Prospectus of a National Institution to be Established in the United States.
Washington City: Printed by Samuel H. Smith, 1806. First edition. Unbound, removed from a larger volume. 44 p. Number “13” in ink to the upper edge, partly shaved, and the author’s name supplied in pencil on the title page. Two leaves (pp. 13–16) lacking and supplied in photocopy; the preceding and following leaves damaged at the gutter and partly reinforced with Japanese paper. Otherwise in very good condition.
Early and unusually comprehensive 1806 proposal for a federally centered national university, reviewed by Thomas Jefferson and introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Joel Barlow’s Prospectus of a National Institution, dated 24 January 1806, outlines an ambitious plan for a federally centered university at the seat of government, issued at a moment when the young republic was still defining the relationship between national authority, science, and education. The paper proposes a comprehensive establishment intended to operate on a truly national scale.
At the core of Barlow’s scheme is the union of two functions often kept separate in Europe: the advancement of knowledge through associations of scientific men and the dissemination of that knowledge through the instruction of youth. By combining research and formal education within a single institution, he argued, the United States could create an establishment of broader practical utility, embracing scientific and technical training alongside liberal instruction and teacher preparation. He further warned that the vast territorial extent and regional diversity of the United States might produce a tendency for different regions to diverge in sentiment; a national university devoted to literature, science, and the arts would, in his view, help foster a “harmony of sentiment” and strengthen the community of interest on which the federal Union depended. The project circulated at the highest levels of the early republic: Barlow transmitted a draft bill to Thomas Jefferson, who reviewed it and returned it with suggested revisions, and the measure was introduced in the Senate in 1806. Although it did not succeed, the Prospectus forms part of the early national debate over federal support for higher learning and scientific organization.
Barlow (1754–1812), a Connecticut-born poet, diplomat, and member of the Connecticut Wits, was active within the intellectual networks of the early republic. After the War of Independence he spent many years in Europe, especially in France, where he moved in advanced Enlightenment circles and developed a cosmopolitan outlook. He maintained correspondence with leading American figures, including Jefferson, and his Prospectus belongs to the broader founding-era movement to establish a national university at the federal capital—a project advocated at various times by Benjamin Rush, George Washington, James Madison, and Jefferson. Though never realized, Barlow’s paper stands among the fullest early statements of a national educational institution linking scientific research, advanced instruction, and republican statecraft.
According to RBH, the latest recorded offering dates from 1949 (Goodspeed).
Sabin 3429
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Price: €10,000.00