Retiring to Monticello in 1809 at the end of his second term as president, Thomas Jefferson focused all his energies on the creation of a university which would "prove a blessing to my own State, and not unuseful perhaps to some others." Joining him in the enterprise were Presidents James Madison and James Monroe; together with John Hartwell Cocke of Fluvanna County, noted reformer and a general in the War of 1812; and Joseph Carrington Cabell, a delegate and state senator from Amherst County, who supported Jefferson's educational program in the Virginia legislature.
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PLAN FOR PAVILION VII University of Virginia, Pavilion VII. Ink on paper. 1817. On display is Jefferson's early study for Pavilion VII, the first building erected at the University. It shows an elevation of the pavilion with adjacent dormitories and Chinese railings, and plans of the first and second floors. The specifications begin: " The walls of the Pavilion are 116 feet running measure." Jefferson has drawn the building on engraved co-ordinate paper he imported from France. |
FIRST MINUTE BOOK OF THE BOARD OF VISITORS
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In February 1816, the General Assembly of Virginia approved Thomas Jefferson's plan for the establishment of an institution of higher learning to be called Central College. The first Board of Visitors for the new college included Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Hartwell Cocke and Joseph Carrington Cabell. All but Cabell (presumably in Richmond where he was a state delegate for Amherst County) met for the first time as Visitors on May 5, 1817. 208-page volume. Minutes of the Board of Visitors. 817-1828.
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At the meeting, whose minutes were taken by Jefferson, they
appointed Alexander Garrett as proctor and treasurer, approved land offered
by John Perry as the site of the college, directed that work begin on the first
building (Pavilion VII), resolved that a lottery and a subscription drive be
held to raise funds, and appointed Jefferson and Cocke members of a building
committee to oversee construction.
JOSEPH CARRINGTON CABELL
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Autograph letter, signed. Joseph Carrington Cabell to Thomas Jefferson. 1819 January 18. Click on image for larger view. |
Joseph Carrington Cabell, Jefferson's principal co-founder of the University of Virginia, was a well-educated man who had studied abroad and traveled with Washington Irving. As a Virginia state senator, he worked tirelessly to promote Jefferson's education bills in the legislature, first to secure approval for a state university and then to obtain the necessary financial appropriations. Turning down offers of government posts and requests to stand for governor and Congress, he served thirty-seven years as a member of the Board of Visitors and as Rector, shaping the young institution as no other. On January 18, 1819, he wrote to Jefferson, "Grateful, truly grateful, is it to my heart, to be able to announce to you...a decisive victory." The University would be established. Delegates from the western counties had withdrawn their objections to a central university. "The scene was truly affecting. A great part of the House was in tears...." Seven days later the charter for the Central College was granted.
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JOHN HARTWELL COCKE
John Hartwell Cocke, of Fluvanna County and a general in the War of 1812, was a zealous reformer who attacked the cultivation of tobacco as the source of the political, economic and social ills of the state. He advocated a Constitutional amendment to end slavery, "the great cause of all the evils of our land," by providing funds to resettle freed slaves in Africa, manumitted many of his own slaves, and was senior vice-president of the American Colonization Society for almost fifty years. Religiously devout he championed the missions of Bible, tract, and Sunday school societies, was a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and was president of the United States Temperance Union. In addition he spent thirty-three years on the Board of Visitors.
Cocke worked with Jefferson on the building committee and personally helped supervise construction. His practicality and fiscal conservatism were sometimes at odds with Jefferson's aesthetic sense. On May 3, 1819, he wrote a long letter to Jefferson questioning the latter's decision to put flat roofs on the student rooms as "I find it to be the universal opinion of all the mechanicks to whom I have mentioned the subject...that the most durable timber we have will last but a few years in any situation where it is liable to be wet & dry alternately--but especially where the timber is in large pieces & is placed in a horizontal position...it is a maxim confirmed by all experience that the higher the pitch the more lasting the covering."
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Daguerreotype of John Hartwell Cocke Click on image for larger view.
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Autograph letter, signed. John Hartwell Cocke to Thomas Jefferson. 1819 May 3. Click on Image for larger view. |
THOMAS JEFFERSON
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Autograph letter, signed. Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Carrington Cabell. 1821 January 31. Click on image to view letter. |
By 1821 the buildings of the University had been under construction for four years and were far from completion. Funds were low and Jefferson feared he would not live to see the University opened. On January 31 he wrote Joseph Carrington Cabell, expressing hope that Cabell and colleagues friendly to the University would push the Virginia legislature for a loan to be paid off by 1833. He emphasized the necessity of teaching Virginians at the University instead of at Harvard where they would learn "anti Missourianism." Jefferson foresaw "awful scenes coming on [Virginia]" and asked, "what service can we ever render her equal to this?" For the University Jefferson would be willing to "die in the last ditch" and hoped Cabell would as well so that at the end of "these holy labors...we may say with old Simeon 'nunc dimittis, Domine.'"
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JAMES MADISON
After Jefferson's death James Madison became Rector. On April 10, 1830, he wrote to Joseph C. Cabell about the hiring of a new law professor to replace John T. Lomax. He discussed three different candidates, none of whom he believed would accept the position. None of them did, and in the end the choice fell on the ill-fated John A.G. Davis.
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Autograph letter, signed. James Madison to Joeseph Carrington Cabell. 1830 April 10. |
JAMES MONROE
James Monroe was president of the United States during the University's formative years and did not initially play as large a role as his colleagues. He left the presidency in 1824 and continued on the Board of Visitors until his death on July 4, 1831, five years to the day after Jefferson's.
In 1829 with health and fortunes declining he wrote to Cocke discussing the government of the University and noted, "It affords me great pleasure to hear, that the university, is in a prosperous state....I hope that its numbers will continue to increase, & by means thereof, knowledge be dispensed, to the great body of the people"
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Autograph letter, signed. James Monroe to John Hartwell Cocke. 1829 January 18. |
PLAT OF LOTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Achilles Broadhead, a local justice of the peace, militia captain,
and surveyor for Albemarle County, plotted the original grounds of the University
a few months after the first students enrolled. The plat shows the University
bounded by the old Three Notched Road to Richmond, now Route 250, and Wheeler's
Road which became Route 29 South. Just outside the central grounds is a building
labeled "Anat. Hall," or Anatomical Hall, later torn down to make way for the
construction of Alderman Library.
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