XIX. The second letter of Washington to the Secretary of State on this same subject, on September 6, 1796, in which, while acquiescing in the view of Hamilton, he not only confesses his doubt as to the wisdom of omitting his proposed national university paragraphs from the farewell address, but manifests anew, and more touchingly than elsewhere, his deep and abiding interest in the subject: If you think that the idea of a university had better be reserved for the speech at the opening of the session, I am content to defer the communication of it until that period; but, even in that case, I would pray you, as soon as convenient, to make a draft for the occasion predicated on the ideas with which you have been furnished, looking, at the same time, into what was said on this head in my second speech to the first Congress, merely with a view to see what was said on the subject at that time; and this, you will perceive, was not so much to the point as I want to express now, though it may, if proper, be glanced at, to show that the subject had caught my attention early. But, to be candid, I much question whether a recommendation of this measure to the legislature will have a better effect now than formerly. It may show, indeed, my sense of its importance, and that it is a sufficient inducement with me to bring the matter before the public in some shape or another at the closing scenes of my political exit. My object for proposing to insert it where I did (if not improper) was to set the people ruminating on the importance of the measure, as the most likely means of bringing it to pass.1 XX. Washington's Farewell Address, on September 17, 1796, wherein, without specializing upon this one particular point, on which he had, as above, spoken "once for all," he said: Promote then, as a subject of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion it is essential that public opinion shall be enlightened.2 XXI. Washington's letter to the commissioners of the Federal District, on October 21, 1796, announcing his final decision as to the grounds to be set apart for the purposes of the national university: According to my promise I have given the several matters contained in your letter of the 1st instant the best consideration I am able. The following is the result, subject, however, to alterations, if upon fuller investigation and the discussion I mean to have with you on these topics on my way to Philadelphia I should find cause therefor.3 [Designation of the lands chosen.] XXII. The eighth annual message of President George Washington, delivered December 7, 1796, in which he said: I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Congress the expediency of establishing a national university and also a military academy. The desirableness of both these institutions has so constantly increased with every new view I have taken on the subject that I can not omit the opportunity of once for all recalling your attention to them. The assembly to which I address myself is too enlightened not to be fully sensible how much a flourishing state of the arts and sciences contributes to material prosperity and reputation. True it is that our country, much to its honor, contains many seminaries of learning highly respectable and useful; but the funds upon which they rest are too narrow to command the ablest professors, in the different departments of liberal knowledge, for the institution contemplated, 3 Id., p. 322. 1 Hamilton's Works, vi, 149, 150. though they would be excellent auxiliaries. Among the motives to such an institution, the assimilation of the principles, opinions, and manners of our countrymen, by the common education of a portion of our youth from every quarter, will deserve attention. The more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particulars, the greater will be our próspect of permanent union; and 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 legislature than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the guardians of the future liberties of the country?! XXIII. The approval of the proposition by the Senate of the United States, in its address of December 10, 1796, to President Washington, saying, as it did unanimously: A national university may be converted to the most useful purposes; the science of legislation being so essentially dependent on the endowments of the mind, the public interests must receive effectual aid from the general diffusion of knowledge; and the United States will assume a more dignified station among the nations of the earth by the successful cultivation of the higher branches of learning.2 XXIV. The memorial of Gustavus Scott, William Thornton, and Alexander White, commissioners appointed under the "Act to establish the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States," and to whom also was referred that part of the President's speech relating to a national university; said memorial presented on December 12, 1796, and being as follows, to wit: To the Honorable the Congress of the United States of America: The Commissioners appointed under the act entitled “An act for establishing the temporary seat of the Government of the United States," respectfully represent: That the institution of a national university within the United States has been the subject of much conversation; that all men seem to agree in the utility of the measure, but that no effectual means have hitherto been proposed to accomplish it; that recent transactions seem to call upon them in a more particular manner than on their fellow-citizens at large to promote this desirable object; they therefore take the liberty to state that after the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States was located by the President, agreeably to the act of Congress above mentioned, the proprietors of the lands adjacent to and including the sites designated for the public buildings ceded a large territory for the purpose of a Federal city, and by their deeds of cession authorized the President of the United States for the time being to appropriate such portions thereof as he should deem necessary to public use. In virtue of this power, the President has appropriated 19 acres 1 rood and 21 perches, part of the land so ceded, for the site of a national university. That he has likewise declared to them his intention to grant, in perpetuity, fifty shares in the navigation of the Potomac River as soon as the system assumes a shape which will enable him to do it with effect; and that they have no doubt when that event shall take place, but many liberal donations will be made as well in Europe as in America; that the money actually paid on these fifty shares is 5,000 pounds sterling; that the navigation is now nearly completed; and that all who are acquainted with the river Potomac and the adjacent country are sensible that the produce of these shares will be very great. They do not think it necessary to dilate on a subject in respect to which there seems to be but one voice. The preservation of the morals and of the political principles of our youth; the savings of the expense of foreign education; the drawing to our shores the youth 1 1 Annals, 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1519. 2 Annals, 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1694, of other countries, particularly those attached to republican government, and the proportionate accession of wealth; the removal, or at least the diminution, of those local prejudices which at present exist in the several States, by the uniformity of education, and the opportunity of a free interchange of sentiment and information among the youth from all the various points of the Union, which would consequently take place, may, with certainty, be accounted among the benefits resulting from such an institution. We flatter ourselves it is only necessary to bring this subject within the view of the Federal legislature. We think you will eagerly seize the occasion to extend to it your patronage, to give birth to an institution which may perpetuate and endear your names to the latest posterity. How far it would be proper to go at the present moment we presume not to determine, but would beg leave to observe that, although the ultimate organization of the institution may be postponed to a future period, when the means of establishing and supporting it should be more fully ascertained, yet much good will arise from a law authorizing proper persons to receive pecuniary donations and to hold estates, real and personal, which may be granted by deed or devised by last will and testament, for the use of the intended establishment, with proper regulations for securing the due application of the moneys paid. Without some provisions of this kind (to the establishing of which we consider the Federal legislature alone competent) the benevolent wishes of the virtuous and well disposed will be rendered abortive. Having performed what a sense of duty strongly impressed upon us to perform, we, with great respect, submit the consideration of the premises to your honorable body, with the further observation that the relative state of Europe and America seems to render this a favorable era for the commencement of the work. Whether the flames of war shall long continue to rage within the bounds of the former, or whether they shall be extinguished by a speedy peace, the learned and the wealthy in those unfortunate regions will seek an asylum from future oppression in our more happy country, many of whom will, no doubt, be among the foremost to promote those useful arts, the benefits of which they so well understand.1 In presenting the foregoing memorial Mr. Madison warmly indorsed the same: Observing that it had been the subject of much conversation, but no effectual' measures had been adopted toward its accomplishment, that a portion of land sufficient for the buildings, together with fifty shares on the Potomac River, fast becoming very valuable, had been appropriated by the President of the United States, that there would doubtless be many liberal donations and subscriptions both in this country and in Europe toward its support, and that it would also introduce youths from other countries and tend to the general wealth of this country by the more general dissemination of useful knowledge. The record adds: Mr. Madison moved that it be referred to a select committee, and he conceived that it would be proper for the same committee to take up that point of the President's speech which relates to the same subject. Mr. W. Smith wished to inquire of the gentleman from Virginia, whether it would not be more orderly for the memorial to lie on the table until that part of the President's speech came up under discussion in the House. He suggested this idea from the consideration that it would look more respectful to the Chief Magistrate to let it come from him as he had recommended it to the attention of the House in his address. Mr. Madison replied that it would be more consistent with order for the memorial to go through a select committee. 2 * * * The motion passed, and a committee of three members was appointed. 1 Annals, 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1591. 2 Id., pp. 1600, 1601, 1694-7, 1704–11. XXV. The affirmative action of James Madison on December 21, 1796, and of the committee to whom was referred the said memorial of the commissioners aforesaid, and of which committee he was chairman, in reporting back such memorial together with the following resolution:1 Resolved, That it is expedient at present that authority should be given, as prayed for by the said memorial, to proper persons to receive and hold in trust pecuniary donations in aid of the appropriations already made towards the establishment of a university within the District of Columbia.1 This resolution was made the order of the day for the Monday following, when it was called up and discussed, laid over, and discussed again and again until, on the 27th of December, by a vote of 37 to 36, it was postponed until certain information could be obtained from the legislature of Maryland, and was not again considered. XXVI. The cordial support by John Adams of the general principles of according aid to progress in science and learning, as shown (1) By his part in the establishment of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts, in 1780. (2) By his support of the propositions of Madison and Pickering to put a provision for a national university into the Constitution of the United States. (See No. IV.) (3) By the spirit of his inaugural address of March 4, 1797, referring as it did with usual warmth to his Love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, and universities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the people, not only for the benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence.2 (4) By the warm hospitality he is known to have extended to the subject of a national university whenever introduced. That he did not directly and explicitly recommend the establishment of such an institution was manifestly because he deemed the time and circumstances unpropitious and did not wish to make a fruitless attempt. XXVII. Washington's last will and testament, July 9, 1799: It has always been a source of serious regret with me to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their own; contracting too frequently principles unfriendly to republican government, and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind; which, thereafter, are rarely overcome. For these reasons it has been my ardent wish to see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to spread systematic ideas through all the parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away local attachments and State prejAmerican State Papers, No. 91. 2 Annals, 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1585. udices, so far as the nature of things would, or indeed ought to, admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my estimation), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect the measure, than the establishment of a university in a central part of the United States, to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof might be sent for the completion of their education in all the branches of polite literature; in arts and sciences, in acquiring knowledge in the principles of politics and good government, and (as a matter of infinite importance, in my judgment) by associating with each other, and forming friendships in juvenile years, be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from those local prejudices and habitual jealousies which have just been mentioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, and pregnant of mischievous consequences to this country: under these impressions, so fully dilated, * * * I give and bequeath in perpetuity the fifty shares (value, $500 each) which I hold in the Potomac Company (under the aforesaid acts of the legislature of Virginia) toward the endowment of a university to be established in the District of Columbia under the auspices of the General Government, if that Government should incline to extend a fostering hand toward it; and until such a seminary is established and the funds arising on these shares shall be required for its support, my further desire is that the profit accruing therefrom shall, whenever dividends are made, be laid out in purchasing stock in the Bank of Columbia, or some other bank at the discretion of my executors, or by the Treasurer of the United States for the time being, under the direction of Congress; and the dividends proceeding from the purchase of such stock is to be invested in more stock, and so on until a sum adequate to the accomplishment of this object is obtained. 1 Would it not be a very proper thing for the Congress of the United States, as the fiduciary of so sacred a trust, to institute without further delay an inquiry into the whole subject of what has become of the property interests thus committed to its keeping? And in case it should be found impracticable to recover what has thus been lost through neglect, could the Government justly do less than to make it good, both the principal and the compound interest enjoined, by according such ag gregate sum as a part of what will be required as a foundation for the university so wisely planned by Washington? XXVIII. The memorial of Samuel Blodget, presented to the Congress of the United States Monday, January 10, 1803, as published by himself in Economica: Mr. Van Ness presented a representation from Samuel Blodget on the subject of a national university, as follows: The memorial of Samuel Blodget, late supervisor of the city of Washington, represents, that owing his appointment chiefly to his zeal in forming several probationary plans for a national university, he conceived it an indispensable duty, after the death of Washington, to follow the commanding advice and noble example of the common father of his country, so irresistibly portrayed in his farewell address, and in the clause of his will annexed to his liberal donation therefor. In thus calling, most respectfully, the attention of your honorable body to this part of the will of Washington, he fulfills a promise made in behalf of more than one thousand subscribers to the same object, whose respectable names accompany this memorial, with 1 Sparks, 1, 572. |