JUNE 28, 1901.] 
That as it has always been a source of serious re- 
gret with me to see the youth of these United States 
sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, 
often before their minds are formed, or they have im- 
bibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their 
own, contracting too frequently not only habits of 
dissipation and extravagance, but principles un- 
friendly to republican 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 haye a tendency to spread sys- 
tematic ideas through all parts of this rising empire, 
thereby to do away with local attachments and State 
prejudices, as far as the nature of things would, or 
indeed, ought to admit, from our national councils. 
Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment of 
so desirable an object as this is (in my estimation), 
my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan 
more likely to effect the measure than the establish- 
ment of a university in a central part of the United 
States, to which the youth of fortune and talents from 
all parts thereof might be sent for the completion of 
their education in all the branches of polite litera- 
ture, in arts, and sciences, in acquiring knowledge 
in the principles of politics 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 them- 
selves in a proper degree from those local prejudices 
and habitual jealousies which have just been men- 
tioned, and which when carried to excess are never- 
failing sources of disquietude to the public mind, 
and pregnant of mischievous consequences to this 
country. F 
Madison, though defeated in his effort to 
secure the approval of the Constitutional 
Convention in respect to the establishment 
of a national university, did not fail, when 
President, to call the attention of Congress 
to the subject. In his second annual mes- 
- sage he said: 
I cannot presume it to be unreasonable to invite 
your attention to the advantages of superadding to 
the means of education provided by the several States 
a seminary of learning instituted by the national 
legislature, within the limits of their exclusive juris- 
diction, the expense of which might be defrayed or 
reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have 
accrued to the nation within those limits. (Annals 
of Congress, 1810, ’11, ’13.)* 
* The History of Federal and State Aid to Higher 
Education in the United States,’ by Frank W. Black- 
SCIENCE. 
1003 
Various other attempts have been made 
from time to time to establish a national 
university. Blackmar says: 
In 1796 a proposition was before Congress in the 
form of a memorial praying for the foundation of a 
university. (Ex. Doc., 4th Congress, 2d session.) 
Again, in 1811 a committee was appointed by Con- 
gress to report on the question of the establishment 
of a seminary of learning by the National Legisla- 
ture. The committee reported unfavorably, deeming 
it unconstitutional for the Government to found, en- 
dow and control the proposed seminary. (Ex. Doc., 
11th Congress, 3d session. ) 
In 1816 another committee was appointed to con- 
sider the same subject, and again the scheme failed. 
(Ex. Doc., 14th Congress, 2d session. ) * 
When the disposition of the Smithson 
fund was under consideration (1838-1846), 
the subject of founding a national univer- 
sity was fully and freely discussed, and the 
plan was rejected by Congress. 
Again in 1873 the matter was revived by 
the Hon. J. W. Hoyt, who from that time 
onward never ceased to labor diligently for 
a national university. Largely owing to 
his zeal and activity a committee of 100 
was formed, various bills were introduced in 
Congress and a Senate Committee was cre- 
ated to establish a national university. But 
Congress always looked on the scheme 
with suspicion and not one of the various 
bills offered was ever acted upon by the 
Senate or House of Representatives. 
The trend of opinion has been and is that 
the Government should not found a na- 
tional university in the sense suggested by 
Washington and his followers. The Con- 
gress has, however, generously aided techni- 
eal and higher education by grants of land 
to States and Territories for educational 
purposes. 
The policy was inaugurated under the 
general authority of the famous Ordinance 
of July 13, 1787. Conformably thereto a 
mar, Ph.D. : Bureau of Edueation, Contributions to 
American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. 
Adams, No. 9, 1890, p. 32. 
* Op. cit., pp. 39, 40. 
