But how was "increasing the capacity of the country" conceptualized? I can believe that it was put together with the intention of strengthening the new country and building up institutions that it felt it needed, but that's not at all the same thing as being not for the elite (at the time of the founding of the first state schools we still had property requirements to vote!), much less that they conceived of it as job training.
For a primary source on how they conceptualized the role of the university, see the charter for the University of Georgia (1785) [0]. It essentially says that universities are really important and it would be unacceptable to have to send youths to foreign countries, so we're starting one here. They weren't reconceptualizing the university, they were funding the rapid development of institutions that would otherwise take centuries to develop if at all.
For a primary source on how they conceptualized the role of the university, see the charter for the University of Georgia (1785) [0]. It essentially says that universities are really important and it would be unacceptable to have to send youths to foreign countries, so we're starting one here. They weren't reconceptualizing the university, they were funding the rapid development of institutions that would otherwise take centuries to develop if at all.
[0] https://sclfind.libs.uga.edu/sclfind/view?docId=ead%2FUA22-0...