aged statesman thus: "His philanthropy was actual and active. It embraced, I believe, the whole globe. His desire was to see all people prosperous and happy—all peoples I may say. *** He was kind, courteous; hospitable to all; sincerely attached to the excellent family that were clustered around him; sympathizing with them in their pleasures, deeply distressed in their afflictions. *** He was of commanding aspect, dignified, and would have been striking to any one not knowing in whose presence and company he was. *** His expression-as I recollect it was pleasing, intellectual, contemplative. He was tall and thin *** As a university officer, he was always pleasant to transact business with, was invariably kind and respectful, but had generally formed his own opinion on questions and did not abandon them easily. *** To sum up, I had the most exalted opinion of him. I believed him essentially a philanthropist, anxious for the greatest good to the greatest number; a distinguished patriot, whose love of country was not limited by any consideration of self; who was eminently virtuous, with fixed and honorable principles of action not to be trammelled by any unworthy considerations; and whose reputation must shine brighter and brighter, as he is more and more justly judged and estimated."

At last the university was duly opened. To Edward Livingston, Jefferson wrote on March 25th, 1825: “The institution is at length happily advanced to completion, and has commenced under auspices as favorable as I could expect. I hope it will prove a blessing to my own State, and not unuseful, perhaps, to some others. At all hazards, and secured by the aid of my able coadjutors, I shall continue, while I am in being, to contribute to it whatever my weakened and weakening powers can. But assuredly it is the last object for which I shall obtrude

myself on the public observation." To William B. Giles, on December 26th, 1825, the venerable Jefferson wrote: "A finer set of youths I never saw assembled for instruction. ***A great proportion of them are severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say, that within twelve or fifteen years from this time, a majority of the rulers of our State will have been educated here. *** You may account assuredly that they will exalt their country in a degree of sound respectability it has never known, either in our days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot live to see it. My joy must be only in anticipation."

Jefferson, it may here be briefly stated, although he believed that the University of Virginia should be unsectarian, labored in various ways to throw around the students who should reside in the university town, good influences. He gave more money than his fortune justified him in giving to the support of Christian churches. His labors of this nature, however, will perhaps be noticed at some length at some future time.

It of course required a great deal of money to found a State university such as Jefferson believed should form a part of the school system of Virginia. A rich planter might say that he could send his sons to a private school, or to a private university, and, that however desirable a public-school system of education was for the common people, that as for him he got nothing for the money which he was obliged to pay in taxes to support the schools, and colleges or high schools, and the university which such men as Jefferson wished States to establish. Jefferson, living as he did in a State in which was the institution of slavery, very probably heard of some such case. To Joseph C. Cabell, under date of January 14th, 1818, he wrote: "And

* See letter in full in "Early History of the University of Virginia,” J. W. Randolph, 1856, pp. 102-6.

will the wealthy individual have no retribution? and what I will this be? 1. The peopling his neighborhood with honest, useful, and enlightened citizens, understanding their own rights and firm in their perpetuation. 2. When his own descendants become poor, which they generally do within three generations, (no law of primogeniture now perpetuating wealth in the same families) the children will be educated by the then rich; and the little advance he now makes to poverty, while rich himself, will be repaid by the then rich, to his descendants when become poor, and thus give them a chance of rising again. This is a solid consideration and should go home to the bosom of every parent. This will be seed sown in fertile ground. It is a provision for his family looking to distant times, and far in duration beyond that he has now in hand for them. Let every man count backward in his own family, and see how many generations he can go before he comes to the ancestor who made the fortune he now holds. Most will be stopped at the first generation, many at the second, few will reach the third, and not one in the State. can go beyond the fifth."

In the year 1825 Jefferson was visited by Lafayette. By cruel confinement in an Austrian prison Lafayette had been made lame. Although Jefferson was ill and weak he walked to the porch of his house to meet him and to embrace him with tears. To Lafayette a grand banquet was given in the imposing university buildings. Some of the most distinguished citizens of the United States took their places at the feast. Amidst many gay and pleasant remarks a sentiment was proposed in Jefferson's honor. All eyes were turned toward the venerable patriot. He handed a written speech to a friend to read. In the course of his speech he said: "My friends, I am old, long in the disuse of making speeches, and without voice to

utter them. In this feeble state, the exhausted powers of life leave little within my competence for your service. If with the aid of my younger and abler coadjutors, I can still contribute anything to advance the institution within whose walls we are mingling manifestations to this our guest, it will be, as it ever has been, cheerfully and zealously bestowed. And could I live to see it once enjoy the patronage and cherishment of our public authorities with undivided voice, I should die without a doubt of the future fortunes of my native State, and in the consoling contemplation of the happy influence of this institution on its character, its virtue, its prosperity and safety.

*

*

I add, for our nation at large, the aspirations of a heart warm with the love of country; whose invocations to Heaven for its indissoluble union, will be fervent and unremitting while the pulse of life continues to beat, and, when that ceases, it will expire in prayers for the eternal duration of its freedom and prosperity."

At last Jefferson could feel that one of his great life works was completed. Indeed, a noble dream of a great statesman was in a good degree realized. He had by his labors in behalf of true learning set an example worthy of the admiration of every intelligent lover of civil liberty in every land! He had by his actions proved, in a manner eloquent even to being pathetic, the sincerity of his convictions of the importance to a republic of universities.

* " 'Life of Thomas Jefferson." By Henry S. Randall, LL.D., vol. iii., P. 504.

IV.

"OUR COLORED BRETHREN."

IT is well, sometimes, for students of the science of government to notice how great statesmen have viewed certain questions of great national importance, and to ask themselves how some of the greatest and wisest of these men would act were they to-day the custodians of all the best interests of the American continent.

A subject of inexpressibly vast importance to the people of the United States, to which Jefferson gave deep, heart-felt, and prayerful consideration, was one respecting the well-being of those whom he called "our colored brethren." He formed some far-reaching conclusions. which are worthy of the most serious consideration of the statesmen of modern times.

Upon the system of negro slavery which prevailed in his day in the United States-especially in the Southern States he looked with abhorrence, and with feelings of the gravest apprehension as he considered the effect which it would some day have upon the welfare of his country. In the year 1775, having been taken ill while on his way to the Continental Congress, he forwarded to his fellow statesmen, for the inspection of such of them as cared to look at his written opinion respecting America's controversy with England, an essay, entitled "The Rights of Englishmen in America." Some members of Congress, less cautious than others, published the essay, and the