USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 2 > Part 32
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1821 to 1849 .- The succeeding legislation of the State looked to the organization of a different class of schools from the seminaries mentioned above. The educational policy of the State was changed so as to begin at the bottom with primary schools, instead of starting at the top with semina- ries, as had previously been done.
The first legislation under the new departure was the act of December 18, 1821, setting apart one-half of the net profits of the Bank of the Com- monwealth, as a "literary fund," to be distributed for the support of a general system of education. Provisions were made to start the new system at as early a date as possible. The "literary fund" at first yielded sixty thousand dollars per annum, as a basis for the new enterprise. Hard times and increased demands upon the State treasury made sad havoc of this new "literary fund," before it reached its promised destination. The profits of the Commonwealth's bank stock, which had thus been set apart as a literary fund, were used in 1824-25, to assist the revenues of the State, in order to prevent a resort to additional taxation. The interests of education were thus subordinated to the wants of the State revenue, and a policy inaug- urated which afterward worked much injury to the educational interests of Kentucky. The "literary fund " was so crippled by this policy, that Ken- tucky had no State fund sufficient for the establishment of a system of common schools, until she obtained an educational fund from the United States Government, as hereafter detailed. Another clause in the same act of 1821 gave one-half of the net profits of the branch banks at Lexington and Danville, for the benefit of Transylvania University and Centre College, respectively. A warm contest in the Legislature arose over these college appropriations. The assault was led by Mr. Jesse Noland, of Estill county, ably seconded by Mr. Martin Hardin, of Hardin county. Mr. Noland
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
said he was opposed to the adoption of this resolution. The rich men who get their children educated at these seminaries ought to pay for it. It was an uncommon thing for gentlemen to beg; and he did not think it was rea- sonable to give them anything. The poor might beg. But when he met gentlemen in ruffled shirts and fine clothes begging, he did not understand it. When he met a poor old man on the road with one eye, or a cripple, it was well enough to give him something. But he did not think this was a fair game. The Transylvania University and the Centre College have been applying here very often; he thought they ought not to be encouraged in it. If we are to give money to support schools, he thought it ought to be given to support a school in each county for the poor.
The member from Hardin county took even broader grounds of opposi- tion. He claimed that the public derived no benefit from providing for free education, especially collegiate education; that those men who have gotten an education by such means, when they come to the bar, or engaged in other professions, did not take the less fees on that account. They did not tell the people that they had been educated at public expense, and could afford to take less-for their services on that account. He insinuated that education was of but little use, as all the battles of the country had been fought by the uneducated classes of society.
These specious arguments were answered by William Worthington. Nathan Anderson, and Robert B. McAfee. To the plea that the battles of the country had been fought entirely by uneducated men, Colonel McAfee made the following warm response:
"The gentleman to my right, from Hardin, has asked who are the men who sustain you in war, and fight the battles of the country, and he has an- swered the question himself by saying, 'the uneducated class of society.' Does he mean to insinuate that education unnerves the hero's arm? Does he deduce from this that learning dampens that expanded glow and ardot which pervades the patriot's breast? I presume not, sir. Who were they who shed the first blood in the West, in the late glorious struggle with Great Britain? Were they not educated men? Yes, sir-the first impulse was given by a Daveiss, a Hart, a Meade, an Allen, and a Montgomery-all men of polished education. Education produced in them a 'fondness for noble daring,' impelled them to the tented field, and their deaths were glo- rious, as their lives were blameless. Yes, sir, on the banks of the Wabash, and of Raisin, those heroes lie, the snows of heaven their winding-sheet, but entombed in the hearts of their countrymen. I, sir, feel as much grati- tude for the services of the unlettered as the lettered soldier; but I protest against the idea that education enervates the system, or is incompatible with patriotism."
Colonel McAfee might have further added that, in fact, there was a close connection between the subject of university education, the cause of liberty, and a republican government. The history of the Revolutionary war shows
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that we are indebted for the first great impulse which was given to public sentiment to the powerful and energetic pens of those whose pure taste was cultivated within the walls of William and Mary, Princeton, and Cambridge. Throughout the administrations of Governors Slaughter and Adair the cause of higher education in Kentucky, as represented by Transylvania University, received a warm support from the executive department of Government. The impolicy and danger of sending our young men to other States for col- legiate education was strongly set forth in their messages. They portrayed the great amount of additional consideration and luster which the Common- wealth would receive from the successful operation of such an institution in our midst, as Transylvania University then promised to be. Their messages abounded in suggestions as to the best methods of raising funds to give the university a liberal endowment.
Already the lights of Transylvania were beginning to appear. and their * influence to become perceptible through Kentucky and the valley of the Mississippi. Among its distinguished graduates were Richard M. Johnson, John Rowan, William T. Barry, Jefferson Davis, Elijah Hise, Robert J. Breckinridge, Benjamin W. Dudley, Charles S. Morehead, and many others. Dr. Richard H. Collins characterizes them "as statesmen, jurists, orators, surgeons, and divines, among the greatest in the world's history-men of mark in all the professions and callings of busy life."
Early in the latter part of 1821, the large landed appropriations, which had been made by Congress, to promote the cause of common-school edu- cation in many of the new States, at last began to attract the attention of the people of Kentucky. The Legislatures of Maryland and New Hamp- shire sent strong documents to the Kentucky Legislature upon the injustice of this action to the old States.
A legislative committee, to whom was referred the papers of Maryland and New Hampshire, made the following report :
" That the communications submitted to them embrace reports and reso- lutions thereon, adopted by the Legislatures of these States, and the objects of which are to direct the attention of Congress and the Legislatures of the several States of the Union to the national lands, as a source from which appropriations for the purposes of education may, with justice, be claimed by those States for which no such appropriations have yet been made.
"Your committee, highly sensible of the importance of the fact that the most effectual means of achieving and perpetuating the liberties of any country is to enlighten the minds of its citizens, by a system of education adapted to the means of the most extensive class of its population, and alive to any just means within their power for the advancement of this great ob- ject, not only within their own State, but alike to all the members of the great political family of which they are a part, and for whose common in- terests they are thus united. have, with much interest, examined the facts stated and arguments used in said reports, and do not hesitate to concur in
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the opinions therein expressed, that the national lands are strictly a national fund, and that, from the extent and nature of the fund, appropriations may with greater propriety be extended to all the States of the Union.
"It is deemed unnecessary, in a report of this kind, to enter at large into all the arguments that might be used to establish the opinion above expressed. A few of the facts which have presented themselves in the in- vestigation of this subject are submitted.
"It is ascertained that all the States and Territories whose waters fall into the Mississippi have been amply provided for by the laws of Congress relating to the survey and sale of the public lands, except the State of Ken- tucky.
"Why those appropriations should have stopped short of Kentucky, your committee are not able to see, especially when they take into consideration its situation to other States of the Union, the contest it has maintained in establishing itself, protecting at the same time the western borders of the old States, and extending the more northern and western settlements.
"Kentucky long stood alone in a forest of almost boundless extent, separated from her parent settlements by extensive ranges of mountains and forests, fit receptacles for her savage enemies, and by which she was cut off from the succor, and almost from the knowledge, of her friends, yet main- taining her stand, and at the same time forming a barrier by which the more eastern States were protected from the common enemy, she has not only established herself, but has also gone forward to the establishment and sup- port of those States and Territories which now form the great national domain, which is the subject of this report.
"Notwithstanding many arguments might be used, which would go to prove that Kentucky has claims to appropriations of those lands, without extending the system to all the other States, yet your committee believe that such arguments are not necessary, and that a few facts here submitted will prove that those appropriations may be made general, without materially affecting the national revenue.
" Relying upon the apparent correctness of the able document before the committee, received from the State of Maryland, it appears that the total amount of literary appropriations made to the new States and Territories will amount to 14,576,569 acres; that the additional amount required to extend the same system to those States for which no such appropriations have yet been made would be 9,307,760 acres; that the State of Kentucky, as her part of such appropriation, would be entitled to 1, 066,665 acres: and esti- mating the whole quantity of unsold lands, yet owned by the United States, at 400,000,000 acres, that the additional amount required to extend the same scale of appropriations to all the States which have not received any would not amount to two and a half per centum upon the landed fund as above.
" Relying, therefore, upon the foregoing considerations as sufficient for their purpose, and believing that the magnanimity of their sister States in
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MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR METCALFE.
the West will produce a unanimity in the Congress of the United States upon this subject, your committee are prepared to close this report, and beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:
" Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- wealth of Kentucky, That each of the United States has an equal right, in its just proportion, to participate in the benefit of the public lands, the com- mon property of the Union.
" Resolved, That the executive of this State be requested, as soon as practicable, to transmit copies of the foregoing report and resolutions to their senators and representatives in Congress, with a request that they will lay the same before their respective houses, and use their endeavors to procure the passage of a law to appropriate to the use of the State of Kentucky, for the purposes of education, such a part of the public lands of the United States as may be equitable and just."
These resolutions were passed with much unanimity. Governor Thomas Metcalfe afterward followed up the subject in December, 1828, in a ringing message to the Legislature, urging the right of Kentucky to the proceeds of the public lands for purposes of education. The grounds taken by the governor were substantially those urged in the legislative report of 1821. The right of the State to this donation was subsequently asserted by Gov- ernors James T. Morehead and Robert P. Letcher, in messages of like tenor. In a later report made to the Legislature at a subsequent session, it was claimed that if Kentucky was given a fair distributive share of the public lands, her fund received from that source would amount to ten mill- ion dollars.
The message of Governor Metcalfe took another step in advance, by maintaining the position that the daughters of the people of the State were no less entitled to the paternal care and beneficence of Kentucky, in the distribution of public benefactions, than were their sons. By the most per- suasive considerations, he urged the Legislature to confer upon the State the honor of having taken the first step for the promotion of female education.
By this time, the disadvantages of the seminary system for purposes of primary education, as compared with local country schools brought home to the people in every neighborhood, began to be felt by all. These disad- vantages were strongly set forth in messages of Governor Joseph Desha to the Legislature.
At its October session, 1821, the General Assembly appointed William T. Barry. David R. Murray, John R. Witherspoon, and John Pope, com- missioners in behalf of the State, to collect information and digest a plan of common-school education suited to the condition of the State. That report was made November 30, 1822. It is justly regarded by Dr. Richard H. Collins as one of the great State papers of Kentucky. It discloses upon its face a remarkable indifference to the importance of the subject existing throughout the State. Though letters were addressed to intelligent
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
citizens in every part of the State, asking detailed information in re- gard to the condition, management, and expense of their schools, these letters were generally totally disre- garded. The report. however, is es- pecially very valuable for the letters it called forth from Thomas Jeffer- son, James Madison, John Adams, and Robert Y. Hayne. These let- ters should be read by every citizen of our State, who values the perma- nency of our free institutions.
A splendid system of common WILLIAM T. BARRY. and free schools was recommended in this report. It was almost universally approved, but no steps were taken to put the project into operation. Throughout the administration of Gov- ernor Desha, he made repeated entreaties to the Legislature to put the sys- tem into effect, but without success.
In fact, there were many difficulties as yet attending the adoption of common schools by the people of Kentucky. The peculiar situation of the State, deriving much the larger part of its population from Virginia, where the efforts upon this subject had been signally unsuccessful, the habits and feeling of the people, the want of popular interest in the matter, were seri- ous obstacles to the immediate success of the system. Not a few of our statesmen were opposed to free schools upon principle. The cause of this opposition to them was stated by Benjamin Hardin in a speech upon educa- tion before the Kentucky Constitutional Convention. His language was as follows :
" I have no opinion of free schools, anyhow-none in the world. They are generally under the management of a miserable set of humbug teachers at best. The very first teacher that a child has, when he starts with his a, b, c, or is learning to spell ' bla' or ' baker ' or 'absolute,' should be a first-rate scholar. He should know exactly how to spell and pronounce the English language, and should understand the art of composition and the construc- tion of sentences. In the language of Dean Swift, he should have ' proper words, and they should be put in proper places.' The worst taught child in the world is he who is taught by a miserable country schoolmaster ; and I will appeal to the experience of every man here, who ever went to those schools, to say how hard it is to get clear of the habits of incorrect reading and pronouncing they have contracted at these country schools. For my- self, I will say it cost me nearly as much labor as the study of the legal profession itself to get clear of the miserable mode of pronouncing con- tracted before I went to a collegiate school, at the age of seventeen-your
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SPEECH OF BEN HARDIN.
. would ' and ' could ' and ' should,' and all that. I knew a man in Gray. son who was to prove a settlement between two litigants, in a case where a small amount, some thirty, forty or fifty dollars, was involved. He gave in his testimony, and every now and then he would throw in a word of four, five or six syllables, utterly inappropriate to the sense ; like putting a magnifi- cent, quilted saddle and splendid bridle, with plated bit and curb, upon a miserable, broken-down pony, or an ox; there was just about as much pro- priety in his application of these words, and I saw at once he was a country school-master. He had proved the making of the settlement, and, said I, ; When did it take place?' 'On the 39th of October,' said he. 'Oh, the 39th of October, you say?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you not mistaken? Was it not the 29th?' 'No, sir. I know the use of words as well as you do, Mr. Hardin, and say it was the 39th.' I then asked him how many days there , were in October. He said he did not exactly recollect, but somewhere be- tween forty and fifty. 'How many months are there in the year ?' 'Oh, there you are somewhat ahead of me. but I know there are over ten and under fifteen.' 'You are a school-master ?' 'Yes,' said he, placing his hands on his hips, and looking very self-important, 'thank God, that is my vocation, and I am making an application for a free school up here, and I want you to help me, if you will.' 'Sir,' said I, 'I will do it with all my heart, for you come exactly up to my notion of a free-school teacher.'" Such was the argument of Mr. Hardin.
BEN HARDIN, famed as one of Kentucky's great- est lawyers, was a native of Pennsylvania. He was educated at Springfield, Bardstown, and Hartford, Kentucky ; studied law with Martin D. Hardin and Felix Grundy, and was qualified for the practice in 1806. He settled in Bardstown in ISO8, where he kept his office until his death, in September, 1852, and where he ranked among the ablest of the gal- axy of great lawyers, who made that bar famous in his day. His talents, industry, and impressive : influence brought him an extensive and lucrative practice, yet he was called by his constituents to% serve them four terms as representative and once :. as State senator, and for ten years in Congress, at intervals, from 1815 to 1837. He was singularly and mercilessly sarcastic in speech and discussion, with an aptness and clearness in presenting his case, and intensely and aggressively combative, qualities HON. BEN HARDIN. which made him an opponent ever formidable and to be feared. Borrowing from his style and force in Congress, John Randolph styled him " The Kitchen Knute," rough and ready for every encounter. Appointed secretary of state under Governor Owsley in 1844, an emibittered controversy grew up between the two, and he finally resigned in 1847. His last public service was as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1849-50, in which his speeches and influence were of a very marked character.
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Legislative action on the part of the State was delayed until 1828. The necessity of the adoption of some general plan of education then began to arrest popular attention in many parts of the State. Dr. John C. Young, president of Centre College, well said "that the speedy adoption of a sys- tem of general education was the only thing which could secure to Kentucky the rank which she held in the Confederacy." He called attention to the fact that "the qualities which commanded admiration for the State in her early days would not secure to her honor in later years ; that she was no longer a frontier State, and could no more find renown in fields of blood, but it must be sought in the wider fields of literature and science."
Many of our sister States had already advanced so far in the matter that Kentucky could not afford to hold back. Virginia had appropriated more than one million dollars for education, forty-five thousand dollars of which went to common schools. Kentucky had done nothing but cause reports to be made to the people to show how desirable primary schools would be. For years past, since the close of the war of 1812, the State had been har- assed by angry controversies. While engaged in these unprofitable and wasteful party struggles, the "literary fund " had been encroached upon and greatly reduced.
Educational meetings were now held in Frankfort, Lexington, and other prominent points throughout the State. The leading spirits in this popular movement were Rev. Benjamin O. Peers, James Guthrie, Charles S. More- head, John C. Young, and others. The sentiment in the city of Louisville had become comparatively strong. The charter granted to the city on the 13th of February, 1828, gave authority to establish one or more free schools in every ward of the city. This was a step in advance of the State on the free-school question. As we learn from Colonel Durrett's sketches, on the 24th of April, 1829, the Council adopted an ordinance establishing a free school. The school was opened in August, 1829. It was free to all who chose to attend it. Dr. Mann Butler acted as principal and Edward Baker as assistant. The third historian of Kentucky thus became the head of the first free school in the State.
With this first dawn of free schools, a great calamity occurred at Lexing- ton to the cause of higher education. In 1829, the building of Transylvania University was burned to the ground, involving in its destruction the greater portion of a costly library and much of the philosophical apparatus. A re- port from a joint committee from both houses of the Legislature, appointed at this time to examine into the condition of Transylvania. showed that the State of Kentucky from its foundation as a Commonwealth had then donated altogether to the University about twenty thousand dollars. The State aid extended to it, instead of being extravagant, had been moderate, compared with the liberal endowments made by other States to their colleges and uni- versities. New York had then given to her colleges and academies the sum of $1, 265,579. Virginia had given to her university at Charlottesville about
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four hundred thousand dollars, besides an annual endowment of fifteen thousand dollars. Kentucky was still far in the rear with her donations both to collegiate and primary education. Our State university had seen its best days and was already upon the decline. An effort made about this time to revive the university and place it at the head of our system of rising common schools failed to meet the approval of the Legislature.
A close examination into the educational condition of Kentucky made by friendly eyes showed that out of eleven or twelve hundred primary schools in the State in 1830, there were 31,834 children in schools and 139,- 142 out of schools. One large county in the State, whose children num- bered eight hundred and ninety-three, did not have a school in its limits or a single child at school, while other large tiers of counties had their children at school in proportions ranging from ten to three hundred, from ten to one hundred and eighty, from ten to one hundred and forty, from ten to one hun- dred and thirty, from ten to one hundred and forty. Even the most favored county in the State in 1830 had its children at school in proportion of ten to twenty-three. The number of people in New York who could then read and write, as compared with the whole population, was one to three, while in Kentucky it was one to twenty-one. Our State was behind three-fourths of the monarchical countries of Europe in the matter of education. Only Portugal, Russia, Poland, and France were behind us. The masses of our people as yet had manifested no interest in the educational legislation of the State. Members of the Legislature, when reproached for the slowness of their movements upon this great subject, always responded that the people took no interest whatever in the matter.
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