B. EDUCATION IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC

Although the American Revolution temporarily interrupted the work of many schools and colleges, its most important effect in the long run was to encourage innovations to end cultural as well as political and economic dependency. Education was affected by this spirit. While it was difficult, as always, to translate ideas into practice, men throughout the country tried to create new patterns in education appropriate for the people of an independent and republican nation.

1. Pennsylvania schoolmasters and officers of academies and colleges required to swear allegiance to the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the War for Independence, 1777

James T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders, comps., The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, IX (n.p., 1903), 111-112, 239-240; hereafter cited as Penna. Statutes at Large

I, ……, do swear (or affirm) that I renounce and refuse all allegiance to George the Third, King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors, and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a free and independent state, and that I will not at any time do or cause to be done any matter or thing that will be prejudicial or injurious to the freedom and independence thereof, as declared by Congress; and also that I will discover and make known to some one justice of the peace of the said state all treasons or traitorous conspiracies which I now know or hereafter shall know to be formed against this or any of the United States of America.

And be it enacted, That all trustees, provosts, rectors, professors, masters and tutors of any college or academy, and all schoolmasters and ushers. . . who shall at any time after the first day of June next, be admitted into or enter upon any of the before mentioned preferments, offices or places, or shall come into any such capacity, or shall take upon him or them any such practice, employment or business as aforesaid without having first taken and subscribed the before mentioned oath or affirmation, he or they shall be ipso facto adjudged incapable and disabled in law, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, to have, occupy or enjoy the said preferment or preferments office or offices, employment or employments or any part of them, or any matter or thing aforesaid, or any profit or advantage appertaining to them, or any of them, and every such office or place of trust shall be void and is hereby adjudged void; and any person that shall be lawfully convicted of the premises, or any of them in or upon any presentment, or indictment in any court of record in this state, shall also forfeit any sum, not exceeding five hundred pounds, which the court shall adjudge, together with costs, one-half of which said fine shall go to the use of the State, and the other half to him, her or them who shall commence and carryon such prosecution with effect.

2. The Georgia legislature penalizes young men who are educated abroad, 1785

Allen D. Candler, comp., The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, XIX, pt. 2, (Atlanta, 1911), 378; hereafter cited as Ga. Colonial Records.

If any Person or persons under the age of sixteen Years shall after the passing of this Act be sent abroad without the limits of the United States and: reside there three Years for the purpose of receiving an education under a foreign power. such person or persons after their return to this State shall for three Years be considered and treated as Aliens in so far as not to be eligable to a Seat in the Legislature or Executive authority or to hold any office civil or Military in the State for that term and so in proportion for any greater number of Years as he or they shall be absent as aforesaid, but shall not be injured or disqualified in any other respect.

3. Noah Webster (1758-1843), a leading spokesman for nationalism argues that American youth should be educated at home, 1788

The American Magazine, I (May 1788), 370-374.

Before I quit this subject, I beg leave to make some remarks on a practice which appears to be attended with important consequences; I mean that of sending boys to Europe for an education, or sending to Europe for teachers. That this was right before the revolution will not be disputed; at least so far as national attachments were concerned; but the propriety of it ceased with our political relation to Great Britain.

In the first place, our honor as an independent nation is concerned in the establishment of literary institutions, adequate to all our own purposes; without sending our youth abroad, or depending on other nations for books and instructors. It is very little to the reputation of America to have it said abroad, that after the heroic achievements of the late war, this independent people are obliged to send to Europe for men and books to teach their children

ABC.

But in another point of view, a foreign education is directly opposite to our political interests, and ought to be discountenanced, if not prohibited.

Every person of common observation will grant, that most men prefer the manners and the government of that country where they are educated. Let ten American youths be sent, each to a different European kingdom, and live there from the age of twelve to twenty, & each will give the preference to the country where he has resided.

The period from twelve to twenty is the most important in life. The impressions made before that period are commonly effaced; those that are made during that period always remain for many years, and generally thro' life.

Ninety-nine persons of a hundred, who pass that period in England or France, will prefer the people, their manners, their laws, and their government to those of their native country. Such attachments are injurious, both to the happiness of the men, and to the political interests of their own country. As to private happiness, it is universally known how much pain a man suffers by a change of habits in living. The customs of Europe are and ought to be different from ours; but when a man has been bred in one country, his attachments to its manners make them in a great measure, necessary to his happiness; on changing his residence, he must therefore break his former habits, which is always a painful sacrifice; or the discordance between the manners of his own country and his habits, must give him incessant uneasiness; or he must introduce, into a circle of his friends, the manners in which he was educated. All these consequences may follow at the same time, and the last, which is inevitable, is a public injury. The refinement of manners in every country should keep pace exactly with the increase of its wealth--and perhaps the greatest evil America now feels is, an improvement of taste and manners which its wealth cannot support.

A foreign education is the very source of this evil--it gives young gentlemen of fortune a relish for manners and amusements which are not suited to this country; which, however, when introduced by this class of people, will always become fashionable.

But a corruption of manners is not the sole objection to a foreign education: An attachment to a foreign government, or rather a want of attachment to our own, is the natural effect of a residence abroad, during the period of youth...

It may be said that foreign universities furnish much better opportunities of improvement in the sciences than the American. This may be true, and yet will not justify the practice of sending young lads from their own country. There are some branches of science which may be studied to much greater advantage in Europe than in America, particularly chemistry. When these are to be acquired, young gentlemen ought to spare no pains to attend the best professors. It may, therefore, be useful, in some cases, for students to cross the atlantic to complete a course of studies; but it is not necessary for them to go early in life, nor to continue a long time. Such instances need not be frequent even now; and the necessity for them will diminish in proportion to the future advancement of literature in America.

It is, however, much questioned whether, in the ordinary course of study, a young man can enjoy greater advantages in Europe than in America. Experience inclines me to raise a doubt, whether the danger to which a youth must be exposed among the sons of dissipation abroad, will not turn the scale in favor of our American colleges. Certain it is, that four fifths of the great literary characters in America never crossed the Atlantic.

4. Thomas Jefferson's plan for a Virginia school system, 1779

Julian P. Boyd, ed., Papers of Thomas Jefferson, II (Princeton, 1950), 526-533.

Jefferson proposed this comprehensive system of public schools to prepare the ablest youths for the professions and public service. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and chairman of its committee to revise the laws, but the legislature refused to pass the bill.

A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge

Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes; And whereas it is generally true that that people will be happiest whose laws are best, and are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or other accidental condition or circumstance; but the indigence of the greater number disabling them from so educating, at their own expence, those of their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instruments for the public, it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expence of all, than that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak or wicked:

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that in every county within this commonwealth, there shall be chosen annually, by the electors qualified to vote for Delegates, three of the most honest and able men of their county, to be called the Aldermen of the county.

The said Aldermen on the first Monday in October, if it be fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday, shall meet at the court-house of their county, and proceed to divide their said county into hundreds, bounding the same by water courses, mountains, or limits, to be run and marked, if they think necessary, by the county surveyor, and at the county expence, regulating the size of the said hundreds, according to the best of their discretion, so as that they may contain a convenient number of children to make up a school, and be of such convenient size that all the children within each hundred may daily attend the school to be established therein, distinguishing each hundred by a particular name; which division, with the names of the several hundreds, shall be returned to the court of the county and be entered of record, and shall remain unaltered until the increase or decrease of inhabitants shall render an alteration necessary. . .

The electors aforesaid residing within every hundred shall meet on the third Monday in October after the first election of Aldermen, at such place, within their hundred, as the said Aldermen shall direct. . . The electors being so assembled shall choose the most convenient place within their hundred for building a schoolhouse. . . The said Aldermen shall forthwith proceed to have a school-house built at the said place, and shall see that the same be kept in repair, and, when necessary, that it be rebuilt; but whenever they shall think necessary that it be rebuilt, they shall give notice as before directed, to the electors of the hundred to meet at the said school-house, on such day as they shall appoint, to determine by vote, in the manner before directed, whether it shall be rebuilt at the same, or what other place in the hundred.

At every of these schools shall be taught reading, writing, and common arithmetick, and the books which shall be used therein for instructing the children to read shall be such as will at the same time make them acquainted with Grecian, Roman, English, and American history. At these schools all the free children, male and female, resident within the respective hundred, shall be intitled to receive tuition gratis, for the term of three years, and as much longer, at their private expence, as their parents, guardians or friends, shall think proper.

Over every ten of these schools (or such other number nearest thereto, as the number of hundreds in the county will admit, without fractional divisions) an overseer shall be appointed annually by the Aldermen at their first meeting, eminent for his learning, integrity, and fidelity to the commonwealth, whose business and duty it shall be, from time to time, to appoint a teacher to each school, who shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth, and to remove him as he shall see cause; to visit every school once in every half year at the least; to examine the schollars; see that any general plan of reading and instruction recommended by the visiters of William and Mary College shall be observed; and to superintend the conduct of the teacher in every thing relative to his school.

Every teacher shall receive a salary of by the year, which, with the expences of building and repairing the school-houses, shall be provided in such manner as other county expences are by law directed to be provided and shall also have his diet, lodging, and washing found him, to be levied in like manner. . .

And in order that grammar schools may be rendered convenient to the youth in every part of the commonwealth, Be it farther enacted, that on the first Monday in November, after the first appointment of overseers for the hundred schools. . . the said overseers…shall meet. . . and shall fix on such place in some one of the counties in their district as shall be most proper for situating a grammar school-house, endeavouring that the situation be as central as may be to the inhabitants of the said counties, that it be furnished with good water, convenient to plentiful supplies of provision and fuel, and more than all things that it be healthy.

The said overseers shall forthwith proceed to have a house of brick or stone, for the said grammar school, with necessary offices, built on the said lands, which grammar school-house shall contain a room for the school, a hall to dine in, four rooms for a master and usher, and ten or twelve lodging rooms for the scholars.

To each of the said grammar schools shall be allowed out of the public treasury, the sum of pounds, out of which shall be paid by the Treasurer, on warrant from the Auditors, to the proprietors or tenants of the lands located, the value of their several interests. . . and the balance thereof shall be delivered to the said overseers to defray the expence of the said buildings.

In these grammar schools shall be taught the Latin and Greek languages, English grammar, geography, and the higher part of numerical arithmetick, to wit, vulgar and decimal fractions, and the extraction of the square and cube roots.

A visiter from each county constituting the district shall be appointed, by the overseers, for the county, in the month of October annually, either from their own body or from their county at large, which visiters or the greater part of them, meeting together at the said grammar school on the first Monday in November. . . shall have power to choose their own Rector, who shall call and preside at future meetings, to employ from time to time a master, and if necessary, an usher, for the said school, to remove them at their will, and to settle the price of tuition to be paid by the scholars. They shall also visit the school twice in every year at the least, either together or separately at their discretion, examine the scholars, and see that any general plan of instruction recommended by the visiters of William and Mary College shall be observed. The said masters and ushers, before they enter on the execution of their office, shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth.

A steward shall be employed, and removed at will by the master, on such wages as the visiters shall direct; which steward shall see to the procuring provisions, fuel, servants for cooking, waiting, house cleaning, washing, mending, and gardening on the most reasonable terms; the expence of which, together with the steward's wages, shall be divided equally among all the scholars boarding either on the public or private expence. And the part of those who are on private expence, and also the price of their tuitions due to the master or usher, shall be paid quarterly by the respective scholars, their parents, or guardians, and shall be recoverable, if withheld, together with costs, on motion in any Court of Record. . . The said steward shall also, under the direction of the visiters, see that the houses be kept in repair, and necessary enclosures be made and repaired. . .

Every overseer of the hundred schools shall, in the month of September annually, after the most diligent and impartial examination and enquiry, appoint from among the boys who shall have been two years at the least at some one of the schools under his superintendance, and whose parents are too poor to give them farther education, some one of the best and most promising genius and disposition, to proceed to the grammar school of his district; which appointment shall be made in the court-house of the county, on the court day for that month. . . in the presence of the Aldermen, or two of them at the least, assembled on the bench for that purpose, the said overseer being previously sworn by them to make such appointment, without favor or affection, according to the best of his skill and judgment, and being interrogated by the said Aldermen, either on their own motion, or on suggestions from the parents, guardians, friends, or teachers of the children, competitors for such appointment; which teachers shall attend for the information of the Aldermen. On which interregatories the said Aldermen, if they be not satisfied with the appointment proposed, shall have right to negative it; whereupon the said visitor may proceed to make a new appointment, and the said Aldermen again to interrogate and negative, and so toties quoties until an appointment be approved.

Every boy so appointed shall be authorised to proceed to the grammar school of his district, there to be educated and boarded during such time as is hereafter limited; and his quota of the expences of the house together with a compensation to the master or usher for his tuition, at the rate of twenty dollars by the year, shall be paid by the Treasurer quarterly on warrant from the Auditors.

A visitation shall be held, for the purpose of probation, annually at the said grammar school on the last Monday in September. . . at which one third of the boys sent thither by appointment of the said overseers, and who shall have been there one year only, shall be discontinued as public foundationers, being those who, on the most diligent examination and enquiry, shall be thought to be of the least promising genius and disposition; and of those who shall have been there two years, all shall be discontinued, save one only the best in genius and disposition, who shall be at liberty to continue there four years longer on the public foundation, and shall thence forward be deemed a senior.

The visiters for the districts which, or any part of which, be southward and westward of James river. . . in every other year, to wit, at the probation meetings held in the years, distinguished in the Christian computation by odd numbers, and the visiters for all the other districts at their said meetings to be held in those years, distinguished by even numbers, after diligent examination and enquiry as before directed, shall chuse one among the said seniors, of the best learning and most hopeful genius and disposition, who shall be authorised by them to proceed to William and Mary College, there to be educated, boarded, and clothed, three years; the expence of which annually shall be paid by the Treasurer on warrant from the Auditors.

5. Jefferson's explanation and defense of his plan for public education, 1783

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia (Paris, 1783), pp. 268-275.

Another object. . . is, to diffuse knowledge more generally through the mass of the people. This bill proposes to layoff every county into small districts of five or six miles square, called hundreds, and in each of them to establish a school for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. The tutor to be supported by the hundred, and every person in it entitled to send their children three years gratis, and as much longer as they please, paying for it. These schools to be under a visitor, who is annually to chuse the boy, of best genius in the school, of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools, of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of the country, for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic. Of the boys thus sent in any one year, trial is to be made at the grammar schools one or two years, and the best genius of the whole selected and continued six years, and the residue dismissed. By this means twenty of the best geniusses will be raked from the rubbish annually, and be instructed, at the public expence, so far as the grammar schools go. At the end of six years instruction, one half are to be discontinued (from among whom the grammar schools will probably be supplied with future masters); and the other half, who are to be chosen for the superiority of their parts and disposition, are to be sent and continued three years in the study of such sciences as they shall chuse, at William and Mary college, the plan of which is proposed to be enlarged, as will be hereafter explained, and extended to all the useful sciences. The ultimate result of the whole scheme of education would be the teaching all the children of the state reading, writing, and common arithmetic: turning out ten annually of superior genius, well taught in Greek, Latin, geography and the higher branches of arithmetic: turning out ten others annually of still superior parts, who, to those branches of learning, shall have added such of the sciences as their genius shall have led them to: the furnishing to the wealthier part of the people convenient schools, at which their children may be educated, at their own expence. The general objects of this law are to provide an education adapted to the years, to the capacity, and the condition of everyone, and directed to their freedom and happiness . . . The first stage of this education being the schools of the hundreds, wherein the great mass of the people will receive their instruction, the principal foundations of future order will be laid here. Instead therefore of putting the Bible and Testament into the hands of the children, at an age when their judgments are not sufficiently matured for religious enquiries, their memories may here be stored with the most useful facts from Grecian, Roman, European and American history. The first elements of morality too may be instilled into their minds; such as, when further developed as their judgments advance in strength, may teach them how to work out their own greatest happiness, by shewing them that it does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed them, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. Those whom either the wealth of their parents or the adoption of the state shall destine to higher degrees of learning, will go on to the grammar schools, which constitute the next stage, there to be instructed in the languages. The learning Greek and Latin, I am told, is going into disuse in Europe. I know not what their manners and occupations may call for: but it would be very ill-judged in us to follow their example in this instance. There is a certain period of life, say from eight to fifteen or sixteen years of age, when the mind, like the body, is not yet firm enough for laborious and close operations. If applied to such, it falls an early victim to premature exertion; exhibiting indeed at first, in these young and tender subjects, the flattering appearance of their being men while they are yet children, but ending in reducing them to be children when they should be men. The memory is then most susceptible and tenacious of impressions; and the learning of languages being chiefly a work of memory, it seems precisely fitted to the powers of this period, which is long enough too for acquiring the most useful languages antient and modern. I do not pretend that language is science. It is only an instrument for the attainment of science. But that time is not lost which is employed in providing tools for future operation: more especially as in this case the books put into the hands of the youth for this purpose may be such as will at the same time impress their minds with useful facts and good principles. If this period be suffered to pass in idleness, the mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the body it inhabits if unexercised during the same time. The sympathy between body and mind during their rise, progress and decline, is too strict and obvious to endanger our being misled while we reason from the one to the other. As soon as they are of sufficient age, it is supposed they will be sent on from the grammar schools to the university, which constitutes our third and last stage, there to study those sciences which may be adapted to their views. By that part of our plan which prescribes the selection of the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the state of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated. But of all the views of this law, none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate, and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe their minds must be improved to a certain degree. This indeed is not all that is necessary, though it be essentially necessary. An amendment of our constitution must here come in aid of the public education. The influence over government must be shared among all the people. If every individual which composes their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe; because the corrupting the whole mass will exceed any private resources of wealth: and public ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own price. . . It has been thought that corruption is restrained by confining the right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier people: but it would be more effectually restrained by an extension of that right to such numbers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption.

6. The plan of Dr. Benjamin Rush for a public system of education in Pennsylvania, 1786

Benjamin Rush, A Plan for the Establishment of Public Schools and Diffusion of Knowledge in Pennsylvania…(Philadelphia, 1786), pp.4-10.

Rush (1745-1813), a famous physician of Philadelphia, proposed reforms in many fields of public life.

For the purpose of diffusing knowledge through every part of the state, I beg leave to propose the following simple plan.

I. Let there be one university in the state, and let this be established in the capital. Let law, physic, divinity, the law of nature and nations, economy, &c. be taught in it by public lectures in the winter season, after the manner of the European universities, and let the professors receive such salaries from the state as will enable them to deliver their lectures at a moderate price.

II. Let there be four colleges. One in Philadelphia--one at Carlisle--a third, for the benefit of our German fellow citizens, at Manheim--and a fourth, some years hence, at Pittsburgh. In these colleges, let young men be instructed in mathematics and in the higher branches of science, in the same manner that they are now taught in our American colleges. After they have taken a degree in one of these colleges, let them, if they can afford it, complete their studies by spending a season or two in attending the lectures in the university. I prefer four colleges in the state to one or two, for there is a certain size of colleges as there is of towns and armies, that is most favourable to morals and good government. Oxford and Cambridge in England are the seats of dissipation, while the more numerous, and less crouded universities and colleges in Scotland, are remarkable for the order, diligence, and decent behaviour of their students.

III. Let there be an academy established in each county, for the purpose of instructing youth in the learnd languages, and thereby preparing them to enter college.

IV. Let there be free schools established in every township, or in districts consisting of one hundred families. In these schools, let children be taught to read and write the English and German languages, and the use of figures. Such of them as have parents that can afford to send them from home, and are disposed to extend their education, may remove their children from the free school to the county academy.

By this plan, the whole state will be tied together by one system of education. The university will in time furnish masters for the colleges, and the colleges will furnish masters for the academies and free schools, while the free Schools, in their turn, will supply the academies--the colleges, and the university, with scholars--students, and pupils. The same systems of grammar, oratory and philosophy will be taught in every part of the state, and the literary features of Pennsylvania will thus designate one great, and equally enlightned family.

A question now rises, and that is, How shall this plan be carried into execution?--I answer--

The funds of the university of Pennsylvania (if the English and other schools were separated from it) are nearly equal to the purpose of supporting able professors in all the arts and sciences that are taught in the European universities.

A small addition to the funds of Dickinson college, will enable it to exist without any further aid from government.

Twenty thousand acres of good land in the late Indian purchase, will probably afford a revenue large enough to support a college at Manheim, and another on the banks of the Ohio, in the course of twenty years.

Five thousand acres of land, appropriated to each county academy, will probably afford a revenue sufficient to support them in twenty years. In the mean while let a tax from £200 to £400 a year be laid on each county for that purpose, according to the number and wealth of its inhabitants.

Let sixty thousand acres of land be set apart, to be divided, twenty years hence, among the free schools. In the mean while let a tax from £ 30 to £ 60 a year be levied upon each district of one hundred families, for the support of the schoolmaster, and to prompt him to industry in encreasing his school, let each scholar pay him from 1/6 to 2/6 every quarter.

But, how shall we bear the expence of these literary institutions under the present weight of our taxes?--I answer--These institutions are designed to lessen our taxes. They will enlighten us in the great business of finance--they will teach us to encrease the ability of the state to support government, by encreasing the profits of agriculture, and by promoting manufactures. They will teach us all the modern improvements and advantages of inland navigation. They will defend us from hasty and expensive experiments in government, by unfolding to us the experience and folly of past ages, and thus, instead of adding to our taxes and debts, they will furnish us with the true secret of lessening and discharging both of them.

But, shall the estates of orphans, batchelors and persons who have no children be taxed to pay for the support of schools from which they can derive no benefit? I answer in the affirmative, to the first part of the objection, and I deny the truth of the latter part of it. Every member of the community is interested in the propagation of virtue and knowledge in the state. But I will go further, and add, it will be true economy in individuals to support public schools. The batchelor will in time save his tax for this purpose, by being able to sleep with fewer bolts and locks to his doors, the estates of orphans will in time be benefited, by being protected from the ravages of unprincipled and idle boys, and the children of wealthy parents will be less tempted, by bad company, to extravagance. Fewer pillories and whipping posts, and smaller jails, with their usual expences and taxes, will be necessary when our youth are properly educated, than at present. I believe it could be proved, that the expences of confining, trying and executing criminals amount every year, in most of the counties, to more money than would be sufficient to maintain all the schools that would be necessary in each county. The confessions of these criminals generally show us, that their vices and punishments are the fatal consequences of the want of a proper education in early life.

7. Rush's suggestions for methods of recreation and discipline suitable for future citizens of a republic, 1790

"Thoughts upon the Amusements and Punishments which are proper for Schools. Addressed to George Clymer, Esq. by

Benjamin Rush, M.D.," The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, V (1790), 67-73.

Montesquieu informs us that the exercises of the last day of the life of Epaminondas, were the same as his amusements in his youth. Herein we have an epitome of the perfection of education. The amusements of Epaminondas were of a military nature; but as the profession of arms is the business of only a small part of mankind, and happily much less necessary in the United States than in ancient Greece, I would propose that the amusements of our youth, at school, should consist of such exercises as will be most subservient to their future employments in life. These are: 1. agriculture; 2. mechanical occupations; and 3. the business of the learned professions.

1. There is a variety in the employments of agriculture which may readily be suited to the genius, taste, and strength of young people. An experiment has been made of the efficacy of these employments, as amusements, in the Methodist College at Abington, in Maryland; and, I have been informed, with the happiest effects. A large lot is divided between the scholars, and premiums are adjudged to those of them who produce the most vegetables from their grounds, or who keep them in the best order.

2. As the employments of agriculture cannot afford amusement at all seasons of the year, or in cities, I would propose, that children should be allured to seek amusements in such of the mechanical arts as are suited to their strength and capacities. Where is the boy who does not delight in the use of a hammer--a chisel--or a saw? and who has not enjoyed a high degree of pleasure in his youth, in constructing a miniature house? How amusing are the machines which are employed in the manufactory of cloathing of all kinds! and how full of various entertainment are the mixtures which take place in the chemical arts! each of these might be contrived upon such a scale, as not only to amuse young people, but to afford a profit to their parents or masters. . .

If, in these amusements, an appeal should be made to that spirit of competition which is so common among young people, it would be the means of producing more pleasure to the children, and more profit to all who are connected with them. The wealth of those manufacturing towns in England, which employ the children of poor people, is a proof of what might be expected from connecting amusement and labour together, in all our schools. The product from the labour obtained in this way, from all the schools in the United States, would amount to a sum which would almost exceed calculation.

3. To train the youth who are intended for the learned professions, or for merchandize, to the duties of their future employments, by means of useful amusements, which are related to those employments, will be impracticable; but their amusements may be derived from cultivating a spot of ground; for where is the lawyer, the physician, the divine, or the merchant, who has not indulged or felt a passion, in some part of his life, for rural improvements? Indeed I conceive the seeds of knowledge in agriculture will be most productive, when they are planted in the minds of this class of scholars.

I have only to add under this head, that the common amusements of children have no connection with their future occupations. Many of them injure their clothes, some of them waste their strength, and impair their health, and all of them prove, more or less, the means of producing noise, or of exciting angry passions, both of which are calculated to beget vulgar manners. . .

Do not think me too strict if I here exclude gunning from among the amusements of young men. My objections to it are as follow:

1. It hardens the heart, by inflicting unnecessary pain and death upon animals.

2. It is unnecessary in civilized society, where animal food may be obtained from domestic animals, with greater facility.

3. It consumes a great deal of time, and thus creates habits of idleness.

4. It frequently leads young men into low, and bad company.

5. By imposing long abstinence from food, it leads to intemperance in eating, which naturally leads to intemperance in drinking.

6. It exposes to fevers, and accidents. The news-papers are occasionally filled with melancholy accounts of the latter, and every physician must have met with frequent and dangerous instances of the former, in the course of his practice.

I know the early use of a gun is recommended in our country, to teach our young men the use of fire-arms, and thereby to prepare them for war and battle. But why should I we inspire our youth, by such exercises, with hostile ideas towards their fellow creatures? Let us rather instill into their minds sentiments of universal benevolence to men of all nations and colours. Wars originate in error and vice. Let us eradicate these, by proper modes of education, and wars will cease to be necessary in our country...

I have hinted at the injury which is done to the health of young people by some of their amusements; but there is a practice common in all our schools, which does more harm to their bodies than all the amusements that can be named, and that is, obliging them to sit too long in one place, or crowding too many of them together in one room. By means of the former, the growth and shape of the body have been impaired; and by means of the latter, the seeds of fevers have often been engendered in schools. In the course of my business, I have been called to many hundred children who have been seized with indispositions in school, which evidently arose from the action of morbid effluvia, produced by the confined breath and perspiration of too great a number of children in one room. To obviate these evils, children should be permitted, after they have said their lessons, to amuse themselves in the open air, in some of the useful and agreeable exercises which have been mentioned. Their minds will be strengthened, as well as their bodies relieved by them. To oblige a sprightly boy to sit seven hours in a day, with his little arms pinioned to his sides, and his neck unnaturally bent towards his book; and for no crime!--what cruelty and folly are manifested, by such an absurd mode of instructing or governing young people!

I come next to say a few words upon the subject of Punishments which are proper in schools.

In barbarous ages every thing partook of the complexion of the times. Civil, ecclesiastical, military, and domestic punishments were all of a cruel nature. With the progress of reason and christianity, punishments of all kinds have become less severe. Solitude and labour are now substituted in many countries, with success, in the room of the whipping-post and the gallows. The innocent infirmities of human nature are no longer proscribed, and punished by the church. Discipline, consisting in the vigilance of officers, has lessened the supposed necessity of military executions; and husbands--fathers--and masters now blush at the history of the times, when wives, children, and servants, were governed only by force. But unfortunately this spirit of humanity and civilization has not reached our schools. The rod is yet the principal instrument of governing them, and a school-master remains the only despot now known in free countries. Perhaps it is because the little subjects of their arbitrary and capricious power have not been in a condition to complain. I shall endeavour therefore to plead their cause, and to prove that corporal punishments (except to children under four or five years of age) are never necessary, and always hurtful, in schools. The following arguments I hope will be sufficient to establish this proposition.

1. Children are seldom sent to school before they are capable of feeling the force of rational or moral obligation. They may therefore be deterred from committing offences, by motives less disgraceful than the fear of corporal punishments.

2. By correcting children for ignorance and negligence in school, their ideas of improper and immoral actions are confounded, and hence the moral faculty becomes weakened in after life. It would not be more cruel or absurd to inflict the punishment of the whipping-post upon a man, for not dressing fashionably or neatly, than it is to ferule a boy for blotting his copy-book, or misspelling a word.

3. If the natural affection of a parent is sometimes insufficient, to restrain the violent effects of a sudden gust of anger upon a child, how dangerous must the power of correcting children be, when lodged in the hands of a

school-master, in whose anger there is no mixture of parental affection! Perhaps those parents act most wisely, who never trust themselves to inflict corporal punishments upon their children, after they are four or five years old, but endeavour to punish, and reclaim them, by confinement, or by abridging them of some of their usual gratifications, in dress, food or amusements.

4. Injuries are sometimes done to the bodies, and sometimes to the intellects of children, by corporal punishments. I recollect, when a boy, to have lost a school-mate, who was said to have died in consequence of a severe whipping he received in school. At that time I did not believe it possible, but from what I now know of the disproportion between the violent emotions of the mind, and the strength of the body in children, I am disposed to believe, that not only sickness, but that even death may be induced, by the convulsions of a youthful mind, worked up to a high sense of shame and resentment.

The effects of thumping the head, boxing the ears, and pulling the hair, in impairing the intellects, by means of injuries done to the brain, are too obvious to be mentioned.

5. Where there is shame, says Dr. Johnson, there may be virtue. But corporal punishments, inflicted at school, have a tendency to destroy the sense of shame, and thereby to destroy all moral sensibility. The boy that has been often publicly whipped at school, is under great obligations to his maker, and his parents, if he afterwards escape the whipping-post or the gallows.

6. Corporal punishments, inflicted at school, tend to beget a spirit of violence in boys toward each other, which often follows them through life; but they more certainly beget a spirit of hatred, or revenge, towards their masters, which too often becomes a ferment of the same baneful passions towards other people . . . I think I have known several instances of this vindictive, or indignant spirit, to continue towards a cruel and tyrannical school-master, in persons who were advanced in life, and who were otherwise of gentle and forgiving dispositions.

7. Corporal punishments, inflicted at schools, beget a hatred to instruction in young people. I have sometimes suspected that the devil, who knows how great an enemy knowledge is to his kingdom, has had the address to make the world believe that feruling, pulling and boxing ears, cudgelling, horsing, &c. and, in boarding-schools, a little starving, are all absolutely necessary for the government of young people, on purpose that he might make both schools, and school-masters odious, and thereby keep our world in ignorance; for ignorance is the best means the devil ever contrived, to keep up the number of his subjects in our world.

8. Corporal punishments are not only hurtful, but altogether unnecessary, in schools. Some of the most celebrated and successful school-masters, that I have ever known, never made use of them.

9. The fear of corporal punishments, by debilitating the body, produces a corresponding debility in the mind, which contracts its capacity of acquiring knowledge. This capacity is enlarged by the tone which the mind acquires from the action of hope, love, and confidence upon it; and all these passions might easily be cherished, by a prudent and enlightened school-master.

10. As there should always be a certain ratio between the strength of a remedy, and the excitability of the body in diseases, so there should be a similar ratio between the force employed in the government of a school, and the capacities and tempers of children. A kind rebuke, like fresh air in a fainting fit, is calculated to act upon a young mind with more effect, than stimulants of the greatest power; but corporal punishments level all capacities and tempers, as quack-medicines do all constitutions and diseases. They dishonour and degrade our species; for they suppose a total absence of all moral and intellectual feeling from the mind. Have we not often seen children suddenly improve by changing their schools? The reason is obvious. The successful teacher only accomodated his manner and discipline to the capacities of his scholars.

11. I conceive corporal punishments, inflicted in an arbitrary manner, to be contrary to the spirit of liberty, and that they should not be tolerated in a free government. Why should not children be protected from violence and injuries, as well as white and black servants? Had I influence enough in our legislature to obtain only a single law, it should be to make the punishment for striking a school-boy, the same as for assaulting and beating an adult member of society.

. . . . .

If . . . prudent. . . measures should fail of preventing offences at school, then let the following modes of punishment be adopted.

1. Private admonition. By this mode of rebuking, we imitate the conduct of the divine Being towards his offending creatures, for His first punishment is always inflicted privately, by means of the still voice of conscience.

2. Confinement after school-hours are ended; but with the knowledge of the parents of children.

3. Holding a small sign of disgrace, of any kind, in the middle of the floor, in the presence of a whole school.

If these punishments fail of reclaiming a bad boy, he should be dismissed from school, to prevent his corrupting his school-mates. It is the business of parents, and not of school-masters, to use the last means for eradicating idleness and vice from their children.

The world was created in love. It is sustained by love. Nations and families that are happy, are made so only by love. Let us extend this divine principle, to those little communities which we call schools. Children are capable of loving in a high degree. They may therefore be governed by love.

The occupation of a school-master is truly dignified. He is (next to mothers) the most important member of civil society. Why then is there so little rank connected with that occupation? Why do we treat it with so much neglect, or contempt? It is because the voice of reason, in the human heart, associates with it the idea of despotism and violence. Let school-masters cease to be tyrants, and they will soon enjoy the respect and rank, which are naturally connected with their profession.

We are grosly mistaken in looking up wholly to our governments, and even to ministers of the gospel, to promote public and private order in society. Mothers and school-masters plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exist in our world. Its reformation must therefore be begun in nurseries and in schools. If the habits we acquire there, were to have no influence upon our future happiness, yet the influence they have upon our governments, is a sufficient reason why we ought to introduce new modes, as well as new objects of education into our country.

8. Noah Webster's appeal for a republican mode of education, 1790

Noah Webster, A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv [1a] Writing, on Moral, Historical, Political and Literary Subjects (Boston, 1790), pp. 3-4, 14-19, 22-26.

Education is a subject which has been exhausted by the ablest writers, both among the ancients and moderns. I am not vain enough to suppose I can suggest any new ideas upon so trite a theme as Education in general; but perhaps the manner of conducting the youth in America may be capable of some improvement. Our constitutions of civil government are not yet firmly established; our national character is not yet formed; and it is an object of vast magnitude that systems of Education should be adopted and pursued, which may not only diffuse a knowlege of the sciences, but may implant, in the minds of the American youth, the principles of virtue and of liberty; and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government, and with an inviolable attachment to their own country. It now becomes every American to examin the modes of Education in Europe, to see how far they are applicable in this country, and whether it is not possible to make some valuable alterations, adapted to our local and political circumstances.

The first error that I would mention, is, a too general attention to the dead languages, with a neglect of our own…

The high estimation in which the learned languages have been held, has discouraged a due attention to our own. People find themselves able without much study to write and speak the English intelligibly, and thus have been led to think rules of no utility. This opinion has produced various and arbitrary practices, in the use of the language, even among men of the most information and accuracy; and this diversity has produced another opinion, both false and injurious to the language, that there are no rules or principles on which the pronunciation and construction can be settled.

This neglect is so general, that there is scarcely an institution to be found in the country, where the English tongue is taught regularly, from its elements to its true and elegant construction, in prose and verse. Perhaps in most schools, boys are taught the definition of the parts of speech, and a few hard names which they do not understand, and which the teacher seldom attempts to explain; this is called learning grammar. This practice of learning questions and answers without acquiring any ideas, has given rise to a common remark, that grammar is a dry study; and so is every other study which is prosecuted without improving the head or the heart. . . In general, when a study of any kind is tiresome to a person, it is a presumptive evidence that he does not make any proficiency in knowledge, and this is almost always the fault of the instructor.

Young gentlemen, designed for the mercantile line, after having learned to write and speak English correctly, might attend to French, Italian, or such other living language, as they will probably want in the course of business. These languages should be learned early in youth, while the organs are yet pliable; otherwise the pronunciation will probably be imperfect. These studies might be succeeded by some attention to chronology, and a regular application of geography, mathematics, history, the general regulations of commercial nations, principles of advance in trade, of insurance, and to the general principles of government.

It appears to me that such a course of Education, which might be completed by the age of fifteen or sixteen, would have a tendency to make better merchants than the usual practice which confines boys to Lucian, Ovid and Tully, till they are fourteen, and then turns them into a store, without an idea of their business, or one article of Education necessary for them, except perhaps a knowlege of writing and figures.

Such a system of English Education is also much preferable to a university Education, even with the usual honors; for it might be finished so early as to leave young persons time to serve a regular apprenticeship, without which no person should enter upon business. But by the time a university Education is completed, young men commonly commence gentlemen; their age and their pride will not suffer them to go thro the drudgery of a compting house, and they enter upon business without the requisite accomplishments. Indeed it appears to me that what is now called a liberal Education, disqualifies a man for business. Habits are formed in youth and by practice; and as business is, in some measure, mechanical, every person should be exercised in his employment, in an early period of life, that his habits may be formed by the time his apprenticeship expires. An Education in a university interferes with the forming of these habits; and perhaps forms opposite habits; the mind may contract a fondness for ease, for pleasure or for books, which no efforts can overcome. An academic Education, which should furnish the youth with some ideas of men and things, and leave time for an apprenticeship, before the age of twenty one years, would in my opinion, be the most eligible for young men who are designed for activ employments.

The method pursued in our colleges is better calculated to fit youth for the learned professions than for business. But perhaps the period of study, required as the condition of receiving the usual degrees, is too short. Four years, with the most assiduous application, are a short time to furnish the mind with the necessary knowlege of the languages and of the several sciences. It might perhaps have been a period sufficiently long for an infant settlement, as America was, at the time when most of our colleges were founded. But as the country becomes populous, wealthy and respectable, it may be worthy of consideration, whether the period of academic life should not be extended to six or seven years.

But the principal defect in our plan of Education in America, is, the want of good teachers in the academies and common schools. By good teachers I mean, men of unblemished reputation, and possessed of abilities, competent to their stations. That a man should be master of what he undertakes to teach, is a point that will not be disputed; and yet it is certain that abilities are often dispensed with, either thro inattention or fear of expense.

To those who employ ignorant men to instruct their children, permit me to suggest one important idea: That it is better for youth to have no Education, than to have a bad one; for it is more difficult to eradicate habits, than to impress new ideas. The tender shrub is easily bent to any figure; but the tree, which has acquired its full growth, resists all impressions.

Yet abilities are not the sole requisites. The instructors of youth ought, of all men, to be the most prudent, accomplished, agreeable and respectable. What avail a man's parts, if, while he is the "wisest and brightest," he is the "meanest of mankind?" The pernicious effects of bad: example on the minds of youth will probably be acknowledged; but with a view to improvement, it is indispensably necessary that the teachers should possess good breeding and agreeable manners. In order to give full effect to instructions, it is requisite that they should proceed from a man who is loved and respected. But a low bred clown, or morose tyrant, can command neither love nor respect; and that pupil who has no motive for application to books, but the fear of a rod, will not make a scholar.

The rod is often necessary in school; especially after the children have been accustomed to disobedience and a licentious behavior at home. All government originates in families, and if neglected there, it will hardly exist in society; but the want of it must be supplied by the rod in school, the penal laws of the state, and the terrors of divine wrath from the pulpit. The government both of families and schools should be absolute. There should, in families, be no appeal from one parent to another, with the prospect of pardon for offences. The one should always vindicate, at least apparently, the conduct of the other. In schools the master should be absolute in command; for it is utterly impossible for any man to support order and discipline among children, who are indulged with an appeal to their parents. A proper subordination in families would generally supersede the necessity of severity in schools; and a strict discipline in both is the best foundation of good order in political society.

If parents should say, "we cannot give the instructors of our children unlimited authority over them, for it may be abused and our children injured"; I would answer, they must not place them under the direction of any man, in whose temper, judgement and abilities, they do not repose perfect confidence. The teacher should be, if such can be found, as judicious and reasonable a man as the parent.

There can be little improvement in schools, without strict subordination; there can be no subordination, without principles of esteem and respect in the pupils; and the pupils cannot esteem and respect a man who is not in himself respectable, and who is not treated with respect by their parents. It may be laid down as an invariable maxim, that a person is not fit to superintend the Education of children, who has not the qualifications which will command the esteem and respect of his pupils. This maxim is founded on a truth which every person may have observed; that children always love an amiable man, and always esteem a respectable one. Men and women have their passions, which often rule their judgement and their conduct. They have their caprices, their interests and their prejudices, which at times incline them to treat the most meritorious characters with disrespect. But children, artless and unsuspecting, resign their hearts to any person whose manners are agreeable, and whose conduct is respectable. Whenever, therefore, pupils cease to respect their teacher, he should be instantly dismissed.

From a strange inversion of the order of nature, the cause of which it is not necessary to unfold, the most important business in civil society, is, in many parts of America, committed to the most worthless characters. The Education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success; this Education is sunk to a level with the most menial services. In most instances we find the higher seminaries of learning intrusted to men of good characters, and possessed of the moral virtues and social affections. But many of our inferior schools, which, so far as the heart is concerned, are as important as colleges, are kept by men of no breeding, and many of them, by men infamous for the most detestable vices. Will this be denied? will it be denied, that before the war, it was a frequent practice for gentlemen to purchase convicts, who had been transported for their crimes, and employ them as private tutors in their families?

Gracious Heavens! Must the wretches, who have forfeited their lives, and been pronounced unworthy to be inhabitants of a foreign country, be entrusted with the Education, the morals, the character of American youth?

Will it be denied that many of the instructors of youth, whose examples and precepts should form their minds for good men and useful citizens, are often found to sleep away, in school, the fumes of a debauch, and to stun the ears of their pupils with frequent blasphemy? It is idle to suppress such truths; nay more, it is wicked. The practice of employing low and vicious characters to direct the studies of youth, is, in a high degree, criminal; it is destructive of the order and peace of society; it is treason against morals, and of course, against government; it ought to be arraigned before the tribunal of reason, and condemned by all intelligent beings. The practice is so exceedingly absurd, that it is surprising it could ever have prevailed among rational people. Parents wish their children to be well bred, yet place them under the care of clowns. They wish to secure their hearts from vicious principles and habits, yet commit them to the care of men of the most profligate lives. They wish to have their children taught obedience and respect for superiors, yet give them a master that both parents and children despise. A practice so glaringly absurd and irrational has no name in any language! Parents themselves will not associate with the men, whose company they oblige their children to keep, even in that most important period, when habits are forming for life.

Another defect in our schools, which, since the revolution, is become inexcusable, is the want of proper books. The collections which are now used consist of essays that respect foreign and ancient nations. The minds of youth are perpetually led to the history of Greece and Rome or to Great Britain; boys are constantly repeating the declamations of Demosthenes and Cicero, or debates upon some political question in the British Parliment. These are excellent specimens of good sense, polished stile and perfect oratory; but they are not interesting to children. They cannot be very useful, except to young gentlemen who want them as models of reasoning and eloquence, in the pulpit or at the bar.

But every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country; he should lisp the praise of liberty, and of those illustrious heroes and statesmen, who have wrought a revolution in her favor.

Two regulations are essential to the continuance of republican governments: 1. Such a distribution of lands and such principles of descent and alienation, as shall give every citizen a power of acquiring what his industry merits. 2. Such a system of education as gives every citizen an opportunity of acquiring knowlege and fitting himself for places of trust. These are fundamental articles; the sine qua non of the existence of the American republics.

Hence the absurdity of our copying the manners and adopting the institutions of Monarchies.

In several States, we find laws passed, establishing provision for colleges and academies, where people of property may educate their sons; but no provision is made for instructing the poorer rank of people, even in reading and writing. Yet in these same States, every citizen who is worth a few shillings annually, is entitled to vote for legislators. This appears to me a most glaring solecism in government. The constitutions are republican, and the laws of education are monarchical. The former extend civil rights to every honest industrious man; the latter deprive a large proportion of the citizens of a most valuable privilege.

In our American republics, where governments is in the hands of the people, knowlege should be universally diffused by means of public schools. Of such consequence is it to society, that the people who make laws, should be well informed, that I conceive no Legislature can be justified in neglecting proper establishments for this purpose.

When I speak of a diffusion of knowlege, I do not mean merely a knowlege of spelling books, and the New Testament. An acquaintance with ethics, and with the general principles of law, commerce, money and government, is necessary for the yeomanry of a republican state. This acquaintance they might obtain by means of books calculated for schools, and read by the children, during the winter months, and by the circulation of public papers.

It is said, indeed by many, that our common people are already too well informed. Strange paradox! The truth is, they have too much knowlege and spirit to resign their share in government, and are not sufficiently informed to govern themselves in all cases of difficulty.

There are some acts of the American legislatures which astonish men of information; and blunders in legislation are frequently ascribed to bad intentions. But if we examin the men who compose these legislatures, we shall find that wrong measures generally proceed from ignorance either in the men themselves, or in their constituents. They often mistake their own interest, because they do not foresee the remote consequences of a measure.

It may be true that all men cannot be legislators; but the more generally knowlege is diffused among the substantial yeomanry, the more perfect will be the laws of a republican state.

Every small district should be furnished with a school, at least four months in a year; when boys are not otherwise employed. This school should be kept by the most reputable and well informed man in the district. Here children should be taught the usual branches of learning; submission to superiors and to laws; the moral or social duties; the history and transactions of their own country; the principles of liberty and government. Here the rough manners of the wilderness should be softened, and the principles of virtue and good behaviour inculcated. The virtues of men are of more consequences to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.

Such a general system of education is neither impracticable nor difficult; and excepting the formation of a federal government that shall be efficient and permanent, it demands the first attention of American patriots. Until such a system shall be adopted and pursued; until the Statesman and Divine shall unite their efforts in forming the human mind, rather than in loping its excressences, after it has been neglected; until Legislators discover that the only way to make good citizens and subjects, is to nourish them from infancy; and until parents shall be convinced that the worst of men are not the proper teachers to make the best, mankind cannot know to what a degree of perfection society and government may be carried. America affords the fairest opportunities for making the experiment, and opens the most encouraging prospect of success.

1a. Among other innovations, Webster advocated spelling reform.

9. President George Washington recommends the establishment of a national university to foster unity and train young men for public positions, 1796

Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington…, XII (Boston, 1837), 70-71.

I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Congress, the expediency of establishing a national university, and also a military academy. The desirableness of both these institutions has so constantly increased with every new view I have taken of the subject, that I cannot omit the opportunity of once for all recalling your attention to them. The assembly to which I address myself, is too enlightened not to be fully sensible how much a flourishing state of the arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity and reputation. True it is, that our country, much to its honor, contains many seminaries of learning highly respectable and useful; but the funds upon which they rest are too narrow to command the ablest professors, in the different departments of liberal knowledge, for the institution contemplated, though they would be excellent auxiliaries.

Amongst the motives to such an institution, the assimilation of the principles, opinions, and manners of our countrymen, by the common education of a portion of our youth from every quarter, well deserves attention. The more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particulars, the greater will be our prospect of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be, the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important, and what duty more pressing on its legislature, than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those, who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?

10. A Massachusetts farmer, William Manning, on the kind of education needed in a free republic, 1798

William Manning, The Key to Libberty, Shewing the Causes Why a Free Government Has Always Failed, and a Remidy Against it (Billerica, Mass., 1922), pp. 19-21, 35-36.

Manning (1747-1814), a Jeffersonian Republican in politics, was born, worked, and died on a farm in North Billerica, Massachusetts. His thoughts on the causes of despotism and the importance of popular education in maintaining a republic give a clue to the outlook of ordinary men. The manuscript was not published until 1922.

Solomon said, Train up a Child in the way he should go, & when he is old he will not depart from it. And it is as true that if a child is trained up in the way he should not go, when he is old he will keep to it. It is the universal custom & practis of monorcal & dispotick government to train up their subjects as much in ignorance as they can in matters of government, & to teach them to reverance & worship grate men in office, & to take for truth what ever they say without examining for themselves.

Consiquently when ever Revolutions are brought about & free governments established it is by the influence of a few leeding men, who after they have obtained their object (like other men) can neaver receiv compensation & honours anough from the people for their services, & the people being brought up from their uths to reverance & respect such men they go on old ways & neglect to search & see for themselves & take care of their own interists. Also being naturally very fond of being flattered, they redily hear to measures proposed by grate men who they are convinced have done them good services. This is the prinsaple ground on which the few work to Destroy a free government.

. . . . .

3. On Larning

Larning is of the gratest importance to the seport of a free government, & to prevent this the few are always crying up the advantages of costly collages, national acadimyes & grammer schooles, in ordir to make places for men to live without work, & so strengthen their party. But are always opposed to cheep schools & woman schools, the ondly or prinsaple means by which laming is spred amongue the Many.

4. On Knowledge

The gratest & best meens of obtaining the knowledge nesecary for a free man to have, is by the Liberty of the Press, or publick Newspapers. To counter act and destroy this priviledge the few spare no pains to make them as costly as posable & to contradict everything in them that favours the interests of the Many, puting Darkness for Light, & Light for Darkness, falsehood for truth, & truth for falsehood, &cc.

. . . . .

No person who is a frind to Libberty will be against a large expence in Larning, but it aught to be promoted in the cheepest & best manner possable, which in my oppinnion would be:--For every State to maintain as many Coledges in conveniant parts thereof as would be attended upon to give the highest Degrees of Larning, & for every County to keep as many Grammer Schools or Acadimies in conveniant parts thereof as would be attended too by both sects summer & winter, & no student or scholer to pay anything for tuition, and for the County Schooles to pay a purticuler attention to teaching the Inglish langueg & qualifying its scholors to teach & govern Common Schools for little children.

And for Every Town to be obliged to keep as Much as six weeks of wrighting school in the winter & twelve weeks of a woman school in the summer in every parte of the town. So that none should be thronged with two many schollers, nor none have too far to travel, & every person be obliged to send his children to school, for the publick are as much interested in the Larning of one child as an other.

If this method of Larning was established we should soone have a plenty of school masters & mistrises as cheep as we could hire other labour, & Labour & Larning would be conected together & lesen the number of those that live without work. Also we should have a plenty of men to fill the highest offices of State for less than halfe we now give. But insted of this mode of Larning the few are always striving to oblige us to maintain grait men with grate salleryes & to maintain Grammer Schools in every town to teach our Children a b c all which is ondly to give imploy to gentlemens sons & make places for men to live without worke. For their is no more need of a mans haveing a knowledge of all the languages to teach a Child to read write & cifer than their is for a farmer to have the marinors art to hold plow.

Nearly all state constitutions committed the state to the support of education. Most of the early education laws, however, were permissive rather than mandatory, authorizing rather than requiring local officials to maintain schools.

1. Clause on education in the North Carolina Constitution of 1776 F. N. Thorpe, ed., The Federal and State Constitutions. . . (Washington, 1909), V, 2794.

XLI. That a school or schools shall be established by the Legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged, and promoted, in one or more universities.

2. Constitution of Vermont provides for the establishment of schools, 1777 The Federal and State Constitutions, IV, 3748.

Section XL. A school or schools shall be established in each town, by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by each town; making proper use of school lands in each town, thereby to enable them to instruct youth at low prices. One grammar school in each county, and one university in this State, ought to be established by direction of the General Assembly.

3. The commitment to support education in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 The Federal and State Constitutions, III, 1907-1908.

CHAPTER V

Section II.--The Encouragement of Literature, etc.

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments, among the people.

4. The Northwest Ordinance requires the government of the Northwest Territory to encourage education, 1787

The Federal and State Constitutions, II, 961.

Article III

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. . .

5. Education in the Indiana Constitution of 1816

The Federal and State Constitutions, II, 1068-1069.

ARTICLE IX

SECTION 1. Knowledge and learning, generally diffused through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government, and spreading the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the country being highly conducive to this end, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide, by law, for the improvement of such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such lands or from any other quarter to the accomplishment of the grand object for which they are or may be intended. But no lands granted for the use of schools or seminaries of learning shall be sold by authority of this State prior to the year 1820; and the moneys which may be raised out of the sale of any such lands, or otherwise obtained for the purposes aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the exclusive purpose of promoting the interest of literature and the sciences, and for the support of seminaries and public schools. The General Assembly shall, from time to time, pass such laws as shall be calculated to encourage intellectual, scientifical and agricultural improvements, by allowing rewards and immunities for the promotion and improvement of arts, sciences, commerce, manufacture and natural history; and to countenance and encourage the principles of humanity, honesty, industry and morality.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide, by law, for a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a State University, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all.

SEC. 3. And for the promotion of such salutary end, the money which shall be paid, as an equivalent, by persons exempt from military duty, except in times of war, shall be exclusively, and in equal proportion, applied to the support of County Seminaries; also, all fines assessed for any breach of the penal laws, shall be applied to said seminaries in the County wherein they shall be assessed.

6. Education in the Alabama Constitution of 1819

The Federal and State Constitutions, I, 110-111.

EDUCATION

Schools, and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged in this State; and the general assembly shall take measures to preserve, from unnecessary waste or damage, such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States for the use of schools within each township in this State, and apply the funds, which may be raised from such lands, in strict conformity to the object of such grant. The general assembly shall take like measures for the improvement of such lands as have been or may be hereafter granted by the United States to this State, for the support of a seminary of learning, and the moneys which may be raised from such lands, by rent, lease, or sale, or from any other quarter, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the exclusive support of a State university, for the promotion of the arts, literature and the sciences; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as early as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institution.

Although most school expenses were met out of local taxes and fees, other devices were also used to obtain financial support for the schools. These included grants of public lands by the national government, lotteries, fines, and excise taxes. In addition to supplying limited amounts of funds, governments in the northern states tried, not always successfully, to set minimum standards and exercise a general supervision over local school practices.

1. The General Court of Massachusetts grants land for the support of a school in a new town on the frontier, 1732 The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. . . , XI (Boston, 1903), 656-657.

The New England custom of granting lands for the support of town schools provided a precedent for a similar provision in the Land Ordinance of 1785.

A petition of Joshua Lamb, Joseph Ruggles, Timothy Ruggles, and Ebenezer Pierpoint, praying that this court would please to make a grant to the petitioners and their associates for a tract of land lying on Ware River for a township, upon such conditions as the court shall judge proper.

Read and in answer to this petition:

Ordered that there be and hereby is granted unto the petitioners and their associates a tract of land of the contents of six miles square for a township at the place petitioned for to be laid out in a regular form by a surveyor and chainmen under oath, a plan thereof to be presented to this court at the next session for confirmation, the said land by them to be settled on the conditions following, viz., that they within the space of five years settle and have on ye spot sixty families (the settlers are to be none but such as are natives of New England), each settler to build a good and convenient dwelling house of one story high, and eighteen feet square at the least, and clear and bring to four acres fit for improvement and three acres more well stocked with English grass, and also layout three shares throughout the town, each share to be one sixty third part of the said town, one share for the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and the other for the school, and also build a convenient meeting house and settle a learned orthodox minister within the term aforesaid.

2. Lands set aside by the national government for the support of public schools in the Land Ordinance of 1785

John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, XXVIII (Washington, 1933), 378.

There shall be reserved for the United States out of every township, the four lots, being numbered 8, 11, 26, 29, and out of every fractional part of a township, so many lots of the same numbers as shall be found thereon, for future sale. There shall be reserved the lot N 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools, within the said township; also one third part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines, to be sold, or otherwise disposed of as Congress shall hereafter direct.

3. Massachusetts school law, 1789

The Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780-1800 (Boston, 1801), 1, 469-473.

This law codified practices which had developed over the previous century pertaining to town support of lower and grammar schools, the division of towns into school districts, instruction in morals, and certification of teachers.

Every town or district within this Commonwealth, containing fifty families, or house-holders, shall be provided with a School-Master or School-Masters, of good morals, to teach children to read and write, and to instruct them in the English language, as well as in arithmetic, orthography, and decent behaviour, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six months for one school in each year. And every town or district containing one hundred families, or householders, shall be provided with such School-Master or School-Masters, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for one school in each year. And every town or district containing one hundred and fifty families, or householders, shall be provided with such School-Master or School-Masters, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to six months in each year; and shall, in addition thereto, be provided with a School-Master or School-Masters, as above described, to instruct children in the English language, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for one school in each year. And every town or district containing two hundred families, or householders, shall be provided with a grammar School-Master, of good morals, well instructed in the Latin, Greek and English languages; and shall, in addition thereto, be provided with a School-Master or School-Masters, as above described, to instruct children in the English language, for such term of time as shall be equivalent to twelve months for each of said schools in each year.

And whereas by means of the dispersed situation of the inhabitants of several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, the children and youth cannot be collected in anyone place for their instruction, and it has thence become expedient that the towns and districts, in the circumstances aforesaid, should be divided into separate districts for the purpose aforesaid:

…the several towns and districts in this Commonwealth, be and they are hereby authorized and empowered, in town-meetings, to be called for that purpose, to determine and define the limits of school districts within their towns and districts respectively.

And to the end that grammar School-Masters may not be prevented in their endeavours to discharge their trust in the most useful manner:

…no youth shall be sent to such grammar schools unless they shall have learned, in some other school or in some other way, to read the English language, by spelling the same; or the Selectmen of the town where such grammar school is, shall direct the grammar School-Master to receive and instruct such youth.

…It shall be and it is hereby made the duty of the President, Professors and Tutors of the University at Cambridge, Preceptors and Teachers of Academies, and all other instructors of youth, to take diligent care, and to exert their best endeavours, to impress on the a minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction, the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love to their country, humanity, and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society, and the basis upon which the Republican Constitution is structured. And it shall be the duty of such instructors, to endeavour to lead those under their care (as their ages and, capacities will admit) into a particular understanding of the tendency of the before mentioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a Republican Constitution, and to secure the blessings of liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness; and the tendency of the opposite vices to slavery and ruin.

And to the end that improper persons may not be employed in the important offices before mentioned:

. . . no person shall be employed as a School-Master as aforesaid, unless he shall have received an education at some College or University, and, before entering on the said business, shall produce satisfactory evidence thereof, or unless the person to be employed as aforesaid, shall produce a certificate from a learned minister, well skilled in the Greek and Latin languages, settled in the town or place where the school is proposed to be kept, or two other such ministers in the vicinity thereof, that they have reason to believe that he is well qualified to discharge the duties devolved upon such School-Master by this Act; and, in addition thereto, if for a grammar school, "that he is of competent skill in the Greek and Latin languages, for the said purpose." And the candidate of either of the description aforesaid, shall moreover produce a certificate from a settled minister of the town, district, parish or place, to which such candidate belongs, or from the Selectmen of such town or district, or committee of such parish or place, "That to the best of his or their knowledge, he sustains a good moral character."

Provided nevertheless, This last certificate, respecting morals, shall not be deemed necessary where the candidate for such school belongs to the place where the same is proposed to be actually kept; it shall however be the duty of such Selectmen or Committee who may be authorized to hire such School-Master, specially to attend to his morals; and no settled minister shall be deemed, held, or accepted to be a School-Master, within the intent of this Act.

. . . If any town or district having the number of fifty families, or householders, and less than one hundred, shall neglect the procuring and supporting a School-Master or School-Masters, to teach the English language as aforesaid, by the space of six months in one year, such deficient town or district shall incur the penalty of Ten Pounds, and a penalty proportionable for a less time than six months in a year, upon conviction thereof; and, upon having the number of one hundred families, or householders, and upwards, shall neglect the procuring and supporting such School-Master or School-Masters, as is herein required to be kept by such town, for the space of one year, every such deficient town or district shall incur the penalty of Twenty Pounds, and a proportionable sum for a less time than a year, upon conviction of such neglect. And every town or district having one hundred and fifty families, or householders, which shall neglect the procuring and supporting such School-Masters, and for such term of time as the schools aforesaid are herein required to be kept by such town or district, in anyone year, shall incur the penalty of Thirty Pounds, and a proportionable sum for a less time, upon conviction of such neglect. And every town or district having two hundred families, or householders, and upwards, that shall neglect the procuring and supporting such grammar School-Master, as aforesaid, for the space of one year, shall incur the penalty of Thirty Pounds, and a proportionable sum for a less time than a year, upon conviction of such neglect.

. . . It shall be the duty of the Minister or Ministers of the Gospel and the Selectmen (or such other persons as shall be specially chosen by each town or district for that purpose) of the several towns or districts, to use their influence and best endeavours, that the youth of their respective towns and districts do regularly attend the schools appointed and supported as aforesaid, for their instruction; and once in every six months at least, and as much oftener as they shall determine it necessary, to visit and inspect the several schools in their respective towns and districts, and shall inquire into the regulation and discipline thereof, and the proficiency of the scholars therein, giving reasonable notice of the time of their visitation.

. . . All plantations which shall be taxed to the support of Government, and all parishes and precincts, are hereby authorized and empowered, at their annual meeting in March or April, to vote and raise such sums of money upon the polls and rateable estates of their respective inhabitants for the support and maintenance of a School-Master to teach their children and youth to read, write and cypher, as they shall judge expedient, to be assessed by their Assessors in due proportion, and to be collected in like manner with the public taxes.

And whereas schools for the education of children in the most early stages of life, may be kept in towns, districts or plantations, which schools are not before particularly described in this Act; and that the greatest attention may be given to the early establishing just principles in the tender minds of such children, and carefully instructing them in the first principles of reading:

. . . no person shall be allowed to be a Master or Mistress of such school, or to keep the same, unless he or she shall obtain a certificate from the Selectmen of such town or district where the same may be kept, or the Committee appointed by such town, district or plantation, to visit their schools, as well as from a learned Minister settled therein, if such there be, that he or she is a person of sober life and conversation, and well qualified to keep such school. And it shall be the duty of such Master or Mistress, carefully to instruct the children, attending his or her school, in reading (and writing, if contracted for) and to instil into their minds a sense of piety and virtue, and to teach them decent behaviour. And if any person shall presume to keep such school without a certificate as aforesaid, he or she shall forfeit and pay the sum of Twenty Shillings, one moiety thereof to the informer, and the other moiety to the use of the poor of the town, district or plantation where such school may be kept.

. . . No person shall be permitted to keep, within this Commonwealth, any school described in this Act, unless, in consequence of an Act of naturalization, or otherwise, he shall be a citizen of this or some other of the United States. And if any person who is not a citizen of this or some one of the United States, shall presume to keep any such school within this State for the space of one month, he shall be subjected to pay a fine of Twenty Pounds, and a proportionable sum for a longer or shorter time; the one half of which fine shall be to the use of the person who shall sue for the same, and the other half thereof to the use of this Commonwealth.

4. Financial support of schools in Connecticut, 1796

"An Act for appointing, encouraging, and supporting Schools," Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut in America (Hartford, 1796), pp. 372-373

School monies were drawn from local taxes, a fund derived from the sale of public lands, and levies upon town residents and the parents of the children who attended school.

5. And for the Encouragement and Maintenance of…Schools and School-Masters:

…The Treasurer of this State shall annually deliver the Sum of Two Dollars upon every Thousand Dollars in the Lists of the respective Towns in this State, and proportionably for lesser Sums, out of the Rate of each Town, as the same shall be brought into the public Treasury by the several Constables, in such Money, or Bills of Public Credit, as the Rate shall be paid in; out of which the same is to be taken, unto the School-Committees…

Provided. The said School-Committees or Select-men shall deliver their Certificates, that there hath been a School kept in each of the Towns and Societies they desire to take the Money out for, in the preceding Year, according to this Act.

6. And whereas the several Towns and Societies in this State, which made and computed Lists of their Polls and rateable Estate. . . received by their Committees respectively, for that Purpose appointed, considerable Monies, or Bills of public Credit, raised by the Sale of certain Townships laid out in the western Lands, then so called, . . . to be let out, and the Interest thereof used for the support of the respective Schools aforesaid, for ever, and to no other Use. [2a]

And whereas certain Sums of Money have likewise been received by the several Towns and Societies in this State, by Virtue of an Act of this Court. . . directing the Treasurer to payout of the public Treasury to the several Towns the principal Sums paid in by them as Excise Money, together with the Interest due at the Time of Payment…appropriating the same, solely to the Use of the respective Schools.

Be it therefore enacted, That if at any Time after the Receipt of said Monies aforesaid, or if at any Time hereafter, the said Monies, or Interest thereof, hath been or shall be, by order of such Town or Society, or the Communities chosen by them, put to, or employed for any other Use than for the support of a School, as aforesaid, such sum of Money received as aforesaid, shall be returned into the State Treasury; and the Treasurer of this State, upon Refusal thereof, shall recover the same Sum or Sums of such Town or Society, for the Use of the State.

7. And such Town or Society that misapplies such Money, shall forever lose the Benefit thereof.

8. That where, in any Town or Society, there is not a sufficiency of Money or Interest provided, in the Manner aforesaid, or by charitable Donations, or Sequestrations, or any other Ways procured for the maintenance of a School as aforesaid, therein, and a suitable School- Master to keep the same,} a sufficient Maintenance shall be made up, the one Half by the Inhabitants of such Town or Society, and the other Half thereof by the Parents or Masters of the Youth or Children that go to such School; unless any Town or Society shall agree otherwise; which they are hereby empowered to do.

9. And every such Town and Society by their Vote, shall have full Power to grant Rates for the support of such School, and choose a Collector to gather and collect such Rates. And what such Town or Society shall agree upon and enact respecting the Encouragement and Support of the School aforesaid, among themselves, shall be obligatory upon the whole Town or Society, and every Member therein.

2a. The fund from the sale of lands was established by the General Court in 1733. C. J. Hoadly, ed., Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, VII (Hartford, 1873), 459.

5. The Delaware school fund, 1796

" An Act to create a fund sufficient to establish schools in this state," 1796-ch. 105, Laws of the State of Delaware (Newcastle, 1797), II, 1296-1298.

In this act the state established a fund drawn from stipulated revenues. The money that accumulated was to be used for starting new schools. No funds were actually paid out until 1817 when the money was spent for the education of poor children.

The money paid into the state treasury on account of marriage and tavern licences. . . between the passing of this act and the first day of January, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Six, shall be, and is hereby appropriated, as part of a fund hereafter to be applied, under the direction of the Legislature, for establishing schools in this state.

. . . The money so as aforesaid appropriated, and all other money and estate hereafter given or appropriated for the said purpose, shall be distinguished and known by the name of The fund for establishing schools in the state of Delaware.

. . . The Trustee of the fund. . . shall be and is hereby impowered, authorised and required, to take care of the said fund, to receive, apply for, and recover, by suit or action, in his name as Trustee of the said fund, any gift, donation, or bequest, which any person or persons, disposed to promote the establishment of seminaries of learning, may think proper to make; and for the application of every such gift, donation, or bequest, to the purpose of establishing schools as aforesaid, the public faith of this state is hereby most solemnly pledged. . .

Whenever the money in the treasury, arising from marriage and tavern licences, gifts, and bequests, shall amount to a sum equal to the purchase of a share in either the Bank of Delaware, the United States, of Pennsylvania, or of North America, the said Trustee shall be, and is hereby authorised, impowered, and required, to purchase, on the best terms to be procured, in the name of the Trustee of the fund for establishing schools in the state of Delaware, a share in one of the said banks, to demand and receive the dividend on every such share, as often as it becomes due, and to apply the same, with the other money in the treasury belonging to this fund, to the purchasing another share in one of the said banks, as often as the same may be adequate thereto.

. . . . .

The said fund shall be applied to the establishment of schools in the several hundreds, or districts, of the respective counties of this state, for the purpose of instructing the children of the inhabitants thereof in the English language, arithmetic, and such other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary, in completing a good English education; and that the same shall not be applied to the erecting or supporting any academy, college, or university in this state.

6. Rhode Island legislature grants the right to conduct a lottery for support of an academy, 1801

"Lottery granted to James Helme," Acts and Resolves of Rhode Island, 1800-1801 (n.p., n.d.), p. 10.

Upon the petition of James Helme and others, praying leave to raise the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, by lottery, for the purpose of building an academy in the town of South-Kingstown, It is Voted and Resolved, That the prayer of said petition be granted, and that Messrs. Elisha R. Potter, James Helme and Samuel E. Gardnier, be appointed managers of said lottery, they giving bonds to the General-Treasurer in the sum of ten thousand dollars for the faithful execution of said trust; and that the said managers have power to raise said sum in one or more classes, and by such scheme or schemes as they may think proper, and that no expense of said lottery be charged to this State.

7. Hiring a schoolmaster in a country district Caleb Bingham, The Columbian Orator. . .(Hartford, 1807), pp. 158-165.

This satire exposed some of the evils of excessive local authority in school matters.

Dialogue Between a School-Master, and School-Committee.

(N.B. The Author is happy in believing, that the following Dialogue is applicable to but few towns and few teachers in this country; but, so long as there are any remaining to whom it may apply, he thinks a sufficient apology exists for its publication.)

SCENE, a Public House in the Town of_______.

Enter School-Master, with a pack on his back.

Schoolmaster. How fare you, landlord? what have you got that's good to drink?

Landlord. I have gin, West-India, genuine New-England, whiskey, and cider brandy.

Schoolm. Make us a stiff mug of sling. Put in a gill and a half of your New-England; and sweeten it well with lasses.

Land. It shall be done, sir, to your liking.

Schoolm. Do you know of any vacancy in a school in your part of the country, landlord?

Land. There is a vacancy in our district; and I expect the parson, with our three school-committee men will be at my house directly, to consult upon matters relative to the school.

Schoolm. Well, here's the lad that will serve them as cheap as any man in America; and I believe I may venture to say as well too; for I profess no small share of skill in that business. I have kept school eleven winters, and have often had matter of fifty scholars at a time. I have teach'd a child its letters in a day, and to read in the Psalter in a fortnight: and I always feel very much ashamed, if I use more than one quire of paper in larnin a boy to write as well as his master. As for government, I'll turn my back to no man. I never flog my scholars; for that monstrous doctrine of whippin children, which has been so long preached and practiced by our rigid and superstitious fore-fathers, I have long since exploded. I have a rare knack of flattering them into their duty. And this according to a celebrated Doctor at Philadelphia,[3a] whose works I have heard of, though I never read them, is the grand criterion of school government. It is landlord, it is the very philosopher's stone. I am told, likewise, that this same great Doctor does not believe that Solomon and others really meant licken, in the proper sense of the word, when they talked so much about using the rod, &c. He supposes that they meant confining them in dungeons; starving them for three or four days at a time; and then giving them a portion of tatromattucks, and such kinds of mild punishment. And, zounds, landlord, I believe he's above half right.

Land. (Giving the cup to the master.) Master What may I call your name, Sir, if I may be so bold?

Schoolm. Ignoramus, at your service, Sir.

Land. Master Ignoramus, I am glad to see you. You are the very man we wish for. Our committee won't hesitate a moment to employ you, when they become acquainted with your talents. Your sentiments on government I know will suit our people to a nicety. Our last master was a tyrant of a fellow, and very extravagant in his price. He grew so important, the latter part of his time, that he had the frontery to demand ten dollars a month and his board. And he might truly be said to rule with a rod of iron; for he kept an ironwood cudgel in his school, four feet long; and it was enough to chill one's blood to hear the shrieks of the little innocents, which were caused by his barbarity. I have heard my wife say, that Sue Gossip told her, that she has seen the marks of his lashes on the back of her neighbour Rymple's son Darling, for twelve hours after the drubbing. At least, the boy told her with his own mouth, that they might be seen, if they would only take the trouble to strip his shirt off. And, besides, Master Ignoramus, he was the most niggardly of all the human race. I don't suppose that my bar-room was one dollar the richer for him, in the course of the whole time which he tarried with us. While the young people of the town were recreating themselves, and taking a social glass, of an evening, at my house, the stupid blockhead was eternally in his chamber, poring over his musty books. But finally he did the job for himself, and I am rejoiced. The wretch had the dacity to box little Sammy Puney's ears at such an intolerable rate, that his parents fear the poor child will be an idiot all the days of his life. And all this, for nothing more, than partly by design, and partly through mere accident, he happened to spit in his master's face. The child being nephew to the 'squire, you may well suppose, that the whole neighbourhood was soon in an uproar. The indignation of the mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, and indeed the whole circle of acquaintance, was roused; and the poor fellow was hooted out of town in less than twenty-four hours.

Schoo1m. (Drinking of his liquor.) This is a rare dose. Believe me, landlord, I have not tasted a drop before, since six o'clock this morning. (Enter Parson and Committee Men.) Your humble sarvant, gentlemen. I understand you are in want of a school-master.

Parson. Yes Sir; that is the occasion of our present meeting. We have been so unfortunate as to lose one good man; and we should be very glad to find another.

1st Committee Man. Pray don't say unfortunate, Parson. I think we may consider ourselves as very fortunate, in having rid the town of an extravagant coxcomb, who was draining us of all the money we could earn, to fill his purse, and rig himself out with fine clothes.

2d Com. Ten dollars a month, and board, for a man whose task is so easy, is no small sum.

3d Com. I am bold to affirm, that we can procure a better man for half the money.

Schoo1m. That I believe, friend; for, though I esteem myself as good as the best; that is to say, in the common way; yet I never ax'd but five dollars a month in all my life.

Par. For my own part, whatever these gentlemen's opinion may be, I must tell you, that I am much less concerned about the wages we are to give, than I am about the character and abilities of the man with whom we intrust the education of our children. I had much rather you had said you had received forty dollars a month, than five.

1st. Com. Dear Sir, you are beside yourself. You will encourage the man to rise in his price; whereas I was in hopes he would have fallen, at least one dollar.

Par. Before we talk any further about the price, it is necessary that we examine the gentleman according to law, in order to satisfy ourselves of his capability to serve us. Friend, will you be so obliging as to inform us where you received your education, and what your pretensions are, with respect to your profession?

Schoo1m. Law, Sir! I never went to college in my life.

Par. I did not ask you whether you had been to college or not. We wish to know what education you have had; and whether your abilities are such, as that you can do yourself honor in taking the charge of a common English school.

Schoo1m. Gentlemen, I will give you a short history of my life. From seven, to fifteen years of age, I went to school perhaps as much as one year. In which time, I went through Dilworth's Spelling-Book, the Psalter, the New-Testament: and could read the newspaper without spelling more than half the words. By this time, feeling a little above the common level, I enlisted a soldier in the army, where I continued six years; and made such proficiency in the military art, that I was frequently talked of for a corporal. I had likewise learn'd to write considerably, and to cypher as fur as Division. The multiplication table I had at my tongue's end, and have not forgot it to this day. At length, receiving a severe flogging for nothing at all, I am not ashamed to own that I deserted, and went into one of the back settlements, and offered myself as a teacher. I was immediately employed in that service; and, though I am obliged to say it myself, I do assure you I soon became very famous. Since that time, which is eleven years, I have followed the business constantly; at least, every winter; for in the summer, it is not customary in the towns in general, to continue a man's school. One thing I would not forget to mention; and that is, I have travelled about the country so much, and been in the army so long (which is allowed to be the best school in the world) that I consider myself as being thoroughly acquainted with mankind. You will not be insensible, gentlemen, of what great importance this last acquisition is, to one who has the care of youth.

3d Com. I admire his conversation. I imagine, by this time, you have cyphered clear through; have you not, Sir?

Schoolm. Why, as to that, I have gone so fur that I thought I could see through. I can tell how many minutes old my great grandfather was when his first son was born; how many barley corns it would take to measure round the world; and how old the world will be at the end of six thousand years from the creation.

1st Com. It is very strange! You must have studied hard, to learn all these things, and that without a master too.

Schoolm. Indeed I have, Sir; and if I had time, I could tell you things stranger still.

Par. Can you tell in what part of the world you were born; whether in the torrid, frigid, or temperate zone?

Schoolm. I was not born in the zoon, Sir, nor in any other of the West-India Islands; but I was born in New-England, in the state of New-Jersey, and Commonwealth of the United States of America.

Par. Do you know how many parts of speech there are in the English language?

Schoolm. How many speeches! Why as many as there are "stars in the sky, leaves on the trees, or sands on the sea shore."

1st Com. Please to let me ask him a question, Parson, How many commandments are there?

Schoolm. Ten, Sir; and I knew them all before I went into the army.

2d Com. Can you tell when the moon changes, by the almanac?

Schoolm. No! but I'll warrant you, I could soon tell by cyphering.

3d Com. How many varses are there in the 119th Psalm?

Schoolm. Ah! excuse me there, if you please, Sir; I never meddle with psalmody, or metaphysics.

Par. Will you tell me, my friend, what is the difference between the circumference and the diameter of the globe?

Schoolm. There you are to hard for me again. I never larn'd the rule of circumstance nor geometry. I'll tell you what, gentlemen, I make no pretensions to minister larnin, lawyer larnin, or doctor larnin; but put me upon your clear schoolmaster larnin, and there I am even with you.

1st Com. I am satisfied with the gentleman. He has missed but one question, and that was such a metatisical one, that it would have puzzled a Jesuit himself to have answered it. Gentlemen, shall the master withdraw a few minutes, for our further consultation?

2d Com. I am much pleased with the stranger. He appears to be a man of wonderful parts; and I shall cheerfully agree to employ him.

3d Com. For my part, I don't think we shall find a cheaper master; and I move for engaging him at once.

Par. Gentlemen, how long will you be blind to your own interest? I can say with you, that I am perfectly satisfied--that the man is, in his profession, emphatically what he calls himself by name, an ignoramus; and totally incapable of instructing our children. You know not who he is, or what he is; whether he be a thief, a liar, or a drunkard. The very terms, on which he offers himself, ought to operate as a sufficient objection against him. I am sensible that my vote will now be of no avail, since you are all agreed. I have been for years striving to procure a man of abilities and morals, suitable for the employment; and such a one I had obtained; but, alas! we were unworthy of him. We aspersed his character; invented a multitude of falsehoods; magnified every trifling error in his conduct; and even converted his virtues into vices. We refused to give him that pecuniary reward which his services demanded; and he knowing his own worth, and our unworthiness, has left us forever.

1st Com. Come, come, Parson, it is easy for salary men to talk of liberality, and to vote away money which they never earned; but it won't do. The new master I dare engage, will do as well or better than the old one. Landlord, call him in for his answer.

Par. I protest against your proceedings, and withdraw myself forever from the committee. But I must tell you, your children will reap the bitter consequences of such injudicious measures. It has always been surprising to me, that people in general are more willing to pay their money for any thing else, than for "the one thing needful," that is, for the education of their children. Their tailor must be a workman, their carpenter, a workman, their hairdresser, a workman, their hostler, a workman; but the instructor of their children must--work cheap!

Re-enter School-Master.

1st Com. We have agreed to employ you, Sir; and have only to recommend to you, not to follow the steps of your predecessor. This is an "age of reason"; and we do not imagine our children so stupid, as to need the rod to quicken their ideas, or so vicious, as to require a moral lesson from the ferule. Be gentle and accommodating, and you have nothing to fear.

Land. I'll answer for him. He's as generous 5and merry a lad as I've had in my house this many a day.

3a. A reference to Dr. Benjamin Rush whose ideas on discipline the schoolmaster has appropriated and distorted. See above, The impact of independence, doc. 7.

8. State supervision and support of schools inNewYork,1812

"An Act for the Establishment of Common Schools," 1812--ch. 242, Laws of the State of New York. . . 1812 (Albany, 1812), pp. 600-606.

This law established the office of superintendent of common schools and provided for the distribution of the school fund among the schools of towns and districts. The school fund monies were to be used to pay the wages of teachers, and the expense of constructing and maintaining school buildings was to be met from local taxes. To qualify for state funds, a district had to guarantee that school was kept during at least three months of the year.

. . . There shall be constituted an officer within this state, known and distinguished as the superintendent of common schools, which superintendent shall be appointed by the council of appointment, and shall keep his office at the seat of government, and shall be allowed an annual salary of three hundred dollars, but not to be under pay until he shall give notice of the first distribution of the school money. . .

It shall be the duty of the superintendent. . . to digest and prepare plans for the improvement and management of the common school fund, and for the better organization of common schools; to prepare and report estimates and expenditures of the school monies, to superintend the collection thereof, to execute such services relative to the sale of the lands, which now are or hereafter may be appropriated, as a permanent fund for the support of common schools, as may be by law required of him; to give information to the legislature respecting all matters referred to him by either branch thereof, or which shall appertain to his office; and generally to perform all such services relative to the welfare of schools, as he shall be directed to perform. . .

No distribution of the interest of the school funds shall take place amongst the common schools in this state, until it shall arise to fifty thousand dollars a year, and it shall not be lawful for the superintendent. . . to distribute any more than fifty thousand dollars a year until he shall find he will be able to distribute sixty thousand, and the sum of sixty thousand until the interest shall arise to seventy thousand, and so on as often as the interest shall increase ten thousand dollars, it shall be lawful for the superintendent to add to the sum last distributed ten thousand dollars more.

. . . . .

The superintendent of common schools shall, in the month of January. . . send a notice in writing to each of the county clerks in this state, informing them that there will be a distribution of the interest of the school fund in

the month of February. . . stating the amount that will be assigned to each county. And it shall be the duty of the said county clerks, to send a like notice to the clerk of the board of supervisors, and to each town clerk in his county, stating the amount of money to be distributed, and the time when, which notice the town clerk shall read at the opening of the next town meeting, to the intent that the town meeting may direct by their vote the supervisor, to levy on said town, at the next meeting of the board aforesaid, the sum for the support of common schools, required by this act to entitle said town to its proportion of the interest of said fund to be distributed. . .

The inhabitants living within the limits of the several towns within this state, and within the cities of Hudson and Schenectady, who by law have, or may have, a right to vote in town meetings, shall on the days of their annual town meetings, choose, by ballot, three of the inhabitants of their respective towns, commissioners, to superintend and manage the concerns of the schools within said towns respectively, and to perform all such services relative to schools as they shall be directed to

perform. . .

And the inhabitants of said towns respectively shall choose, a suitable number of persons within their respective towns, not exceeding six, who, together with the commissioners aforesaid, shall be inspectors of the schools of said towns respectively; which inspectors shall examine the teachers, and approve or disapprove of the same, and also shall visit the several schools within their respective towns, quarterly, or oftener, if they deem it necessary; three or more of the said inspectors shall be competent both to examine the teachers, and the respective schools, and no person shall be employed as a teacher in any of the schools, in any of the districts of this state, who shall not have been previously examined by the inspectors aforesaid, and have received a certificate, signed by at least two of said inspectors, importing that he is duly qualified to teach a common school, and is of good moral character. . .

The commissioners. . . are hereby authorized and empowered to divide their respective towns into a suitable and convenient number of districts, for keeping their schools, and to alter and regulate the same from time to time, as there may be occasion. . .

. . . . .

Freeholders and inhabitants, or a majority of them. . . are hereby authorised and empowered to appoint a moderator for the time being, to designate a site for their school house, to vote a tax on the resident inhabitants of such district as a majority present shall deem sufficient to purchase a suitable site for their school house, and build, keep in repair, and furnish it with necessary fuel and appendages; also to choose three trustees to manage the concerns of such district, whose duty it shall be to build and keep in repair the school house, and from time to time, as occasion may require, to agree with and employ instructors, and to pay them. . . and it shall be the further duty of the trustees of each district as soon as may be after the district meeting have voted a tax, to make a rate bill or tax list, which shall raise the sum voted, with five cents on a dollar for collector's fees, on all the taxable inhabitants of said district, agreeable to the levy on which the town tax was levied the preceding year, and annex to said tax list or rate bill a warrant . . . .

. . . . .

The several towns in this state which shall conform to the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to such monies, to be distributed to them severally, according to the number of inhabitants in each town, to be ascertained by the respective census under the constitution of the United States, subject nevertheless to a distribution thereof, by said town, to the several school districts therein. . .

The several school districts within the several towns in this state which shall conform to the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to the monies deposited with the commissioners as aforesaid, to be distributed to said districts severally, according to the number of children within each district, between the ages of five and fifteen inclusive. . . Monies shall be applied and expended by said trustees in paying the wages of the teachers to be employed, and for no other purpose …After the first year, no order shall be accepted, nor shall the commissioners aforesaid deliver the monies, directed to be delivered as aforesaid, until two of the trustees of such district shall have certified in writing. . . that the school in said dis