The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
PUBLIC OFFICE / GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
On the 1st of June, 1779, I was appointed Governor of the
Commonwealth, and retired from the legislature. Being elected, also,
one of the Visitors of William and Mary college, a self-electing body,
I effected, during my residence in Williamsburg that year, a change in
the organization of that institution, by abolishing the Grammar
school, and the two professorships of Divinity and Oriental languages,
and substituting a professorship of Law and Police, one of Anatomy,
Medicine and Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter
confining us to six professorships, we added the Law of Nature and
Nations, and the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral professor, and
Natural History to those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy.
Being now, as it were, identified with the Commonwealth itself, to
write my own history, during the two years of my administration, would
be to write the public history of that portion of the revolution
within this State. This has been done by others.
from Notes for an Autobiography, 6 January 1821
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