The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

From the Pennsylvania Gazette

PLAN of a FEDERAL UNIVERSITY.

"YOUR government cannot be executed. It is too extensive for a republick. It is contrary to the habits of the people," say the enemies of the Constitution of the United States. However opposite to the opinions and wishes of a majority of the citizens of the United States, these declarations and predictions may be, they will certainly come to pass, unless the people are prepared for our new form of government, by an education adapted to the new and peculiar situation of our country.--To effect this great and necessary work, let one of the first acts of the new Congress be, to establish within the district to be allotted for them, a FEDERAL UNIVERSITY, into which the youth of the United States shall be received after they have finished their studies and taken their degrees in the colleges of their respective States. In this University let those branches of literature only be taught, which are calculated to prepare our youth for civil and publick life. These branches should be taught by means of lectures, and the following arts and sciences should be the subject of them.

1. The principles and forms of government, applied in a particular manner to the explanation of every part of the constitution and laws of the United States, together with the laws of nature and nations. which last should include every thing that relates to peace, war, treaties, ambassadors and the like.

2. History, both ancient and modern, and chronology.

3. Agriculture in all its numerous and extensive branches.

4. The principles and practice of manufactures.

5. The history, principles objects and channels of commerce.

6. Those parts of mathematicks which are necessary to the division of property, to finance &, to the principles and practice of war-for there is too much reason to fear that war will continue, for some time to come, the unchristian mode of deciding disputes between christian nations.

7. Those parts of natural philosophy and chemistry, which admit of an application to agriculture, manufactures commerce, and war.

8. Natural history, which includes the history of animals, vegetables and fossils. To render instruction in these branches of science easy, it will be necessary to establish a museum, as also a garden, in which not only the shrubs, &c. but all the forest trees of the United States should be cultivated. The great Linnaeus of Upsal enlarged the commerce of Sweden, by his discoveries in natural history. He once saved the Swedish navy by finding out the time in which a worm laid its eggs, and recommending the immersion of the timber, of which the ships were built, at that season wholly under water, So great were the services this illustrious naturalist rendered his country by the application of his knowledge to agriculture, manufactures and commerce, that the present King of Sweden pronounced an eulogium upon him from his throne, soon after his death.

9. Philology, which should include besides rhetorick and criticism, lectures upon the construction and pronunciation of the English language. Instruction in this branch of literature will become the more necessary in America, as our intercourse must soon cease with the bar, the stage and the pulpits of Great-Britain, from whence we received our knowledge of the pronunciation of the English language: Even modern English books should cease to be the models of stile in the United States. The present is the age of simplicity in writing in America. The turgid stile of Johnson--the purple glare of Gibbon, and even the studied and thickset metaphors of Junius, are all equally unnatural, and should not be admitted into our country. The cultivation and perfection of our language becomes a matter of consequence when viewed in another light. It will probably be spoken by more people in the course of two or three centuries, than ever spoke any one language at one time since the creation of the world. When we consider the influence which the prevalence of only two languages, viz. the English and the Spanish in the extensive regions of North and South-America, will have upon manners, commerce, knowledge and civilization, scenes of human happiness and glory open before us, which elude from their magnitude the utmost grasp of the human understanding.

10. The German and French languages should be taught in this University. The many excellent books which are written in both these languages upon all subjects, more especially upon those which relate to the advancement of national improvements of all kinds, will render a knowledge of them an essential part of the education of a legislator of the United States.

11. All those athletick and manly exercises should likewise be taught in the University, which are calculated to impart health, strength, and elegance to the human body.

To render the instruction of our youth as easy and extensive as possible in several of the above mentioned branches of literature, let four young men of good education and active minds be sent abroad at the publick expence, to collect and transmit to the professors of the said branches all the improvements that are daily made in Europe, in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and in the arts of war and practical government. This measure is rendered the more necessary from the distance of the United States from Europe, by which means the rays of knowledge strike the United States so partially, that they can be brought to a useful focus, only by employing suitable persons to collect and transmit them to our country. It is in this manner that the northern nations of Europe have imported so much knowledge from their southern neighbours, that the history of the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, revenues and military art of ONE of these nations will soon be alike applicable to all of them.

Besides sending four young men abroad to collect and transmit knowledge for the benefit of our country, Two young men of suitable capacities should be employed at the publick expence in exploring the vegetable, mineral, and animal productions of our country, in procuring histories and samples of each of them, and in transmitting them to the professor of natural history. It is in consequence of the discoveries made by. young gentlemen employed for these purposes, that Sweden, Denmark, and Russia have extended their Manufactures and commerce, so as to rival in both the oldest nations in Europe.

Let the Congress allow a liberal salary to the Principal of this University. Let it be his business to govern the students, and to inspire them by his conversation, and by occasional publick discourses, with federal and patriotick sentiments. Let this Principal be a man of extensive education, liberal manners and dignified deportment.

Let the Professors of each of the branches that have been mentioned, have a moderate salary of £150 or £200 a year, and let them depend upon the number of their pupils to supply the deficiency of their maintenance from their salaries. Let each pupil pay for each course of lectures two or three guineas.

Let the degrees conferred in this University receive a new name, that shall designate the design of an education for civil and publick life.

Should this plan of a federal University, or one like it be adopted, then will begin the golden age of the United States. While the business of education in Europe, consists in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra and the antiquities of Herculaneum ; or in disputes about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of the Roman languages, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring those branches of knowledge which increase the convenience of life, lessen human misery, improve our country, promote population, exalt the human understanding, and establish domestick, social and political happiness.

Let it not be said. "that this is not the TIME for such a literary and political establishment. Let us first restore publick credit, by funding or paying our debts--let us regulate our militia-let us build a navy-- and let us protect and extend our commerce. After this. we shall have leisure and money to establish a University for the purposes that have been mentioned." This is false reasoning. We shall never restore publick credit-regulate our militia ---build a navy--or revive our commerce, until we remove the ignorance and prejudices, and change the habits of our citizens, & this can never be done until we inspire them with: federal principles, which can only be effected by our young men meeting and spending two or three years together in a national University, and afterwards disseminating their knowledge, and principles through every country, town and village of the United States. Until this is done--Senators and Representatives of the United States,you will undertake to make bricks without straw. Your supposed union in Congress will be a rope of sand. The inhabitants of Massachusetts began the business of government by establishing the University of Cambridge, and the wisest Kings in Europe have always found their literary institution the surest means of establishing their power, as well as of promoting the prosperity of their people.

These hints for establishing the Constitution and happiness of the United States upon a permanent foundation, are submitted to the friends of the federal government, in each of the States, by a private Citizen of Pennsylvania.