THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 533 



publican government, and to the true and genuine liberties of mankind, which 

 thereafter are rarely overcome ; for these reasons it has been my ardent wish 

 to see a plan devised on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to spread 

 systematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away 

 local attachments and State prejudices, as far as the nature of things would, 

 or indeed ought to admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously for- 

 ward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my estima- 

 tion), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect 

 the measure, than the establishment of a University in a central part of the 

 United States, to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof 

 may be sent for the completion of their education, in all the branches of polite 

 literature, in arts and science in acquiring knowledge in the principles of poli- 

 tics and good government, and as a matter of infinite importance in my judg- 

 ment, by associating with each other and forming friendships in juvenile years, 

 be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from those local prejudices and 

 habitual jealousies which have just been mentioned, and which, when carried 

 to excess, are never-failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, and preg- 

 nant of mischievous consequences to this country. Under these impressions so 

 fully dilated, 



Item. I give and bequeath in perpetuity, the fifty shares which I hold in 

 the Potomac Company (under the aforesaid acts of the Legislature of Virginia) 

 towards the endowment of a University, to be established within the limits of 

 the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government, if that 

 government should incline to extend a fostering hand towards it. 



(Signed July 9, 1790.) 



An analysis of this will shows that its author advocated the break- 

 ing down of local attachments and prejudices by stimulating a love 

 for the nation and bringing together youths from all sections; that he 

 wished to keep the young men in this country instead of encouraging 

 them to go abroad two propositions that are somewhat antagonistic, 

 since the one seeks to broaden students by eliminating state lines, the 

 other to keep them narrow by erecting national barriers. Further- 

 more, this eradicating of 'habitual jealousies' was to be accomplished 

 by 'the establishment of a University in a central part of the United 

 States,' and it will be noticed that later on, by implication, he defines 

 this central part to be 'within the limits of the District of Columbia.' 

 It therefore seems that the correct standpoint from which to appreciate 

 the 'spirit of Washington' is the date when the 'District of Columbia' 

 was the 'central part of the United States,' and the welfare of the 

 nation depended upon isolation and intellectual training by domestic 

 talent rather than foreign culture. At this date, what could have 

 been Washington's ideal of a university course of study? Could 

 it have been far beyond the curricula of the colleges then in existence ? 

 An examination of the courses of study at that time available would 

 determine what a national university should offer unless it be asserted 

 that this spirit, so frequently referred to, could grow with the country 

 while the arguments for intellectual unification inwardly and insu- 

 larity outwardly should continue in force. 



