Some Considerations regarding State Support of UVA

gregate number in all the schools amounted to more than one third of the whole number of students! It is apprehended that no Institution in this country can compare with that re sult. Indeed by the general admission of that [?] class, who having been students elsewhere, as well as at the University, have had opportunity to compare its ranking with that of other seminaries, it stands, in the general assiduity and high moral bearing of its pupils, and in the effective work done by them, absolutely peerless. In 1860-'61, 226 diplo mat were awarded, and similar numbers in 1859-'60, and 1858-'9, & for several preceding years, and that too, under the rigorous exactions of examinations both written and oral.

Some have fancied that the animation of the University may be suspended for a time, without destroying its vitality. This is believed to be a fatal delusion. Doubtless as capable and as conscientious a faculty as now, could be ob tained. But would the subtle traditional influences [on?] mind & morals be [remind?]? Would the same [?] be [?] and steadily marked out by strangers, as by those who having come, one by one, into [?], have imbibed by degrees, that spirit of forbearance and firmness, of moderation [?], of indulgence and high exaction, the just commingling of which can be learned only by long experience, and an intimate fa miliarity with the genius low? Surely it would argue no small degree of rashness to anticipate it. But even were it so, would the confidence, respect, and consequent patronage from other States be restored? Would not new and [?] rivals spring up during the interval of intermitted life on the part of the University? Would not other channels be formed from which it would be [well?] [high?] impracticable to divert the streams of support which have hither to offended half its aliment to this Institution?

Secondly. The prestige and influence resulting to Vir- ginia, in {the} respect to his [?]-States of the South & West, from the

possessions of the University. The University is not only the principal educational establishment of Virginia, but it is acknowledged to be the great leading institution of the South, to which the West also manifests a disposition to be tributary. If he who makes a nation's songs may be said to be its ruler, what more personal influence may not be ascribed to the institution which educates & forms the plastic mind of its youth? Is it not a noble mission for this venerable, and most venerated commonwealth, to train the young men of neighboring States, along with its own heroic youth, to deeds of high emprize, of unselfish magnanimity, of fearless truth, & of lofty principle, at the same time that if extends to them the richest intellectual calture, & attainment? Is it not worthy of the majestic fame of Virginia, and especially now, sitting in serene & uncomplaining dignity, amidst the ashes of her desolation, to be the nursing mother not of her own sons only, but of there of her sister States also, conveying to them there lessons of seek-abrogation, patience, forbearance moderation, endurance, and determined persistency in right, which have made her, at least in her children's loving eyes, the gem and the admiration of the world!

This mighty engine of usefulness, and of State-honors and influence, is now in our hands,-placed there by the sagacious foresight of former Legislatures, and conformed to us by the long and arduous, but the humble and unpretending this of a succession of public servants, for forty years. Shall it be now relinquished;-now, when Virginia has lost so much of substance, of territory, and more than all, of her glorious youth, when she is as it were, "childless & crownless in her voiceless woe", -is it a fit time to strip her of one, -and that not the least,- of her claims to honor, influence & precedence? Will the Legislature of 1865 transmit itself to after ages as having undone the work of her greatest and best of of her greatest and best, of Jefferson, Madison, Cabell, Johnson, Breckenridge, Baldwin, Jaylor, Rice, and a multi= tude besides of her most honored dead?

Thirdly. Economical Considerations. The common wealth has expended upon the permanent structures of the University a sum little less than $500,000, and perhaps ex ceding it. It cannot be [?] to learn these expensive buildings, with the [?] library and costly apparatus, to fall into decay and [?], but to [?] them, especially when unoccupied, or only partially occupi ed, will [?] of least $5,000, & probably $7,000. Eight thousand [?] will maintain the institution in a high State of efficiency! Shall it be abandoned, and the fruit of so much labors, anxiety & expense be loot, (as it probably will be, if the annuity be witheld even for a year or two), for $8000? Surely nobody could imagine such a cause to be dictated by economy!

Again, the debt of the University, [?] past of it with the assent, and all of it, it is believed, with the [?] of the Legislature, {it is believed} amounts to about $38,500, requiring an annual interest of some $2,300, and its payment depends wholly upon the continuance of the annuity. It is submit ted therefore, that to withold the annuity, & thereby to annul the debt [virtually?], would [?] of a [?] of the public faith, of which Virginia has never yet been guilty.

And yet again, the annuity is a [charge?] whome each individual in the Commonwealth, of about 1 1/2 cents, but the Uni versity brings into the State, with the youth from [?] who [?] [?] thither, (at least it did before the war), not less than $250,000, and it retains in the State, with our own young men who could go elsewhere for a finished education, a still greater sum. Rev D [?] [?]. Rice, is an article published in 1819, to recom mend the erection & endowment of the University [surges?] {this} with great force, as a [?] argument, "the pecuni ary [lones?]" sustained by what he styles "the most culpable neg ligence" of not having created in Virginia, an institution of learn ing, of the first rank. "Ten years ago", says he "I made exten sion enquiries on the subject, and ascertained to my [?]-

tion, that the amount of money annually carried from Virginia, for purposes of education alone, exceeded $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 $7000,000. But had our schools been such as the resources of Virginia would have well allowed, and her honors and interest demanded, it is by no means extravagant to suppose that the [fair?] 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 $7000,000! Let our economists look to that. Fourteen millions of good dollars lost to us by our parsimony!! Let our wise men calculate the interests of our losses, & add it to this principal! They will then see what are the fruits of this precious speculation". ('Jefferson & Cabell' Corresp. p. 167.)

These are the words of one of the most distinguished men, as he was among the most eminent and revered [divines?] that {this} Virginia,- not unfruitful of great men,- has ever produced. The estimate, made in 1879, refers to a period ten years earlier. If half a million of dollars were lost {then}, with our then population, and the degree of appreciation of finished education then existing, would it be unreasonable to double the amount now, when the population is so much increased in this & in adjacent States, and the desire of knowledge is so much more universal, and craving? Nor will this estimate seem so extravagant when it is remembered that the numerous schools, the offshoots & feeders of the University, to which so many southern & western youth {were} have been accustomed to resort, must share the fate of the parent institution, prospering, enlarging, multiplying, as she prospers and expands, or languishing & expiring as she languishes & dies.

Surely it is an uncalculating economy that would incur this prodigious loss to save 1 1/2 cents to each citizen!

The authorities of the University are well aware of the financial

difficulties with which the people and the government of Virginia are struggling, and they would be ashamed to propose any addition to the brothers of their afflicted countrymen merely from considerations of private interest. They are themselves, profoundly convinced that [best?] public interests, connected with the intelligence, elevation, honors, influence, and advancement of Virginia, for an indefinite period of time, imperatively demand the continued maintenance of the University, at the public change, (the only way, so far as they can see, in which it can be maintained), but if the General Assembly do not share this conviction, the persons connected with the University, whilst they are not indifferent to their peculiar concern in the result, can yet conscientiously declare that they shall lament the result more for public, than for private reasons.

To the objection arising from the [monied?] embarrassments of the Commonwealth, it is submitted-

That the University is scarcely less a necessity, than an Execution, a Legislative, or a Judiciary, and ought to be provided for accordingly;

That it is a Safe economy to expend $15,000 to save $500,000, or perhaps $750,000 to $1000,000;

That if it be proposed to pay any interest on certificates of States debt, few can stand on higher ground than those held by the Literacy fund, & that if it is not designed to pay the interest or any portion of it, the expenditures being limited the actual sum required for the present wants of government, can hardly be so great as to require the abandonment of the University;

That the more impoverished the people, the more indispensa-