The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-21
Advisory Council For Pur-
 pose is Named.
President Roosevelt. Forner President Cleveland and others COmmsnd the Enterpriss and Pay Tri- butes to the historic Ola
 IasaitatIon.

 organized under the direction or an advisory council of hundred or more prominent men representing all parts of the United States. This famous old school was founded by Thomas Jef- ferson and the fund. which Is hoped to eventually amount to $2.00Q,0OO, will pc named The Thomas Jefferson Memo rial Fund"
 The University has never had an en-, dowment adequate to it's needs and since the Civil War it has been much hampered by lack of resources. The advisory council which has taken the endowment in hand Is composed or distinguished Americans, among the names in its membership being Chief Justice Fuller. Grover Cleveland. Eithu Root. Secretary Taft, Admiral Dewey, Robert T. Lincoln, St. Clair McKelway, Cardinal Gibbons, Richard Olnoy, Dr. s. Weir Mitchell and numerous others while the late Senator Hoar was also a member.
 TSe President Interested.
 President Roosevelt Is interested in the project and has indorsed 1t in the following letter to Thomas Nelson Page, President of the Alumni Associa- ton of the University of Virginia. My dear Mir. Page--1 have received your letter about the movement to raise Thomas Jefferson memorial fund as an endowment for the Uni- versity of Virginia. I most earnestly wish you success. and feel that the moment you have chosen is most op- perfume. owing to the reawakened in terest in Jefferson's great work caused by the centenary of the Louisiana Pur- chase. Your work should commend it. self not only to those who are es- pecially interested in the cause of higher education in the South, but to ail who are interested in the cause Of higher education throughout our coun- try. You need a large sum for such a memorial, and I cannot help feeling l that yoN will get it If the most enni- nent men of the country, irrespective of section or party. can have the mat I ter laid before them and are satisfied, I as they should be satisfied as ti the great merit of the movement.
 UnIverslfy'a Unique POnatiOm. The University of Virginia occupies unique position among pur educa- tional institutions. On the first Board of Visitors to the Institution were Jeff ferson, Madison and Monroe. The Uni- yersity was one of Jefferson's cherished ideas--a project which occupied his whole time and attention during the | latter years of his life. It has never had an endowment requisite to its bar est needs. Now In the great expedition at St. Louis the country is proclaim ing the centennial of the achievement l in which Jefferson took the leading mart. the achievement which In the purchase of the then territory of l Louisiana, definitely established this country as the greatest nation of the Western Hemisphere. Surely, this cele- bration should not be brought to close without leaving on the nation some other mark than the memory of It's grandeur. The movement to this end can most properly take the form ot a monument forever to Jefferson's geni- us: a mounnient far more enduring than bronze, and which will fully realize one of its greatest ideals.
 A Jefferson Fund.
 It would be a good thing If the peo- ple Of this country, North and South, | East and West, should come forward ] and establish a Jefferson fund for the lIyniversity as continuation for the great celebration of the present year. l Jefferson wrote his own epitaph to be inscribed on the graniee smart that | marks his grave at Monticello. In that | epitaph he did not recite the offices he | had held, but the three deeds he had done which he esteemed of most worth | 10 hss fellow and the epitaph runs "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University Of Virginia"
 l The American people can surely be appealed to with confidence to carry out Jefferson's work in the way which he would himself have regarded as most gratifying, by endowing. as It | should be endowed, the noble institu- tion of learning which he founded. earnestly hope for the success of your movement.
 Sincerely yours.
 Theodore Roosevelt.
 The following circular has been is- sued by the Advisory Council:
 Advisory Councils CirculaR.
 "It bears the stamp of his genius and will be a noble monument to his fame."-James Madison.
 To all Those Interested in the Higher | EducationI
 | In this centennial year of '"The Louisiana Purchase" no more fitting and gracious tribute could be paid to the vast services rendered the country by Thomas Jefferson than for the American people to unite In raising a memorial fund for the permanent en- dowment of his honored foundation the University of Virginia.
 To the establishment of this great institution, which introduced into this country. early in the last century, many of the features of the continental uni- versailles of Europe. MT. Jefferson de- voted the latter part of his life. our unIversity," he wrote, 'is the last or nv mortal cares and the last service can render my country" And when he framed his own epitaph' omitting all mention of the great ofiees he had held. he deemed 1t worthy to be rankeu heaidA the authorship of the Declara- tIon of Independence, and of the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom. that bo was 'oThe Father of the University of Virginia" -
 rrba excellence of it's standards anc Iits methods is attested by It's nonls hIstorv and by the tributes that have been paid to 1t in every part of the country. ,.-., ... .,,. Iaowroent comparable to its needs, and
 Sor vnanv years, owing partly to the res d,ction of the resources of the South Itt has been greatly hampered by tne ,rsnt of funds Moreover, few yeari aso q disastrous fire destroyed it's oen' fral and principal structure, the beau
 tiful rotunda. containing It's interest ing and valuable library.
 It is proposed now to raise proper endowment for this old and honored in stitution of learning, and 1t Is believed that the people of the whole country S5-bo owe 90 much to Mir. JeRerson's far. reaching genius, and who cannot rai to appreciate the national importanc'
 Hv. Nka