Jefferson, Thomas, Third President

Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), 1 page (5 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.; 135 x 199 mm) on a half-sheet of paper (watermarked Amies), Monticello, 21 April 1826, to an unidentified correspondent, reception docket on verso; laid down on tissue closing fold separations touching a few characters, browned and stained, some marginal loss.

Opening the University of Virginia Law School. Just a year after enrolling the first undergraduate students at his University, Thomas Jefferson prepares to open its Law School. "Mr. Wirt declined the office proposed to him. mr Lomax has accepted the Professorship of Law, and will open his school on the 1st of July. he has paid us a visit, and his appointment appears to have given the highest degree of satisfaction to every body, Professors students, neighbors & to none more than to myself. we have now 166 students, and on opening the Law school, we expect to have all our Dormitories filled. order & industry nearly complete, and sensibly improving every day."

William Wirt presumably did not want to relinquish his position as Attorney General, a post he filled during the Monroe and John Quincy Adams administrations, in order to join the faculty. John Tayloe Lomax—whose appointment so pleased Jefferson—became the founding Professor of Law at the University of Viriginia. He designed a curriculum that incorporated the study of politics and government and allowed students to enter law practice after attending just one session.