The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-21
MOVEMENT ID GET LARGE ENDOWMENT University of Virginia Will
 Take on New Life
APPEAL MADE FOR FUNDS

III mosemenI 10 Make institution
 Fitting Monument to Thos.
 Jefferson Its Founder.
 New York, November 2o--A movement to raise an endowment fund for the his toric University of Virginia has been or ganized under the direction of the advis- ory council of hundred or more pro1ni- nent men representing all parts of the United States This famous old school was founded by Thomas Jefferson and the fund, which is hoped to eventually amount to $2,000000, will be named "The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Fund" The university has never had an endowment adequate to its needs and since the civil war 1t has been much hampered by lack of resources. The advisory council which has taken the endowment in hand Is composed of distinguished Americans among the names in It's membership be- ing Chief Justice Fuller. Grover Cleve- land, Elihu Root, Secretary Taft, Ad- miral Dewey, Robert T. Lincoln, St. Clair McKelway Cardinal Gibbons. Rich ard Olney, Dr. s. Weir Mitchell and nu- merous others. while the late Senator Hoar was also a member.
 President Roosevelt Is interested in the project and has endorsed 1t in the fol- lowing letter to Thomas Nelson Page, president of the Alumni association of the University of Virginia:
 President Roosevelt's Letter.
 White House. Washington,
 June 29, 1904.
 My dear MT. Page:-I have received your letter about the movement to raise Thomas Jefferson Memorial fund as an endowment for the University of Vir- ginla. I most earnestly wish you suc- cess, and I feel that the moment you have chosen is most opportune. owing to the reawakened interest in Jefferson's great work caused by the centenary oi the Louisiana purchase. Your work should commend itself not only to those who are especially interested in tht cause of higher education in the south but to all who are interested in the cause of education throughout our country You need a large sum for such a me. morial. and I cannot help feeling that you will get it if the most eminent mer of the country, irrespective of sectior or party, can have the matter laid be fore them and are satisfied, as they should be satisfied, as to the great merit of the movement
 ''The University of Virginia occupie: unique position among our educationa institutions. On the first board of visi tors to the institution were Jefferson Madison and Monroe. The university was one of Jefferson's cherished ideas a project which occupied his whole time and attention during the latter year. | of ffa T. 11oc had ment requisite to its barest needs. Nov in the great exposition at St. Louis tht country is proelaiming the centennial oi the achievement in which Jefferson tool took the lading part: the achievement which, in the purchase of the then ter. ritory of Louisiana, defeinitely estab- lished this country as the greatest ma ton Of the western hemisphere. Sure. ly this celebration should not be brought to a close without leaving on the ma. tion some other mark than the memory Of It's grandeur. The movement to this end can most properly take the form of monument forever to Jefferson's genius: movement far more enduring than bronze, and which will fully realize one of his greatest ideals.
 Tt would be good thing if the people of this country, north and south, east and west should come forward and es. tablish Jefferson fund for the university as culmination for the great celebra. ton of the present year. Jefferson wrote his own epitaph to be inscribed on the granite shaft that marks his grave ai Monticello. In the epitaph he did not re cite the offices he had held, but the three deeds he he'd done which he esteemed O most worth to his fellow men, and tht epitaph runs as follows:
 Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independ ence. the Statute of Virginia for Relig lous Freedom and father of the Universit, of Virginia.
 '"The American people can surely be ap pealed to with confidence to carry ou' Jefferson's work in the way which h, would himself have regarded as mos gratifying by endowing, as 1t should b, endowed, the noble institution of learning which he founded. I earnestly hope fol the success of your movement Sincerely yours. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
 The following circular has been issued by the advisory council:
 Circular Is Issued.
 "It bears the stamp of hts genius anc will be d. noble monument to his fame. '-- James Madison.
 To All Those Interested in the Higher Ed
 ucation:
 In this centennial year of ''The Louisi ana Purchase no more fitting and grac. ious tribute could be paid to the vas services rendered the country by Thoma. Jefferson than for the American people tc unite in raising a memorial fund for the permanent endowment of his honored foundation-the University of Virginia
 To the establishment of this great insti. tuition, which introduced Into this coun- try early In the last century. many oi the features of the continental universi- ties of Europe, Mir Jefferson devoted ths latter part of his life. Our university he wrote, is 'ithe last of my mortal cares and the last service I can render my country" And when he framed his owr epitaph emitting all mention of the grea offices he had held he deemed it worth, to be ranked beside the authorship of tn, Declaration of Independence and of tn, Statute of Virginia for Religious Free dom, that he was ''the father of tie Uni yersity of Virginia"
 The excellence of it's standards and 1t, methods Is attested by its noble histor, and by the tributes that have been pais