1Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 9 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I promised you that I would put into the form of a bill my plan of establishing the elementary schools , without taking a cent from the literary fund. I have had leisure at this place to do this, & now send you the result. if 12. or 1500. schools are to be placed under one general administration, an attention so divided will amount to a dereliction of them to themselves. it is surely better...
2Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 10 September 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I omitted in my letter of yesterday to return Barrois ’ catalogue with thanks for the use of it. I omitted also to observe that it would be better that the bill for the elementary schools should not be known as coming from me. not knowing the present pulse of the public, should there be any thing unpalatable in it, it may injure our college as coming from one of it’s visitors. I wish it to be...
3Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, John H. Cocke, and David Watson, 7 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
letters recieved last night from mr Cooper render a meeting of the visitors immediately indispensable, or all done yesterday comes to nothing. if you will be so good as to be at Monticello by ten aclock I will endeavor to detain mr Madison till that hour & to get Colo Monroe to meet you there as a halfway house. Accept my friendly & respectful salutations. RC (
4Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 24 October 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 14 th came to hand two days ago. soon after you left us I recieved the pamphlet you were so kind as to have directed to me, containing several papers on the establishment of a system of education. a serious perusal of the bill for that purpose convinced me that unless something less extravagant could be devised the whole undertaking must fail. the primary schools alone on that...
5Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 18 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been detained a month by my affairs here, but shall depart in three days & eat my Christmas dinner at Monticello . I expect to find there the returns of our subscription papers , and I hope, the donation of the Cincinnati . these will enable me to make the report to the Governor which our board determined on. it will have to go the rounds of their residences for their amendments &...
6Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 19 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote to you yesterday morning & put the letter myself into the Post office of Lynchburg to which place I went to endeavor to engage bricklayers for our work the next season. I could not do it. they asked 15.D. a thousand for place brick & sand-stock brick work and the double for the oil-stock brick. they rose from 12.D. to 15.D. on the extraordinary price of corn a year or two past, and...
7Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 31 December 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Our friend Gen l Kosciuzko has warmly solicited my attention to the case of M. Poinsot des Essarts , stated in the inclosed papers. he wishes to be informed of the situation of the lands therein described, their quality & value, and whether any and what taxes are due on them. I suppose they must be in what is now Harrison county . having no acquaintance in that part of the country, and...
8Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 6 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of Dec. 29. the prospect it offers as to the general system of education is not very flattering. indeed I do not wonder at the confusion of opinion prevailing among the members of the legislature . a good system of education in the abstract is among the most difficult of problems, and this difficulty is infinitely increased when the system is to be modified and...
9Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 14 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
When, on the 6 th instant , I was answering yours of Dec. 29. I was so overwhelmed with letters to be answered , that I could not take time to notice the objection stated that ‘neither the people, nor their representatives, would agree to the plan of assessment on the wards for the expences of the ward-schools.’ I suppose that by this is meant the ‘pecuniary expence of wages to the tutor.’...
10Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 15 January 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
The messenger who carried mine of yesterday brought me in return your’s of the 5 th . I shall be anxious to hear from you after our report of the 6 th shall have been laid before the legislature , & to learn what impression it makes. because that shews how near we are to the accomplishment of a good College, one that cannot but be thought of some value to the state, and the urgency of their...
11Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 16 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
A resolution which I saw in the papers for the adjournment of the legislature the day before yesterday prevented my writing to you in the belief it could would not find you in Richmond . M r Summers now tells me he thinks you will set into the next week. the obj after acknoleging the reciept, since
12Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 26 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your two favors of the 20. & 22. came to hand last night. I congratulate you sincerely on having something begun on the subject of education. whatever be it’s faults, they will lead to correction. you seem to doubt whether mr Madison would serve if named a Commissioner for the location E t c of the University? but there can be no doubt that he would, & it is most important that he should. as...
13Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 20 November 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I very much lament the cause which has deprived us of the pleasure of seeing mrs Cabell and yourself at Monticello on your way to Richmond . I now commit to your care a letter to be delivered to the Speaker of the Senate , which contains the Report of the Commissioners who met at Rockfish gap . having been written in great haste, and by several hands, dividing the work in order to expedite...
14Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’ my revolt against letter writing has not permitted me to acknolege separately your several favors of Dec. 8. 14. 17. 24. as I recieved them, I am not the less thankful for their information. I take up my pen now on the subject of my estimate of the center of white population . you say it is objected that the commencement at the mouth of the Chesapeake is nearer the Southern than...
15Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 28 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
I join with you in joy on the passage of the University bill , and it is necessary you should send me a copy of it without delay, that the visitors may have a meeting to see and to do what it permits them to do for the furtherance of the work, as the season for engagements is rapidly passing off. but we shall fall miserably short in the execution of the large plan displayed to the world, with...
16Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 19 February 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 15 th was rec d yesterday. the appointment of Visitors of the University is entirely unexceptionable; the only fear is that the distance of Gen l Breckenridge & mr Taylor will render their attendances uncertain. I should have been sorry indeed if either yourself or Gen l Cocke had been left out:
17Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, [ca. 26 February 1819] (Jefferson Papers)
M r Cabell is requested to lay the inclosed proceedings of his Collegues before the Governor & Council for the exercise of their power of Controul, should they consider any part of them as requiring. RC ( Vi : RG 79, House of Delegates, Speaker, Executive Communications); undated. Tr (
18Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return yesterday from our Visitorial call I found here your favor of Feb. 22. and I now inclose you a copy of our proceedings with the request of our collegues to lay them before the Gov r & Council . for altho’ their assent is not by the law necessari necessary to give them validity, yet they have a right to negative which makes it a duty to communicate them that they may have an...
19Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 6 March 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Will you be so good as to have the inclosed inserted immediately in the e Enquirer , and to place the expence to account of your next instalment? affectionate salutations. RC ( ViU: TJP ); dateline at foot of text; addressed: “ Joseph C. Cabell esq. of the Senate of Virginia now in Richmond ”; franked; endorsed by Cabell
20Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 22 January 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you the inclosed as an exhibit to our enemies as well as friends. Kentucky , our daughter, planted since Virginia was a distinguished state, has an University , with 14. professors & upwards of 200 students. while we, with a fund of a million & a half of Dollars, ready raised and appropriated, are higgling without the heart to let it go to it’s use. if our legislature does not heartily...
21Virginia Council of State’s Appointment of University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 29 February 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
The Governor called the attention of the board to the subject of appointing Visitors for the University of Virginia in Conformity with the provisions of an act of assembly passed the 25 January 1819 —Whereupon, the following persons were duly appointed Visitor—to wit: Thomas Jefferson — James Madison — Chapman Johnson — Jos. C. Cabell
22Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 28 November 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor , with a request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary board in time to lay it before the legislature on the 2 d day of their session. it was inclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. if delivered before the croud of other business presses on them, they may act on it immediately, and before there will have been...
23Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 25 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 20 th was the first intimation that I had omitted to inclose, with the documents of our Report , the first half year’s account of the Bursar , which had been duly rendered in April and filed away. I now correct that error by inclosing it to the Governor with a letter of explanation , to be communicated to the legislature . You may have observed an apparent difference of...
24Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 30 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
You will recollect that at the meeting of the Visitors of the University on the 4 th of Oct. last , mr Johnson being disabled by sickness to attend and having been prevented at the April meeting by bad weather we were we were apprehensive his commission might be vacated by a failure to act for one the space of one year , and I was requested to apply to the Governor for a renewal of the...
25Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 31 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of the 18 th and 25 th came together three days ago. they fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards the University . I percieve that I am not to live to see it opened. as to what had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust with entire confidence to what yourself, Gen l Breckenridge and mr Johnson shall think best. you will see what is...
26Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 15 February 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I address this day to Gen l Breckenridge a letter as you desired ; to be shewn if it is thought expedient within the circle of discretion. I doubt much myself whether it’s exhibition to members independant in their purposes, & jealous of that independance may not do more harm than good. on this I put myself into the hands of my friends. I am sure you will see the propriety of letting no copy...
27Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 22 February 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
I some time ago put into your hands a pamphlet proving indirectly that the Coll. of W m & Mary was intended to be a seminary for the church of England . it had been so long since I had read their printed statutes that I had forgotten them. looking lately into them, I find they declare that the 3. fundamental objects of the institution are 1. learning & morals. 2. to prepare ministers for the...
28Thomas Jefferson and John H. Cocke to James Breckinridge, Joseph C. Cabell, Chapman Johnson, James Madison, and Robert … (Jefferson Papers)
In obedience to the resolution of the visitors of the university at their last session, the Proctor has been constantly employed in ‘ascertaining the state of accounts under contracts already made, and the expence of compleating the buildings begun and contemplated’: and we have consequently suspended, according to instructions, ‘the entering into any contracts for the Library until we see...
29Thomas Jefferson’s View of the Expenses and Funds of the University of Virginia, [ca. 28 September 1821] (Jefferson Papers)
A view of the whole expences & of the Funds of the University Actual cost estimated d o Averages D D D Pavilions. N o 3. & 7. undertaken in 1817.18. 19,149. 81 9,574. 90 N
30Thomas Jefferson to University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 30 September 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Brockenbrough has been closely engaged, since our last meeting in settling the cost of the buildings finished at the University , that we might obtain a more correct view of the state of our funds, and see whether a competency will remain for the Library. he has settled for 6. Pavilions, 1. Hotel, and 35. Dormitories, and will proceed with the rest; so that I hope, by our next meeting, the...