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( ment to the Constitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because 

 4 the objects uo\v recommended are not among those enumerated in the 

 ' Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied. 



" The present consideration of a national establishment for education 

 ' particularly is rendered proper by this circumstance also : that if Con- 

 ' gress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to 

 ' fund it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to en- 

 ' dow it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the 

 ' necessary income. The foundation would have the advantage of 

 ' being independent on war, which may suspend other improvements 

 ' by requiring for its own purposes the resources destined for them." 



The attack on the Chesapeake, the embargo, non-importation, and 

 non-intercourse acts, and the existing serious differences with Great 

 Britain, forbade any legislative action, or any further attention to the 

 subject on the part of Mr. JEFFERSON. But his warm recommenda- 

 tion of a National University confirms the high reputation he enjoyed 

 as the friend of education, and should have great weight with every 

 member of our National Council and every citizen of the Republic. 



JAMES MADISON, a man, as we all w r ell know, of enlarged and most 

 liberal views in matters both private and public, though a strict con- 

 structionist of the Constitution, revived the question in his first message 

 to Congress. He says : " Whilst it is universally admitted that a well- 

 ' instructed people alone can be permanently a free people, and whilst 

 ' it is evident that the means of diffusing and improving knowledge 

 ' form so small a proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, 

 ' I cannot presume it to be unreasonable to invite your attention to the 

 ' advantages of super adding to the means of education, provided by 

 1 the several States, a seminary of learning, instituted by the Na- 

 1 tional Legislature within the limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, 

 ' the expense of which might be defrayed or reimbursed out of the 

 ' vacant grounds which have accrued to the nation within those limits. 



" Such an institution, though local in its character, would be univer- 

 ' sal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by expand 

 1 ing the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the sentiments, 

 1 and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of science, 

 1 to be re-distributed in due time through every part of the community, 

 ' sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the features 

 ( of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent given 

 c to social harmony. But above all, a well-conatiiutcd seminary, in 



