Extract from University of Virginia Board of Visitors to United States Congress
| Nov. 30. 1821. |
The Petition of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Chapman Johnson, Joseph C. Cabell, James Breckenridge, John Hartwell Cocke, and Robert Taylor the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia ... Respectfully representeth ... That the value of science to a republican people, the security it gives to liberty by enlightening the minds of it’s citizens, the protection it affords against foreign power, the virtues it inculcates, the just emulation of the distinction it confers on nations foremost in it, in short that it’s identification with power, morals, order and happiness (which merits to it premiums of encoragement rather than prohibitory repressive taxes) are topics which your petitioners do not permit themselves to urge on the wisdom of Congress, before whose minds these considerations are always present & bearing with their full just weight.