Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 22 January 1820
To Joseph C. Cabell
Monticello Jan. 22. 20.
Dear Sir
I send you the inclosed as an exhibit to our enemies as well as friends. Kentucky, our daughter, planted since Virginia was a distinguished state, has an University, with 14. professors & upwards of 200 students. while we, with a fund of a million & a half of Dollars, ready raised and appropriated, are higgling without the heart to let it go to it’s use. if our legislature does not heartily push our University, we must send our children for education to Kentucky or Cambridge. the latter will return them to us fanatics & tories, the former will keep them to add to their population.1 if however we are to go a begging any where for our education, I would rather it should be to Kentucky than any other state, because she has more of the flavor of the old cask than any other. all the states but our own are sensible that knolege is power. the Missouri question is for power. the efforts now generally making thro’ [all]2 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 overwhelming mass of light & science by which we shall be surrounded. it is a comfort that I am not to live to see this.—our exertions in building this last year have amounted to the whole of the public annuity of this year, for which therefore we have been obliged to draw to relieve the actual distresses of our workmen; and the subscriptions come in slow & grudgingly.3 you know that we are to pay Dr Cooper 1500.D. in May, and his family will depend on it for subsistence in his absence. we have been obliged therefore to set apart, as our only sure dependance, 6. particular4 subscriptions on the punctuality of which we can depend, to wit, yours, mr Madison’s, Genl Cocke’s, mr Divers’s, John Harris’s, & mine, which exactly make up the money. affectly yours
Th: Jefferson
RC (ViU: TJP); addressed: “Joseph C. Cabell esq. of the Senate of Virginia now in Richmond”; franked; postmarked Charlottesville, 25 Jan.; endorsed by Cabell. PoC (DLC); on verso of reused address cover to TJ; torn at seal, with two words rewritten by TJ; endorsed by TJ. Printed anonymously in Richmond Enquirer, 15 Feb. 1820, as an “Extract of a Letter from a distinguished gentleman in the Upper Country to a member of the General Assembly.”
kentucky was home to Transylvania University, which issued a broadside, probably the enclosure to this letter, entitled A Catalogue of Officers and Students in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, January 1st, 1820. It listed President Horace Holley and thirteen other faculty members, as well as all 235 students attending the preparatory department, the university, and the medical courses (broadside in MWA). The 15 Feb. 1820 Richmond Enquirer extract describes the enclosure as “A printed exhibit of the professors and students of the Transylvania University.” cambridge here refers to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The six subscriptions pledged to Central College and later transferred to the University of Virginia were each for $1,000, to be paid in four installments (Master List of Subscribers to Central College, [after 7 May 1817], document 5 in a group of documents on The Founding of the University of Virginia: Central College, 1816–1819, printed at 5 May 1817).
In a letter dated Farmington, 30 Jan. 1820, Hore Browse Trist wrote his brother, United States Military Academy cadet Nicholas P. Trist, that “obeying your directions, I carried your letter relating to Mr Crozet, to Mr Jefferson & having told him the subject, was offering it for perusal, when I was saluted with a ‘poh. poh! (or something like it) it is all needless, sir, we shall not engage professors for at least a year, all our endeavours will be used to get Mr Bodwich [i.e., Nathaniel Bowditch], should we not succeed in procuring him, Mr (I forget his name) has, from our knowledge of his capacity, the next best claim to the chair, at any rate we cannot engage any for at least a year’ your letter was not read; so you see there is but little chance for Mr Crozet. the university no doubt, will be ready for our progeny, but not for us. the buildings where [i.e., were] going on pretty well but money failed, & I beleive the workmen have, generally, been obliged to put a stop to their labours, they look for assistance from the Legislature, but the present state of the treasury, will exclude, from what I have heard, all aid from that quarter; the treasurer, Mr Preston has it seems made use of the public money, & there is a deficit of from eighty to 100000 $ in short from what I can hear, no professors can be employ’d for at least a year, not even Judge Cooper, it will therefore be useless for you to think any more about it. if money can be procured they will soon have accomodations ready for 100 students. If you desire further details on the subject write to me, and let me know precisely what you wish to hear, I promise you, to answer all your enquiries with all accuracy imaginable, for god’s sake, do not give me any more commissions to the old Patriarch” (RC in NcU: NPT).
1. Omitted period at right margin editorially supplied. Sentence heavily canceled in RC, presumably by Cabell prior to showing it to members of the Senate of Virginia as described in his response of 3 Feb. 1820. Sentence not in Richmond Enquirer. Canceled text supplied from PoC.
2. Word, not in RC or Richmond Enquirer, added by TJ in rewriting text at seal tear in PoC.
3. Richmond Enquirer extract ends here.
4. Word, not in PoC, interlined in RC.
Index Entries
- A Catalogue of Officers and Students in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, January 1st, 1820 search
- Bowditch, Nathaniel; and University of Virginia search
- Cabell, Joseph Carrington; and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Cabell, Joseph Carrington; and funding for University of Virginia search
- Cabell, Joseph Carrington; as Va. state senator search
- Cabell, Joseph Carrington; circulates TJ’s letters search
- Cabell, Joseph Carrington; letters to search
- Central College; subscription for search
- Cocke, John Hartwell (1780–1866); and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Cooper, Thomas; University of Virginia professorship proposed for search
- Crozet, Claudius; seeks position at University of Virginia search
- Divers, George; and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Harris, John (d.1832); and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Harvard University; and students from U.S. South search
- Holley, Horace; as president of Transylvania University search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; publication of papers search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Descriptions of; conversation search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; Missouri question search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; university in Va. search
- Madison, James (1751–1836); and Central College–University of Virginia subscription search
- Missouri question; TJ on search
- Preston, John (d.1827); as treasurer of Va. search
- Richmond Enquirer (newspaper); prints TJ’s correspondence search
- schools and colleges; Harvard University search
- schools and colleges; Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.) search
- subscriptions, nonpublication; for Central College–University of Virginia search
- Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.); A Catalogue of Officers and Students in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, January 1st, 1820 search
- Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.); TJ on search
- Trist, Hore Browse (1802–56); correspondence with N. P. Trist search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; and University of Virginia search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; correspondence with H. B. Trist search
- Virginia, University of; Administration and Financial Affairs; funding for search
- Virginia, University of; Construction and Grounds; dormitory rooms search
- Virginia, University of; Construction and Grounds; progress of search
- Virginia, University of; Construction and Grounds; wages for workmen search
- Virginia, University of; Faculty and Curriculum; faculty compensation search
- Virginia, University of; Faculty and Curriculum; mathematics professorship search
- Virginia, University of; Faculty and Curriculum; T. Cooper as proposed professor search
- Virginia; General Assembly search
- Virginia; Senate search
- Virginia; treasury of search