USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 53
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For my estimate of Trumbull and for facts in relation to him, I am indebted to friend Mr. George F. Wright.
609
THE REBEL GOVERNOR.
[1787.]
lands. Ephraim Kirby published the first volume of law reports ever issued in the United States. John Treadwell was the first president of the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions. Samuel Seabury was the first episcopal bishop in the new world, and the first epis- copal ordinations on this side of the Atlantic took place in Connecticut. Joseph Bellamy, as we have shown, founded the first Sabbath school in the world. The first temperance society in Christendom was formed in this state. The first asylum for the deaf and dumb ever instituted on this continent was established by the enterprize of our citi- zens, and upon our soil; and the seeds of almost all the colleges in the Union, have been carried from our fields and planted by our citizens. The first British flag that fell into the hands of the American patriots during the revolutionary war, and the first upon the land as well as upon the sea that did homage to our valor in the war of 1812, were all struck to sons of Connecticut; and her Trumbull was the only governor of all the old thirteen colonies who merited the now honored title of "rebel."*
Here ends the task so long ago undertaken, and followed with so many interruptions, but with a fondness which has clung more lovingly to the subject as the author has pur- sued it from year to year. If these pages shall stimulate to one generous effort, or arouse one heroic sentiment in the hearts of the young generation who are now rising up, to fill the places of their fathers, they will not have been written in vain.
The enemies of our ancestors were cold, famine, priva-
* Connecticut has educated principally through Yale College and the Litch- field Law School, one-eighth of all the senators that have ever been in Congress, from all the states of the Union, and more than one-ninth of all the cabinet officers, besides being the birth-place of more than one-twelfth of the entire list of United States senators, and one-third of all the postmasters general of the United States. She has also been the birth-place of one Secretary of the Navy, one Secretary of the Treasury, two Secretaries of War, two Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, one Judge and one Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States.
71
610
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
tions, decimating wars and taxes that pressed heavily upon them ; ours, on the other hand, are luxury, extravagance, sloth, and the natural result of all these, moral and phy- sical weakness. Let us study their history with sentiments of filial regard, and not forget to thank the God whom they trusted, that we are able to say, as they did, when they planted those three vines in the wilderness, which have since afforded fruit and shelter to millions,-" Qui Transtulit Sustinet.'
APPENDIX.
ROLL OF DELEGATES
TO THE CONVENTION WHICH RATIFIED THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES,
HOLDEN AT HARTFORD, ON THE FIRST THURSDAY OF JANUARY, 1788. HON. MATTHEW GRISWOLD, President. JEDEDIAH STRONG, EsQ., Secretary.
HARTFORD COUNTY.
HARTFORD COUNTY.
Hartford .-
Jeremiah Wadsworth, .... Y.
Jesse Root,*
Y.
Berlin .-
¥
Isaac Lee,
Y.
66
Selah Hart,
Y.
Bristol .-
66
Zebulon Peck, Jr.,.
Y.
East Hartford .-
William Pitkin,.
nil dicit.
Elisha Pitkin,
Y.
East Windsor .-
66
Erastus Wolcott,
Y.
John Watson, .
Y.
Enfield .-
Daniel Perkins, .
N.
Joseph Kingsbury,. nil dicit.
Farmington .-
66
John Treadwell,*
Y.
66
William Judd,
Y.
Glastenbury .-
66
Josiah Moseley,
Y.
Wait Goodrich,
Y.
Granby .-
Hezekiah Holcomb,
N.
Southington .-
John Curtis,
Y.
Asa Barnes,
Y.
Suffield .-
Alexander King,
N.
David Todd,
N.
Simsbury .-
Noah Phelps,.
N.
6
Daniel Humphrey
N.
Wethersfield .-
Stephen M. Mitchell,*
Y.
John Chester,.
Y.
Windsor .-
Oliver Ellsworth, .
Y.
Roger Newberry,.
Y.
NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
New Haven .-
Roger Sherman,
Y.
Pierpont Edwards,*
Y.
Branford .-
66
William Gould,
N.
66
Timothy Hoadley,
N.
Cheshire .-
David Brooks,
N.
Samuel Beach,
Y.
Derby .-
Daniel Holbrook,
Y.
John Holbrook,
Y.
Durham .--
James Wadsworth,.
N.
Daniel Hall,
N.
East Haven .-
Samuel Davenport,.
N.
Guilford .-
Andrew Ward,.
N.
John Eliot,.
N.
Hamden .-
Theoph. Goodyear, nil dicit.
Milford .-
Gideon Buckingham,. ..
Y.
Lewis Mallet,.
......
Y.
612
APPENDIX.
NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
North Haven .-
Daniel Bassett,.
.N.
66
Caleb Holt,.
Y.
Wallingford .-
Street Hall,
N.
Samuel Whiting,
N.
Waterbury .-
66 Joseph Hopkins, . Y.
John Welton,.
Y.
Woodbridge .-
Samuel Osborn,.
.N.
Samuel Newton,.
N.
MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Middletown .-
66
Ashur Miller,
Y.
Samuel H. Parsons,
Y.
Chatham .-
Ebenezer White,
.Y.
"6
(Unrepresented.)
¥
Hezekiah Goodrich,.
Y.
East Haddam .-
66
Dyar Throop,
.Y.
¥
Jabez Chapman,
Y.
Haddam .-
Cornelius Higgins,
Y.
Hezekiah Brainard,
.Y.
Mansfield .-
Killingworth .-
Theophilus Morgan,
.Y.
66
Nathaniel Atwood,
N.
Hezekiah Law,.
Y.
Plainfield .-
6.
James Bradford,
Y.
Saybrook .-
66
William Hart,
.Y.
66
Samuel Shipman,
Y.
Pomfret .-
TOLLAND COUNTY.
Tolland .-
66
Jeremiah West,.
Y.
Samuel Chapman,.
Y.
Bolton .-
Ichabod Warner,
. Y.
Samuel Carver,.
Y.
Coventry .-
¥ Jeremiah Ripley, .Y.
Ephraim Root,
Y.
Ellington .-
Ebenezer Nash,
N.
Hebron .-
Elihu Marvin,
N.
Somers .-
Joshua Pomeroy,
N.
66
Abiel Pease,
N.
Stafford .-
John Phelps,
Y.
Isaac Foot,.
Y.
Union .-
Abijah Sessions,
Y.
TOLLAND COUNTY.
Willington .-
Seth Crocker,.
Y.
WINDHAM COUNTY.
Windham .-
66
Eliphalet Dyer,
Y.
Jedediah Elderkin,.
Y.
Ashford .-
Simeon Smith,
Y.
Hendrick Dow
Y.
Brooklyn .-
Seth Paine,
Y.
Canterbury .-
יי
Asa Witter,.
Y.
Moses Cleveland,.
Y.
Hampton .-
Killingly .-
Simeon Howe,
Y.
William Danielson,
Y.
Lebanon .-
6
William Williams,*
Y.
Ephraim Carpenter,
.N.
Constant Southworth,.
.N.
Joshua Dunlap,
Y.
Jonathan Randall,
N.
"
Simeon Colton,.
N.
Thompson .-
Daniel Learned.
Y.
Voluntown .-
66
Moses Campbell,
Y.
66
Benjamin Dow,
Y.
Woodstock .-
Stephen Paine,
N.
Timothy Perrin,.
N.
LITCHFIELD COUNTY.
Litchfield .-
66
Oliver Wolcott,.
.Y.
66
Daniel Ingham,
N.
66
Jedediah Strong,.
Y.
Barkhamsted .-
Joseph Wilder,
N.
Bethlem .-
66
Moses Hawley,
Y.
Colebrook .-
66
(Unrepresented.).
Canaan .-
Charles Burrall,
Y.
Nathan Hale,
Y.
.
613
APPENDIX.
LITCHFIELD COUNTY.
Cornwall ..
Edward Rogers, .... Absent.
Matthew Patterson,
N.
Goshen .-
Daniel Miles,
Y.
Asaph Hall,.
Y.
Colchester .-
Hartland .-
Isaac Burnham, Y.
John Wilder,.
Y.
Harwinton .-
66
Abner Wilson,
N.
Mark Prindle,.
Y.
66
Stephen Billings,.
Y.
Lisbon .-
66
Andrew Lee,.
Y.
Lyme .-
66
Matthew Griswold,
Y.
66
William Noyes, ..
Y.
Montville .-
Joshua Raymond, Jr.,
... Y.
Preston .-
66
Jeremiah Halsey,.
Y.
66
Wheeler Coit, ..
Y.
Stonington .-
66
Charles Phelps,.
Y.
Nathaniel Miner
Y.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
Fairfield .-
Jonathan Sturges,
Y.
Danbury .-
Elisha Whittlesey,
Y.
66
Joseph M. White,.
Y.
Greenwich .-
66
Amos Mead,
Y.
66
Jabez Fitch,.
Y.
New Fairfield .-
Nehemiah Beardsley,
.T.
66
James Potter,
Y.
Newtown .-
66
John Chandler,
Y.
66
John Beach,.
Y.
Norwalk .-
66
Samuel C. Silliman,. Absent.
Hezekiah Rogers,.
Y.
66
Samuel Orton,.
Y.
Reading .-
66
Lemuel Sanford,*
Y.
William Heron,
66
Y.
Ridgefield .--
Philip B. Bradley,.
Y.
Amaza Learned,
Y.
NEW LONDON COUNTY.
Norwich .-
Samuel Huntington,.
Y.
66
Jedediah Huntington.
Y.
Bozrah .-
Isaac Huntington,
Y.
Robert Robbins,
Y.
Daniel Foot,.
Y.
Franklin .-
66
Eli Hyde,.
Y.
Groton .-
66
Joseph Woodbridge,
Y.
Kent .-
66
Jedediah Hubbell
Y.
New Hartford .-
Aaron Austin,*
Y.
66
Thomas Goodman,
N.
New Milford .-
66
Samuel Canfield,.
Y.
Daniel Everett,
Y.
Norfolk .- ,
Asahel Humphrey,
N.
6
Hosea Humphrey,.
N.
Salisbury .-
66
Hezekiah Fitch,
Y.
6
Joshua Porter, .
Y.
Sharon .-
Josiah Coleman,
N.
66
Jonathan Gillett,
N.
Southbury .-
66
Benjamin Hinman,
Y.
66
Thaddeus Burr,
Y.
Torrington .-
Epaphras Sheldon,
.Y.
Eliphalet Enos,
..
N.
Warren .-
66
Eleazer Curtis.
Y.
Washington .-
John Whittlesey, ..
.Y.
66
Daniel N. Brinsmade,.
.. Y.
Watertown .-
66
Thomas Fenn,
.Y.
66
David Smith,.
Y.
Winchester .-
66
Robert McCune,
Y.
Woodbury .-
66
Daniel Sherman,.
Y.
NEW LONDON COUNTY.
New London .-
Richard Law,
Y.
66
Nathan Dauchy,
Y.
* Though a period of thirty years elapsed between this convention and the convention which formed the state constitution, it is a remarkable fact, that at least eight persons were delegates to both, viz., Jesse Root, John Treadwell, Stephen M. Mitchell, Pierpont Edwards, Aaron Austin, Amasa Learned, Lemuel Sanford, and William Williams.
614
APPENDIX.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
Stamford .-
James Davenport, . Y.
66 John Davenport, Jr.,. .. Y.
Stratford .- 66 William S. Johnson, .. Y
Elisha Mills,. ... Y.
ROLL OF DELEGATES
TO THE CONVENTION WHICH FORMED THE STATE CONSTITUTION,
HOLDEN AT HARTFORD, IN AUGUST, 1818.
HIS EXCELLENCY OLIVER WOLCOTT, President. JAMES LANMAN, EsQ., Clerks. ROBERT FAIRCHILD, EsQ.,
HARTFORD .-
66
Sylvester Wells,
66
Nathaniel Terry.
Berlin .-
Samuel Hart,
Samuel Norton.
Bristol .--
66
Bryan Hooker.
Burlington .-
Bliss Hart.
Canton .- 66 Solomon Everest.
East Hartford .- 66 Richard Pitkin, Samuel Pitkin. East Windsor .-
66 Charles Jencks, 66 Abner Reed.
Enfield .- 66 Henry Terry, 66 William Dixon.
Farmington .--
Timothy Pitkin,
John Treadwell.
Glastenbury .-
66
Samuel Welles,
David E. Hubbard.
Granby .- 66 S. Wilcox, Reuben Barker.
Hartland .- 66 Aaron Church, " John Treat. Marlborough .- Elisha Buel.
Simsbury .- 66 Elisha Phelps, Jonathan Pettibone, Jr.
Southington .-
Roger Whittlesey,
66
Chester Grannis.
Suffield .-
Christopher Jones,
66
Asahel Morse.
Wethersfield .-
66
Stephen M. Mitchell,
Levi Lusk.
Windsor .-
66
Eliakim Marshall,
Josiah Phelps.
NEW HAVEN .-
66
William Bristol,
66
Nathan Smith.
Branford .-
66
Eli Fowler,
Jonathan Rose.
Cheshire .-
66
Andrew Hull,
66
Charles Shelton.
Derby .-
John Riggs.
East Haven .-
Bela Farnham.
Guilford .-
Nathaniel Griffin,
William Todd.
Hamden .-
66
Russell Pierpont.
Meriden .-
66
Patrick Clark.
Middlebury .-
66
Aaron Benedict.
Milford .-
66
Benjamin Hull,
Samuel B. Gunn.
.
615
APPENDIX.
North Haven .-
Daniel Pierpont.
Oxford .-
66
David Tomlinson.
Southbury .-
Shadrach Osborn.
Wallingford .-
66
John Andrews,
66
William Marks.
Waterbury .-
66
Timon Miles,
Andrew Adams.
Wolcott .-
66
Ambrose Ives.
Woodbridge .- Samuel T. Barnum.
Justus Thomas,
Chauncey Tolles.
NEW LONDON .-
Christopher Manwaring,
Amaza Learned.
Norwich .-
66
John Turner,
66 James Lanman. Bozrah .-
Roswell Fox.
Colchester .-
David Deming,
John Isham, Jr.
66
Franklin .-
66
Joshua Hyde.
Griswold .- " Elisha J. Abel.
66 Groton .- 66 John Daboll, William Williams.
Lisbon .-
Daniel Braman.
Lyme .-
Moses Warren,
Ebenezer Brockway.
Montville .-
Oliver Comstock.
North Stonington .-
Chester Smith,
William Randall, Jr.
Preston .-
Nathaniel Kimball,
66
Denison Palmer.
Stonington .-
66
William Randall,
66
Amos Gallup.
Waterford .-
Charles Avery.
FAIRFIELD .-
David Hill,
66
Gideon Tomlinson.
Danbury .-
Friend Starr,
William Cook.
Brookfield .-
66
Noah A. Lacy.
Greenwich .-
66
Clark Sanford,
Enos Lockwood.
Huntington .-
Timothy J. Welles,
William Shelton.
New Canaan .-
Nathan Seeley.
New Fairfield .-
Newtown .-
Gideon Botsford,
66
James B. Fairman.
Norwalk .-
Moses Gregory,
John Eversley.
Reading .-
.6
Samuel Whiting,
Lemuel Sanford.
Ridgefield .-
66
Joshua King,
66
Abner Gilbert.
Sherman .-
Jedediah Graves.
Stamford .-
James Stevens,
John Weed, Jr.
Stratford .-
66
Pierpont Edwards,
Robert Fairchild.
Trumbull .-
66
Lewis Burton.
Weston .-
Abel Gregory,
66
Isaac Bennett.
Wilton .-
66
Erastus Sturges.
WINDHAM .-
Peter Webb,
66
Zaccheus Waldo.
Ashford .-
Josias Byles,
66
William Perkins.
Brooklyn .-
66
Roger W. Williams.
Canterbury .-
Luther Paine,
6
Daniel Frost.
Columbia .-
66
Silas Fuller.
Hampton .-
"
Ebenezer Griffin.
616
APPENDIX.
Killingly .-
Luther Warren,
Ezra Hutchins.
Lebanon.
66
Thomas Babcock,
66
Stephen D. Tilden.
Mansfield .-
Edmund Freeman,
Artemas Gurley.
.
Plainfield .- " Elias Woodward, John Dunlap.
Pomfret .-
Darius Matthewson,
Lemuel Ingalls.
Sterling .-
Dixon Hall.
Thompson .-
George Larned,
Jonathan Nichols, Jr.
66
Voluntown .-
Daniel Keigwin.
Woodstock .-
66
John McLellan,
Elias Childs, 2d.
LITCHFIELD .-
וי
Oliver Wolcott,
John Welch.
Barkhamsted .- 66 Samuel Hayden, Oliver Mills. Bethlem .-
Nehemiah Lambert.
66
Canaan .-
66
William M. Burrall,
William Douglas.
Colebrook .-
66
Arah Phelps,
George Pinney.
Cornwall .- 66 Philo Swift, Oliver Burnham.
Goshen .-
66
Adino Hale,
Theodore North.
Harwinton .- 66 James Brace, Uriah Hopkins.
Kent .-
Lewis St. John.
New Hartford .-
66
Aaron Austin,
Jonathan Marsh.
New Milford .-
Orange Merwin,
Jehiel Williams.
Norfolk .-
66
Augustus Pettibone,
Joseph Battell.
Plymouth .-
Calvin Butler.
Roxbury .-
John Trowbridge.
Salisbury .-
Daniel Johnson,
Samuel Church.
Sharon .-
Cyrus Swan,
Samuel E. Everett.
Torrington .-
66
Abel Hinsdale,
William Battell.
Warren .- John Tallmadge.
Washington .-
66
Hermanus Marshall,
66
Ensign Bushnell.
Watertown .-
Amos Baldwin.
Winchester .--
Levi Platt,
66
Joseph Miller.
Woodbury .-
66
Nathaniel Perry,
Daniel Bacon.
MIDDLETOWN .-
66
Alexander Wolcott,
66
Joshua Stow.
Haddam .-
Ezra Brainard,
Jonathan Huntington.
Chatham .-
Enoch Sage,
66
Benjamin Hurd.
Durham .-
Thomas Lyman,
Lemuel Guernsey
East Haddam .- 66 Solomon Blakeslee, 66
William Hungerford.
Killingworth .-
66
George Elliott,
Dan Lane.
Saybrook .-
66
Charles Nott,
Elisha Sill.
TOLLAND .-
Ashbel Chapman,
..
Eliphalet Young.
Bolton .-
66
Saul Alvord, Jr.
1
617
APPENDIX.
Coventry .-
Stafford .-
יו
Ephraim Hyde,
66
Jesse Root, Elisha Edgerton.
66 Nathan Johnson.
Ellington .- Asa Willey.
Union .- 66 Ingoldsby W. Crawford, 66 Robert Paul.
Hebron .-
Daniel Burrows, John S. Peters.
Vernon .- Phineas Talcott.
Somers .-
Benjamin Phelps, Giles Pease.
Willington .- Jonathan Sibley, Jr. Spafford Brigham.
COMMON SCHOOLS.
For a minute and comprehensive survey of the "Legislation of Connecticut respecting Common Schools, and other means of Popular Education," including academic aud collegiate institutions from 1638 to 1838, the reader is referred to the annual report of Henry Barnard, superintendent of the common schools, made to the General Assembly, May session 1853. The state may well be proud of her early legislation, in behalf of universal education. "If there is any thing," re- marks Prof. Kingsley, in his historical discourse on the anniversary of the first settlement of New Haven, " If there is any thing in the institutions of a free state, which shows the character of its founders, it is the regard paid to the education of youth. Religion, morals, enterprise, whatever benefits or adorns society, rest here on their surest foundation ; and where effectual provision is made in the in- fancy of a community, for general instruction, other salutary regulations may be expected to accompany them. Take from our commonwealth the universal edu- cation of our citizens, and our social system is at an end. The form might con- tinue for a time, but its spirit would have fled. To suppose that pure religion, pure morals, an upright administration of government, and a peaceable, orderly, and agreeable intercourse in the domestic and social relations of life, can exist, where the people as a body are ignorant of letters, is an egregious solecism. I do not say that education is all that is needed, but without knowledge generally diffused, other means of improving human society are comparatively weak and unavailing."
The establishment of the common school for the elementary instruction of all the children of a neighborhood, as the broad and firm basis of a system of public edu- cation, embracing the grammar school, and the college or university, by the founders of the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, and the vigorous and pa- tient efforts of many good and wise men for one hundred and fifty years afterward, to bring the school near to every man's door, and to induce towns, parents, and guardians, by these facilities, and by penalties for neglecting them, to look after their'" proper nurture and schooling," as well as their " training to some honest occupation, of all children, apprentices, and servants," until it could with truth be said that not only the high places in church and commonwealth were filled with a learned ministry and an intelligent magistracy, but that the "barbarism " of
618
APPENDIX.
having a " single person unable to read the Holy Word of God, and the good laws of the colony," was not to be found in any household however poor, entitles Connecticut to a prominent place on the roll of civilized states, and her early legis- lators to rank among the benefactors of the human race. "Did I know," Judge Swift remarks in his digest of the laws of Connecticut, "the name of the legisla- tor, who first conceived and suggested the idea of common schools, I should pay to his memory the highest tribute of reverence and regard. I should feel for him a much higher veneration and respect, than I do for Lycurgus and Solon, the celebrated lawgivers of Sparta and Athens. I should revere him as the greatest benefactor of the human race ; because he has been the author of a provision, which, if it should be adopted in every country, would produce a happier and more important influence on the human character, than any institution which the wisdom of man has devised." It may be difficult to assign to any one individual the merit of having originated the common school system of Connecticut, or New England. Mr. Barnard, in his history already referred to, remarks, "The outline, and most of the features of our present system of common or public schools, will be found in the practice of the first settlers of the several towns which composed the original colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, before any express provision was made by general law for the regulation and support of schools, or the bring- ing up of children. The first law on the subject did but little more than declare the motive, and make obligatory the practice which had grown up out of the characters of the founders of these colonies and the circumstances in which they were placed. They did not come here as isolated individuals, drawn together from widely separated homes, entertaining broad differences of opinion on all matters of civil and religious concernment, and kept together by the necessity of self defence in the eager prosecution of some temporary but profitable adventure. They came after God had set them in families, and they brought with them the best pledges of good behavior, in the relations which father and mother, husband and wife, parents and children, neighbors and friends, establish. They came with a foregone conclusion of permanence, and with all the elements of the social state combined in vigorous activity- every man, expecting to find or make occupation in the way in which he had been trained. They came with earnest religious convictions, made more earnest by the trials of persecution ; and the enjoyment of these convictions was a leading motive in their emigration hither. The fundamental articles of their religious creed, that the bible was the only authoritative expression of the Divine will, and that every man was able to judge for himself in its interpretation, made schools necessary to bring all persons "to a knowledge of the scriptures," and an understanding " of the main grounds and principles of the christian religion neces- sary to salvation." The constitution of civil government, which they adopted from the outset, which declares all civil officers elective, and gave to every inhabi- tant who would take the oath of allegiance, the right to vote, and to be voted for, and which practically converted political society into a partnership, in which each member had a right to bind the whole firm, made universal education identical with self preservation. But aside from these considerations, the natural and ac- knowledged leaders in this enterprise-the men who, by their religious character,
619
APPENDIX.
wealth, social position, and previous experience in conducting large business operations, commanded public confidence in church and commonwealth, were educated men -- as highly and thoroughly educated as the best endowed grammar schools in England could educate them at that period, and not a few of them had enjoyed the advantages of her great universities. These men would naturally seek for their own children the best opportunities of education which could be provided ; and it is the crowning glory of these men, that, instead of sending their own children back to England to be educated in grammar schools and universities, they labored to establish free grammar schools and a college here, amid the stumps of the primeval forests ; that instead of setting up " family schools," and " select schools " for the ministers' sons and the magistrates' sons, the ministers and magistrates were found-not only in town meeting, pleading for an allowance out of the common treasury for the support of a public or common school, and in some instances for a " free school "-but among the families, en- treating parents of all classes to send their children to the same school with their own. All this was done in advance of any legislation on the subject, and was more easily made the habit of each new township by legislation framed in this spirit."*
In the practice above referred to, for near a century and a half, lay the peculiar excellence of the common school system-the universality of the habit, and the equality of the education given to all classes of the same community. The "children of the rich and the poor, of the capitalist and the laborer, of the laborer with his hands and the laborer with his head, were found side by side in the same school, and in the same playground, without knowing or caring for any other distinction than such as industry, capacity, or virtue may make. The teacher of the common school held a recognized office of distinction in the neighborhood, not overshadowed by the better educated and better paid teacher of private schools ; one family bor- rowed its practice of school attendance from another, and any new family fell into the general habit of the district; and a firm, intelligent and public opinion in favor of the school, coerced those who might otherwise have proved forgetful or delin- quent as to the education of their children. By degrees the supervision of the com- mon school was transferred from the town where other public interests were looked after, to an independent corporation, whose annual meeting was thinly attended because nothing was to be done except the election of officers ; the support of the schools was thrown mainly on the avails of public funds, which was followed by a diminution of public interest in the affairs of the district ; the means of the rich, no longer taxed for the support of the common school, were freely expended on academic and private schools, for the exclusive benefit of a few families-and thus this noble institution came to occupy a secondary place in the regards of a large and influential portion of every district and town."
From 1820 to 1838, strenuous efforts were made by individuals, through the press, and in conventions of teachers and friends of educational improvement, to arrest the attention of the people, and the legislation, to the want of progress in the common schools, and to causes which were operating to diminish their useful- ness. But it was not till 1838 that any effectual measure was adopted. At the May session of the General Assembly in that year, Henry Barnard, whose reports
* Barnard's Legislation of Connecticut respecting Common Schools from 1636 to 1838.
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APPENDIX.
have been referred to, then a member of the House of Representatives from Hartford, succeeded in carrying through both branches, by an almost unanimous vote, an " Act to provide for the better supervision of common schools," which commenced a new era in the history of our school system. This act, while it left every member of the community in his unabridged rights, as regards the educa- tion of his own children, and school societies and districts to maintain and manage its schools, correct abuses, and carry out desirable reforms according to their own judgment, aimed to secure the more particular attention of local committees to their supervision, and to enlist the counsel and experience of a board (consisting of one member for each county), and the entire time, strength, and talents of one person, to collect and disseminate information as to the condition of the common schools, and to awaken, enlighten, and elevate public sentiment in relation to the whole subject of popular education. Mr. Barnard was made a member of the board for Hartford county, and finally, and at the earnest solicitation of the other members of the board, and many influential citizens, he accepted the office of secretary, and his whole time and strength devoted to the service of the common schools of the state.
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