James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Liberty & Learning - Index

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piedmont, princeton, and an educated citizenry
. . . We conversed on many things, & at length on the College of William &
Mary at Williamsburg. He informed me that it is in such confusion at present,
& so badly directed, that he cannot send his Children with propriety there for
Improvement & useful Education—That he has known the Professors to play all
Night at Cards in publick Houses in the City, and has often seen them drunken
in the Street! 21
For Madison, whose health was often precarious, the prospect of studying in
the tidewater region of Virginia could be potentially fatal. The climate, he noted,
“was unhealthy for persons going from a mountainous region.” 22
Martin’s influence upon Madison’s final decision to attend the College of New
Jersey was certainly considerable, but further encouragement came from the
exciting news that the Reverend John Witherspoon had assumed the presidency
of the university in 1768. Witherspoon had already achieved a stellar reputation
as an extraordinary teacher and a man of keen intellect. His appointment had the
immediate effect of elevating the university’s reputation and prestige.
For Madison, his summer 1769 trip north was the first time he had left Virginia. It
would prove to be an opportunity for him to break free from the strong provincialism
of his home colony. Accompanying Madison on the journey was a Montpelier slave,
Sawney, and Thomas Martin, his tutor. The ten-day trek was both difficult and dangerous,
requiring the small Madison party to traverse poorly maintained roads and to
ford numerous streams and rivers. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, though, Madison
encountered a cosmopolitan city of unimaginable size and wonderment. Here, according
to Ralph Ketcham, “Madison saw for the first time such wonders as stone sidewalks
and paved streets lighted at night, row on row of three-story brick dwellings, churches
of eight different denominations within a few blocks of each other, and many other
public buildings, including two libraries, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the Academy of
Philadelphia, the State House, and a barracks for nearly two thousand soldiers.” 23
The skyline of colonial Philadelphia. Madison first visited this cosmopolitan city
in 1769 while en route to study at the College of New Jersey.
17