Part 231

"The establishment of a college in the city of New York was many years in agitation before the design was carried into effect. At length, under an act of Assembly passed in December, 1746, and other similar acts which followed, moneys were raised by public lottery 'for the encouragement of learning and towards the founding a college' within the colony. These moneys were, in November, 1751, vested in trustees. … The trustees, in November, 1753, invited Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Connecticut, to be President of the intended college. Dr. Johnson consequently removed to New York in the month of April following, and in July, 1754, commenced the instruction of a class of students in a room of the school-house belonging to Trinity Church; but he would not absolutely accept the presidency until after the passing of the charter. This took place on the 31st of October in the same year, 1754; from which period the existence of the college is properly to be dated. The Governors of the college, named in the charter, are the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations, both empowered to act by proxies; the Lieutenant-governor of the province, and several other public officers; together with the rector of Trinity Church, the senior minister of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, the ministers of the German Lutheran Church, of the French Church, of the Presbyterian Congregation, and the President of the college, all ex officio, and twenty-four of the principal gentlemen of the city. The college was to be known by the name of King's College. Previously to the passing of the charter, a parcel of ground to the westward of Broadway, bounded by Barclay, Church, and Murray streets and the Hudson River, had been destined by the vestry of Trinity Church as a site for the college edifice; and, accordingly, after the charter was granted, a grant of the land was made on the 13th of May, 1755. … The part of the land thus granted by Trinity Church, not occupied for college purposes, was leased, and became a very valuable endowment to the college. The sources whence the funds of the institution were derived, besides the proceeds of the lotteries above mentioned, were the voluntary contributions of private individuals in this country, and sums obtained by agents who were subsequently sent to England and France. In May, 1760, the college buildings began to be occupied. In 1763 a grammar school was established. In March, 1763, Dr. Johnson resigned the presidency, and the Reverend Dr. Myles Cooper, of Oxford, who had previously been appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and assistant to the President, was elected in his place. … In consequence of the dispute between this and the parent country, Dr. Cooper returned to England, and the Reverend Benjamin Moore was appointed praeses pro tempore during the absence of Dr. Cooper, who, however, did not return. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary War the business of the college was almost entirely broken up, and it was not until after the return of peace that its affairs were again regularly attended to. {731} In May, 1784, the college, upon its own application, was erected into a university; its corporate title was changed from King's College to Columbia College, and it was placed under the control of a board termed Regents of the University. … The college continued under that government until April, 1787, when the Legislature of the State restored it to its original position under the present name of Columbia College. … At the same time a new body was created, called by the same name, 'The Regents of the University,' under which all the seminaries of learning mentioned in the act creating it were placed by the legislature. This body still exists under its original name."

_Columbia College Handbook, pages 5-9._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1776-1880. New England and New York. State School Systems.

"It was not until over thirty years after the close of the war of 1776 that a regular system of schools at the public expense was established. New England boasted with pride of being the first in education, as she had been in war. Her example was closely followed by the other States. In New York, in 1805, many gentlemen of prominence associated for the purpose of establishing a free school in New York City for the education of the children of persons in indigent circumstances, and who did not belong to, or were not provided for by, any religious society. These public-spirited gentlemen presented a memorial to the Legislature, setting forth the benefits that would result to society from educating such children, and that it would enable them more effectually to accomplish the objects of their institution if the schools were incorporated. The bill of incorporation was passed April 9, 1805. This was the nucleus from which the present system of public schools started into existence. Later on, in the year 1808, we find from annual printed reports that two free schools were opened and were in working order. … It was the intention of the founders of these schools—among whom the names of De Witt Clinton, Ferdinand de Peyster, John Murray, and Leonard Bleecker stand prominent as officers—to avoid the teachings of any religious society; but there were among the people many who thought that sufficient care was not being bestowed upon religious instruction: to please these malcontents the literary studies of the pupils were suspended one afternoon in every week, and an association of fifty ladies of 'distinguished consideration ·in society' met on this day and examined the children in their respective catechisms. … To read, write, and know arithmetic in its first branches correctly, was the extent of the educational advantages which the founders of the free-school system deemed necessary for the accomplishment of their purposes."

_A. H. Rhine, The Early Free Schools of America. (Popular Science Monthly, March, 1880)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1785-1880. The United States. Land-grants for Schools.

"The question of the endowment of educational institutions by the Government in aid of the cause of education seems to have met no serious opposition in the Congress of the Confederation, and no member raised his voice against this vital and essential provision relating to it in the ordinance of May 20, 1785, 'for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory.' This provided: 'There shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools within said township.' This was an endowment of 640 acres of land (one section of land, one mile square) in a township 6 miles square, for the support and maintenance of public schools' within said township.' The manner of establishment of public schools thereunder, or by whom, was not mentioned. It was a reservation by the United States, and advanced and established a principle which finally dedicated one thirty-sixth part of all public lands of the United States, with certain exceptions as to mineral, &c., to the cause of education by public schools. … In the Continental Congress, July 13, 1787, according to order, the ordinance for the government of the 'Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio' came on, was read a third time, and passed [see NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D.1787]. It contained the following: 'Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.' The provision of the ordinance of May 20, 1785, relating to the reservation of the sixteenth section in every township of public land, was the inception of the present rule of reservation of certain sections of land for school purposes. The endowment was the subject of much legislation in the years following. The question was raised that there was no reason why the United States should not organize, control, and manage these public schools so endowed. The reservations of lands were made by surveyors and duly returned. This policy at once met with enthusiastic approval from the public, and was tacitly incorporated into the American system as one of its fundamental organic ideas. Whether the public schools thus endowed by the United States were to be under national or State control remained a question, and the lands were held in reservation merely until after the admission of the State of Ohio in 1802. … To each organized Territory, after 1803, was and now is reserved the sixteenth section (until after the Oregon Territory act reserved the thirty-sixth as well) for school purposes, which reservation is carried into grant and confirmation by the terms of the act of admission of the Territory or State into the Union; the State then becoming a trustee for school purposes. These grants of land were made from the public domain, and to States only which were known as public-land States. Twelve States, from March 3, 1803, known as public-land States, received the allowance of the sixteenth section to August 14, 1848. … Congress, June 13, 1812, and May 26, 1824, by the acts ordering the survey of certain towns and villages in Missouri, reserved for the support of schools in the towns and villages named, provided that the whole amount reserved should not exceed one-twentieth part of the whole lands included in the general survey of such town or village. These lots were reserved and sold for the benefit of the schools. Saint Louis received a large fund from this source. … In the act for the organization of the Territory of Oregon, August 14, 1848, Senator Stephen A. Douglas inserted an additional grant for school purposes of the thirty-sixth section in each township, with indemnity for all public-land States thereafter to be admitted, making the reservation for school purposes the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, or 1,280 acres in each township of six miles square reserved in public-land States and Territories, and confirmed by grant in terms in the act of admission of such State or Territory into the Union. From March 13, 1853, to June 30, 1880, seven States have been admitted into the Union having a grant of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, and the same area has been reserved in eight Territories."

_T. Donaldson, The Public Domain, chapter 13._

{732}

EDUCATION: A. D. 1789. The United States.

"The Constitution of the United States makes no provision for the education of the people; and in the Convention that framed it, I believe the subject was not even mentioned. A motion to insert a clause providing for the establishment of a national university was voted down. I believe it is also the fact, that the Constitutions of only three of the thirteen original States made the obligation to maintain a system of Free Schools a part of their fundamental law."

_H. Mann, Lectures and Annual Reports on Education, lecture 5._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1793. Massachusetts. Williams College.

"Williams College, at Williamstown, Berkshire County, Mass., was chartered in 1793. The town and the college were named in honor of Colonel Ephraim Williams, who had command of the forts in the Hoosac Valley, and was killed in a battle with the French and Indians, September 8, 1755. By his will he established a free school in the township which was to bear his name. The most advanced students of this free school became the first college class, numbering 4, and received the regular degree of bachelor of arts in the autumn of 1795. The small amount left by the will of Colonel Williams was carefully managed for 30 years by the executors, and they then obtained permission from the State legislature to carry out the benevolent purposes of the testator. The fund for building was increased by individual subscriptions, and by the avails of a lottery, which the general court granted for that purpose. The building which is now known as West College was then erected for the use of the free school and was finished in 1790. … The free school was opened in 1791, with Reverend Ebenezer Fitch, a graduate of Yale College, as preceptor, and Mr. John Lester as assistant. … The success of the school was so great that the next year the trustees asked the legislature to incorporate the school into a college. This was done, and a grant of $4,000 was made from the State treasury for the purchase of books and philosophical apparatus. The college was put under the care of 12 trustees, who elected Preceptor Fitch the first president of the college."

_E. B. Parsons (United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1891, number 6: History of Higher Education in Massachusetts, chapter 9)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1795-1867. The United States. State School Funds.

"Connecticut took the lead in the creation of a permanent fund for the support of schools. The district known as the Western Reserve, in Northern Ohio, had been secured to her in the adjustment of her claims to lands confirmed to her by the charter of King Charles II. The Legislature of the State, in 1795, passed an act directing the sale of all the land embraced in the Reserve, and setting apart the avails as a perpetual fund for the maintenance of common schools. The amount realized was about $1,120,000. … New York was the next State to establish a common school fund for the aid and maintenance of schools in the several school districts of the State. The other Northern States except New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and one or two others, have established similar funds. … In all the new States, the 500,000 acres, given by act of Congress, on their admission into the Union, for the support of schools, have been sacredly set apart for that purpose, and generally other lands belonging to the States have been added to the fund. … Prior to the war the Slave States had made attempts to establish plans for popular education, but with results of an unsatisfactory character. In Virginia a school system was in force for the education of the children of indigent white persons. In North Carolina a large school fund, exceeding two millions of dollars, had been set apart for the maintenance of schools. In all of these States common schools had been introduced, but they did not flourish as in the North and West. … There was not the same population of small and independent farmers, whose families could be united into a school district. … A more serious obstacle was the slave population, constituting one-third of the whole, and in some of the States more than half, whom it was thought dangerous to educate."

_V. M. Rice, Special Report on the Present State of Education, 1867, pages 19-23._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1804-1837. Michigan. The University.

"In 1804, when Michigan was organized as a Territory, Congress granted a township of land for a seminary of learning, and the university to be established in 1817 was to be in accordance with this grant. The Territorial government committed the interests of higher education to the care of the Governor and the Judges, and it is supposed that through the exertions of Honorable A. B. Woodward, then presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, that the act establishing a university was framed. A portion of this most curious document of the early History of Michigan will be given. It is entitled 'An act to establish the Catholepistemiad or University Michigania.' 'Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan, That there shall be in the said Territory a catholepistemiad or university denominated the Catholepistemiad or University Michigania. The Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania shall be composed of thirteen didaxum or professorships; first, a didaxia or professorship catholepistemia, or universal science, the dictator or professor of which shall be president of the institution; second, a didaxia or professorship of anthropoglassica, or literature embracing all of the episternum or sciences relative to language; third, a didaxia or professorship of mathematica or mathematics; fourth, a didaxia or professorship of physiognostica or natural history, etc.' The act thus continues through the whole range of the 'thirteen didaxum'; the remaining nine are as follows: Natural philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, medical sciences, economical sciences, ethical sciences, military sciences, historical sciences, and intellectual. The university was to be under the control of the professors and president, who were to be appointed by the Governor, while the institution was to be the center and controlling power of the educational system of the State. {733} It was to be supported by taxation by an increase of the amount of taxes already levied, by 15 per cent. Also power was given to raise money for the support of the university by means of lotteries. This remarkable document was not without its influence in shaping the public school policy of Michigan, but it was many years before the State approximated its learned provisions. Impracticable as this educational plan appears for a handful of people in the woods of Michigan, it served as a foundation upon which to build. The officers and president were duly appointed, and the work of the new university began at once. At first the university appeared as a school board, to establish and maintain primary schools which they held under their charge. Then followed a course of study for classical academies, and finally, in October, 1817, an act was passed establishing a college in the city of Detroit called 'The First College of Michigania.' … The people contributed liberally to these early schools, the sum of three thousand dollars being subscribed at the beginning. … An act was passed on the 30th of April, 1821, by the Governor and Judges establishing a university in Detroit to take the place of the catholepistemiad and to be called the 'University of Michigan.' In its charter nearly all the powers of the former institution were substantially confirmed, except the provision for taxes and lotteries. … The second corporation, known as the 'University of Michigan,' carried on the work of education already begun from 1821 to the third organization, in 1837. The education was very limited, consisting in one classical academy at Detroit, and part of the time a Lancasterian school. The boards of education kept up and transmitted the university idea to such an extent that it may be said truly and legally that there was one University of Michigan, which passed through three successive stages of development marked by the dates 1817, 1821, and 1837," at which time it was removed to Ann Arbor.

_F. W. Blackmar, Federal and State Aid to Higher Education (United States Bureau of Education. Circular of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 239-241._

ALSO IN: _E. M. Farrand, History of the University of Michigan._

_A. Ten Brook, American State Universities._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1818-1821. Massachusetts. Amherst College.

"Amherst College originated in a strong desire on the part of the people of Massachusetts to have a college near the central part of the State, where the students should be free from the temptations of a large city, where the expenses of an education should not be beyond the means of those who had but little money, and where the moral and religious influences should be of a decidedly Christian character. … The ministers of Franklin County, at a meeting held in Shelburne May 18, 1815, expressed it as their opinion that a literary institution of high order ought to be established in Hampshire County, and that the town of Amherst appeared to them to be the most eligible place for it. Their early efforts for a literary institution in Hampshire County resulted in the first place in the establishment of an academy in Amherst, which was incorporated in the year 1816. … In the year 1818 a constitution was adopted by the trustees of Amherst Academy, for the raising and management of a fund of at least $50,000, for the classical education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry. … This charity fund may be said to be the basis of Amherst College, for though it was raised by the trustees of Amherst Academy it was really intended to be the foundation of a college, and has always been a part of the permanent funds of Amherst College, kept sacredly from all other funds for the specific object for which it was given. … This was for many years the only permanent fund of Amherst College, and without this it would have seemed impossible at one time to preserve the very existence of the college. So Amherst College grew out of Amherst Academy, and was built permanently on the charity fund raised by the trustees of that academy. … Although the charity fund of $50,000 had been received in 1818, it was not till 1820 that the recipient felt justified in going forward to erect buildings for a college in Amherst. Efforts were made for the removal of Williams College from Williamstown to Hampshire County, and to have the charity fund used in connection with that college; and, if that were done, it was not certain that Amherst could be regarded as the best location for the college. But the legislature of Massachusetts decided that Williams College could not be removed from Williamstown, and nothing remained but for the friends of the new institution to go on with their plans for locating it at Amherst. … This first college edifice was ready for occupation and dedicated on the 18th of September, 1821. In the month of May, 1821, Reverend Zephaniah Swift Moore, D. D., was unanimously elected by the trustees of Amherst Academy president of the new institution."

_T. P. Field (United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1891, number 6: History of Higher Education in Massachusetts), chapter 11._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1837. Massachusetts. Horace Mann and the State System.

"When Massachusetts, in 1837, created a Board of Education, then were first united into a somewhat related whole the more or less excellent but varied and independent organizations, and a beginning made for a State system. It was this massing of forces, and the hearty co-operation he initiated, in which the work of Horace Mann showed its matchless greatness. 'Rarely,' it has been said, 'have great ability, unselfish devotion, and brilliant success, been so united in the course of a single life.' A successful lawyer, a member of the State Legislature, and with but limited experience as a teacher, he has left his impress upon the educational sentiments of, not only New England, but the United States."

_R. G. Boone, Education in the United States, page 103._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1840-1886. The United States. Proportion of College Students.