USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 31
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The first public school established and incorporated by the Kentucky Legislature was the Kentucky Academy. We learn from Davidson's His- tory of Presbyterianism in Kentucky, that, in 1795, David Rice and James Blythe went to the Eastern States to solicit subscriptions to endow this school. They obtained ten thousand dollars. Of this, George Washington and John Adams, the president and vice-president, each contributed one hundred dollars, and Aaron Burr, fifty dollars. President Washington made special inquiries as to the state of education in Kentucky. This institution + was located at Pisgah, near Lexington. In 1798, it was endowed with six thousand acres of land by the Kentucky Legislature.
Later in the course of the same year, the State of Kentucky, with a liberal spirit which will always deserve commendation, gave six thousand acres of land to each county in the State, for the purpose of establishing seminaries of learning. As new counties were subsequently formed, new grants were generally made. The first public schools thus endowed were 'all seminaries, somewhat lower than a college. In the act chartering them, it was left wholly in the discretion of the trustees, "what subjects should be taught in these academies, whether the English language, writing, arith- metic, mathematics, and geometry only, or the dead and foreign languages and other sciences generally taught in academies and colleges."
The object of establishing these academies, as expressed by the Legisla- ture of 1798, was "to illuminate as far as possible the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them a knowledge of those facts which history exhibiteth, that. possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be able to know ambition in all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes."
Thus was inaugurated the first extensive system of public education in Kentucky. It consisted of one public academy in each county, with a large landed endowment. These endowments were well guarded by the law of 1798 creating them, but subsequent acts vested the trustees with wide pow- ers of disposing of these lands. and thus opened a door for the ultimate destruction of the endowments by scheming or incompetent men.
These seminaries afforded opportunities to the people of the respective counties for obtaining a substantial grammar-school education. Attendance upon them was less expensive than upon the university at Lexington. The cost of tuition and board might often be paid in country produce, instead of money. Many of our early lawyers, doctors, ministers, and other pre- fessional men obtained all their education in these seminaries.
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680
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
In 1798, Kentucky Academy was united with Transylvania Seminary. This union was the origin of Transylvania University.
About the beginning of the year 1800, as we learn from the " Sketches of Louisville," written by Colonel R. T. Durrett for the Courier-Journal, there were a number of elementary schools in that city. They were kept in log-houses, with board roofs and puncheon floors. The Louisville teach- ers of this period were Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Langdon, Mr. New, and Mr. Todd.
Prior to this date, in 1792, Kentucky had become an independent State. Two constitutions had been made for her before the beginning of the pres- ent century. Both documents were silent upon the important subject of education. It is claimed for Mr. George Nicholas that he was mainly the author of the first constitution. He has been deservedly praised for many of its provisions, but this omission was a serious defect. The second con- stitution, as we learn from the historian, Humphrey Marshall, was made by men of very similar characteristics to those who framed the first, with the exchange of John Breckinridge for George Nicholas. Breckinridge had just come from Virginia, where the important topic of education had already engaged the attention of Jefferson, Pendleton. and Wythe. But the second constitution, mostly the work of Breckinridge, is silent upon this great sub- ject. Neither do any of the changes claimed to have been made by Breck- inridge in the general statutory law of the State embrace this topic. Like omission may be alleged against our politicians too often since.
These omissions in our organic and statutory law are the more striking, as the celebrated congressional ordinance. providing so liberally for educa- tion in the North-western Territory, had then been passed, and the subject of education was attracting the attention of politicians throughout the United States. The brilliant campaign in the North-west which had been made by General George Rogers Clark, a distinguished son of Kentucky, aided by his famous regiment of Kentuckians, had already furnished a school fund for Connecticut and material for the endowment of universities. colleges, and free schools in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It had just enabled the American minister, in the treaty with England at Paris, to claim the Mississippi river as the western boundary of the United States.
While Connecticut and other sister States were already beginning to di- vide up this vast territory won by Clark, and make it a foundation for State school funds and endowments, no protest had yet been heard from Ken- ·tucky as to her right to a share in this splendid conquest for purposes of education. Two governors of the State. Shelby and Garrard, had already issued various messages, with no allusion to this vital interest of the State.
The political resolutions of 1798, the acquisition of Louisiana Territory. the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the reform of the criminal statutes were the exciting topics of interest among the politicians of the day. The revenue and penitentiary laws of the State were matters of frequent men-
68x
EDUCATION ENTERING STATE POLITICS.
tion, but the bearing of popular education upon these branches of our State policy seems to have been overlooked.
The great cause of female education had not yet received any public aid from the State. The girls of the Commonwealth were obliged to put up with the scanty training which could be obtained in a few promiscuous country schools whose teachers, we are informed by Felix Grundy, were often desti- tute both of a knowledge of polite literature and good manners. Only two schools in the State-that of Rev. John Lyle, at Paris, and that of Mrs. Keats, at Washington, Mason county-then proposed to give them the benefits of an ordinary grammar-school education. The opposite sex had engrossed the means of knowledge and improvement, and suffered female talents to be neglected.
The earliest allusion to education which we are able to find in a State paper of Kentucky is in the message of Governor Christopher Greenup, + dated December 31. 1807. This message, after alluding to the importance of education, urged that the state of our wealth and population was such that the Legislature could then look to the establishment of a more enlarged system of education than yet existed in the State. This document shows that a higher education for the few, and not a general distribution of ele- mentary learning among the masses, was then regarded by the governor as the true policy of the State. The message also shows. in other parts, that the young men of our State were even then beginning to go North for their collegiate training. This notice in the governor's message is important, as it shows that the subject had at last forced its way into State politics. It was getting a feeble hearing before the people.
Early in 1808, General Green Clay, of Madison county, became a can- didate for governor, and announced himself "in favor of a multiplication of the means and institutions of education." He thus became the first can- didate for governor who ran in part upon a pronounced educational platform. His successful competitor, Governor Charles Scott, also favorably mentioned the subject in his message. December 22, 1811.
The cause made slow progress during the war of 1812. The second ad- ministration of Governor Shelby added much to the military reputation of Kentucky, but little was done to improve the schools. The attention of the people was engrossed by the war in the North-west and at New Orleans. The surrender of Hull, the siege of Fort Meigs, the defeat of Winchester, the massacre at Frenchtown, the victories upon Lake Erie, the Thames, and at New Orleans crowded the columns of our newspapers, to the exclusion of everything else. The flag of the country was unfurled in most of our coun- try towns, and, at the call for volunteers, often teacher and pupils alike fol- lowed the standards of Clay, Shelby, Johnson, Caldwell. Poague, and Desha in search of Proctor and Tecumseh in the North-west, or the banners of . Thomas, Adair, and Slaughter in search of Packenham and his veterans at New Orleans. Some of the best descriptions of Dudley's defeat and of
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Clay's entry into Fort Meigs were written by pupils from Kentucky. Some of the students were taken prisoners, and ran the gauntlet under the eye of British officers. Some were saved from slaughter by the humanity of Te- cumseh.
During this stormy period, Transylvania University was at such a low ebb that it was surpassed in efficiency by many seminaries and private schools in the State. It is true that a professorship of law and politics had been created in the institution as early as 1799; George Nicholas had been appointed professor of law, and Drs. Fred Ridgely and Samuel Brown, pro- fessors of medicine; but these appointments were nominal, and no lectures had yet been delivered upon these subjects. The institution had been greatly afflicted at different periods. by distracting divisions among its board of trustees. Even while Transylvania was a seminary, the election of Harry Toulmin, as principal. though strongly recommended by Thomas Jefferson, had led to serious differences among the trustees. In fact, this election was the avowed cause of setting up another school in opposition to Transylvania Seminary, which was effected in the establishment of Kentucky Academy. The charges made in 1801, against Mr. James Moore. one of the professors. of Transylvania University, again led to serious differences in the board. The subsequent election of President Holley was at first followed by like discord.
About this period, the schools in the city of Louisville were growing in importance. As we learn from the sketches of Louisville schools by Colonel Durrett, these schools, while in an advancing condition, were occasionally characterized by scenes of boyish insubordination. indicating the spirit and temper of the times. In April. ISo9, the first show came to the city. The exhibition of an elephant, which accompanied the show, caused a general uprising in the schools, and a demand for holiday. The refusal to grant a request by the pupils of one of the schools to attend the show led to a small insurrection in the school, and a general overhauling of the teacher by its pupils; but the spirit of fun and good humor which attended the affair showed that nothing serious was meant.
Aside from these occasionably laughable incidents, the great cause of education was slowly growing in the State. In his message of December 2, 1816, Governor Gabriel Slaughter uses the following language upon the subject :
"I presume you will agree with me that nothing in this Government, whose firmest rock is public sentiment, is more worthy of your attention than the promotion of education. not only by endowing colleges or universi- ties upon a liberal plan, but by diffusing, through the country, seminaries and schools for the education of all classes of the community making them free to all poor children, and the children of poor persons. At an early period, there was granted to each county in the State six thousand acres of land for the establishment and support of schools; this has been productive of some
683
MISTAKES IN THE FIRST SYSTEMS.
good, but the fund has proved inadequate to meet the enlightened and lib- eral views of the Legislature. It is essentially necessary that schools should be more diffused to suit the convenience of the people. It is believed there are funds within our reach which in a few years would enable us to establish through the State a system of education which would be attended with incal- culable advantages. Every child born in the State should be considered a child of the republic, and educated at the public expense, where the parents are unable to do it. To effectuate objects so valuable and desirable, I recom- mend an inquiry into the titles of lands stricken off to the State and forfeited ; a revision of the law of escheat and for the appointment of escheators. and that such lands, with a tax on banks, and such corporations as from their nature are proper subjects of taxation, and such part of the dividends on the bank stock of the State as can be spared without materially increasing the public burdens, may be appropriated for the purpose, establishing an · extensive and convenient system of education."
Here we find the gerins of a system of education, free for the children of the poor alone. This mistake was made in the first systems, both of Virginia and Pennsylvania-a mistake which Jefferson says cost Virginia two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, without educating a single boy.
In 1818, the law was passed making Transylvania University a State institution. An attempt was now made to build up a great university, under the auspices of the State. A moment was seized upon, which, from a com- bination of circumstances, was rendered peculiarly propitious for the under- taking. We had just emerged from a severe struggle against the colossal power of Great Britain. Kentucky ranked high for her recent achievements in arms. She now sought to vie as successfully with her sister States in matters of education, as she had done in the tented field, where none out- stripped her. All eyes turned, as if by previous consent, to Transylvania University, as the nursery for an extended and liberal system of education. Shortly afterward, Dr. Holley was called to the presidency.
Of this appointment, Dr. Charles Caldwell speaks as follows, in his dis- course upon the genius and character of Holley :
"To all the friends of literature this event was a subject of much con- gratulation, and much rejoicing. Intelligence of it spread with electrical impulse upon the public mind, and almost with electric velocity, not only through Kentucky, but the States that surrounded her. It was regarded by all as an earnest of the permanent introduction of sound learning and science, with their train of numerous and mighty benefactions, into the valley of the Mississippi."
But while this new phase in the affairs of Transylvania University was gratifying in the extreme. it did not satisfy the desires of the people of Kentucky for primary schools of education. In his message of December 10, 1817, Governor Slaughter again returns to the subject, and foreshadows our subsequent system of common-school education in the following words :
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
"I beg leave again to bring into view the subject of education, one of the first importance that can engage your attention, whether we regard its influence on human happiness or the permanency of our republican system. Colleges or universities upon a large scale require considerable funds, and can not be numerous. The Transylvania University, which had its origin in the liberality of our parent State, will soon, it is believed, hold an emi- nent rank among the institutions of learning in the United States. I am not informed whether its funds are adequate or not, but think it would be wise in the Legislature to extend to this institution every aid necessary to place it on the most respectable footing. It is hoped and expected that this university, situated in one of the most healthy and delightful parts of the United States, will render it not only unnecessary for the youth of our own State to be sent to distant colleges, but invite the young men of other States to finish their education there. There are considerations in favor of a good system of education, which strongly address themselves to our pride as a State. It should be remembered that Kentucky is the first member of the Federal Union that emerged from the Western wilderness, and that she now holds a very high standing in the national government. And shall it be said that she is unfriendly or even indifferent to learning? I.et it rather be our boast that Kentucky is as famed for science and the arts as for the valor and patriotism of her citizens. To establish a perfect method of edu- cation has long been considered by the most enlightened friends of man- kind the best means of rendering a people free and happy. I, therefore, recommend to you to arrange and adopt a plan extensive, diffusive, and convenient to every portion of the community. I would advise that all the settled parts of the State be divided into school districts, equal to five or six miles square, through the agency of the courts, or in some other manner to be prescribed; a school to be established in each district free to all poor children, and to be supported, if not entirely, in part at the public expense. We have many good scholars, but nothing short of carrying education to the neighborhood of every man in the State can satisfy the just claims of the people, or fulfill the duty of the Government. Few people are able to board their children from home. and unless schools are established conven- ient to them, their education will be neglected. The distribution of schools in every neighborhood would be attended with many advantages : they will not only improve the mind and moral habits of the youth, but will give more permanency and a more settled character to our population. They will diffuse much useful instruction among all classes of people, and intro- duce a taste for learning and information. They will develop the mental riches of the Commonwealth. The experience of the world has proved that genius is not confined to any particular order of men ; but providence, in bestowing its choicest gift, intelligence, as if to mortify the pride and vanity of those who, from birth and fortune, would exalt themselves above their fellowmen, delights to raise up the brightest ornaments of humanity
685
CENTRE COLLEGE INCORPORATED.
from the most obscure and humble conditions of life. To instruct and im- prove the rising generation is among the first duties of every American statesman. The American people, in establishing their independence and republican forms of government, have done much, but much remains yet to be done. These States are but recently transplanted from the nursery of freedom, and although in a thriving and promising condition, they have not acquired such maturity and strength as no longer to need the care and skill of the political husbandman. To give success to this experiment of freedom, the youth of our country should be qualified to understand and enjoy its blessings. In vain have our ancestors bled, in vain did they haz- ard everything upon the issue of our revolutionary contest, in vain has our country been distinguished by the most sublime and elevated patriotism, if the inestimable boon which they achieved is to be lost by a neglect of the means necessary to its preservation and progress. While the utility and * importance of education are generally admitted, yet either because the bene- ficial effects appear remote or universal, the subject does not seem to excite that lively interest and zeal which are usually awakened by questions of a local or personal character. When we reflect that this Government has no need of a standing army to sustain or enforce its authority, but for its effi- ciency essentially reposes upon the patriotism and intelligence of the great . body of the people, how obvious is the necessity of providing a system of instruction calculated to improve the minds and moral habits of the rising generation."
The country seminaries were now beginning to be considered failures as foundations of a system of popular elementary education. The private pri- mary schools were gaining upon them in the estimation of the people. The question was beginning to be asked, Would it not be better for the State to give her aid to primary schools rather than the seminaries? The latter insti- tutions were perishing under what the historian Humphrey Marshall called the "disease of bad government and multiplicity." The disposal, manage- ment, and control of the lands of each seminary had been left to its trustees. There had, consequently, been no uniformity, no general plan, no regular adoption of means which could secure success to all. In most instances their lands had been sold to speculators, and all the proceeds invested in one costly building, which stood as a monument of the folly of its projectors. But, notwithstanding the seminaries were now characterized as failures by Governor Adair in one of his messages to the Legislature, the spirit of pro- moting academical and collegiate education had not yet abated in the Legis- lature. On the 21st of January, 1819, Centre College was incorporated and located at Danville. From the " Memoirs of Rev. Thomas Cleland," we learn that the application for a charter met with violent opposition from some of the adherents of Transylvania University, and some other rival institu- tions. The prominent opponent of the college made his appearance in the Legislature with his arms filled with books and a servant behind him with a
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
wheel-barrow also loaded with them. He spoke several hours, and made a violent philippic to show that the Presbyterians on the other side of the At- lantic had always burned with a desire of uniting church and state. When he had ended, a member, Colonel James Davidson, a man of much dry humor, and a deep, sonorous voice, gravely told a simple anecdote, by way of illustrating the terrors which had been so awfully presented: An Irish Redemptioner lost himself in the woods one evening. He had heard a great deal of the Indians, and the novel sights and sounds around him in- spired him with such alarm that he climbed up into a tree for safety and spent the sleepless night. On being found next day, he told through what perils he had passed. The fire-flies he mistook for the torches of the sav- ages in quest of him, while his agitated fancy interpreted the doleful screams of the whip-poor-wills into menaces of destruction crying : "Whip him well, whip him well, cut and lash, cut and lash," "" and the fire flew all the time," said he, " like the de'il." In short, he did not know what would have become of him had it not been for the " swate, heavenly bairds" (meaning the bull- frogs) who kept calling out: "Motheration, motheration." "Now," said Colonel Davidson, " when I heard the member conjuring up all those dread ful hobgoblins, they appeared to me of the same imaginary character of the poor Irishman's terrors, and I felt an irresistible impulse to rise up in my place and call out : ' Motheration, motheration.'" The ludicrous anecdote, narrated in the dryest manner and with his gravest intonations, convulsed the house with laughter.
The serious and inflammatory speech on the other side was effectually neutralized, and the friends of the bill, adroitly seizing the propitious op- portunity, hurried it through its final passage before the effect could be coun- teracted.
Immediately after the passage of the charter, the trustees of Centre Col- lege, through ex-Governor Shelby, as their chairman, issued an address to the people to remove any unfavorable impression which might arise from the erection of another college at this particular juncture of our educational affairs. The substantial points made in this address were:
First-That the college was not started with a view to inculcate the par- ticular tenets of any religious denomination.
Second-That the county seminaries did not have the funds necessary to furnish a complete literary and scientific education. A number of colleges were needed to put the finishing hand to the studies of the pupils in the seminaries.
Third-That Centre College was not started with any purpose to injure Transylvania University.
Fourth-That the interests of literature and science would be promoted by establishing two colleges; that the professors in either would thereby be stimulated to greater exertions and the prices of tuition and board kept at fair rates.
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THE SECOND PERIOD.
Not many years elapsed before other colleges sprang up at Georgetown, Augusta, Bardstown, Princeton, and Harrodsburg. The seminaries, though on the decline as late as 1820, still received the benefits of legislative boun- ties in the shape of fines and forfeitures appropriated to their use. The amounts received from this source varied in the different counties, and were probably very unequal. These appropriations in their behalf were strongly opposed in the Legislature, but carried by a handsome majority. It was the last mark of approval they received at the hands of a generous Legislature. Their career had been marked by a spirit of speculation, negligence, and fraud on the part of some of their trustees, which worked much injury to the cause of education in the State. A few had survived the general shipwreck. Among these was Bracken Academy, at Augusta, which, by judicious man- agement of its trustees, had accumulated a fund of ten thousand dollars, and was now aspiring to become a college. A few others might probably be mentioned that escaped the general shipwreck, but they were scarce. The seminaries, as created in Kentucky, had been weighed in the balances and found wanting after twenty-two years of trial.
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