncultivated tribes of Greece, 
 Rome, and Germany surpassed us in this respect. Gre- 
 cian children were taught to reverence and emulate the 
 virtues of their ancestors. Our educational forces are so 
 wielded as to teach our children to admire most that 
 which Is foreign, and fabulous, and dead. I have recently 
 examined the catalogue of a leading New England col- 
 lege, in which the geography and history of Greece and 
 Rome are required to be studied five terms ; but neither 
 the history nor the geography of the United States is 
 named in the college course, or required as a condition of 
 admission. The American child must know all the 
 
182 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 classic rivers, from the Scamander to the yellow Tiber ; 
 must tell the length of the Appian Way, and of the canal 
 over which Horace and Virgil sailed on their journey to 
 Brundusium ; but he may be crowned with baccalaureate 
 honors without having heard, since his first moment of 
 Freshman life, one word concerning the one hundred and 
 twenty-two thousand miles of coast and river navigation, 
 the six thousand miles of canal, and the thirty-five thou- 
 sand miles of railroad, which indicate both the prosperity 
 and the possibilities of his own country. It is well to 
 know the history of those magnificent nations whose 
 origin is lost in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a 
 thousand years ago ; but if we cannot know both, it is 
 far better to study the history of our own nation, whose 
 origin we can trace to the freest and noblest aspirations 
 of the human heart, — a nation that was formed from the 
 hardiest, purest, and most enduring elements of European 
 civilization, — a nation that, by its faith and courage, has 
 dared and accomplished more for the human race in a 
 single century than Europe accomplished the first thou- 
 sand years of the Christian era." Garfield, after pointing 
 out how easy it would be to give invaluable instruction 
 in history even in common schools, added : " After the 
 bloody baptism from which the nation has arisen to a 
 higher and nobler life, if this shameful defect in our 
 system of education be not speedily remedied, we shall 
 deserve the infinite contempt of future generations. I 
 insist," he continued, " that it should be made an indis- 
 pensable condition of graduation in every American col- 
 lege, that the student must understand the history of this 
 continent since its discovery by Europeans ; the origin 
 *and history of the United States, its constitution of gov- 
 ernment, the struggles through which it has passed, and 
 the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine its 
 
Jefferson's ideal university. 
 
 183 
 
 destiny and share its glory." Long before Garfield spoke 
 these words, however, Jefferson had arranged that history 
 should be studied in the quiet shades of the University 
 of Virginia. 
 
 To arrange wise courses of study for youth having 
 different aims in life was a subject which might well 
 interest a parent, or a statesman, who believed that a 
 good system of education should be made the " keystone 
 of the arch of our government." How to most wisely 
 select and group together courses of study for the suitors 
 of knowledge in a State university for Virginia occupied, 
 at times, Jefferson's thoughts for at least well-nigh half a 
 century. Writing, under date of July 5th, 1814, to the 
 already venerable John Adams, he sought counsel re- 
 specting the subject of his patriotic contemplation. 
 " When sobered by experience," he wrote, " I hope our 
 successors will turn their attention to the advantages of 
 education. I mean of education on the broad scale, and 
 not that of the petty academies, as they call themselves, 
 which are starting up in every neighborhood, and where 
 one or two men, possessing Latin and sometimes Greek, 
 a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of 
 Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of 
 science. They commit their pupils to the theatre of the 
 world, with just taste enough of learning to be alienated 
 from industrial pursuits, and not enough to do service in 
 the ranks of science. We have some exceptions, indeed. 
 I presented one to you lately, and we have some others. 
 But the terms I use are general truths. I hope the neces- 
 sity will, at length, be seen of establishing institutions 
 here, as in Europe, where every branch of i science, useful 
 at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have 
 you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an 
 institution ? I mean of the specification of the particular 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 sciences of real use in human affairs, and how they might 
 be so grouped as to require so many professors only as 
 might bring them within the views of a just but enlight- 
 ened economy. I should be happy in a communication 
 of your ideas on this problem, either loose or digested." 
 The question upon which Adams was requested to give 
 his counsel is one which deserves far more attention by in- 
 telligent and patriotic American heads of families than it 
 too generally receives. As the thoughtful Jefferson had 
 sought to surround himself by wise counsellors when en- 
 gaging in momentous affairs of State, so he, as is revealed 
 by his letters, sought to compare the views of eminent 
 men of learning with his own respecting this highly im- 
 portant question. To the distinguished Thomas Cooper 
 — an English professor who was connected with Colum- 
 bia College and with other seats of learning, — he wrote 
 under date of Jan. 1 6th, 1814: " I have long had under 
 contemplation and been collecting material, for the plan 
 of a university in Virginia which should comprehend all 
 the sciences useful to us and none others." To the learned 
 Cooper, Jefferson on the following 25th of August again 
 wrote: "To be prepared for this new establishment, I 
 have taken some pains to ascertain those branches which 
 men of sense, as well as of science, deem worthy of culti- 
 vation. To the statements which I have obtained from 
 other sources, I should value an addition of one from 
 yourself. You know our country, its pursuits, its facul- 
 ties, its relations with others, its means of establishing and 
 maintaining an institution of science. * * * Will you then 
 so far contribute to our views as to consider this subject, 
 to make a statement of the branches of science which you 
 think worthy of being taught, as I have before said, at this 
 day, and in this country ? " 
 
 Even when Jefferson was President of the United 
 States and weighed down with the many duties devolv- 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 1 85 
 
 ing upon one holding that high office, and having no 
 inconsiderable part of his hours of rest taken up by 
 his voluntary labors as Chairman of the Board of Edu- 
 cation of Washington, his thoughts reverted to his 
 cherished wish to see a worthy State Academic retreat 
 secured to the youth of Virginia. Under date of Feb. 
 5th, 1803, he wrote asking counsel, to Prof. Pictet of the 
 University of Geneva — an establishment which he years 
 before, in a letter to Washington, had characterized as 
 one of the "eyes of Europe." In this letter he said: 
 " I have still had constantly in view to propose to the 
 Legislature of Virginia the establishment of one [Uni- 
 versity] on as large a scale as our present circumstances 
 would require or bear. But as yet no favorable moment 
 has occurred. In the meanwhile I am endeavoring to 
 procure materials for a good plan. With this view I am 
 to ask the favor of you to give me a sketch of the branches 
 of science taught in your college, how they are distributed 
 among the professors, that is to say, how many profes- 
 sors there are, and what branches of science are allotted 
 to each professor, and the days and hours assigned to 
 each branch. Your successful experience in the distribu- 
 tion of business will be a valuable guide to us, who are 
 without experience. I am sensible I am imposing on 
 your goodness a troublesome task ; but I believe every 
 son of science feels a strong and disinterested desire of 
 promoting it in every part of the earth, and it is the con- 
 sciousness as well as confidence in this which emboldens 
 me to make the present request." 
 
 The more one critically follows Jefferson's labors in 
 founding a university in Virginia, the more he is apt to 
 be surprised at the deep and long-continued thought 
 which he gave to the cherished enterprise. In 1776, not- 
 withstanding the excitement which attended the differ- 
 ences between Great Britain and her Colonies, he had 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 been appointed by the Legislature of Virginia to take 
 part with some distinguished associates in revising the 
 code of the State. In a part of the revised code — a 
 part which he himself draughted and presented to the 
 Legislature during the war of the Revolution, — was an 
 educational bill which carefully provided that a univer- 
 sity should form a part of Virginia's school system. When 
 Washington was President of the United States, Jefferson 
 had submitted to him in a letter — which has happily been 
 preserved and published among Washington's papers, — a 
 plan by which Washington was to give a quite large sum 
 of money, which he contemplated presenting to the cause 
 of education, to an undertaking by which the University 
 of Geneva, which had been closed by the French Revolu- 
 tion, was to be transplanted to the United States. He 
 had also in a private correspondence with distinguished 
 friends, proposed that the Legislature of Virginia should 
 undertake to transplant in a body to Virginia all the 
 professors of the University of Geneva. In the book 
 which he had published he had written of the proposal of 
 founding a State university in Virginia in a way which 
 showed that he had the educational interests of his native 
 State at heart. To the learned Joseph Priestley on Jan. 
 1 8th, 1800, he wrote a letter requesting the distinguished 
 scientist to favor him with his views respecting the course 
 of culture which it would be wise for a republic to pro- 
 vide for its youth. He said : " We wish to establish in 
 the upper country, and more centrally for the State, an 
 University on a plan so broad and liberal and modern, as 
 to be worth patronizing with the public support, and to 
 be a temptation to the youth of other States to come and 
 drink of the cup of knowledge, and fraternize with us. 
 The first step is to obtain a good plan ; that is, a judicious 
 selection of the sciences, and a practicable grouping of 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 I8 7 
 
 some of them together, and ramifying of others, so as to 
 adopt the professorships to our uses and our means." The 
 Virginian statesman, after paying a high compliment to 
 Priestley, continued : " To you therefore we address our 
 solicitations, and to lessen to you as much as possible the 
 ambiguities of our object, I will venture even to sketch 
 the sciences which seem useful and practicable for us, as 
 they occur to me while holding my pen. Botany, chem- 
 istry, zoology, anatomy, surgery, medicine, natural phi- 
 losophy, agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, geography, 
 politics, commerce, history, ethics, law, arts, fine arts. 
 This list is imperfect because I make it hastily, and 
 because I am unequal to the subject. * * * I do not 
 propose to give you all this trouble merely of my own 
 head, that would be arrogance. It has been the subject 
 of consultation among the ablest and highest characters 
 of our State, who only wait for a plan to make a joint 
 and I hope a successful effort to get the thing carried 
 into effect." Without pausing to speak of Priestley's 
 views — some of which he had published in England, — it 
 may here be incidentally stated, that this distinguished 
 scientist was a friend of Prof. Small and of James Watt. 
 Whatever may be thought of some writings of his on 
 theological subjects, his services to the world as a sci- 
 entist had been very great, and he had had a valuable 
 experience as an instructor of youth. From many and 
 varied- sources suggestions respecting useful courses of 
 instruction for American youth were to be received. 
 
 In the year 18 14 as Jefferson and others were engaged 
 in founding, at their own expense, the college which ulti- 
 mately became the University of Virginia, Jefferson under 
 date of Sept. 7th, 18 14, in a long letter to Peter Carr,* 
 
 * See " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, 
 Richmond, Virginia, 1856, pp. 384-390. 
 
188 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 unfolded his views respecting public education in Vir- 
 ginia. He took occasion to speak of the various grades 
 of schools which should be provided and went into details 
 respecting the courses of studies for which provision 
 should be made in the State College or University — 
 courses which are too numerous to here present. Let it 
 then suffice to note some unique features of the plan of 
 education which he had at heart. Before doing so, how- 
 ever, the introductory part of this letter — a letter which 
 was brought to the attention of the Legislature of Vir- 
 ginia and was so highly esteemed that it was published at 
 the State's expense, and was widely distributed, — may 
 here be given. The statesman wrote : " On the subject of 
 the academy or college proposed to be established in our 
 neighborhood, I promised the trustees that I would pre- 
 pare for them a plan, adapted, in the first instance, to our 
 slender funds, but susceptible of being enlarged, either 
 by their own growth or by accession from other quarters. 
 
 " I have long entertained the hope that this, our native 
 State, would take up the subject of education, and make 
 an establishment, either with or without incorporation 
 into that of William and Mary, where every branch of 
 science, deemed useful at this day, should be taught in its 
 highest degree. With this view, I have lost no occasion 
 of making myself acquainted with the organization of the 
 best seminaries in other countries, and with the opinions 
 of the most enlightened individuals, on the subject of the 
 sciences worthy of a place in such an institution. In 
 order to prepare what I have promised our trustees, I 
 have lately revised these several plans with attention ; and 
 I am struck with the diversity of arrangement observable 
 in them — no two alike. Yet, I have no doubt that these 
 several arrangements have been the subject of mature re- 
 flection, by wise and learned men, who, contemplating 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 local circumstances, have adapted them to the condition 
 of the section of society for which they have been framed. 
 I am strengthened in this conclusion by an examination 
 of each separately, and a conviction that no one of them, 
 if adopted without change, would be suited to the cir- 
 cumstances and pursuits of our country. The example 
 they have set, then, is authority for us to select from their 
 different institutions the materials which are good for us, 
 and, with them, to erect a structure, whose arrangement 
 shall correspond with our own social condition, and shall 
 admit of enlargement in proportion to the encouragement 
 it may merit and receive. As I may not be able to attend 
 the meetings of the trustees, I will make you the deposi- 
 tary of my ideas on the subject, which may be corrected, 
 as you proceed, by the better views of others, and adapted 
 from time to time, to the prospects which open upon us, 
 and which cannot be specifically seen and provided for. 
 
 " In the first place, we must ascertain with precision 
 the object of our institution, by taking a survey of the 
 general field of science, and marking out the portion we 
 mean to occupy at first, and the ultimate extension of our 
 views beyond that, should we be enabled to render it, in 
 the end, as comprehensive as we would wish." Jefferson 
 then sketched out a broad educational system, providing 
 for each grade of learning up to the highest and providing 
 for various studies — such as the physical sciences, includ- 
 ing those of electricity and galvanism and magnetism and 
 meteorology, agriculture, horticulture and veterinary, 
 marine architecture and military sciences, and adding to 
 the lengthy list of courses of study which he enumerated, 
 remark, that to the list of studies which he had made, there 
 should be added " an &c. not easily enumerated." While 
 some young people were expected by Jefferson to fail to 
 receive what would be called a highly literary education, 
 
I90 JEFFERSON' S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 and some would leave the grammar school or college — 
 the intermediate schools which he had planned — " with," 
 as he expressed it, " a sufficient stock of knowledge, to 
 improve themselves to any degree to which their views 
 may lead them," other youth were to enter what he 
 termed the " Professional Schools," and to pursue " each 
 science " " in the highest degree it has yet attained." 
 One department of the university, which was to be classed 
 in some respects with the professional schools was to be 
 so peculiar that it is proper to pause for a moment to give 
 it especial attention. " The school of technical philoso- 
 phy," the statesman wrote, " will differ essentially in its 
 functions from the other professional schools. The others 
 are instituted to ramify and dilate the particular sciences 
 taught in the schools of the second grade on a general 
 scale only. The technical school is to abridge those which 
 were taught there too much in cxtenso for the limited 
 wants of the artificer or practical man. These artificers 
 must be grouped together, according to the particular 
 branch of science in which they need elementary and 
 practical instruction ; and a special lecture or lectures 
 should be prepared for each group — and these lectures 
 should be given in the evening, so as not to interrupt the 
 labors of the day. The school, particularly, should be 
 maintained wholly at the public expense, on the same 
 principles with that of the ward schools." After speaking 
 somewhat in detail of the classes of youth who would 
 attend the different professional schools, Jefferson added : 
 "To that of technical philosophy will come the mariner, 
 carpenter, ship-wright, pump maker, clock maker, machin- 
 ist, optician, metallurgist, founder, cutler, druggist * * * 
 dyer, painter, bleacher, soap maker, tanner, powder maker, 
 salt maker, glass maker, to learn as much as shall be neces- 
 sary to pursue their art understandingly, of the sciences 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 I 9 I 
 
 of geometry, mechanics, statics, hydrostatics, hydraulics, 
 hydrodynamics, navigation, astronomy, geography, optics, 
 pneumatics, acoustics, physics, chemistry, natural history, 
 botany, mineralogy and pharmacy." 
 
 Jefferson's idea of providing for courses of technical 
 instruction was meant to meet a want which many 
 thoughtful people have sometimes felt is worthy of very 
 much more consideration in America than it has received. 
 Perhaps there is no institution of modern times that 
 more effectually accomplishes such an end as the states- 
 man had in view than does the Cooper Institute of 
 New York, where mechanical drawing is taught, and 
 where evening courses of lectures, illustrated by experi- 
 ments, especially interesting and valuable to mechan- 
 ics, are delivered. There have been writers who have 
 spoken with much approbation and pleasure of the good 
 which is being accomplished in some European nations 
 by making considerable provision for what is called 
 technical instruction for youth. It is held that these 
 departments of instruction have enabled many a youth 
 to learn how to earn an honorable support and have raised 
 the taste and skill of workingmen to a degree which has 
 sensibly added to national wealth and honor, and that this 
 sagacious improvement in the courses of public instruc- 
 tion has been especially apparent at great International 
 exhibitions which have been held in England and in 
 France. There have been thoughtful people who have 
 felt that American youth too often grow to manhood 
 destitute of any knowledge of mechanics or of useful 
 trades and are thereby in danger of leaving profitable and 
 honorable manual employment to foreigners who have 
 enjoyed in European schools advantages of a kind which 
 should be widely introduced into America. While all 
 intelligent people will agree with much that has been 
 
192 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 said by these thoughtful writers, yet, to arrange the de- 
 tails of an industrial department of any educational estab- 
 lishment will require much wisdom. There are people 
 who shrink from contemplating a question which, if of 
 very great importance to a republic, is at the same time 
 very difficult to solve in a practical and satisfactory man- 
 ner. There are some general propositions with which 
 every one may be expected to agree. For example, a 
 knowledge of letters is of such importance to all classes 
 of citizens that it may be said to be the basis of almost 
 all studies — scientific and industrial not less truly than of 
 literary acquirements. A very large number of artisans — 
 indeed of all classes of people — would find a knowledge 
 of mechanical drawing — by which the eye can be ad- 
 dressed sometimes far more satisfactorily than the ear — 
 highly useful to them in many departments of work. 
 Such instruction might well be given in all public day 
 and night schools. A knowledge of commercial arith- 
 metic would be valuable to every class of society and 
 might be taught sometimes in very practical ways — such, 
 for example, as by commercial book-keeping. Almost 
 every section of a land so vast as that of the United States 
 has some special industry that in some cases it would be 
 of a great advantage to youth to understand. In some 
 parts of the United States there are mines of the precious 
 metals or of coal or of some other useful products of 
 the earth, respecting which much that would be interest- 
 ing and useful could be taught even in common schools, 
 as well as to evening classes of people particularly interested 
 in such industries. In other sections of the United States 
 there are other industries such as manufactures, or fisheries, 
 about which information might be very interesting to 
 a certain class of citizens. While the number of lec- 
 turers who are capable of interesting and instructing 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 193 
 
 classes of artisans — especially on some important branches 
 of industry — are not as numerous as could be desired, 
 yet wisely arranged courses of lectures will have an ele- 
 vating tendency in a community. Doubtless, however, 
 as far as many industries are concerned, money could 
 probably be laid out even to better advantage than by 
 providing courses of lectures respecting them. For in- 
 stance arrangements could be made by which whoever 
 chose to do so could consult books respecting these use- 
 ful employments. Jefferson held that the establishment 
 of libraries which would be accessible to mechanics of 
 every community would be instrumental in doing a vast 
 amount of good. Books which would render friendly 
 services to scientists, and to men engaged in various use- 
 ful handicrafts, he would have welcomed into the United 
 States free of duty. 
 
 Almost every industry is dependent more or less on 
 one or more of the sciences. Scientific schools such as 
 have been established in recent times in connection with 
 some of the leading colleges in the United States give 
 much of the kind of instruction needed by youth who are 
 to engage in industries in which chemical and various 
 kinds of other knowledge is required. Jefferson proposed 
 in a paper which he wrote and submitted to the Legisla- 
 ture of Virginia — a paper which was signed by Madison 
 and by Caleb and by other of his distinguished colleagues 
 who were associated with him in founding the University 
 of Virginia — that students should be helped in gaining an 
 acquaintance with some of the useful industrial arts by 
 being enabled to visit, in a way just to every one, different 
 factories. He wrote * : " The use of tools too is worthy of 
 encouragement, by facilitating, to such as chose it, an 
 
 * "Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, 1856, 
 p. 442. 
 
 7 
 
194 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 admission into the neighboring workshops." A plan 
 similar to the one suggested by Jefferson has been recom- 
 mended by an able writer on technical education, who has 
 further advised that students should write essays respect- 
 ing the industries which they examine, and thus be en- 
 couraged to see what is written on these arts in encyclo- 
 pedias and in other works of information. By such a 
 plan they would be introduced to a variety of industries 
 some of which might be esteemed especially worthy of 
 cultivation. 
 
 Many an American youth who has grown to manhood 
 without having acquired a knowledge of any useful 
 handicraft, or business, has felt that his education had 
 been imperfect, and has, perhaps, even died of a broken 
 heart, feeling that however useful he might hope to be in 
 a general way to society, his life was a failure because he 
 was unable to earn his own support. Jefferson was far 
 too wise not to recognize that while a certain class of youth 
 might be so happily situated in life that he could 
 conscientiously advise them to devote their time to 
 studies by which they might be enabled to promote the 
 general well-being of society, yet that there were vast 
 numbers of youth who should be skilled in manual arts 
 or in professions. In the University of Virginia some 
 young men were to be prepared to become engineers, 
 others physicians, others lawyers or members of some 
 other useful professions. It is hardly necessary to here 
 dwell upon the time which he gave to the establishment 
 of the departments of law and of medicine. It may, 
 however, be here stated that Jefferson felt that the science 
 of medicine was in his day in a very unsatisfactory state. 
 While of surgery he had a high opinion he felt that phy- 
 sicians often did more harm to their patients than good. 
 He felt that in his day the custom of bleeding patients 
 
JEFFERSON' S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 195 
 
 and of giving them strong purgatives and pills of various 
 kinds was wofully often a cause of deadly injury to the sick. 
 A time was to come when he himself was, while lying on 
 his death-bed, to spend some of his waning strength in re- 
 sisting the efforts of a well-meaning physician who, in a way 
 far too common with some physicians with their patients, 
 put to his lips a spirituous liquor. If, however, the art of 
 medicine was in a deplorable condition, all the more need 
 there was that efforts should be made to provide the means 
 of a high medical education to students of medicine in 
 Virginia. There was one industry which the distinguished 
 statesman wished to receive especial encouragement. In 
 the university, to the founding of which he was giving 
 his best talents, the art of agriculture was to be studied 
 as a science. 
 
 One of the ways in which civilized people differ from 
 savages is that they are better acquainted with the art 
 of making the earth yield treasures of food for mankind, 
 than are their uncultured brethren. Doubtless, for thou- 
 sands of years in some parts of the world, there have 
 been people who have been skilled in cultivating the 
 earth. For many centuries the emperors of China have 
 been wont, with much pomp and ceremony, at stated 
 times to set an example to the people of the Empire of 
 China of preparing the soil to yield them food. Many a 
 Roman aristocrat loved to be considered learned in the 
 dignified art of husbandry. When the clenched hand of 
 many a mummy which has lain in its silent resting-place 
 for thousands of years has been opened, it has been found 
 to contain grains of wheat or of some other useful plant. 
 The noble works for irrigating the soil, built by people who 
 lived in bygone ages, attest the industry and skill with 
 which agriculture has been pursued by at least a part of 
 the great human family. The Grecians were possessed 
 
196 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 of the art of cultivating the apple, the luscious pear, the 
 cherry, the plum, the quince, as well as the peach and 
 the nectarine, and with some other fruits, — including the 
 fig and the lemon. Strange, however, one may well feel 
 it to be that for thousands of years a large part of the 
 human race has been ignorant of the existence of many 
 useful plants which are invaluable to man. Some of these 
 plants are instrumental in protecting vast numbers of the 
 present generation from some dreadful scourges which 
 for ages were wont to shorten and often render miserable 
 human life — scourges such as never fail to sooner or later 
 make their appearance where man is not supplied with 
 food containing certain elements needed for his healthful 
 sustenance. The extent to which the dreadful disease 
 scurvy existed in the world before the potato, and some 
 other antiscorbutics, came into common use is well cal- 
 culated to amaze a thoughtful student of history. Al- 
 though the English people have been probably for cen- 
 turies little, if at all, behind in intelligence hundreds of 
 millions of the human race, yet they did not even know 
 for many ages of such fruits of the earth as Indian corn, 
 squashes, carrots, cabbages, or turnips, or potatoes. It 
 has been stated by some Portuguese writers,* that the 
 progenitor of all the European and American oranges was 
 an Oriental tree still living in the last century, which had 
 been introduced into Lisbon. Even the common weep- 
 ing willow-tree and very many flowers and plants, have 
 been imported into the United States in very recent 
 times — indeed the vegetable immigration into America 
 has been amazingly large and important. Other plants — 
 such as sorghum, which may prove to be of far more 
 value to America than even the cotton plant or wheat, — 
 
 * See " The Earth as Modified by Human Action," by George P. Marsh, 
 p. 66. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 197 
 
 are probably to further illustrate the inestimable wealth 
 which the art of agriculture has it sometimes in its power 
 to evoke from the earth. 
 
 The importance of agricultural knowledge might well 
 claim the consideration of a statesman. The amount of 
 land on the North and South American continent which 
 will return a profitable harvest to the husbandman is 
 probably as large as is all the fertile land of all other 
 continents united in the world. Owing to the form of 
 the American continent which enables the fructifying 
 exhalations of the oceans, and of its great lakes — which 
 alone contain one third of all the fresh water of the world, 
 — and of its great rivers — nowhere else equalled, — there 
 is, compared to Africa and Asia, but a small amount of 
 desert land. It has been estimated that, at a low calcula- 
 tion, the American continent can supply subsistence for 
 about two and a half times as many people as are at 
 present on the surface of the earth. Moreover, the Ameri- 
 can continent is happily free, to a great extent, from the 
 scorching rays of the sun which enervate the body and 
 mind of man on some of the great continents of the world. 
 Even much, if not almost all, of what has been called 
 the deserts of America are suitable for pasturage for 
 domestic animals. Millions upon millions of husband- 
 men are to have honorable, healthful, dignified and profit- 
 able employment in summoning to their call the treasures 
 of the earth. 
 
 The United States, by its invaluable Agricultural De- 
 partment and by its wise legislation, has greatly aided the 
 interests of agriculture. Plants have been introduced to 
 American soil whose value are so great to the Republic 
 that one may well hesitate to make calculations which 
 must aggregate sums which might be deemed, by any one 
 who has not given attention to the subject, to be incredi- 
 
198 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 ble. The United States, by its wise homestead laws, has 
 done more than one can easily describe to lift a worthy 
 class of citizens above the curse of poverty and to kindle 
 in their breasts the fire of patriotism, while at the same 
 time lands are redeemed which for ages have lain waste, 
 and useless, and are made to minister to the wealth of the 
 human family. The vast public domain has been partly 
 surveyed and every citizen — indeed every one who even 
 states his intention of becoming a citizen, — may, by com- 
 plying with some simple and wise laws which have been 
 enacted, become owners of a quite large tract of land and 
 of a home. Well would it be if many a man in the 
 crowded cities of the Republic who perhaps is tempted to 
 adopt lawless views respecting industry and wealth, could 
 have unfolded to him the reward which a knowledge of 
 the art of agriculture in America can be made to yield 
 to the well-meaning American citizen ! 
 
 The more one considers the wealth and comfort which 
 the art of agriculture brings to the people of the United 
 States, the more it will be held in honor. The value of 
 forest products by the census of 1880 was $700,000,000. 
 Estimating the value of wheat at prices which would 
 probably be judged strangely low by many Europeans, the 
 amount raised in the United States by the census of 
 1880, was $474,291,850. Of hay there was raised an 
 amount which was estimated at $371,811,085. The oat 
 crop was valued at $150,243,565. The cotton crop at 
 $280,266,242. The yield of potatoes was estimated at 
 $81,000,000. Not to speak of many other crops of vari- 
 ous kinds the amount of corn raised was estimated — 
 perhaps indeed too largely — to be worth $679,714,499. 
 In short, the agricultural produce including the yield of 
 wool and of domestic animals — and probably a billion of 
 dollars would be a low estimate for the cattle which were 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 I99 
 
 to be found on farms and plains, — amounted to billions 
 of dollars. The vast yearly yield of coal, of iron, of gold 
 and silver, and of copper, and of several other highly im- 
 portant minerals, were, altogether only estimated by the 
 census of 1880, at a valuation of $218,385,452. Surely 
 the citizens of a republic possessing such a magnificent 
 domain as that of a large part of the continent of America, 
 should make a wise provision for the enlightenment of at 
 least some of its youth respecting such an important 
 industry as that of agriculture. 
 
 Even as an amusement Jefferson felt that the study of 
 botany had claims upon the attention of many Americans. 
 Writing to the learned Dr. Thomas Cooper, under date of 
 Oct. 7th, 1 8 14, he said: "Botany I rank with the most 
 valuable sciences, whether we consider its subjects as 
 furnishing the principal subsistence of life to man and 
 beast, delicious varieties for our tables, refreshments from 
 our orchards, the adornments of our flower-borders, shade 
 and perfume of our groves, materials for our buildings, or 
 medicaments for our bodies. * * * To a country 
 family it constitutes a great portion of their social enter- 
 tainment. No country gentleman should be without 
 what amuses every step he takes into his fields." Even 
 when President of the United States Jefferson had found 
 time to express his views respecting the importance of 
 turning the attention of a large class of youth to the 
 claims of agricultural pursuits. To the learned David 
 Williams who had sent him a volume which he had 
 written on the claims of literature, he, under date of Nov. 
 14th, 1803, wrote : " The greatest evils of populous society 
 have ever appeared to me to spring from the vicious dis- 
 tribution of its members among the occupations called 
 for. I have no doubt that those nations are essentially 
 right, which leave this to individual choice, as a better 
 
200 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 guide to an advantageous distribution than any other 
 which could be devised. But when, by a blind concourse, 
 particular occupations are ruinously overcharged, and 
 others left in want of hands, the national authorities can 
 do much towards restoring the equilibrium. * * * 
 The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever entirely, 
 cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it 
 may be cured. Doubtless there are many engines which 
 the nation might bring to bear on this object. Public 
 opinion and public encouragement are among these. The 
 class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the 
 first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The 
 same artificial means which have been used to produce a 
 competition in learning, may be equally successful in re- 
 storing agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of 
 men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts 
 among its handmaids the most respectable sciences ; such 
 as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathe- 
 matics generally, Natural History, Botany. In every 
 College and University, a professorship of agriculture, 
 and the class of its students, might be honored as the 
 first. Young men closing their academical education with 
 this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its 
 solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an 
 occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would 
 return to the farms of their fathers, their own, or those of 
 others, and replenish and invigorate a calling, now lan- 
 guishing under contempt and oppression."* 
 
 In a valuable report which the aged Jefferson, when 
 he had been appointed a commissioner to select a site for 
 a State University, — a report which was signed by James 
 Madison and by his other distinguished associates, — sub- 
 
 * By oppression Jefferson perhaps had in mind African slavery which he 
 abhorred. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 20I 
 
 mitted to the Legislature in the year 1 8 1 8, — he unfolded 
 at considerable length his views respecting the branches 
 of knowledge which could be wisely provided for Ameri- 
 can youth. In the courses of study which he draughted 
 he did not forget to speak of the wisdom of providing for 
 the teaching to American youth of foreign languages. 
 With a very large part of the human race one who can 
 only speak a single language cannot commune. Only a 
 fraction of the human race can speak the English lan- 
 guage. This state of affairs is probably a much sadder 
 evil than it is generally realized to be by the unlearned. 
 Who can picture all the wealth of knowledge which na- 
 tions could place at each others' disposal, or the vastness 
 of the blessings which could be enjoyed in common, if all 
 the members of the human family could intelligently com- 
 municate with each other ! There have been men who 
 have loved to dream of a plan by which learned men 
 should be brought together to invent a common language 
 for all nations. There have been statesmen who have 
 pictured the blessings which will be enjoyed by posterity 
 if by wise American statesmanship the whole of the con- 
 tinent of America shall be secured to the Republic of the 
 United States, — a continent which is to be inhabited by 
 many hundreds of millions of people, — and if by means 
 of public schools and wise laws a common language shall 
 be spoken from the far north to the sunny south and 
 from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific main. Jefferson 
 and Monroe had such visions. At the present time, how- 
 ever, if Americans are to enjoy the innumerable advan- 
 tages which flow from being enabled to speak some of 
 the important languages which are at this day found upon 
 \he earth, they must be favored with opportunities to 
 acquire these strange tongues. Jefferson, in the paper to 
 which allusion has just been made, said : " The considera- 
 
202 
 
 JEFFERSON 'S IDEAL UNI VERSIT Y. 
 
 tions which have governed the specification of languages 
 to be taught by the professor of modern languages were, 
 that the French is the language of general intercourse 
 among nations, and as a depositary of human science, is 
 unsurpassed by any other language, living or dead ; that 
 the Spanish is highly interesting to us, as the language 
 spoken by so great a portion of the inhabitants of our 
 continents, with whom we shall probably have great inter- 
 course ere long, and is that also in which is written the 
 greater part of the earlier history of America. The Italian 
 abounds with works of very superior order, valuable for 
 their matter, and still more distinguished as models of the 
 finest taste in style and composition. And the German 
 now stands in a line with that of the most learned nations 
 in richness of erudition and advance in the sciences. It 
 is too of common descent with the language of our own 
 country, a branch of the same original Gothic stock, and 
 furnishes valuable illustrations for us." 
 
 It has sometimes been stated, and it is to be feared 
 with a lamentable degree of truth, that in some distin- 
 guished seats of learning in Great Britian and America, 
 the study of the English language does not receive the 
 consideration which it deserves. Jefferson did not pro- 
 pose that such a fault should exist in the State Univer- 
 sity which he and his colleagues were planning for Vir- 
 ginia. Among the studies which he urged should receive 
 especial consideration was that of the English language. 
 He urged at considerable length the wisdom of American 
 youth studying Anglo-Saxon. " It," he said, " will form 
 the first link in the chain of an historical review of our 
 language through all its successive changes to the present 
 day, will constitute the foundation of that critical instruc- 
 tion in it which ought to be found in a seminary of gen- 
 eral learning ; * * * a language already fraught with all 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 203 
 
 the eminent science of our parent country, the future 
 vehicle of whatever we may ourselves achieve, and destined 
 to occupy so much space on the globe, claims distinguished 
 attention in American education." 
 
 In the report of 18 1 8 — to which attention has just been 
 drawn — it was pointed out that a gymnasium, for the 
 physical training of students was "a proper object of 
 attention for every institution of youth." Learned re- 
 marks were also made respecting the difference which it 
 was deemed proper to make between the exercises prac- 
 tised by youth in "ancient nations" and the physical cul- 
 ture suitable for American youth. One could wish to 
 dwell upon the priceless value to youth of wise physical 
 culture. But time forbids. It may here be briefly stated 
 that Jefferson had a favorite plan by which all the young 
 men of the United States would have to learn how to go 
 through military evolutions. In the learned letter on edu- 
 cation to Peter Carr which Jefferson wrote on Sept. 7th, 
 1 8 14, he said, "Through the whole of the collegiate 
 course, at the hours of recreation on certain days, all the 
 students should be taught the manual exercise, military 
 evolutions and manoeuvres, and should be under a standing 
 organization as a military corps, and with proper officers 
 to train and command them." He felt that at some time 
 such training might be especially useful to citizens of a 
 republic. 
 
 It might be interesting to especially notice the efforts 
 of Jefferson to get able English professors for the uni- 
 versity. He proposed that the most attractive of all of 
 the features of the university which he was helping to 
 found should be the high character of its instructors. In 
 his letters he quite often dwelt upon his desire to secure to 
 the University of Virginia the ablest of professors. With- 
 out here pausing to quote from these letters suffice it to 
 
204 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 notice that to be a good instructor of youth requires 
 sometimes the greatest of talents — indeed, to teach youth 
 in a worthy manner may be called one of the highest and 
 noblest of arts. A professor, who is what he should be, 
 may sometimes be an unspeakable blessing to youth. He 
 needs to be possessed of many gifts. He should possess 
 at once a certain gentleness and firmness of character. 
 He should instinctively cause youth to realize that he is 
 their friend and that he possesses treasures of knowledge 
 worthy of their respect. He should be prepared by a 
 noble heart, and true wisdom, and sometimes by indescrib- 
 able characteristics, to kindle in youth elevating, and in 
 various ways noble, aspirations, and to sometimes, in a 
 most delicate manner, introduce them to sciences. A 
 worthy professor will often be enabled to make his in- 
 struction fascinatingly interesting, and at the same time 
 teach students in one hour more than an inferior in- 
 structor could teach them in a day. Youth are thus 
 not only saved valuable time but are taught the art of 
 studying and of making various researches themselves ; 
 they catch a certain kind of enthusiasm and love for 
 their studies, when under a less gifted instructor they 
 would become disgusted with their work. What a good 
 minister, a judicious lawyer, a competent physician is 
 to a community so is a worthy professor to the youth 
 who come under his influence. He may even intuitively 
 and in the happiest manner instil the truest and noblest 
 greatness into the character of his students. By holding 
 intercourse with such a preceptor the minds of students 
 may be elevated for life. Such a professor should be well- 
 poised in character, wise in the exercise of authority, 
 sympathetic and noble-hearted in bearing, of exact and 
 truthful habits of observation, and should be possessed of 
 tact and of good sense. He should teach with good 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 205 
 
 taste, and should be wisely considerate and patient. 
 After spending years of life in qualifying himself for one of 
 the noblest of employments, he may have to spend many 
 an hour of toil in preparing in a way most suitable to the 
 mind of young suitors of useful knowledge some of the 
 profoundest of the truths to which they can turn their 
 attention. 
 
 It has been realized in Prussia that the schoolmaster or 
 the professor is worthy of peculiar regard by the State. 
 He is often furnished with a house and a garden and is 
 enabled to collect around him many comforts of life. 
 When the humble schoolmaster retires from his honor- 
 able employment, he is given a pension. But to return to 
 Jefferson's labors in the cause of education. Writing to 
 his English friend Mr. Roscoe, under date of Dec. 27th, 
 1820, after declaring that his remaining days and faculties 
 would be devoted to the University of Virginia, he con- 
 tinued: "When ready for its Professors we shall apply 
 for them chiefly to your Island. Were we content to 
 remain stationary in science, we should take them from 
 among ourselves; but, desirous of advancing, we must 
 seek them in countries already in advance ; and iden- 
 tity of language points to our best resource. To fur- 
 nish inducements, we provide for the Professors sepa- 
 rate buildings, in which themselves and their families may 
 be handsomely and comfortably lodged, and to liberal 
 salaries will be added lucrative perquisites." Jefferson 
 when bowed with the weight of four-score years wrote to 
 his distinguished colleagues in organizing the institution 
 of learning to which he was giving his best talents, under 
 date of Oct. 7th, 1822, that the university should only 
 have " Professors of the first eminence in their respective 
 lines of science." He added that "The Visitors consider 
 the procuring of such characters * * * as the peculiar 
 
206 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 feature which is to give reputation and value to the insti- 
 tution and constitute its desirable attractions."* 
 
 Without dwelling on the details of the great work of 
 founding the University of Virginia, suffice it to say that 
 when eighty-three years of life pressed heavily on its 
 Rector he drew up a long list of books and arranged for 
 the purchase of thousands of useful volumes. It has 
 been held by some learned Europeans that amongst the 
 essentials of a university, a good library should be ranked 
 first in importance; good instructors second; and third, 
 suitable buildings. It is to be feared that too many 
 founders of collegiate institutions have not realized that 
 a good library is a very essential part of a university. 
 Much of education in its preliminary stages, and even into 
 the meridian of life, is the training of the mind to use 
 books wisely, rather than to overload the memory with 
 the knowledge contained in many volumes. The nobler 
 a man's aims the more extensive should be the facilities 
 placed within his reach. The world of thought, at times, 
 advances. If professors have no means of supplying 
 their minds with new stores of knowledge, they labor at a 
 great disadvantage, and their instruction does not keep 
 pace with the times. The intellectual hermit is not the 
 man to teach in a worthy institution of learning. If a 
 student is troubled with doubts respecting some histori- 
 cal statement, or some fact in regard to science or reli- 
 gion, by means of a library rich with the treasures of 
 wisdom of the learned his distressing doubts are removed 
 and the truth flings its rays upon his mind as does the 
 sun, when it shines upon one with refreshing splendor. 
 He is thus, in some respects, made mentally strong, and 
 enjoys blessings of which he must ever have remained a 
 
 * " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. W. Randolph, 1856, 
 P- 473. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 207 
 
 stranger had he not been enabled to consult the shelves 
 of a worthy library. The suitor for knowledge under- 
 stands how great a blessing it is to him to be enabled at 
 times to understand both sides of a question ; and to be 
 enabled to form broad and intelligent views respecting 
 important subjects — drawing even inspiration from the 
 works of great authors. Even in Jefferson's day the 
 University of Oxford contained four or five hundred 
 thousand volumes besides many thousands of manu- 
 scripts. Some of the great centres of learning are espe- 
 cially to be praised for their great libraries. There are 
 few ways sometimes in which a friend of education can 
 do more good to a college than by presenting it with 
 useful bocks. 
 
 Happily the University of Virginia was blessed with an 
 English friend. On Nov. 9th, 1825, the aged Jefferson 
 wrote a long letter to Evelyn Denizon, a member of Par- 
 liament, who had been his guest and had presented some 
 books to the university library. After gracefully thank- 
 ing the English friend of education, Jefferson alluded to 
 the infant Virginian seat of learning. He said : " It is 
 going on as successfully as we could have expected ; and 
 I have no reason to regret the measure taken of procuring 
 Professors from abroad, where science is so much ahead 
 of us. You witnessed some of the puny squibs of which 
 I was the butt on that account. * * * The measure has 
 been generally approved in the South and in the West ; 
 and by all liberal minds in the North. It has been 
 peculiarly fortunate, too, that the Professors brought from 
 abroad were as happy selections as could have been hoped, 
 as well for their qualifications in science as correctness 
 and amiableness of character. I think the example will 
 be followed, and that it cannot fail to be one of the effi- 
 cacious means of promoting that cordial good will which 
 
208 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 it is so much the interest of both nations to cherish. 
 These teachers can never utter an unfriendly sentiment 
 towards their native country ; and those into whom their 
 instructions will be infused are not of ordinary signifi- 
 cance only : they are exactly the persons who are to suc- 
 ceed to the government of our country, and to rule its 
 future enmities, its friendships and fortunes. As it is our 
 interest to receive instruction through this channel, so I 
 think it is yours to furnish it ; for these two nations 
 holding cordially together have nothing to fear from the 
 united world. They will be the models for regenerating 
 the condition of man, the sources from which representa- 
 tive government is to flow over the whole earth." As 
 Jefferson proceeded he made some remarks on the study 
 of Anglo-Saxon, which was to receive attention in the 
 university, and which was of mutual interest to Ameri- 
 cans and to Englishmen. 
 
 One characteristic of the university which was being 
 moulded by Jefferson, upon which it would be highly in- 
 teresting and instructive to dwell, will here be but briefly 
 pointed out in the statesman's own words. In his letter 
 to his English friend, Mr. Roscoe, under date of December 
 27th, 1820, just after speaking of the efforts which were to 
 be made to procure worthy professors for the university, 
 he added : " This institution will be based on the illimit- 
 able freedom of the human mind. For here we are not 
 afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to toler- 
 ate any error, so long as reason is left free to combat it." 
 
 Years after Jefferson had been laid in his grave, one of 
 the English professors, Dr. Robley Dunglison, who had 
 been welcomed to the University of Virginia, and who 
 became especially celebrated because of his valuable 
 medical works, — works which are to this day standard 
 authorities in American Medical Colleges, — wrote of the 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 20g 
 
 aged statesman thus: " His philanthropy was actual and 
 active. It embraced, I believe, the whole globe. His 
 desire was to see all people prosperous and happy — all 
 peoples I may say. * * * He was kind, courteous ; hospi- 
 table to all ; sincerely attached to the excellent family that 
 were clustered around him ; sympathizing with them in 
 their pleasures, deeply distressed in their afflictions. * * * 
 He was of commanding aspect, dignified, and would have 
 been striking to any one not knowing in whose presence 
 and company he was. * * * His expression — as I recollect 
 it — was pleasing, intellectual, contemplative. He was 
 tall and thin * * * As a university officer, he was always 
 pleasant to transact business with, was invariably kind 
 and respectful, but had generally formed his own opinion 
 on questions and did not abandon them easily. * * * To 
 sum up, I had the most exalted opinion of him. I be- 
 lieved him essentially a philanthropist, anxious for the 
 greatest good to the greatest number; a distinguished 
 patriot, whose love of country was not limited by any 
 consideration of self ; who was eminently virtuous, with 
 fixed and honorable principles of action not to be tram- 
 melled by any unworthy considerations ; and whose repu- 
 tation must shine brighter and brighter, as he is more and 
 more justly judged and estimated." 
 
 At last the university was duly opened. To Edward 
 Livingston, Jefferson wrote on March 25th, 1825: "The 
 institution is at length happily advanced to completion, 
 and has commenced under auspices as favorable as I 
 could expect. I hope it will prove a blessing to my own 
 State, and not unuseful, perhaps, to some others. At all 
 hazards, and secured by the aid of my able coadjutors, I 
 shall continue, while I am in being, to contribute to it 
 whatever my weakened and weakening powers can. But 
 assuredly it is the last object for which I shall obtrude 
 
2IO JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 myself on the public observation." To William B. Giles, 
 on December 26th, 1825, the venerable Jefferson wrote: 
 "A finer set of youths I never saw assembled for instruc- 
 tion. * * * A great proportion of them are severely devoted 
 to study, and I fear not to say, that within twelve or fif- 
 teen years from this time, a majority of the rulers of our 
 State will have been educated here. * * * You may ac- 
 count assuredly that they will exalt their country in a 
 degree of sound respectability it has never known, either 
 in our days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot live to 
 see it. My joy must be only in anticipation." 
 
 Jefferson, it may ljere be briefly stated, although he 
 believed that the University of Virginia should be unsec- 
 tarian, labored in various ways to throw around the 
 students who should reside in the university town, good 
 influences. He gave more money than his fortune justi- 
 fied him in giving to the support of Christian churches. 
 His labors of this nature, however, will perhaps be noticed 
 at some length at some future time. 
 
 It of course required a great deal of money to found a 
 State university such as Jefferson believed should form a 
 part of the school system of Virginia. A rich planter 
 might say that he could send his sons to a private school, 
 or to a private university, and, that however desirable a 
 public-school system of education was for the common 
 people, that as for him he got nothing for the money which 
 he was obliged to pay in taxes to support the schools, and 
 colleges or high schools, and the university which such men 
 as Jefferson wished States to establish. Jefferson, living as 
 he did in a State in which was the institution of slavery, 
 very probably heard of some such case. To Joseph C. Ca- 
 bell, under date of January 14th, 18 18, he wrote*: "And 
 
 * See letter in full in " Early History of the University of Virginia," J. 
 VV. Randolph, 1S56, pp. 102-6. 
 
JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 211 
 
 will the wealthy individual have no retribution ? and what 
 will this be? I. The peopling his neighborhood with 
 honest, useful, and enlightened citizens, understanding 
 their own rights and firm in their perpetuation. 2. When 
 his own descendants become poor, which they generally 
 do within three generations, (no law of primogeniture 
 now perpetuating wealth in the same families) the children 
 will be educated by the then rich ; and the little advance 
 he now makes to poverty, while rich himself, will be re- 
 paid by the then rich, to his descendants when become 
 poor, and thus give them a chance of rising again. This 
 is a solid consideration and should go home to the bosom 
 of ever}' parent. This will be seed sown in fertile ground. 
 It is a provision for his family looking to distant times, 
 and far in duration beyond that he has now in hand for 
 them. Let every man count backward in his own family, 
 and see how many generations he can go before he comes 
 to the ancestor who made the fortune he now holds. 
 Most will be stopped at the first generation, many at the 
 second, few will reach the third, and not one in the State 
 can go beyond the fifth." 
 
 In the year 1S25 Jefferson was visited by Lafayette. By 
 cruel confinement in an Austrian prison Lafayette had 
 been made lame. Although Jefferson was ill and weak he 
 walked to the porch of his house to meet him and to em- 
 brace him with tears. To Lafayette a grand banquet was 
 given in the imposing university buildings. Some of the 
 most distinguished citizens of the United States took their 
 places at the feast. Amidst many gay and pleasant re- 
 marks a sentiment was proposed in Jefferson's honor. 
 All eyes were turned toward the venerable patriot. He 
 handed a written speech to a friend to read. In the 
 course of his speech he said : " My friends, I am old, long 
 in the disuse of making speeches, and without voice to 
 
212 
 
 JEFFERSON'S IDEAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 utter them. In this feeble state, the exhausted powers of 
 life leave little within my competence for your service. If 
 with the aid of my younger and abler coadjutors, I can 
 still contribute anything to advance the institution within 
 whose walls we are mingling manifestations to this our 
 guest, it will be, as it ever has been, cheerfully and zeal- 
 ously bestowed. And could I live to see it once enjoy the 
 patronage and cherishment of our public authorities with 
 undivided voice, I should die without a doubt of the future 
 fortunes of my native State, and in the consoling contem- 
 plation of the happy influence of this institution on its 
 character, its virtue, its prosperity and safety. 
 
 « * * * j f or our na tion at large, the aspira- 
 
 tions of a heart warm with the love of country ; whose 
 invocations to Heaven for its indissoluble union, will be 
 fervent and unremitting while the pulse of life continues 
 to beat, and, when that ceases, it will expire in prayers for 
 the eternal duration of its freedom and prosperity."* 
 
 At last Jefferson could feel that one of his great life 
 works was completed. Indeed, a noble dream of a great 
 statesman was in a good degree realized. He had by his 
 labors in behalf of true learning set an example worthy 
 of the admiration of every intelligent lover of civil liberty 
 in every land ! He had by his actions proved, in a manner 
 eloquent even to being pathetic, the sincerity of his con- 
 victions of the importance to a republic of universities. 
 
 * "Life of Thomas Jefferson." By Henry S. Randall, LL.D., vol. iii., 
 p. 504. 
 
IV. 
 
 "OUR COLORED BRETHREN." 
 
 It is well, sometimes, for students of the science of 
 government to notice how great statesmen have viewed 
 certain questions of great national importance, and to ask 
 themselves how some of the greatest and wisest of these 
 men would act were they to-day the custodians of all the 
 best interests of the American continent. 
 
 A subject of inexpressibly vast importance to the 
 people of the United States, to which Jefferson gave deep, 
 heart-felt, and prayerful consideration, was one respecting 
 the well-being of those whom he called " our colored 
 brethren." He formed some far-reaching conclusions 
 which are worthy of the most serious consideration of the 
 statesmen of modern times. 
 
 Upon the system of negro slavery which prevailed in 
 his day in the United States — especially in the Southern 
 States — he looked with abhorrence, and with feelings of 
 the gravest apprehension as he considered the effect which 
 it would some day have upon the welfare of his country. 
 In the year 1775, having been taken ill while on his way 
 to the Continental Congress, he forwarded to his fellow 
 statesmen, for the inspection of such of them as cared to 
 look at his written opinion respecting America's contro- 
 versy with England, an essay, entitled " The Rights of 
 Englishmen in America." Some members of Congress, 
 less cautious than others, published the essay, and the 
 
 213 
 
214 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 eloquent Edmund Burke, with some alterations, repub- 
 lished it in England. The English Government in 
 impotent displeasure placed Jefferson's name on a pro- 
 scribed list. In this pamphlet, or book, Jefferson indig- 
 nantly declared that, "The abolition of domestic slavery 
 is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was, 
 unhappily, introduced in their infant state. But previous 
 to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is neces- 
 sary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet 
 our repeated attempts to effect this, by prohibitions, and 
 by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, 
 have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's negative ; 
 thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few British 
 corsairs, to the lasting interests of the American States, 
 and to the rights of human nature deeply wounded by the 
 infamous practice." 
 
 At the Congress of 1776, Jefferson draughted the 
 Declaration of American Independence, which was slight- 
 ly revised by his colleagues John Adams and Benjamin 
 Franklin. As I write I have a facsimile copy of the 
 original document before me. The handwriting of the 
 Declaration may be said to betray especially deep feeling 
 when allusion is made to the last of a series of enumerated 
 wrongs committed by Great Britain against the people of 
 America. The only words that were underscored in the 
 whole document were on this last paragraph. The words 
 are so feelingly marked that it is perhaps impossible in print 
 to give the force of the emphasis which the writer evi- 
 dently intended them to have. Jefferson, of the King of 
 Great Britain, thus wrote : " He has waged cruel war 
 against human nature itself, violating its most sacred 
 rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people 
 who never offended him ; captivating and carrying them 
 into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur mis- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 215 
 
 erable death on their transportation thither. This piratical 
 warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare 
 of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to 
 keep open a market where MEN should be bought and 
 sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every 
 legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable 
 commerce. * * * " In the Continental Congress there 
 were found two men who objected to this part of the 
 Declaration of Independence. One of them was a delegate 
 from Georgia, the other was a delegate from South Caro- 
 lina. The Congress felt that it was of great importance 
 that union should be preserved among the colonies, and 
 rather than run the risk of separating any colonies from 
 the Union it was decided that the whole paragraph should 
 be stricken out. The first Continental Congress, on Octo- 
 ber 20th, 1774, had signed and promulgated "Articles of 
 Association." These "Articles" formed a bond of union 
 among the colonies who were pledged by them to 
 " neither import nor purchase any slave," and to " wholly 
 discontinue the slave-trade." In this bond of union it 
 was declared that any one who violated the Articles should 
 be pronounced " foes to the rights of British America," 
 should be " universally contemned as the foes of American 
 liberty," and should be regarded as unworthy of the rights 
 of freemen." These pledges of the Continental Congress 
 were adopted by colonial conventions, county meetings, 
 and by other assemblies throughout the colonies. It 
 may indeed have been in part for another reason than 
 that of hatred to negro slavery that the people thus acted, 
 but it is certain that there were American statesmen who 
 hated slavery and were not afraid to avow, in burning 
 language, their convictions. Hatred to slavery was not 
 confined to descendants of the Puritans. The Assembly 
 of Virginia, after discussing the evil of slavery, had voted 
 
2l6 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 to tax every cargo of slaves, but the King of England had 
 negatived the bill. To an address from the Legislature 
 of Virginia to the King of Great Britain in 1772, — an ad- 
 dress in which the inhumanity of holding human beings 
 in bondage was dwelt upon, and in which the conviction 
 was expressed that it was opposed to the security and 
 happiness of the people and would even in time endanger 
 their existence, — his Majesty replied that " upon pain of 
 his highest displeasure the importation of slaves should 
 not be in any respect obstructed." South Carolina had 
 decided in its Legislature that the slave trade should be 
 discouraged by taxing the slaves brought to the colony, 
 but the Crown had in 1761, negatived the bill. Two years 
 after the Declaration of Independence Jefferson success- 
 fully moved in the Assembly of Virginia that the slave 
 trade should be prohibited in every port over which Vir- 
 ginia had control. In the book entitled " Notes on 
 Virginia," which Jefferson wrote during the Revolutionary 
 War — he estimated the number of free inhabitants of 
 Virginia at 296,852 and the number of slaves at 270,762, 
 or, as he expressed it "nearly as 1 1 to 10." He feelingly 
 wrote that, " Under the mild treatment our slaves expe- 
 rience, and their wholesome, though coarse food, this blot 
 in our country increases as fast, or faster than the whites. 
 During the regal government we had at one time [in 
 Virginia] obtained a law which imposed such a duty on 
 the importation of slaves as amounted nearly to a pro- 
 hibition, when one inconsiderate Assembly, placed under 
 a peculiarity of circumstance, repealed the law. This 
 repeal met a joyful sanction from the then reigning sov- 
 ereign, and no devices, no expedients, which could ever be 
 attempted by subsequent Assemblies, and they seldom 
 met without attempting them, could succeed in getting 
 the royal assent to the renewal of the duty. In the very 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 217 
 
 first session held under the republican government, the 
 Assembly passed a law for the perpetual prohibition of 
 the importation of slaves. This will in some measure 
 stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, 
 while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a 
 complete emancipation of human nature." Jefferson was 
 to have a far more influential part in the sad drama with 
 which the abolition of slavery was to take place in the 
 United States than is generally known ! 
 
 In Massachusetts, during the war for Independence a 
 State Constitution was adopted by the people, whose 
 " Bill of Rights " was so worded that slavery could not 
 lawfully exist in the State. It has been falsely said if 
 I mistake not, by some uninformed speakers, that the 
 Northern States in a very cheap way to themselves 
 got rid of slavery, — that they sold their slaves to the 
 Southern States. Doubtless for years before the Civil 
 War the legislation of the State of New York, and to a 
 greater or less extent the legislation of other States, was 
 sadly tainted with indifference to the turpitude of slav- 
 ery ; and yet it may be doubted whether in the history 
 of the great State of New York there are many more 
 illustrious incidents than the way it got rid of slavery. 
 The State of New York decreed liberty to the enslaved at 
 a specified period, and made it an offence to which a severe 
 penalty was attached for any one to convey away or in 
 any manner whatever to sell out of the State, any one 
 held as a slave. If any citizen of New York, in view of 
 the day of emancipation, wished to visit the South with 
 his slaves, he was obliged to give bonds for their return 
 before he was allowed to go, and he had to give an account 
 of them if he returned without them. What is true of 
 the humane emancipation laws of New York is, in general, 
 true of the laws of all the Northern States. Governor 
 
218 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 John Jay, who, with Alexander Hamilton, was an out and 
 out Abolitionist — the one being President and the other 
 Secretary of an Abolitionist society in New York, — used 
 his influence as Governor with good effect in behalf of 
 his colored friends. 
 
 More horrible than the most dreadful tales ever told of 
 pirates, were the scenes of sickening wickedness enacted 
 in the prosecution of the slave-trade. To give even a 
 faint idea of the traffic in human flesh and blood, an 
 account would have to be given of the way in which 
 wars were fomented in Africa so that slaves could be ob- 
 tained for the slave-ship ; — of how villages were fired in 
 the night and the fleeing women and children captured, 
 loaded with irons, and compelled to walk sometimes 
 many hundreds of miles to reach the vessel which was to 
 bear them into hopeless bondage ; — of the innumerable 
 treacheries and piratical attacks upon the people by 
 heartless ruffians ; — and of how even venal African princes 
 for intoxicating beverages would sell their own subjects. 
 Once on board the slaver the wretched men and women 
 and children were often obliged to occupy as little room 
 as possible. They were chained to each other and to 
 their respective places. In thousands of cases the slaves 
 were given as little room as is allowed to the dead 
 when placed in coffins. Lying, in many cases naked on 
 bare boards, the motion of the vessel would sometimes 
 cause their flesh to be scraped to the bones. At times 
 the steam from their bodies would come up from the 
 openings in the decks of the vessel as from a horrid fur- 
 nace. The slaves would often be seized with delirium or 
 with despair, or would lie in a swoon until death, as an 
 angel of mercy, would deliver them from their tyrants. 
 Did a slave disturb the vessel by sobbing, gags of a pecul- 
 iar construction were brought into use. If water gave 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 219 
 
 out on the passage, or, if a storm overtook the slave-ship 
 loaded down with its cargo, moans of unutterable anguish 
 could not be prevented, or, if, as might happen, a peculiar 
 pestilence broke out among the suffering and the dying 
 chained in their places, and in some cases to the dead in 
 whom dissolution had already commenced, the scene 
 would become too woful to describe. For one reason 
 and another hundreds of thousands of slaves found a 
 grave in the waters of the ocean. One eighth to one 
 fourth of the cargoes of slaves may be said, on the aver- 
 age, to have perished on the vessels. When the enslaved 
 arrived in port they would sometimes be filled with 
 agony and terror as they realized that they were to be 
 sold into life-long bondage. The horrors of the scene 
 would only be exceeded by its wickedness ! No wonder 
 that Madison should speak of the slave-trade as an " infer- 
 nal traffic " ; — that Jefferson should feel indignant with the 
 British Crown for its responsibility for man-stealing and 
 the trade in human flesh and blood ! 
 
 It may here be incidentally remarked that African 
 slavery was first introduced into South America at the 
 instance of Las Casas, a Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, who 
 possibly hoped that negro slavery would at least take the 
 place of the well-nigh indescribable, — the appalling, — en- 
 slavement by the Spaniards of the vast hordes of Indians 
 who were dying in numbers which might seem incredible 
 if they were here stated. Las Casas, before his death be- 
 came to some degree enlightened respecting the unutter- 
 able horrors of the slave-trade and sadly repented of the 
 error which he had committed in taking part in the work 
 of introducing a new system of human bondage into South 
 America. It is hardly historically correct to say that he 
 was the only one responsible for the infamous business. 
 The monarchs of Spain at different periods, had at least 
 
220 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 to some extent encouraged the introduction of negroes 
 into the part of the new world scourged by their tyranny. 
 In 1 518, the Jeronimite Order of the Roman Catholic 
 Church had recommended that licenses should be given 
 to the people of Hispaniola or to other persons, to bring 
 negroes to Hispaniola. From a letter of theirs one may 
 infer that even before the year 15 18 they had sent, to 
 Spain a similar recommendation. Fray Bernardino de 
 Manzanedo, sent to Spain by his Order, not only recom- 
 mended that negro slavery should be introduced, but 
 added especially that as many negro women should be 
 sent as negro men.* Although it has been said that at 
 least one distinguished ecclesiastic, — a man connected with 
 the Inquisition — disapproved of the business, and al- 
 though a time was to come when from the Papal throne 
 denunciations in Latin were to be uttered against the 
 sin of man's enslaving his fellow-man, — yet Las Casas' 
 project respecting introducing African slaves was ap- 
 proved by powerful ecclesiastics. Pope Martin V. gave 
 his approval to the traffic — a traffic which, in justice it 
 should be said, was probably but little understood by the 
 Roman Pontiff. The Spanish Crown gave to a man 
 named De Brasa a license to carry on the slave business, 
 who in his turn sold the license to some Genoese mer- 
 chants, who were soon unable to supply the large demand 
 in Cuba, Jamaica, San Juan and Hispaniola and on the 
 South American coast. The trade being found to be 
 very profitable, some Dutchmen entered the business. 
 On May 22d, 1620, a Dutch vessel landed twenty slaves 
 on Virginian soil. In time slavery was introduced into 
 all the colonies which were to sever themselves from the 
 
 * See "The Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen," by 
 Arthur Helps, 1848, p. 272-3, and " Coleccion de Muiioz," tomo 76, from 
 which ancient letters are quoted. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN, 
 
 221 
 
 British Crown. Queen Elizabeth was a partner in the 
 second voyage of the first English captain of a slave ves- 
 sel. James I. and Charles II. chartered companies to 
 deal in slaves. Of the first company chartered by Charles 
 II., the Duke of York was President. To the second 
 African company which he chartered he as well as 
 the Duke subscribed. After the Stuarts were expelled 
 from Great Britain the nefarious business was still con- 
 tinued. In 1 7 1 3, at the peace of Utrecht, England in- 
 sisted that she should have the monopoly of the slave- 
 trade with the Spanish West Indies. The English gov- 
 ernment agreed by treaty with the King of Spain * to 
 bring into the West Indies of America belonging to his 
 Catholic Majesty, in the space of thirty years, 144,000 
 negroes at the rate of 4,800 a year, at a fixed rate of 
 duty, with the right to import any further number at a 
 lower rate. As nearly all the coast watered by the Gulf 
 of Mexico was claimed by the Spanish throne, England 
 soon undertook to stock with slaves what was one day to 
 be the southern part of the United States. It is calcu- 
 lated that the English ships transported between the 
 year 1700 and 1750, 1,500,000 colored people, of whom, 
 however, a good many met with a premature death. In 
 1763, it has been calculated that in North America there 
 were about 300,000 people of color. The slave dealer's 
 profits were very large. At the commencement of the nine- 
 teenth century a slave could be captured with often little 
 cost to the slave-dealer, or bought on the coast of Africa 
 for about ten dollars. A schooner of even ninety tons 
 could carry two hundred and twenty colored people in 
 her hold — and of course a bigger vessel a larger number. 
 Each negro that survived the voyage could be sold in 
 Cuba, or in certain harbors of North or South America 
 
 " The War of American Independence, 1775-17S3," by J. M. Ludlow. 
 
222 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 for five hundred dollars. To make a round trip from 
 America to Africa might take about four months' time. 
 After deducting all expenses the slaver could make an 
 enormous profit. 
 
 In the colonies of North America there were found 
 men who boldly denounced slavery from the pulpit, 
 and through the press, and for doing so were, by a 
 certain class of people, stigmatized " Abolitionists." 
 One of these men was Anthony Benezet, whose ances- 
 tors had been driven from France by the persecu- 
 tion of the Romish Church. This noble Huguenot, 
 becoming a citizen of the United States, was filled 
 with horror at the wickedness of the slave-trade and of 
 slavery. He wrote a book which was destined to have an 
 astonishing influence for good. The book fell into the 
 hands of a young Englishman named Thomas Clarkson, 
 who, being deeply affected by the facts which it made 
 public, became one of the most distinguished philanthro- 
 pists of his age. His life may even be said to have been 
 heroic and romantic. He had had his attention espe- 
 cially called to the slave traffic as he was about finishing 
 his collegiate course by some one having thoughtfully 
 offered a prize for a dissertation on that subject. He 
 was instrumental in influencing Wilberforce to take a 
 stand in Parliament against the accursed traffic. After 
 years of labor Wilberforce was enabled to induce England 
 — especially as the United States government had com- 
 menced to take effective measures against the further 
 importation of slaves into the Republic — to give up the 
 execrable business and to appropriate about 100,000,000 
 dollars for the purchase and freedom of the 750,000 or more 
 slaves in the British West Indies ; — an act which in its turn 
 was to have a far-reaching influence for good on what 
 was sometimes called Spanish America, where people had 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 223 
 
 freed their slaves when they, at a cost of perhaps not less 
 than a million of lives, cast off the horrid yoke of the 
 Spanish Crown. The Revolutions in Mexico and in 
 Central and South America were in their turn the means 
 of causing, during the Administration of President John 
 Quincy Adams, many a debate in the United States Con- 
 gress on questions respecting slavery — debates which were 
 constantly to be reopened until the abolition of slavery 
 in the United States was accomplished. The Christian 
 sentiment against holding human beings in bondage was 
 in time to be felt even in the large, wondrously fertile, 
 and beautiful island of Cuba — an island whose history is a 
 sad tale of oppression by a despotic European monarchy. 
 Even to the vast and sunny land of Brazil was to be borne 
 a sentiment — which in time was to have its effect — op- 
 posed to men owning as beasts of burden their brethren. 
 In future from America, instead of the slave-dealer, are to 
 go to the dark continent many colored missionaries, who 
 have been Americanized in the best sense of the word, — 
 missionaries bearing the wondrous light of Christianity 
 and its accompanying blessings. 
 
 " Thy chains are broken, Africa, be free ! 
 Oh ! ye winds and waves, 
 Waft the glad tidings to the land of slaves." 
 
 Jefferson believed that it was not only the duty of 
 American statesmanship to stop the slave-trade, but it 
 may here be somewhat incidentally stated that, in a 
 plan which he drew up for the abolition of slavery in the 
 United States, he provided that the federal government 
 should, at its own expense, educate the colored people. 
 
 When Secretary of State, under Washington's adminis- 
 tration, Jefferson in various ways endeavored to exert an 
 influence against the slave-trade. When President of the 
 United States, — at a time when the slave-trade was still 
 
224 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 held to be a legitimate business by the English govern- 
 ment, — he addressed Congress in a forcible manner on the 
 importance of providing, just as soon as it could constitu- 
 tionally be done, measures to stop the slave traffic. When 
 in France Jie had been invited to become a member of a 
 society which had for its object the abolition of the slave- 
 trade. Although for prudential reasons he did not join 
 the association — fearing that it would not be proper for 
 an American Minister in a foreign land to take such a 
 step, and that if he did so he would excite prejudices 
 against himself which might some time be a means of de- 
 feating projects in which he might engage in the interests 
 of the colored people, — yet under date of Feb. 12th, 1788, 
 to a member of this society, a Mr. Warville, he wrote : 
 " I am very sensible of the honor you propose to me, of 
 becoming a member of the society for the abolition of the 
 slave-trade. You know that nobody wishes more ardently 
 to see an abolition, not only of the trade, but of the 
 condition of slavery ; and certainly, nobody will be more 
 willing to encounter every sacrifice for that purpose." 
 
 One day, in the year 1815, a stranger called at Monti- 
 cello — the beautiful home of Jefferson. The visitor was 
 a Mr. Julius Melbourn. Greatly admiring the venerable 
 statesman, he had sought from a friend a letter of intro- 
 duction to him. A book in the New York State Library, 
 at Albany, can be seen by the careful student of history, 
 in which there is an account of this visit and the tes- 
 timony of Mr. Melbourn to some remarks on colored 
 people which Jefferson made to him, — remarks which in 
 due time will be seen to be worthy, to some extent, of 
 the consideration of a class of citizens found even to this 
 day in the United States. The book is entitled " Life 
 and Opinions of Julius Melbourn, with Sketches of the 
 Lives and Characters of Thomas Jefferson, J. Q. Adams, 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 225 
 
 John Randolph and Several Other Eminent American 
 Statesmen " — " Edited by a Late Member of Congress 
 [Jabas Hammond], Syracuse." Published in 1847.* Mr. 
 Melbourn thus describes his visit : 
 
 " I was conducted to his study, or reading-room, where I 
 found him at a table covered with books and papers. He 
 rose when I entered and received me with great politeness 
 and apparent cordiality. I instantly found myself at perfect 
 ease in his presence. * * * There was such strong evidence 
 of high intellectual power in his high forehead, and in the 
 form of his face and head, that I could not fail of admiring 
 him. A philosophic calmness and a glow of benevolence, 
 so distinctly marked every feature of his face, that while 
 he was reading Mr. Pendleton's letter, and before he had 
 uttered a word, I was charmed with him, and loved him 
 as an old and familiar friend. I suppose that part of Mr. 
 Pendleton's letter, which stated that I was born a slave, 
 and was of African descent, excited his curiosity, for he 
 immediately commenced a conversation, evidently with a 
 view to ascertain the strength of my mind, and to what 
 degree it had been cultivated. He inquired of me whether 
 I had seen the building, then lately erected for the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia, and said he intended it should be free 
 for the instruction of all sects and colors. He expressed 
 his deep anxiety for the improvement of the minds, and 
 the elevation of the character of, as he was pleased to call 
 them, ' our colored brethren.' * * * I remained in the 
 neighborhood of Monticello nearly a week, and spent a 
 portion of every day in Mr. Jefferson's library, at his 
 pressing invitation. On Tuesday before I left these quiet 
 philosophic shades, I received a card from Mr. Jefferson, 
 inviting me to dine with him in company with a few 
 
 * The publishers of the "Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn," etc., 
 were Hall and Dickson, Syracuse, X. V. and A. S. Barnes & Co. of New York. 
 8 
 
226 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 friends the next day at four o'clock. I went to his house 
 and found there Chief-Justice Marshall, Mr. Wirt, Mr. 
 Samuel Dexter of Boston, and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell of 
 New York. The Chief-Justice had come into the neighbor- 
 hood on some business pertaining to the University, Mr. 
 Wirt was on his annual visit to Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. 
 Dexter and Mr. Mitchell being on a tour to South Caro- 
 lina, so arranged their journey as on their way to call on 
 the old sage of Monticello. I was announced as a young 
 gentleman from North Carolina, — introduced by Mr. Pen- 
 dleton, who was well known to most of the persons present. 
 
 "It will be recollected that in the year 1798, Judge 
 Marshall was a Virginian Federalist, that he was the 
 favorite of the then President, Mr. John Adams, who 
 appointed him ambassador to France, Secretary of State, 
 and afterwards Chief-Justice of the United States. * * * 
 Mr. Dexter was, during the presidency of the elder Adams, 
 an ardent Federalist and Secretary of the War Depart- 
 ment. * * * Dr. Mitchell was a very learned man, pas- 
 sionately devoted to the natural sciences. He had been 
 a Democratic senator of the United States, when Mr. 
 Jefferson was President. * * * Of Mr. Wirt, I need not 
 speak otherwise than to say he was one of the most 
 amiable of men. His talents are universally known and 
 acknowledged. * * * There was also there one other 
 remarkable man from the North. It was Elder John Lc- 
 land. * * * He was a Baptist minister, who then lived in 
 the western part of Massachusetts. He was very zealous, 
 both as a politician and sectarian, and was a man of some 
 wit. He was the author of a pamphlet entitled ' Jack 
 Nips on Infant Baptism.' " 
 
 It was certainly kind in Jefferson to invite Mr. Mel- 
 bourn to his table. Little did his distinguished guests 
 suspect that their fellow-guest had been born a slave in 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 227 
 
 North Carolina. Mr. Melbourn had told his host his his- 
 tory in the earnest, friendly conversations which they had 
 had together in the library at Monticello. The talented 
 company; made a pleasant social circle. One of the sub- 
 jects into which the conversation finally drifted was 
 slavery. Mr. Dexter expressed the opinion that slavery, 
 and only slavery, could break up the United States, and 
 alluded to the strange arrangement by which the States 
 in which slavery existed were allowed a much larger 
 representation in the federal government than were the 
 free States. 
 
 " ' Oh,' said Mr. Jefferson, ' dismiss your fears on that 
 subject, slavery will soon be abolished in all the States.' 
 
 " ' Never,' said Judge Marshall, ' never by the volun- 
 tary consent of the slaveholding States.' 
 
 " ' I regret,' replied Mr. Jefferson, ' that so attentive 
 an observer as you are, Chief-Justice, should entertain such 
 an opinion. I well know that at the time American Inde- 
 pendence was declared, no member, either north or south, 
 expected that slavery would continue as long as it has.' 
 
 " ' I can well believe that,' said Mr. Wirt, 1 for they 
 must have felt that the continuance of slavery was directly 
 adverse to their declaration, that all men are born free and 
 equal, &c.' 
 
 " ' But,' said Dr. Mitchell, ' I very much doubt whether, 
 according to the laws of nature, the Africans are not 
 formed to be subject to the Caucasian race. From my 
 own observations I am satisfied that nature has formed 
 an essential difference between the two races, and much 
 to the disadvantage of the negro race.' The learned 
 gentleman then dwelt upon the brain of a negro and of 
 his white brother and ended by saying, ' If your position, 
 that all men are born equal is politically true, it is physi- 
 cally false.' 
 
228 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 " ' As regards personal rights,' said Mr. Jefferson, ' it 
 seems to me most palpably absurd, that the individual 
 rights of volition and locomotion should depend on the 
 degree of intellectual power possessed by the individual. 
 I should hardly be willing to subscribe to the doctrine, 
 that because the Chief-Justice has a stronger mind or a 
 more capacious and better formed brain than I, that there- 
 fore he has a right to make me his slave. But, Doctor,' 
 continued Mr. Jefferson, ' may not the diet and exercise, 
 bodily and mentally, of a child produce some effect on 
 the size, shape, and quality of the brain ? I will suppose 
 that my friend, Mr. Dexter, has two sons, the oldest of 
 whom shall be six years old, as nearly alike as brothers of 
 the age of five and six years generally are. Suppose the 
 younger to be transferred to a rice plantation in South 
 Carolina, placed in a negro cabin, and brought up with the 
 field-slaves, associating withthem ; and that the elder should 
 be continued in Mr. Dexter's family, associate with none 
 but highly intellectual people ; then let his education be 
 completed by four years residence and tuition at Cam- 
 bridge. Look at the heads and faces of these boys when 
 they shall respectively arrive at mature age. * * * Do 
 you not all know that the difference would be immense ? 
 But to do justice to the negro race, and in order to carry 
 out the experiment fairly, we ought to suppose that 
 the younger has married a Caucasian slave, and let Dr. 
 Mitchell dissect and compare the heads of the great- 
 grandchildren of the issue of the elder brother. I ask 
 what would be the result of that experiment ? ' 
 
 " ' I do not mean to advocate slavery,' said the Chief- 
 Justice, — ' I wish, from my soul I wish, it was abol- 
 ished.' " * 
 
 The learned judge then with judicial eloquence spoke 
 
 * See " Life and opinions of Julius Melboum," p. 75. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 229 
 
 of the difficulties in the way of enacting laws abolish- 
 ing slavery, and alluded to how Jefferson and Wythe 
 had been prevented from even presenting such a bill when 
 they had been members of the Assembly of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. Leland, the minister, held that slavery ought not 
 to be abolished, and had considerable to say on the theory 
 that the colored people were descended from Ham, and 
 that it was decreed in the Bible that they should not be 
 emancipated from slavery. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson requested the minister to look at Mr. 
 Melbourn, who it may be incidentally remarked, was 
 three quarters white. The guests were astonished when 
 told that Mr. Melbourn had been born a slave and freed 
 by a pious lady. Jefferson paid him high compliments, 
 adding : " He is now a man of wealth. He has by his 
 own efforts and industry cultivated and well-improved his 
 mind — a mind which I religiously believe, your mission- 
 ary observations, friend Leland, and Doctor Mitchell's 
 dissections to the contrary notwithstanding, is of the first 
 order of human intellects." The gaze of the entire din- 
 ner party was turned upon Mr. Melbourn — the piercing 
 eye of the Chief-Justice in particular rested upon him. 
 Jefferson then related to his guests some parts of Mr. 
 Melbourn's history. 
 
 Julius Melbourn had been born a slave on a small 
 plantation, owned by a Major Johnson, situated about ten 
 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother, who 
 was half-white, was but seventeen years old when he was 
 born. His young mother was too delicate to do as much 
 work as was required of her, so she was sold by a negro 
 buyer to be driven to Georgia. The separation from her 
 child was deeply affecting. As she shrieked and in mad- 
 ness tore her hair and bathed her son's face with scalding 
 tears, she was manacled. Her son, in after years, tried to 
 
2 SO 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 solace himself with the sad hope that his loving mother 
 had probably perished in the damp and chilly rice-fields of 
 Georgia. The boy lived on Johnson's plantation until he 
 was about five years of age, when the noble widow of 
 Lieutenant Melbourn of the British Navy bought him 
 and gave him an education, and his liberty, and every 
 thing which he valued in life. Mrs. Melbourn had heard 
 in England much about " liberty " in the United States. 
 Fascinated with what she had heard of the liberty which 
 prevailed in the United States, she had come to the " land 
 of the free," there to be filled with horror and indignation 
 against the slavery which existed in the Southern States. 
 She had a considerable fortune, and had brought to Amer- 
 ica a valuable collection of books left her by her husband. 
 She had a son of her own on whom was centred her 
 affections. 
 
 Although the little slave boy whom she had bought was 
 three quarters white and had blue eyes, yet race prejudice 
 was so great in the neighborhood in which Mrs. Melbourn 
 resided that she could not send him to school. She there- 
 fore employed a Methodist minister to teach the more 
 than orphan boy. Mrs. Melbourn sent her own son to 
 Princeton College, where he graduated with the highest 
 honors of his class. There was a noble and beautiful 
 young lady, who belonged to a wealthy family near to 
 where Mrs. Melbourn lived, to whom her son became 
 engaged in marriage. One day when the young lady was 
 visiting the mother of her affianced, a stranger rode in 
 haste to the house and as gently as possible broke the sad 
 news that young Mr. Melbourn had been betrayed into a 
 duel and that he had been killed. The widow, learning 
 that her only son was dead, fainted. The young lady also 
 swooned. This is not the place to speak of a noble 
 mother's love for a son. Suffice it to say that Mrs. Mel- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 231 
 
 bourn never recovered from her sorrow, but erelong was 
 lying on a death-bed. The young lady, in a measure, recov- 
 ered from the desolating blow which had fallen upon her, 
 but she was to go through life with a broken heart, and also 
 to sink into an untimely grave. The young lady had a 
 maid, or companion, who although seven eighths white 
 was a slave. She was, however, but a slave in name, as 
 she was educated and allowed every liberty, and it was 
 her happiness to do acts of kindness to her mistress, Miss 
 Laura, to whom she was very much of a companion, 
 almost a sister. As Julius — the name given to the youth 
 rescued from slavery — approached manhood he fell in 
 love with the refined and beautiful young maid, who was 
 called Maria. It was arranged that Maria should be given 
 her freedom as soon as the lovers were old enough to 
 marry. As Mrs. Melbourn lay on her dying bed she 
 called Julius to her side and told him that she had left in 
 her will money to be appropriated for the buying of the 
 freedom of Maria should any unforeseen event happen by 
 which the girl's kind owners should be unable to free her. 
 Mrs. Melbourn also, after providing for some benefac- 
 tions, left the bulk of her fortune to Julius. 
 
 " The death-bed of the just is yet undrawn 
 By mortal hand : it merits a divine." 
 
 In time a young Virginian named St. John paid atten- 
 tions to the young lady to whom Mrs. Melbourn 's son 
 had been engaged. The young lady, however, did not 
 reciprocate his professed regard. Her father earnestly 
 used his influence with her to induce the young heiress to 
 accept Mr. St. John's hand. At last she yielded to her 
 father's wishes and was married. Before long it became 
 evident that she had married a gambler and, what was 
 worse, a drunkard. Her father, realizing that his daugh- 
 
232 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 ter had married her dissipated husband through his influ- 
 ence, had an affecting interview with her in the course of 
 which he bitterly upbraided himself for being responsible 
 for his daughter's misery. Suddenly he fell to the ground 
 struck with apoplexy. As soon as the old man was buried 
 a great change took place in the position of the slaves on 
 the plantation. The old man had died without making a 
 will. His fortune passed to St. John as the husband of 
 his only daughter. Maria's position was especially terri- 
 ble, as her dissipated new master had designs upon her 
 honor which must not here be even mentioned. He re- 
 fused to permit her to be sold. He forbade her marriage 
 to Julius. Her former mistress, however, caused Julius 
 to be sent for in Mr. St. John's absence, and sent for a 
 minister, and expressed her wish that the marriage should 
 at once take place. While the wedding ceremony was 
 being performed, Mr. St. John returned to the house and 
 was infuriated at learning that Julius and Maria were 
 about being married. His wife, however, who had always 
 been meek and submissive, became uncontrollably indig- 
 nant with her immoral husband, and insisted that the 
 marriage should proceed. In Julius' hand a dagger 
 gleamed, but, happily, the ceremony was allowed to pro- 
 ceed. Maria, however, was still a slave. Any children 
 born to her would be slaves. 
 
 Mr. St. John mortgaged his wife's property and visited 
 Saratoga, New York. He there fell in with some pro- 
 fessional gamblers, who won from him all his fortune. 
 Mr. St. John, hoping to retrieve his losses in a last des- 
 perate move, risked at the gaming table even his horses 
 and carriage. He lost ; and was not even in a position to 
 pay his way back to his wife's plantation. In the mean- 
 while Maria had borne to Julius a son. Julius had been 
 called to Princeton College for a short time to settle an 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 233 
 
 account which the college had forgotten to forward to 
 Mrs. Melbourn for the tuition of her dead son. The 
 creditors of Mr. St. John at once took possession of his 
 wife's estate and sold the slaves and everything belonging 
 to the estate. The son of the man who had owned Julius 
 cast covetous eyes on Maria. A kind minister in Julius' 
 absence did everything that he could to buy her free- 
 dom. It was arranged that Maria's infant should be 
 hidden in the cellar of the minister's house, but it was 
 feared that it would be impossible to there secrete Maria. 
 While Maria was thinking how she could hide herself 
 until her husband's return, she was seized, manacled, and 
 secreted from her friend the minister, and surreptitiously 
 sold, and borne off in the direction of New Orleans. Mrs. 
 St. John had in the meantime sunk into an untimely 
 grave. When Julius Melbourn returned he was frenzied 
 with grief. He at once bought the freedom of his son, 
 who had been left behind the gang of slaves in which 
 walked his forlorn wife. He started in pursuit of his wife, 
 with the object of effecting her freedom, if that were pos- 
 sible. At last, after travelling a great distance, he caught 
 up with Johnson, who had bought his wife. Johnson, on 
 learning that Julius Melbourn was in the neighborhood, 
 went at once, as the law allowed him to do, before a 
 magistrate and declared that Julius was born a slave on 
 his father's plantation ; he did not add, however, that he 
 had since been freed by Mrs. Melbourn. Julius was 
 forthwith loaded with chains and cast into a dungeon. 
 He was detained until, with the aid and by the kindness 
 of the jailer, he could send to his far-distant, desecrated 
 home and get written evidence of his emancipation. Be- 
 fore the days of railroads travelling was slow work, and 
 three months were consumed before Julius Melbourn 
 could again go in pursuit of the slave driver. In the 
 
234 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 meantime Johnson had made haste to ship Maria to New 
 Orleans. On arriving in New Orleans horror entered the 
 soul of the broken-hearted husband as he learned that his 
 wife had been sold and resold until she had been bought 
 for a certain plantation by its overseer. On going to the 
 negro overseer he learned to his anguish that his wife had 
 been afflicted with melancholy, and that about a month 
 before he arrived she one evening had escaped and 
 drowned herself in the river. Her body had not been 
 recovered. Some of her clothes, however, had been found 
 on the river's bank, which a negro kindly showed to the 
 wretched husband. He found pinned in the frock bosom, 
 in the handwriting of his young wife, a quotation which 
 ran thus : 
 
 " Shall they bury me in the dee]), 
 Where wind-forgetting waters sleep ? 
 Shall they dig a grave for me 
 Under the green-wood tree ? 
 
 Or on the wild heath 
 
 Where the wilder breath 
 
 Of the storm doth blow ? 
 
 Oh, no ! oh, no ! " 
 
 There was nothing that attached the broken-hearted 
 husband to life save his infant son. Full of despair 
 young Melbourn returned to his far-off, former home. In 
 time he came into possession of the fortune left him by 
 his benefactress. He made suitable provision for the 
 nurture and education of his child, whom he named 
 Edward, after the son of Mrs. Melbourn who had been 
 killed in the duel. He made good investments, and, rest- 
 less, he might be called a wanderer on the earth. 
 
 As Mr. Jefferson related this story, he denounced, with 
 great severity, laws which legalized the outrages to which 
 Mr. Melbourn had been subjected. Mr. Wirt's counte- 
 nance several times reddened with apparent indignation. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 235 
 
 The dinner and conversation had been prolonged to a 
 late hour. As Mr. Melbourn retired, Mr. Wirt, who at a 
 later period became a member of the Cabinet of John 
 Quincy Adams, followed him into the hall and took him 
 by the hand and expressed a desire to continue the 
 acquaintance. " I am mortified and ashamed," said Mr. 
 Wirt, " that this glorious country sustains such laws as 
 those under which you have suffered." 
 
 It may here be incidentally stated that however sor- 
 rowful was Mr. Melbourn's after-history it was not as sad 
 as was the history of a vast number of slaves. As his 
 son approached manhood he sent him to Princeton Col- 
 lege within whose noble walls he was welcomed, although 
 he had been born a slave. In time Edward graduated, 
 and was seized with a longing to visit New Orleans and 
 to look upon the sad spot where his mother in her lone- 
 liness and melancholy had preferred death to a life of 
 cruellest outrage. Mr. Melbourn not only consented to 
 his son's making the proposed pilgrimage, but agreed to 
 accompany him. In New Orleans the desolate father and 
 orphan youth traced the history of Maria. They visited 
 the scenes of her sufferings. Her last purchaser had 
 been a Mr. De Lisle, who had an overseer, into whose 
 possession, practically, Maria had fallen. De Lisle proved 
 himself to be a kind old man. The overseer had been 
 killed in a broil with a Spaniard. From an old female 
 slave, they learned that Maria had wept a great deal after 
 being brought to the plantation, not because of the hard 
 tasks allotted to her, but because of certain infamous de- 
 signs, which must not here be mentioned, planned by her 
 brutal overseer. " She was very handsome, and spoke 
 with a kind, sweet voice," added the aged slave. As the 
 poor old slave showed the father and son where the 
 young slave-wife and mother had laid some clothes before 
 
236 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 meeting death, the son's eyes filled with tears, and the 
 father stood like a statue, unable to move or speak. 
 Many years had passed since he had for the last time 
 seen his wife. His infant son had in the meanwhile 
 grown to manhood. But the same love which he had 
 ever felt for his wife burned within his bosom. He real- 
 ized, however, the hopelessness of his ever meeting her 
 again, until that great day when the grave shall give up 
 its dead. 
 
 A part of Mr. Melbourn's sad history may be told in 
 his own words. " We lingered some time around that 
 fatal spot, that last trace of my ill-fated Maria. At 
 length entering the carriage we rode about twenty miles, 
 and stopped at a small village on the road to New Or- 
 leans, where we designed to remain until the next day. 
 The evening being very pleasant, after tea I walked 
 through the village, which was beautifully situated on the 
 bank of the river. In returning to my lodgings I passed 
 a small brick building, having the appearance of a 
 Methodist chapel. A religious assembly were gathered 
 there, and were then singing a hymn. To see what kind 
 of people were collected on this occasion, and to wear 
 away a part of the evening, I stepped into the house. 
 It being quite full I took a seat near the door. Among the 
 singers was a woman in the dress of a Quaker, with a 
 hymn-book in her hand, on which her eyes were intently 
 fixed, whose features forcibly brought Maria to my re- 
 membrance. I looked again ; the resemblance was so 
 perfect, that, forgetting for a moment the impossibility 
 of her being alive, a faintness came over me. It soon 
 occurred to my mind that it was an illusion of fancy, 
 produced by the scenes so recently visited. I involun- 
 tarily groaned audibly. The woman looked up and saw 
 me. She instantly turned pale, gave a piercing shriek, 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN 
 
 237 
 
 and fell to the floor. ' Mighty God ! ' I exclaimed, ' it is 
 — it is my Maria ! " Regardless of the proceedings of 
 the meeting and every one around me, I sprang towards 
 her and raised her in my arms. The congregation was 
 in confusion : some ran for water, others seized hold of 
 me, until I recovered sufficient recollection to say that 
 this was my wife, whom I had for years believed dead. 
 I caressed her and called her by name. At the sound of 
 my voice, so long unheard, she revived and uttered a few 
 incoherent words ; every effort was made to restore her 
 — but for some time her mind was much bewildered. 
 She would cry out, ' Take care ! take care ! there they 
 come to take me away ! where is my dagger? I will 
 never go alive ! ' I will not continue a description of 
 this scene. She at length became calm ; her first inquiry 
 after the return of her reason, was for her child. I told 
 her he was alive and well, but dare not tell her he 
 was so near. Maria fell on her knees and poured forth a 
 prayer of thanksgiving and praise. It was eloquent, 
 because it was the overflowing of her heart. The whole 
 audience joined her, and responded audibly ' Amen.' 
 Maria was conveyed to her home near by the chapel, and 
 I hastened to seek Edward with the joyful intelligence 
 that his mother lived. He could not be restrained from 
 seeing her that night, and I returned to prepare her for 
 the interview. I will not attempt to describe the affect- 
 ing scene that followed. Maria was constantly distressed 
 by the fear of being discovered ; and so long had she 
 endured life without hope, that it was with difficulty she 
 could be made to believe that I had abundant means to 
 procure her ransom and that no possible danger could be 
 apprehended. The reader can imagine how happily and 
 quiet that night was the sleep of this long-persecuted 
 being, this victim of slavery." 
 
238 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 Maria's strange appearance at the religious meeting, 
 where her practically long-dead husband met her, was 
 thus briefly explained. On the plantation near New 
 Orleans to which she had many years before been taken, 
 she had been subjected by her brutal overseer to scour- 
 gings and innumerable insults. He had taken steps to 
 accomplish by force her deepest dishonor. Rather than 
 live a life of infamy and disgrace so dreadful that it must 
 not be dwelt upon here, she, filled with despair, deter- 
 mined to seek relief in death. Wishing that it might be 
 known that she had sought death rather than lead a life 
 of deepest shame as well as slavery, she left evident indi- 
 cations of what she was about to do. She had laid some 
 clothes on the banks of the Mississippi, whose turbid 
 waters had received many a forlorn slave who had been 
 driven by despair and woe to committing suicide. Mr. 
 Melbourn in his account of his wife's history thus contin- 
 ues: "The road at that place approaches near the river; 
 and at that point is a bluff of land which rises suddenly, 
 so that a person travelling the road cannot be seen many 
 yards from the place where Maria stood. It was a calm 
 moonlight night. She had taken as she believed a last 
 look upon the earth and sky, and ejaculated a prayer for 
 her husband and son. At the moment she was about 
 to take the fatal plunge, a gig, in which was a lady and 
 servant, came in sight. ' Stop,' said the lady in a firm 
 voice, 'what is thee doing?' Maria instantly recognized 
 the language of a Quaker, having been acquainted with 
 some members of a society of Friends in North Caro- 
 lina, and she knew that they were not only friends to 
 each other, but friends of man and of the slave. She 
 instantly ran to the carriage and cried, ' Save me ! O 
 save me ! I am a wretched creature who cannot live, 
 and ought not thus to die.' In a few words she related 
 
 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 239 
 
 to the lady her situation. Mrs. Benson, (for that was the 
 name of the lady,) with great presence of mind, told her 
 to get into the carriage, gave her a cloak to cover herself, 
 and advised her to leave the dress hanging on a tree, as 
 that might prevent pursuit. * * * She charged the 
 boy, a negro, who scrupulously obeyed her injunctions, 
 on pain of her displeasure, never to mention to any per- 
 son where they had found Maria, and before morning 
 this long-oppressed but unoffending woman was lodged 
 in a neat secluded room in the cottage of Mrs. Benson." 
 
 Mr. Melbourn in a sketch of his life tells how the kind 
 Quakeress had given it to be understood that Maria, 
 whom she caused to be dressed as a Quakeress, was a 
 niece of hers just come from Cuba. Maria was not sup- 
 posed to speak English, so that she should not be betrayed 
 by her voice. The overseer had traced Maria to the 
 river's banks, but it will be readily understood that even 
 with the help of bloodhounds he could not trace her 
 any farther. The poor woman supposed that her hus- 
 band, who had been cast into prison when he had caught 
 up with the slaves with whom she had been driven to 
 New Orleans, was, as well as was her child, hopelessly lost 
 to her, or, more probably, they were both dead. Mr. 
 Melbourn continuing his narrative said: "I rendered my 
 thanks to Mrs. Benson with deep feelings of reverence 
 and gratitude. I begged her to accept of some reward, 
 which she refused, but I quite forced upon her a sum of 
 money. In order that my long-lost wife might become 
 my own property, and that no chances hereafter might be 
 left for her last owner or his heirs to claim her, I re- 
 turned with Maria to the house of Mr. De Lisle, and 
 informed him of her existence, and in a brief manner 
 made him acquainted with her history and my own. He 
 listened attentively during the recital, and showed evi- 
 
240 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 dence of much feeling and kindness of heart. I proposed 
 to restore him the money paid for Maria, with the inter- 
 est from that time, and requested him to make a convey- 
 ance of her to me. ' No,' said the generous Frenchman, 
 'you have both had trouble enough — I will take noth- 
 ing.' I remonstrated with him without effect; he sent 
 for a scrivener, and executed a bill of sale of Maria to 
 me. On receiving it I could not refrain from taking 
 Maria in my arms, saying, ' Now, indeed, you are mine by 
 the laws of God and man ! ' She could not utter a word, 
 but her countenance was lighted up with a smile, and her 
 eyes swam with tears.' " Mr. Melbourn does not fail to 
 record how Mrs. Benson, the kind Quakeress, gave Maria 
 motherly admonition. She told Maria that she had done 
 wrong when she had determined to take her own life ; — 
 that, at the moment when she was about taking the fatal 
 plunge, God was sending her deliverance ; and that if 
 any trouble should ever again overtake her, not to so far 
 forget her heavenly Father's goodness as to think of 
 taking her own life. Mr. Melbourn and his family, after 
 witnessing some scenes of slavery as dreadful as were 
 some of the horrors of the Inquisition, went to England, 
 where he was treated with kindness and respect. As 
 strange as it may seem, Mr. Melbourn, once being asked 
 an alms, by a wretched intemperate creature, who turned 
 out to be Mr. St. John, gave the degraded being a dollar. 
 Johnson, who had done him cruel wrong, in time became 
 an inmate of a prison. He had the boldness or effron- 
 tery to beg Mr. Melbourn to help him in his wretchedness. 
 Remembering the lessons taught him by his benefact- 
 ress, Mrs. Melbourn, he returned him good for evil, and 
 sent the prisoner, whose penitence was doubtful, fifty dol- 
 lars. A slave who had been kind to his wife, Mr. Mel- 
 bourn ransomed and gave her employment in his family. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 24I 
 
 Mrs. Melbourn ever dressed as a Quakeress. Edward 
 Melbourn was furnished with quite a large capital and 
 engaged in business in England. Mr. Melbourn will 
 doubtless be pardoned for having published some remarks 
 contrasting unfavorably the boasted liberty — the race 
 prejudices — which prevailed in the United States and 
 the nobler spirit which, as a rule he felt, prevailed in 
 England. 
 
 It may here be incidentally remarked that Mrs. Mel- 
 bourn's kindness to Julius is not the only instance in 
 which the heart of woman has beat with kindness for the 
 orphan. In Greenwood Cemetery the visitor, on looking 
 at one of the most beautiful monuments of that lovely, 
 picturesque resting-place of the dead, can see writing 
 which in substance reads thus: " Erected to the Memory 
 
 of by the poor orphan boy whom she educated and 
 
 to whom he owes every thing dear to him in life." It was 
 to the kindness of a woman that Martin Luther owed his 
 education. 
 
 It has been seen, and let the fact be especially noticed, 
 that in the account which Mr. Melbourn has recorded 
 of his first visit to Monticello, Jefferson stated that he 
 intended the University of Virginia to " be free for the 
 instruction of all sects and colors'" ; and that he ex- 
 pressed his deep anxiety for the improvement of the 
 minds, and the elevation of the character of, as he was 
 pleased to call them, "our colored brethren." In many 
 parts of the United States colored youth are welcomed 
 in public halls of learning and hold scholarly fellowship 
 with their white brethren. People of all colors worship 
 together in the house of God and love to look upon each 
 other as brethren. But even to this day, in too many 
 parts of the Republic, race prejudice — which may be 
 called a relic of the vile institution of slavery, — is sadly 
 
242 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 evident. Many weighty reasons may justly be urged in 
 favor of opening the fane of knowledge to youth of all 
 colors. 
 
 It may here be asked : " Did not Jefferson himself own 
 slaves?" Alas, it must be answered that he did. Such 
 an excuse as he made when he said, " The laws do not 
 permit us to turn them loose, * * * and to commute 
 them for other property, is to commit them to those 
 whose usage of them we cannot control," could not be 
 accepted by some friends of civil liberty. Prof. Wythe, 
 who was one of Jefferson's old instructors and a signer of 
 the Declaration of Independence and one of the framers 
 of the Constitution of the United States, found a way to 
 liberate his slaves, as did General Gates, into whose hand 
 the British General Burgoyne had surrendered his sword 
 and army. John Quincy Adams even criticised Jefferson for 
 not having, while entertaining the convictions which he 
 did respecting slavery, taken a bolder stand than he did 
 in the struggle of his day in behalf of the abolition of 
 slavery. Adams himself indeed at times acted an heroic 
 part in that struggle. He saw it affect in many ways the 
 policy of the United States government. He had reason 
 to even feel that the fear of new free States being formed 
 out of the splendid territory, at present under the English 
 flag, stretching as far north as what is now known as 
 Alaska, led President Polk, who was too partial to the- 
 peculiar institution of the South, to surrender the claims 
 of the United States to that territory, and that in various 
 ways the so-called slave power was the greatest enemy 
 with which what is known as the " Monroe Doctrine " had 
 to contend. Probably John Quincy Adams would not 
 have criticised Jefferson, if he had known how wonder- 
 fully great was to be the service which he was to have a 
 mysterious part in rendering his country by his quiet 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 243 
 
 efforts to educate and to encourage youth to view intelli- 
 gently the evils of slavery and to war in the most effective 
 manner against the institution. One cannot perhaps help 
 feeling, however, that when Franklin was acting as presi- 
 dent of an abolition society in Pennsylvania and nobly 
 petitioning Congress to exert its influence against slavery, 
 and when John Jay was acting as president of an abo- 
 lition society in New York, — the gifted Hamilton being 
 associated with him, — and when men were abolishing 
 slavery in Northern States — Jefferson might have acted a 
 bolder part than he did. It is, however, but fair to state 
 that Jefferson, as far as is known, never bought a slave. 
 His slaves came to him by inheritance. His wife also 
 owned slaves, having inherited one hundred and thirty-five 
 of them. When, in the year 1767, Jefferson entered the 
 House of Burgesses of Virginia he introduced a bill into 
 the House — and that, it would seenv inside of five days 
 after taking his seat— empowering slave-owners to free their 
 slaves. When he became a member of the Assembly of 
 Virginia during the war of the Revolution he seconded a 
 bill to abolish slavery in Virginia. Although the bill was 
 not passed, yet he did succeed in carrying successfully 
 through the Assembly a bill abolishing the slave-trade as 
 far as Virginia was concerned. In a sketch of " Life at 
 Monticello " — Jefferson's home, — written by the overseer 
 of Jefferson's plantation and published by the Rev. 
 Hamilton W. Pearson, it is stated that one of his slaves 
 made his escape. It is also stated that on the plantation at 
 which Jefferson generally lived, a slave-girl, almost white, 
 was born. The overseer states that some people said that 
 Jefferson's honor was compromised in the birth of this 
 child. He added, however, that to his own positive 
 knowledge such was not the case, as he himself knew who 
 was the father of the child. Jefferson treated the girl 
 
244 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 kindly, gave her her liberty and fifty dollars, and had her 
 taken to Philadelphia to live. He also provided for the 
 freedom and support of other slaves — " humbly and 
 earnestly," as he wrote in his will, praying the Legislature 
 of Virginia to add to the favors which it had in past times 
 conferred upon him, by permitting, notwithstanding the 
 laws of Virginia, these slaves to be free. 
 
 Before the death of Jefferson's wife — as early as 1778, — 
 Washington had earnestly, in a letter, urged Jefferson and 
 some other patriots not to be satisfied with " places in 
 their own State * * * but to attend to the momen- 
 tous concerns of an empire." After Jefferson had 
 emerged from the long and dreadful stupor caused by the 
 death of his wife, he had for some time before going to 
 Europe served in the Continental Congress. He and 
 a Mr. Chase of Maryland, and a Mr. Howell of Rhode 
 Island, acted as a committee to prepare a plan of govern- 
 ment for the Western territory of the United States. 
 The bill, which Jefferson himself reported to Congress, 
 contained a clause which provided : " That after the year 
 1800 of the Christian era there shall be neither slavery 
 nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, other- 
 wise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
 shall have been personally guilty." In Congress, on the 
 19th of April, 1784, Mr. Spaight of North Carolina, 
 moved, and Mr. Read of South Carolina seconded the 
 motion, that the clause prohibiting slavery in the vast 
 territory be stricken out of the bill. Eleven States were 
 at the time represented in Congress. All the Representa- 
 tives of the Northern States voted in favor of the 
 prohibition of slavery, while all the Representatives of 
 the Southern States voted in favor of slavery — except 
 Jefferson, and Hugh Williamson of North Carolina. Mr. 
 Williamson was at a later day held in such honor in 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 245 
 
 North Carolina that he was elected to the convention 
 which framed the Constitution of the United States. 
 Sixteen members voted against allowing slavery to be 
 introduced into the great Western territory, and seven 
 members voted against the proposed prohibition. In 
 accordance with a rule of procedure at the time in force 
 in Congress, the vote against slavery was not large enough 
 by one vote to carry the day. What were Jefferson's 
 feelings on the announcement of this vote? The answer 
 to this question may be inferred from sad lines which he 
 wrote when making some written criticisms on an article 
 on the " United States " which a French author submitted 
 to him in manuscript before inserting it in the " Encyclo- 
 pedic Methodique." He thus wrote: " There were ten 
 States present ; six voted unanimously for it [that is for 
 the prohibition of slavery in the territory], three against 
 it, and one was divided ; and seven votes being requisite 
 to decide the proposition affirmatively, it was lost. The 
 voice of a single individual of the State which was 
 divided, or of one of those which were of the negative, 
 would have prevented this abominable crime from spread- 
 ing itself over the new country. Thus we see the fate of 
 millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man, and 
 heaven was silent in that awful moment ! But it is to be 
 hoped it will not always be silent, and that the friends to 
 the rights of human nature will in the end prevail."* 
 Jefferson as he proceeded drew attention to the fact that 
 Congress had again taken the matter up. 
 
 About the same period that Jefferson wrote the lines 
 which have just been quoted, he wrote to M. de Meusnier, 
 who was connected with the " Encyclopedic Methodique," 
 quite an account of the efforts which he, and his justly dis- 
 tinguished friend Wythe, and others had made to abolish 
 
 * " Jefferson's Works," vol. ix., p. 276. 
 
246 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 slavery in Virginia. In his remarks he said: " What a 
 stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man ! 
 who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and 
 death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, the next 
 moment be deaf to all those motives whose power sup- 
 ported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow- 
 men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more 
 misery than ages of that he rose in rebellion to oppose. 
 But we must await, with patience, the workings of an 
 overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing 
 the deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When 
 the measures of their tears shall be full, when their groans 
 shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless, a 
 God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by dif- 
 fusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at 
 length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his atten- 
 tion to the things of this world, and that they are not 
 left to the guidance of a blind fatality."* 
 
 However sadly Jefferson felt on account of the failure 
 of the bill to prohibit slavery in the Western territory, 
 the policy which he had helped to inaugurate was soon in 
 part, and ultimately altogether, to prevail. On March 8th, 
 1785, Timothy Pickering wrote to Rufus King, drawing 
 attention to the importance of making provision for the 
 founding of schools and academies, etc., in the Western 
 territory. In the course of his letter he said : "Congress 
 once made this important declaration, 1 that all men are 
 created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and these 
 truths were held to be self-evident. To suffer the continu- 
 ance of slaves till they can gradually be emancipated, in 
 .States already overrun with them, may be pardonable, 
 
 * Ibid., vol. ix., p. 279. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 247 
 
 because unavoidable without hazarding greater evils; 
 but to introduce them into countries where none now 
 exist can never be forgiven. For God's sake, then, let 
 one more effort be made to prevent so terrible a calamity ! 
 The fundamental constitutions for those States are yet 
 liable to alterations, and this is probably the only time 
 when the evil can certainly be prevented. It will be in- 
 finitely easier to prevent the evil at first than to eradicate 
 it, or check it, in any future time." * 
 
 In the last Continental Congress, the question of estab- 
 lishing a government for a large part of the territory 
 which Jefferson had striven to save from being cursed 
 with slavery, came up for settlement. On this occasion 
 Southern statesmen acted in a right noble manner. They 
 were in the majority in Congress and could do as they 
 pleased. They unanimously voted to adopt the measure 
 which Jefferson had recommended, prohibiting slavery in 
 the territory. Thus an immense territory was saved 
 from the intellectual, economic, and moral blight which 
 ever accompanies slavery, and a poliey opposed to the 
 extension of human bondage was inaugurated which was 
 destined to exert a vast influence on the future destiny 
 of the world. Provision had been made in 1785, by the 
 Continental Congress, for the instruction in letters of the 
 future citizens of this territory. On May 20th, 1785, Con- 
 gress enacted that "there shall be reserved the lot No. 16 
 of every township for the maintenance of public schools 
 within the said township," Thus about one thirty-sixth 
 of the territory was at once consecrated to the support of 
 its future schools. On July 13th, 1787, the last Continen- 
 tal Congress added, without a dissenting voice, to the 
 
 * " Pickering's Pickering," v. i., pp. 509, 510. See Bancroft's " History 
 of the Constitution," v. i., p. 178— a work worthy of being in every states- 
 man's hands. 
 
248 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 first enactment providing for the intellectual culture of 
 the States which were one day to be formed out of 
 the vast territory, the following provision : " And for ex- 
 tending the fundamental principles of civil and religious 
 liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, 
 their laws and constitutions, are erected ; to fix and 
 establish these principles as the basis of all laws, constitu- 
 tions, and governments which forever after shall be 
 formed in the said territory ; * * * religion, morality, 
 and knowledge being necessary to good government and 
 the happiness of mankind — schools and the means of edu- 
 cation shall be forever encouraged." This Congress also, 
 when selling a large tract of land to John Cleves Symmes, 
 provided for the establishment of a university in what 
 was at the time a wilderness. When selling another im- 
 mense tract of land, a similar wise provision was made. 
 Washington in a letter dated 19th June, 1788, speaking 
 of a colony which was about to settle on one of the tracts 
 of land which had been sold, wrote : " No colony in 
 America was ever settled under such favorable auspices, 
 as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. 
 Information, property and strength will be its character- 
 istics. * * * If I was a young man, just preparing 
 to begin the world, or if advanced in life, and had a fam- 
 ily to make provision for, I know of no country where I 
 should rather fix my habitation than in some part of that 
 region." When Washington was President of the United 
 States he officially, with the concurrence of both Houses 
 of Congress, confirmed the great land grant which the old 
 Continental Congress had made for educational purposes in 
 the Western territory. Out of this territory consecrated to 
 enlightened liberty — of which Washington spoke so highly 
 — were to be raised many men who were to take a conspicu- 
 ous part in redeeming the nation from the woes caused by 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 249 
 
 slavery. The bill excluding slavery from the vast Western 
 territory, which Jefferson as chairman of a committee in- 
 troduced into the Continental Congress, embraced in many 
 respects a policy which Hamilton urged when a member 
 of the Continental Congress. It suggested a policy 
 which was in time to be championed by such great states- 
 men as John Quincy Adams, William H. Seward, and 
 Abraham Lincoln. The policy which it embraced was to 
 lead to a civil war in the United States, and to the tragic 
 termination of slavery on the North American continent. 
 The bill by which slavery was to be unknown in the terri- 
 tories, which Jefferson reported to Congress, is still pre- 
 served in his own handwriting in the archives of the 
 national Capitol. Many highly exciting scenes were to 
 take place in Congress, and in other parts of the Republic, 
 whenever the question of not permitting slavery in new 
 territories was to be discussed. When the great and 
 angry debate known as " the Missouri Compromise " was 
 in progress, even Jefferson, once speaking of the dis- 
 cussion in one of his letters, sadly faltered. With plausi- 
 ble but fallacious reasoning he suggested that it would 
 be better for the slaves not to be confined within narrow 
 limits, and that at best not allowing slaves to go into new 
 territory would not eradicate slavery from the United 
 States, which he held should be the aim of good states- 
 manship. 
 
 But to return to the noble labors of Jefferson in behalf 
 of the enslaved. In a book which he published when in 
 France, entitled " Notes on Virginia," — a book made up 
 largely, if not altogether, of letters to the French govern- 
 ment, which he had written before his wife's death, — he 
 sadly said : "There must doubtless be an unhappy influ- 
 ence on the manners of our people, produced by the in- 
 fluence of slavery among us. The whole commerce 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the 
 most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism 
 on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. 
 Our children see this, and learn to imitate it ; for man is 
 an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all edu- 
 cation in him. From his cradle to his £rave he is learning 
 to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no 
 motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for re- 
 straining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it 
 should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. 
 But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the 
 child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on 
 the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose 
 to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and 
 daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it 
 with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy 
 who can retain his manners and morals undepraved, by 
 such circumstances. And with what execration should 
 the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one-half the 
 citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, trans- 
 forms those into despots, and these into enemies, 
 destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patri<z 
 .oi the other. For if a slave can have a country in this 
 world, it must be any other in preference to that in 
 which he is born to live and labor for another ; in which 
 he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as 
 far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evan- 
 ishment of the human race, or entail his own miserable 
 condition on the endless generations proceeding from 
 him. With the morals of the people, their industry is 
 also destroyed. For in a warm climate, no man will 
 labor for himself, who can make another labor for him. 
 This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very 
 small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And can 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 251 
 
 the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have 
 removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds 
 of the people that these liberties are the gift of God ? 
 That they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? In- 
 deed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is 
 just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; that consid- 
 ering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolu- 
 tion of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is 
 among possible events ; that it may become probable by 
 supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attri- 
 bute which can take sides with us in such a contest. But 
 it is impossible to be temperate, and to pursue this sub- 
 ject through the various considerations of policy, of 
 morals, of history natural and civil. We must be 
 contented to hope they will force their way into every 
 one's mind. I think a change already perceptible, since 
 the origin of the present revolution. The spirit of the 
 master is abating, that of the slave is rising from the dust, 
 his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under 
 the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that 
 this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the 
 consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation."* 
 Jefferson issued a private edition of the volume in 
 which he expressed his views on negro slavery. In a 
 way costly to himself he endeavored to create a right 
 feeling in Virginia respecting this iniquitous institution. 
 In a letter to General Chastellux, dated June 7th, 1785, 
 alluding to his observations on slavery, he said : " It is 
 possible that in my own country these strictures might 
 produce an irritation which would indispose the people 
 towards the two great objects I have in view ; that is, the 
 emancipation of their slaves, and the settlement of their 
 constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis. If I 
 
 * " Notes on Virginia," chap, xviii. 
 
252 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 learn from thence, that they will not produce that effect, 
 I have printed and reserved just copies enough to be able 
 to give one to every young man at the College. It is to 
 them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one 
 now in power, for these great reformations." In a letter 
 to James Madison and in another to Monroe, Jefferson 
 expressed similar intentions. Madison and Monroe wrote 
 to Jefferson encouraging him to give to the students the 
 book. Before he went to France — indeed, as early as 
 1779 — Jefferson had been elected a member of the Board 
 of Visitors of the University of William and Mary, and 
 had given much attention to the course of study of the 
 students. 
 
 Under date of August 7th, 1785, Jefferson wrote a 
 letter to Dr. Price, of England, who had sent him a 
 pamphlet on slavery. In the course of this letter, he 
 said : " In Maryland I do not find such a disposition to 
 begin the redress of this enormity as in Virginia. -This is 
 the next State to which we may turn our eyes for the in- 
 teresting spectacle of justice, in conflict with avarice and 
 oppression ; a conflict wherein the sacred side is gaining 
 daily recruits, from the influx into office of young men 
 grown, and growing up. These have sucked in the prin- 
 ciples of liberty, as it were, with their mother's milk ; and 
 it is to them I look with anxiety to turn the fate of this 
 question. Be not therefore discouraged. What you have 
 written will do a great deal of good : and could you still 
 trouble yourself with our welfare, no man is more able to 
 give aid to the laboring side. The College of William and 
 Mary, in Williamsburg, since the re-modelling of its plan, 
 is the place where are collected together all the young 
 men of Virginia, under preparation for public life. They 
 are there under the direction (most of them) of a Mr. 
 Wythe, one of the most virtuous of characters, and whose 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 253 
 
 sentiments on the subject of slavery, are unequivocal. I 
 am satisfied, if you could resolve to address an exhorta- 
 tion to those young men, with all that eloquence of which 
 you are master, that its influence on the future decision of 
 this important question, would be great, perhaps, decisive." 
 
 From the halls of the University of William and Mary 
 were indeed to go forth influences in opposition to slavery 
 which were to have a singularly important bearing on 
 American history. It is not given to mortals to trace all 
 the mysterious workings of Divine providence ; but the 
 thoughtful historian may well sometimes pause to notice 
 how one event has led to another, until a grand result 
 has surprised a nation. Could the world always see the 
 grandeur of even an humble effort to direct aright the 
 thoughts of youth, or the ultimate effects which sometimes 
 follow a noble act, it would see some of the secret springs 
 of the greatest and most praiseworthy events of history. 
 Among the youth who attended the celebrated University 
 of William and Mary — a university whose Chancellor for 
 years was George Washington — was a youth named 
 Edward Coles. This young man was born on Dec. 15th, 
 1786, in the same county in which Jefferson was born and 
 in which he lived. Edward Coles' father had been a 
 colonel in the Revolutionary war and at his house some 
 of the most distinguished statesmen of Virginia were wont 
 to visit. Young Coles, after studying at Hampden Sidney 
 College, which was under Presbyterian control, repaired 
 to the University of Virginia. Among his classmates 
 were young men who were to rise to the highest stations 
 in life. When the time had nearly come for him to gradu- 
 ate he severely fractured his leg and came near losing his 
 limb. After leaving college he devoted two years to read- 
 ing and study, — going over a wide range of history and of 
 politics. At college and in his private reading he ear- 
 
254 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 nestly considered the subject of slavery. A time was to 
 come when he was himself at his own expense to publish 
 Jefferson's views respecting the holding of human beings 
 in bondage, and to exert an influence which was to be felt 
 for many a year — if not, indeed, forever — against the 
 spread of slavery in America. 
 
 In the year 1809 Edward Coles was twenty-three years 
 of age. He was the proprietor of a plantation and slaves 
 which had recently by his father been bequeathed to him. 
 He was a young man of high education, of good manners, 
 and was handsome. His friend President Madison in- 
 vited him to accept the appointment of private secretary 
 to the President, a position of much dignity and import- 
 ance. Peculiar reasons bade young Coles accept this 
 position. He had formed convictions respecting slavery 
 which called upon a generous nature to make costly 
 sacrifices. He had determined that as for himself he 
 would not hold human beings in bondage, nor would he 
 live in a part of the country in which the laws were as un- 
 just to a large part of the human family as they were in 
 the slave States, — even though he should have to give up 
 home and friends and comparative wealth. By accepting 
 the position to which President Madison invited him, he 
 felt that he could, while earning an honorable subsistence 
 in the service of his country, lay plans by which he could 
 free all of his slaves and provide for their future welfare. 
 
 Amidst the varied duties of public office young Coles 
 unbosomed his heart to Jefferson, at the same time 
 earnestly and eloquently exhorting him to undertake 
 even in his old age to marshal every force at his command 
 against slavery, and to inaugurate measures which would 
 begin the great work of removing from the Republic 
 a feature which was a weakness and a disgrace to a 
 liberty-loving people. With great delicacy and ingeni- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 255 
 
 ousness on July 31st, 18 14, he wrote to Jefferson*: "I 
 never," he said, " took up my pen with more hesitation, 
 or felt more embarrassment than I now do in addressing 
 you on the subject of this letter. The fear of appearing 
 presumptuous distresses me, and would deter me from 
 venturing thus to call your attention to a subject of such 
 magnitude, and so beset with difficulties as that of a gen- 
 eral emancipation of the slaves of Virginia, had I not the 
 highest opinion of your goodness and liberality, in not 
 only excusing me for the liberty I take, but in justly 
 appreciating my motive in doing so. * * * My ob- 
 ject is to entreat and beseech you to exert your knowl- 
 edge and influence in devising and getting into operation 
 some plan for the gradual emancipation of slavery. This 
 difficult task could be less exceptionally and more suc- 
 cessfully performed by, the revered fathers of all our 
 political and social blessings than by any succeeding 
 statesmen ; and would seem to come with peculiar pro- 
 priety and force from those whose valor, wisdom and 
 virtue have done so much in ameliorating the condition 
 of mankind. And it is a duty, as I conceive, that devolves 
 particularly upon you, from your known philosophical and 
 enlarged view of subjects, and from the principles you 
 have professed and practised through a long and useful 
 life, preeminently distinguished as well by being foremost 
 in establishing on the broadest basis the rights of man, 
 and the liberty and independence of your country, as 
 being throughout honored with the most important trusts 
 by your fellow-citizens, whose confidence and love you 
 have carried with you into the shades of old age and 
 retirement. * * * 
 
 " I hope that the fear of failing at this time, will have 
 no influence in preventing you from employing your pen 
 
 See " Sketch of Edward Coles," by E. B. Washburne, pp. 21-24. 
 
256 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 to eradicate this most degrading feature of British Colo- 
 nial policy, which is still permitted to exist, notwith- 
 standing its repugnance as well to the principles of our 
 revolution as to our free institutions. For however prized 
 and influential your opinions may now be, they will still 
 be much more so when you shall have been taken from 
 us by the course of nature. If therefore your attempt 
 should now fail to rectify this unfortunate evil — an evil 
 most injurious both to the oppressed and to the oppressor — 
 at some future day when your memory will be consecrated 
 by a grateful posterity, what influence, irresistible in- 
 fluence, will the opinions and writings of Thomas Jeffer- 
 son have in all questions connected with the rights of 
 man, and of that policy which will be the creed of your 
 disciples. * * * 
 
 " I will only add as an excuse Jor the liberty I take in 
 addressing you on this subject which is so particularly 
 interesting to me, that from the time I was capable of 
 reflecting on the nature of political society, and of the 
 rights appertaining to man, I have not only been prin- 
 cipled against slavery, but have had feelings so repugnant 
 to it as to decide me not to hold them ; which decision 
 has forced me to leave my native State, and with it all 
 my relations and friends." 
 
 To this letter of Coles, Jefferson replied on Aug. 25th, 
 1814: "Your favor of July 31st was duly received, and- 
 was read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed 
 through the whole, do honor both to the head and heart 
 of the writer. Mine, on the subject of the slavery of 
 negroes, have long since been in possession of the public, 
 and time has only served to give them stronger root. 
 The love of justice and the love of country plead equally 
 the cause of these people, and it is a mortal reproach to 
 us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 257 
 
 should have produced not a single effort, nay, I fear, not 
 muchserious willingness, to relieve them and ourselves from 
 our present condition of moral and political reprobation. 
 
 " From those of the former generation, who were in the 
 fulness of age when I came into public life, which was 
 while our controversy with England was on paper only, 
 I soon saw that nothing was to be hoped. Nursed and 
 educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded con- 
 dition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate 
 beings, not reflecting that that degradation was very much 
 the work of themselves and their fathers, few minds had 
 yet doubted but that they were as legitimate subjects of 
 property as their horses or cattle. The quiet and mo- 
 notonous course of colonial life had been disturbed by no 
 alarm, and little reflection on the value of liberty ; and 
 when alarm was taken at an enterprise of their own, it was 
 not easy to carry them the whole length of the principles 
 which they invoked for themselves. 
 
 " In the first or second session of the legislature, after I 
 became a member, I drew to this subject the attention of 
 Colonel Bland, one of the oldest, ablest, and most re- 
 spected members, and he undertook to move for certain 
 moderate extensions of the protection of the laws to these 
 people. I seconded his motion, and, as a younger mem- 
 ber, was more spared in the debate ; but he was denounced 
 as an enemy to his country, and was treated with the 
 greatest indecorum. From an early stage of our Revolu- 
 tion, other and more distant duties were assigned to me, so 
 that from that time till my return from Europe, in 1789, 
 and I may say, till I returned to reside at home in 1 809, I 
 had little opportunity of knowing the progress of public 
 sentiment here on this subject. 
 
 " I had always hoped that the younger generation, re- 
 ceiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty 
 9 
 
258 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 had been kindled in every breast, and had become, as it 
 were, the vital spirit of every American, that the generous 
 temperament of youth, analogous to the motion of their 
 blood, and above the suggestions of avarice, would have 
 sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved 
 their love of liberty beyond their own share of it. But 
 my intercourse with them, since my return, has not been 
 sufficient to ascertain that they had made towards this 
 point the progress I had hoped. 
 
 " Your solitary but welcome voice is the first which has 
 brought this sound to my ear; and I have considered the 
 general silence which prevails on this subject, as indicating 
 an apathy unfavorable to every hope. Yet the hour of 
 emancipation is advancing in the march of time. It will 
 come; and whether brought on by the generous energy of 
 our own minds, or by the bloody process of St. Domingo, 
 * * * is a leaf in our history not yet turned over. 
 
 " As to the method by which this difficult work is to be 
 effected, if permitted to be done by ourselves, I have 
 seen no proposition so expedient, on the whole, as that 
 of emancipation of those born after a given day, and of 
 their education and expatriation at a proper age. * * * 
 
 " I am sensible of the partiality with which you have 
 looked towards me as the person who should undertake 
 this salutary but arduous work. But this, my dear sir, is 
 like bidding old Priam to buckle on the armor of Hector 
 — ' trementibus ocvo humeris et inutile ferritin cingi.' No, I 
 have outlived the generation with which mutual labors 
 and perils begat mutual confidence and influence. This 
 enterprise is for the young — for those who can follow it 
 up, and bear it through to its consummation. 
 
 " It shall have all my prayers, and these are the only 
 weapons of an old man. But in the meantime are you 
 right in abandoning this property and your country with 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 259 
 
 it ? I think not. My opinion has ever been that, until 
 more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with 
 those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and 
 clothe them well, protect them from ill-usage, require 
 such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by 
 freemen, and be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, 
 and our duties to them. The laws do not permit us to 
 turn them loose, if that were for their good ; and to com- 
 mute them for other property, is to commit them to those 
 whose usage of them we cannot control. 
 
 " I hope then, my dear sir, you will reconcile your- 
 self to your country and its unfortunate condition ; that 
 you will not lessen its stock of sound disposition, by with- 
 drawing your portion from the mass. That, on the con- 
 trary, you will come forward in the public councils, become 
 the missionary of this doctrine, truly Christian, insinuate 
 and inculcate it, softly but steadily, through the medium 
 of writing and conversation, associate others in your labors, 
 and, when the phalanx is formed, bring on and press the 
 proposition perseveringly until its accomplishment. 
 
 " It is an encouraging observation that no good meas- 
 ure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to 
 prevail in the end. We have a proof of this in the history 
 of the endeavors, in the British Parliament, to suppress 
 that very trade which brought this evil on us. And you 
 will be supported by the religious precept : 1 Be not 
 wearied in well doing.' That your success may be as 
 speedy and as complete as it will be honorable and immor- 
 tal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently and sin- 
 cerely pray, as I assure you of my great friendship and 
 respect." * 
 
 * This letter is published in full and for the first time in Randall's "Life 
 of Jefferson," vol. iii., pp. 643-5. A fac-simile of Jefferson's letter is pub- 
 lished in " Sketch of Edward Coles," by Washburne, p. 28. 
 
2(5o 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 Young Coles was not altogether satisfied with the sen- 
 timents of this letter of Jefferson's. He wrote to him a 
 second letter, in which he, in a manner as noble as it was 
 respectful and gentlemanly, controverted some of the aged 
 statesman's views. He told him that he felt justified in 
 deciding to free his slaves, and that he had determined to 
 move them to the territory northwest of the Ohio. He 
 stated that he trusted that Jefferson's prayers would be 
 heard in heaven and that their influence would be felt on 
 earth. " But," he continued, " I cannot agree with you 
 that they are the only weapons of one of your age ; nor 
 that the work of cleansing the escutcheon of Virginia of 
 the foul stain of slavery can best be done by the young." 
 He then eloquently reasoned that aged, wise, and influen- 
 tial statesmen could do far more in influencing public 
 opinion in favor of abolishing human slavery than could 
 men of less worth of character and young in years. He 
 pointed out to him how Benjamin Franklin — to whom 
 he stated that Pennsylvania was indebted for its deliver- 
 ance from laws permitting negroes to be held in bondage 
 — had performed grand services for his country when he 
 was more advanced in years than was Jefferson. In short 
 Coles spoke with the earnestness of a true reformer. 
 
 In the way of carrying out far-reaching plans Coles met 
 with difficulties which detained him six years in the 
 household of President Madison. He then visited the 
 Western territory and made arrangements to settle in 
 Illinois, which young State had been formed out of the 
 territory in which slavery had been, thanks in part to 
 Jefferson, excluded. But business which was deemed to 
 be even more important than that of securing to his slaves 
 immediate freedom demanded his attention. Madison, 
 who was still President of the United States, earnestly 
 requested him to perform a work for his country of high 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 and far-reaching importance. Coles was requested to go 
 on a very delicate and momentous mission to the Em- 
 peror of Russia. The Government of the United States 
 is so different in some respects to that of European na- 
 tions that foreign ministers have been sometimes tempted 
 to think that they can take liberties in America. They 
 have awakened sometimes suddenly to the fact that in 
 some respects there are few governments which insist more 
 decidedly on certain observances of propriety than does 
 the government of the Republic. The Russian minister 
 had made some serious mistakes which had been resented 
 by the United States government. The Emperor of 
 Russia, not understanding why the United States had 
 been displeased with his minister, threatened to expel or 
 imprison the representative of America at St. Peters- 
 burg. The United States and Russia have always been 
 on exceptionally good terms. To America Russia has 
 always manifested kindness, and it was on many accounts 
 highly desirable that both nations should cherish kindly 
 feelings to each other. 
 
 Coles sailed on an American man-of-war to Russia. On 
 the Emperor of Russia he made a very favorable impres- 
 sion. The Tzar offered to punish the offending minister 
 in any way which the President of the United States 
 would suggest. After completing his diplomatic labors 
 in Russia Coles paid a short visit to Berlin, and before re- 
 turning to America he met some of the most distin- 
 guished men of Europe. He also hastily visited Scotland 
 and Wales. The humane mission which he had to 
 perform in America, however, would not allow him to 
 linger in Europe, so he hastened back to Virginia. Once, 
 speaking of his feelings, he said: "I could not reconcile it 
 to my conscience and sense of propriety to participate in 
 slavery ; and being unable to screen myself under such a 
 
262 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 shelter, from the peltings and upbraidings of my own con- 
 science, and the just censure, as I conceived, of earth and 
 heaven, I could not consent to hold as property what I 
 had no right to, and which was not and could not be 
 property according to my understanding of the rights and 
 duties of man — and therefore I determined that I would 
 not and could not hold my fellow-man as a slave." 
 
 At last Coles succeeded in completing arrangements to 
 carry out his cherished plans. His property in Virginia 
 was sold and land was bought in Illinois. By acting 
 promptly and complying with certain provisions of law he 
 could take his slaves out of Virginia. On the ist of 
 April, 1 8 19, he started from his plantation with all his 
 slaves and their offspring — excepting two who were too 
 old to make the journey. For these two colored people 
 he decided to provide for the rest of their lives. Coles 
 possessed to a marked degree the rare virtue of not 
 divulging unwisely his plans. The slaves knew not where 
 they were being led, but they instinctively felt that they 
 were following one who was very kind to them. A part 
 of their journey was on flat-boats on the beautiful Ohio 
 River. On these boats, which Mr. Coles had bought for 
 the purpose, his followers slowly travelled six hundred 
 miles. 
 
 Alluding to this journey Coles once wrote : " The 
 morning after we left Pittsburg, a mild, calm and lovely 
 April day, the sun shining bright, and the heavens with- 
 out a cloud, our boats floating gently down the beautiful 
 Ohio, the verdant foliage of Spring just budding out on 
 its picturesque banks, all around presenting a scene both 
 conducive to and in harmony with the finest feelings of 
 our nature, was selected as one well suited to make 
 Icnown to my negroes the glad tidings of their freedom. 
 Being curious to see the effect of an instantaneous sever- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 263 
 
 ing of the manacles of bondage, and letting loose on the 
 buoyant wings of liberty the long pent up spirit of man, I 
 called on the deck of the boats, which were lashed to- 
 gether, all the negroes, and made them a short address, in 
 which I commenced by saying it was time for me to make 
 known to them what I intended to do with them, and con- 
 cluded my remarks by so expressing myself, that by a 
 turn of a sentence, I proclaimed in the shortest and 
 fullest manner possible, that they were no longer slaves, 
 but free — free as I was, and were at liberty to proceed 
 with me, or to go ashore at their pleasure. 
 
 " The effect on them was electrical. They stared at me 
 and at each other, as if doubting the accuracy or reality 
 of what they heard. In breathless silence they stood be- 
 fore me, unable to utter a word, but with countenances 
 beaming with expression which no words could convey, 
 and which no language can now describe. As they 
 began to see the truth of what they had heard, and to 
 realize their situation, there came on a kind of hysterical, 
 giggling laugh. After a pause of intense, an unutterable, 
 emotion, bathed in tears, and with tremulous voices, they 
 gave vent to their gratitude, and implored the blessing of 
 God on me. When they had in some degree recovered 
 the command of themselves, Ralph said he had long 
 known I was opposed to holding black people as slaves, 
 and thought it probable I would some time or other give 
 my people their freedom, but that he did not expect me 
 to do it so soon ; and moreover, he thought I ought not to 
 do it till they had repaid me the expense I had been at in 
 removing them from Virginia, and had improved my farm 
 and ' gotten me well fixed in that new country.' To 
 this, all simultaneously expressed their concurrence, and 
 their desire to remain with me, as my servants, until they 
 had comfortably fixed me at my new home. 
 
264 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 " I told them, no. I had made up my mind to give to 
 them immediate and unconditional freedom ; that I had 
 long been anxious to do it, but had been prevented by the 
 delays, first in selling my property in Virginia, and then 
 in collecting the money, and by other circumstances. 
 That in consideration of this delay, and as a reward for 
 their past services, as well as a stimulant to their future 
 exertions, and with a hope it would add to their self- 
 esteem and their standing in the estimation of others, I 
 should give to each head of a family a quarter section, 
 containing one hundred and sixty acres of land. To this 
 all objected, saying I had done enough for them in giving 
 them their freedom ; and insisted on my keeping the land 
 to supply my own wants, and added, in the kindest man- 
 ner, the expression of their solicitude that I would not 
 have the means of doing so after I had freed them. I 
 told them that I had thought much of my duty and of 
 their rights, and that it was due alike to both that I should 
 do what I had said I should do ; and accordingly, soon 
 after reaching Edwardsville, I executed and delivered to 
 them deeds to the lands promised them. 
 
 " I stated to them that the lands I intended to give 
 them were unimproved lands, and as they would not have 
 the means of making the necessary improvements, of 
 stocking their farms, and procuring the materials for at 
 once living on them, they would have to hire themselves 
 out till they could acquire by their labor the necessary 
 means to commence cultivating and residing on their own 
 lands. That I was willing to hire and employ on my 
 farm a certain number of them (designating the indivi- 
 duals) ; the others I advised to seek employment in St. 
 Louis, Edwardsville, and other places, where, smart, active 
 young men and women could obtain much higher wages 
 than they could on farms. At this some of them mur- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 265 
 
 mured, as it indicated a partiality they said, on my part to 
 those designated to live with me ; and contended that they 
 should all be equally dear to me." As Coles proceeded 
 he related how he assured them of his determination to 
 befriend them should they ever get in trouble or need his 
 help, and of the very considerate advice on various sub- 
 jects which he gave them. 
 
 In Illinois Coles received a kind request from his friend 
 President Monroe to take the position of Register of the 
 Land Office. While occupying this position he was 
 always so polite and just to all with whom he had busi- 
 ness, that he became very popular, and was elected in 1822 
 governor of Illinois. Distinguished men had striven to 
 obtain the high station to which Coles was elected. One 
 of these men was the chief-justice of the State, and the 
 other was the associate justice of the Supreme Court. 
 Both these men were in favor of repealing the provisions 
 by which slavery was prohibited in Illinois. Another 
 candidate for the position was the major-general of the 
 militia of the State. Coles was known to be heart and 
 soul opposed to slavery. He was elected by only a small 
 majority over one of the candidates in favor of slavery. 
 One of the reasons why the election was of extraordinary 
 importance was that it was proposed by the friends of 
 slavery to call a convention in Illinois, so that all laws 
 preventing the introduction of slavery into the young 
 State should be abrogated. Coles and his friends were 
 called upon to fight probably as momentous a battle for 
 liberty as was ever fought on the American continent. 
 
 Governor Coles made an admirable public officer. He 
 impressed upon the attention of the Legislature of Il- 
 linois the importance of free schools to a State, and the 
 wisdom of promoting agriculture and of constructing a 
 great system of canals, by which not only the great lakes 
 
266 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 of North America would be united with the waters of the 
 harbor of New York, but by which vessels could go by 
 means of canals and lakes and rivers from the Atlantic 
 ocean to New Orleans. His action on the slavery ques- 
 tion in Illinois was indeed momentous. He drew the at- 
 tention of the Legislature, among other subjects respecting 
 human bondage, to the ordinance of 1787 by which slavery 
 had been excluded from the great Territory, out of a part 
 of which Illinois had been formed. He pointed out how 
 slave-holders were ignoring this provision, and recom- 
 mended the adoption of wise and effective laws in the 
 interests of the oppressed. He also proposed that 
 measures should be taken to prevent the kidnapping of 
 free colored people in Illinois. As a majority of the 
 Legislature was in favor of slavery, a dreadful storm was 
 at once aroused. It was determined by the majority of 
 the State Legislature that every barrier in the way of Il- 
 linois becoming a slave State should be swept away. 
 They had on their side the lieutenant-governor of the 
 State, but Coles was a host in himself. 
 
 Long and most deeply interesting was the conflict re- 
 specting the changing of the Constitution of Illinois in 
 the interest of slave-owners. By many and costly sacri- 
 fices, Coles, as the leader of the cause of freedom, strove to 
 save Illinois from becoming a slave State. Friends rallied 
 round him. Even the Quakers of Philadelphia, hearing 
 echoes from the strife which was being carried on in 
 Illinois, in ways which were deeply interesting but upon 
 which space will not allow one to here dwell, came to his 
 assistance. By the press, by tracts on slavery, by the 
 voice of . itinerant clergymen, and in many highly interest- 
 ing ways, at last, at an election upon which the destiny of 
 liberty in America may be said to have been determined, 
 a majority of the people of Illinois were induced to decide 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 267 
 
 by their votes that there should be no abrogation of the 
 laws forbidding the introduction of slavery into Illinois. 
 
 How an attempt was made to ruin Coles in fortune by 
 charging him with having violated a cruel law respecting 
 colored people when he freed his slaves, and how he was 
 saved from paying thousands of dollars' fine — how he was 
 prevented from becoming a Senator of the United States 
 — how he was defeated when a candidate for Congress, — 
 need not here be dwelt upon. Before he retired from 
 Illinois and married in Philadelphia he had won a great 
 victory for freedom, and had helped to arouse a feeling of 
 opposition to slavery in the young and enterprising State 
 of Illinois which was destined to find a lodgment in the 
 heart of another young man — to whom attention will 
 presently be called, — who was to carry forward the great 
 work which Coles had so nobly inaugurated in Illinois, on 
 a scale which was to be national in its dimensions. 
 
 And now to glance again for a moment at Jefferson's 
 views respecting slavery. In a letter to Mr. Barrow, 
 under date of May 1st, 181 5, Jefferson, after stating that 
 the subject of slavery had been to him one of early and 
 tender consideration, added: "Had I continued in the 
 councils of my own State it should never have been out 
 of sight." He continued : " We are not in a world un- 
 governed by the laws and the power of a Superior Agent. 
 Our efforts are in his hand, and directed by it ; and he will 
 give them their effect in his own time." He in this letter 
 declared that it would be his " last and fondest prayer," 
 that slavery would be abolished in all parts of his country. 
 
 Not long after returning from Europe, Jefferson received 
 a letter dated August 19th, 179 1, from a negro, a Mr. 
 Benjamin Banneker, who spoke feelingly to the statesman 
 about slavery, and may even be said to have severely 
 criticised him for not taking a nobler stand on the slavery 
 
268 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 question than he was taking. He also presented him with 
 a book which he had published — a kind of almanac. 
 Under date of August 30th, 1791, Jefferson replied to 
 him, thanking him for his letter and his scientific work. 
 " Nobody wishes more than I do," he wrote, " to see such 
 proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black 
 brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men, 
 and that the appearance of a want of them is owing 
 merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both 
 in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that 
 nobody wishes more ardently to see a good system com- 
 menced for raising the condition both of their body and 
 mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of 
 their present existence, and other circumstances which 
 cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty 
 of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet, Sec- 
 retary of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and member 
 of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it a 
 document to which your whole colour had a right for 
 their justification against the doubts which have been 
 entertained of them." The statesman signed this letter 
 thus: " I am with greet esteem, Sir, Your most obedient 
 humble servant, Tho. Jefferson." 
 
 Writing to John Holmes on the slavery question on 
 April 22d, 1820 — a time of high excitement in Congress, 
 — Jefferson said : " I can say with conscious truth, that 
 there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more 
 than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach, in 
 any practicable way." In a letter to Jared Sparks, the 
 distinguished author, under date of Feb. 4th, 1824, the 
 aged Jefferson drew attention to a plan for the abolition 
 of slavery in the United States which he had forty years 
 •before published in his " Notes on Virginia." The plan 
 which he had sketched in his book it would be hardly 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 269 
 
 just to criticise in these days, save to notice that the 
 colored youth born after the passing of the act were to be 
 free, but they were to 44 continue " — to use Jefferson's 
 words — 44 with their parents to a. certain age, then to be 
 brought up, at the public expense, to tillage, arts, or 
 sciences, according to their genuises, till the female 
 should be eighteen and the males twenty-one years of 
 age." Jefferson further proposed that the United States 
 government should go to other expense in their behalf in 
 certain ways to which attention may again be incidentally 
 drawn. In his letter to Sparks he enlarged upon some of 
 the features of the bill which he had prepared, and then 
 continuing added: 44 1 do not go into all details of the 
 burthens and benefits of this operation. And who could 
 estimate its blessed results ? I leave this to those who 
 will live to see their accomplishment, and to enjoy a 
 beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave it with this 
 admonition, to rise and be doing. * * * I am aware 
 that this subject involves some constitutional scruples. 
 But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may 
 go far, and an amendment of the Constitution, the whole 
 length necessary." 
 
 To Miss Wright, who was what was called an Aboli- 
 tionist, and who bought quite a large number of slaves 
 especially to free them — some slave-owners parting with 
 their slaves at a low price because they sympathized with 
 her work, — Jefferson wrote on Aug. 7th, 1825 : 44 My 
 own health is very low, not having been able to leave the 
 house for three months, and suffering much at times. 
 * * * At the age of eighty-two, with one foot in the 
 grave, and the other uplifted to follow it, I do not permit 
 myself to take part in any new enterprises, even for bet- 
 tering the condition of men, not even in the great one 
 which is the subject of your letter, and which has been 
 
270 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 through life one of my greatest anxieties. The march of 
 events has not been such as to render its completion 
 practicable within the limits of time allotted to me; and I 
 leave itsaccomplishment as the work of another generation. 
 And I am cheered when I see that on which it is devolved, 
 taking it up with so much good will, and such minds en- 
 gaged in its encouragement. The abolition of the evil is 
 not impossible ; it ought never therefore to be despaired 
 of. Every plan should be adopted, every expedient tried, 
 which may do something towards the ultimate object. 
 That which you propose is well worthy of trial. It has 
 succeeded with certain portions of our white brethren, 
 under the care of a Rapp and an Owen ; and why may it 
 not succeed with the man of color ? An opinion is haz- 
 arded by some, but proved by none, that moral urgencies 
 are not sufficient to induce him to labor ; that nothing 
 can do this but coercion. But this is a problem which the 
 present age alone is prepared to solve by experiment. It 
 would be a solecism to suppose a race of animals created, 
 without sufficient foresight and energy to preserve their 
 own existence. It is disproved, too, by the fact that they 
 exist, and have existed through all the ages of history. 
 We are not sufficiently acquainted with all the nations of 
 Africa to say that there may not be some in which habits 
 of industry are established, and the arts practiced which 
 are necessary to render life comfortable. The experiment 
 now in progress in St. Domingo, those of Sierra Leone 
 and Cape Mesurado, are but beginning. Your proposi- 
 tion has its aspects of promise also ; and should it not 
 answer fully to calculations in figures, it may yet, in its 
 developments, lead to happy results. These, however, 
 I must leave to another generation. The enterprise of 
 different, but yet important character, [of founding the 
 University of Virginia] in which I have embarked too 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 2JI 
 
 late in life, I find more than sufficient to occupy the en- 
 feebled energies remaining to me, and that to divert them 
 to other objects would be a desertion of these. You are 
 young, dear Madam, and have powers of mind which may 
 do much in exciting others in this arduous task. I am 
 confident they will be so exerted, and I pray to heaven 
 for their success, and that you may be rewarded with the 
 blessings which such efforts merit." 
 
 Jefferson at times pictured to himself with horror 
 scenes of bloodshed and dire evils which would take 
 place in Virginia if slavery were permitted to continue. 
 In a letter to St. George Tucker, who had written a 
 pamphlet advocating the abolition of slavery, Jefferson, 
 under date of Aug. 28th, 1797, alluding to the pamphlet, 
 wrote : " You know my subscription to its doctrines." 
 He then, continuing to dwell on the abolition of slavery, 
 wrote : " The sooner we put some plan under way, the 
 greater hope there is that it may be permitted to proceed 
 peaceably to its ultimate effect. But if something is not 
 done, and soon done, we shall be the murderers of our 
 own children. The ' murmura venturos nautis prudentia 
 ventos ' has already reached us ; the revolutionary storm, 
 now sweeping the globe, will be upon us, and happy if we 
 make timely provision to give it an easy passage over our 
 land." 
 
 In Jefferson's day it was dangerous for any one — 
 especially in a Southern State — to be known as opposed 
 to slavery. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for any 
 one at the present day to realize what an excitement 
 might be enkindled in Congress should any one criticise 
 the moral right of slave-owners to hold human beings in 
 bondage — indeed a time was hastening on when senti- 
 ments such as Jefferson often uttered respecting slavery 
 were not even to be allowed to be carried by the United 
 
272 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 States mail into Southern States. But the influence 
 which Jefferson had helped to exert against slavery was 
 not to be lost upon the history of the Republic, as will 
 be, to at least some extent, in due time seen. 
 
 At the close of the war with Mexico the United States 
 came into possession of an immense territory, much, if 
 not indeed all, of which was at the time free from slavery. 
 There were men in Congress who claimed that " the 
 peculiar institution of the South " should be introduced 
 into all the Territories of the Republic. Happily, how- 
 ever, there were statesmen who did not agree with such 
 views and could not be frightened into adopting them. 
 Some statesmen did not care whether slavery was intro- 
 duced into new Territories and States or not. Some 
 would make compromises of one kind or another. Others 
 would save, in every way that they rightly and constitu- 
 tionally could, virgin territory from being dishonored by 
 the institution of slavery. Jefferson had sometimes 
 thought of dreadful evils which he feared slavery would 
 bring upon the Republic, and he had thanked God that 
 his eyes would be closed in death before the arrival 
 of those days of ruin. Some of his worst fears were to 
 be sadly nearly realized and for many years new and 
 peculiar evils were to hang as a dark cloud over the 
 Republic — evils which, if not removed, as will soon be 
 pointed out, are likely to yet cause immeasurable in- 
 jury to the United States. 
 
 Doubtless there were people of noble and lovely char- 
 acters who owned, through no fault of their own, slaves. 
 Everything that was kind and noble, that they possibly 
 could do for the colored people, they gladly did. But 
 Jefferson believed that the effect of holding in bondage 
 human beings was fearfully injurious, as a rule, to the 
 character of a master. The proprietors of slaves were 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 *7l 
 
 never a large part of the population of the Southern 
 States. They, however, formed a privileged class, and 
 were — speaking in general terms — bound together by a 
 common interest in preserving and in extending their 
 " peculiar institution." They at times exercised an ap- 
 palling influence on the national government. By the 
 census of 1850, the number of slave-holders in the United 
 States was 347,525. Quite a large percentage of this 
 number did not own slaves, but merely hired them from 
 slave-owners. The number of slave-holders who had each 
 but one slave was 68,820. The number who held less 
 than five slaves was 105,683. The total number of slaves 
 in 1850 was 3,200,324. The free colored population was 
 228,138. The population of the whites in the slave States 
 was 6,184,477. The slave-owners, supported by the labor 
 of millions of enslaved people, ruled, to no inconsiderable 
 degree, millions of whites. They were a homogeneous, 
 compact body, having one great interest to promote and 
 one policy to pursue. Probably in no Southern State was 
 the influence of what has been called " the slave power " 
 more marked than it was in South Carolina at the time it 
 inaugurated civil war in the United States. The Sixth 
 Section of Article First of the Constitution of South Caro- 
 lina provided that no one should be allowed to be a mem- 
 ber of the House of Representatives of the State, unless 
 he possessed a certain, quite large, amount of wealth, clear 
 of encumbrance, or owned, to use the words of the instru- 
 ment, " a settled freehold estate of five hundred acres of 
 land and ten negroes." The representatives of the slave 
 interests were not only powerful in their respective States, 
 but could do much towards controlling the government 
 of the United States. The slave States were not only 
 represented in the national Capitol according to the 
 number of their white inhabitants, but also in proportion 
 
274 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 to the number of slaves they contained — each slave being 
 counted as three fifths of a human being. Thus the 
 slave-owner who owned five hundred slaves had a power 
 in Congress and in electing the. President of the United 
 States, equal to three hundred and one people in the free 
 States. In South Carolina — if I mistake not — the Repre- 
 sentatives to Congress were not elected directly by the 
 people, but by the vote of the Legislature — in the same 
 way as were the members of the United States Senate. 
 The slave States naturally sent slave-holders to the na- 
 tional Capitol. Thus the strange anomaly in a republi- 
 can government was seen of the legislative representation 
 of people by their masters. Slave-holders, once getting 
 the political affairs in their States under their own control 
 could so manage them that sometimes, if not indeed 
 often, the majority of the whites, even though made up 
 largely of tax-payers and of men capable of bearing arms 
 in the slave States, would be unrepresented in legislative 
 councils. The slave-holders were able to elect more men 
 than the non-slave-owners, and thus the States could be 
 virtually ruled, not by the people through their elected 
 representatives, but by a combination of slave-holders. 
 Any statesman who opposed the wishes of the slave 
 power was liable to be stricken down. It is related of 
 Lincoln that, in a conversation with a Mr. Gillespie on 
 some events which had attracted his attention, he said : 
 " There were about six hundred thousand non-slavehold- 
 ing whites in Kentucky to about thirty-three thousand 
 slave-holders ; in the convention then recently held, it 
 was expected that the delegates would represent these 
 classes about in proportion to their respective numbers ; 
 but, when the convention assembled, there was not a 
 single representative of the non-slaveholding class : every 
 one was in the interest of the slave-holders." These 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 275 
 
 remarks by Abraham Lincoln are not here introduced to 
 re-open wounds which were once cruel indeed, but to 
 draw due attention to the fact that the cause of public 
 education was sacrificed to a great extent — as were many 
 other interests of the whites who were poor — to the 
 interests of slavery. The rich planter could send his 
 children to private schools. There were indeed some 
 public schools in the Southern States — thanks to the 
 wise measures which Jefferson, when President of the 
 United States, had been led to take, by which an 
 immense amount of land was consecrated to the cause of 
 public education. But under the upas tree of slavery 
 such beneficent institutions did not flourish as they did 
 on soil uncursed by the demoralizing spectacle of human 
 beings living in a state of hopeless bondage. Among the 
 slave population were sometimes individuals of Anglo- 
 Saxon blood who had, when children, been kidnapped in 
 Northern cities, or had been sold to the domestic slave- 
 trader by indigent and depraved whites. In the veins of 
 a considerable percentage of slaves, owing to one feature 
 of the demoralization often caused by the relation of slave 
 and master, there flowed Anglo-Saxon blood.* In a 
 letter to Francis C. Gray, under date of March 4th, 181 5, 
 Jefferson drew attention to the fact that if a human being 
 was fifteen sixteenths of Anglo-Saxon blood, having only 
 one sixteenth of African blood, he or she was virtually 
 white ; but that, nevertheless, if the mother was a slave, 
 by the laws of Virginia, her children were also slaves, 
 unless emancipated. 
 
 The slave codes of the Southern States could do much 
 towards utterly crushing the spirit of the slave. Who 
 will fully describe the wickedness which could be com- 
 mitted under the authority of some of the slave codes! 
 
 * See "John Jay on Slavery," p. 144. 
 
2/6 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 Extracts from these codes could be given, which would 
 amaze and fill with sorrow and indignation a true friend 
 of liberty. The pious John Wesley could not forbear 
 characterizing the "peculiar institution " as "the sum of 
 all villainies." 
 
 It is strange how people under various circumstances 
 view moral questions. Many a one, who has perhaps 
 known only kind and considerate owners of slaves, has 
 naturally felt otherwise than did Jefferson or Wesley 
 respecting slavery. The Legislature of South Carolina 
 sent as her champion John C. Calhoun to the national 
 Capitol. This able man, in 1849, draughted a very inflam- 
 matory address to the people of the slave States. The 
 address was signed by himself and by Jefferson Davis, and 
 by forty-six Congressmen and Senators from the slave 
 States. In the course of this singular and very violent 
 address on the slavery question, it was declared that there 
 were people in the Northern States who were opposed " to 
 the peculiar institution of the South," and that the owners 
 of slaves were in danger of not being allowed to take their 
 slaves into the Territories of the United States, and that, 
 if such a policy were allowed by the slave States, it would 
 come about in course of time that free States would be 
 formed out of the territories, until three fourths of all 
 the States in the Union would be free States ; — that then 
 the Abolitionists would vote for a constitutional amend- 
 ment abolishing slavery, and that " the social and political 
 superiority of the white race " was in danger of being 
 destroyed, so that the whites would have to exchange 
 places with the blacks. In this address it was claimed 
 that England had made a mistake when she paid one 
 hundred millions of dollars for the liberation of slaves in 
 the West Indies, and the citizens of the slave States were 
 exhorted, "without looking to consequences," to resort 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 277 
 
 " to all means necessary " to repel " a blow so dangerous." 
 In this address Abolitionists were bitterly and in very 
 heated language stigmatized as " fanatics." 
 
 This is not the place to dwell upon the stern boldness 
 with which John Quincy Adams and Joshua R. Giddings 
 and others in Congress opposed the slave power, or how 
 William H. Seward, a United States Senator, contended 
 that the struggle between slavery and liberty was an 
 " irrepressible conflict," inasmuch as slavery was a local, 
 a sectional institution, while liberty was national. Nor is 
 this the place to dwell at length upon how it came about 
 that Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency of the 
 United States by citizens who believed that in all constitu- 
 tional ways the National Government should prevent the 
 introduction of slavery into new and vast territories. 
 
 When the Southern leaders decided to make the 
 Southern States secede from the United States, they 
 formed for the slave States a Constitution. In the Con- 
 stitution of the United States the word "slave" had not 
 been allowed a place, as the name was odious to such men 
 as Hamilton and Franklin. In the Constitution which 
 the leaders in the slave States formed for themselves they 
 inserted the word " slaves." They provided that in all 
 territory which the new Confederacy should ever acquire 
 — and there were vast territories which it might conquer 
 — slavery should exist. They provided, to use the words 
 of their Constitution, that " in all such territories, the 
 institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Con- 
 federate States, shall be recognized and protected by 
 Congress and by the territorial government ; and the in- 
 habitants of the several Confederate States and Territories 
 shall have the right to take to such territory any slaves 
 lawfully held by them^in any of the States or Territories 
 of the Confederate States." 
 
278 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 It may here be incidentally noticed that while the advo- 
 cates of the extension of slavery were in many respects 
 controlling the government of the United States, the 
 opponents of slavery were often timid, and easily fright- 
 ened by the excitement which followed debate on the 
 slavery question. Already a statesman, destined to be- 
 come a central figure in history, had attracted much public 
 attention. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, a 
 slave State, on February 12th, 1809, — in the same State 
 and in the same year as was Jefferson Davis. He was of 
 Southern birth, both of his parents having been born in 
 Virginia. This is not the place to dwell upon his early 
 history. In the year 18 18, Lincoln was living in Indiana, 
 a State which adjoins Illinois, and was formed out of 
 the rich territory which Jefferson had labored to save 
 from the evil of slavery, and in which large provision had 
 been made for the intellectual culture of its future citizens. 
 It will be remembered that in Illinois, from time to' time, 
 a certain class of people had striven to have the prohibi- 
 tion of slavery removed, and had endeavored to elect 
 public officers in sympathy with their plans. The echoes 
 of the conflict when slavery was about to be introduced 
 into Illinois would naturally be heard in Indiana. In 1 830 
 Lincoln settled in Illinois. The excitement incident to 
 such a strife as Edward Coles had waged in Illinois was 
 not soon to be forgotten. It would be difficult to think 
 of any nobler leader, or more praiseworthy example for 
 youth, than was Jefferson's friend, the cultured Edward 
 Coles. By an interesting providence Abraham Lincoln's 
 father settled with his family in a county named after 
 Coles and known to this day as Coles County. The noble 
 impetus which Coles and the men whom he had rallied 
 around him had given the cause of freedom in Illinois 
 had made its very air inspiriting. A degree of culture 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 279 
 
 had been diffused by the wise educational provisions 
 which had been made for it when it was but a part of 
 the Western territory, — provisions which Jefferson had 
 helped to secure it and which had been fostered by 
 Gov. Coles and other friends of education, — which were 
 to exert a happy influence upon many a young man. 
 Upon a youth twenty-two years of age, open to gen- 
 erous influences, as was Lincoln, such influences were 
 not to be wholly lost. Deprived in his youth of many 
 educational advantages, he when a man earnestly endeav- 
 ored to avail himself of such opportunities as he had for 
 acquiring useful knowledge. When the capital of Illinois 
 was at Vandalia, he was often to be seen in the State 
 library. The Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, Lincoln's cher- 
 ished friend, in an eloquent paper on Abraham Lincoln 
 published in the North American Review for October, 1885, 
 speaking of this interesting feature of his education, states 
 that "he always read understandingly, and there was no 
 principle of law but that he mastered, and such was the 
 way in which he always impressed his miscellaneous read- 
 ings on his mind, that in later life people were amazed at 
 his wonderful familiarity with books — even those so little 
 known to the great mass of readers." The use which Lin- 
 coln made of the State library when the capital of Illinois 
 was at Vandalia, and after the capital, largely through his 
 instrumentality, was moved to Springfield, is naturally 
 pointed out in the " Life of Lincoln " published by his 
 warm friend, the late Mr. Isaac N. Arnold. This able 
 writer states that Lincoln, when living at Vandalia and at 
 Springfield, " had access to all the books he could read, 
 and the world of English literature, history and science lay 
 open before him." Mr. Arnold adds: " He became and 
 continued through life a student, always seeking and con- 
 stantly acquiring knowledge." 
 
28o 
 
 OUR COLORED BRE THREAT. 
 
 It would be interesting to dwell upon Lincoln's career 
 as a statesman, — how wisely and boldly he acted respecting 
 the rights of the colored people and the interests of educa- 
 tion during the eight years that he was a member of the 
 Legislature of Illinois; how, as a member of Congress, he 
 endeavored, in a way by which the slave-owner would be 
 paid for his so-called property, to effect the abolition of 
 slavery in the District of Columbia; how he regarded a de- 
 cision respecting what is known as the " Dred Scott case," 
 rendered by certain judges of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States whose hearts and minds had been, he be- 
 lieved, sadly corrupted by the influence exerted upon 
 them by the system of human bondage in the presence of 
 which they had been educated ; and how he was the 
 means of having a platform drafted for a political party, 
 which was to be known as the Republican party, in 
 which a part of the Declaration of Independence was 
 adopted as a living principle, and by which the extension 
 of slavery into territory as yet unpolluted by its introduc- 
 tion was to be prevented. It would be inspiring indeed 
 to dwell upon how, when the representatives of the young 
 Republican party were gathered together at a great 
 convention in i860, and many of them wavered for a 
 moment in adopting the principles of the platform which 
 Lincoln cherished, they were gloriously rallied under 
 appeals of wonderful eloquence addressed to them by the 
 then young George William Curtis, and how Lincoln 
 was nominated for the Presidency of the United States. 
 Much of this instructive history has been given to the 
 world in the highly valuable and interesting " Life of Lin- 
 coln " given to the public in the year 1885 by the late 
 Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, whose kindly bearing as President 
 of the Chicago Historical Society will long be remem- 
 bered by his friends. His book is well worthy of a place 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 in every American home. Suffice it here to merely 
 notice that the public debates which Lincoln had with 
 Stephen A. Douglas, who in time became the leader of 
 the Democratic party in the Northern States, attracted 
 wide attention. One or the other of them was to be 
 elected a United States Senator. In all these debates 
 Lincoln argued that in all constitutional and honorable 
 ways the people should prevent the introduction of slav- 
 ery into new Territories and States. With singular ability, 
 yet with a mildness the more noticeable because of his 
 iron firmness, he revealed to the people a conspiracy to 
 spread slavery over the Territories, and even to intro- 
 duce it into the free States. 
 
 On April 6th, 1859, Lincoln declined to attend a festi- 
 val in honor of Jefferson's birthday, tendered to him by 
 some gentlemen known to belong to " the Democratic 
 party." In this letter he pointed out some of the differ- 
 ences between the views entertained by Democrats and 
 the party to which he belonged on the slavery question. 
 He declared that, " Soberly, it is now no child's play to 
 save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this 
 nation. * * * This is a world of compensations ; and 
 he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. 
 Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for 
 themselves ;' and under a just God cannot long retain it." 
 Lincoln added : " All honor to Jefferson ; to a man who, 
 in the concrete pressure of a struggle for a national inde- 
 pendence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and 
 capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary docu- 
 ment an abstract of truth, applicable to all men and all 
 times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all 
 coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block 
 to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression." 
 
 On the 27th of February, i860, Lincoln, in a speech 
 
282 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 delivered in New York, examined critically the history of 
 the framers of the Constitution of the United States in 
 relation to slavery, and showed that Washington and an 
 astonishing number of his colleagues, whose history could 
 be traced, acted on the principle that slavery should not 
 be introduced into new Territories. Lincoln submitted to 
 the calm reflection of the people whether much that was 
 said about the party to which he belonged was just. He 
 alluded to the celebrated decision rendered by a majority 
 of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 known as the Dred Scott case, by which slavery was to 
 be permitted, however offensive to some of the States, in 
 all the States and Territories of the national Republic, 
 and explained some of his own views respecting the de- 
 cision. On July 17th, 1858, he had startled Stephen A. 
 Douglas by reading a letter which Jefferson had written 
 on September 28th, 1820, in which sentiments respecting 
 the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States 
 were enunciated somewhat similar to certain views which 
 Douglas affected to condemn. Indeed, in a celebrated 
 speech delivered in New York, Lincoln betrayed a very 
 praiseworthy acquaintance with American historyT 
 
 At the election for President of the United States in 
 i860, Douglas, the candidate of the Democrats of the 
 Northern States, received in the Electoral College 12 
 votes ; Breckenridge, the slavery candidate, 72 votes ; Mr. 
 Bell, who was supposed to be in favor of the States re- 
 maining united whether slavery was extended or not, 
 received 39 votes; Lincoln received 180 votes, — more 
 votes in the Electoral College than was given to all the 
 other candidates united. 
 
 Shortly after his election to the Presidency Lincoln 
 made a speech in Cincinnati, a part of which was especially 
 addressed to the slave State in which he had been born 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 283 
 
 He said : " We mean to treat, as near as we possibly can, 
 as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We 
 mean to leave you alone and in no wise to interfere with 
 your institutions, to abide by all and every compromise 
 of the Constitution; and in a word, coming back to the 
 original proposition, to treat you as far as degenerate 
 men, if we have degenerated, may, according to the ex- 
 amples of those noble fathers Washington, Jefferson, and 
 Madison." As he continued, Lincoln spoke in the most 
 generous manner of the people of the slave States, reared 
 under different circumstances than were the people of 
 the free States, but possessed, he declared, of as much 
 goodness of heart as he claimed for himself. It would 
 perhaps be impossible to find a more generous-hearted 
 statesman than Lincoln, by his speeches, showed himself 
 to be. 
 
 In his inaugural address Lincoln said : " One section 
 of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be 
 extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought 
 not to be extended ; and this is the only substantial dis- 
 pute ; and the fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution 
 and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, 
 are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can be in a 
 community where the moral sense of the people imper- 
 fectly supports the law itself." 
 
 It might be interesting to here turn for a moment from 
 Abraham Lincoln to the leaders in the slave States who 
 had formed a Confederacy among themselves. In this 
 Confederacy Jefferson Davis was elected President and 
 Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President. Shortly after his 
 election Mr. Stephens made a speech in Savannah in 
 which he said : 
 
 " The new Constitution has put at rest forever all 
 agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — 
 
284 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 African slavery, as it exists among us — the proper status 
 of the negro in our form of civilization. This was 
 the immediate cause of the late rupture and present 
 revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated 
 this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union would 
 split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is 
 now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended 
 the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, 
 may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by 
 him, and most of the leading statesmen at the time of 
 the formation of the old Constitution, .were, that the en- 
 slavement of the African was in violation of the laws of 
 nature ; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, 
 and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to 
 deal with ; but the general opinion of the men of that day 
 was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, 
 the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This 
 idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was 
 the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is 
 true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution 
 while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly 
 used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, 
 because of the common sentiment of the day. Those 
 ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested 
 upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was 
 an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a 
 government built upon it was wrong — when the ' storm 
 came and the wind blew, it fell.' 
 
 " Our new government is founded upon exactly the 
 opposite ideas ; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone 
 rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to 
 the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the superior 
 race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new 
 government, is the first in the history of the world, based 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 285 
 
 upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. 
 This truth has been slow in the process of its develop- 
 ment, like all other truths in the various departments of 
 science. It is even so amongst us. Many who hear me, 
 perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not gen- 
 erally admitted even within their day. The errors of the 
 past generations still clung to many as late as twenty 
 years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these 
 errors with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate 
 fanatics." 
 
 Mr. Stephens, after calling for some time people who 
 he confessed looked upon slavery as did Jefferson 
 fanatics, stated that he could not allow himself to doubt 
 the ultimate recognition of the view taken of slavery by 
 the Confederate government, " throughout the civilized 
 and enlightened world." In January, 1863, Jefferson 
 Davis, in a message to the Congress of the Confederate 
 States, spoke with bitterness of the United States. Al- 
 luding to Lincoln's proclamation emancipating the slaves 
 of all States in arms against the United States Govern- 
 ment, he said : " We may well leave it to the instinct of 
 that common humanity which a beneficent Creator has 
 implanted in the breasts of our fellow-men of all countries, 
 to pass judgment on a measure by which several millions 
 of human beings of an inferior race — peaceful, contented 
 laborers in their sphere — are doomed to extermination, 
 while at the same time they are encouraged to a general 
 assassination of their masters by the insidious recommen- 
 dation ' to abstain from violence, unless in necessary self- 
 defence.' " 
 
 Turning from advocates of slavery to Lincoln, it may 
 here be noticed that at his second election, which took 
 place when men's feelings were naturally somewhat 
 heated by the Civil War, he received 3,604,474 more votes 
 
2S6 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 than was received by his distinguished opponent, General 
 George B. McClellan. In his second inaugural address 
 Abraham Lincoln sadly said : 
 
 " One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
 slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
 localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves con- 
 stituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that 
 this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To 
 strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the 
 object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by 
 war, while the Government claimed no right to do more 
 than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 
 
 " Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
 the duration which it has already attained. Neither 
 anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease even 
 before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for 
 an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and 
 astounding. 
 
 "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, 
 and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem 
 strange that any men should dare to ask God's assistance 
 in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
 faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The 
 prayer of both could not be answered. That of neither 
 has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own 
 purposes. Woe unto the world because of offences, for 
 it must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man 
 by whom the offence cometh ! If we shall suppose that 
 African slavery is one of these offences which, in the 
 providence of God, must needs come, but which having 
 continued through His appointed time, He now wills to 
 remove, and that He gives to both North and South this 
 terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence 
 came, shall we discern there any departures from those 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 287 
 
 Divine attributes which the believers in a living God 
 always ascribe to him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently 
 do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily 
 pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the 
 wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty 
 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
 drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by 
 another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand 
 years ago, so, still it must be said that the judgments of 
 the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 
 
 " With malice towards none, with charity for all, with 
 firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's 
 wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
 and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves and with all nations." 
 
 Lincoln, if lacking in some respects the education 
 which could justly be desired for a President of the great 
 Republic of the New World, yet was learned to no ordinary 
 degree in certain parts of American history. He had for 
 years been a member of the Legislature of Illinois. By 
 a very wise arrangement worthy of the highest praise 
 every State has a library at its capital. Often might 
 Lincoln have been seen with noble industry earnestly 
 consulting the Illinois State library, and thus, uncon- 
 sciously perhaps, fitting himself to act a grand part in the 
 drama of history. He possessed many virtues, not the 
 least of which was his firm devotion to his country. 
 He possessed, one may almost say, a giant's strength, 
 physically and mentally. Many, if not indeed all, of his 
 State papers breathe a spirit which may well fill one with 
 wonder when the circumstances under which they were 
 written are borne in mind. He surrounded himself with 
 singularly able counsellors. 
 
288 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 With Jefferson and Madison and Clay and many other 
 distinguished statesmen, Lincoln at one time entertained 
 the idea that one way to abolish slavery was to colonize 
 the colored people somewhere where they could govern 
 themselves. Jefferson, when President of the United 
 States, in a letter to Monroe dated November 24th, 1 801, 
 discussed a plan by which the United States should buy 
 somewhere land for the colored people and should let 
 them, for various reasons, live by themselves. He said : 
 " However our present interests may restrain us within 
 our own limits, it is impossible not to look forward to 
 distant times, when our rapid multiplication will extend 
 itself beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern, 
 if not southern continent, with a people speaking the 
 same language, governed in similar forms, and by similar 
 laws; nor can we contemplate with satisfaction either 
 blot or mixture on that surface." Jefferson then spoke 
 of the advantages of the West Indies as a place of retreat 
 for the colored people. In a long letter to Jared Sparks, 
 under date of February 4th, 1S24, Jefferson argued that 
 the proceeds of the public lands should be devoted to the 
 abolition of slavery. He claimed that while the measure 
 was "more important to the slave States," yet that it 
 was "highly so to the others also." He said that "a 
 liberal construction of the Constitution, justified by the 
 object," would enable the United States to do much 
 towards abolishing slavery, " and an amendment to the 
 Constitution the whole length necessary " to accomplish 
 the beneficial purpose. It may here be noticed that 
 Madison and Chief-Justice Marshall were desirous of 
 seeing the proceeds of the public lands applied to the 
 emancipation of slavery. In a letter to Robert J. Evans, 
 June 15th, 1 8 19, Madison said : 
 
 " It is the peculiar fortune, or, rather, a providential 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 289 
 
 blessing of the United States, to possess a resource com- 
 mensurate to this great object, without taxes on the 
 people, or even an increase of the public debt. 
 
 " I allude to the vacant territory, the extent of which is 
 so vast, and the vendible value of which is so well ascer- 
 tained." 
 
 Madison made a calculation of the number of acres 
 which would suffice to appropriate for the purpose. He 
 then said : " And to what object so good, so great, and 
 so glorious, could that peculiar fund of wealth be appro- 
 priated? Whilst the sale of territory would, on one hand, 
 be planting one desert with a free and civilized people, it 
 would, on the other, be giving freedom to another people, 
 and filling with them another desert. And if in any 
 instances wrong has been done by our forefathers to 
 people of one color, by dispossessing them of their soil, 
 what better atonement is now in our power than that of 
 making what is rightfully acquired a source of justice and 
 of blessings to a people of another color?" As Madison 
 continued he thus argued : " No particular difficulty is 
 foreseen from that portion of the nation which, with a 
 common interest in the vacant territory, has no interest 
 in slave property. They are too just to wish that a par- 
 tial sacrifice should be made fo«r the general good. * * * 
 That part of the nation has, indeed, shewn a meritorious 
 alacrity in promoting, by pecuniary contributions, the 
 limited scheme for colonizing the blacks, and freeing the 
 nation from the unfortunate stain on it, which justifies the 
 belief that any enlargement of the scheme, if founded on 
 just principles, would find among them its earliest and 
 warmest patrons. It ought to have great weight that the 
 vacant lands in question have, for the most part, been de- 
 rived from grants of the States holding the slaves, to be 
 redeemed and removed by the sale of them." 
 10 
 
290 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 Madison did not maintain that the national govern- 
 ment could purchase the slaves unless the people would 
 agree to its so doing, but he did not doubt that the nation 
 had the power, if it had the inclination, to bring about 
 " the great object in question." Under date of March 
 20th, 1820, in a letter to Tench Coxe, he said : " I have 
 long thought that our vacant territory was the resource 
 which, in some way or other, was most applicable and 
 adequate as a gradual cure for the portentous evil, with- 
 out, however, being unaware that even that would en- 
 counter serious difficulties of different «sorts." The 
 words of Jefferson and Madison, which have here been 
 presented, give some faint idea of the sacrifices — estimated 
 at hundreds of millions of dollars — which they wished the 
 Republic to make rather than to permit slavery to con- 
 tinue to exist in the United States. 
 
 Lincoln, for years, if not indeed to his death, held the 
 idea that it would be wise, for various reasons, for the 
 United States to aid emancipated colored people to col- 
 onize some part of the world beyond- the limits of the 
 United States. In the early part of the Civil War Congress 
 also entertained this opinion, and made an appropriation 
 with which to buy such a territory. Lincoln selected a 
 part of New Granada, known as the Chiriqui Lagoon. As 
 I write I have before me an English volume written by 
 Commander Bedford Pirn of the Royal Navy, during the 
 United States Civil War. The book is entitled " The 
 Gate of the Pacific." In this work Commander Pirn, who 
 had spent considerable time on the coast of Central 
 America, in language which at times may well cause an 
 American to feel highly indignant, urges the English 
 government to take advantage of the struggle in which 
 the United States was engaged, to put to silence the 
 " Monroe Doctrine " of the " Yankees" — as he stigma- 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 29I 
 
 tizes the people of the United States, — by seizing the 
 magnificent territory for England. He speaks with rap- 
 ture of the gorgeous territory and of its splendid harbors. 
 Alluding in a characteristic manner to the Anglo-Saxon 
 Republic, he gives, in order to enlighten, and arouse to 
 opposition, his own government, a speech delivered by 
 Abraham Lincoln on August 14th, 1862, to a deputation of 
 colored people who made him a visit. In the course of 
 his speech Lincoln said : " Your race are suffering, in my 
 opinion, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. * * * 
 See our present condition; — the country is engaged in 
 war ; our white men cutting one another's throats, none 
 knowing how far it will extend ; — and then consider what 
 we know to be the truth. But for your race among 
 us there could not be a war. Although many men en- 
 gaged on either side do not care for you one way or the 
 other, nevertheless I repeat, without the institution of 
 slavery and the colored race as a basis, the war could have 
 no existence." Lincoln then argued that if the colored 
 people who were already freed and were in some degree 
 intelligent would found a new colony — a colony which 
 would offer an asylum to the colored people who from 
 time to time would obtain their freedom, — the colonists 
 could feel a nobility of purpose something like unto that 
 which animated Washington when he went through the 
 hardships of the War of Independence. Lincoln then, 
 speaking of the American colony at Liberia, said : "The 
 question is, If the colored people are persuaded to 
 go anywhere, why not there? One reason for an un- 
 willingness to do so is, that some of you would 
 rather remain within reach of the country of your nativity. 
 * * * The place I am thinking about for a colony is 
 Central America. It is nearer us than Liberia — not more 
 than one-fourth as far as Liberia — and within seven days' 
 
292 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 run by steamers. Unlike Liberia, it is on a great line of 
 travel — it is a highway. The country is a very excellent 
 one for any people, and with great natural resources and 
 advantages. * * * The particular place I have in view is 
 to be a great highway from the Atlantic or Carribean Sea 
 to the Pacific Ocean ; and this particular place has all the 
 advantages of a colony. On both sides there are harbors 
 among the first in the world. Again there are evidences 
 of very rich coal-mines. A certain amount of coal is 
 valuable in any country, and there may be more than 
 enough for the wants of the country. * * * I shall, if I 
 get a sufficient number of you engaged, have provision 
 made that you shall not be wronged. If you will engage 
 in the enterprise, I will spend some of the money 
 entrusted to me. I am sure you will succeed. * * * 
 Besides I would endeavor to have you made equals, and 
 have the best assurance that you would be made equals 
 of the best. The practical thing I want to ascertain is 
 whether I can get a number of able-bodied men, with 
 their wives and children, who are willing to go when 
 I present evidence of encouragement and protection. 
 Could I get a number of tolerably intelligent men with 
 their wives and children, I think I could make a successful 
 commencement." Lincoln, as he concluded his address, 
 said that the scheme was fraught with consequences 
 not confined to the present generation, but extended to 
 distant times, as 
 
 " From age to age descends the lay, 
 To millions yet to be, 
 Till far its echoes roll away 
 Into eternity." 
 
 Commander Pirn, after giving this speech in full, pre- 
 sents a circular which was issued to colored men upon the 
 proposed colonization enterprise. The following sentence 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 293 
 
 from this circular will give an idea of its purpose : " If 
 this travail and pain of the nation become the birthday 
 of your freedom, let us plant you free and independent 
 beyond the reach of the power that has oppressed you." 
 Events of such a nature occurred that the plan of found- 
 ing a colony in New Granada was not carried out. More- 
 over, a certain infamous treaty, which I may be enabled 
 at some future time to show embraced a policy for which 
 slavery was responsible, known as the Clayton-Bulwer 
 treaty, forbade the United States forever and forever from 
 colonizing or annexing the country, even though the 
 people should request the United States to permit them 
 to become a part of the Republic, as Nicaragua once did, 
 when the slave power in Congress defeated the beneficent 
 arrangement, partly, if not indeed solely, because the 
 people had abolished slavery, and the leaders of the slave 
 States feared that the sight of free colored people might 
 injuriously affect " the peculiar institution " of the 
 Southern States. It could be shown that the deadliest 
 enemy which the " Monroe Doctrine " — a policy which 
 was intended to secure liberty to the American continent 
 and to make one brotherhood of the inhabitants of the 
 Western Hemisphere — has ever had to contend with was 
 the slave power in the United States ! 
 
 This is not the place to dwell upon the storm of civil 
 war which swept over the United States — a war in which 
 the aggregate number of the soldiers engaged amounted 
 to 3,756,053 — men representing myriads of homes 
 shadowed with death ; — a war which cost the nation 
 thousands of millions of dollars and rivers of blood and 
 tears. A faint idea of some of the features of civil war 
 can be inferred from the following illustrations. Two 
 forces met each other in battle. A soldier wounded and 
 captured a prisoner— his own brother. Aiming his gun 
 
294 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 at a man behind a tree, the wounded prisoner said : 
 "Don't fire there, Bob, that is father!" Even Edward 
 Coles, who had saved Illinois from becoming a slave 
 State, had his heart wrung with anguish by finding that 
 his son — a mere boy — while fighting on the side of the 
 Confederate States had been wounded unto death. A 
 mother one day opened a letter which read as follows : 
 
 "Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 "November 21, 1864. 
 
 " Dear Madam : I have been shown in the files of the War 
 Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachu- 
 setts, that you are the mother of five sons who died gloriously 
 on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be 
 any words of mine which would attempt to beguile you from 
 the grief of a loss- so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from 
 tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks 
 of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
 Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
 leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, 
 and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly 
 a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 
 " Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 " To Mrs. Bixbv, Boston, Massachusetts." 
 
 At the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettys- 
 burg, Lincoln in a singularly solemn speech urged the 
 people to resolve " that this Nation, under God, shall 
 have a new birth of freedom ; and that Government of the 
 people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish 
 from the earth." 
 
 The history of the Civil War and its effect upon slav- 
 ery were in a single sentence, in a speech delivered on 
 June 29th, 1867, thus condensed by John Bright : "The 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 295 
 
 ground reeled under the nation during four years of agony 
 until at last after the smoke of battle had cleared away, 
 the horrid shape which had cast its shadow over one whole 
 continent had vanished and was gone forever." 
 
 At the close of the war about four millions of people 
 who had been slaves became citizens of the Republic. The 
 vote of any colored man has now the same weight in State 
 and national affairs as does the vote of any other citizen 
 of the Republic. These four millions of new citizens were, 
 with scarcely an exception, unacquainted with even the 
 alphabet of the English language. How it happened that 
 people living under the United States flag were thus il- 
 literate will be the better understood after taking a brief 
 view of some of the laws in force at the time of the aboli- 
 tion of slavery. In South Carolina an act which was 
 adopted as early as 1740, and was in force with cruel 
 amendments until slavery was abolished, read thus : 
 " Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffer- 
 ing them to be employed in writing, may be attended with 
 great inconveniences, Be it enacted, That all and every per- 
 son and persons whatsoever who shall hereafter teach or 
 cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use 
 or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing 
 hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons 
 shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of one hun- 
 dred pounds current money."* In 1800, leaving the 
 enactment of 1740 in force, it was decreed that : " Assem- 
 blies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes and mestizoes, 
 whether composed of all or any of such description of 
 persons, or of all or any of the same and of a proportion 
 of white persons, met together for the purpose of mental 
 instruction in a confined or secret place, &c. &c, are de- 
 
 * 2 Brevard's Digest. 243. Quoted by George M. Stroud in his " Sketch 
 of the Laws Relating to Slavery." 1856, p. 60. 
 
296 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 clared to be an unlawful meeting ; and magistrates are 
 hereby required, &c., to enter into such confined places, 
 &c. &c, to break doors, &c. if resisted, and to disperse 
 such slaves, free negroes, &c. &c; and the officer dis- 
 persing such unlawful assemblage may inflict such corporal 
 punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes upon such slaves, 
 free negroes, &c, as they may judge necessary for DETER- 
 RING THEM FROM THE LIKE UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLAGE IN 
 FUTURE."* Another section of the same act declared 
 " That it shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free 
 negroes, mulattoes or mestizoes, even in company with 
 white persons, to meet together for the purpose of mental 
 instruction, either before the rising of the sun, or after the 
 going down of the same."f On December 17th, 1834, as 
 though the laws already in existence were not sufficiently 
 severe to satisfy the slave-master, it was enacted that, " If 
 any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read or write, 
 or shall aid in assisting any slave to read or write, or cause 
 or procure any slave to be taught to read or write, such 
 person, if a free white person, upon conviction thereof, 
 shall for every such offence against this act be fined not 
 exceeding one hundred dollars, and imprisoned not more 
 than six months ; or if a free person of colour, shall be 
 whipped not exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceed- 
 ing fifty dollars; and if a slave, shall be whipped not ex- 
 ceeding fifty lashes ; and if any free person of colour or a 
 slave shall keep any such school or other place of instruc- 
 tion for teaching any slave or free person of colour to read 
 or write, such person shall be liable to the same fine, \ im- 
 prisonment, and corporal punishment as are by this act 
 
 * 7 Statutes of South Carolina, 440. See Stroud's " Sketch of the Laws 
 Relating to Slavery," pp. 60, 61. t Ibid. 
 
 % If a slave could not pay the fine he was liable to be sold into slavery, 
 and the money of his sale would be appropriated by the State. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 297 
 
 imposed and inflicted on free persons of colour and slaves for 
 teaching slaves to read or write." * 
 
 Virginia, the State in which Jefferson and Washington 
 and Madison were born, all of whom hated slavery, by its 
 code of 1849, announced that, " Every assemblage of 
 negroes for the purpose of instruction in reading ox writ- 
 ing shall be an unlawful assembly. Any justice may issue 
 his warrant to any officer or other person, requiring 
 him to enter any place where such assemblage may be, and 
 seize any negro therein ; and he or any other justice may 
 order such negro to be punished with stripes. 
 
 " If a white person assemble with negroes for the pur- 
 pose of instructing them to read or write, he shall be con- 
 fined to jail not exceeding six months, and fined not ex- 
 ceeding one hundred dollars." \ 
 
 In Georgia there was a statute which seems to have 
 been in force from 1770 until about the time of Lin- 
 coln's death, which was similar to the one enacted in 
 South Carolina in 1740, only it was even better cal- 
 culated than was the South Carolina law to keep its 
 colored slaves illiterate.^: As though the law in Georgia 
 already in force, making it a crime to teach colored people 
 to read and write, was not severe enough to satisfy the 
 owners of slaves, in 1829 it was enacted that, "If any 
 slave, negro or free person of colour, or any white person, 
 shall teach any other slave, negro or free person of colour 
 to read or write either written or printed characters, the 
 said free person of colour or slave shall be punished by 
 fine and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the discretion of 
 the court ; and if a white person so offending, he, she or 
 they shall be punished with fine not exceedingy?w hun- 
 
 * 7 Statutes of South Carolina, 468. Quoted by Stroud, p. 60. 
 
 f Code of Virginia, 747, 748. Given by Stroud, p. 61. 
 
 X For this law of Georgia, see Cobb's Digest, 981, and Stroud's Work, p. 61. 
 
298 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 dred dollars, and imprisonment in the common jail at the 
 discretion of the court." * Even this additional law did 
 not satisfy the slave-owner. In 1833 it was further enacted 
 that, "If any person shall teach any slave, negro or free 
 person of colour to read or write either written or printed 
 characters, or shall procure, suffer or permit a slave, negro 
 or person of colour to transact business for him in writing, 
 such person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, 
 and, on conviction, shall be punished by fine or imprison- 
 ment in the common jail, or both, at the discretion of the 
 court." f 
 
 In North Carolina, the law forbidding any one to teach 
 a slave to read or write, which was in force when Abra- 
 ham Lincoln's proclamation abolishing slavery in the in- 
 surgent States was issued, read thus : " Any free person 
 who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any slave 
 within this state to read or write, the use of figures ex- 
 cepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any 
 books or pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment, and upon 
 conviction shall, at the discretion of the court, &c, if a 
 white man or woman, be fined not less than one hundred 
 dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, or impris- 
 oned ; and if a free person of colour, shall be fined, im- 
 prisoned or whipped, at the discretion of the court, not 
 exceeding thirty-nine lashes, nor less than twenty lashes.J 
 And for a similar offence as to instruction, a slave shall 
 receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back." § 
 
 The law forbidding any one to teach a slave to read or 
 
 * Ibid., 1001. Also see Stroud's " Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery 
 in the United States," 1856, p. 61. 
 
 f Ibid., 828. Also Stroud's " Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in 
 the United States." 
 
 X Revised Statutes, ch. 34, § 74, p. 209. 
 
 § Ibid., ch. 3, § 27. See Stroud's "Sketch of the Laws Relating to 
 Slavery," p. 61. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 write in Louisiana, a law enacted by its Assembly in 
 March, 1830, read thus: "All persons who shall teach or 
 cause to be taught any slave in this state to read or write 
 shall, on conviction thereof, &c, be imprisoned not less 
 than one nor more than twelve months." 
 
 The law in force in Alabama at the time that the 
 " peculiar institution of the South," as slavery was 
 politely called, was swept away, provided that, " Any 
 person who shall attempt to teach any free person of colour 
 or slave to SPELL, read or write, shall upon conviction, 
 &c, be fined in a sum not less than $250 nor more than 
 $500."* 
 
 To present a full view of the laws which had a direct 
 and indirect influence in keeping the colored people in 
 abject ignorance of letters, — laws in force at the time 
 when the leaders of the Southern States undertook to 
 war against the United States, — would require a volume. 
 As I write I have such a volume beside me.f My heart 
 sickens as I contemplate the cruelties inflicted beneath the 
 stars and stripes. In the States which have just been named, 
 a colored person, whether man or woman, was in danger 
 of being flogged if he or she " attempted" to learn how to 
 read or write.:}: How far the flogging could be carried may 
 be inferred from the fact that in one or more of the slave 
 States the laws especially provided that if a slave should 
 die while receiving " moderate correction," no one should 
 be punished for murder. Colored people in some of the 
 States were forbidden by law to even worship together. 
 For example, in Virginia, a law, in force at the breaking 
 
 * Clay's Digest, 543, act of 1832, § 10. See Stroud's " Slavery in the 
 United States," p. 61. 
 
 f George M. Stroud's " Collection of Laws respecting Slaves in the 
 United States." 
 
 % It seems that the laws of Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, 
 Florida and Texas were silent in respect to the education of slaves. 
 
300 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 out of the Civil War, reads thus : " Every assemblage of 
 negroes for the purpose of religious worship, when such 
 worship is conducted by a negro, shall be an unlawful 
 assembly ; and a justice may issue his warrant to any offi- 
 cer or other person, requiring him to enter any place 
 where such assemblage may be, and seize any negro 
 therein, and he or any other justice may order such negro 
 to be punished with stripes."* In Mississippi, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, a colored person was allowed to at- 
 tend a religious meeting conducted by a white man.f 
 Practically, in some of the Southern States, a Sabbath- 
 school or church service could not lawfully be attended 
 by slaves. Doubtless, even in such States as South Caro- 
 lina and Virginia, some kind-hearted slave-owners might 
 teach slaves to read. What could the slave power do to 
 meet such cases? Humboldt, when travelling in the 
 United States, thought it singular that in the Southern 
 States no colored man could ever be seen driving a mail- 
 wagon. In order to keep books and reading-matter from 
 the hands of slaves, the slave power enacted in the na- 
 tional Capitol, in the year 1810, that none but free white 
 people should be employed in carrying the mails. The 
 national government at an earlier date had been made 
 to decree that in no part of the United States should 
 even free colored people be allowed to serve in the mili- 
 tia. The slave-power jealously kept in mind that with 
 slaves ignorance of letters is weakness, and that it was 
 from its point of view wise to keep the colored people 
 unlettered. On some of the vessels entering the harbors 
 of South Carolina and Louisiana there might be a few 
 free colored people who could read and write. These 
 colored men might, in some way, communicate informa- 
 
 * Code of Virginia of 1849, p. 747. 
 f Mississippi Revised Code, p. 390. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 301 
 
 tion to the dark mind of the slave — information of a kind 
 which might not be pleasing to the slave power. In de- 
 fiance of the national Constitution, State laws were made 
 by which colored . sailors were incarcerated in prisons 
 during the period the vessels on which they came re- 
 mained in port. 
 
 Who will ever measure the evil wrought by slavery! 
 Wilberforce, filled with a righteous indignation, when en- 
 deavoring to put a stop to the slave-trade, was constrained 
 to exclaim that slavery was " the full measure of pure un- 
 sophisticated wickedness, and scorning all competition or 
 comparison, it stands alone without a rival, in the secure, 
 undisputed possession of its detestable preeminence! " 
 
 That at the close of the CivH War slavery left the United 
 States — especially the Southern part of the Republic — a 
 fearful legacy of ignorance, was only what might have 
 been expected. Jefferson's plan of emancipation, as is 
 evident by his letter to Edward Coles, dated August 25th, 
 1 8 14, embraced a provision for the education of the col- 
 ored people. In the book which he published and gave 
 to students of the college of William and Mary, entitled 
 " Notes on Virginia," he proposed that the colored people 
 should be taught at the public expense the " arts and sci- 
 ences, according to their geniuses." In a letter to Mr. 
 Barrow, under date of May 1st, 181 5, Jefferson, after stating 
 that the abolition of slavery had been a subject of " early 
 and tender consideration " with him, and after speaking of 
 the change which would have to take place in the mind of 
 the master, added " that of the slave is to be prepared by 
 instruction and habit for self-government, and for the 
 honest pursuits of industry and social duty." Jefferson 
 in his book even wished the United States to give 
 the colored people, as he expressed it, " implements 
 of the household and of the handicrafts, seeds, pairs of 
 
302 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 the useful domestic animals." To these noble words 
 of Jefferson's it may be interesting to add that when 
 Washington, who hated slavery, and wished to God 
 that it were abolished, freed at his death the slaves that 
 belonged to his estate, he very wisely made an especial 
 provision for their being taught to read and write. In a 
 letter which Jefferson wrote to Mr. Jullien, under date of 
 July 23d, 18 1 8, he said of the celebrated General Kos- 
 ciuszko : " On his departure from the United States in 
 1798, he left in my hands an instrument appropriating 
 after his death all the property he had in our public 
 funds,* the price of his military services here, to the edu- 
 cation and emancipation of as many of the children of 
 bondage in this country as it would be adequate to." 
 
 Jefferson, when contemplating the importance of the 
 United States making provision for the intellectual im- 
 provement of the colored people, was actuated princi- 
 pally — if not indeed altogether — by a generous desire that 
 a humane and much-needed act should be performed, 
 which he believed the nation to be under peculiar obliga- 
 tions to perform. One can imagine how he would have 
 been startled had he foreseen clearly that a time would 
 come when all the slaves would suddenly be made 
 American citizens, — the men, although but a very small 
 proportion of them could read and write, be made voters, 
 and in many communities be made practically the masters 
 of the whites, and that the United States government 
 should scarcely, if at all, make any provision for their 
 intellectual culture ! A condition of things not only 
 dangerous to the people of the Southern States, but 
 endangering the well-being of the United States ! 
 
 * Kosciuszko being entitled, by a military certificate, for serv ices rendered 
 to the United States government, by a special act provided that he should 
 receive interest from the 1st of January, 1793, to the 31st of December, 1797. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 303 
 
 Many years have passed since the thunders and storm 
 of a great civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of 
 children were made orphans and vast numbers of women 
 were made widows, have been succeeded by the sunshine 
 of peace. A large part of the generation of slaves who, as 
 an outcome of the war received their liberty, have passed 
 from the scenes of earth. The colored people live — save 
 a small percentage of them — in the Southern States. 
 The once slave States have an area of 851,448 square 
 miles, while the States which were called free at the com- 
 mencement of the Civil War have an area of only 612,597 
 square miles. The Southern States cover one of the most 
 beautiful and fertile sections of the world. Could these 
 States but be blessed with good public-school systems 
 and with good government, vast numbers of intelligent 
 emigrants would esteem it a happy privilege to make for 
 themselves homes within their attractive borders. These 
 States, blessed with a population in the best sense of the 
 word intelligent, might soon be expected to become 
 wealthy, and to add, to a greater extent than they 
 have ever done, to the well-being of the entire Republic. 
 A few of many facts which might be mentioned, will 
 give at least a faint idea of the intellectual condition 
 of the people in the Southern States. The census of 
 1880 reveals the fact that in Alabama, Florida, and 
 Georgia, at least 47 per cent, or more of the people are 
 colored. While even in North Carolina 37.9 per cent, of 
 the people are of African descent, and while in Virginia 
 41.7 per cent, of the people are black, in Louisiana 51.4 
 per cent, of the people — or more than half — are of African 
 descent. In South Carolina 60.6 per cent., or more than 
 half, of the population are black. In Mississippi 57.5 per 
 cent, of the people are colored. It was predicted in very 
 strong and bitter language, during the excitement of war 
 
304 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 times, by Jefferson Davis, that the slaves freed by Lin- 
 coln's Proclamation of Emancipation would perish off the 
 land. The prediction that the colored people could not 
 live in a state of freedom has been astonishingly, by 
 results, contradicted. These people are — as revealed by 
 statistics, — increasing so fast that in a good many States 
 they are likely soon to be more numerous than the 
 whites ; all the more likely to control the destiny of 
 States in which they reside, as white people are emi- 
 grating from the Southern States. In a sadly large 
 number of these States the intellectual darkness of the 
 people may truly be characterized as awful. In eight of 
 the Southern States, which have been especially character- 
 ized as the black belt, — not to speak of other Southern 
 States, — an army — as shown by the census of 1880 — 
 of 2,250,438 colored people ten years of age and up- 
 wards could have been marshalled at the taking of 
 the census, — all of whom had confessed that they 
 did not even know enough of letters to escape 
 being classed among " illiterates." One might here 
 speak of the great army of white illiterates which are to 
 be found in this beautiful land, over which has passed the 
 blight of slavery and the whirlwind of civil war; but it is 
 to the colored population that attention is here being 
 drawn. In the sixteen Southern States there were, in the 
 year 1880, 4,695,253 colored people. Of the voters among 
 these people — that is, of the men allowed to vote, — 
 78.5 per cent, could not read and write. In the State of 
 Georgia 81.2 per cent, of the colored adults admitted — 
 and many colored people decline to make such a confes- 
 sion if they have even a very slight acquaintance with 
 the alphabet — that they were unable to read and write. 
 In Virginia, whose territory adjoins the national capital, 
 and where Washington and Madison and Jefferson lived, — 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 305 
 
 a State which has been proudly called the " Mother of 
 Statesmen," — 78.01 per cent, of the colored voters could 
 not, in the year 1880, so much as write their names. In 
 Alabama 81.4 per cent, of the colored adult males, and in 
 Louisiana 80.2 per cent, of these American citizens were, 
 in 1880, illiterate. To understand these figures, let one 
 think of the 128,257 colored voters in Virginia. Out of 
 these American citizens who are called upon to vote on 
 State and national affairs 100,210 do not know how to 
 write their names. There are four other States in which 
 the illiteracy among colored voters is larger than it is in 
 Virginia. One might here speak of the 23.4 per cent, of 
 the white voters of North Carolina, who cannot so much 
 as write their names, but suffice it here to confine atten- 
 tion to the 6,518,372 colored people who are in the 
 United States, and to remark that in South Carolina the 
 majority of the voters in 1880, — including white and 
 colored, — according to the census, were unable to read 
 and write. 
 
 The ignorance of letters in some of the Southern States 
 is not as general as it is in others, but in all it is wofully 
 great. Mr. Albion W. Tourgee, in his valuable book en- 
 titled "An Appeal to Caesar" — by which he means an 
 appeal to the American people, — a book which is highly 
 worthy of the earnest attention of every intelligent friend 
 of the Republic, has pointed out that the figures of the 
 census present much too mildly the awful intellectual 
 darkness which reigns in the late slave States. This 
 fascinating and judicious writer presents reasons for 
 believing that the desire of the colored people, when 
 they know ever so little of letters, to be classed among 
 those who are not illiterate is accountable for only 70 per 
 cent, of their number ten years of age and upwards being 
 enumerated by the census-taker as devoid of a knowledge 
 
306 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 of reading and writing. He presents facts which he dis- 
 covered when living in a Southern State, which he 
 believes justifies one in inferring that the figures of the 
 census — as startling as they are — would be much nearer 
 the truth if 90 per cent, of the vast colored population 
 were regarded as illiterates.* What must be the social 
 condition of the once slave States when 3,042,444 of the 
 people of color and 1,672,951 of American-born whites are 
 incapable of reading and writing? Taking together eight 
 of the Southern States in which the colored population is 
 largest, and averaging the number of white and black 
 people, it is found that 48.5 per cent, of the population of 
 these States, ten years of age and upwards, are illiterate. 
 In this region — not to speak of the awful illiteracy of a 
 large percentage of the white voters — 78.5 per cent, of 
 the vast number of colored men who are entitled to 
 vote — who are American citizens !- — could not, in the year 
 1880, so much as write a single word. In the sixteen 
 Southern States — including Missouri, West Virginia, 
 Delaware, and Kentucky, — on an average, 36 per cent, of 
 the people — including the white population — cannot read 
 and write. In these States 4,715,395 of people are as 
 little able to communicate with their fellow-citizens by 
 means of writing as are the savages of Africa. Practi- 
 cally, at least one half of these people are unable to 
 read the ballots which they use at elections, in which the 1 
 honor and well-being of not only the States in which they 
 live, but interests of priceless value to the United States, 
 
 * See Mr. Albion W. Tourgee's interesting and valuable work entitled, 
 " An Appeal to Coesar." He has also published an instructive novel en- 
 titled " Bricks without Straw," in which — as in various other writings — 
 he forcibly draws attention to the educational needs of the Southern States, 
 and to a practicable plan by which the national government could help 
 the Southern States to secure to themselves the great blessing of good school 
 systems. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 307 
 
 are at stake. Well may posterity regard it as a heavy re- 
 proach to the people of the United States that in 1880 — 
 many years after the close of the Civil War — 67.7 per cent, 
 of the colored voters in the United States should be utterly 
 illiterate, and that 1,125,749 colored women, who are to no 
 inconsiderable extent to influence the destiny of the com- 
 ing generation of American citizens, should not so much 
 as know how to write their names. Surely such a republic 
 as that of the United States should aim at protecting at 
 national elections the ballot from the degradation which 
 necessarily must characterize a condition of affairs such 
 as has been entailed upon the United States by its 
 former system of slavery. There are moments when, 
 upon the wisdom, energy, and decision of character of its 
 statesmen — as truly as there are hours when, upon the 
 valor and awful sacrifices of its soldiers — the destiny of 
 a nation is decided. As the wounds of a stricken deer 
 upon the mountains or lonely plains invites the attack 
 of the vulture and of the wolf, so does illiteracy in a 
 nation invite the enslavement of a people by temporal 
 and ecclesiastical despots. As low as unlettered nations 
 of all ages have sunk, as high as are the possibilities of 
 future grandeur before the Republic, even so vastly 
 important it is that adequate provision should be made 
 for the intellectual elevation of the millions of neglected 
 youth of the United States. In the year 1870 the 
 number of people, white and colored, ten years of age 
 and upwards, who could not read and write, according to 
 the census, which, there is reason to fear, gave too low 
 a figure, was 5,658,144. In the year 1880 the number had 
 risen to 6,239,958, or to 581,814 more than in the year 
 1870. Make whatever excuse which any one can sug- 
 gest for these sad and awfully vast figures, they deserve 
 to receive consideration by American statesmen. When 
 
3o8 
 
 OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 the question, "What can be done to secure to American 
 youth the blessing of intellectual culture?" shall be con- 
 sidered in State Capitols and in the National Legislature, 
 one could wish that the spirit of Thomas Jefferson 
 would enter the council-chambers, and, with the earnest- 
 ness which ever characterized him when considering the 
 inseparable connection which should exist between 
 civil liberty and a good school system, would urge 
 upon the statesmen of the present generation the 
 importance of rendering their country what he con- 
 sidered " the greatest of all services " by making a 
 good educational law — what he called " the keystone 
 of the arch of our government." As of old with burning 
 earnestness Jefferson would say : " The people should be 
 rendered " the safe as they are the ultimate guardians of 
 their own liberty."* "It is better " that the illiterate 
 "should be sought forand educated at the common expense 
 of all, than that the happiness of all should be confided to the 
 weak and wicked." f " No other sure foundation [can be 
 laid than that of public education] for the preservation of 
 freedom and happiness." % " The tax which will be paid 
 for this purpose," " if tax can be called that which we 
 give to our children in the most valuable of all forms, 
 that of instruction," § " is not more than the thousandth 
 part of what will be paid * * * if we leave the people in 
 ignorance." || " Experience * * * teaches the awful les- 
 son that no nation is permitted to live in ignorance with 
 
 * Jefferson in his " Notes on Virginia," chapter on Education. 
 \ Wording of the educational bill which Jefferson introduced into the 
 Legislature of Virginia in 1779. 
 
 % Letter to George Wythe, August 13th, 1786. 
 § Educational bill draughted by Jefferson in 181 7. 
 
 I Letter to George Wythe, August 13th, 1786. See also letter dated 
 January 14th, 1S18, to J. C. Cabell. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 309 
 
 impunity."* "In all enlightened countries a national 
 education has been considered one of the first concerns of 
 the legislature and intimately connected with the pros- 
 perity of the State * * * It would be a melancholy reflec- 
 tion, if a single youth of our country should from poverty 
 be deprived of every ray of knowledge. And yet how 
 many of the first geniuses of our land are condemned to 
 grope out their days in a state of darkness." f Would 
 that the spirit of Washington would take up the exhorta- 
 tions of Jefferson, and speak as he spoke of old when he, 
 with the noblest eloquence bade farewell to his country- 
 men — adding to what he had already with peculiar im- 
 pressiveness twice spoken in annual messages, on the 
 importance of the National Legislature's aiding the cause 
 of learning throughout the republic — the counsel : " Pro- 
 mote * * * as an object of primary importance institutions 
 for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as 
 the structure of a government gives force to public opin- 
 ion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlight- 
 ened." Would that to this visitation of departed states- 
 men the spirit of Abraham Lincoln were joined ; and that 
 once more he would speak as he often spoke, saying: 
 " Universal education should go along with and accompany 
 the universal ballot in America. The best, the firmest and 
 most enduring basis of our Republic is the thorough, 
 universal, education of the great American people. The 
 intelligence of the mass of our people is the light and the 
 life of the Republic." Lincoln's voice, however often 
 raised with eloquence in behalf of free schools in Illinois, 
 may never more be heard by mortals. One who was 
 
 * Report of Thomas Jefferson as Rector of the State University to the 
 President and Directors of the Literary Fund of Virginia. 
 
 f Report of the Directors of the Literary Fund — of whom Jefferson was 
 one — to the Legislature of Virginia. 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 twenty-five years his law partner has stated to me in 
 writing that he has again and again heard Lincoln speak 
 in substance the words of his which have just been quoted. 
 He has also kindly sent me an extract from an address 
 which Lincoln wrote and published in the year 1832 — but 
 seven years after the opening of the University of Vir- 
 ginia, — and distributed throughout one of the counties of 
 Illinois, explaining it himself on the stump, and pledging 
 himself to champion the causes which it represented, if 
 elected a member of the Legislature of Illinois. In this 
 address Lincoln said : " Upon the subject of education, 
 not presuming to dictate any plan or system regarding it, 
 I can only say that I view it as the most important sub- 
 ject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every 
 man may receive at least a moderate education and 
 thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and 
 other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the 
 value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of 
 vital importance, even on this account alone, to say noth- 
 ing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from 
 all being able to read the scriptures and other works, both 
 of a religious and moral nature, for themselves." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, 
 signed what was known as the Freedman's Bureau Bill. 
 He thus had the honor of helping in some degree to 
 elevate, in the truest sense, to American citizenship a large 
 number of colored people. By this Bureau about three 
 millions of dollars was spent in providing school instruc- 
 tion for the colored people. Lincoln, however, was not 
 permitted to live to see the grand policy which he had a 
 part in inaugurating consummated. The noble work of 
 securing to American youth of every color an education 
 "which will help to fit them to become worthy American 
 citizens is laid upon other statesmen ! 
 
OUR COLORED BRETHREN. 
 
 3" 
 
 Once as I thoughtfully stood within the tomb in which 
 Abraham Lincoln's remains await the resurrection call, I 
 felt that by a mysterious providence Lincoln's career had 
 been affected by Jefferson. I thought of Lincoln's labors 
 in behalf of the colored race. Scenes of the past as a 
 great panorama passed before me. I wondered whether 
 Edward Coles would have acted the wise and heroic part 
 he did had he not been encouraged by Jefferson 1 to hate 
 slavery ; whether if Coles had not in Illinois fought one 
 of the most momentous battles for freedom that was ever 
 fought on the American continent Lincoln's heart would 
 have been fired to espouse the cause of the oppressed ; 
 whether Jefferson's labors in helping to secure to the 
 great Northwest Territory liberty and education, and his 
 efforts, in a quiet way, to arouse in the hearts of certain 
 youth in Virginia right feelings respecting man's enslaving 
 his fellow-beings, — had not been links in the chain of 
 great events which have redeemed a race from a cruel 
 bondage. I thought how earnestly Jefferson and Lincoln 
 would labor, could they return to this world, to induce 
 the national government to do whatever wise statesman- 
 ship can do to aid in the great work of securing the bless- 
 ing of intellectual culture to all the future citizens of the 
 Republic of the United States. 
 
V. 
 
 A JEFFERSONIAN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 J EFFERSON in a letter to Washington dated January 4th, 
 1786, thus wrote: " It is an axiom in my mind, that our 
 liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people 
 themselves, and that, too, of the people with a certain 
 degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state 
 to effect, and on a general plan." These words of Jeffer- 
 son's may well raise the question whether statesmanship 
 can elaborate a practicable plan by which the blessing of 
 school instruction will be secured to the youth of every 
 part of a vast republic. 
 
 The United States of America had, in the year 1880, an 
 area of about 3,603,000 square miles. Should the United 
 States flag — which is but the emblem of a great repub- 
 lic or democracy in which the people are sovereign, and 
 the mechanism of whose government is contrived to give 
 effect to the wishes and to promote the happiness, and well- 
 being, of its citizens — be raised overall of North America, 
 it would wave over an area of 8,000,000 square miles; 
 should it be unfurled over Central and South America, and 
 over the islands off the coast of the American continent, 
 it would wave over an area of about 15,099,480 square 
 miles. " How would it be possible," some one may ask, 
 " to provide for the establishment and for the maintenance 
 in adequate numbers of public schools and institutions of 
 
 312 
 
AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. 313 
 
 learning of various kinds, in all parts of an empire which 
 may become continental in its extent ? " Such a question 
 may well have a philosophic, a momentous, interest to 
 American students of the science of government. 
 
 One who will turn his attention to the forms of govern- 
 ment of civilized, and even of what may be called half- 
 civilized, nations, may well be interested as he observes 
 that, as a rule, it is expedient, for administrative purposes, 
 to divide and to subdivide the domains over which these 
 governments have jurisdiction. As an army is divided 
 into brigades, and into regiments, and into companies, 
 each division having a certain degree of autonomy of its 
 own, so statesmen have found it useful, for administra- 
 tive purposes, to subdivide realms for which they legis- 
 late. One might point out with much interest the 
 internal governmental arrangements of one nation after 
 another when illustrating this truth. Even the Chinese 
 Empire, which embraces an area of 3,937,000 square miles, 
 an area larger than that covered by the United States 
 at the present time, has her provinces and various sub- 
 divisions, which, to an important extent, govern them- 
 selves. How highly important it is to the best interests 
 of nations that communities should, in an intelligent 
 manner, within quite a wide sphere govern themselves, 
 would be sadly illustrated by a panoramic view of certain 
 dark periods in the histories of Italy, Spain, France, and of 
 Austria and Germany, — of periods when the communities 
 and subdivisions into which these lands were subdivided 
 had but very little or no control of the management of 
 their own local affairs. 
 
 It would be interesting to observe the mighty influence 
 on the prosperity and the glory of Great Britain, an 
 empire which covers an area of at least 9,050,032 square 
 miles, or an area more than twice that covered by the 
 
3H AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 United States in the year 1880, and to notice how latent 
 powers of nations have at times been evoked by even a 
 very imperfect system of self-government. One of the 
 secrets of Russia's strength is what may, in a good sense, 
 be called her communal system. Russia already possesses 
 more than one half of the continent of Europe, and has in 
 Asia a territory vaster than the entire continent of Europe. 
 Russia has an area of 8,500,000 square miles, or more than 
 twice the area of the United States. Silently, ever and 
 anon, her borders are extended. Again and again 
 people living near the borders of this mighty empire have 
 seen Russian institutions established on new territory. 
 The Russians, owing in part to a peculiar training to 
 which attention is presently to be called, have a disposi- 
 tion, in which they in some respects resemble Anglo- 
 Saxons, to establish self-governing communities. As 
 pioneers in the western part of the American continent 
 often fall in love with the natural scenery upon which they 
 look, and with various charms of a new country, and 
 establish communities of their own which they govern 
 after the pattern of the liberal institutions amid which 
 they have been reared, so bold Russian hunters, and 
 even exiles of Siberia, and such monks of the Greek Church 
 as visit the frontiers of the Empire of Russia, unite in 
 founding the singular Russian community known as the 
 mir — a word meaning in the Russian language " little 
 world." 
 
 The mir may be regarded as a village, or commune, 
 in which the people in many respects govern themselves. 
 The people elect chiefs, and establish customs, of their 
 own. The land claimed by the community is at stated 
 times divided and re-divided among the people according 
 to the size of each individual family. Early marriages 
 are encouraged by their laws. Each family is expected 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 315 
 
 to cultivate its own share of land and to do its own work. 
 The only social unit that is recognized is a man and his 
 wife, and is styled "a house." "A house" is entitled 
 to a kitchen-garden, and to a proportion of woodland to 
 supply fuel for domestic purposes. The community sets 
 apart a certain proportion of land to be held in common 
 by its members for the pasturage of cattle. The land is 
 divided among " the houses " — to be re-divided again at 
 the expiration of three years. When the land is divided, 
 a sort of village Parliament is held in the open air. The 
 land is divided among " the houses " exclusively — the 
 bachelor receiving nothing. If the bachelor wishes land 
 he must marry, and thus with his wife become a 
 " house." In the division of the land the richness of the 
 soil and its location are considered. At the communal 
 councils the men are all peers. In many cases, women — 
 except heiresses and wives whose husbands are away 
 from the mir — are not allowed to take part in the 
 discussions. A so-called Elder is elected to act as a sort 
 of chief in the community. He is clothed with, in some 
 respects, despotic power. His powers are somewhat un- 
 classified and are sometimes great. He is the only man 
 who can lawfully strike any one. He has been, however, 
 forbidden by a decree of the imperial government to 
 flog a woman. The people, on their part, can, when they 
 are displeased with an Elder, remove him and appoint 
 another man in his place. The Elder is held responsible 
 by the imperial government for the good behavior of 
 every one living in the mir. He it is who must carry 
 out imperial mandates. The citizens of these Russian 
 village-democracies have inherited from quite ancient 
 times various local rights which it would be unwise for 
 the imperial government to abridge. Evil-doers in these 
 peasant republics are tried before their own councils, 
 
316 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 where punishments, not being regulated by law, are some- 
 times very cruel. The people have the right to call meet- 
 ings, to propose measures, and to provide in a general 
 way for the welfare of their commune. If a peasant 
 wishes to take a journey, he must get permission to do so 
 from the Elder. Although in the Russian mir forms of 
 liberty are sometimes sadly blended with forms of despot- 
 ism, the mir is a feature of Russian civilization which is 
 one of the secrets of Russia's greatness. A large majority 
 of the people of Russia are peasants and members of 
 mirs. The people who live in cities of course live 
 under a form of government of a different kind. A num- 
 ber of mirs lying contiguous to each other form a volost, 
 which in English means a " canton." The canton is simi- 
 lar in some respects to a county in an American State. 
 In recent years another division, also designed to be in a 
 measure self-governing, has been introduced into Russia. 
 
 If a Russian Minister of War wishes to raise 'money 
 by taxation, or to summon men to the Russian standard, 
 he can send word to the mir or to the canton to 
 raise and to send him its proportion of men and money. 
 The councils held in the little communes scattered over 
 Russia, notwithstanding criticisms which an American 
 might well make respecting them, save the imperial 
 government much trouble. A nation with even such an 
 imperfect system of local government as have a large 
 proportion of the people of Russia, could be, there is 
 reason to believe, highly raised in the scale of civilization, 
 should its central government enact wise laws encour- 
 aging the people to establish and to maintain, in their 
 communes and towns, good schools for their youth and 
 libraries for themselves. 
 
 A form of local government which captivated Jefferson 
 is what is known as the township system of New England. 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 317 
 
 A visitor to the New England States, driving through 
 their beautiful rural districts, sometimes passes a neat, 
 although perhaps an humble, building, which, he may be 
 told, is called the Town Meeting Hall. At a certain 
 season of the year he may have the pleasure — and it will 
 be no ordinary pleasure — of witnessing the proceedings 
 which take place at a township meeting. He can see the 
 citizens of a neighborhood — many of whom are farmers — 
 assemble in a neighborly and intelligent manner to pro- 
 mote the welfare of the little section of the State in which 
 they reside. 
 
 A New England township may have three or four hun- 
 dred, or several thousand, inhabitants. It may have only 
 some farm-houses, or it may have a town within its 
 borders. The township is, in the eye of the law, a cor- 
 poration. Where representation in the State Legislature 
 is by districts, the township is entitled to a representative 
 in the lower house of the State Legislature. When the 
 government of a New England State imposes a tax for the 
 public welfare, each township is assessed, and duly raises, 
 its proportion of the tax. It has been estimated that a 
 New England township pays voluntarily in promoting its 
 own welfare at least eight times as much as it pays for 
 State purposes. Each township is expected to elect 
 officers to perform various duties. Some of these officers 
 are charged with attending to school matters, others give 
 their attention to roads and bridges, others have imposed 
 upon them the duty of assessing and collecting taxes, or 
 are entrusted with such other responsibilities as the town 
 meeting may lay upon them. A town-clerk is charged 
 with the care of the records of the proceeding of the town 
 meeting — records which in time may become especially 
 interesting to the historian. As the largest of nations are 
 in danger of having controversies with each other respect- 
 
31 8 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 ing the exact boundaries of the territories over which 
 they respectively have dominion, — controversies which at 
 times have given rise to wars, — so might vexatious ques- 
 tions respecting the exact limits of townships give rise to 
 difficulties of various kinds, did not the New England 
 township carefully guard against such a danger to its 
 peace. A certain class of officers are charged with the duty 
 of seeing that each post which marks the boundaries of 
 their little democracy is in its proper place. These 
 officers must, within certain periods, make the circuit of 
 the entire township. At a New England town meeting 
 any citizen can speak upon questions of local interest. 
 For example, he can point out to the meeting that it 
 would be well to have a bridge built over a certain stream, 
 or that a school-house should be built. Of course, a con- 
 stable to bear the sword of justice is elected at a town 
 meeting. Should extraordinary circumstances arise which 
 make it necessary that men should defend their homes, or 
 their State, or the great Republic of which their State is a 
 subdivision, against an enemy, by a decree from the town 
 meeting men could be assembled and equipped with 
 arms in a well-nigh incredibly short time. Every town- 
 ship is an organization by itself, so complete that anarchy 
 in a New England State is difficult to even imagine. If 
 all the members of a New England State Legislature were 
 captured by an enemy, township government would still 
 continue. If an invader captured twenty townships, yet 
 every twenty or thirty miles of a New England State 
 would have a government of its own and would be pre- 
 pared to offer organized resistance to its foe. 
 
 Should any one in a New England township happen to 
 be injured when crossing a bridge or riding on a road, 
 owing to the neglect of a public officer, he can sue the 
 township in a court of law for damages. Although, as a 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 319 
 
 rule, only the officers, who are called selectmen, are 
 expected to call a town meeting, yet should any ten citi- 
 zens think it desirable that such a meeting should be 
 held, they can, by uniting in making a formal request of 
 a selectman, have such a meeting assembled. As a rule, 
 at a meeting a selectman presides. The people are 
 notified in advance of the character of the business which 
 is to be transacted. Dignity and wisdom often character- 
 ize to a truly remarkable extent the debates which take 
 place in these small, and at times very humble, parlia- 
 mentary gatherings. 
 
 It has been found in New England — and, indeed, to a 
 certain extent in all parts of the United States — that 
 local government, when wisely established, often awakens 
 the genius and energies of a people. The citizen is apt 
 to become interested in a happy manner in public affairs. 
 Every citizen is sensible of a degree of political import- 
 ance, and feels that he is in a measure responsible for the 
 well-beingf of the communitv in which he lives. Men 
 gathering together at the township meeting, and having 
 common interests, become acquainted with each other 
 and ties of friendship are often formed. The people of 
 New England can appeal to an experience dating from 
 the days when New England was first visited by the 
 Puritans, in support of the belief that communities are 
 capable of themselves managing a certain class of affairs. 
 
 Jefferson greatly admired New England's system of 
 local government. In a letter dated May 26th, 1810, to 
 Governor Tyler, Jefferson wrote : " You wish to see me 
 again in the Legislature, but this is impossible. * * * I 
 have indeed two great measures at heart, without which 
 no republic can maintain itself in strength. I. That of 
 general education, to enable every man to judge for 
 himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To 
 
320 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all 
 the children of each will be within a central school in it. 
 But this division looks to many other fundamental pro- 
 visions." Jefferson then sketched a system of local gov- 
 ernment similar to the township system of New England. 
 Continuing, he said : " These little republics would be the 
 main strength of the great one. We owe to them the 
 vigor given to our revolution in its commencement in the 
 Eastern States." He then pointed out the practical work- 
 ing of such a system. " General orders," he wrote, " are 
 given out from a centre to the foreman of every hundred, 
 as to the sergeants of an army, and the whole nation is 
 thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in one 
 instant andasone man, and becomes absolutely irresistible." 
 
 Jefferson wished a State and national school system to 
 have ever in view the importance of setting in motion, 
 and keeping in motion, what is known as local self- 
 government. In a letter dated April 2d, 1816, which he 
 wrote to Governor Nicholas, he alluded to the subdivisions 
 into which he had proposed, in the bill which he introduced 
 in the Legislature of Virginia in the year 1779, to divide 
 his native State. Alluding to the school district he said : 
 " My partiality for that division is not founded in views 
 of education solely, but infinitely more as the means of a 
 better administration of our government, and the eternal 
 preservation of its republican principles. The example 
 of this most admirable of all human contrivances in gov- 
 ernment's to be seen in our Eastern States; and its 
 powerful effect in the order and economy of their internal 
 affairs, and the momentum it gives them as a nation, is 
 the single circumstance which distinguishes them so 
 remarkably from every other national association." 
 
 Jefferson believed that a good school system and local 
 government would react in a happy manner upon each 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 321 
 
 other. To his cherished friend, Joseph C. Cabell, he 
 wrote on January 31st, 1814: " There are two subjects, in- 
 deed, which I claim a right to further as long as I breathe, 
 the public education, and the subdivision of counties into 
 wards. I consider the continuance of republican govern- 
 ment as absolutely hanging on these two hooks." In 
 another letter which Jefferson wrote to Cabell on February 
 2d, 1816, he drew attention to a system of public schools 
 for Virginia, and then continued: " If it is believed that 
 these elementary schools will be better managed by the 
 Governor and Council, the Commissioners of the Literary 
 Fund, or any other general authority of the Government, 
 than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against 
 all experience. * * * My friend, the way to have good 
 and safe government, is not to trust it all to one, but to 
 divide it among the many, distributing to every one ex- 
 actly the functions he is competent to. Let the National 
 Government be entrusted with the defence of the nation, 
 and its foreign and federal relations ; the State Govern- 
 ments with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration 
 of what concerns the State generally ; the counties with 
 the local concerns of the counties ; and each ward direct 
 the interests within itself. It is by dividing and sub- 
 dividing these republics from the great national one 
 down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the 
 administration of every man's farm and affairs by himself ; 
 by placing under every one what his own eye may super- 
 intend, that all will be done for the best. What has 
 destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every Govern- 
 ment which has ever existed under the sun ? The gen- 
 eralizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one 
 body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or 
 France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian Senate. And I 
 do believe, that if the Almighty has not decreed that man 
 11 
 
322 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 shall never be free (and it is blasphemy to believe it), that 
 the secret will be found in making himself the depository 
 of the powers respecting himself, so far as he is competent 
 to them, and delegating only what is beyond his compe- 
 tence by a synthetical process, to higher and higher 
 orders of functionaries, so as to trust fewer and fewer 
 powers, in proportion as the trustees become more and 
 more oligarchical. The elementary republics of the wards, 
 the county republics, the State republics, and the repub- 
 lic of the Union, would form a gradation of authorities, 
 standing each on the basis of law, holding every one 
 its delegated share of powers, and constituting truly a 
 system of fundamental balances and checks for the Gov- 
 ernment. Where every man is a sharer in the direction 
 of his ward republic, or of some of the higher ones, and 
 feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, 
 not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every 
 day ; when there shall not be a man in the State who will 
 not be a member of some one of its councils, great or 
 small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body, sooner 
 than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a 
 Bonaparte. How powerfully did we feel the energy of 
 this organization in the case of the Embargo? I felt the 
 foundations of the Government shaken under my feet by 
 the New England township. There was not an individual 
 in these States whose body was not thrown, with all its' 
 momentum, into action ; and, although the whole of the 
 other States were known to be in favor of the measure, 
 yet, the organization of this little selfish minority enabled 
 it to override the Union. What could the unwieldly 
 counties of the Middle, the South, and the West do? Call 
 a county meeting, and the drunken loungers at and about 
 the court-houses would have collected, the distances being 
 too great for the good people and the industrious generally 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 323 
 
 to attend. The character of those who really met would 
 have been the measure of the weight they would have 
 had in the scale of public opinion. As Cato then con- 
 cluded every speech with the words 1 Carthago delenda est? 
 so do I every opinion with the injunction 'divide the 
 counties into wards.' Begin them only for a single pur- 
 pose, they will soon show for what others they are the 
 best instruments." 
 
 To the extracts from Jefferson's letters which have just 
 been presented, one additional extract may well be here 
 given so as to illustrate how highly important he consid- 
 ered a system of local government. Writing to Samuel 
 Kerchival on July 12th, 18 16, alluding to his favorite idea 
 of dividing counties into wards or townships, he said : 
 " These wards, called townships in New England, are the 
 vital principle of their government, and have proved them- 
 selves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of 
 man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its 
 preservation." 
 
 The form of township government which Jefferson 
 esteemed as highly as he did still characterizes New Eng- 
 land. Some of the States, it may here be noticed, have 
 forms of local government different from, and perhaps 
 even better than, those of New England. In the year 1870 
 the average size of a New England township was about 
 thirty-four square miles. In that year there were not 
 less than fourteen hundred and twenty-four townships in 
 New England. To maintain a prison and a court-house 
 in each of these townships would be extravagant. It has 
 been found expedient that groups of these townships 
 should unite and form a county. The county easily 
 maintains a court-house and a prison. By wise State laws 
 every township, however small, must maintain a school. 
 When its population reaches a certain size it must also 
 
324 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 have a grammar school. In some cases two small town- 
 ships may unite in maintaining one high school. Should 
 a township neglect to obey these State laws any parent 
 can appeal to the courts. Whenever a New England com- 
 munity becomes sufficiently populous to do so, it can, by 
 complying with certain forms of law, become a city and 
 have a municipal form of government. In some of the New 
 England States no one can vote who cannot at least read. 
 
 One may be permitted to indulge the hope that by a 
 wise system of polity — a system making provision for 
 what may be called local government — the wants of every 
 section of vast empires can be cared for and the people 
 be infused with enterprise, and be enabled to enjoy a free- 
 dom that will have a happy influence upon them, while 
 the national government and its various divisions remain 
 free from the odium of any unnecessary interference in 
 local concerns. By wise State laws in New England the 
 sphere in which township government revolves is so 
 arranged that it fits into the sphere in which the State 
 government moves, somewhat, one might almost say, as 
 the cogwheels of one piece of machinery fit into the 
 wheels of another piece of well-devised machinery, — -the 
 State in its turn having its own relation to the national 
 government. People may indeed make mistakes when 
 governing themselves, but their self-interest is enlisted on 
 the side of good government, while the interests of a 
 ruler who from a position outside the community governs 
 its people may be, at times, different from the best inter- 
 ests of those for whom he legislates. A people who 
 govern themselves are ever urged by their own interests 
 to endeavor to act wisely for the common good. 
 
 The establishment of an effective system of local gov- 
 ernment in all parts of the United States is, by many 
 statesmen, an end much to be desired. By the history of 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 325 
 
 every State it is found that a good school system aids in 
 establishing what may be called local self-government. 
 The State of New York, in 1 8 12, enacted some school 
 laws which gave it almost at once, at least as far as its 
 schools were concerned, a system of local government. 
 State laws provided a State school fund for which money 
 was to be paid to each county which itself raised by 
 taxation an amount of money equal to the sum to which 
 it was entitled, provided it complied with certain laws, to 
 receive from the State. A Mr. Gideon Hawley, a highly 
 gifted man, was appointed State School Superintendent, 
 to help to give efficiency to the State school system. 
 The people of every neighborhood were thus given an 
 incentive to take action respecting the education of their 
 children. The fact that each district was entitled to 
 receive money from the State fund, and to hold meetings 
 to levy a tax for school purposes, was well calculated to 
 excite the interest of the people. It was not long before 
 some of the districts began to enter into a generous rivalry 
 with each other to have the best schools in their section 
 of country. Although the amount of money which 
 each district received from the State was small, — perhaps 
 on an average not more than twenty dollars a year, — it 
 was enough to set in motion, in a very happy manner, the 
 machinery of local government. In many instances'hand- 
 some school-houses were cheerfully raised by the people. 
 The people were enabled to feel that the schools belonged 
 to them as truly as would a public library, a bridge, or a 
 public road, and that the school was a place which their 
 children could attend without the slightest loss of self- 
 respect. Not only were the public schools much cheaper 
 to parents than ordinary private schools would have been, 
 but they were also much better. Wise arrangements 
 were made for the supervision of these popular schools, 
 
326 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 which insured to youth the advantage of having able 
 instructors. In districts in which, owing to conflicting 
 interests, or to a lack of united action among the people, 
 no one would have ventured to hope to see a school, 
 youth who had been in danger of growing up illiterate 
 received instruction. The school law of 1812, to which 
 attention has been drawn, being supplemented from time 
 to time by otherwise laws, bore astonishingly good fruit. 
 DeWitt Clinton, Governor of New York, in his annual 
 message in the year 1822, spoke with eloquence of the 
 stand which the State of New York had taken respecting 
 public schools. While dwelling on the subject he said : 
 " The excellent direction which has been given to the 
 public bounty, in appropriations for common schools, 
 academies, and colleges, is very perceptible in the multi- 
 plication of our seminaries of education, in the in- 
 crease of the number of students, and in the acquisition 
 of able and skilful teachers." Clinton then, having 
 in view some of Jefferson's labors in Virginia, added, 
 as he continued to speak of what was being done 
 in New York: " I am happy to have it in my power to 
 say that this State has always evinced a liberal spirit in 
 the promotion of education, and I am persuaded that no 
 considerations short of that of total inability will ever 
 prevent similar demonstrations. The first duty of a State 
 is to render its citizens virtuous by intellectual instruc- 
 tion and moral discipline, by enlightening their minds, 
 purifying their hearts, and teaching them their rights and 
 their obligations. Those solid and enduring honors 
 which arise from the cultivation of science and the acqui- 
 sition and diffusion of knowledge will outlive the renown 
 of the statesman and the glory of the warrior ; and if any 
 stimulus were wanting in a case so worthy of all our 
 attention and patronage, we may find it in the example 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 327 
 
 before our eyes of the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, who has devoted the evening of his illustrious 
 life to the establishment of an university in his native 
 State." As Clinton proceeded he spoke of New York's 
 interest in the public lands of the United States, and of 
 the wisdom of her exerting her influence to induce the 
 national government to help, by consecrating public 
 lands to the cause of education, to secure to the youth of 
 the Republic of the United States the blessing of school 
 instruction. 
 
 To-day some of the States have systems of local gov- 
 ernment to which they are indebted, in large part, to 
 national laws. The State of Kansas illustrates this fact. 
 When Kansas became a State she came into possession of 
 a vast amount of land which the national government 
 had appropriated for educational purposes. In the year 
 18S6 she had a school fund of not less than $3,500,600. 
 By selling a million acres of land which she had received 
 from the Government of the United States, she could have 
 swelled her school fund to $15,000,000 or to $20,000,000. 
 By her Constitution the interest of her school fund is 
 devoted to common schools. One can perhaps truly say 
 of this fund that its chief value is the influence which it 
 is made, by wise statesmanship, to exert in promoting 
 local government. The revenue obtained from it, divided 
 among the many school districts, gives to each district 
 but a small sum, but that small sum is disbursed in a way 
 which causes it to multiply in amount and to greatly 
 encourage the establishment of a system of local govern- 
 ment in every part of the State. In the year 1 880, in 
 Kansas, notwithstanding the number of foreigners within 
 her borders and her colored population, there were but 
 25,000 persons, ten years of age and upwards, who could 
 not read. In the year 1886 Kansas had 8,219 school 
 
328 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 teachers, to whom she paid in a single year nearly 
 $2,000,000. She had not less than about 6,673 school- 
 houses and a State university, a State normal school, and 
 a State agricultural college. The people in many com- 
 munities cheerfully taxed themselves for school purposes 
 to a degree that the Legislature of Kansas would not 
 have dared to have taxed them. During the five years 
 from 1880 to 1885 Kansas spent $12,630,480 in providing 
 the means of instruction for her youth. 
 
 Kansas, whose early history has left a deep impress on 
 the history of the United States, became a State in the 
 year 1861. In the year i860 she had but a population of 
 107,206 people. According to an interesting paper on 
 " The Progress of Kansas," in the April number of the 
 North American Review of the year 1886, by her Gov- 
 ernor, John A. Martin, a paper to which I am indebted 
 for these statistics, Kansas had, in the year 1886, a 
 population of 1,350,000. This young State has great 
 natural resources, but its prosperity may be considered as, 
 at least in part, a natural consequence of its system of 
 local government. 
 
 Hand-in-hand with the establishment of any school 
 fund for a State should go wise laws. This fact Jeffer- 
 son discovered while laboring to establish a public-school 
 system in Virginia. He was one of the managers of 
 what was known as the Literary Fund of Virginia. 
 This fund amounted in the year 1 8 1 8 to about $1,500,000. 
 It was established by the State of Virginia at the instance 
 of the distinguished statesman Mr. James Barbour. 
 Barbour had been Governor of Virginia, a member of the 
 Cabinet of John Quincy Adams, and had represented the 
 United States as Minister to England. When, however, 
 he was about to die he requested that, if any monument 
 should be reared to his memory, it should bear on it only 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 329 
 
 the inscription, " The Originator of the Literary Fund of 
 Virginia." The establishment of a good school system 
 in Virginia was a work beset with difficulties. Slavery 
 made it especially difficult to establish a wise system of 
 local government. What schools were established Jeffer- 
 son found, were in some respects too independent of the 
 State.* The money from the Literary Fund was disbursed 
 in a way which was wasteful, and in a way which very 
 imperfectly advanced the educational interests of the 
 State. It should be remembered, however, that the school 
 system of Virginia was at the time in its infancy. 
 
 When a form of local government is established by a 
 State, or by a township, or by a city, a means is provided 
 by which many useful laws respecting educational affairs 
 can at least be considered by the people or by their 
 representatives, and be, perhaps, happily enacted. 
 
 One of the ways in which Jefferson wished to see gov- 
 ernments advancing the interests of learning was by mak- 
 ing wise provisions in aid of the establishment of public 
 libraries. A free library may justly be called a home of 
 science, of poetry, of history, — indeed, one may almost say 
 of every branch of learning, — a home to which the lover 
 of truth, of knowledge, of the human race, may repair to 
 fit himself, or herself, by means of valuable learning for 
 usefulness to human kind. Could one imagine a com- 
 monwealth blessed with a mystic building in which abide 
 learned authors of all lands, even the shades of the 
 accomplished dead, ever holding themselves compla- 
 cently ready to freely advise any visitor who needs light 
 on subjects to which they have given laborious and espe- 
 cial attention, if not even life-long study ; such a com- 
 monwealth would scarcely be more favored than is at 
 
 * See Letter of Jefferson's, dated Feb. 15th, 1821, to Gen. Breckenridge. 
 "Jefferson's Works," vol. vii., p. 205. 
 
330 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 present many a town and village in the United States in 
 which a free library is wisely supported by the people. 
 Many men and women who have access to libraries are 
 enabled to act a better part in the history of their times 
 than they could did they not have access to books which 
 are often as necessary to learning as is sustenance to the 
 body. At the present time many men and women fail to 
 be the half of what they might be if the town, or district, 
 in which they live had established a public library. Such 
 an institution has often been the means of awaking some 
 noble spirit to a useful and even to a glorious life. It is 
 told of a farmer, who lived in a frontier town in New 
 Hampshire, that he helped to establish a circulating 
 library in his neighborhood. One of the frequenters of 
 this small garner-house of knowledge was the son of that 
 farmer. The father, who was pleased at seeing his son 
 endeavoring to acquire useful knowledge, one day, as he 
 was riding with him in a sleigh, told him that he proposed to 
 endeavor to send him to college. The youth, whose name 
 was Daniel Webster, being filled with emotion, could not 
 for a time speak, knowing that his father was poor. In 
 time he went to a town in which to pursue some studies 
 before presenting himself at Dartmouth College. In 
 this town he found another library. In this silent uni- 
 versity his mind broadened. At college he had an oppor- 
 tunity to still further store his mind with the wisdom of 
 the learned. When, in after years, he held the Senate of 
 the United States entranced by his eloquence, little did 
 his admirers know of the silent hours which he had spent 
 in company with books. 
 
 That a town in which there is a public library is a more 
 desirable place to live in than it would be without such 
 an institution, will be probably granted by every one who 
 appreciates at their true worth such places of culture. It 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 331 
 
 has sometimes been whispered by men of letters in the 
 old world, that the education of many American men 
 and women is surprisingly shallow. If there was a free 
 library in every district and town, from the Atlantic Ocean 
 to the Pacific main, certainly the standard of true learning 
 would be higher in the United States than it is. The 
 personal resources of even the wealthiest citizen cannot 
 always acquire books which might be found in such silent 
 schools. 
 
 Many authors are " workers for posterity." The words 
 of the orator, unless committed to the custody of the 
 press, soon die upon the air. Many an author is encour- 
 aged in self-sacrificing work, — amounting to heroism, — 
 amidst hopes and fears and innumerable obstacles, by 
 feeling that the result of his labors may be reaped by, 
 and be a blessing to, humanity, when he shall be sleeping 
 with the dead, and that thus, when dead, he shall exert for 
 a time an influence in behalf of truth, or of civil liberty, 
 or of some noble cause in which he has hoped to benefit 
 his fellow-beings. Surely those statesmen, or citizens, 
 who labor to found free libraries enter into the labors of 
 such men, and thus sometimes become benefactors to the 
 human race. 
 
 On May 19th, 1809, about six weeks after retiring from 
 the presidency of the United States, Jefferson wrote thus 
 to a Mr. John Wyche : " Your favor of March 19th came 
 to hand but a few days ago, and informs me of the establish- 
 ment of the Westward Mill Library Society, of its general 
 views and progress. I always hear with pleasure of insti- 
 tutions for the promotion of knowledge among my coun- 
 trymen. The people of every country are the only safe 
 guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments 
 which can be used for their destruction. And certainly 
 they would never consent to be so used, were they not 
 
332 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 deceived. To avoid this, they should be instructed to a 
 certain degree. I have often thought that nothing would 
 do more extensive good at small expense than the estab- 
 lishment of a small circulating library in every county, to 
 consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the peo- 
 ple of the county, under such regulations as would secure 
 their safe return in due time. These should be such as 
 would give them a general view of other history, and a 
 particular view of that of their own country, a tolerable 
 knowledge of geography, the elements of natural philos- 
 ophy, of agriculture, and mechanics. Should your exam- 
 ple lead to this it would do great good. Having had 
 more favorable opportunities than fall to every man's lot 
 of becoming acquainted with the best books on such 
 subjects as might be selected, I do not know that I can 
 be otherwise useful to your society than by offering them 
 any information respecting these which they might wish. 
 My services in this way are freely at their command." 
 
 However much Jefferson would have liked to' have seen 
 a public library in every county of Virginia, he died with- 
 out the sight. In the New England States of the present 
 day every city and township is encouraged by wise pro- 
 visions, enacted by their respective State governments, to 
 tax itself, within prescribed limits, for the maintenance of 
 public libraries. The State law authorizing any township 
 or city to itself provide for a library has been found by 
 experience to be eminently wise. One could wish that 
 in every State there was such a law. 
 
 It is pleasant to be able to state that in many, if not 
 indeed in all, the cities on the Pacific coast one finds valu- 
 able free circulating libraries. The traveller is sometimes 
 surprised and charmed even when visiting towns among 
 the Rocky Mountains, to find valuable collections of 
 books. Not to speak of the public library of Minneapolis, 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 333 
 
 or of Cincinnati, or of one town after another in rapidly 
 growing States, a visit to the city library of Chicago is on 
 some accounts especially interesting. When in the year 
 1 87 1 the telegraph spread the news that Chicago was in 
 flames, and that many thousands of houses were in ashes, 
 and that a vast multitude of citizens were shelterless, some 
 thoughtful English friends undertook to show their sym- 
 pathy for the impoverished people by, among other acts 
 of kindness, at once helping in making provision for the 
 intellectual culture for the new city, which they foresaw 
 was to arise from the one which had been partially de- 
 stroyed by fire. Mr. Thomas Hughes, who was at the 
 time a member of Parliament, issued a circular to book- 
 sellers and to friends of literature in England, suggesting 
 that Chicago should be helped to have a public library. 
 In this circular it was stated that "the library to be es- 
 tablished would be regarded as a token of that sentiment 
 of kinship which, independently of circumstances, and in- 
 dependent of every other consideration, must ever power- 
 fully affect the different branches of the English race. 
 * * * While the home literature of the present day and 
 the last hundred years will form an important portion of 
 the New Library, the characteristic feature of the gift will 
 consist in sending to the Americans works of the thirteen 
 preceding centuries, which are the common inheritance of 
 both peoples." This circular was signed by Queen Vic- 
 toria, John Bright, William E. Gladstone, and by many 
 others. Soon packages of books commenced to reach 
 Chicago directed to the Mayor, with such messages as 
 these : " To renew lost library, with sympathy and best 
 wishes." " With kindest remembrances," etc. One of 
 the largest of the packages came from Queen Victoria. 
 A number of citizens of Chicago requested the Mayor 
 to call a public meeting in behalf of a free library. The 
 
334 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 meeting met in the Plymouth Congregational Church, 
 which had happily been spared by the great fire. The 
 result of the meeting was that Mayor Medill, who appre- 
 ciated the value to Chicago of a free library, framed an 
 enactment which was at once passed by the Legislature 
 of Illinois. This enactment, which was perhaps over- 
 careful in limiting the amount of money to be raised 
 by taxation, was copied in part from a law which has 
 been the means of doing much good in England, and 
 which, with improvements, has been adopted in Massa- 
 chusetts.* This law read thus: "Be it enacted by the 
 People of the State of Illinois represented in General 
 Assembly, That the City Council of each incorporated 
 city shall have power to establish and maintain a Public 
 Library and Reading Room for the use and benefit of the 
 inhabitants of each city, and may levy a tax of not ex- 
 ceeding one mill on the dollar annually, and in cities of 
 over 100,000 inhabitants, not to exceed one fifth of one 
 mill annually, on all the taxable property in the city — 
 such tax to be levied and collected in like manner with 
 other general taxes of said city, and to be known as the 
 Library Fund." 
 
 The Common Council of Chicago without a dissenting 
 voice approved this act and soon, with the aid of a large 
 sum of money given by Mr. Thomas Hughes and his as- 
 sociates in England, Chicago had a public library, destined 
 
 * Some of the laws governing public libraries in Massachusetts may here 
 be noticed : " Any City or Town of this Commonwealth is hereby authorized 
 to establish and maintain a public library, within the same, with or without 
 Branches, for the use of the inhabitants, and to provide suitable rooms there- 
 for under such regulations for the government of said library as may from 
 time to time be proscribed by the City Council of such city or the inhabitants 
 of such town. * * * Any Town or City may receive in its corporate 
 capacity and hold and manage any devise, bequest, or donation, for the es- 
 tablishment, increase, or maintenance of a Public library within the same." 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 335 
 
 to be yearly visited by many thousands of her citizens. 
 Now that the city of the great lakes has become one of 
 the wealthiest cities of America, it can hardly be doubted 
 that her patriotic citizens will do as much for the cause 
 of learning as St. Louis is doing. St. Louis has a beauti- 
 ful building for its public library, — not, however, as large 
 and beautiful a one as is that of Cincinnati. 
 
 Jefferson felt that it was very important that wisdom 
 should be shown in the selection of books for public 
 libraries. As a rule each community which founds a pub- 
 lic library determines for itself what class of books shall 
 be admitted to its shelves. To say that the value of 
 books depends more upon their character than upon their 
 quantity is to make a trite remark. Some people place a 
 greater value upon works of fiction than do others. Jef- 
 ferson looked upon the novels of his day, with some ex- 
 ceptions, as a " mass of trash." Perhaps some people 
 have gone too far in excluding all works of fiction from 
 public libraries, while others have erred in the opposite 
 and probably worse extreme, and have provided almost 
 exclusively romances for readers. It was found in one 
 library that when people who had been accustomed to 
 reading the novels of the day visited it a few times and 
 learned that it did not, as a rule, have novels, they were 
 led to make the acquaintance — an acquaintance which be- 
 came very pleasant — of useful and well-written books, and 
 thus many readers were weaned from merely reading 
 romances. A desire for self-culture was engendered. 
 Literary recreation became profitable to such readers as 
 well as pleasant. Books taken to the domestic fireside 
 elevated the conversation, made homes more attractive, and 
 in a very happy manner advanced the cause of learning. 
 
 Citizens who propose to establish a public library would 
 do well to bear in mind the importance of cataloguing 
 
336 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 books in a judicious manner. Too often, it is to be feared, 
 many books in a library might as well be locked up in a 
 vault for any use they are to the public, owing to the im- 
 perfect manner in which they are classified in a catalogue. 
 In the great library of the British Museum a gentleman 
 is specially engaged in helping visitors to select books 
 that may be useful to them, so that they may be enabled 
 to use to greatest advantage the resources of the institu- 
 tion. Some libraries are divided, to a greater or less 
 extent, into alcoves on whose shelves books are placed 
 according to the subjects upon which they treat. The 
 history of each nation is by itself. The books on each 
 science are found together. It is in some respects pecul- 
 iarly pleasant to visit such a granary of knowledge. 
 
 To the statesman who has upon his mind the high 
 concerns of a republic, a public library may at times be 
 invaluable. In the work which he has to do, it may be 
 well indeed for his country if he successfully seeks to con- 
 sujf the wisdom and the lore of ages. Often would states- 
 men have avoided errors highly injurious to their country 
 had they had access to, and had they profited by the re- 
 sults of human experience to be found in, books. Jeffer- 
 son, at an early period in his career, and at a time when 
 no other State except New Hampshire had a State 
 library, endeavored to induce Virginia to lay out a sum 
 of money, large for that period, in providing a library for 
 the Capitol of Virginia. When the Congressional Library 
 at Washington was burned by the British in the year 
 1 8 14, he offered his own large and valuable library to the 
 national government at whatever price it should place 
 upon it. In the course of a letter, dated September 21st, 
 1 8 14, authorizing a friend to offer his library to the 
 national government, he said : " You know my collec- 
 tion, [of books,] its condition and extent. I have been 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 337 
 
 fifty years making it, and have spared no pains, opportu- 
 nity, or expense, to make it what it is. While residing in 
 Paris, I devoted every afternoon I was disengaged, for a 
 summer or two, in examining all the principal bookstores, 
 turning every book with my own hand, and putting by 
 everything which related to America, and indeed what- 
 ever was rare and valuable in every science. Besides this 
 I had standing orders during the whole time I was in 
 Europe, on its principal book-marts, particularly Amster- 
 dam, Frankfort, Madrid, and London, for such works 
 relating to America as could not be found in Paris. So 
 that in that department particularly, such a collection was 
 made as probably can never again be effected. * * * 
 During the same period, and after my return to America, 
 I was led to procure, also, whatever related to the dudes 
 of those in the high concerns of the nation. So that the 
 collection, which I suppose is of between nine and ten 
 thousand volumes, while it includes what is chiefly val- 
 uable in science and literature generally, extends more 
 particularly to whatever belongs to the American states- 
 man." 
 
 Jefferson's offer to the national government was ac- 
 cepted, and about six thousand seven hundred of his 
 books were bought and became a nucleus for a new Con- 
 gressional Library. The national government, having 
 been taught by experience that a fire-proof building 
 should be provided for the Congressional Library, — and 
 the number of books for which provision should be made 
 rapidly increasing, — has made provision for a national 
 library which is in a measure to be worthy of the Re- 
 public. This library is, to a certain extent, destined to 
 be a national university such as Washington, Jefferson, 
 and Madison wished to see established at the capital of 
 the United States. Many students, historians, statisticians, 
 
338 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 and men erf letters from all parts of America, as well as 
 statesmen, will, at times, visit this national library. 
 
 There are many ways in which governments can indi- 
 rectly encourage the cause of learning. In probably few 
 ways have governments done more in recent years to give 
 an incentive to people to acquire a certain degree of use- 
 ful knowledge than by establishing certain regulations 
 respecting their forms of civil service. Every nation may 
 be said to have what is known as a civil service and a 
 military service. As a rule, men who command in the 
 army or the navy of the United States have to be pos- 
 sessed of a certain degree of education. In short, the 
 military service is conducted on a wise system established 
 by law. In the United States, one branch of the civil 
 service is what is called elective. It is made up of the 
 representatives of the people. This branch of the civil 
 service is in a measure supervised by the people them- 
 selves, and to it attention is not here to be called. But 
 there is an immense branch of the civil service of the 
 United States composed of men and women who are not 
 elected by the people, — such as employes engaged by the 
 government to do various kinds of work. It would be an 
 easy matter to here make some startling statements re- 
 specting the manner in which the civil service of the 
 national and State governments have been in the past 
 conducted, and how evils foreseen by Jefferson fol- 
 lowed a law which made unreasonable changes among 
 the government's employes, occur on every new election 
 for President of the United States. Suffice it to say that 
 a movement has at last been successfully inaugurated by 
 which applicants for a large class of public offices are 
 examined respecting their ability to read, to write from 
 dictation, to write an original letter, and are expected to 
 pass an examination in the history and geography of the 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 339 
 
 United States. They are expected to have also an 
 acquaintance with the national Constitution, and with the 
 Constitution of the State in which they reside, and with 
 such learning as may be especially important in the posi- 
 tions which they seek. A person seeking a high position 
 of course is expected to know more than one who is a 
 suitor for but a lowly place. The examinations are designed 
 to be only such as any youth who has passed through the 
 public schools should be easily able to pass. The tenure 
 of office is during good behavior and efficiency. Great 
 care is taken not to make the examination unfairly diffi- 
 cult. Youth of rich and of poor parents have an equal 
 opportunity to enter the civil service of the United 
 States. By this system many shocking abuses known 
 as bribery, favoritism, jobbery, and patronage, and many 
 forms of corruption, are removed, and the youth of the 
 land are given an additional incentive to acquire a cer- 
 tain degree of education. Employment in the civil ser- 
 vice of the United States has been made more honorable 
 than it could be when, as was once too often the case, 
 it meant a dishonorable servility to chiefs rather than 
 faithful service to the public. It is found that a good 
 administrative system exerts a silent but important influ- 
 ence in aid of popular education. 
 
 That nations can aid the cause,of letters indirectly by 
 means of a civil-service system has been illustrated for 
 many centuries, or for thousands of years, in the great 
 Chinese Empire, whose population has been estimated 
 in recent years by S. Wells Williams, who spent forty 
 years in China, to be probably four hundred and fifty 
 millions of people. For perhaps more than forty-five 
 centuries the Chinese have had an educational system 
 which has had a tendency to make them a homogeneous 
 people. Many nations have been born and have passed 
 
340 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 away, while the people of this vastest of Oriental empires 
 have maintained their nationality. Their educational and 
 civil-service systems have been interwoven with each 
 other, and may be regarded as being the secret of the 
 greatness of the stability of their empire. In China there 
 can scarcely be said to be a nobility, except the descend- 
 ants of Confucius. No one, however rich he may be, is 
 allowed to enjoy public station unless he can pass a 
 governmental examination. It is claimed that the poorest 
 boy, from the moment he enters a town or village school, 
 knows that if he can acquire the education demanded by 
 any position of state, save that occupied by the Emperor 
 himself, who claims to be Infallible, and is styled the Son 
 of Heaven, he can hope to obtain the position. The 
 examination which he may have to pass may be hard, 
 indeed, but it is said that the words, " The general and 
 the prime-minister are not born in office," are in every 
 school-boy's mouth. The works which the youth studies 
 are the writings of Confucius, who lived about five hun- 
 dred years before the Christian era. These works are 
 believed to be studied by about fifty millions of people in 
 addition to the vast population of the " Flowery King- 
 dom." The boy has to study in great measure by heart 
 words whose meaning he no more understands than does 
 an ordinary European youth the Latin service of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. As, however, the young Oriental pro- 
 ceeds in his studies, more useful learning — at least to a 
 limited extent — engages his attention. To master the 
 very difficult Chinese written language takes ten to thirty 
 years. There are at least three grades in the Chinese 
 schools — the primary, the middle, and the so-called classi- 
 cal. An immense number of examining officials are 
 engaged by cities and by the imperial government to 
 confer honors upon scholars who pass satisfactory exami- 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 341 
 
 nations, and to install them into public office. The gov- 
 ernment supports an academy from which examiners are 
 despatched to all parts of the vast empire to pass judg- 
 ment on the merits of aspirants to high national positions. 
 From this academy, which is only open to men who have 
 already shown themselves learned, some of the highest 
 State officials — even the men esteemed worthy of a place 
 in the imperial Cabinet — are often taken. When the 
 news is brought to a village that some one of the innu- 
 merable honors of the empire has been conferred upon one 
 of its citizens, the joy at times is at once exciting and 
 affecting. One of the privileges enjoyed by a Chinaman 
 who has successfully passed certain examinations is that 
 he cannot be whipped or bastinadoed with a bamboo 
 stick. In a land in which prisoners are examined often 
 " by torture," and in which prisoners are shockingly ill- 
 treated — although, perhaps, not more so than they are in 
 some prisons in other countries, — to enjoy immunity from 
 castigation with a bamboo stick is an honor not to be 
 lightly esteemed by the Oriental scholar. 
 
 When a Chinaman, having passed successfully public 
 examinations, is invested with official station, his position 
 is, during good behavior, secured to him. For, however, 
 any one of eight causes he may be removed from office : 
 for a grasping disposition ; for cruelty ; for indolence ; for 
 inattention to duty ; for being too aged for a position ; 
 for indecorous behavior; and for inactivity. 
 
 Unhappily the Chinese have but a narrow range of 
 studies in their schools. Much that goes with them by 
 the name of learning is unworthy, in a true sense, of the 
 name. That, however, the civil service system of these 
 Asiatics has been an incentive to many millions of their 
 number to learn the very difficult Chinese letters, can be 
 recognized by any student of the history of the far East. 
 
342 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 It will be noticed that these pagan people make but 
 little, if indeed the least, provision for the illumination of 
 the mind of the gentler sex. For women there is not the 
 same incentive for men. No hope of acquiring honor 
 and public station is held out by the imperial govern- 
 ment for them. It is even a superstition in China, which 
 found its way with other false ideas of true religion into 
 Spain, that it is immoral for women to be acquainted with 
 letters. Difficult it is indeed to estimate how injurious 
 to an immense division of the human race is this neglect 
 to provide for the mental cultivation of the gentler half 
 of human kind. 
 
 The civil service of China is at most suited but to aid the 
 cause of intellectual culture. It fails sadly to accomplish 
 what a good school system would do for the so-called 
 Celestial Empire. The learned W. A. P. Martin, whose 
 essays on "The Chinese, their Education, etc.," are espe- 
 cially valuable, as he is the president of Tungwen Col- 
 lege, Peking, and may be considered a high authority, has 
 thus written : " Of those who can read understandingly, 
 the proportion is greater in towns than in rural districts. 
 But striking an average, it does not, according to my 
 observation, exceed i in 20 for the male sex and one in 
 10,000 for the female — rather a humiliating exhibit for a 
 country which has maintained for centuries such a mag- 
 nificent institution as the Hanlin Academy." Mr. Martin, 
 however, points out various ways in which the Chinese 
 civil-service system enlarges the liberties of the people, 
 strengthens the state, gives occupation to certain restless 
 and aspiring characters, and secures not only tranquillity 
 to the public, but the very existence of the government. 
 He argues that without such a system there would be 
 strife and bloody revolution in the great Oriental Em- 
 pire. 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 343 
 
 The Chinese civil service wisely provides, in some in- 
 stances, that a greater or less number of men who pass a 
 good examination shall be classed as " ready for office," 
 and as vacancies occur lots are impartially drawn, to settle 
 which one shall take a position which needs to be filled. 
 In any civil service much care should be exercised not 
 to tempt youth to endeavor to pass examinations which 
 are so difficult as to be likely to injure their health. In 
 recent years England and some other nations have 
 adopted civil-service systems, which, it is believed, have 
 been instrumental in helping to a highly important degree 
 the interests of education. 
 
 Jefferson for many years was deeply interested in the 
 work of establishing a public-school system for Virginia. 
 Some of his views respecting the course which it would 
 be wise for the State to pursue will presently be here 
 presented. He was, as has already been stated, a mem- 
 ber of the State's "Literary Fund." In the year 1816, 
 the Legislature of Virginia requested the president and 
 directors of the Literary Fund to favor it with a care- 
 fully prepared report on a system of public instruction 
 calculated to give effect to the appropriations of money 
 which the State had already provided for public schools. 
 The Legislature also desired recommendations respecting 
 the establishment of colleges and a university. In the 
 report which the president and directors sent to the 
 Legislature it was stated that, " in all enlightened coun- 
 tries a national education has been considered one of the 
 first concerns of the Legislature, and intimately connected 
 with the prosperity of the State." As the report pro- 
 ceeded it alluded especially to primary schools: "The 
 object of primary schools," it said, "is to have a school so 
 convenient to each citizen that his children may be 
 taught the rudiments of learning. It would be a melan- 
 
344 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 choly reflection," it added, " if a single youth of our 
 country should, from poverty, he deprived of every ray 
 of knowledge. And yet," it continued, "how many 
 hundreds, of perhaps the first geniuses of our land, are 
 condemned to grope out their lives in a state of intellec- 
 tual darkness. To obviate this calamitous state of things 
 must be the object of the primary schools." With this 
 report the gentleman managing the Literary Fund pre- 
 sented the Legislature of Virginia with a very expensive 
 school system for the State. Before acting on the school 
 bill the Legislature published Jefferson's school bill of the 
 year 1779 and a long letter which he had written respect- 
 ing education to Mr. Peter Carr. In the year 18 17 Jeffer- 
 son draughted another educational bill. In a foot-note to 
 one of the sections of the bill he alluded to the tax that 
 would be required to support such a system of public 
 instruction, — adding, "if a tax can be called that which 
 we give to our children in the most valuable of all 
 forms, that of instruction." * Alluding to a certain pro- 
 vision of the bill in a foot-note, he made a remark for 
 which his friends feared that the people of Virginia were 
 not prepared. In this foot-note, he said : " What is pro- 
 posed here is to remove the objection of expense, by 
 offering education gratis, and to strengthen parental 
 excitement by the disfranchisement of his child while 
 uneducated. Society has certainly a right to disavow 
 him whom it offers and is not permitted to qualify for 
 the duties of a citizen. If we do not force instruction, 
 let us at least strengthen the motive to receive it when 
 offered." In this educational bill Jefferson provided that 
 women who could not read should not be recognized as 
 citizens of Virginia. The closing words of section 5 * of 
 this bill read thus : " And it is declared and enacted, that 
 
 * "Jefferson's Works," vol. ix., p. 493. 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 345 
 
 no person unborn or under the age of twelve years at the 
 passing of this act, and who is compos mentis, shall, after 
 the age of fifteen years, be a citizen of this Commonwealth 
 until he or she can read readily in some tongue, native or 
 acquired." 
 
 Jefferson by providing that no one, whether man or 
 woman, should possess certain privileges of citizenship 
 in Virginia, would touch a subtle spring of action in the 
 feelings of a people. The mental horizon of many illiter- 
 ate parents is so sadly circumscribed that they do not 
 even know of the intellectual realms which would be 
 thrown open to their children were they possessed of a 
 knowledge of letters. The distinguished writers on politi- 
 cal economy, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, have 
 recognized this ignorance on the part of many parents, 
 and have given it as one of the reasons why governments 
 should support public schools. Jefferson's plan would 
 create such a motive for sending youth to school, or 
 otherwise providing to a certain degree for their instruc- 
 tion, that even the lowest grade of human intelligence 
 would be apt to feel to some extent its force. Should 
 there be found, however, parents so dead to the interests 
 of their offspring, their boys would in time have brought 
 home to them the fact that an inability to read and write 
 had been branded with disgrace, and that they had a 
 strong motive for acquiring useful knowledge. Even the 
 timid girl who realized that she was debarred from certain 
 important privileges, among which would sometimes, 
 perhaps, be the owning, in her own right, of property, 
 would be encouraged to herself seek the instruction which 
 it might be necessary for her to have to acquire the rights 
 of citizenship in a commonwealth. 
 
 Some distinguished statesmen, while keenly realizing 
 the importance to a republic of public schools, have 
 
346 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 not in an unqualified manner given their assent to the 
 belief that no one should be allowed to vote who could 
 not read. The learned Dr. Benjamin Rush, a patriot of 
 whom any nation might be proud, having written to 
 John Adams thus, " Suffrage, in my opinion, should 
 never be permitted to a man that could not write or 
 read," the cautious John Adams replied to him under 
 date of August 28th, 181 1 : " Free schools, and all schools, 
 colleges, academies and seminaries of learning, I can rec- 
 ommend from my heart ; but I dare not say that a suffrage 
 should never be permitted to a man who cannot read and 
 write. What would become of France if the lives, for- 
 tunes, character, of twenty-four millions of people who can 
 neither read nor write, should be at the absolute disposal 
 of five hundred thousand who can ? " 
 
 Undoubtedly, Adams was right in withholding his assent 
 to the belief that no one should be allowed to vote who 
 could not read and write in a land such, as in his day, was 
 France. In a country in which only one out of two or 
 three hundred of the inhabitants can read, — as according 
 to some authorities was the case in some parts of Europe 
 when the Romish hierarchy was enabled to keep the edu- 
 cation of youth in its own hands, — it might be very dan- 
 gerous to entrust the very few who could read and write 
 with absolute power. It might happen that entire com- 
 munities would be destitute of a single person acquainted 
 with letters or who possessed any knowledge of the science 
 of government. Despots might endeavor to keep the peo- 
 ple illiterate in order to retain power in their own hands. 
 When a people, however illiterate, have to vote upon 
 questions, they naturally discuss them among themselves. 
 Such discussions, at least in some instances, excite curi- 
 osity and imp.cxiit a desire among some of them to im- 
 prove their minds. The most unlettered of men if injured 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 347 
 
 too boldly would, under certain circumstances, quickly learn 
 enough to use their ballots in their own defence. It might 
 even happen that reformers would arise among them who 
 would counteract, to some extent, the influence of dema- 
 gogues and exert a good influence in the communities in 
 which they reside. Where every one is allowed to vote, 
 intelligent citizens have a special interest, as a matter of 
 self-defence, in providing instruction for the untaught, — 
 indeed they have weighty reasons for establishing schools 
 which they would not have if they knew that they were 
 free from the danger flowing from people's voting who 
 were even unacquainted with the alphabet. Jefferson's 
 idea, however, was that schools should be established in 
 every neighborhood and that youth should be made to 
 feel that it was a duty which they owed to their country 
 to attend them, and that if they neglected to attend the 
 schools and thus, to some extent, qualify themselves for 
 citizenship, they were, as long as they remained illiterate, 
 not to be entrusted with the control of public affairs. 
 
 As a rule, in a State such as Massachusetts, youth 
 ought not to grow up illiterate. The fact that a youth 
 of Massachusetts is illiterate is a proof that he has not 
 obeyed the school laws of the State. For the same reason 
 that children are not allowed to hold office and to legislate 
 for the State, men who are unable to read the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts — are, in short, as illiterate as babies — 
 are not allowed to vote. A paragraph of the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts reads thus: " No person shall have the 
 right to vote or be eligible to office under the Constitution 
 of this Commonwealth, who shall not be able to read the 
 Constitution in the English language, and write his name; 
 provided however, that the provisions of this amendment 
 shall not apply to any person prevented by a physical dis- 
 ability from complying with its requirements, nor to any 
 
348 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 person who now has the right to vote, nor to any persons 
 who shall be sixty years of age or upwards at the time 
 that this amendment shall take effect." 
 
 Jefferson, in the educational bill which he draughted in 
 the year 1817, incidentally alluded to the question whether 
 the rights of parents were infringed upon by obligatory 
 school laws. In a quite lengthy foot-note to section 5 
 of his bill, he said : " A question of some doubt might 
 be raised on the latter part of this section, as to the rights 
 and duties of society towards its members, infant and 
 adult. Is it a right or a duty in society to take care of 
 their infant members in opposition to the will of the 
 parent ? How far does this right and duty extend ? — 
 to guard the life of the infant, his property, his instruc- 
 tion, his morals? The Roman father was supreme in all 
 these : we draw a line, but where ? — public sentiment does 
 not seem to have traced it precisely."* Upon these ques- 
 tions Jefferson did not dwell at length in his bill, but 
 contented himself with intimating, that if no one should 
 be allowed to enjoy citizenship who was illiterate, the cases 
 in which youth would not learn to read would be rare. 
 
 Quite a large number of States, and England and 
 many European countries, and even the people of Japan, 
 have now obligatory school laws. There are many argu- 
 ments which can be justly urged in their favor. People 
 who are compelled to pay taxes for the support of free 
 schools, on the ground that it is of vital importance to the 
 well-being of society that youth should receive instruction, 
 naturally expect that the State will see to it that the 
 money is expended for the purpose for which it is col- 
 lected. If the English people should find that their 
 royal family was growing up utterly illiterate, and that 
 the one who was to be their sovereign was not even able 
 
 * See " Jefferson's Works," vol. ix., p. 493. 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 349 
 
 to read and write, Americans would applaud their wisdom, 
 as far as it went, if they should insist that the future ruler 
 of Great Britain should receive a certain degree of in- 
 struction. In the United States the people are them- 
 selves possessed of sovereign power, and, if incapable of 
 wisely acting on certain occasions, may do irreparable 
 injury to their Republic. The jury system in the United 
 States makes it peculiarly important to all classes of 
 people that their neighbors should be possessed of in- 
 telligence, as might easily be feelingly illustrated. Com- 
 pulsory school laws have been found to do a vast amount 
 of good in cities, as has been illustrated in a very interest- 
 ing manner by the records of crime in police courts. 
 How quickly youth who are neglected in cities become 
 criminals, and frequent recruiting dens of crime, where 
 they learn as much evil as they would have acquired good 
 in well-ordered schools, is a subject that would be found 
 to be the more interesting the better it was understood. 
 Schools would be, to a great degree, useless if they were 
 not attended by youth. It has been found by experience 
 — and indeed a thoughtful person can readily understand 
 that such must be the case — that if scholars are frequently 
 absent, they often receive but comparatively little benefit 
 from the best of schools. They cannot keep up with 
 their classes, and it is not right that their classes should 
 be kept back for them. Something needs to be done to 
 prevent young people from acquiring habits of irregularity 
 in their attendance at their lessons. In the United States 
 there are many people — some of them poor foreigners — 
 who are disposed to be negligent in attending to the 
 educational needs of their children. Some of them, it is 
 to be feared, have no sensible idea of the value to their 
 offspring of an acquaintance with letters. They live in 
 neighborhoods where it is made the birthright of youth 
 
350 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 to have certain educational advantages. But these peo- 
 ple—many of whom are well-meaning, and have lovable 
 children in whose welfare they are tenderly interested — 
 often remain ignorant of the beneficent school provision 
 which has been made by law in behalf of youth. Where 
 there are no wise truancy laws it is not the business 
 of any. one. to even tell, them where a school-house is to 
 be found. Wise truancy laws give a certain degree of 
 vigor to a school system, and thus, as well as in various 
 other ways, exert a healthful influence upon society. 
 Without them it is perhaps often impossible for a State 
 to properly guard the interests of youth and its own 
 safety. However well disposed American parents are, as 
 a rule, towards their children, it is necessary that the 
 statesman should bear in mind that the children of the 
 drunkard and of the reprobate have a hard enough lot 
 without being compelled to grow up destitute of school 
 instruction, and that to stake the school instruction of a 
 republic's future rulers and mothers upon the considera- 
 tion of such parents would be to endanger the public 
 welfare. To maintain that a State has not the right 
 to insist upon its youth acquiring a certain amount of 
 useful knowledge, would be to maintain a doctrine re- 
 specting the freedom of the individual will which might 
 lead to lawlessness and anarchy. .Society has rights and 
 responsibilities as truly as have individuals. As has been 
 said, however, Jefferson believed that if a State made 
 adequate provision for public instruction, and then al- 
 lowed no one born after a certain period to enjoy certain 
 rights of citizenship, that even without laws requiring 
 youth to attend schools, the number of illiterate men and 
 women would be small. 
 
 In modern times many of the States provide in their 
 Constitutions for the cherishment of the interests of 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 351 
 
 public education. Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia," 
 which, although published when he was in France, were 
 mostly written during, the war for independence, pointed 
 ouf that Virginia should provide in her Constitution for a 
 public-school system. In this book he pointed out how 
 necessary it was to a people who wished to enjoy the 
 blessing of civil liberty to provide for the public instruc- 
 tion of their youth, and gave an outline of a school 
 system which it was proposed that Virginia should adopt. 
 This outline was in reality in part the school bill which he 
 had himself, amid much applause, introduced into the 
 Assembly of Virginia in the year 1778. When he was in 
 France at the period when the French Revolution was 
 about being inaugurated, — a revolution which was to give 
 birth to wars in which perhaps not less than ten millions 
 of human lives were to be lost, — he was visited by Lafay- 
 ette and by a number of statesmen who were deeply 
 interested in securing to the French people a republican 
 form of government. It is interesting to observe that the 
 memorable Constitution which Lafayette and his col- 
 leagues helped to give France contained provisions for 
 public education which so much resembled Jefferson's bill 
 for the diffusion of knowledge in Virginia, that one may 
 naturally infer that that part of the Constitution for the 
 French Republic was suggested by the Virginian states- 
 man. When Jefferson became President of the United 
 States he wished to see the federal government doing 
 more for the cause of education throughout the length 
 and breadth of the United States than it was doing. In 
 two annual messages he made suggestions to Congress 
 respecting amending the national Constitution so as to 
 secure to the youth of the Republic certain educational 
 advantages. In his last annual message to Congress he 
 thus spoke : " The probable accumulation of the surpluses 
 
352 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of 
 the public debt, whenever the freedom and safety of our 
 commerce shall be restored, merits the consideration of 
 Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? 
 Shall the revenue be reduced ? Or shall it not rather be 
 appropriated to the improvement of roads, canals, rivers 
 and education, and other great foundations of prosperity 
 and union under the powers which Congress may already 
 possess, or such amendment of the Constitution as maybe 
 approved by the States." From these words of Jeffer- 
 son's one might not be able to form a decided opinion as 
 to whether he had in view simply the founding of a great 
 national university at Washington, — a favorite project 
 with him, — or the aiding of all the States in the work 
 of supplying educational advantages for their youth. In 
 private letters, however, he spoke with a freedom that was 
 highly interesting to friends of national education. To 
 Monsieur Dupont de Nemours, who it will be remembered 
 had written a book at the instance of Jefferson, on na- 
 tional education for the United States, he thus, under 
 date of April 15th, 181 1, wrote: "I keep up my hopes 
 that if war [with Great Britain] be avoided, Mr. Madison 
 will be able to complete the payment of the national 
 debt within his term, after which one third of the present 
 revenue would support the government. * * * Our reve- 
 nues once liberated by the discharge of the public debt, 
 and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, &c, and 
 the farmer will see his government supported, his children 
 educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by 
 the contributions of the rich alone, without his being 
 called upon to spare a cent from his earnings. The path 
 that we are now pursuing leads directly to this end, which 
 we cannot fail to attain unless our administration should 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 353 
 
 fall into unwise hands." * Jefferson in his desire to see the 
 national government devoting a part of its resources to 
 the support of public schools, it is to be feared went too 
 far, when he pictured the public schools supported en- 
 tirely by means derived from the national government. 
 He would, one may readily infer, have wished the United 
 States government, by wise legislation, to do for all the 
 States what some State governments, by a wise use of 
 State school funds, have done for their counties and 
 townships, — help set in motion the wheels of local 
 government. 
 
 Before considering, for a few moments, the question 
 whether Jefferson's suggestion that the Constitution of 
 the United States should be amended so as to make it 
 the specific duty of the national government to aid the 
 States in securing to all American citizens the blessing of 
 at least a certain degree of intellectual culture, it may be 
 interesting to notice what Jefferson, as President of the 
 United States, did do towards rendering national aid 
 to the cause of public education. On March 3d, 1S03, 
 he signed a bill by which public land was set apart for a 
 university to be established in Ohio. On the same date 
 he signed a bill by which it was provided that in the 
 public domain south of the State of Tennessee, there 
 should be land appropriated for a college, and even,- section 
 of land numbered 16 in every township was consecrated 
 to the support of common schools. For the use of the 
 college — which as a compliment to Jefferson Congress 
 named " Jefferson College" — thirty-six sections of land 
 
 * About the same time that this letter to Dupont de Nemours was written, 
 Jefferson wrote a letter to Kosciuszko, — a letter which has already been 
 quoted in the first chapter of this volume, — in which he used almost the same 
 words respecting the national governments aiding the cause of public educa- 
 tion, as those which he addressed to Dupont de Nemours. 
 
 12 
 
354 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 were appropriated, — an appropriation which was increased 
 under President Monroe's administration. On March 
 26th, 1804, Jefferson signed a bill which provided that 
 not only in every township in what was then Indiana 
 Territory section 16 should be devoted to school pur- 
 poses, but that three entire townships should be reserved 
 " for the use of a seminary of learning." On April 
 16th he signed a bill by which one hundred thou- 
 sand acres of land in Tennessee were set apart for 
 the use of two colleges. Another one hundred thousand 
 acres of land, with certain wise conditions attached to the 
 appropriation, were set apart, as the bill read, " for the 
 use of academies, one in each county in said State, to be 
 established by the Legislature thereof." At the same time 
 an appropriation of land was made, to which wise conditions 
 were, by the national government, attached, for common 
 schools. Jefferson also had the honor of signing the bill 
 by which the military academy of West Point was founded. 
 Without pausing to point out all the ways in which Jefferson 
 when President of the United States may be considered 
 to have helped in inaugurating a policy by which the 
 national government has aided States to establish and 
 maintain school systems, it may here be noticed that on 
 February 27th, 1806, a report was presented to the House 
 of Representatives by one of its committees, an extract 
 from which read thus : " Your committee are of the 
 opinion [that] it ought to be a primary object with the 
 General Government to encourage and promote education 
 in every part of the Union, so far as the same can be con- 
 sistent with the general policy of the nation, and so as 
 not to infringe the municipal regulations that are, or may 
 be, adopted by the respective State authorities on the 
 subject. * * * The national legislature has, by several of 
 its acts on former occasions, evinced in the strongest 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 355 
 
 manner its disposition to afford the means of establishing 
 and fostering with a liberal hand such public institutions." 
 Soon after this report was made in Congress, Jefferson, as 
 will presently be seen, signed a bill making an immense 
 appropriation of land for school purposes. It will be 
 remembered that under Jefferson's administration — 
 largely if not altogether through his personal influence — 
 the United States obtained from France a territory em- 
 bracing 1,124,682 square miles. At the time of this pur- 
 chase the area of the United States was but about 820,000 
 square miles ; thus by one act the area of the United 
 States was more than doubled. On April 21st, 1806, when 
 a part of this new and vast territory was being opened for 
 settlement, Jefferson affixed the executive signature to a 
 bill which not only reserved section 16 of every township 
 for the support of common schools in each township, but 
 also devoted an entire township for, in the words of the 
 bill, " a seminary of learning." This appropriation for a 
 seminary of learning was increased under Madison's 
 administration. 
 
 And now to return to Jefferson's suggestion, that an 
 amendment be made to the Constitution of the United 
 States by which the national government shall be specifi- 
 cally authorized to co-operate with the States in the great 
 work of securing to American youth the privilege of 
 acquiring a certain degree of culture. The independence 
 in certain respects of States, and of townships, and the 
 nationality of them all united under one government, are 
 features of the polity of the people of the United States 
 which should be viewed in a comprehensive manner by 
 the student of the science of government. The securing 
 of a knowledge of letters to any section of the United 
 States may justly be deemed to be a matter worthy of 
 national concern, no less truly than of local interest. 
 
356 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 American citizens, it is to be feared, are in danger of con- 
 fining their attention too much to only what transpires 
 within the boundaries of the county, or of the State, in 
 which they reside, and of not giving to a proper degree 
 attention to the affairs of a great Republic, — a Republic 
 destined, it may be, to become continental in its extent. 
 The thoughtful statesman should be reminded that it is 
 highly important at times that his vision should sweep 
 over the entire United States, and that he should recog- 
 nize that in some respects the national Republic should 
 be considered in its entirety. However simple to an 
 American citizen may appear the form of government of 
 the United States, a European might well think it strange 
 to be told that every State is an aggregation of lesser 
 republics, every county a group of self-governing units, 
 and that all the States united form a great national 
 Republic, and that each of these republics has a sphere 
 of action of its own, and yet is designed to work in perfect 
 harmony with every other unit of the national Republic. 
 
 There are various elementary principles upon which 
 republics are founded. For example, all men are supposed 
 to stand upon an equal footing. Very much as men unite 
 to carry on a business, or to accomplish some undertaking 
 which singly they could not execute, so people unite to 
 accomplish certain ends conducive to their convenience, 
 — or, in other words, establish a commonwealth. They 
 unite, although wisely reserving to themselves certain 
 specified rights, with the same freedom that a Pagan, a 
 Mohammedan, and a Christian might unite to move out 
 of a common pathway a stone which was too heavy for 
 any one of them to alone move. As business men, when 
 forming themselves into a company to carry on a busi- 
 ness, have partnership papers in which they carefully 
 guard certain rights and specify the purposes for which 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 357 
 
 they join themselves together, so do the people of an 
 American State and of the United States have partner- 
 ship papers, or, in more common phrase, a " Constitu- 
 tion." The Constitution of Massachusetts thus speaks of 
 a State: "The body politic is formed by a voluntary 
 association of individuals. It is a social compact, by 
 which the whole people covenants with each citizen and 
 each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be 
 governed by certain laws for the common good." The 
 Constitution of Maryland declares : " That all government 
 of right originate from the people, is founded in compact 
 only, and instituted solely for the good of the whole. 
 * * * " It may be remembered that the American 
 citizen has a citizenship common to a State, and to a 
 national, government. 
 
 In the United States it is realized that, as a company of 
 business men might provide that the sons of the members 
 of the company should have provided for them certain 
 educational advantages, and should be admitted as part- 
 ners into the firm provided that they acquired a certain 
 degree of knowledge to enable them to do a worthy part 
 in carrying on the business, so the people of a republic 
 can incorporate in their constitution a provision that no 
 one shall be invested with the responsibilities of citizen- 
 ship until he has acquired, to at least a certain degree, a 
 knowledge of reading and writing. 
 
 It is one of the happy characteristics of the form of 
 government established in the United States, that the 
 national government itself can profit by experiments 
 made by States in the art of government. At the 
 present day a large number of States provide in their 
 constitutions for public schools. During the war for 
 Independence — at about the same time that Jefferson 
 brought forward his first educational bill for Virginia — 
 
358 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 John Adams draughted a provision for the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts, by which it has been made the duty 
 of all who subscribed to that Constitution to cherish the 
 interests of learning in that State. Perhaps to no other 
 one cause has Massachusetts been more indebted for its 
 success in maintaining its system of local self-government 
 than to its constitutional requirements respecting the 
 interests of education. If provisions in a State Consti- 
 tution for the interests of learning do much good, one 
 might hope that American statesmanship would be equal 
 to framing a wise provision for the national Constitution 
 which would help to secure a certain degree of learning 
 to all American citizens. 
 
 At the time that Jefferson published in his " Notes on 
 Virginia" the opinion that Virginia should provide in her 
 Constitution for a public-school system, her counties were 
 practically as far apart as are States and Territories at the 
 present day. There were then no railroads, no steam- 
 boats, no telegraphs, and, comparatively speaking, there 
 were few roads of any kind. Far more easily could the 
 government of the United States encourage, and aid in 
 various ways, States and Territories to cherish the inter- 
 ests of learning, than could the government of Virginia, 
 in- Jefferson's day, aid counties to secure to their youth 
 school instruction. Yet Jefferson argued ably even during 
 the war for Independence for an educational provision in 
 the Constitution of his State. And when President of the 
 United States it was but natural that he should suggest 
 to Congress the wisdom of providing in the national Con- 
 stitution for a yearly, special fund to be raised by duties on 
 luxuries, with which to enable the national government to 
 duly aid in the great work of securing school instruction 
 to the youth of all parts of the Republic of the United 
 States. 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 359 
 
 It is to be feared that nothing less than an amendment to 
 the Constitution of the United States can be relied upon 
 to secure to all sections of the national Republic a certain 
 degree of intelligence. The federal government has in- 
 deed done much — though seldom, if ever, as much as it 
 did under Jefferson's administration — in aiding States to 
 establish and to maintain school systems. It has done 
 enough to give some faint idea of how much good, there 
 is reason to hope, would result if, by the Constitution of 
 the United States, it was made the duty of the national 
 government to wisely aid and encourage in a systematic 
 manner the States and Territories in maintaining effective 
 school systems. 
 
 When it has been proposed that the government of the 
 United States should aid the States in maintaining public- 
 school systems, there have been at least some statesmen 
 who have honestly questioned whether the national gov- 
 ernment, notwithstanding the many precedents which 
 have been established for its so doing, has authority to 
 render such aid. Some critic of American history may 
 even whisper that Jefferson was so deeply imbued with a 
 sense of the importance to civil liberty of public schools, 
 that he did not apply to the question, Has the United 
 States government authority to cherish in an effective 
 manner the interests of public education ? some of his 
 own principles respecting the proper interpretation of the 
 Constitution of the United States. Some of these states- 
 men, while agreeing with Jefferson that at least a certain 
 degree of intellectual culture is of vital importance to the 
 citizens of a republic, have doubted whether they were 
 at liberty to vote for even measures which were well 
 designed to scatter light over States, some of which, as 
 divulged by the United States census, were intellectually 
 in such darkness that a majority of the voters could not 
 
360 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 write their names. Some of these statesmen, if there had 
 been such a specific provision for education in the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, as Jefferson believed that the 
 best interests of the United States demanded that there 
 should be, would have ranged themselves in the national 
 Capitol among the warmest friends of public education. 
 
 One may well wonder that any statesman should have 
 objected to the national government's helping by an 
 appropriation of money the Southern States to establish 
 school systems at the close of the Civil War, when four 
 millions of colored people were suddenly freed from the 
 shackles of slavery and invested with the honors and du- 
 ties, and the high responsibilities, of American citizenship. 
 It was as though the Southern States had, at a time when 
 they were greatly impoverished by the devastations of war, 
 been suddenly inundated by a flood of African barbarism. 
 The most precious interests of society, and of American 
 civilization, were to a large extent in the power of a people 
 who had been degraded by generations of bondage and of 
 an enforced ignorance of even the alphabet. Local self- 
 government in some of the Southern States was to a large 
 extent impossible. Its forms, if observed at all, were in many 
 cases converted into instruments of danger to the people. 
 A provision of the Constitution of the United States 
 reads thus : " The United States shall guarantee to every 
 State in this Union a republican form of government." 
 Another provision, which should be read in connection 
 with the one which has just been quoted, provides that 
 the government of the United States shall be authorized, 
 " To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
 carrying into execution the foregoing powers and * * * 
 all * * * powers vested in the Constitution in the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, or in any department or 
 office thereof." By these provisions of the Constitution 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 361 
 
 of the United States, it is to be seen that no measures 
 necessary or proper to secure to the States a republican 
 form of government is unconstitutional. States, when in 
 the power of hordes of people as unlettered as barbarians, 
 ought hardly to be expected to possess a proper degree of 
 civil liberty. States such as these might naturally expect 
 the national government to guarantee to them a republi- 
 can form of government by aiding them to establish edu- 
 cational institutions for their youth. The national gov- 
 ernment cannot secure to States in such a situation a 
 republican form of government by overrunning them with 
 armies at a cost of many millions of dollars, nor by estab- 
 lishing a military government over them. If Jefferson's 
 most cherished convictions respecting the intimate rela- 
 tionship which must exist between intellectual culture and 
 civil liberty were well grounded, the national government 
 can in no way known to political science guarantee to such 
 States a republican form of government, without seeing to 
 it that suitable provision is made for certain educational 
 needs of their youth. 
 
 By the United States census of 1880 the startling fact 
 was brought to light that in eight of the Southern States 
 the average of the white and colored voters united who 
 confessed that they could not write their names was 45 
 per cent.! As some of the people! were too proud to 
 acknowledge their illiteracy if they could do a very little 
 writing, the number of unlettered voters was probably 
 larger than the figures of the census indicated. In six- 
 teen of the Southern States entitled to as many Senators 
 in the national Capitol as any sixteen Northern States, 
 at least 40 per cent, of the men were illiterates. These 
 sixteen States represented 76 per cent, of a majority of 
 the Electoral College, which gives a President to the 
 Republic of the United States. The people living in 
 
362 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 these States are citizens of the national Republic as well 
 as of the States in which they live. These sixteen 
 States can do much to direct the policy of the national 
 government. 
 
 In the year 1880 many millions of dollars were spent in 
 some of the Northern States and in Western States in 
 supporting common schools, high schools, colleges, and 
 public libraries. In some of the States no one was al- 
 lowed to vote who could not read and write. But the 
 influence of any Northern State — no matter how many 
 millions of dollars was spent in providing instruction for 
 her youth — could be nullified in the United States Senate 
 by even the votes of South Carolina, a State in which 
 the majority of the voters were unable to write their 
 names. In Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as in South 
 Carolina, the majority of the people were colored. These 
 colored people, it was found by the census, were indeed 
 poor ! It hardly needs to be pointed out that it is not 
 strange that they were poor. Their fathers and mothers 
 had watered the fruitful earth with their sweat, and at times 
 with tears, while the lash might at any time fall heavily 
 upon them, but by accursed laws they received no pay 
 for their toil. The national government, by laws, known 
 as " fugitive-slave laws," and by other cruel laws, helped 
 to. rivet upon them the shackles of a shameful bondage. 
 These people, or their descendants, are to be numbered 
 by millions. Although they are not armed with muskets 
 yet they are armed with ballots, and thus in many locali- 
 ties are in a certain sense masters of the white population 
 — indeed they are a mighty power, if not the masters of 
 the whites, in the politics of the United States. Unless 
 they are helped to become intelligent American citizens 
 they are sadly likely to help in various ways to drag 
 down American citizenship to their own lowly level. 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 363 
 
 Impoverished by a devastating civil war, it has been 
 difficult if not indeed impossible for some of the Southern 
 States, to adequately provide school instruction for the 
 floods of illiterate people which were suddenly made not 
 only citizens of their own States but also citizens of the 
 United States. A simple calculation of the cost of the 
 many thousands of school-houses needed for the illiterate 
 youth in the Southern States would show that to secure 
 to these States good school systems is a work calling for 
 the best talents of the highest statesmanship. The 
 American citizen may well ponder over the fact that the 
 vast host of unlettered people in the Southern States 
 are not a mere local affliction. It is an evil which is 
 only too likely to again and again in various ways affect 
 sadly the fortunes and the civil-liberties of the people of 
 the United States collectively considered. It is mani- 
 festly of vast importance to the people of the United 
 States, considered as a whole, that all American youth 
 should have secured to them a certain amount of intel- 
 lectual culture. A wisely framed provision in the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, by which the national 
 government would specifically be charged to duly cherish 
 the interests of learning, would be perhaps the greatest 
 safeguard which civil liberty and a republican form of 
 government can ever have in the western hemisphere. 
 
 One of the difficulties, perhaps the greatest difficulty, 
 in the way of the Republic of the United States becoming 
 continental in extent, is that the people of Mexico and 
 of Central and of South America, and the people of 
 most of the West India Islands, do not speak the English 
 language. Indeed, large numbers of them cannot read in 
 any language. Although in a republic blessed with a 
 mechanism which secures to all its parts local self-govern- 
 ment, the people of States whose languages differ may 
 
364 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 well be imagined enjoying very many great advantages by 
 living in union with each other, yet statesmen, when taking 
 into view not only the present time, but the years and 
 ages which a well-ordered republic may endure, may well 
 wish to secure to the hundreds of millions of people which 
 are, let it be hoped, to people the United States, the 
 inestimably great blessing of a common language — espe- 
 cially one as rich in a noble and learned literature as is 
 the English tongue. 
 
 Jefferson, when President of the United States, writing 
 to Monroe under date of November 24th, 1801, re- 
 marked : " However our present interests may restrain 
 us within our own limits, it is impossible not to look for- 
 ward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will 
 expand itself beyond those limits, and cover the whole 
 northern, if not the southern continent, with a people 
 speaking the same language, governed in similar forms, 
 and by similar laws." Jefferson's vision of the English 
 language covering a continent may, by wise statesman- 
 ship, be made a reality. 
 
 There was a period in a remote age when the human 
 family spoke a common language. To-day, a traveller 
 who takes a survey of the world, finds that a thousand 
 and more languages — not to speak of dialects of these 
 languages — are spoken on the earth. The man who 
 writes a book in Europe, on even subjects of the greatest 
 interest to his fellow-man, can communicate his thoughts 
 to only the people occupying a small division of that con- 
 tinent. A traveller in Europe at the close, one may 
 almost say, of every day's ride on the railroad finds him- 
 self surrounded by a people to whom he cannot speak 
 intelligibly, and whose mode of speech he cannot under- 
 stand. He is thus a stranger among a strange people. 
 
 In the Empire of Austro-Hungary about twenty differ- 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 365 
 
 ent languages and dialects were in use in the year 1880. 
 In Russia, whose population in the year 1880 was about 
 106,000,000 people, not less than forty different languages 
 were spoken. The number of languages in Turkey may 
 well very greatly amaze an American traveller. On the 
 continent of Europe there are some sixty or more 
 languages spoken. 
 
 One may well consider how great would be the blessing 
 to the people of Europe could they all speak a common 
 language. Many of the prejudices, and estrangements, 
 and emnities, which separate the nations of Europe would 
 be removed. The people of all Europe would find them- 
 selves cherishing a feeling of sympathy and of brother- 
 hood for each other. 
 
 In the states of India which are united under the 
 name of the British Empire, forty or more languages and 
 about one hundred and seventy dialects are spoken. 
 One of these languages, however, the Hindi, is used by 
 about 60,000,000 of people, and thus, although it is 
 spoken by but a small fraction of the people of India, it 
 maybe called one of the principal languages of the world. 
 In different parts of China the dialects in use differ so 
 greatly that a Chinese merchant travelling in different parts 
 of his native land is very much in the same position as is 
 an American travelling on the continent of Europe. He 
 may learn how to speak several dialects, but to learn to 
 speak them all he would find to be very difficult, or im- 
 possible. As, however, the written language in use among 
 the learned in China — who are but a small fraction of the 
 population — is the same, the Chinese traveller can at 
 times make himself understood by writing what he wishes 
 to speak. A story is told of a devoted missionary who 
 left America, or England, to bear to the people of China 
 the elevating truths of the Christian religion. His heart 
 
366 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 being in his noble work, he spent years in endeavoring to 
 qualify himself to speak to the great Mongolian race. In 
 preaching to the people of certain parts of China he found 
 difficulty in conveying to them some of the great truths 
 respecting the Almighty. After years spent in his great 
 work, he made the sad discovery that the word which he 
 had been employing to designate God was a word which 
 the people in their language had given to one of their 
 idols, and that thus, while faithfully endeavoring to act the 
 noble part of spreading the elevating truths of Christian- 
 ity, he had unwittingly been doing the opposite to what 
 he had wished to do. Grand, indeed, would it be for the 
 vast Chinese Empire if the statesmen of China could 
 secure to the hundreds of millions of people in China a 
 public-school system better than the present educational 
 system of China, — could, indeed, by means of public 
 schools secure to China a common language spoken in its 
 purity. 
 
 If a traveller surveys the continent of Africa he is soon 
 made aware of the strange fact that the languages and 
 dialects spoken within the bounds of the " Dark Conti- 
 nent " are to be counted by scores, — indeed, one may say, 
 by the hundred. 
 
 When the American continent was discovered by 
 Columbus, and long afterwards, almost every Indian tribe 
 had a language of its own. The learned Bancroft has 
 already catalogued six hundred different languages 
 spoken by the Indians living between the points which 
 are now known as Northern Alaska and Panama. While 
 it may be true that some of these Indian languages might 
 be characterized as dialects, yet the learned historian of 
 the Pacific coast has probably come far short of giving a 
 full catalogue of the Indian tribes of the American conti- 
 nent. Xo-day one of the greatest difficulties in the way 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 367 
 
 of the moral elevation, and of the advancement in civiliza- 
 tion, of many of the Indian tribes living within the borders 
 of the Republic of the United States is that they speak 
 what may be called a gibberish of their own and are unable 
 to speak English. Naturally among the various tribal lan- 
 guages there is a very limited literature. The missionary 
 who goes among Indians who cannot speak English finds 
 it often difficult or impossible to find any suitable words in 
 a rude tribal language in which to speak to them of great 
 truths which would awaken in their breasts the best of 
 emotions. As the Indian population have not been repre- 
 sented in the government of the United States, sadly few 
 statesmen have duly considered how hard it is for their 
 Indian brethren to rise above the degradation, and the 
 cruel surroundings, which environ them as long as they 
 are obliged to live practically prisoners upon reservations 
 guarded, at great cost to the United States, by soldiers. 
 
 Far too many of the Indians, owing to their not being 
 able to speak the English language, are unable to acquire 
 much knowledge that even American children acquire 
 insensibly by hearing people conversing about them in 
 English. Should the children of white parents be treated 
 as the government of the United States, under a mistaken 
 policy, has too often treated Indian tribes, such children 
 would remain savages through life. One may well think 
 how great would be the blessing to a large class of Amer- 
 ican Indians who are growing up on reservations if they 
 were compelled to go to public schools and to learn the 
 English language. Happily, in recent times, at least some 
 wise and highly praiseworthy efforts are being made by 
 the United States government to found schools among 
 these children of the plains and forests. Wise obligatory 
 school laws may indeed be made a great blessing to 
 them. 
 
368 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 Strange it is that, within the, borders of the United 
 States, there should be youth under the special care of the 
 government of the United States who are growing to 
 manhood and to womanhood unable to speak the English 
 language. This strange anomaly may be accounted for 
 in various ways. The government of the United States 
 has not felt, to the extent that it would have felt, if there 
 had been a direct — a specific — provision in the federal 
 Constitution such as Jefferson would have had it have, mak- 
 ing it the duty of legislators duly to cherish the interests 
 of public education throughout the length and breadth of 
 the Republic. The Indians have had no representative of 
 their number in Congress to remind the government 
 of their condition. Although the policy by which Indians 
 are kept upon reservations by force was supposed by 
 Jefferson to be but a temporary policy, it has been con- 
 tinued for many years, working cruel injury to great num- 
 bers of Indians and costing the United States hundreds 
 of millions of dollars. In some instances Indian youth, 
 who have, under exceptional circumstances, received a far 
 better education in some State institution of learning 
 than is at present possessed by millions of citizens of the 
 United States, they have been compelled to return to the 
 wretched reservation on which they were born, there to 
 drag out a miserable existence. By an unwise, and deeply 
 lamentable, policy towards the Indians, the United States 
 government has been obliged to employ, at an enormous 
 cost, a part of its army in keeping the Indians in bar- 
 barism on reservations, thus weakening the army of the 
 United States in a manner which might be doubly costly 
 to the Republic should it become engaged in a foreign 
 war. It would not be strange if Indians should wish to 
 ally themselves to almost any power which would help 
 them to be delivered from the thraldom in which they are 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 369 
 
 forced to live. Sometimes when Jefferson thought upon 
 the Indians of the United States, a grand vision passed 
 before him — a vision which he nobly sought to make a 
 reality. As President of the United States, he wrote 
 under date of February 1 8th, 1803, to Col. Hawkins, who 
 was charged by his administration with the care of the 
 Indians, as follows: " Although you will receive through 
 the official channel of the War Office every communica- 
 tion necessary to develop to you our views respecting 
 the Indians, and to direct your conduct, yet, supposing it 
 will be satisfactory to you, and to those with whom you 
 are placed, to understand my personal dispositions and 
 opinions in this particular, I shall avail myself of this 
 private letter to state them generally. * * * In 
 truth, the ultimate point of rest and happiness for them 
 is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend to- 
 gether, to intermix, and become one people. Incor- 
 porating themselves with us as citizens of the United 
 States, this is what the natural progress of things will of 
 course bring you, and it will be better to promote than to 
 retard it. Surely it will be better for them to be identi- 
 fied with us, and preserved in the occupation of their 
 lands, than be exposed to the many casualties which may 
 endanger them while a separate people. I have but little 
 doubt but that your reflections have led you to view the 
 various ways in which their history may terminate, and to 
 see that this is the one most for their happiness." Jef- 
 ferson's policy respecting the Indians as unfolded to Col. 
 Hawkins was again repeated in an address which he made 
 on May 4th, 1808, to some chiefs of the Cherokees. He 
 said : " My children, I shall rejoice to see the day when 
 the red-men, our neighbors, become truly one people with 
 us, enjoying all the rights and privileges we do, and 
 living in peace and plenty as we do." In another address 
 
370 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 which Jefferson made, as far back as the year 1 781, to an 
 Indian, he said : " You ask us to send you schoolmasters 
 to educate your sons and the sons of your people. We 
 desire above all things, brother, to instruct you in what- 
 ever we know ourselves. * * * As soon as there is 
 peace we shall be able to send you the best of school- 
 masters." 
 
 Passing from Jefferson's time to the present day, it may 
 here be noticed that there were in the United States in the 
 year 1889 about 12,000 Indian children attending schools. 
 It is pleasant to be enabled to state that Cleveland, when 
 President of the United States, had the high honor of 
 inaugurating a beneficent policy, by which at least all 
 Indian youth attending schools must be taught in 
 English. 
 
 Scarcely, if indeed ever, in the history of the world has 
 there been a language spoken over as wide an area of the 
 world as is the English tongue. It is spoken by a larger 
 number of people professing the Christian religion than is 
 any other language in the world. It has a vast and an 
 inestimably valuable literature. It may be called one of 
 the greatest of all the blessings which the people of the 
 United States have received from the old world and 
 from the by-gone ages. On the American continent — 
 to say nothing of old England and of Australia, and of 
 various colonies of -Great Britain — English is already 
 spoken over an area about twice the size of the entire 
 continent of Europe. Innumerable, and inestimable, are 
 the advantages which the people of the United States 
 reap from having such a common language. On the 
 American continent one can travel from the far north to 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
 Pacific main, and, except on some of the Indian reserva- 
 tions, everywhere hold intelligent converse with his fel- 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 37* 
 
 low-man. Valuable information given to the printed 
 page can be read within this vast area by all men. The 
 English language in the United States is spoken, as a rule, 
 with remarkable purity, a fact which may well cause one 
 to ponder over the grandeur of the work accomplished by 
 public schools, especially when it is duly borne in mind 
 how many millions of American citizens were born in 
 foreign lands, or are descended from people who have 
 spoken a foreign language, and have emigrated to 
 America. Youth of parents who have come from the 
 old world have become assimilated with the people of 
 the United States. 
 
 If the English language is not spoken in the Southern 
 States with all the purity that many a patriotic states- 
 man could wish, it is largely because public education has 
 not been looked after in these States, and by the national 
 government, with that provident legislation which the best 
 interests of the American continent demands that they 
 should receive. Jefferson believed that republics should 
 incorporate in their Constitutions provisions for securing 
 to all their youth the blessing of school instruction. He 
 wished to see the United States government supplied with 
 a permanent fund — a fund which he suggested could be 
 raised by a duty imposed upon luxuries — with which to 
 aid, and to encourage, the interests of public education 
 throughout the length and breadth of the Republic of the 
 United States. 
 
 Such an educational fund as Jefferson wished to have 
 secured to the United States government could be used 
 in a manner which would not in the least interfere with 
 the proper sphere of State governments, but would in a 
 very wise and happy manner set in motion, and continually 
 keep in motion, in all parts of the Republic, the wonderful 
 mechanism of local self-government. He believed that 
 
372 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 as a State government should aim at wisely aiding, and 
 encouraging, the establishment of institutions of learning 
 throughout its length and breadth, and should see to it 
 that every county within its borders provided for certain 
 educational needs of its youth, so should the government 
 of a vast Republic duly cherish and wisely aid the interests 
 of learning throughout the wide domain over which its 
 power extends. He believed that as a State should en- 
 deavor to so legislate that every county within its borders 
 should be made to realize that it had grave duties respect- 
 ing the education of its youth to its fellow-counties, and 
 to the State, so should the United States government 
 endeavor to see to it that States realized that they had 
 duties, in respect to the education of youth, to their fellow 
 States. He believed that as a State should even provide 
 that no one growing up illiterate in a county within its 
 borders, where provision was made for his instruction, 
 should be allowed to vote, so the government of the United 
 States should insist that no man born after a suitable date, 
 who refused to qualify himself for American citizenship, 
 to at least the extent of learning how to read, should 
 be allowed to influence national affairs by means of a 
 ballot. 
 
 The English language, even with all the aid that the 
 highest statesmanship can secure it, will have a long and 
 a severe struggle with various languages before it becomes 
 universal on the American continent. The contest of 
 the English with the languages spoken south of the Re- 
 public of the United States will probably, however, be 
 less severe than one might at first imagine. In the 
 year 1880 there were, it is supposed, in Mexico about 
 9,389,461 people. Although among those who may be 
 sailed the educated classes of Mexico Spanish is spoken, 
 yet, it is interesting, as well as startling, to an American 
 
OF THE UNITED ST A TES. 
 
 373 
 
 to notice that within the borders of Mexico thirty or 
 more languages, and about ninety or more dialects, are 
 spoken. The English language is thus enabled to meet 
 in its advance a divided foe. If, in all parts of the 
 United States public schools should flourish, while in 
 Mexico the education of youth should be neglected, the 
 peaceful triumph of the English tongue over the na- 
 merous languages and dialects of Mexico would be apt 
 to be quite rapid. It might, indeed, be expected to be- 
 come so should the people of Mexico and of the United 
 States join hands in becoming one republic. South of 
 Mexico lies the beautiful land of Guatemala, whose 
 form of government is claimed to be, to a large extent, 
 a copy of that of the Republic of the United States. In 
 Guatemala there was, in the year 18S0, probably a popu- 
 lation of about 1,500,000 people. Of this population it 
 has been estimated only 20,000 of the people were of 
 pure Spanish origin. More than 900,000 of the people 
 were what are called Indians, but of a much higher 
 type of humanity than are the Indian tribes of North 
 America. These Indians speak at least nineteen lan- 
 guages, which a European author* divides into four 
 distinct linguistic stocks greatly differing one from the 
 other. In Central America, including Guatemala, in the 
 year 18S0 there were about 2,534,586 people, among 
 whom quite a number of languages were spoken. South 
 of the American isthmus stretches the great and mag- 
 nificent land of South America, where a number of lan- 
 guages are spoken — by many of the people in a very 
 imperfect manner. One may well think of the many 
 advantages the people of South America would enjoy if 
 English were spoken throughout its length and breadth ! 
 
 * Dr. Otto Stoll's work on the " Ethnography of Guatemala," Zurich, 
 1884. 
 
374 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 — or at least if that splendid land were a part of the 
 Republic of the United States, and enjoyed the life- 
 giving energy, and the unnumbered blessings, which 
 might flow, under certain circumstances, from such a 
 union ! 
 
 To word, in the best manner, a provision for the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, — a provision suited to 
 securing to all parts of a vast Republic national encour- 
 agement to duly provide for the education of youth 
 who are to become American citizens, — much wisdom will 
 be greatly needed. Grant, as President of the United 
 States, presented to his country his views of what pro- 
 visions respecting public schools should be added to the 
 Constitution of the United States. In his annual message 
 to Congress in the year 1875, he said : 
 
 " I suggest for your earnest consideration, and most 
 respectfully recommend it, that a constitutional amend- 
 ment be submitted to the Legislatures of the several 
 States, for ratification, making it the duty of each of 
 the States to establish and forever maintain free public 
 schools, adequate to the education of all the children in 
 the rudimentary branches within their respective limits, 
 irrespective of sex, color, birth-place, or religion, for- 
 bidding the teaching in said schools of religious, atheis- 
 tic, or pagan tenets, and prohibiting the granting of any 
 school funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either 
 by legislative, municipal, or other authority, for the 
 benefit or in aid, directly or indirectly, of any religious 
 sect or denomination, or in aid or for the benefit of any 
 other object, of any nature or kind whatever." At the 
 close of his message, Grant named among his recapitula- 
 tion of questions which he deemed, as he expressed it, of 
 "vital importance," — questions with which Congress was 
 expected to deal : 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 375 
 
 1. " That the States shall be required to afford the 
 opportunity of a good common-school education to every 
 child within their limits." 
 
 2. " No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any 
 school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation, 
 or by the proceeds of any tax, levied upon any commu- 
 nity. Make education compulsory so far as to deprive 
 all persons who cannot read and write from becoming 
 voters after the year 1890 [that is fifteen years after the 
 adoption of the amendment], disfranchising none, how- 
 ever, on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the 
 time this amendment takes effect." This recommenda- 
 tion of Grant's, which has just been presented, did not, in 
 some respects, include as much as Jefferson wished to see 
 secured to his country. Jefferson wished thd Republic of 
 the United States to have secured to it, by a provision in 
 its Constitution, a fund, to be obtained from the surplus 
 in its treasury which he foresaw that it would have, — or 
 from a revenue to be derived from a duty imposed upon 
 luxuries imported into the United States, — with which 
 to aid and to encourage, in a systematic manner, the 
 establishment of public schools throughout the length 
 and breadth of the Republic, and to also maintain a great 
 national university. He believed that the national gov- 
 ernment had a very important part to a'ct in the great 
 work of securing to the youth of all parts of the Republic 
 of the United States a measure of education, as truly as 
 have States and counties and school districts, in securing 
 to youth living in all parts of their respective boundaries, 
 a certain degree of school instruction indispensable to 
 good citizenship in a republic. 
 
 Jefferson, at times, indulged in bright hopes for the 
 future of his country. Writing to Madison, under date 
 of April 27th, 1809, he pictured the United States an- 
 
376 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 nexing Cuba and all the territory north of the United 
 States. He then said : " We should have such an 
 empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the 
 creation ; and I am persuaded that no constitution was 
 ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive 
 empire and self-government." In another letter, written 
 to his French friend, M. de Marbois, under date of June 
 14th, 1 8 1 7, Jefferson wrote: "I have much confidence 
 that we shall proceed successfully for ages to come, and 
 that, contrary to the principle of Montesquieu, it will be 
 seen that the larger the extent of country, the more firm 
 its republican structure, if founded, not on conquest, but 
 in principle of compact and equality. My hope of its 
 duration is built much on the enlargement of the re- 
 sources of life going hand in hand with the enlargement 
 of territory, and the belief that men are disposed to live 
 honestly, if the means of doing so is open to them." 
 
 Madison and Monroe, as well as Jefferson, — although 
 they could have had but a faint idea of the wonders 
 wrought by telegraphs and railroads, — were deeply im- 
 pressed with the adaptability of a republican form of 
 government to a very large area of territory. The learned 
 Madison, writing when far advanced in years, — in the year 
 1833, — after making a very able argument illustrating 
 how well a representative government such as that of 
 the United States was suited to be applied to a large 
 territory, thoughtfully added: "It will not be denied, 
 that the improvements already made in internal naviga- 
 tion by canals and steamboats, and in turnpikes and 
 railroads have virtually brought the most distant parts of 
 the Union, in its present extent, much closer together 
 than they were at the date of the Federal Constitution. 
 It is not too much to say, that the facility and quickness 
 of intercommunication throughout the Union is greater 
 
OF THE UNITED STA TES. 
 
 177 
 
 now than it formerly was between the remote parts of the 
 State of Virginia."* If Madison, one of the most gifted 
 statesmen of the age in which he lived, could, when the 
 invention of railroads was but in its infancy, thus write, 
 it is not perhaps too much to say that when the railroad 
 systems of North and South America are united by means 
 of a railroad running longitudinally across the great 
 American isthmus which, as a vast natural bridge, unites 
 them, the American continent will be practically not as 
 large, in various respects, as was the Republic of the 
 United States before the days of railroads and of tele- 
 graphs. And yet the area of the American continent, 
 including the area of the West India Islands, is, as has 
 been seen, about 15,099,480 square miles. 
 
 The Republic of the United States may already be 
 considered one of the wealthiest, if not indeed the 
 wealthiest, power in the world. In the year 1884 its 
 fortune, so to speak, — that is, the aggregate wealth of 
 its citizens, — was estimated f to be two and one-fifth 
 times as great as that of the German Empire's, and to 
 be ten thousand million dollars larger even than the 
 wealth of Great Britain. The United States, however, 
 is a power which, happily for the peace of the world, 
 confines its sphere of action to the political affairs of the 
 western hemisphere. 
 
 On the entire American continent in the year 1880, — 
 including about 4,412,703 people in the vast area of 
 Canada, and over 50,000,000 of people in the United 
 States, and including about 4,412,703 people in the 
 West India Islands, — there was a population of about 
 99.4 I 7»5 2 4 people, — a number which is but a very small 
 fraction of the hundreds of millions of people who may 
 
 * Madison's Works, vol. iv., p. 329. 
 
 f See the Scientific American, number dated the 2 1st of September, 1S89. 
 
37S AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 be expected to live on the American continent within the 
 next few hundred years. In the year 1880 the population 
 of America was less than was probably the population of 
 Russia. It was many millions less than half of the number 
 of people in the British Empire in India. It was but a 
 small fraction of the population of the empire of China, — 
 and yet the American continent is destined to become 
 the home of a much vaster number of people, there is 
 reason to believe, than the soil of Asia and Europe united 
 can support. 
 
 The day is fast hastening onward when all the West 
 India islands — islands which aside from their commercial 
 value are greatly needed by the United States for stra- 
 tegic purposes — may, with Central and South America, 
 be led, by natural laws of self-interest, to join the United 
 States in forming a republic which will embrace the west- 
 ern hemisphere. 
 
 A continental republic involves the idea of a great union 
 of American States under a constitution devised with 
 wonderful wisdom to give effect to the just wishes, and to 
 promote the happiness and the well-being, of American 
 citizens. To picture such a republic in a worthy manner 
 would require the noblest eloquence. One could wish to 
 speak of how the almost boundless natural resources of 
 the American continent would be evoked as if by magic ; 
 how such a republic would become the home of friends 
 of civil and religious liberty from all parts of the world ; 
 how near to each other would be brought its most distant 
 parts by means of railroads ; how when one State had 
 any grievance against another it could, instead of main- 
 taining a standing army which might be used against the 
 liberties of the people, submit its cause before the Supreme 
 Court of the United States — the most just and learned 
 tribunal of arbitration that can be imagined. One could 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 379 
 
 wish to speak of some of the innumerable advantages 
 which the people of a hemisphere would realize by using 
 a common coinage and enjoying with each other the freest 
 trade imaginable, and how rich might be the constitutional 
 provision made for the public instruction of youth destined 
 to be citizens of America — indeed, for instruction which 
 would greatly help tar make the people of a continent 
 homogeneous, and to imbue youth, in the best sense of 
 the word, with American principles. One could wish to 
 especially picture the happy working in all parts of a 
 continent of a wonderfully well contrived — a sublimely 
 beneficent — mechanism of self-government ; — but suffice 
 it to say, that the world will, when such a republic is 
 established, see with admiration one of the grandest 
 achievements of American statesmanship. 
 
 It may again be asked, Is it possible for American citi- 
 zens to elaborate a practicable plan by which the blessing 
 of school instruction will be secured to the youth of every 
 part of a vast empire ? This is a question upon the solu- 
 tion of which, it is highly probable, depends the destiny 
 of the dearest interests of civil liberty in the new world. 
 Happily, it is believed that this question can be answered 
 in the affirmative. Yes, the present generation of Ameri- 
 cans can, as far as it is possible for mortals to ensure 
 blessings to their posterity, secure the happiness and 
 well-being of the unnumbered millions of people who 
 are to live on the western hemisphere. Let a wisely 
 worded provision be incorporated into the Constitution 
 of the United States, making it the specific duty of the 
 national government to duly cherish the interests of 
 learning in all the States and Territories beneath the 
 American flag. Let the people in all parts of America 
 take an intelligent and patriotic interest in seeing to it 
 that the national and State governments and the humblest 
 
380 AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 school districts shall, in the years to come, co-operate in 
 happy harmony in cherishing, — each in its respective 
 sphere, — the cause of true learning in the western hemi- 
 sphere. In short, let all well-wishers of their country 
 take something of the same praiseworthy interest in the 
 education of youth as did Thomas Jefferson, and republi- 
 can institutions may be expected to realize, even more 
 than they do at the present day, a grand ideal of a 
 noble destiny. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 Abolition, 217, 21S, 224, 243, 266, 
 269, 271 
 
 Adams, C. F., 135 ; John, 12, 16, 24, 
 42, 171, 1S3, 346, 35S ; John ()., 
 242 
 
 Africa, 366 
 
 Agriculture, study of, 195 
 Alabama, illiteracy in, 302 ; slave law, 
 299 
 
 Alliance, Holy, 28, 29 
 Almamon, Caliph, 149 
 Alumni, N. C. University, 103 
 Amendment to Constitution proposed 
 
 by Grant, 374 
 American state papers, 44 
 Apparatus, philosophical, 1C0 
 Arabic education, 150 
 Arago, 27S 
 
 " Articles of Association," 215 
 Astronomy, 153 
 Austro-llungary, 364 
 
 B 
 
 Baldwin, Judge, 40 
 
 Barbour, Literary Fund, 328 
 
 Barlow, 3 
 
 Barrow, 267 
 
 Barry, 115 
 
 Bell, 95 
 
 Benezet, 222 
 
 Beugless, J. D., 136 
 
 Bible, 33, 84, 104, 138, 145, 286, 310 
 
 Bill, for better diffusion of knowledge, 
 
 36, 114 ; against slavery, 244, 249 ; 
 
 school, 1779, 1 Si 7, 344 
 Black, Joseph, 55, 59, 61 
 Black Belt, illiteracy in, 304 
 Blaine, 92, 93 
 Bland, 257 
 Bolivar, 6 
 
 Boulton, Matthew, 58 
 
 Books, forbidden, 14 ; on government, 
 
 for N. E., 166 
 Boutwell, 97 
 Botany, study of, 199 
 [ Brazier, 147 
 Breckenridge, Gen., 42, 124, 129 
 Bright, John, 294, 333 
 Bulls, 7, 137 
 Bureau of Education, 31 
 Burgoyne, 10 
 
 C 
 
 Cabell, J. C, 38, 124, 126, 129, 321 
 
 Cadiz, 16 
 
 Calhoun, 276 
 
 Calonne, 16 
 
 Calvin, 5 
 
 Cardinals, 89 
 
 Carr, 6 
 
 Carthagena, 13 
 
 Cayenne, emancipation in, 17, 19 
 Central America, 373 
 Central College, 38 
 Chadwick's estimate, 101 
 Charlotteville, 40 
 Chase, 344 
 Chastellux, 251 
 Chemistry, 159 
 Chicago, 333 
 China, 313, 339, 366 
 Chiriqui Lagoon, 290 
 Cholera, 159 
 
 Church and State, in Spain, 28, 29 ; 
 
 alliance of, 107, 137, 176 
 Cincinnati, 333 ; society, 108 
 Civil, liberty, 1, 173 ; denned, 162 ; 
 
 service, 85 ; abuses foreseen by 
 
 Jefferson, 338 
 Clarkson, 222 
 j Clay, 5, 21 
 
 Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 293 
 
 381 
 
382 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cleveland, 370 
 Clinton, 326 
 Coke, Gen., 129 
 
 Coles, 253, 260, 278, 294, 301, 311 
 
 Colet, 139, 141, 199 
 
 Columbia College, 46, 173, 184 
 
 Columbus, 102, 366 
 
 Commission of Inquiry, 5 ; on Site for 
 
 University, 40 
 Confucius, 340 
 
 Congress, 77, 80, 84, 92 ; library, 336 
 Conspiracy, 90 
 
 Constitutional provisions for educa- 
 tion, 350, 353, 355, 356, 363, 368, 
 
 371, 374, 379 
 Continental Congress, enactment on 
 
 schools, 248 
 Convocation against heretics, 141 
 Copernicus, 154 
 Coray, 15 
 Cornell, Ezra, 82 
 
 Corporations, secular and religious, 85 
 
 Cortez, 31, 32 
 
 Cottcn-gin, 96 
 
 Coxe, Tench, 290 
 
 Cuba, 220 ; annexation, 375, 376 
 
 Curtis, G. W., 2S0 
 
 Czatoryski, Adam, 29 
 
 D 
 
 Dade, 130 
 Daguerre, 91 
 Dana, 7S, 83 
 Daubney, 74 
 Davis, Jeff., 276, 304 
 Day, 70 
 DeBrasa, 220 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 214 
 
 Delaware, illiteracy in, 306 
 
 Denizon, 207 
 
 Dexter Samuel, 226 
 
 Dick, Thomas, 54 
 
 Dolbear, 95 
 
 Douglas, 23 1 
 
 Draper, 91 
 
 Dunglison, Dr., 25s 
 
 Dupont de Nemours, 9, 29 ; his plan 
 
 for national education in U. S., 30, 
 
 32, 34, 353 
 Dwight, 71 
 
 E 
 
 Edinburgh University, 37 
 
 Education, Bureau of, 31 ; secretary 
 for, 31 ; primary, 67 ; not to be 
 left to private effort, 113 ; of poor 
 in Ken., 119 ; and duties on luxu- 
 ries, 164 ; in slave States, 296 et 
 seq.; a State duty, 312 ; compulsory, 
 348 
 
 Educational, advantages of American 
 statesmen, 45 ; amendment to Con- 
 stitution, 374, 375 
 
 Electricity, 69, 75, 77, 81, 96,154, 159 
 
 Elgin, Earl of, 87 
 
 Eliot, Pres., 138 
 
 Ellsworth, Miss, 80 
 
 Engineers, 104, 112, 194 
 
 English Bible, 9 
 
 English, language, 363 ; professors, 
 
 203 
 Erasmus, 140 
 Europe, languages, in, 365 
 
 F 
 
 Ferdinand VII., 29 
 
 Field, C. W\, 87 
 
 Florida, illiteracy in, 303 
 
 Franklin, 10, 16, 24, 46, 60, 16S, 243 
 
 Franklin Institute, 75, 159 
 
 Freedman's Bureau bill, 310 
 
 French, Academy of Sciences, 77, As- 
 sembly, iS, 22 ; language, 202 ; 
 nobles, 110; people, 113; Revolu- 
 tion, 9, 24, 26, 30 ; treasury, 30 
 
 Frith, John, 143 
 
 G 
 
 Gail, 74 
 
 Galileo, 102, 132, 153 
 Galleja, 6 
 
 Garfield, 31, 93, 134, 1S1 
 
 Geneva, College, 37, 1S6; arbitration, 
 
 50 
 
 Geologists, 155 
 
 Georgia, slave law, 297 ; illiteracy in, 
 
 303, 304 
 German language, 138 
 Germany, emperor of, 19 ; indebted 
 
 to Jefferson, 3 
 Giles, 210 
 Gillespie, 274 
 Gilmer, 120 
 
 Girls, reading a qualification for citizen- 
 ship for, 344 
 
INDEX. 
 
 383 
 
 Gladstone, 132, 333 
 
 Glasgow, 54 
 
 Graham, Mme., 17 
 
 Grammar school in Albemarle Co., 37 
 
 Gray, F. C., 275 
 
 Greece, 15 
 
 Greek and Latin, 133, 134, 135, 147 
 Greenock, 54 ; library, 65 
 Grocyn, 139 
 Guanaxuato, 6 
 Guatemala, 373 
 
 Guizot, 32 ; history of education, 33 
 H 
 
 Hall, John, 72 
 Hamilton, 19 
 Hebrew, 136, 145 
 Henry, 79, 83 
 
 High schools, 66, 95, 104, 1 12, 116, 
 
 121 
 Hindi, 365 
 Hispaniola, 220 
 History, teaching of, 174 el seq. 
 Holland, 53, 64 
 Hollis, 166 
 
 Houdetot,. Mme. d', 32 
 
 Hughes, T., 333 
 
 Huguenots, 19, 222 
 
 Humboldt, A., 2, 3, 7, 8, 78, 300 ; 
 
 W., 2, 3 
 Huss, 104 
 Hutton, 30 
 
 I 
 
 Ideal university, 131 
 
 Illiteracy, Guizot on, 33 ; in Italy, 89 ; 
 in Mass., 347 ; in United States in 
 1870-1880, 307 ; in United States, 
 361 
 
 Illiterate nations, 35, 346 
 
 Index expurgalorius , Spanish, 14 
 
 India, 365 
 
 Indians, and English language, 367 ; 
 
 in need of obligatory education, 367; 
 
 policy towards, 368, 369 
 Inquisition, 13, 14, 161 
 Inventions, 53, 68 ; money value of, 
 
 95, 99 
 
 Italian language, 130, 138 
 Iturbide, 25 
 
 J 
 
 Jacobins, 18 
 
 Jay, 13, 168, 218, 243 
 
 Jefferson, on education and civil lib- 
 erty, 12 ; to A. von Humboldt, 3 ; 
 on New Spain, 4, 7, 8 ; sketch of 
 Kosciuszko, 10 ; to Kosciuszko on 
 priestcraft in New Spain, 12 ; to 
 John Adams on slave trade, 16 ; to 
 Lafayette on constitution for France, 
 21, 22 ; to Lafayette on bigotry and 
 self-government, 23 ; to John Adams 
 on passive submission to kings and 
 priests, 25 ; to Lafayette on free 
 press, 28 ; to De Onis on education 
 as qualification for citizenship, 29 ; 
 requests Dupont de Nemours to pre- 
 pare a plan for national education, 
 30 ; enlightenment the true basis for 
 government, 31 ; ignorance and free- 
 dom incompatible, 35 ; signs bills for 
 appropriations for universities and 
 schools, 37 ; generosity to Central 
 College, 38 ; to Virginia Legislature 
 urging appropriations for the uni- 
 versity, 38, 39 ; rector of the uni- 
 versity, 41 ; urges the founding of a 
 university in Washington, 44 ; his 
 ■ report on site for State university, 
 48 ; on advantages of well directed 
 education, 105 ; on the importance 
 of the sciences, 107 ; to Wythe on 
 ignorance and superstition, 113; on 
 the men needed for a republic, 1 14 ; 
 on primary schools, 124 ; his coad- 
 jutors in founding the university, 
 125 ; his hopes resting on the cause 
 of learning, 127 ; on Cabell's re- 
 tirement, 129 ; his fears for the 
 university, 129 ; his self-sacrificing 
 labors for the university, 131 ; on 
 broadening the basis of educational 
 establishments, 132 ; on electives, 
 133 ; on Greek and Latin, 134, 147 ; 
 to Brazier on the same, 147 ; on 
 mathematics, 149 ; on sciences, in 
 his Sixth Message, 156 ; interest in 
 chemistry, 157 ; on study of science 
 of government, 160 ; opposition to 
 public debts, 165 ; his interest in 
 study of history, 174 et seq.; to John 
 Adams on courses of study, 183 ; 
 consults T. Cooper on plan for uni- 
 
384 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jefferson {Continued'). 
 
 versity, 184 ; consults Pictet on the 
 same, 185 ; his plan for transporting 
 the Univ. of Geneva to Virginia, 
 186 ; to Priestley on scheme for uni- 
 versity, 187 ; on technical instruc- 
 tion, 191, 193 ; on botany, 199 ; on 
 study of languages, 201 ; on English, 
 202; on physical culture, 203; wishes 
 to get English professors, 203 ; to 
 Roscoe on the same, 205 ; to Eve- 
 lyn Denizon, 207 ; Dunglison on, 
 208; unsectarian, 210; abhorrence 
 for slavery, 213 ; his essay on the 
 " Rights of Englishmen," 213 — pro- 
 scribed, 214 ; draught of Declara- 
 tion, 214 ; on the king of England, 
 214 ; on importation of slaves, 216 ; 
 plan for educating the colored peo- 
 ple, 223 ; entertains Melbourn at 
 Monticello, 224 ; emancipation bill 
 of 1767, 243 ; inherits but never 
 buys slaves, 243 ; bill to exclude 
 slaves from Western territory, 244 — 
 its failure, 244 ; on abolition in Vir- 
 ginia, 245 ; on colony at Muskin- 
 gum, 247 ; on influence of slavery, 
 249, 252 ; Coles to Jefferson, 255 ; 
 Jefferson to Coles, 256 ; to Banna- 
 ker, 267 ; to Holmes, 268 ; to Miss 
 Wright on abolition, 269 ; quoted 
 by Lincoln, 282 ; his provision for 
 education of colored people, 301 ; 
 to Washington on national instruc- 
 tion, 312 ; on local government in 
 N. E., 319 ; on schools and local 
 government, 320 ; and the Literary 
 Fund, 328 ; to Wyche on value of 
 a library as educator, 331 ; offers his 
 own library to government, 336 ; re- 
 port of 18 16 on public instruction A 
 343; proposes gratuitous instruction) 
 344 ; educational bill of 1817, 348^ 
 on national education, 351 ; on del 
 voting a portion of national revenue 
 to education, 352 ; suggests educa- 
 tional amendment to Constitution, ' 
 353 ; signs bills for universities in 
 Ohio and Tenn., 353 ;. Jefferson 
 College, 354 ; signs bill for support 
 of common schools, 355 ; argues for 
 educational amendment in Va. con- 
 stitution, 358 ; to Monroe on spread 
 
 of English, 364 ; Indian policy op- 
 posed to reservations, 369; education 
 for Indians, 370 ; desire for estab- 
 lishment of national-school fund, 
 375 
 
 Jerome of Prague, 104 
 Jeronimites, 220 
 Jesuits, 19, 123 
 Johnson, 86 
 Jullien, 302 
 Jury system, 348 
 
 K 
 
 Kames, 168 
 
 Kansas, progress of, 328 
 
 Kentucky, 119, 124 ; school system, 
 
 115 ; illiteracy in, 306 
 Kepler, 154 
 King, Rufus, 246 
 King's College, see Columbia 
 Knox, 54 
 
 Kosciuszko, 10, 11, 173 
 L 
 
 Lafayette, 14, 16, 18, 21 ; Mme., 19 
 
 Lamps, see petroleum 
 
 Las Casas, 219 
 
 Latent heat, 55 
 
 Lawyers, 104, 112 
 
 Leland's " Jack Nips," 226 
 
 Lewis, S. S., 120 
 
 Libraries, 193, 206, 329, 331 ; Con- 
 gress, 336 
 Lieber, 162 
 Lima, 13 
 Linacre, 139 
 
 Lincoln, 249, 278, 281, 290, 291 ; 
 
 on reading the Bible, 310 
 Lincoln, Earl of, 87 
 Livingston, E., 209 
 Local government in N. E., 319, 360 
 Locomotive, Watts', 67, 105 
 Louisiana, purchase of, 30 ; slave law, 
 
 299 ; illiteracy in, 303 ; colored 
 
 population, 362 
 Louis Philippe, 21 
 Louis XVI. , 18 ; XVIII. , 20 
 Lukens, 75 
 Luther, 104, 145 
 
 M 
 
 McClellan, G. B., 286 
 
INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 McLean, 71 
 
 Madison, 38, 115, 1 19, 120, 171, 200, 
 
 260, 289, 375, 376 
 Manzanedo, Bernardino de, on slavery, 
 
 220 
 
 Marbois, de, 376 
 
 Marie Antoinette, 18 
 
 Marshall, on value of the cotton-gin, 
 
 96, 226, 288 
 Martin, V., 220 
 Martin, W., 342 
 
 Massachusetts, 125, 217, 358; consti- 
 tution of, 347, 358 
 Mathematics, 149 
 Medicine, 194, 208 
 Medill, J., 334 
 Melbourn, 224 
 Meusnier, de, 245 
 Mexico, 8, 13, 223, 373 
 Military evolutions, 203 
 Mill, J. S., 345 
 Minneapolis, 333 
 
 Mississippi, illiteracy in, 303 ; colored 
 population in, 362 
 
 Missouri, illiteracy in, 306 ; com- 
 promise, 249 
 
 Mitchell, 203 
 
 Monopoly, 85 
 
 Monroe, 5, 38, 201, 252, 265, 2S8, 
 354; doctrine, 5, 164, 242, 290, 
 364, 376 
 
 More, Sir T., 140 
 
 Morse, 68, 69 ; at Yale, 70, 71, 72 ; 
 on his invention, 73 ; to Woodbury, 
 74 ; before Congress, 77, 79, 80, 81 ; 
 to Pres. Day, 88, 92 
 
 Motley, 7, 176 
 
 Miiller, Max, 138 
 
 Mussulmans, 149 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon I., 4, 18, 24, 78 ; III., 79 
 
 National aid to education, 309, 352, 
 354. 37 1 ! State schools, 360 ; uni- 
 versity, 44, 167, 337 
 
 Navigation, 102 
 
 New England townships, 316 
 
 New Granada, 293 
 
 New York, school laws, 325 ; slavery 
 
 in, 217 
 Nicaragua, 293 
 Nicholas, Gov., 320 
 
 Northampton, Marquis of, S7 
 
 North Carolina, sLve law, 29S ; il- 
 literacy in, 303, 305 
 
 " Notes on Virginia," 2, 35, 64, 179, 
 249 
 
 Novels, 335 
 
 O 
 
 Obligatory education, 348 
 Onis, de, 28 
 
 P 
 
 Pagonel, 26 
 Parthenon, see Lewis 
 Patterson, R. M., 75 
 Petroleum, 97, 98, 99 
 Philadelphia, 46 
 Photography, 91 
 Physicians, 104, 112, 114 
 Pickering, 246 
 Pictet, Prof., 185 
 Pirn, Commander, 9 
 Pitt, 45 
 
 " Pocket Dagger of the Christian 
 
 Soldier," 144 
 Poland, 10 
 Polk, 81 
 
 Pope, 89, 137, 144, 149, 151, 220 
 Portuguese, 138 
 Price, 252 
 Priestley, 186 
 
 Priests, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 25, 90, 107, 
 
 113, 114, 158 
 Prime, I., 70 
 Prince of Wales, 70 
 Princeton College, 103 
 Prussia, school system, 2, 3, 205 
 
 Q 
 
 Quakers, 266 
 
 R 
 
 Railway, intercontinental, 377 
 Ramsay, 169 
 
 Randolph, John, 24 ; T. H., 57 ; P., 
 
 58 
 
 Reed, 244 
 
 Reformers, 104 ; on classics, 146 
 Renwick, 71 
 
 Report on university, 49, 200 
 Republic, principles of, 9, 356 ; con- 
 tinental, 378 
 
386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Republican form of government, 362 ; 
 
 institutions, 380 
 Rice, 125 
 Robison, 55, 59 
 Roebuck, Dr., 57 
 Romance languages, 138 
 Romanism, Morse on, 89 
 Romish, Church, 142 ; ecclesiastical 
 
 corporations, 85, 123, 142, 346 
 Roscoe, 205 
 Rush, Dr., 346 
 
 Russia, 11 ; communities in, 314, 
 365 
 
 S 
 
 Sanitary science, 101 
 St. Louis, 335 
 
 Sciences in University of Va., 153 
 et seq. 
 
 Scientific discovery, 156 
 Scott, Walter, 66 
 
 Scotland, inventions and schools in, 
 64 
 
 Schools, in South America, 8 ; in 
 Poland, 11 ; in Va., 33, 35, 120, 
 123, 124 ; in Holland and Scotland, 
 54; in N. Y., 121 ; land grants 
 for, 165 ; in Kansas, 327 ; in China, 
 339 ; in Indiana, 354 ; Western 
 territory, 246 
 
 Self-government, 1, 23, 379 ; in Great 
 Britain, 314 
 
 Seward, 113, 115, 121 ; on education 
 in N. Y., 249 
 
 Sherman, Roger, 47 
 
 Silliman, 71, 98 
 
 Simson, 55 
 
 Slavery, in South America, 7, 220 ; 
 in U. S., 213, 273 ; in Western ter- 
 ritory, 246, 247 ; in 111., 266 
 
 Slave trade, 216 ; encouraged by Eng- 
 lish sovereigns, 221 
 
 Small, Prof, 57 
 
 Smith, Adam, 345 ; J. O. F., 77 
 South America, independence in, 5, 
 
 7, 9, 12 ; debasing education in, 6, 
 
 14 
 
 South Carolina, slave law, 295, 300 ; 
 illiteracy in, 303, 305 ; colored pop- 
 ulation in, 362 
 
 Spaight, 244 
 
 Spain, 5, -23, 28, 29 ; slave treaty 
 with England, 221 
 
 Spanish constitution and education, 
 30, 31 ; language, 138, 202 
 
 Sparks, Jared, 267 
 
 Spencer, J. C, 81 
 
 Stanislas Augustus, 29 
 
 Statesmen, 103, 137, 162 
 
 Steam-engine, 57 ; legal dispute about, 
 59. 64 
 
 Stephens, A. H., 284 
 
 Stephensons, 67 
 
 Supreme Court, 378 
 
 Sylvester, Pope, 150 
 
 Symmes, J. C., 248 
 
 T 
 
 " Tableaux de la Nature," 3 
 
 Tappan, H. A., 74 
 
 Tax for benefit of schools, 114, 128, 
 
 210, 308 
 Taxation, 85, 165 
 Technical instruction, 194 
 Telegraph, see Morse ; operators, 96 ; 
 
 P. O., 74, 85 
 Telescope, 102 
 The Sun Dial, 84 
 Thucydides, 45 
 Torunda, de, 28 
 Tourgee, 305 
 
 Treaty of 1782, of 1803, 30 
 Trees and plants, useful, 196 
 Truancy laws, 350 
 Tucker, 271 
 Turgot, 30 
 Tyler, Gov., 319 
 Tyndale, 141, 142, 145 
 
 U 
 
 U. S. Constitution framed by cul- 
 tured men, 45 ; Congress and tele- 
 graph, 80 
 
 University, advantages of, "50 ; im- 
 portance of, 53 ; indirect 'influence 
 of, 68, 69 ; influence "bn science of 
 navigation, 102 ; influence on 
 schools, 105 
 
 University, of N. C, 103 ; Pavia, 
 102 ; Oxford, 139 ; Penn., 46 ; Va., 
 39, 43, 151, 189, 207 : to admit 
 colored people, 241 ; Washington,, 
 proposed, 44, 167 ; Western, pro- 
 posed, 248 
 
INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Vail, 76, 82 
 
 Victoria, Queen, 333 
 
 Virginia, 126 ; Assembly, 31, 38, 117, 
 215 ; code, 113, 186 ; slave law, 
 297, 300 ; illiteracy in, 303, 304 ; 
 schools, 120-128 
 
 Volta, 78 
 
 Voting, reading a qualification for, 
 344, 362 
 
 \V 
 
 Walker, 75 
 Wardon, 26 
 Warville, 224 
 Washburne, E. B., 279 
 Washington, 16, 17, 35, 48, 167, 171 
 Watt, James, 53, 59 ; inventions, 61 ; 
 
 Jeffrey on, 62 ; statue, 65 ; Scott 
 
 on, 66 
 
 Welch, 143 
 Wesley, 276 
 
 West Indies, 4, 276, 288, 377 
 
 West Point, 354 
 
 West Virginia, illiteracy, 306 
 
 Wheatstone, 95 
 
 Whitney, Eli, 96 
 
 Wickliff, 104, 139 
 
 William and Mary, College of, 252, 
 253 
 
 Williams, S. Wells, 339 
 Williamson, 244 
 Wirt, 226 
 Wolsey, 141 
 
 Women, at universities, 150 
 Worden, 3 
 
 Vale College, 69, 70, 95, 98