4 - Thomas Jefferson Autograph Letter Signed on Military Instruction at the University of Virginia

Thomas Jefferson Autograph Letter Signed on Military Instruction at the University of Virginia ALS signed “Th: Jefferson,” one page, 7.75 x 9, September 5, 1824. Addressed from Monticello, a handwritten letter to Daniel K. Minor, in full: "Your letter of August 28. is dated from Richmond, of which name there are 15. post offices in the US. a friend however informing me that he thinks Capt. Partridge’s school is in Vermont, I hazard my letter to the Richmond of that state and hope it will find you. I take for granted you do not consider anything which passes between you and myself as an engagement on the part of the visitors, or any thing more than my individual opinion; and that my mention of the subject to the visitors was only in a conversation, in which they went no further than not to manifest any objection. I still believe that their views are on you. Our University will not open till the 1st of February, and I do not myself see any serious inconvenience in deferring to open our military exercises until the 25th of August as you request, and that you may safely engage yourself otherwise until that date. You will be pleased however to consider this as my own opinion only, and as no engagement for others. I pray you to accept my respectful salutations.” In fine condition, with tape-repaired tears to the left edge. The letter dates from the final preparations for the opening of the University of Virginia, one of Jefferson’s principal projects in retirement. Daniel K. Minor had been considered for a position overseeing military instruction at the new university, but wished first to spend a year studying under Captain Alden Partridge, the former superintendent of West Point and founder of the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy, which later became Norwich University. Minor had written Jefferson on August 28 seeking permission to remain at Partridge’s school until August 1825 so that he could master military exercises, evolutions, marching, and encampment before assuming his duties in Virginia. Jefferson here indicates his willingness to accommodate the delay while carefully stressing that he could speak only for himself, rather than commit the university’s Board of Visitors. The following month, the board formally provided for a military instructor at the University of Virginia, charged with teaching students the manual exercise, field evolutions, maneuvers, and encampments. The correspondence thus captures Jefferson personally working through the practical details of the university’s curriculum only months before it opened to students in 1825, while connecting his educational plans with Partridge, an influential early advocate of military education in the United States. The letter is published in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, with Minor’s August 28 letter to Jefferson also surviving, preserving both sides of this exchange.