USA > Indiana > The history of Indiana > Part 25
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A law of 1816 permitted the citizens of a congres- sional township to elect three school trustees to admin-
35 The Society was incorporated Jan. 10, 1831. In the first 65 pages of Vol. I of the Proceedings are the minutes of the society during the first 56 years of its existence. These are fragmentary and worthless. They show, however, that there has always been alive among our citizens some appreciation of the State's history.
36 Constitution of Indiana, Art. IX, sec. 2.
329
PIONEER SCHOOLS
ister the funds. The law of 1824 incorporated the con- gressional townships, giving the trustees limited power to lease or sell school lands. The trustees might also divide the township into districts, over each of which they could appoint three sub-trustees. These district officers were authorized to locate and build houses, de- termine the length of the term and the method of pay- ment of the tuition tax, provided any were levied. Books, discipline, course of study, and even methods of instruction were left to the district trustees. Malad- ministration and neglect are the chief features in the history of the schools under this law.
After 1833 the district trustees were elected by the qualified voters of the district. In 1836 any individual might hire a teacher and draw his part of the school fund for maintenance. There was only one more step that could be taken, and this was taken in 1841, when the qualifications of the teacher were left to the district trustees.
It is not strange that under these circumstances the teaching profession disappeared. Men of high education and of great power filled the ranks of the preachers and lawyers, but the teacher of this period was not uncommonly the laughing stock of the neigh- borhood.
While other institutions of the State were taking on efficient, State-wide organization, the schools, under the domination of the ruinous idea of local self-govern- ment, were struggling hopelessly with unequal lengths of terms, incapable teachers, dishonest trustees, diver- sity of text-books, lax enforcement of school laws and school discipline, neighborhood quarrels over school sites, narrow views of education, and lack of wise leadership. This situation lasted until the revision of the school law of 1843. The latter date perhaps marks the lowest level of general intelligence ever reached in
330
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the State. The harmful effects of the failure to organ- ize were felt in all classes and fields of social life.37
Despairing of any relief from the public schools, the churches had, each in its way, tried to solve the problem of popular education. Almost every preacher was a school teacher. The Catholics had a large num- ber of fairly good schools, at which not only their own, but Protestant children received instruction. Hun- dreds of private subscription schools were founded and continued for uncertain periods. Such schools de- pended so completely on the teacher and local condi- tions that no history of them can be written. Any native of the State, past the age of seventy, can de- scribe a pioneer school; no one can describe the pioneer schools.
Higher education fared better in early Indiana than did the common schools. A law of 1806 provided for an university at Vincennes. The national government endowed the institution with a township of land. A distinguished board of trustees did all that was pos- sible to support the institution but after a fitful life as college and seminary it became dormant and its endow- ment was taken for the present State University.
The constitution of 1816 provided that after four
37 The best discussion of this phase of early education is by Dr. W. A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana, 1903. See also R. G. Boone, History of Education in Indiana; Laws of Indiana, 1816, 1818, 1827, 1834, 1840. House Journal, 1839; Senate Journal, 1825; Documentary Journal, 1841. By 1840 the leading men of the State recognized the complete failure of the schools. Governor Bigger, in his message, 1842, said "Our schools are a mass of statutory provisions, presenting difficulties even to the legally disciplined mind, which are al- most insuperable to the ordinary citizen." The House Com- mittee on Education, 1840, reported : "We present almost the only example of a State professing to have in force a system of common school education, which does not know the amount or condition of its school funds, the number of schools and scholars to be taught and to receive the distribution of those funds. It is a body without a' head." House Journal, 1840, 393. See also the Judiciary Report, House Journal, 1840, 963.
331
HIGHER EDUCATION
years the General Assembly should establish a State Seminary. In pursuance of this, an act was approved, January 20, 1820, under which a board of trustees or- ganized the State Seminary at Bloomington. 38 The General Assembly, in 1822, sold the seminary lands in Gibson county, belonging to Vincennes University, and turned the proceeds over to the new State Seminary.
In 1828 the State Seminary became Indiana College, under a board of fifteen trustees. In 1838 Indiana Col- lege became Indiana University. Its history for a half century is a continuous struggle for money, and stu- dents, to keep it alive. Its graduating classes before the Civil War rarely numbered a dozen and more often fell below a half dozen. The torch of learning was kept burning, however, and that is more than was done in neighboring States.39
The intense religious feeling of the times inter- fered with any united effort in higher education. Hardly had the State University been organized when a clerical quarrel began over its control. This was most unfortunate for the university. Feeling that they were not fairly represented on the board or the faculty of the State University, the Methodists with-
38 This board consisted of Judge Charles Dewey, Jonathan Lindley, David H. Maxwell, John M. Jenkins, Jonathan Nichols and William Lowe. Indiana Journal, Mar. 15, 1825, contains a notice of the opening of the State Seminary at Bloomington. Trustees will open it first Monday in April, 1825. Rev. Baynard R. Hall is the superintendent and faculty. Tuition, $5 per year. Good board can be had for $1.25 per week. The institution will be classical and each student must have following books: Ross' Latin Grammar; Valpy's Greck Grammar; Colloquies of Corde- rius; Testament; Selectae e Verteri; Graeca Minora; Selectae e Profanis; Caesar; Virgil. Must have no ponies. Trustees. Joshua O. Howe, Samuel Dodds, John Ketcham, William Lowe, Jonathan Nichols, D. H. Maxwell. Cf. Baynard R. Hall, The New Pur- chase.
39 T. A. Wylie, Indiana University, 1890; Indiana Alumni Quarterly, I.
332
HISTORY OF INDIANA
drew their support and by 1840 Indiana Asbury Uni- versity was open for students.40
The Baptists, as early as 1834, began an agitation for a college under their own control. As a result of this Franklin College was located in 1835. In its early years it passed through much of the same vicissitudes as the other Indiana pioneer schools.41
The Presbyterians of Salem presbytery, as early as 1825, took up the matter of establishing an academy. John Finley Crow was then maintaining a boarding school at South Hanover. In 1826 the presbytery ar- ranged with Mr. Crow to enlarge his school, as soon as possible, into a classical school where boys and young men might prepare for college, and thus for the minis- try. This school was formally opened in a log house, January 1, 1827. The usual struggle followed. Like its predecessor at Bloomington, about all that can be said of it during the next half century is that it sur- vived.42
The Catholics were the earliest and also the latest to found denominational colleges in this period. The institutions at Vincennes date back to the early years of the State's history but none of them ever gave prom- ise of becoming a first class college or university. Father Sorin, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross of Mans, France, undertook to supply the needs of the northwestern Catholics in this respect. He reported to Bishop Hailandiére, of Vincennes, as a mis- sionary in 1841. His first work was at St. Peters, a small missionary station in Daviess county. Here the
40 F. C. Holliday, Indiana Methodism, 317. The Methodists established the New Albany Seminary in 1837; Whitewater Col- lege, at Centerville; Fort Wayne College, 1846; Brookville Col- lege, 1851; Moore's Hill College, 1853.
41 William T. Stott, Indiana Baptist History, 346; see also a History of Franklin College.
42 Hanford A. Edson, Early Indiana Presbyterianism, 228; see also History of Hanover College.
333
SEMINARIES
·college would have been located had it not been for the college at Vincennes. At the suggestion of Hailan- diére, the little band from Daviess county repaired to the present site of Notre Dame du Lac, on the banks of the St. Joseph, and there, in the winter of 1842 and 1843, was founded the present college.43
There is no intention here of attempting a history of any of these colleges. The purpose is to illustrate the effort of the pioneers of Indiana to solve the prob- lem of education after the State had failed. Had the State University been properly supported, and had it earlier freed itself from the reproach of sectarianism, it is conceivable that it might have gathered together all these factors and welded them into a large and pros- perous school. More probably the day of the great State university had not yet come.
Between these extremes, the college and the common school, there was no direct connection. Effort was made, however, both by public and private means, to bridge over this gap in the imaginary school system of Indiana. Beginning with the constitution itself,44 which provided for a system of intermediate schools, and extending through a series of statutes down till 1840, the State tried to establish seminaries in each county. Besides the general laws, which authorized any county under certain conditions to establish a seminary, thirty-two special laws incorporated as many county seminaries between 1825 and 1843. Two sources of revenue were provided. All fines for breaches of the penal laws went to the seminary fund. The other source was private donations. Under the general law of 1831 no county could establish a semi- nary until it had a fund of $400.
There was no uniformity in the management, course
43 A Brief History of the University of Notre Dame du Lac, 1895.
44 Constitution of 1816, Art. X, sec. 3.
334
HISTORY OF INDIANA
of study, length of term, method of instruction, text . books, or any other material consideration connected with these seminaries. Like the common schools, while most of the seminaries were of no value, some rendered long and meritorious service to the community. Lack of funds, dishonest trustees and factional quarrels make up the burden of their history.45
The practice of medicine was considered a fit sub- ject for legislation by the first General Assembly of the State. The circuit court districts were made medi- cal districts, in each of which a board of censors was named. This board had power to examine and license any prospective physician it deemed well enough skilled to undertake the active practice. The usual way of preparing for these examinations was by "reading" medicine with some doctor, preferably a member of the board of censors, for a number of years. Persons re- fused a license were not thereby refused the right to practice but such persons were unable to collect their fees by law. Each board had to report annually to the president of the State Senate.
A significant provision of this law forbade any physician charging a patient more than twelve and one- half cents per mile for the distance necessarily trav- eled. This fee might be doubled if the trip were made at night.46
The General Assembly of 1825 revised the law con- cerning medical societies, establishing the State Medi- cal Society, composed of delegates from each district society. The district censors still retained the right to license candidates, but if a candidate were refused he had the privilege of appealing to the State society. The latter body was also directed to establish a "Uniform system of the course and time of medical study, and the
45 A seminary paper by Walter Jackson Wakefield is the best study that has been made of these schools.
46 Laws of Indiana, 1816, 161.
335
COMMON SCHOOLS
qualifications necessary for license."47 In its general features this law remained until. 1843, when it was omitted from the Revision of that year.48
47 Laws of Indiana, 1825. 40.
48 W. A. Rawles, Centralizing Tendencies in the Administration of Indiana, 234.
CHAPTER XIII
POLITICS FROM 1825 TO 1840
§ 57 THE JACKSONIAN PARTY
FROM the beginning of the territorial government, in 1800, there had been more or less political rivalry between the eastern and western settlers. It was first noticeable between the settlers of Vincennes and those of Clark's Grant. Later it appeared between the set- tlers of the Whitewater valley and those of the Wa- bash. With the adoption of the constitution in 1816 this rivalry began to disappear. A part of that hos- tility had been due to the belief by the eastern set- tlers that the territorial officers at Vincennes had too much authority. After Jonathan Jennings, of Clark county, became governor, William Hendricks, of Jeffer- son, congressman, and James Noble, of Franklin, sena- tor, a similar complaint was heard from Vincennes. It was charged that everything was decided by a caucus of office holders at Corydon or Indianapolis.
By 1824 the old Congressional Caucus at Wash- ington was regarded with suspicion by the western democrats. The methods of Governor Jennings and his followers were said to be very much like those at Washington.1
It was customary at this time for a number of leading members of the General Assembly, together with the governor and a few other State officers, to meet during the November term of the supreme court or about the close of the annual legislative session and lay their political plans for the coming year. At
1 Western Sun, March 29, 1817.
336
337
JACKSONIAN DEMOCRATS
a meeting of this kind Adams presidential electors had been chosen early in the year 1824. The electors were the three judges of the supreme court, the ex- lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the house of representatives, all members of the officeholding aris- tocracy, as was charged at the time.
Along with the oppositon to the caucus the ques- tion of the relation of a representative to his con- stituents was widely discussed. The same party that opposed the caucus demanded that the representative either in Congress or the General Assembly should vote as his constituents wished him to, and not as he thought individually. If unable to carry out the will of his supporters, the representative should resign. This was called the "right of instruction."2
Another source of political unrest was the growing belief among the farmers that a class of professional officeholders was in charge of the State government. There was considerable ground for the charge. The men who made the constitution administered it until about 1829, when the Jacksonian revolution turned them out.3
2 In Nov., 1820, Enoch D. John and Joseph Hanna, members elect from Franklin county to the General Assembly, sent out a handbill calling their constituents into convention for the pur- pose of framing instructions to guide their course in the Assem- bly soon to meet. The editor of the Vincennes Centinel, a gov- ernment organ, remarked editorially: "We do not think highly of this mode of legislation. If members are not fit for their sta- tion all the wit of their constituents cannot make them so, in so short a time. We might as well send our instructions on pack horses."
3 Western Sun, March 29, 1817. Sixteen out of the forty-two members of the constitutional convention returned to the first session of the legislature. At least six more immediately ac- cepted some office under the constitution. All told, the members sat for a total of 154 terms, making an average, not counting those in administrative offices, of about four years' service in the General Assembly for each member. Considering 38, the number of members of the first session, to have remained the size of the Assembly, there would have been an average attend
HISTORY OF INDIANA
The same class of farmers that opposed the office- holders in the caucus opposed the banks. The failure of the First State Bank strengthened this party ma- terially. Those farmers and merchants able to load a flatboat for the down river trade were now fre- quently called the traders. In their homes there were some evidences of luxury brought from New Orleans. The poorer class of farmers were often called the "yeomanry," a term they disliked at first, but one they became proud of under Jackson.
The followers of Jackson were handicapped by lack of leaders, and means to carry on a campaign. Scarce- ly a member of the party held office. The election of John Q. Adams by the house of representatives welded the dissatisfied democrats of Indiana into the Jack- sonian Democratic party. There was a fierceness in their resentment of the treatment of Jackson which was little short of warlike. They referred to the elec- tion of Adams as "the theft of the presidency." All believed that Clay had sold his influence to Adams for the appointment as secretary of state, a bargain and sale of the government which they thought far more dangerous than Burr's Conspiracy.4
As soon as the election of Adams was known in Indiana a real political party began to take form. At log-rollings, boat-loadings, and above all on muster days the agitation was kept up. Viewed in all lights and from any angle, Jackson appeared to them their natural leader. He was a western man, a pioneer democrat. Unlike Clay, he had refused to affiliate with
ance by the members of the convention of seventeen members, almost a majority. Add to these terms served by the members as governors, congressmen, senators, judges, and in the national service and one begins to realize that the offices were fairly monopolized by a small group of politicians. It is clearly not too much to say that they ruled the State during the period from 1816 to 1824.
4 Western Sun, April 2, 1825.
339
FIRST STATE CONVENTIONS
the aristocratic congressmen from the east. The In- dians were the greatest menace to the pioneer. He had driven them beyond the Missisippi. The English were the only national enemy; at New Orleans he had defeated their finest army with the untrained battalions of pioneer militia. In all his success he had preserved his sincerity and his modesty. In this he was held up as a contrast to Clay, the modern Esau. The Demo- cratic campaign was pitched on a high plane. The nation was in danger of monarchy, the west was en- titled to a share in the government, the common man must assert his rights and, most important of all, Jackson must be vindicated. These were the planks of the platform.
Like skillful soldiers, the Jacksonians began the bat- tle by attacking and taking the outposts of the enemy, the township, county and militia offices. These were largely in the hands of the Jacksonians by 1828. By that time also a county and township political organiza- tion had been completed. Seeing the drift of public opinion, one newspaper after another became Jackson- ian.5
Jackson had been nominated by the legislature of Tennessee in 1825; so it was not necessary to hold a State convention in Indiana except to nominate elec- tors. This convention, the second in the history of the State, was held at Indianapolis, January 8, 1828.6 Regularly chosen delegates, thirty-seven in number, representing twenty counties, were present. Nine mem- bers of the General Assembly, for counties not other- wise represented, were also made members.
The significant thing about this convention was the political organization it perfected. Beginning with the
5 Western Sun, Feb. 17, 1827. "The friends of General Jack- son will be pleased to note that the cause is gaining in the State. Within a few days the Palladium (Lawrenceburg), the Guest (of Vevay) and the Annotator (Salem) have come out for him."
6 Western Sun, Jan. 26, 1828; Indiana Journal, Jan. 9, 1828.
340
HISTORY OF INDIANA
township, it provided that the lister (our assessor) of property, when he made his annual visit in the spring, should note the political preference of each voter. This poll book was then turned over to the vigilance com- mittee (our precinct committeemen), who reported the voters to the county committee of correspondence. The vigilance committee divided the voters of the township into groups, and members of the committee visited each voter personally. The vigilance committee also raised funds, furnished tickets to the voters on election day, arranged for stump speakings, and on election day at- tended the polls. The committee of correspondence resembled our county central committee and looked af- ter county politics. It also communicated with the committee of general superintendence, our state cen- tral committee.7 This convention adopted a platform favoring democracy as against Federalism, the Ameri- can system of government as against the English, and the responsibility of public officers to the people. With this platform and this organization the Jacksonian party entered the campaign in 1828 to vindicate Jack- son and reclaim the liberties to the people.
It was this superb party organization that enabled the Jacksonian Democrats to carry nearly all the presi- dential elections in Indiana, though the State, on na- tional issues was opposed to them.
Opposed to the Jacksonians were the Adams and Clay men, who called themselves National or Jefferson- ian Republicans. This party contained nearly all the experienced politicians of the State, though it must be kept in mind that political lines were not so clear and
7 Indiana State Journal, Jan. 9, 1828. The state committee consisted of R. C. Newland, Eli W. Malott, John McMahan, Henry S. Handy, all of Washington county; Gen. John Carr, of Clark ; William Hoggatt, of Orange; William Marshall, of Jackson; A. S. Burnett, of Floyd; John Milroy, of Lawrence: Nelson Lodge, of Jefferson : Elihu Stout, of Knox; William C. Keen, of Switzer- land; Jacob B. Lowe, of Monroe; David V. Culley, of Dearborn ; Thomas Posey, of Harrison. At least six of these were editors.
CLAY WHIGS
341
All the northern part of the state still owned by Indians
Miami Reservation
-
Randolpb
Delaware
Wabash; 1st.
2nd.
3rd.
Henry
Parke
Marion
Rush
Vigo
Putnam
Franklin
Owen
Decatur
Bartholomew
Sullivan
Ripley
Greene
Jennings
Jackson
Lawrence
Switzer- land
Daviess
Martin
Scott
Washington
Orange
Clark
Pike
Dubois
Crawford
Floyd
Van- [warrick der - burg
Perry
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS established by the aot
Posey
Spencer
Of January 3. 1822
Fayette
Ualon
Morgan
Johnson Shelby
Monroe
Dearborn
Jefferson
Knox
Gibson
Harrison
INDIANA IN 1822 BY E. V. SHOCKLEY
Wayne
342
HISTORY OF INDIANA
strong as at present. Senator John Tipton was an in- fluential politician of this period though it could hardly be said he belonged to either party. The same was true of Governors Jennings and Noble.
The Adams, or Administration men, held their State convention at Indianapolis, January 12, 1828.8 Of the fifty-seven delegates present all seem to have been office-holders and most of them were members of the General Assembly then in session. Forty-one of the fifty-six counties of the State were represented. In looking over the list of delegates it would seem that all the leading men of the State belonged to this party. Such was the fact. State officers and men of State reputation belonged to this party, while county and township officers belonged to the other.
The organization of the Clay-Adams party was nev- er close and complete like that of its opponent. It depended for success on the dignity of its members, the appeal of its platform, and the oratory of its stump speakers. In these latter two points it sur- passed the Jacksonians. It was the champion of the tariff, internal improvements, and the bank, all of which were favored issues among the early Indiana voters. The stump speakers of this party were elo- quent, and could hold their "large and respectable audiences" for three or four hours at a time discuss- ing the issues.
These parties have been described in some detail for the reason that they continued without change to divide the voters of Indiana down until the slavery issue broke them up. The Jackson men stood for a wider democracy, a more universal participation in the government by the common people. They demanded a firmer control over their lawmakers, a government more responsive to public opinion. They insisted on instructing their representatives and required them to
8 Indiana Journal, Jan. 31, 1828.
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