English culture in Virginia; a study of the Gilmer letters and an account of the English professors obtained by Jefferson for the University of Virginia

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Introduction

About a year ago the Editor of these Studies honored me by desiring my cooperation in the work he had undertaken with regard to the history of education in Virginia. I accordingly furnished two chapters for his monograph on " Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia," published by the United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 1, 1888. -But one seldom begins a line of investigation without being led to deeper research than he had at first intended ; and so it was in the present case.

This new and independent study has been mainly developed from the correspondence of Francis Walker Gilmer. Who Mr. Gilmer was and what he did — things worth knowing but known to very few — will appear fully hereafter, for even the author of a " study " may occasionally borrow a device from the novelist and keep his readers in suspense ; but it will be necessary to explain at the outset how the aforesaid correspondence came into my hands. The facts of the case are briefly these. Dr. Adams was informed by a gentlemen whom he had consulted about the work previously mentioned, that a volume of letters relating to the early history of the University of Virginia was in the hands of John Gilmer, Esquire, of Chatham, Virginia. A letter to that gentleman brought a courteous reply and the desired volume. Being much pressed by his professional and other duties, Dr. Adams handed me this voluminous correspondence with the request that I would examine it and express an opinion as to its value with regard to that period of the University's history on which he was specially engaged. I did examine it with great care, and found that, although it did not bear directly on the field of investigation Dr. Adams had chosen, it nevertheless

8 Introduction. [196

opened up a new field of hardly inferior interest. Upon this report Dr. Adams and Mr. Gilmer were kind enough to intrust the letters to me that I might complete, a study, the outlines of which were already developing themselves in my own mind. In a letter to my mother I alluded to the fact that this task had been confided to me. She at once wrote me that she was certain another volume of a similar character was in existence, and that she would endeavor to obtain it for me.

Her statement proved true and the companion volume is now in my hands through the kindness of Mrs. Emma Breckinridge, of " Grove Hill," Botetourt County, Virginia. Mrs. Breckinridge is a sister of Mr. John Gilmer and a daughter of Peachy Gilmer, the eldest brother of the subject of this sketch. This second volume is even more invaluable than the first as it contains all of Gilmer's own letters to Mr. Jefferson, &c, and also throws many valuable side lights upon the internal history of Virginia for the period from 1815 to 1825. How and why these letters, nearly 700 in number, were bound and preserved will appear in the sequel. It will be sufficient here to ask indulgence for the mistakes which have doubtless crept into my work, and to return my hearty thanks to the friends who have assisted me in an investigation not wanting in complexity and minute details.

William P. Trent.

The University of the South, December 1, 1888.

ENGLISH CULTURE IN VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER I.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY IDEA.

At the beginning of this century what culture Virginia had was not Virginian. This is not a Virginia bull, but a deplorable fact. There was no lack of great men or of highly cultivated men. A Virginian occupied the Presidential chair, and three others had it in reversion. Patrick Henry was dead, but John Randolph, by his eloquence and wit and sarcasm, was making Congress doubt whether it loved him or hated him. At the Richmond bar were Marshall and Wickham and Wirt, while at Norfolk men were beginning to prophesy great things of an eloquent young lawyer, — Littleton Waller Tazewell. There were hundreds of well educated men ridingover their plantations or congregating on court day either to hear or to make speeches — and even the bar of as small a place as Winchester could boast of speakers whom these educated men would willingly hear. Although there was a servile, ignorant mass beneath them, this could not then be helped, nor had the habits of inaction, thereby necessarily engendered, extended as fully as they afterwards did, to the affairs of mind. Travel was not uncommon. One old gentleman was " gigomaniac" enough to drive to Boston in his gig every other summer, the return visit of his New England friends being 2 9 made, it is supposed, during the summers his gig was mending. Although Mr. Jefferson and his colleagues had swept away every vestige they could of the feudal system, primogeniture iu education was an every day fact — unjust as primogeniture generally is, but still a bright spot in the history of education in Virginia. Not a few families managed to send one representative at least to Europe for study and travel, and that representative was usually the eldest son. If England seemed too far, one or more of the sons went to Princeton or to William and Mary — many shutting their eyes to the fact that the latter historic place was even then slowly dying. Edinburgh, of course, was the goal of a young medical student's desires ; but if he could not " compass this golden hope," Philadelphia was willing to receive him hospitably and to give him the benefit of her lectures and museums for a good round price. Books and libraries were not abundant; but the books were at least good, however exorbitant their cost — a serious item in the culture of a state fast ruining itself financially by an extravagant hospitality.

In some families it had been a custom to direct the factor in London to send back with the proceeds of the tobacco, a pipe of Madeira and a fixed amount of current literature — and hence it is that one occasionally comes across a rare first edition when rummaging the library of an old country house. Now if a boy had a taste for reading, he needed not to grow up an ignoramus even if he were not sent to college ; but if he preferred his gun and horse, there were few to thwart him, his father having to look after the estate, tutors and schoolmasters being rarae aves, and the mother having enough on her hands in the housekeeping and the bringing up of her daughters, who, though they knew nothing of moral philossophy and aesthetics, had, nevertheless read Pope and the Spectator, and kept in their memories household receipts of considerable claim to genealogical pride.

But I said that the culture in Virginia was not Virginian, and I have not sufficiently explained my meaning. I do not mean to imply the same reproach as is implied in the hackneyed invocation for "the great American novel." The culture in Virginia was naturally English modified by circumstances peculiar to a slaveholding, sparsely settled society. It was modified, too, by the birth of the feeling of independence and by the desire to try wings not fully fledged. All this was natural and is certainly not reprehensible. But there is another sense in which culture in Virginia was not Virginian, which if it does not imply reproach, must certainly cause a feeling of regret even to us of this late day. I refer to the almost universal lack of any primary and secondary instruction worthy of the name, and to the comparative lack of university instruction. William and Mary College had for many years done a great work in Virginia, but though buoyed up for a time by the wisdom of Mr. Jefferson as a visitor, and of Bishop Madison as president, its influence was fast waning and, before the first quarter of the century had gone by, was practically null. Hampden Sidney seems to have been little more than a high-school, and it has at all times been sectarian. Washington College (since Washington and Lee University) did not exert a large influence, 1 and hence it was that Princeton drew away sons from nearly every Virginia family of importance. When the foundation of a state university was being urged upon the legislature, a prominent Presbyterian clergyman of Richmond, Dr. Rice, made a calculation and found that over $250,000 were annually sent out of Virginia to support youths at the various foreign schools and colleges. This does not look as if many Virginians patronized the three institutions above mentioned ; but at any rate, it shows that a university of high grade was one of the needs of the people. 2

1 In one of the early volumes of Dr. Rice's " Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine " (I think the sixth) a short account of the studies pursued at this college and a list of the instructors will be found. From this the truth of the above statement will be apparent.

'See Dr. Adams' "Jefferson and the Univ. of Va.," p. 98.

With regard to secondary and primary instruction the outlook was decidedly worse. Towns like Richmond had, of course, fair schools ; but the country districts were almost entirely unprovided with even the rudest village schools. From a letter of John Taylor of Caroline, found among the Gilmer papers, I learned that there was a fairly prosperous boarding school in that county in 1817 — but this was the exception, not the rule. It is true that just before the beginning of the century the legislature had passed a law with regard to the establishment of primary schools ; but this law had been a dead letter because it was left to the county judges to decide whether such schools were necessary or not, and because the judges were, as might have been expected, either too conservative or too lazy to attend to such an innovation or such a small matter as a primary school. Education in Virginia, then, may be said to have been at a stand still, or rather on the decline, when Mr. Jeiferson gave up his federal honors and betook himself to Monticello. 1

The short annals of our country, however little they are attended to, are even in times of peace by no means destitute of " moving incidents ; " and, though for the reader's sake I forbear the usual quotation from Milton, I cannot refrain from dwelling upon one of them. Although one may doubt whether Jefferson's mind was of the highest order, it can hardly be denied that he has impressed his personality and his doctrines more strongly upon posterity than has any other American. Although his brilliant rival's influence is still to be felt in our federal finances, and although Andrew Jackson is the representative of many distinctively American political ideas, it would still seem that a larger number of our countrymen look to Jefferson as the leader of their November choral song than to any other of our statesmen, living

1 The laudable efforts of the Scotch Irish settlers to provide education for their families ought not to be overlooked ; but these men were poor and unable to accomplish great things.

or dead — and I know not of a better test of creative genius in politics. It was this man who left the sphere of national affairs to impress himself upon Virginia education ; and I cannot but contradict myself and say that his victory should be " no less renowned."

It is a glorious picture — to see a man who has tasted the sweetness of power, a man who could reasonably look forward to the ease and comfort of a dignified retirement, a man who, if he must work, might at least turn his talents to account in building up a fortune already shattered by an extravagant generosity, becoming the foremost in a movement, properly devolving on younger men, an arduous task well nigh impossible of success — the task of raising Virginia from the slough of ignorance and inaction. This he accomplished, and although it seems necessary for the authorities of the University of Virginia to state in their annual announcements that their institution was founded by Thomas Jefferson, there are a few men living who know the last work of the old patriot was as great and glorious as any of the successes of his vigorous manhood. 1 A short sketch of this work seems necessary as an introduction to the task I have undertaken of giving to the world some account of the labors

1 This cannot be said of his latest biographer, Mr. John T. Morse, Jr., who devotes only thirteen very general lines to what Mr. Jefferson deemed worthy to form one of the three services to his country for which posterity were to thank him when looking upon his tomb. Even a professedly political biography should have said more than this, for assuredly a statesman's attitude toward popular education must count for much when we come to estimate his statesmanship. Mr. James Parton devoted over eight pages to the subject and was thoughtful and painstaking enough to write to the chairman of the faculty (Col. C. S. Venable) for information about the University. In this connection it may not be amiss to quote Mr. Madison. "The University of Virginia, as a temple dedicated to science and liberty, was, after his retirement from the political sphere, the object nearest his heart and so continued to the close of his life. His devotion to it was intense and his exertions untiring. It bears the stamp of his genius and will be a noble monument of his fame." Madison's Writings, Cong. Ed. 1865, III, 533.

of one who was not the least of Mr. Jefferson's coadjutors in this work of Virginia's redemption.

About the year 1814 certain monies found themselves in the hands of the trustees of an institution still in embryo — the Albemarle Academy. These trustees were the leading men of the county and among them Mr. Jefferson towered — physically as well as intellectually. How to spend the money most profitably was, of course, the paramount question. In a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, one of the trustees, Jefferson sketched a plan of what Virginia education ought to be — a plan legitimately evolved from his bill of 1779 for the more general diffusion of knowledge. This letter was published in the Richmond Enquirer of September 7, 1814, and of course attracted great attention not only on account of the fame of its writer, but also on account of the wisdom and boldness of the scheme which it proposed. So comprehensive was this scheme that many a conservative head was shaken, some going so far as to say that the old philosopher was in his dotage. But no chemist has ever been more familiar with the properties of common substances, than was Mr. Jefferson with the characteristics of his fellow citizens. He knew the pulse of Virginia public opinion to a beat, and he felt that he would succeed through the very boldness of his plans. It was easy enough to persuade the trustees of Albemarle Academy to petition the legislature that a college might be substituted for a school — Central College also destined to remain in the embryo state. It was not difficult to obtain the consent of the legislature that Albermarle Academy should cease to be and Central College begin to be — for as yet that very sensitive nerve of the body politic, the financial nerve, had not been bunglingly touched. And so during the session of 1815-16 Central College in the County of Albermarle was duly established and given a board of trustees. Three members of this board have some claim to remembrance on the part of posterity — they were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. There were others, too, who shall not go unnoticed. Possibly many thought that the establishment of this new college near his favorite town of Charlottesville, which he would fain have had the capital of the state, would satisfy Mr. Jefferson and enable him to die in peace. But the shrewd old gentleman was by no means satisfied ; he bided his time, however, for now he saw light ahead, having a fellow workman whom his heart loved.

If Mr. Jefferson was the father of the University of Virginia Joseph Carrington Cabell certainly took infinite pains in teaching the child to walk. Born in 1778 of a distinguished and patriotic father, Colonel Nicholas Cabell, he was now (1817) in the prime of manhood. After graduating at William and Mary he had gone to Europe for his health, and, having recruited that, had studied in more than one of the leading universities. While in Switzerland, he had visited and conversed with Pestalozzi, and thus began that subtle connection of the University of Virginia with great men, which I hope to bring out strongly in the following pages. Meeting with President Jefferson on his return to this country, he began an intimacy which only ceased twenty years afterward at the death of the venerable statesman — an intimacy by which Mr. Jefferson was finally enabled to see his glorious idea realized in very fact.

Declining all offers of diplomatic position under the general government, Mr. Cabell plunged into the politics of his state, actuated by the idea so prevalent at the time that more distinction awaited the statesman in this circumscribed sphere than could possibly be obtained in the larger one of federal affairs. He was now an influential member of the state senate when Mr. Jefferson enlisted his aid in behalf of his pet schemes. That aid was willingly and efficiently vouchsafed, and has been commemorated by the publication of the Jefferson-Cabell Correspondence, a work containing valuable information but not so sifted and arranged as to be of much use to the general reader. 1 The rest of this chapter will, however, be mainly derived from it.

On July 28, 1817, a called meeting of the trustees of the Central College was held at Mr. Madison's seat, Montpelier, in Orange County. There were present Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Joseph C. Cabell, and John H. Cocke. The latter gentleman (1780-1866) was, from the beginning, a great friend to the university. He had attained some distinction in the war of 1812 as an efficient general, though inclining to the martinet. He was also known far and wide for his temperance proclivities. But we have more especially to notice the first steps taken toward importing culture into Virginia in the shape of efficient teachers. We find the following record spread upon the minutes of this meeting :

"It is agreed that application be made to Dr. Knox, of Baltimore, to accept the Professorship of Languages, Belles- Lettres, Rhetoric, History and Geography ; and that an independent salary of five hundred dollars, with a perquisite of twenty-five dollars for each pupil, together with chambers for his accommodation, be allowed him as a compensation for his services, lie finding the necessary assistant ushers."

If the reader be curious to know what kind of a Doctor this gentleman was, I take pleasure in informing him that he was a clergyman, and that, although the second man called to a chair in Mr. Jefferson's college was an undoubted liberal, the first was highly orthodox. I leave this fact to those who, after sixty years, have not ceased from the hue and cry raised when Dr. Cooper was elected a professor in Central College.

But although two deists voted for the Rev. Dr. Knox as the first professor in their new college, I would not have it supposed that Mr. Jefferson was not disappointed. The following extract from a letter to Mr. Cabell, of January 5,

1 " Early History of the University of Virginia as contained in the letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell, &c." Richmond, J. W. Randolph, 1856.

205] ftnglish Culture in Virginia. 17

1815, will give the reader some idea of what that disappointment must have been :

" I think I have it now in my power to obtain three of the ablest characters in the world to fill the higher professorships of what in the plan is called the second, or general grade of education ; [he refers here to his letter to Peter Can", which the reader can find in the Jefferson-Cabell correspondence, page 384] three such characters as are not in a single university of Europe ; and for those of languages and mathematics, a part of the same grade, able professors doubtless could also be readily obtained. With these characters, I should not be afraid to say that the circle of the sciences composing that second, or general grade, would be more profoundly taught here than in any institution in the United States, and I might go farther." ' The three characters alluded to were Say, the great economist, who had recently written to Mr. Jefferson, proposing to come and settle near Monticello, a design which he never carried out ; Dr. Thomas Cooper, of whom more anon ; and possibly, nay probably, the Abb6 Correa, a profound natural historian then lecturing in Philadelphia, and likely to be often introduced into these pages. 2 What wonder that Mr. Jefferson felt disappointed in having no one to vote for but Dr. Knox, of Baltimore !

The next meeting of the trustees was held at Charlottesville on the 7th of October, 1817, and we find the following entry, which is of importance to us :

1 Jefferson-Cabell Correspondence, p. 37.

2 Dr. Adams suggests, p. 65, that Destutt Tracy was the third character, because of his attainments as an " ideologist." This is by no means improbable ; but Correa was omniscient and the date of the above letter tallies so well with his visit to Monticello that I still hold to the above opinion. Besides the whole subject of moral philosophy would thus have been intrusted to a man not identified with our people — a thing which Jefferson was always opposed to. This objection would not have applied to Cooper, who could have taught Ideology, Law, and almost everything else — while Correa could have taught the rest ! Besides Say and Tracy would have clashed, both being economists.

" On information that the Rev. Mr. Knox, formerly thought of for a professor of languages, is withdrawn from business, the order of July the 28th is rescinded, and it is resolved to offer, in the first place, the professorship of Chemistry, &c, to Doct. Thomas Cooper of Pennsylvania, addiug to it that of law, with a fixed salary of $1,000, and tuition fees of $20 from each of his students, to be paid by them, &c." '

Here it seems proper to say a word or two with regard to this remarkable man. Doctor Thomas Cooper was born in London in 1759 and died in Columbia, S. C, in 1840. He practiced law in England, and was one of the representatives sent by the English democratic clubs to France during the Revolution. I find his different vocations summed up in an amusing way by a half mad philosopher and schoolmaster, James Ogilvie, of whom I shall have more to say hereafter. In a letter to Francis Walker Gilmer, Ogilvie says of Cooper : " He has undergone as many metamorphoses as Proteus. Ovid would certainly have immortalized him. In the course of the last twenty years he has been Farmer, Lawyer, Patriot, Judge, Belles-lettres cognoscenti and Professor of Chemistry, to which will shortly be added Doctor in Medicine and Professor of Law. As farmer he spent all his money, as lawyer he made some — as patriot the Federalists imprisoned him — as Judge the Democrats became enraged at him. Then the Federalists made him professor of Chemistry, at which he remains — .... He became weary of living single and married about twenty months ago, the consequence is he has a young daughter." The best part of this amusing catalogue is that it is every word true. To this list of callings I can add that of calico printing in Manchester, at which he failed, and of statute-revising in South Carolina — at which he died. He came to this country in 1795 and settled with Priestley at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which state most of the exploits celebrated by Ogilvie were performed. After being compelled by

' Jefferson and Cabell Correspondence, p. 397.

the clamor raised about his religious opinions to give up all idea of entering Mr. Jefferson's new institution, he went to South Carolina and became connected with the college at Columbia. He was a truly remarkable man, and , published treatises on almost every known subject, beginning with Justinian's Institutes.

But returning from this digression, we find Mr. Jefferson more hopeful, now that it looks as if he were going to get at least one of his three " characters." Why not take advantage of the annual report that must be made by the trustees to the legislature and suggest that instead of Central College (good in itself, but still a mere college) the state herself found an University to be the top stone of a noble edifice to be known to posterity as the Virginia system of education? No sooner had this thought attained to fair proportions in 'his brain than the thing was done. To influence the other trustees was easy, and, with Cabell and his friends in the legislature, even that august body was brought to look upon the plan with favor, little foreseeing how soon the financial nerve was to be shocked. Accordingly on the sixth day of January in the year 1818, it was proposed that the property of Central College should become a nucleus for^ funds to be applied to the establishment of a true state university upon a respectable scale.

It would be useless to describe the wagging of conservative beards, more than useless to describe the tortures gone through by timid legislators speculating how their constituents would construe their votes. There was then in existence a Literary Fund, how formed matters not, which Mr. Jefferson's eyes had fastened upon. The financial nerve must be shocked, but delicately, and here was a way to do it. Accordingly an act appropriating part of the revenue of the Literary Fund, &c, passed on the 21st of February, 1818. So far, so good — but an all important question arises. Where shall the new University be? Now the lobbying and wireworking begin. There are several parts of the state which would not object to becoming the seat of the Muses. Staunton, for instance, does not see at all why Charlottesville should carryoff the prize. Wherefore a Commission is appointed to sit at Rockfish Cap, in the Blue Ridge, to determine a site for Virginia's University which all parties are now agreed must be something good of its kind.

This Commission sat on the first day of August, 1818, and was largely attended ; the two ex-presidents heading the list of names. 1 Here Mr. Jefferson produced a map of the state and showed that Charlottesville was the centre of everything — certainly of his own desires. Who could refuse to gratify such a man as he stood there crowned with age and honors, and flushed with enthusiasm for an object both needful and glorious? Sectional jealousies were stifled, and Charlottesville was chosen as the site of the future University. 2 But the Commission did not dissolve before it had presented a report as to what ought to be taught in the new institution — a report in which Mr. Jefferson's hand is, of course, to be seen. 3 They recommended that ten professorships should be established as follows : (1) Ancient Languages, (2) Modern Languages, (3) Mathematics, pure, (4) Physico-Mathematics, (5) Physics $>r Natural Philosophy, (6) Botany and Zoology, (7) Anatomy and Medicine, (8) Government, Political Economy, &c, (9) Law Municipal, (10) Ideology, Ethics, &c. This was as comprehensive a scheme as even Mr. Jefferson could have wished, for did it not include his favorite Anglo- Saxon under the head of Modern Languages ? But further the Commission advised that buildings be furnished wherein gymnastics might be taught, but did not advance to the modern

'It is generally stated that President Monroe attended this meeting. This I am inclined to doubt, if the list of the signers of the Report be correct, and I afterwards discovered that Mr. Randall had noted the same error (Life of Jefferson, III, 463), if error it be.

3 Jefferson had consulted John Adams as to a scheme of professorships two years before. Adams' Works, X, 213.

idea (or is it modern ?) of having a special professor to teach them. 1 Thus the Rockfish Gap Commission set in glory.

The legislature receiving its report passed an act on the 25th of January, 1819, establishing the University of Virginia upon pretty much the same plan as that recommended by the Commission, leaving the visitors of Central College to fulfil their functions until relieved by the first Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia.

The first meeting of these latter took place on the 29th of March, 1819. There were present Thomas Jefferson, who was elected Rector, James Madison, Joseph C. Cabell, Chapman Johnson, James Breckinridge, Robert Taylor and John H. Cocke. After having elected a proctor and a bursar, and having chosen a common seal, they enacted sundry provisions as to the salaries of the professors which need not occupy us here ; but one entry on the minutes is important enough to quote :

" That Dr. Thomas Cooper, of Philadelphia, heretofore appointed professor of chemistry and of law for the Central College, be confirmed and appointed for the University as professor of chemistry, mineralogy and natural philosophy, and as professor of law also until the advance of the institution and the ' increase of the number of students shall render necessary a separate appointment to the professorship of law. . . ."