Chapter 6
The Building Campaign of 1821

What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men?

—Henry David Thoreau
Walden or Life in the Woods

Work Stalled

Progress toward the attainment of that end (to finish the buildings) was virtually nil over the next several months. Besides renewing the agreements for the hiring of slaves, the only other observable activity taking place at the construction site before March was the sale of Curtis Carter's brickwork contract on 4 January. Contractor John M. Perry purchased the business for $520 and the promise to have the brickwork "finnished in a nise and workmanlike manner" as soon as the season would "permit him to doo the Same." In return Perry received all the bricks and "likewise the house and Stable with all the oak I have on hand" from Carter plus the right to the same compensation from the university for performing the work.⁽⁴³¹⁾ As for the rector and proctor, they spent the rest of the winter scampering for money with which to continue to operate. In late January 1821 Brockenbrough informed Cabell that the workmen "are progressing here as fast as the severity of the weather and the low state of our funds will admit."⁽⁴³²⁾ By then, three contractors had demanded substantial sums from the institution—William B. Phillips, Edward Lowber, and John Perry—the third failing to have his request honored.⁽⁴³³⁾ The proctor hoped Cabell could influence the legislature to double the institution's annual appropriation and authorize the university to obtain additional loans because "without it we shall not be able to do much in the building way."⁽⁴³⁴⁾ Cabell's answer was not very reassuring. "It is painful to me to tell you," he wrote Brockenbrough, "that clouds of difficulty roll over our horizon & darken our prospects. Yet I hope that we shall be able to procure the funds requisite to finish the buildings."⁽⁴³⁵⁾

Cabell Wants to Retire

More worrisome for Jefferson for the moment than even the present financial plight of the university was Cabell's recent decision not to sit for reelection to the Virginia Senate because of his poor health. Cabell had warned Jefferson on 4 January to "be prepared for a failure this session" in gaining additional support for the university and two weeks later the senator wrote again to inform his friend that "we shall be able to effect nothing for the University during the present session. . . . But I do not despair, and all that I can do shall be done. I am turning my attention to a future and better Assembly. . . . it would be well if you and Mr. Madison would aid in getting some efficient friends into the next Assembly."⁽⁴³⁶⁾ Jefferson would understand that last clause only after receiving a third new year's letter from Cabell written a week later "to touch upon a subject that has engaged my thoughts for a long time past"—that of withdrawing from public life at the end of his present term of service. "Such is the weakness of my breast," Cabell complained, "that to ride from Court-house to Court-house, making speeches to large crowds, exposed to the rigors of the season, might carry me to the grave, or bring on me further and more distressing symptoms of pulmonary affection." He reassured Jefferson that his feelings and opinions regarding the institution had not undergone any change and that he did not secretly wish to stand for the United States Congress or "any other public station." "I have been here thirteen winters," he declared simply. "My object now is domestic, rural and literary leisure."⁽⁴³⁷⁾

On the same day that Cabell replied to Brockenbrough's plea for legislative action for the university, Jefferson himself penned a caustic and gloomy response to Cabell's January letters, of which he said, "they fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards the University. I percieve that I am not to live to see it opened." The shortsightedness of the General Assembly in failing to increase its annual appropriation for education, in Jefferson's opinion, would force the university to resort to another loan. That being the case, $60,000 must be sought, enough to build the library and reserve $2,000 a year "for care of the buildings, improvement of the grounds, & unavoidable contingencies." "My individual opinion," said Jefferson, "is that we had better not open the institution until the buildings, Library & all, are finished, and our funds cleared of incumbrance." That latter stipulation would delay the opening for 13 years, he estimated, disagreeable for sure to the "common mind" which could be satisfied with running the school "with half funds only." However, the delay could benefit the university by preventing it from becoming another of the "paltry academies we now have," one that instead could compete with Harvard and Princeton for the minds of the educated youths of Virginia who in the north were "learning the lessons of anti-Missourianism" and returning home, "no doubt, deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy alliance of Restrictionists."⁽⁴³⁸⁾ As painful as it would be not to live to see the university in operation, Jefferson nevertheless reserved most of his brooding for Cabell's personal consideration.

But the gloomiest of all prospects is in the desertion of the best friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the necessities which may force this on you. Genl. [John Hartwell] Cocke, you say, will explain them to me; but I cannot concieve them, nor persuade myself they are uncontroulable. I have ever hoped that yourself, Genl. [James] Breckenridge and mr [Chapman] Johnson would stand at your posts in the legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened. if it is so difficult to get along, with all the energy and influence of our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed at all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your country, and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or later. with this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal to this? what object of our lives can we propose so important? what interest of our own, which ought not to be postponed to this? health, time, labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us, can these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? the exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. if any member of our college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it would be myself, who `quadragenis stipendüs jamdudum peractis' have neither visor of body or mind left to keep the field. but I will die in the last ditch. and so, I hope, you will, my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues mr Johnson and Genl. Breckenridge. nature will not give you a second life wherein to atone for the omissions of this. pray then, dear answer, dear Sir, do not think of deserting us; but view the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest of all. continue with us in these holy labors until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon `nunc dimittis, Domine'. under all circumstances however of praise or blame I shall be affectionately yours.⁽⁴³⁹⁾

Upon receiving Jefferson's reproachful letter, Cabell immediately succumbed to the author. "It is not in my nature to resist such an appeal," he replied. "I this day handed into the office of the Enquirer, a notification that I should again be a candidate. We will pass on to matters of more importance."⁽⁴⁴⁰⁾

Work Still Slow

The incoming March winds of 1821 unfortunately were not strong enough to stir much of an increase in the activity at the building site. Jasper Myers' inconsequential delivery of a few casks, a bundle of copper, and a half dozen shovels on 4 March for John Van Lew & Co. preceded two other small shipments of nails, lead, and iron that the firm sent later in the month by wagoners Henry Wall and George Cline.⁽⁴⁴¹⁾ John Pollock spent three days in March "Hawling Stocks" to James Oldham, a chore he repeated in June and July.⁽⁴⁴²⁾ In the third week of March, at the university's request, D. W. & C. Warwick shipped a wagon containing 25 boxes of tin by William Estes, who once at the university hired himself to haul 660 feet of 1-inch plank to John Gorman.⁽⁴⁴³⁾ And finally, at the end of the month Edward Lowber shipped 28 boxes of window glass to Charlottesville, complaining at the very time of shipment about the $450 he had to invest in it, "as well as all articles of colours," on short credit.⁽⁴⁴⁴⁾

Workmen Submit New Proposals

Now that springtime had arrived in Virginia once again, the university began advertising for undertakers to submit proposals to complete the western range of hotels and dormitories, scheduled to be started during the upcoming season. The first to respond was William Dawson & Co. of Baltimore which noticed the university's advertisement calling for proposals from brickworkers in the Morning Chronicle and Daily Advertiser on 24 March. Dawson sent a paper describing Roman Cement with an offer to sell it to the institution at a cost of $9 per 350 pound cask.⁽⁴⁴⁵⁾ The next day local sawmill owner M. W. Maury bid for the carpentry and joinery work of a hotel and its adjacent dormitories at the prices "heretofore Allowd for work of the same description done . . . or by M. Careys book of prices printed at Philidelphia in 1812," and, Maury concluded, "I would furnish my own lumber if requir'd as low as it can be obtain'd."⁽⁴⁴⁶⁾ Also on 25 March, Thomas Pickering wrote to "avail myself" of the opportunity to "undertake the Carpentry of buildings in the general at the reduced price of twenty percent below the prices Current of Philadelphia—My general unacquaintance with the inhabitance of this Vicinity would render it inconvenient for me to furnish materials."⁽⁴⁴⁷⁾ On the following day John Carter of Richmond offered to work "Either as a brick maker or to make and Lay bricks," preferring to make and deliver 4 to 600,000 bricks (common brick for $5.75 and rubbed stretchers for $10 the thousand), "and find all at the Same that the work was done for Last Year."⁽⁴⁴⁸⁾

Philadelphian Richard Ware submitted his bid for wood work on 27 March, saying, "I will be glad to do the Carpenters work of aney part of the Western range of Hotells & dormoterys that the honorable committee may favour me with I expect to finish my presnt job this next fall earley."⁽⁴⁴⁹⁾ The next day George W. Spooner, Jr., wrote in, observing that the advertisement divided the hotels and dormitories of the western range into "five partes, am disposed to undertake one of those portions viz the execution of the Wood Worke, as I shall have finished my presant engagements on Hotell B and dormitories on or ab[o]ut the 1st of July next."⁽⁴⁵⁰⁾ Brockenbrough informed Spooner on 2 April that he could have a piece of the work at a price reduced from the previous year, and Spooner accepted his proposal the following day, noting that "we must necessarily be obliged to reduce the wages of oure Workmen which are already so low that they are hardly sufficient to induce good workmen to leave Sities and come here for employment."⁽⁴⁵¹⁾

William B. Phillips, "feeling dispose to Solicit your patronage Again," said on 29 March that he could make and lay 450 to 500,000 bricks during the coming season at the same prices and conditions as before.⁽⁴⁵²⁾ On 30 March Thomas R. Blackburn asked to be given one-fifth of the western range's carpentry work at 10% off the Philadelphia Price Book,⁽⁴⁵³⁾ and Malcom F. Crawford said he would "under take to finish one fifth of youre work at the preasent prisces and execute it in a most Expoditious and workemanlike manner. I Comprehend that this tuscan work cannot be done for less than the preasant prisces, unless a man dose injustices too himself or his Employer."⁽⁴⁵⁴⁾ (Crawford and Lyman Peck entered into a contract on 10 August for the carpentery and joinery work of 25 dormitories on the west range).⁽⁴⁵⁵⁾ James Dinsmore and John Perry sent in separate proposals on 30 March proposing to build a hotel and set of dormitories at the same prices they were then working at and promising to be ready to begin as soon as the brickwork required it.⁽⁴⁵⁶⁾ Perry and Abiah B. Thorn jointly proposed to do brickwork at the "Same price and Measurement that we had last year" and if allowed to build the "Rotundor—we shall not "hezitate to challenge the best specimin of Bricks at the university.⁽⁴⁵⁷⁾

Another bid for carpentry was written on 30 March by Joseph Pitt, one of Richard Ware's carpenters who thought he could work at 10% below Mathew Carey's 1812 book.⁽⁴⁵⁸⁾ Dabney Cosby said he could make and lay 2 to 500,000 bricks, or 600,000 with "as good a Brickmaker from the north as can be had to aid me," and deduct 50% for openings. "I will further add," wrote Cosby, "should it be deemed to proceed to the erection of the pantheon this season, and I consider'd trustworthy It would be a scource of much pride and gratification to me, to see it executed in a stile, which for neatness and strength, should equal it in importance, and granduer of design."⁽⁴⁵⁹⁾ Cosby revised his proposal two days later, changing the number of bricks he proposed to make and lay to 800,000 to 1,200,000 over two years.⁽⁴⁶⁰⁾ James Starke promised to execute the carpentry work for ten dormitories on the "west Back Range" in a "similar stile to the East Range The Lumber to be Furnished at the place Which I will do the worke three per Cent Lower than the usual prices."⁽⁴⁶¹⁾

The rector received the few lines written by James W. Widderfield to inform him that "for nearly four years as A Jurnaman and haveing know fullfill my Contract with Mr John M Perry and wishing to do something for my self and family it meating the approbation of Mr Dinsmore & Mr Nelson and being advise by my friends to write to you stateing that I wish to have A part of the Carpenter work to be let this year."⁽⁴⁶²⁾ Widderfield anxiously wrote again two days later, telling the proctor that he would undertake the work at the "price Which may be Offered by any other undertaker of respectibility and whom you may place confidence in as a workman."⁽⁴⁶³⁾ Housejoiner James Oldham sent his vague proposal for a "portion of the Worke that is yet to be done, at the Standard Price" to the Board of Visitors.⁽⁴⁶⁴⁾ Oldham's was the last proposal received for the season except for Andrew Smith's mid-month offer from Richmond to furnish Boston crown glass and Roman cement.⁽⁴⁶⁵⁾

Spring Meeting of the Visitors

April meant that already it was once again time for the Board of Visitors' annual meeting. General Cocke could not attend but he did write offering to make the trip despite severe pain from an illness (exposure to the "late severe weather" gave him a cold which settled in his face) in case the more distant members failed to attend.⁽⁴⁶⁶⁾ As luck would have it, Madison, Johnson, and Breckenridge did make it, so Cocke was spared the trial of making the 30-mile trip from Bremo to Monticello; Cabell and Taylor stayed away, however.⁽⁴⁶⁷⁾ At the meeting the bare quorum decided on three important matters, all relating directly to the construction at the university. First, the board resolved to purchase from Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn the Corinthian and Ionic capitals wanting for the pavilions. Next, the visitors instructed the committee of superintendence to negotiate with the president and directors of the Literary Fund for the additional $60,000 loan that the General Assembly had approved at its last session.⁽⁴⁶⁸⁾ And last and more important, the board resolved to begin building the library, "provided the funds of the University be adequate to the completion of the buildings already begun and to the building the western ranges of Hotels and dormitories, and be also adequate to the completion of the Library so far as to render the building secure and fit for use." The committee of superintendence was instructed not to enter into any contracts for the library until it had examined the university's accounts and ascertained that "without interfering with the finishing of all the Pavilions, Hotels and dormitories begun and to be begun, they have funds Sufficient to put the library in the condition above described."⁽⁴⁶⁹⁾

Library Considered

Chapman Johnson and James Breckenridge, two of the three members of the General Assembly who served on the Board of Visitors, wrote General Cocke on 5 April to explain the stipulation the visitors placed on the committee of superintendence when passing the resolution to go forward with the library (see appendix K). Simply put, Johnson and Breckenridge were dissatisfied with the estimates presented by the rector and proctor to finish the buildings. The estimates "dealt in generals," they said, and lacked the "details necessary to give confidence in their accuracy," especially when considered against the fact that as of yet no single building had been finished. Even though Jefferson and Madison "felt great confidence in the correctness of the estimates, and . . . were willing to act immediately upon their faith," the two senators could not ascertain the "true state of our funds" and thus forced the board to consider postponing all contracts for the library until its fall meeting. The senators' concern arose from their knowledge that the legislature "clearly" believed that the university would not seek any more aid in erecting the buildings, and that any future requests would be detrimental as well as fruitless. In the end the majority of the board, "acting under the old prudential maxim ibis in medio tutissimus,"⁽⁴⁷⁰⁾ concurred in a resolution authorizing the committee of superintendence to proceed with the library only after minutely examining the accounts and "fully" satisfying itself that the funds were adequate to finish the buildings already begun and on the western range, and to "put up the [library] walls cover it in, & render it secure and fit for use—in which security and fitness for use, are contemplated at least doors, windows, floors, and stair cases."

At Jefferson's insistence, Johnson and Breckenridge visited the proctor after the meeting to impress upon Brockenbrough the necessities of preparing the accounts for examination, settling with the workmen for work already finished, and making accurate estimates for the work still uncompleted. "Our conversations with him lead us to fear, that he had not been very particular in that department of his duty which relates to the accounts," and the senators own "rough calculations," they said, made them fear that after finishing the "four ranges of buildings, making the garden walls, privies &c. . . . scarcely a dollar [would be] left for the library." The two visitors, considering it their duty to communicate to Cocke what they had done, and what "we think most desirable to be done on the occasion," expressed their intent not to face the legislature again "with contracts unfilled, with foundations not built upon, with naked walls or useless walls, demanding to be protected or threatening to perish, or be a monument of our want of foresight and our unprofitable expenditure of public money." The General Assembly would manifest an ill temper towards the university if any material blunder was made in engaging the work; it would be better to lose a season in building the library than encounter the serious risk of "entering into contracts for it, which we may be unable to fulfil."⁽⁴⁷¹⁾

Jefferson was much more optimistic. The $60,000 loan, he informed his grandson Frances Wayles Eppes a few days later, "enables us to finish all our building of accomodation this year, and to begin The Library, which will take 3. years to be compleated."⁽⁴⁷²⁾ He told John Vaughan of Philadelphia that the buildings for accommodation of the professors and students "will indeed be compleated in no great time." Moreover, he presumed that the legislature would cancel the university's $120,000 debt when those buildings were completed, leaving the university's funds free to open the institution, "but that is too uncertain to act on with confidence."⁽⁴⁷³⁾ On 9 April Jefferson sent Cocke a copy of the Board of Visitors' proceedings, saying that he had spoken to the bursar about ordering the capitals for the pavilions from Leghorn and that Brockenbrough already was engaged in settling his accounts "in such form as will give us the necessary information, and let us see exactly the ground on which we stand. . . . he does not know whether this will take him a fortnight, or a month, or 6. months. but as soon as it is accomplished I will write to you, because our immediate meeting will be necessary—it is wished that the walls of the Library of a million of bricks may be got up this season."⁽⁴⁷⁴⁾ A week later Jefferson placed the order for 10 Ionic and 6 Corinthian capitals and 2 Corinthian half-capitals for the pavilions and informed Consul Thomas Appleton that the university "shall have occasion the next year for 10. Corinthian capitels . . . to be copied from those of the Rotunda or Pantheon of Rome, as represented in Palladio. be so good as to inform me what will be their exact cost." He added that Michele Raggi "wishes to be employed at Carrara on our capitals; but this must be as you please. if it should suit you, I shall be glad of it, because he is a good man and a good workman, but very hypocondriac."⁽⁴⁷⁵⁾ (Appleton replied to Jefferson on 7 July, writing that the capitals for the Rotunda would cost about $7,600, plus shipping.)⁽⁴⁷⁶⁾ By mid-May the buildings were now "giving on with great spirit," Jefferson informed John Patterson (who had subscribed to the Central College for $500), the library "will be begun, soon . . . come and see our university and chuse a lot in time for yourself to live on."⁽⁴⁷⁷⁾

Money Still Scarce

The accounts for the rest of the spring and into the summer of 1821 indicate that the building activity at the university picked up with the knowledge that the school would soon receive an additional $60,000 loan (although it would be late summer before the money was actually in hand). All that can be gleamed from the workmen's papers is that George W. Spooner, Jr., purchased from John M. Perry's sawmill $102.46 worth of lumber (4,618 running feet) that he used on "Hotel B West" and on his eastern range dormitories for scantling, ceiling joist, dormitory flooring, window sills, and "Strips of Hart,"⁽⁴⁷⁸⁾ and that James Dinsmore bought 2,050 feet of "pannel" and shingling plank costing $37.25 from "Colnl James Monroe" for use on "Pavillion No 4 East & its Dormetorys."⁽⁴⁷⁹⁾ But the merchants' accounts reveal a more lively situation. In the next three months, John Van Lew & Co. kept wagoners Jacob Fauver, Robert Cason, Jacob Harner, David Baylor, William Deitrick, John Craddock, and Samuel Wilson busy by supplying nails, screws, sprigs, hinges, sash pulleys, sand paper, lead, glue, shovels, and spades to the university.⁽⁴⁸⁰⁾ Carter B. Page provided screws and Russian hemp for window sashes and other purposes,⁽⁴⁸¹⁾ and Brockenbrough & Harvie sent another 28 boxes of window glass and a cask of whiting in addition to nails and brads.⁽⁴⁸²⁾ Edward Anderson shipped "Two Hhds best Nova Scotia ground plaister from Richmond by wagoner John H. Woods on 24 April.⁽⁴⁸³⁾ Jacob Croft delivered the 25 boxes of tin remaining from the previous fall for D. W. & C. Warwick.⁽⁴⁸⁴⁾ Blackford, Arthur & Co. hired John Glenn and Samuel Hollyman to haul from Isabella Furnace 14 "Small Franklin Stoves" for Pavilions I, II, IV, and V, and 338 sash weights intended for Pavilions II, IV, and VI, and dormitories 1 to 13 east and 5 to 10 west, and "22 & 26" and "27 & 28."⁽⁴⁸⁵⁾ Edward Lowber supplied more paint to the institution,⁽⁴⁸⁶⁾ although Andrew Smith's offer to supply Boston Crown Glass edged out the need for Lowber's English glass.⁽⁴⁸⁷⁾ Smith also sold the university on the quality of Roman Cement, "unrivall'd for Brilliancey and Strength," although he initially experienced some problems obtaining the English-made material from his supplier in Baltimore (see appendix T).⁽⁴⁸⁸⁾ Bernard Peyton managed the university's bill of exchanges at the Farmers Bank and the Bank of Virginia and arranged for tar to be shipped from Richmond.⁽⁴⁸⁹⁾

The promise of money would only carry the building process so far, however. On 7 July the proctor wrote to Alexander Garrett to relay a message from plasterer Joseph Antrim, who was "out of hair and can't get any without the money the plastering will be obliged to stop for the want of it, can you in any way raise as much as he may want for that purpose & let him have it, I will give you a draft for it on sight."⁽⁴⁹⁰⁾ (Animal hair, hemp, or thread were mixed in plaster as a binding material.) The bursar scrounged up $25 the next day so that Antrim could continue his work but the university construction could not continue operating long on such a policy. On 21 July Jefferson wrote to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to inform him that "our Proctor is now engaged in bringing up the settlement of disbursements & debts" and to ask for the first half of the $60,000 loan.⁽⁴⁹¹⁾ About the time that the Board of Visitors made a bond to the Literary Fund for the loan,⁽⁴⁹²⁾ D. W. & C. Warwick's wagoners delivered 30 boxes of tin plates to the university, along with the firm's bill for $1,129.88 "which we hope to receive as the Loan you spoke of from the Lity fund is at last completed."⁽⁴⁹³⁾ By the same wagon John Van Lew & Co. sent up some sprigs, butt hinges, and sheet lead, with the note that "we are verry much pressed for money at this time."⁽⁴⁹⁴⁾ Money problems aside, though, by mid-August Jefferson could brag to Richard Rush in England that "Our University is fast advancing in it's buildings, & will exhibit a body of chaste architecture which Greece, in her classical days, would have viewed with approbation."⁽⁴⁹⁵⁾

Settlements with the Workmen

The two months prior to the fall meeting of the Board of Visitors coincided with the waning of the traditional building season as the visitors delayed their annual meeting until the end of November in order to give the proctor time to settle his accounts with the contractors. Since several undertakers performed the work on each separate building (i.e., brickwork, wooden work, plastering, roofing, etc.), a myriad of loose ends were left dangling for the workmen to take care of before the proctor could settle the accounts for a particular building. On 25 August Brockenbrough notified the workmen that "No farther advances will be made except on buildings actually completed—Bills made and Settled—a draft for whatever may be due on Such buildings will then be given on Bursar."⁽⁴⁹⁶⁾ This unwanted stimulus certainly helped motivate the undertakers to finish their never-ending odd jobs although it brought worker morale at the site to its lowest ebb since construction began. The local delivery of a few wagonloads of plank, cord-wood, and rock indicate that James Dinsmore (Pavilion IV and one adjacent dormitory) and John M. Perry (Hotel B and its dormitories) were the undertakers most concerned with carrying on their work,⁽⁴⁹⁷⁾ and the shipment from Richmond of sash weights, painting supplies, hardware, and tin reveals the priorities placed on completing the installation of the windows and finishing the painting and roofing (see appendix M).⁽⁴⁹⁸⁾

Brockenbrough was still "makeing some progress in the settlement with the workmen" when the summer turned into another fall;⁽⁴⁹⁹⁾ by the end of September 1821 he had settled for 6 pavilions, 1 hotel, and 35 dormitories, and he hoped by the next Board of Visitors meeting in October to be nearly settled with the "whole of the 4. rows."⁽⁵⁰⁰⁾ In fact, in early October Bursar Alexander Garrett could report truthfully that the "buildings now make a respectable appearance, great progress in the finishing way haveing been made the past summer."⁽⁵⁰¹⁾ "Mr. Jefferson," Garrett continued, "finding (from the settlements made of part of the work done) that the funds will be inadequite to the entire accomplishment of his wishes, yet does not despare . . . him and the President have been puting their heads together on the subject, and have projected new schemes . . . this hint is sufficient for you."⁽⁵⁰²⁾ Although he conceded that it was too late in the season to begin building the library, Jefferson thought that the board at its upcoming annual meeting in November had it in its power to begin building its hull "with perfect safety."⁽⁵⁰³⁾ Indeed, Jefferson drafted "A view of the whole expences, & of the Funds of the University" so that his fellow board members could compare estimated and actual costs with the sources of income and see for themselves how matters stood.⁽⁵⁰⁴⁾ By the end of October, Brockenbrough's "further advance in the settlements" brought the totals to 7 pavilions, 3 hotels, and 65 dormitories, and Jefferson declared himself "decidedly of opinion we should undertake" to begin the library.⁽⁵⁰⁵⁾ (Brockenbrough, who experienced difficulty in settling with Joseph Antrim for plastering,⁽⁵⁰⁶⁾ could not settle with housejoiner James Oldham for the woodwork of Pavilion I on west lawn and Hotel A on west range, and their disagreement eventually led Oldham to bring a lawsuit against the university.)⁽⁵⁰⁷⁾

Cabell Changes View of Finances

A week before the visitors' meeting Senator Joseph Cabell sent his Monticello adviser a letter indicating that he finally had learned Jefferson's lesson regarding how to proceed with the university construction in light of its funding and oversight by the Virginia General Assembly. "If I had a vote on the question of finishing the buildings," Cabell began, "I should vote for it, as a measure correct in itself, and prudent with reference to the present state of the public mind. If there be not money enough to finish them I would go on as near to the object as possible." Cabell's shift in thinking about the university's cautious relationship with the legislature was not mirrored by the two other visitors in the state senate, Chapman Johnson and James Breckenridge, who at the spring 1821 meeting of the Board of Visitors had declared that they would not proceed with the building of the library without the firm assurance of its completion when once begun.⁽⁵⁰⁸⁾ "But I am at this time inclined to think I would ask nothing of the present Assembly," Cabell continued, "I would go on & compleat the buildings, and at another session make the great effort to emancipate the funds. Last Spring I rather inclined to the opinion expressed by many friends in Richmond, that we should commence no building, which we could not finish. But I now think otherwise. I see no essential good to result from stopping short of our object . . . Such are my views."⁽⁵⁰⁹⁾ Cabell reiterated and elaborated these views in another letter of the same date written to his close friend at Bremo, John Hartwell Cocke, which not only shows Cabell's own evolution on the subject but succinctly represents the views that Jefferson held all along about his scheme to build the university.

The more I enquire & reflect, the more I am convinced of the expediency of finishing the buildings. . . . For this purpose, I would use all the disposable funds: & I would do so, even if the funds would only finish the Hall of the Library. . . . The nearer you now get to the end the better. . . . Altho' the dissatisfacton about the style & expenditure has been spread far & wide, yet beleive me, our very enemies, begin to be awed by the grandeur of the establishment, and if I am not greatly mistaken, Virginia is already proud of the noble structure. I would not come before the next Assembly for any thing. Build & finish rapidly and the winter after, let us unite in a great effort to disenthral the funds. We cannot put the Institution into operation without going again before the Assembly, and I think the more near the buildings shall have arrived to completion the better . . . Rapidity of execution is now I think of great importance. A quick, silent march seems to me the most proper, at this time. Presently we shall have done with the buildings, and all complaints on that hand will vanish. Such are my views on the subject.⁽⁵¹⁰⁾

On the day preceding his reception of Cabell's revelatory letter, Jefferson wrote to his former secretary William Short to answer his inquiry about the university and to invite his old neighbor to return to the area for a visit. "You enquire also about our University," Jefferson began.

All its buildings except the Library will be finished by the ensuing spring. It will be a splendid establishment, would be thought so in Europe, and for the chastity of its architecture and classical taste leaves everything in America far behind it. But the Library, not yet begun, is essentially wanting to give it unity and consolidation as a single object. It will have cost in the whole but 250,000 dollars. The library is to be on the principle of the Pantheon, a sphere within a cylinder of 70 feet diameter,—to wit, one-half only of the dimensions of the Pantheon, and of a single order only. When this is done you must come and see it.⁽⁵¹¹⁾

Jefferson's new estimate of the time and money yet needed to finish the buildings of accommodation closely paralleled that given by the proctor in an official report to the rector and Board of Visitors on 26 November, just days prior to the visitors' annual fall meeting. "You will find the balance required to complete the present buildings, exceeds the former estimates," Brockenbrough reported as he handed in the results of his half-year attempt to settle his accounts. "If this was a novel case in building, I should feel much chagrined at it; but as we have numerous precedents before us in all great public works, and indeed in all large private buildings . . . I am the better satisfied, as it cannot be expected, that I should be freer from error in estimates than others."⁽⁵¹²⁾ Brockenbrough's new estimate for constructing all the buildings exclusive of the library was $261,205.49, well beyond the estimate of exactly one year previous, it may be recalled, of $162,364. (The new estimate of money needed to finish the buildings was $53,494.79, up from $38,898.25.) Thus by the time Jefferson penned the above description of the university for William Short, both he and the proctor already had decided (against their best efforts to the contrary) to postpone building the Rotunda for another season. As a disgusted John Hartwell Cocke later told Senator Cabell:

Before the meeting Mr. Jefferson had become so clearly satisfied by the further progress of the Proctors settlements that the funds wou'd be inadequate to the accomplishment of the Rotunda, as to make the proposition himself that it shou'd not be undertaken at present—You will Soon See the report to the legislature—and if you recollect the old Gentlemans Estimates you will see how far short he was of the truth. His Estimate for the Dormitories was $350 each—the average cost of those now finished is $646.00$—and the Pavilions & Hotels have overrun in something like the same proportion.—The more I see & reflect upon the plan & its details, the further I find myself from joining you in your admiration of it.—Depend on it, if we live to see it go into operation its pra[c]tical defects will be manifest to all—But it certainly is as well now to leave the public to find this out, and such is the admiration for Mr. Jeffersons character that much will be overlooked upon this score.⁽⁵¹³⁾

The visitors therefore, at their meeting at the end of November, could not take the much anticipated step of beginning the construction of the library but in fact spent most of their time crafting a statement for the president and directors of the Literary Fund that offered a defense of the progress and costs incurred thus far. "It is confidently believed," the visitors reported, "that . . . no considerable System of building, within the U.S. has been done on cheaper terms, nor more correctly, faithfully, or solidly executed, according to the nature of the materials used."⁽⁵¹⁴⁾