USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 8
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Has not his widow, Mrs. Belona Crary Frink, in giving his portrait to be hung in the capitol, where the present and future generations can became familiar with the features of the statesman, who did so much for them, made a priceless gift to the State?
While Isaac E. Crary, as founder of the most comprehensive and com- plete system of public instruction ever devised deserves to be held in . immortal remembrance, his name has almost been forgotten and his fame has almost been buried in oblivion. Not a county or a township, not a city or a village, not a school or a postoffice in Michigan, and not a professorship in the normal school or in the unversity he founded now bears his name. I would not detract from the fame of John D. Pieree. As an organizer, he deserves lasting remembrance. I simply de- mand exact justice for Isaac E. Crary. Fiat Justitia Ruat Coelmin.
The fact that great unjustice has been done him is the cause and the exeuse for the argumentative length of this part of the paper.
Let the inaccuracies of the past be rectified, the unspeakable injuries already done to the memory of Mr. Crary, so far as possible be redressed, and let future writers go to the original documents for their facts. Ex- Superintendent of Public Instructions Delos Fall has well said "There are three names which every teacher in Michigan should learn to pro- nounce in logical order and with due appreciation of their worth and the great part they played in the formation of this State : Victor Cousin, Isaae E. Crary and John D. Pieree."57 Cousin should be honored as interpreter, Crary as the founder and Pierce as organizer of the Prussian system of public instruction on the western continent.
56 Public Instruction of Mich., 1853, p. 80.
57 Introduction to the Life of John D. Pierce, p. 2.
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When impartial historians shall carefully consider the original re- cords, and the chronology of the public services of these two great men, and their respective class of honors shall be correctly determined, the honor of founder of the public school system of Michigan will be awarded to Isaac E. Crary, and that of organizer to John D. Pierce, then and only then, will ample justice be done the name of Isaac E. Crary. Then indeed will be fulfilled the prophecy of the eloquent George C. Bates who said, "The life and public services of General Crary will remain a monument to his memory, when all that Corwin has done or said to benefit the world is buried in oblivion." 58
Justice demands that his portrait be assigned to a prominent place in the gallery of Michigan's most eminent statesmen. Hoping that the progressive statesmanship of Isaac E. Crary may be recalled, his just fame be restored, and his name handed down to posterity, as the "Founder of the Public School System of Michigan," I leave his fame in the custody of the State which he served so ably and so well.
PRECEDENTS AND OBSTACLES
The system of nniting the primary, secondary and higher schools at public expense, and under the state control was not originated by the founders of our school policy. This policy existed in the Prussian code, but that system provided for the teaching of the Catholic Catechism to the children of Catholic parents, and the teaching of the Lutheran Catechism to the children of Lutheran parents, thus recognizing the union of the church and state; while our system was independent of the church. Thomas Jefferson 59 had labored for years to combine these grades of secular schools under state control and at public expense for Virginia before our school fathers commenced their work. Thomas . Jefferson was the first educator on this continent to work for an in- stitution of higher education exclusively under the state government, divorced from ecclesiastical influence and control. It had long been the established practice of the sectarian organizers to establish and to sus- tain denominational colleges as a rule of church polity, to educate their clergy, their workers for religious purposes and for church extension. Jefferson endeavored to establish and maintain a university independent of the church to educate citizens, legislators, judges, executives and statesmen for national service and progress. He was the first to en- counter "ecclesiastical opposition directed against the proposed non- sectarian university," and to meet the prevailing notion that higher education should be under the control of the church. That practice had
58 Mich. Pioneer and Hist. Colls., Vol. XVII, p. 349.
59 Thomas Jefferson spent the late years of his life in devising a scheme of edu- cation which would embrace all the children of his native state. He was assisted by his friend Joseph C. Cabell, a member of the senate of Virginia. Cabell car- ried out all of Jefferson's plans. He induced the legislature to expend $300,000 in the work of construction and to appropriate $15,000 as a yearly support to the institution. Jefferson personally superintended every detail of construction and in March, 1825, the institution was opened with forty students. At the beginning of the second year there were 177 students.
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long been followed, and it was the prevailing sentiment of his day. In- deed that sentiment still exists, and in spite of our numerous popular state universities, it is a mighty power in the collegiate world.
To-day, obedient to that sentiment, a large number of the students en- rolled for the bachelors' degree conferring institutions of the country are in the so-called denominational colleges and institutions founded, built up, and maintained by religious organizations or private dona- tions. It will be remembered that in 1817 when Judge Woodward was formulating his Catholepistemaid or "University of Michigania," and when the governor and judges of the Territory in 1821 were formulating their charter for the "University of Michigan," "for the purpose of edu- eating youths," Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell were laboring to establish the University of Virginia. Jefferson labored forty years for that institution, and he is not only the father of the University of Virginia but he is also the father of the state university system of America. We are under greater obligation to him as an educator than as the author of the Declaration of Independence, while the form and rhetoric of that immortal decument were his, the sentiment and sub- stance were paraphrased from the Virginia Bill of Rights previously formulated by George Mason,60 (the great unele of Michigan's first governor). The American system of state universities was an evolution from the constructive statesmanship of the Sage of Monticello. At first these universities were opposed as Godless, saerilegious and dangerous, and Mr. Jefferson was denounced as an infidel.
Isaac E. Crary and John D. Pieree were familiar with Mr. Jefferson's struggles in the Old Dominion, and of the charges made against him, before they commeneed their work in Michigan. They too, in re-organ- izing the university, were compelled to contend with the prevailing senti- ment and establish precedents, of having higher education under ecele- siastical control. Both were eminently qualified to battle with custom. As layman Mr. Crary was known as a staneh churchman, and as a elergyman, Mr. Pierce was extensively known as an orthodox missionary, and both had the entire confidence of the religious people. Mr. Pierce, however, after he was appointed superintendent of publie instruction was compelled to abandon and oppose a denominational institution which he had taken an active part in establishing, to be consistent with his state university poliey. The Presbyterians of the State in 1835 had organized Michigan College, 61 and Mr. Pieree labored earnestly to raise funds for that institution and was active in securing its location at Marshall. The trustees of this college on the 20th day of October, 1837. resolved that "in the opinion of the board it is not expedient for the friends of the enterprise to engage in advancing the interests of the University of Michigan or its branches by peeuniary patronage or other-
60 George Mason, for sketch, see Vol. XXXV, p. 605, this series.
61 Michigan College, later called Marshall College, was chartered in 1838 and liberally endowed by citizens of the village of Marshall. It was incorporated as Marshall College, April 16, 1839. The Rev. John J. Cleaveland, Presbyterian divine, was president from 1839-1843, and then retired, having brought the college into high repute both at home and abroad. See sketch, Vol. XXX, pp. 528-549, this series.
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wise." 62 Mr. Pierce at that time had been engaged on the public school system for about a year, and had filed his first report the January preceding, and this resolution was the result. Michigan College was in- corporated under the name of Marshall College in 1839, and Mr. Pierce signed a spirited remonstration against granting a charter. Marshall College, then under the gifted leadership of the Rev. John P. Cleaveland, D.D., was a rival of the Michigan University. In his first report, Mr. Pierce, disapproved granting charters to denominational colleges and recommended that the exclusive power of conferring degrees be given to the university, which policy with scarcely an exception was followed for a quarter of a century. Unlike Jefferson, Messrs. Crary and Pierce were able to successfully meet and overcome to a large extent the sentiment and prejudice against a Godless college without being denounced as infidels and corrupters of the morals of youth.
JOHN D. PIERCE AND HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS
The achievements of John D. Pierce, as a constructive statesman were not confined to the domain of education, but were extended into other fields of progress no less beneficial and lasting. Mr. Pierce was a thinker, a philosopher and philanthropist as well as a statesman. From the existing laws and conditions of society, he could reason out new measures and conditions for the benefit of mankind. He had experi- enced the anxieties of the head of a family under overwhelming financial misfortune, when the law permitted imprisonment for debt and allowed the creditors to turn the unfortunate debtor, wife and helpless chil- dren into the street without food or shelter, and to take the wife's property to pay the husband's debts contracted before marriage. His love for humanity caused him to grapple with the problem and to seek a remedy for the misfortune. In 1845, standing on the streets of Detroit with the late William II. Brown, of Marshall, Mr. Picree called his at- tention to the large number of people passing to-and-fro on the street and remarked, " All these people have a God-given right to live. If they have a right to live, it follows that they have a God-given right to a domicile, to a home, a place in which to live. If society protects the life of a debtor, it should protect the home of a debtor, for himself and his family. If life is sacred, the home of the family, the unit of society, the foundation of all government should be sacred. Without a home, life is not worth living, and good citizenship cannot be expected. IIumanity and patriotism demand that the home should be protected from Shylock creditors, misfortune and improvidence."
This was the theme of discussion between the pioneer minister and pioneer lawyer of Marshall for hours. Thus Mr. Pierce was elabora- ting his measures for relief long before the statute was formulated. He enlarged upon the principle that a man's home is his castle, his refuge, his sanctuary and seems to have elaborated from his own brain a method
62 History of Olivet College (Williams), 150-155; Record and Papers of Marshall College in the Mich. Pion, and Hist. Colls .; Publie Instruction and School Laws, 1852, pp. 38-44.
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of protecting and preserving it. The law for imprisonment for debt had been abolished in 1839, and the statute exempting personal property from execution, substantially as it now exists, was enacted in 1842, but the home was still subject to alienation for debt in Michigan. Mr. Pierce was a member of the state house of representatives in 1847, and he introduced a bill to exempt the homestead from execution, but it failed to pass. He was elected to the next legislature, and he again introdneed his exemption measure, and through his personal influenee secured its passage. It became the homestead law of 1848, which was the first homestead exemption law adopted in any of the northern states, and John D. Pierce became the father of the homestead exemption policy of Michigan. This law provided that a homestead of forty aeres in the country, or one lot in any eity or village, with a house thereon owned and occupied by any resident of the State shall not be sold on execution or any final process of court to satisfy any debt upon contract made after July 3d, 1848. While the law required amendments to perfect it, it established the principle and contained the substance of the constitu- tional provision and law as it now exists. The Michigan homestead ex- emption law introdueed the subject, and it was discussed throughout the land, and it became the model for many states. Mr. Pierce was not satisfied to leave the sancitity of the home simply to legislative enact- ments. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1850 and was appointed chairman of the committee on Exemptions and Rights of Married Women. This gave him an opportunity to strengthen his great measure and to fortify it by constitutional safeguards. Mr. Pierce formulated, and on the 25th day of June, 1850, introduced as a minority report of that committee, substantially what now exists as Artiele XXI of our state constitution.63 Three members of the committee eoncurred in the report. The other four members of the committee reported against the exemption policy in the majority report made July 17, 1850.64 The exemption policy having come up for discussion on the 30th of July in the convention, Mr. Pierce, as the author of the measure, supported it and discussed its sentiments and philosophy with great earnestness, ability and eloquence. Among other things, he said: "The measure now under consideration is one of great interest to the people of the state. The subject is one that has come home to every family." He referred to the Hebrew code, which every seven years cancelled all debts, and to the exemption of the fee of real estate from alienation; while the creditors could seize the use of the land for a time, but once in every fifteen years, the land returned to the owner, as "a code provided for every man and his family," and with this single exception in the history of the race, the legislation of the world has been for the incidentals pertaining to human life rather than for man himself. "Humanity has been wronged. outraged, down-trodden, and the whole care of the legislation has been bestowed upon property, and its representative, money. Man and the family have been disregarded and turned out as vagabonds by due course of law. If anything on the face of the earth needs civilizing, it
63 Convention Debates of Michigan, 1850, p. 240.
64 Convention Debates of Michigan, 1850, p. 428.
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is legislation. The spirit of aggressive capital is aggressive. It has no limit, no boundaries controlling the legislation of the world, it has been · resistless in sway. It never tires, it never sleeps, soulless, remorseless, merciless, conscienceless, it presses forward regardless of the dying and the dead. Legislation is beginning to relax its iron grasp and is already in the process of civilization. So man is above money. In all the exigencies of business, the changes of fortune are over-turning the affairs of life. It is just that man and family should not bear the entire burden of misfortune, and money and capital which are less than man, wholly escape. Let wealth bear the burden and humanity be spared. The home- stead should be free, inviolable. No man, no woman, no child, no family should be driven from the home because the hand of adversity presses them. The state is bound to protect, not to crush. Free religion, free schools, free trade and free homes are essential elements of liberty. The home must be inviolate, or liberty is but a name, and freedom a mockery. Man without a home is an outcast. He has been robbed of his birth- right by the strong arm of government under the control of wealth. Man has a natural right to the free use of the air, it is essential to his existence. So is water, he cannot exist without it. The same is true of light. Man would droop and die without it. But the right to these essential elements is no more clear, no more certain than the right of man to a place on this earth. This right is clearly inalienable. To deprive any man or any family of a home and turn them out as vagabonds under any pretense whatever is tyranny. It is tyranny of the most atrocious character. A man without a home, what is he ? Robbed of his birthright, he becomes an outcast, and is made so by law. If society, if the state has a right to do this, it has a right to put him out of the way, he with his family have no business to live." 65 These extracts show the character of the speech. Seldom if ever has so forci- ble, able and convineing an argument been made in support of any measure in the legislative history of the state. The majority report of the committee was annihilated, and as a result, on the second of August the minority report was adopted by an overwhelming majority in the convention, and the Homestead Exemption Law as drawn by Mr. Pierce became Section XXI of our state constitution. The principle was adopt- ed for all time. Thus by means of the humane foresight, masterly effort and progressive statesmanship of John D. Pierce, the sanetity and security of every home in Michigan was guaranteed by constitutional enactment. During this historical debate, the honor of being the father of the Homestead Exemption Act and of the policy in Michigan was repeatedly conceded to Mr. Pierce.66
In this great effort, Mr. Pierce was aided and supported not only by the vote and counsel of his great associate in the educational fields, Isaac E. Crary, but also by his neighbors. Nathan Pierce and Milo Soule, of Marengo, and William V. Morrison, of Albion, his colleagues from the county in the convention.
The Homestead exemption policy was adopted by the legislature
65 Convention Debates of Michigan, 1850, pp. 656-661.
66 Convention Debates of Michigan. 1850. pp. 657-660.
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Mareh 25th, 1848, and it was inserted in the new constitution, August 2nd, 1850. Michigan was the first free state to adopt the measure, and practically was the pioneer in that humane legislation. But other states, pereeiving the wisdom and benefits of this progressive measure, have copied our statute and constitution in rapid succession, until now, the home and the family are protected from misfortune and improvi- dence by this policy in almost every state. Pennsylvania and Vermont adopted this policy 1849; Maine, New York, and Ohio in 1850; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Illinois and Iowa in 1851; Indiana and Louisiana in 1852; and the federal government in 1862. Many other states have exempted homesteads by legislative enactments from sale on execution for payment of debts; and to-day, in over forty states in the Union, the home and family are protected by the humane measure, so thoughtfully evolved and formulated, so progressively presented and so earnestly and ably advocated by John D. Pierce sixty years ago.67
ORIGIN OF THE POLICY
John D. Pierce was without question, the author and father of the homestead exemption laws of Michigan, and the Michigan poliey was copied in substance by nearly all the other states. But history does not sustain the claim that he was the originator of the policy. The prineiple upon which homestead exemption laws rest is claimed to be the dietate of enlightened publie policy. "The system is an evolution from Christian impulses, patriotic devotion and wise statesmanship." Mr. Pierce in his effort was inspired by these motives and not by prece- dent. It will be remembered that in 1820, Thomas Benton opposed the practice of selling publie lands for money and advocated the policy of distributing them to actual settlers. Said he in the Senate: "The free- holder is the natural supporter of a free government. Tenantry is unfavorable to freedom. The tenant has in fact, no country, no hearth, no domestie altar, no household gods. It should be the poliey of re- publics to multiply their free-holders." This was the policy of that great statesman in 1820.48 John D. Pierce perfeeted Benton's coneep- tion and policy of statesmanship by making the home of the free-holder inalienable for the payment of debts, and the Benton poliey as perfected by the Pierce safeguard, was adopted as the free homestead laws of the United States in 1862, and is now the law of the land, and the "free- holder hearths, domestie altar and household gods," thanks to the statesmanship of Benton and Pierce, are safe and beyond the reach of misfortune and improvidence.
The Republie of Texas in 1839, adopted the first homestead exemp- tion law on this continent.69 This short-lived republic has therefore
67 American Law Register (M. S.), Vol. I, pp. 641-765, Vol. X, p. 156; 2 Cyclo- pædia of Political Science, Political Economy and United States History, p. 462; Thompson on Homesteads and Exemptions, note 2 of reference; 51 New Hamp- shire Reports, pp. 252-261, Barney vs. Lamb.
68 Benton's Thirty Years in the Senate, Vol. I. pp. 103, 104; 2 Cyclopædia of Po- litical Economy and United States History, p. 463.
69 2 Cyclopedia of Political Science and Political Economy and United States History, p. 465; 14 Texas Report, p. 599, Cook vs. Coleman. Vol. I-4
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contributed at least one measure of progressive statesmanship of lasting benefit to maukind. It was drawn by some master legal mind, possessing that comprehensive foresight and sagacity which can only be acquired by long experience and careful study. It is a model, so far as it goes, that has not yet been excelled. As the first Homestead exemption law of the land, and as the contribution of a former American republic to human progress, it is entitled to a place in this paper. The following is the complete statute :
An Act, entitled "An act to exempt certain property therein named from execution." Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas in Congress assembled : That from and after the passage of this act, there shall be reserved to every citizen or head of a family to this republic free and independent of the power of a writ of Scire Facias or other execution issuing from any court of competent jurisdiction whatever, fifty acres of land or one town lot including his or her homestead and improvements not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, all household and kitchen furniture (provided that they do not exceed in value two hundred dollars), all implements of husbandry (providing that they do not exceed fifty dollars in value) all tools, appurtenances and books belonging to the trade or profession of any citizen, five milch cows, one yoke of work oxen or one horse, twenty hogs and one year's provisions; and that all laws and parts of laws contravening or opposing the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby repealed. Provided, The passage of this. act shall not interfere with contracts with parties heretofore made.
JOHN M. HANSFORD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. DAVID G. BURNET, President of the Senate.
Approved Jan. 29, 1837. Mirabeau B. Lamar.70
The state of Mississippi adopted a homestead exemption law January 22, 1841, and Georgia adopted such an act December 11th, 1841.71 While these acts antedate the Michigan law, a comparison shows that the latter was not copied from the former. Mr. Pierce seems to have grasped the principle and to have formulated the law as an evolution from his own heart and brain. The homestead exemption law is of recent origin and one of the numerous modifications of the severity of the common law that has been adopted during the existence of our State. These laws had no place in our law reports until 1851. And they had no name or place on the law digests until 1856.72 The homestead exemption laws in the various states vary in amount, quantity and value. Some attach as
70 Mirabeau B. Lamar, brother of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, the jurist, was born in Louisville, Georgia, Aug. 16, 1798, and died in Richmond, Texas, Dec. 19, 1859. In 1835 he emigrated to Texas and was active in its movements for independence. He filled many military and political offices and in 1838 was chosen president, serving until 1841. During his presidency Texas became a recognized republic. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.
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