As early as 1790, George Washington urged congress to pursue a national university because he believed that an enlightened people was the best way to support liberty. Washington was not the first to call for national education. Noah Webster, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin all argued for a strong educational system. Noah Webster argued, "our constitutions of civil government are not yet firmly established; our national character is not yet formed; and it is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and liberty to inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government". And it was James Madison during the Constitutional Convention who proposed to give Congress the power "to establish an [sic] University, in which no preferences or distinctions should be allowed on the account of religion".
By 1794, Washington began thinking of the prospect of building a university in the federal city. Washington wrote to Edmund Randolph and James Madison in late 1794 that he wished to endow the university with his shares in the Potomac River Company. These shares were then used to save Liberty Hall (originally founded as Augusta Academy in 1749) and it was renamed Washington Academy. Washington's endowment, worth about $25,000 was then the largest gift ever given to an institution of learning in America at the time. Washington Academy is now know as Washington and Lee university. Two years later, Washington again urged Congress to once again consider a national university. Washington saw such a university as away to bring together the people with a common education. Washington stated that the "more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particulars the greater will be our prospect of permanent union". James Madison followed with a motion to Congress to consider the establishment of a national university within the District of Columbia and allow funds to be collected for the establishment of the university. The proposal was met with general approval in the Senate, but a debate over the constitutionality of such a university broke out in the House. Advocates of the university saw the university as helping to sustain certain aspects of American politics and cultures, while transforming others. The university would teach the political principles behind the American Revolution and the Constitution. It would bring together Americans from all parts of the country and put an end to the sectionalism. The university teachings would encompass all facets of government including history, law, commerce. It would prepare youth for civil and public life. But at the time, both Thomas Jefferson and Congress opposed the idea and considered it unconstitutional.
14 years later when James Madison was president, he used his second annual address to once again urge congress to consider a National University. Madison suggested that such a university would enhance what was already provided by the states and could be paid for by selling federal lands. Madison, again touched on the value of such a university. It would enlighten the opinions, expand patriotism, and teach the principles of the Revolution. Madison also repeated the thoughts of Washington, Franklin, Rush and Webster that such a university could help to end "sectionalism". Madison wrote that the "sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished" and the "features of national character would be multiplied". And most importantly, a university would strengthen "the structure of our free and happy system of government".
"Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people, and whilst it is evident that the means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, I can not presume it to be unseasonable 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 jurisdiction, the expense of which might be defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have accrued to the nation within those limits.Unfortunately, Congress would disagree. In 1811, a Congressional report was published recommending against a national university calling it unconstitutional. But nevertheless, James Madison continued to pursue the idea. In 1815 after the War of 1812 had ended, Madison suggested that the "present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of Columbia". In his annual address that year, President Madison requested that Congress give it's patronage or support to such an institution for the "advancement of knowledge".
Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the sentiments, and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of science, to be redistributed in due time through every part of the community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent given to social harmony. But, above all, a well- constituted seminary in the center of the nation is recommended by the consideration that the additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and happy system of government."
"The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein, subject to the authority of the General Government. Such an institution claims the patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for the advancement of knowledge, without which the blessings of liberty can not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the formation of other seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened preceptors, and as a central resort of youth and genius from every part of their country, diffusing on their return examples of those national feelings, those liberal sentiments, and those congenial manners which contribute cement to our Union and strength to the great political fabric of which that is the foundation."In the first year of John Quincy Adam's administration, he bemoaned the fact that in the nation's capital bearing George Washington's name, there was sill no university to be found.
"Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of the condition of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was first in the hearts, of our country- men, that once and again in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war -- a national university and a military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes; but in surveying the city which has been honored with his name he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a university still bare and barren."
Ultimately, the country would have to wait until 1869, before the National University School of Law would open it's doors in Washington D.C. Later, in 1954, the National University merged into George Washington University School of Law to create National Law Center at the George Washington University.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29452
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29431
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29438
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29467
The Founders and the Idea of a National University: Constituting the American Mind by George Thomas (2014) pgs 28 - 39
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