Dear Sir,

I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and
am glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a--a = 0.
Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue,
to set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and
if foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our
legislature, no harm will have been done by the provisos.

You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act
was expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that
a re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday,
the 29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
fourth, &c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give it
certainty enough.

You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text
and reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
whole sum at once.

I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have
all, from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our
Professors, as the only means by which we can give to our institution
splendor and pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only
question, therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate,
will be, Is he the most highly qualified?