Thomas Jefferson and Education

Thomas Jefferson was a firm believer in the value of education, particularly in its role in both strengthening and preserving the American republic.  He felt that his crowning achievement was as founder and “Father of the University of Virginia” (from the epitaph that he directed to be inscribed on his gravestone).  Jefferson “had faith in the ‘common man’ and his ability to elect wise and virtuous leaders if that man were educated to do so.”[1]  Jefferson wrote the Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, the Bill for Establishing a Public Library, and the Bill for Establishment of a System of Public Education, among others.[2]  He stated:

“I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness.”[3]  

No other founder labored as long, or as diligently, during his lifetime to establish a regular school system accessible to all citizens and youth.  He wrote:

“I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it.”[4] 

For Jefferson, the purpose of education in a republic is:

“To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend; To expound the principles and structure of government, ... and a sound spirit of legislation, which ... shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another; … to develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them precepts of virtue and order ...” [5]

            With these thoughts and convictions in his heart, Jefferson’s last great dream was to found a public university in Virginia.  Beginning with his first concept in 1800, and after the investment of much of his personal time, money and labor, and lobbying to the state legislature with the valuable assistance of several influential friends, the University of Virginia was chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia on January 25, 1819, and opened for classes in March 1825.

 That same year, Jefferson’s long-time friend and collaborator, James Madison, wrote to a mutual friend concerning Jefferson, the University, and the diffusion of knowledge:

“Your old friend, Mr. Jefferson, still lives, and will close his illustrious career by bequeathing to his Country a magnificent Institute for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge; which is the only guardian of true liberty, the great cause to which his life has been devoted.”[6]

---

[1] Meg Brulatour, Background for the State of Education in New England: Post-Revolutionary War to Mid-19^th Century (Essay, Virginia Commonwealth University).

[2] Steven Tozer, Paul C. Violas, Guy B. Senes, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives., (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995), pp. 30-31.

[3] Andrew Lipscomb and Albert Bergh, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 20 Volumes, (Washington, D.C.: 1903-1904), 5:396 (Memorial Edition, cited as “ME”).

[4] Id., Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1810, ME 12:393.

[5] Thomas Jefferson, Report for the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, August 4, 1818 (Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library).

[6] James Madison to George Thomson, June 30, 1825, The Writings of James Madison, 4 Volumes (J.B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1865) 3:492.

The Principles and Practices of Virtue

Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend Robert Skipwith, brother-in-law of Martha Wayles Skelton (Jefferson's bride-to-be), concerning how we learn "the principles and practices of virtue." He felt that by observing acts of charity or gratitude we may desire to replicate such acts ourselves. He also believed that history itself was insufficient to excite the "sympathetic emotion of virtue" and that fiction may also serve to "carry home to the heart every moral rule of life." In the same letter, Jefferson responds to Skipwith's request for a "List of Books for a Private Library." Volumes recommended by Jefferson include topics in fine arts, criticism, politics, trade, religion, law, modern and ancient history, natural philosophy and natural history. Following are excerpts from his letter written in 1771:

“I answer, everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue. When any original act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we are disgusted with its deformity, and conceive an abhorrence of vice. Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous dispositions, and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body acquire strength by exercise. But exercise produces habit, and in the instance of which we speak the exercise being of the moral feelings produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously...

Considering history as a moral exercise, her lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. Of those recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic emotion of virtue. We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life.”

Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith, Monticello, Aug. 3, 1771.

In Memory of George Washington and His Farewell Address

THE NEW YORK TIMES
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1896

“The centenary of Washington's farewell address was fittingly celebrated last night at Chickering Hall, under the auspices of the American Institute of Civics…
Referring to the object of the gathering, Dr. [Henry Randall] Waite said that all good citizens were bound to recognize anew the debt the country owes to its founder. "A thousand years will not dim the lustre of the memory of George Washington. Those who were with him were only permitted to see the splendors of the future United States in visions. Better than empty panegyric is living gratitude."

"Had the founders of our liberty," said the speaker, "been other than God-fearing men, they would not have worn the blood-bought crown of liberty. The battles of freedom are not ended. Civic virtue depends on the determination of citizens to know and to be the best. We should never forget that every citizen, whether by birth or option, is but a trustee of that precious legacy. There is no better way for a citizen to be brought to the standard of the heroes of '76 than by taking them as examples."

After eulogizing Washington, the speaker said that all had come not only to pay tribute to his memory, but to the greatness of the words with which he bade farewell to public life.

Dr. Thompson said that "there are two addresses in the history of our country that are prophetic, Lincoln's at Gettysburg and Washington's farewell address. Lincoln's was born in the rare inspiration of the hour, Washington's was the fruit of experience and reflection. It is not remarkable, the speaker said, that Washington's address has pertinence in the present condition of the country. He had suffered from the perils to which he pointed; it came out of the agony of his soul. The address comes to us to-day tremulous with significance, if we consider its insistence on National unity. He pleads for the unity of the East and the West. He talks of the perils of parties, and it is as true to-day as he was to his own times."

"God grant," exclaimed Dr. Thompson, "that Washington's prayer to subordinate party ties to National honor may this Fall have a response from the people."

Dr. Thompson, in pleading for the teaching of civics in our schools, said that ethical studies had suffered in giving natural science the place of primary importance. A fundamental aim in teaching should be to make good citizens.

In conclusion, Dr. Thompson said that the Farewell Address had the moral force of an amendment to the Constitution, and that it should be constantly read in our public schools.”

Benjamin Franklin on Slavery

“Neither the federal Constitution nor the new state constitution reflected Franklin’s own wishes.  And they both violated a belief that he had come to only late in life, namely that the enslavement of human beings could not be justified.  It is not clear when he had reached this belief.  When he first went to England in 1757, he brought two household slaves with him, as we learn only in a casual reference in a letter to Deborah in 1760.  By the time he returned for the last time to Philadelphia in 1785, he was ready to join his Quaker friends there in trying to make an end to slavery in the United States.  In April, 1787, he was elected president of a Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

Much of his correspondence during the remainder of his life was devoted to this subject.  See, for example, his exchanges with Granville Sharp, the English abolitionist.  In February, 1790, the Society petitioned the new United States Congress under the Constitution for a federal prohibition of slavery [see Petition below].  When Congress declined to hear the petition, Franklin responded with one of his most biting satirical hoaxes in the Federal Gazette of March 23, 1790.  Speaking as one Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Algerian governing council, he gave the arguments against a supposed petition for granting freedom to Christians held in slavery in Africa.  They were, of course, the same arguments used in the United States Congress against the petition presented by the Pennsylvania abolition society.  It was, appropriately, Franklin’s last public statement.  He died less than a month later, on April 17, 1790.”
--Edmund S. Morgan

http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/morgan.jsp

Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery

Signed by Benjamin Franklin, President of the Pennsylvania Society, February 3, 1790
To the Senate & House of Representatives of the United States,
The Memorial of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage, & the Improvement of the Condition of the African Races.
Respectfully Sheweth,

That from a regard for the happiness of Mankind an Association was formed several years since in this State by a number of her Citizens of various religious denominations for promoting the Abolition of Slavery & for the relief of those unlawfully held in bondage. A just & accurate Conception of the true Principles of liberty, as it spread through the land, produced accessions to their numbers, many friends to their Cause, & a legislative Co-operation with their views, which, by the blessing of Divine Providence, have been successfully directed to the relieving from bondage a large number of their fellow Creatures of the African Race. They have also the Satisfaction to observe, that in consequence of that Spirit of Philanthropy & genuine liberty which is generally diffusing its beneficial Influence, similar Institutions are gradually forming at home & abroad.

That mankind are all formed by the same Almighty being, alike objects of his Care & equally designed for the Enjoyment of Happiness the Christian Religion teaches us to believe & the Political Creed of America fully coincides with the Position. Your Memorialists, particularly engaged in attending to the Distresses arising from Slavery, believe it their indispensable Duty to present this Subject to your notice. They have observed with great Satisfaction that many important & salutary Powers are vested in you for "promoting the Welfare & Securing the blessings of liberty to the "People of the United States." And as they conceive, that these blessings ought rightfully to be administered, without distinction of Colour, to all descriptions of People, so they indulge themselves in the pleasing expectation, that nothing, which can be done for the relive of the unhappy objects of their care, will be either omitted or delayed.

From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the Portion, It is still the Birthright of all men, & influenced by the strong ties of Humanity & the Principles of their Institution, your Memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavours to loosen the bounds of Slavery and promote a general Enjoyment of the blessings of Freedom. Under these Impressions they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the Subject of Slavery, that you will be pleased to countenance the Restoration of liberty to those unhappy Men, who alone, in this land of Freedom, are degraded into perpetual Bondage, and who, amidst the general Joy of surrounding Freemen, are groaning in Servile Subjection, that you will devise means for removing this Inconsistency from the Character of the American People, that you will promote mercy and Justice towards this distressed Race, & that you will Step to the very verge of the Powers vested in you for discouraging every Species of Traffick in the Persons of our fellow men.

Philadelphia February 3, 1790
B. Franklin
President of the Society
_____________________________________

Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues

“…I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish'd to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I bad imagined. While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I propos'd to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex'd to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr'd to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express'd the extent I gave to its meaning.

These names of virtues, with their precepts, were: 

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.

2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.

6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”

Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

"I Have a Dream" -- Favorite Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

“I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.”

“If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.”

“Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”

“Science investigates, religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”

 “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.”

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Christmas at Mount Vernon

Christmas was primarily a religious holiday in 18th century Virginia, described by one colonist in 1774 as 'the day set apart to remember the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'  It was also, however, a festive occasion marked by visits between friends and relatives, parties, and public assemblies.  A great deal has been written about the Washingtons and Christmas, much of it greatly embellished and characterized by wishful thinking.  As evidenced by George Washington's correspondence, his diaries and cash accounts, Christmas at Mount Vernon followed the typical Virginia pattern, which was far more simple than twentieth century Americans may feel comfortable with.

Religion played a part in the observance of the holiday at Mount Vernon, for the Washingtons occasionally attended church on Christmas day. In 1770, Christmas was a Tuesday and after going to nearby Pohick Church in the morning, the family returned to Mount Vernon for dinner.  Similar patterns were followed in 1771 and 1772, when December 25th fell on a Wednesday and Friday, respectively.  During his first year as president, Washington attended St. Paul's Church in New York City on Christmas day, a Friday, and later a number of 'respectable' visitors came to see Martha Washington at her regular weekly levee.  Records from other years are not always complete, so the Washingtons could easily have gone to church on other Christmases for which there is no documentation.

While they preferred to spend the holiday with family and friends, George and Martha Washington themselves were seldom the guests of others at Christmas.  The surviving records are not complete, however, except for the years of the French & Indian and Revolutionary Wars, when George Washington was with the army, 1769 was one Christmas he and Martha spent away from home.  The whole family went to Williamsburg that fall.  While George Washington attended the House of Burgesses, his wife and her two children amused themselves in Virginia's capital city and in visits to Martha's sister at Eltham Plantation.  The family headed for home on December 22nd, but spent several days in Fredericksburg with George Washington's sister's family at Kenmore and with his mother.  They arrived at Mount Vernon on the 28th in time for dinner.  

A letter from Martha Washington to her granddaughter makes an even stronger case for the family's usual holiday practice.  During the presidency, while Nelly Custis spent the winter of 1795-96 with her mother in Virginia, her grandmother tried to keep her apprised of social events in Philadelphia, writing shortly after the start of the new year:  ‘The President and myself are much obliged to you my dear for your good wishes to us & we have spent our Christmas at home as we always have done....’”

http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/355/