I had never heard of the “Cincinnati society,” so I decided to do some research to better understand the context for this section of the document. The Society of the Cincinnati is a society that was founded around the end of the Revolutionary War to help preserve and uphold the ideals of the Continental Army’s officers. Today it functions as more of a nonprofit educational organization, but at the time of this document it was a hereditary society aiming to honor the achievement and memory of the American Revolution. So, when the document describes how Washington College (now known as Washington and Lee University) intends to transfer its “expected interest in the funds of the Cincinnati society,” it is offering the University a sort of investment asset in a form other than simple funds or property. Therefore, this portion of the document shows just how fully the trustees of Washington College were offering financial support to UVA in its early stages.

It is very interesting to see how the University was, from the very beginning, built to grow and expand. The acknowledgement that there are always more ways to develop and change is something I am somewhat surprised and pleased to see included in this document; I would not expect the authors to call attention so freely to what the school was initially lacking, especially if this document intended to make the University seem favorable in the eyes of its readers. However, I think including this was very effective because it sets sights toward the future, establishing UVA as a place that will continue to improve and evolve for years to come. It is also particularly interesting how they mention building spaces for worship in the future when the University was initially founded without any sort of religious ties.

It is amazing to read about these beginnings of the foundation of the system of government at UVA. It makes sense that the belief that a government should nourish those it serves would lead to, among other concepts, the idea of student self-governance, a proud institution at UVA to this day. It is especially interesting to interpret these foundations of University government in contrast to those from the Yale College founding documents, which establish the school’s government in a much more official and less democratic way. Although it was deeply problematic that these ideologies only applied to a select group of people at the time, they were nonetheless progressive compared to other institutions, and they laid the foundation for the University’s student-led government of today.

This excerpt demonstrates the passion these men had for the advancement of education. Although their execution of these ideals was riddled with exclusion – racism, sexism, elitism, etc. – their belief that education is an evolving, endless journey spanning lifetimes and generations is nonetheless innovative and powerful. Clearly, the “mankind” to which they refer exclusively means men like them, but their general ideas still seem advanced for the time (which by no means excuses their poor ethics in practice of the ideas). It is especially fascinating to compare the founding documents of Yale College to this paragraph. In the Yale documents, words like “discover,” “advance,” “well-being,” and “mankind” are not present at all, and every mention of the word “improve” refers to the power of the President, Board of Trustees, or other officials alone to improve the school. Comparing the language in the two documents truly highlights the passion for lifelong education, versus simply for a successful institution, from which the founders of the University of Virginia grew their school. This ideology is also physically reflected on grounds by the fact that the original University was built around a library rather than a building with a religious or other purpose.