declined, stating: "The hand of age is upon me, the decay of bodily faculties apprise me that those of the mind could not be unimpaired, had I not still better proofs." In spite of this, however, his familiarity with the languages remained immutable, for he read Homer, Dante, Corneille and Cervantes as he did Shakespeare and Milton, and even the year before death went over Æsculus, Sophocles, Thucydides, and Tacitus.

The continuation of the War of 1812 deprived us of imported goods, and increased the prices of our own manufactured articles, at the depreciation of agricultural products, so that we were stimulated not only to establish additional industrial factories in cities, but also to introduce the smaller machinery into our homes. Upon this subject Mr. Jefferson, January, 1813, wrote: "I had no idea that manufactures had made such progress in the maritime States, and particularly of the number of carding and spinning machines dispersed throughout the whole country. I have hitherto, myself, depended on foreign manufactures, but I have now thirty-five spindles going, a hand carding-machine, and looms for flying shuttles for the supply of my own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The continuance of war will fix the habit generally, and out of the evils of impressment and of the Orders of Council, a great blessing for us will grow. I have not formerly been an advocate of great manufactories. I doubted whether our labor, employed in agriculture, and aided by the spontaneous energies of the earth would not procure us more than we could make ourselves of other necessities. But other considerations entering into the question have settled my doubts."

Throughout this and the following year (1813-1814) Mr. Jefferson continued to be much interested in the progress of the war-giving advice to those in authority, conducting a liberal correspondence, and strongly expressing opposition to the Hartford Convention.

When we consider the gradually increasing personal discomfort that the mechanical side of writing gave Mr. Jefferson -owing to his long ago imperfectly set right wrist, and more recent rheumatic attacks-it seems almost incredible that time was sufficiently long, at that ripe age, to write such lengthy and studied letters, veritable essays and literary productions

of high order, requiring research, if for nothing else, at least dates and figures. The scanning of this correspondence from his retirement up to this period certainly implies a great demand upon energy, patience and thought. Among that coterie, which was legion, all classes were represented-the more humble citizens receiving none the less consideration on account of station or want of political influence. Besides family connections, there were many regulars, including such personages as Madison, Monroe, Adams, Rodney, Gerry, Tyler, Lafayette, Kosciusko, Rush, Gallatin, DeStael, Sparks, Livingston, Cartwright, Van Buren, Everett, Cabell, Giles, etc. The subjects treated and discussed were all of a serious nature conveying an interchange of opinions on the Bible, clergy, religion, Christianity, infidelity, ethics, politics, Congressional acts, foreign questions, criticism of books, Latin and Greek writings and authors, etc.

CHAPTER IV

THOMAS JEFFERSON-ADVOCATE OF KNOWLEDGE AND

EDUCATION

University of Virginia—interest in “Diffusion of Knowledge"; his educational plan, bills incorporating same; Quesnay French Academy; Swiss College of Geneva; correspondence with Joseph Priestley; Mons. Dupont de Nemours; National University at Washington; Professor Pictet; Joseph C. Cabell, Dr. Thomas Cooper, Samuel Knox; sold library to Congress; letters to Dr. Jones, Adams, Burwell; Lieutenant Hall's visit to Monticello; educational plan_submitted to Peter Carr; Albemarle Academy; Central College-first Board of Visitors; Charles Fenton Mercer's plan; Governor Nicholas' report, etc.

EDUCATION seems to have held Mr. Jefferson an ardent votary from his earliest association with William and Mary College to his latest realization-the University of Virginia. From manhood to old age he never ceased expressing paternal gratitude for his classic training in these words: "If I had to decide between the pleasure derived from a classical education which my father gave me and the estate he left me, I would decide in favor of the former." In his day and environment education was "conspicuous by its absence" as the majority possessed it only in low, the minority in high degree-presenting a difference in these two classes, self-evident to every one, that amounted to an inhuman contrast to a man with Mr. Jefferson's sensitive and generous nature, eager to give others that which he possessed and enjoyed. He was a firm believer in the Latin proverb, "veritas vos liberabit," and recognized the passing of his existence in an atmosphere, yes a country, sadly lacking in its observance-bound by ironclad heresies, superstitions, apathy and ignorance. His entire being was enthused and exhilarated over the possibilities in reform— by evolution, or preferably revolution, as he realized a great change to be an immediate need. At the same time he desired to destroy nothing bad without creating something good in its stead, and heeding common sense plans and policies he accomplished and predicted many wholesome results. He not only

believed that “knowledge was power," but that the emancipation of mankind from the bonds of various servitudes centered in education. It is, therefore, not surprising that almost his very first energies were directed in procuring for his fellowstatesmen better opportunities for acquiring knowledge. Although re-elected to Congress, June, 1776, he resigned three months later, in order to remain in his State Legislature, where he considered his efforts most needed in forming a new Constitution and in aiding many desirable reforms. Among these he reckoned as greatest the curtailment of ignorance, by a more general "Diffusion of Knowledge" among the people, and to that end introduced during the session three educational bills furthering the support of his governmental philosophy: "Experience has shown that under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have in time perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be to illuminate the minds of the people by giving them historic facts of past experience, so that they may know ambition under all its shapes, and may exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes. It is generally true that people will be happiest where laws are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting public happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard, the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of our fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth, or other accidental circumstance. But the greater number, by indigence, being unable to educate their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instruments of the public, it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expense of all, than the happiness of all should be confined to the weak and wicked. Instead of putting the Bible in the hands of children with immature judgments for religious inquiries, their memories, in my plan, may be stored with the most useful facts from Grecian, Roman, European, and American history. The finest element of morality too may be instilled into

their minds; such as may teach them how to work out their greatest happiness, by showing them that it does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed them, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

His bills presented a comprehensive and thorough plan, involving the division of each county in hundreds, each of five or six miles square, and these to constitute ten districts of the entire State, and further:

I. An elementary school in the center of each hundred, which shall give to the children of every citizen gratis competent instruction in reading, writing, common arithmetic and general geography.

2. A college in the center of each district for teaching two languages (ancient and modern), higher arithmetic, geography and history. This places a college within a day's ride of. every inhabitant of the State, and adds provision for the full education at the public expense of select subjects from among the children of the poor who shall have exhibited at the elementary schools the pronounced indication of the aptness of judgment and correct disposition.

3. An university near the center of the State, in which all the branches of science deemed useful at this day shall be taught in their highest degree.

The bill, as a whole, lay dormant four years in the original manuscript, until Mr. Jefferson, when governor, advanced it to the printing stage; then followed a sleep of fifteen years and amendment unto death. During this period the country was experiencing serious agitation, revolution and reorganization, with little incentive for internal reforms, while beyond that the great home exponent of these proposed measures, Mr. Jefferson, had not been permitted to remain with his people to look after their needs and acts-having been called to posts involving higher and more serious interests. But this long period was not a barren waste to the cause of education, for the people were becoming gradually sensible of its advantages, indeed necessity, and Mr. Jefferson, better acquainted with its methods of development in the most cultured centers of the civilized world.

While Minister to France, Mr. Jefferson, with many other