To George Washington from Hampden-Sydney College Committee, 6 April 1796
From Hampden-Sydney College Committee
Virginia, Prince Edward County, April 6th 1796.
Sir
Your benevolent intention, as to the appropriation of your interest in the James River Canal Company, being known by a resolution of the last General Assembly of this State;1 a Board of the Trustees for the College of Hamden Sidney, in this County, have appointed us, in their name, to address you, Sir, in behalf of that seminary.
Hamden Sidney lays claim to considerable local advantages; to enumerate them may be unnecessary—it may be unbecoming in us. How far its pretensions to claim the public patronage, or how far, its central situation, and its being adjacent to an extensive back country, may merit your attention, we cannot say. We beg leave to Mr Madison, Mr Coles, Mr Giles and Mr Venable,2 who are acquainted with its situation and circumstances; and also to such other gentlemen of your acquaintance, as shall think proper to interest themselves in its behalf.
Hamden Sidney was founded, about twenty years ago, by the liberality of private individuals, and with various success; under many and great difficulties, arising from the want of permanent funds, it has struggled hard to rise into real public usefulness and importance; and still, in this condition it maintains the conflict—In its behalf, we beg leave to solicit your attention and patronage. Should you think this seminary worthy of such attention, your liberality towards it will be gratefully acknowledged: and what, we are sure, will interest you much more, we trust, it will be employed in such a manner, as to answer the end of your benevolent intentions. On behalf of the Board, we beg leave to subscribe ourselves, very respectfully, Sir, Your obedient, Humble Servants,
William Cowan,
Samuel W. Venable,
Richard N. Venable.3
L, DLC:GW.
Virginia congressman and Hampden-Sydney trustee Abraham B. Venable sent this appeal along with an undated cover letter that he wrote GW: “This institution is the only one that I know of, on the South Side of James River, below the mountains that has been incorporated. Since its establishment it has been very usefull, but that usefulness has been greatly curtailed by the Scantiness of the funds which they have been able hitherto to procure, being almost intirely dependant on private contributions. If you should think proper to take into consideration the pretentions of this place, in making a distribution of the patronage which you have intended to bestow on institutions of this sort, the Gentlemen who are mentioned in the enclosed letter will be able to give information as to its merits. Doct. Smith who is now the President of the Colledge at Princeton was the founder, and is able to give particular information with respect to it” (ALS, DLC:GW).
GW replied to Venable on 26 April, acknowledging receipt of this letter and adding, “it would be uncandid not to inform you, that a Seminary West of the blue Mountains will be preferred by me, to one below it, in behalf of which, to appropriate the Shares I hold in the James River navigation.—And that, the Governor of Virginia will be informed of the particular one so soon as a little more information will enable me to decide thereon” (The Edwin Babcock Holden Collection: Rare Americana, Mezzotints, Etchings Examples of the Old Masters and Fine Engravings of All Periods [New York, 1910], item 2684).
1. For GW’s desire that a gift of shares in the James River Company be used to support a university in the Federal City and the resolution of the Virginia legislature requesting him to appropriate the shares to a school in western Virginia, see GW to Robert Brooke, 16 March 1795, and n.2 to that document, and Brooke to GW, 9 Jan. 1796, n.2.
2. James Madison, Isaac Coles, William B. Giles, and Abraham Venable then served as Virginia congressmen.
3. William Cowan (c.1751–1806), a lawyer, represented Lunenberg County in the Virginia House for three sessions between 1793 and 1800. First elected as a Hampden-Sydney trustee in 1784, he served on the board from 1790 until his death.
Samuel Woodson Venable (1756–1821), a Prince Edward County planter and merchant, served on the board from 1782 to 1821, acting as clerk from 1788 to 1806.
Richard N. Venable was a Hampden-Sydney trustee from 1792 to 1837.