Thomas Jefferson to Virgil Maxcy, 20 November 1822
To Virgil Maxcy
Monticello Nov. 20. 22.
Sir
I have duly recieved your letter of the 8th and with it a copy of your pamphlet on the Maryland resolutions. it is a subject admitting much to be said on both sides, and it is ably advocated in the tract you are so kind as to send me. the mode of execution you suggest will relieve weighty difficulties.1 With a body and mind in the wane of 80 years it is my duty as well as inclination to retire from the controversies of the world, leaving the choice of measures to those who are to live under them, and confidently trusting2 that they will do ultimately what is for the best. the enterprise in which I am engaged on behalf of science for my own state3 is perhaps beyond what, at my age, I ought to have undertaken. but I have able coadjutors on whose shoulders I can safely rest it when my own fail. the advancement of science is my first wish, and I am sure we are not the people we should be, had we more of it among us. with my thanks for the favor of your pamphlet accept the assurance of my great respect.
Th: Jefferson
RC (DLC: Galloway-Maxcy-Markoe Papers); addressed: “T. Maxcy esquire Tulip hill near Annapolis”; franked; postmarked Charlottesville, 23 Nov. Dft (MoSHi: TJC-BC); on verso of top half of reused address cover of Patrick Gibson to TJ, 27 Aug. 1821.
For the equitable distribution of funds resulting from the sale of public lands, Maxcy suggested a mode of execution based on a “compound ratio of population and extent of territory … In other words, let one half of the proceeds of the aggregate quantity of land, which shall be assigned to satisfy the just claims of the states, which have yet had no grants for the purposes of education, be distributed amongst them according to their federal numbers, and the other half according to their extent of territory respectively” ([Maxcy], The Maryland Resolutions, and the Objections to Them Considered [Baltimore, 1822], 36–7).
1. Sentence interlined in Dft.
2. Preceding two words interlined in Dft in place of “confiding securely on the assurance.”
3. Preceding four words interlined in Dft.
Index Entries
- education; and public land search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; receives works search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Opinions on; education search
- Maryland; and education search
- Maxcy, Virgil; and public education search
- Maxcy, Virgil; letter to search
- Maxcy, Virgil; The Maryland Resolutions, and the Objections to Them Considered search
- The Maryland Resolutions, and the Objections to Them Considered (V. Maxcy) search
- United States; and public education search
- United States; and public lands search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; TJ’s vision for search