Poughkeepsie   September 26. 1860
Rev.d Thomas T Devan
Dear Sir           Your note of yesterday    date is before me,
and shall give the subject to which you refer my earliest consideration.'
There is some features in my proposed College regulations which have
(I believe) never been adopted in any similar Institution, but which would
be rather difficult for me to explain by letter, suffice to say, that the
feature of a liberal and gratuitous Education to the indigent is one of its
chief elements, but in the selection of such we shall not be confined to
creeds or classes but aim to bestow our benevolence as far as practi-
of capacity
cable upon those who give the greatest evidence^to receive moral and
mental culture, and these we take mainly from our Primary Schools at
home or abroad and when once initiated all distinction of social casts
ceases, from the fact that only one Officer in this Institution will know
the free from paying Pupils
From the foregoing remarks you will perceive that I intend to
avoid all sectarian prejudices, Altho1 every thing else being equal I feel
it my priviledge and duty that my own. religious views and principles should
for the special benifit of that class of orphans to which yr kind note refers.
predominate in this Institution A
With these foregoing hasty remarks
I subscribe myself
Yours very Respectfully
M Vassar
This is not an exact Copy, it was more extended
MV                              35