Besides this, an Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our
hotels, say about five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school
of Anatomy. There cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre
is prepared, giving an advantageous view of the operation to those
within, and effectually excluding observation from without. Either the
additional sums, therefore, of twenty-five thousand and five thousand
dollars will be wanting, or we must be permitted to appropriate a part
of the fifty thousand to a theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for
the present. Yet I should think neither of these objects an equivalent
for renewing the displeasure of the legislature. Unless we can carry
their hearty patronage with us, the institution can never flourish.
I would not, therefore, hint at this additional aid, unless it were
agreeable to our friends generally, and tolerably sure of being carried
without irritation.
In your letter of December the 31st, you say my 'hand-writing and my
letters have great effect there,' i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my
dear Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to
me. But my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from
the administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that
I retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in
office had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation,
and with acquiescence by the other.
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