(Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison, Members)
March 4, 1825
A resolution was moved and
agreed to in the following words:
Whereas, it is the duty of
this Board to the government under which it lives, and especially to that of
which this University is the immediate creation, to pay especial attention to
the principles of government which
shall be inculcated therein, and to provide that none shall be inculcated which
are incompatible with those on which the Constitutions of this State, and of
the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion; and for this
purpose it may be necessary to point out specially where these principles are to be found legitimately
developed:
Resolved, that it is the
opinion of this Board that as to the
general principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and in
society, the doctrines of Locke, in
his "Essay concerning the true
original extent and end of civil government," and of Sidney in his "Discourses on government," may be considered as those
generally approved by our fellow citizens of this, and the United States, and
that on the distinctive principles of
the government of our State, and of that of the United States, the best guides are to be found in,
1. The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental act of union of
these States.
2. The book known by the
title of "The Federalist,"
being an authority to which appeal is habitually made by all, and rarely
declined or denied by any as evidence of the general opinion of those who
framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of the
3. The Resolutions of the
General Assembly of Virginia in 1799 on the subject of the alien and sedition
laws, which appeared to accord with the predominant sense of the people of the
United States.
4. The
valedictory address of President Washington, as conveying political lessons
of peculiar value.
And that in the branch of the school of law, which is to treat on the subject of civil polity, these shall be used as the text and documents of the school.
[emphasis added]