tion and embodied ideas taken from it in the organization of the
University of Virginia. This occupied much of his attention during the
last two decades of his life. The University was to be entirely
non-sectarian and had for its purpose (1) to form statesmen,
legislators, and judges for the commonwealth; (2) to expand the
principles and structure of government, the laws which regulate the
intercourse of states, and a sound spirit of legislation; (3) to
harmonize and promote the interests of all forms of industry, chiefly
by well-informed views of political economy; (4) to develop the
reasoning faculties of youth and to broaden their minds and develop
their character; (5) to enlighten them with knowledge, especially of
the physical sciences which will advance the material welfare of the
people. These progressive views of what the college should aim to do
were associated with equally advanced views of college administration,
such as the elective system and the importation of professors from
abroad. The remarkable vision, constructive imagination, courage, and
faith of Jefferson in his break with what was traditional and
authoritative in education has been justified by the fine career of
the university which he founded.

=The state universities system=

All the colleges that were established before the Revolution, and most
of those between the Revolution and the year 1800, had received direct
assistance from the colonial or state government either in grants of
land, money, the proceeds of lotteries, or special taxes. Most of
them, however, were dependent upon private foundations and controlled
by denominational bodies. The secularizing influence from France, the
growing interest in civic and political affairs, and the democratic
spirit resulting from the Revolution combined to develop a distrust of
the colleges as they were organized and a desire to bring them under
the control of the state. This was apparent in 1779, when the
legislature of Pennsylvania withdrew the charter of the college of
Philadelphia and created a new corporation to be known as "The
Trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania"; it was shown
in 1787 when Columbia College was granted a new charter by the state
legislature, under which the board of trustees were all drawn from the
Board of Regents of the State; it was made most evident in 1816 when
the legislature of New Hampshire transformed Dartmouth College into a
university without the