USA > Mississippi > History of the upper Mississippi Valley, pt 1 > Part 35
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203
COLONIAL PERIOD.
CHAPTER XLII.
COLONIAL PERIOD-EDUCATION AT MASSACHUSETTS BAY IN 1836 -- HARVARD COLLEGE -PROVISION FOR COMMON SCHOOLS IN NEW AMSTERDAM -- IN PENNSYLVANIA --- WILLIAM PENN'S GREAT LAW -- WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.
State Education is natural in its application. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and every organism after its own kind. Now, in pursuance of this well known law of na- ture, that everything created is made after its own order, and its own likeness, it follows that the new comers on this continent brought with them the germ of national and spiritual life. If we are right in this interpretation of the laws of life re- lating to living organisms, we shall expect to find its proper manifestation in the early institutions they created for their own special purposes imme- diately after their arrival here. We look into their history, and we find that by anthority of the General Court of Massachusetts, in 1636, sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Harvard College was established, as an existing identity; that in 1638, it was endowed by John Harvard, and named after him. But the Common School was not overlooked. At a public meeting in Boston, April 13th, 1636, it was " generally agreed that one Philemon Pormont be entreated to become school master for teaching and nonter- ing children."
After the date above, matters of education ran through the civil authority, and is forcibly ex- pressed in the aets of 1642 and 1647, passed by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Col- ony. By the act of 1642, the select men of every town are required to have vigilant eye over their brothers and neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so inneh barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor to teach by them- selves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as shall enable them perfectly to read the English tougne, and knowledge of the Capital laws, under penalty of twenty shillings for each offenee. By the act of 1647, support of schools was made compulsory, and their blessings imiversal. By this law " every town containing fifty house-holders was required to appoint a teach- er, to teach all children as shall resort to him to write and read;" and every town containing one hundred families or house-holders was required to
"set up grammar schools, the master thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the University."
In New Amsterdam, among the Reformed Prot- estant Dutch, the conception of a school system guaranteed and protected by the State, seems to have been entertained by the colonists from Hol- land, although circumstances hindered its practi- cal development. The same general statement is true of the mixed settlements along the Delaware; Menonites, Catholics, Dutch, and Swedes, in con- nection with their churches, established little schools in their early settlements. In 1682, the legislative assembly met at Chester. William Penn made provision for the education of youth of the province, and enacted, that the Governor and pro- vincial Council should erect and order all public schools. One section of Penn's "Great law," is in the words following:
"Be it enacted by authority aforesaid, that all persons within the province and territories thereof, having children, and all the guardians and trustees of orphans, shall canse such to be instructed in reading and writing, so that they may be able to read the scriptures and to write by the time that they attain the age of 12 years, and that they then be tanght some useful trade or skill, that the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become poor may not want; of which every county shall take care. And in case sneh parents, guardians, or overseers shall be found deficient in this respect, every such parent, guardian, or overseer, shall pay for every such child, five pounds, except there should appear incapacity of body or understanding to hinder it."
And this "Great law" of William Penn, of 1682, will not suffer in comparison with the English stat- nte on State Education, passed in 1870, and amend- ed in 1877, one hundred and ninety-five years later. In this respect, America is two hundred years in advance of Great Britain in State education. But onr present limits will not allow us to compare American and English State school systems.
In 1693, the assembly of Pennsylvania passed a second school law providing for the education of youth in every county. These elementary sohools were free for boys and girls. In 1755, Pennsyl- vania College was endowed and became a Univer- sity in 1779.
In Virginia, William and Mary College was fa- mous even in colonial times. It was supported by direct state aid. In 1726, a tax was levied on
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
liquors for its benefit by the House of Burgesses; in 1759, a tax on peddlers was given this eollege by law, and from various revenues it was, in 1776, the richest college in North Ameriea.
These extracts from the early history of State Education in pre-Colonial and Colonial times give abundant evidence of the nature of the organ- isms planted in American soil by the Pilgrim Fathers and their sneeessors, as well as other early settlers on our Atlantie eoast. The inner life has kept paee with the requirements of the external organizations, as the body assumes still greater and more national proportions. The inner life grew with the exterior demands.
CHAPTER XLIII.
STATE EDUCATION UNDER THIE CONFEDERATION- ORDINANCE OF 1787-PROVISION FOR EDUCATION .
-AID GIVEN TO STATES IN THE NORTHWEST TER- RITORY-OHIO-INDIANA- ILLINOIS - MICHIGAN --- WISCONSIN-MINNESOTA -SECTIONS OF LAND SIXTEEN AND THIRTY-SIX GRANTED IN AID OF ED- UCATION,
On the 9th of July, 1778, it was proelaimed to the world, that on the 15th of November, 1787, in the second year of the Independence of America, the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massa- elmsetts Bay, Rhode Island, Providenee Planta- tions, Connectient, New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Sonth Carolina, and Georgia had en- tered into a Confederated Union.
This Confederated Union, thus organized as a Government, was able to receive grants of land and to hold the same for such purposes as it saw proper. To the new Government, eessions were made by several of the States, from 1781 to 1802, of which the Virginia grant was the most im- portant.
The Confederated Government, on the 13th of July, 1787, and within less than four years after the reception of the Virginia Land Grant, known as the Northwest Territory, passed the ever mem- orable ordinance of 1787. This was the first real estate to which the Confederation had acquired the absolute title in its own right. The legal Government had its origin September 17th, 1787, while the ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory was passed two months and
four days before. Article Third of the renowned ordinance reads as follows:
" Religion, morality, and knowledge being nee- essary to good government and the happness of mankind, schools and the means of edneation shall forever be encouraged."
What is the territory embraced by this anthor- itative enuneiation of the Confederated Govern- inent? The extent of the land embraced is almost if not quite equal to the area of the original thir- teen colonies .. Out of this munitieent possession added to the infant American Union, have sinee been earved, by the authority of the United States government, the prineely states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and in part, Min- nesota. In this vast region at least, the govern- ment has said that education " shall be forever encouraged." Encouraged how and by whom? Encouraged by the Government, by the legal State, by the supreme power of the land. This announcement of governmental aid to State sehools was no idle boast, made for the eneonr- agement of a delusive hope, but the enuneiation or a great truth, inspired by the spirit of a higher life, now kindled in this new American temple, in which the Creator intended man should worship him according to the dietates of an enlightened eonseienee, " where none should molest or make him afraid."
The early Confederation passed away, but the spirit that animated the organism was immortal, and immediately manifested itself in the new Gov- ernment, under our present Constitution. On the 17th of September, 1787, two months and four days from the date of the ordinance erecting the Northwest Territory was adopted, the new Con- stitution was inaugurated. The first State gov- ernment erected in the new territory was the State of Ohio, in 1802. The enabling aet, passed by Congress on this aeeession of the first new State, a part of the new acquisition, contains this substantial evidence that State aid was faithfully remembered and readily offered to the eanse of education :
Sec. 3: " That the following proposition be and the same is hereby offered to the convention of the eastern States of said territory, when formed, for their free aeceptanee or rejection, which, if ac- eepted by the convention, shall be obligatory upon the United States:
"That section number sixteen, in every town- ship, and where such section has been sokt, granted
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205
AID TO STATES IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
or disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and most contiguous to the same, shall be granted to the inhabitants of sneh township for the use of schools."
The proposition of course was duly accepted by the vote of the people, in the adoption of their constitution prior to their admission to the Union, and on . March 3d, 1803, Congress granted to Ohio, in addition to section sixteen, an additional grant of one complete township for the purpose of establishing any higher institution of learning. This was the beginning of substantial national recognition of State aid to schools by grants of land ont of the national domain; but the Govern- ment aid did not end in this first effort. The next State, Indiana, admitted in 1816, was granted the same section, number sixteen, in each town- ship; and in addition thereto, two townships of land were expressly granted for a seminary of learning. In the admission of Illinois, in 1818, the section numbered sixteen, in each township, and two entire townships in addition thereto, for a seminary of learning, and the title thereto vested in the Legislature. In the admission of Michi- gan, in 1836, the same section sixteen, and seventy- two sections in addition thereto, were set apart to said State for the purpose of a State University. In the admission of Wisconsin, in 1848, the same provision was made as was made. to the other States previously formed out of the new territory. This was the commencement.
These five States completed the list of States which could exist in the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Minnesota, the next State, in part lying cast of the Mississippi, and in part west, takes its territory from two different sources; that cast of the Father of Waters, from Virginia, which was embraced in the Northwest Territory, and that lying west of the same, from " the Lonisiana Purchase," bought of France by treaty of April 30, 1803, including also the territory west of the Mississippi which Napoleon had previously ac- quired from Spain. The greater portion of Min- nesota, therefore, lies ontside of the first territorial acquisition of the Goverment of the United States; and yet the living spirit that inspired the carly grants, out of the first acquisition, had lost nothing of its fervor in the grant made to the New Northwest. When the Territory of Minne- sota was organized, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, then a Senator in Congress from the State of Illinois, nobly advocated the claims of Minnesota
to an increased amount of Government aid for the support of schools, extending from the Common school to the University. By Mr. Douglas' very able, disinterested, and generous assistance and sup- port in Congress, aided by Hon. H. M. Rice, then Delegate from Minnesota, our enabling act was made still more liberal in relation to State Educa- tion, than that of any State or Territory yet ad- mitted or organized, in the amount of lands grated to schools generally.
Section eighteen of the enabling act, passed on the 3d of March, 1849, is as follows:
"And be it further enacted, That when the lands in the said Territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the Government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said Territory, and in the States and Territories hereafter to be created ont of the same."
As the additions to the family of states increase westward, the national domain is still more freely contributed to the use of schools; and the charac- ter of the education demanded by the people made more and more definite. In 1851, while Oregon and Minnesota were yet territories of the United States, Congress passed the following act:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of America, in Congress assem- bled: That the Governors and legislative assem- blies of the Territories of Oregon and Minnesota be, and they are hereby authorized to make such laws and needful regulations as they shall deem most expedient to protect from injury and waste. sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in said Territories, reserved in each township for the sup- port of schools therein.
(2) " And be it further enacted, That the Sec- retary of the Interior be, and he is hereby anthor- ized and directed to set apart and reserve from sale, out of any of the public lands within the Territory of Minnesota to which the Indian tribe has been or may be extinguished, and not other- wise appropriated, a quantity of land not exceed- ing two entire townships, for the use and support of a University in said Territory, and for no other purpose whatsoever, to be located by legal sub- divisions of not less than one entire section." [ Approved February 19, 1851. |
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
CHAPTER XLIV.
STATE EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA-CONSTITUTIONAL MEASURES -- LEGISLATION-BOARD OF REGENTS- - THE HEAD OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM . - HIGHER EDU- CATION - - HIGH SCHOOL BOARD -- UNIVERSITY (IRANT --- AID OF CONGRESS IN 1862-RESULTS VALUE OF SCHOOLHOUSES-SCHOOLS AIDED BY A GRANT OF $400 EACII.
When Minnesota was prepared by her popula- tion for application to Congress for admission as a state, Congress, in an act authorizing her to form a state government, makes the following provision for schools:
(1) "That sections numbered sixteen and "thirty-six in every township of public lands in said state, and where either of snid sections, or any part thereof, has been sold or otherwise dis- posed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as mny be, shall be granted to said state for the use of schools.
(2) " That seventy-two sections of land shall be set upart and reserved for the use and support of a State University to be selected by the Gov- ernor of said state, subject to the approval of the commissioner at the general land office, and be appropriated and upplied in such manner as the legislature of said state may prescribe for the purposes aforesaid, but for no other purpose." | Passed February 26, 1857.]
But that there might be no misapprehension that the American Government not only had the inclination to aid in the proper education of the citizen, but that in cases requiring direct control, the government would not hesitate to exercise its anthority, in inutters of education as well as in my and all other questions affecting its sover- ciguty. To this end, on the second of July, 1862, Congress passed the "act donating public lands to . the several states and territories which may pro- vide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts."
"Be it enacted, &c., that there be granted to the several states for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land to be appor- fioned to each state (except states in rebellion ), a quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for cach senator and representative in Congress to which the states are respectively entitled by the appor- fionment under the census of 1860."
Section four of said act is in substance as fol- lows:
" That ull moneys derived from the sale of these lands directly or indirectly shall be invested in stocks yielding not less than five per cent. upon the parvalue of such stocks. That the money so in- vested shall constitute a perpetual tund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, and the inrerest thercof shall be inviolably appropriated by cach State which may claim the benefit of the act to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be, withoat excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such man- ner as the legislatures of the States may respect- ively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.
Section five, second clause of said act, provides "That no portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under ny pretence whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings."
Section five, third clause, "That any State which may take and claim the benefit of the pro- visions of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one College, as described in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall cease; and the said State shall be bound to pay the United States the amount re- ceived of any lands previously sold."
Section five, fourth clause, " An annual report shall be made regarding the progress of each col- lege, recording any improvements and experiments made, with their costs and results, and such other matters, including State industrial and economi- cal statistics, us may be supposed useful; one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be en- dowed under the provisions of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior. "
Under this act Minnesota is entitled to select 150,000 acres to aid in teaching the branches in the act named in the State University, making the endowment fund of the Government to the State of Minnesota for educational purposes as follows:
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AID OF CONGRESS IN 1862.
1. For common schools, in aeres - 3,000,000
2, For State University, four townships 208,360
Total apportionment 3,208,360
All these lands have not been selected. Under the agricultural college grant,, only 94,439 acres have been selected, and only 72,708 acres under the two University grants, leaving only 167,147 acres realized for University purposes, ont of the 208,860, a possible loss of 41,203 acres.
The permanent school fund derived from the national domain by the State of Minnesota, at a reasonable estimate of the value of the lands se- enred ont of those granted to her, cannot vary far from the results below, considering the prices already obtained:
1. Common school lands in aeres,
3,000,000, valued at $18,000,000
2. University grants, in all, in aeres, 223,000, valued at 1,115,000
Amount in acres, 3,223,000 $19,115,000 Out of this permanent school fund may be real- ized an annual fund, when lands are all sold:
1. For common schools $1,000,000
2. University instruction 60,000
These several grants, ample as they seem to be, are, however, not a tithe of the means required from the State itself for the free education of the children of the State. We shall see further on what the State has already done in her free school system.
Minnesota, a state first distinguished by an ex- tra grant of Government land, has something to unite it to great national interest. Its position in the sisterhood of states gives it a prominence that none other can ocenpy. A state lying on both sides of the great Father of waters, in n conti- neufal valley midway between two vast oceans, en- circling the Western Hemisphere, with a soil of superior fertility, a climate nnequalled for health, and bright with skies the most inspiring, sneh a state, it may be said, must ever hold a prominent position in the Great American Union,
In the acts of the early settlements on the At- lantie coast, in the Colonial Government, and the National Congress, we have the evidence of a de- termined intention "that schools and the means of edneation shall forever be encouraged" by the people who have the destinies of tho Western Hemisphere in their hands. That the external organism of the system capable of accomplishing
this heavy task, and of carrying forward this re- sponsible duty rests with the people themselves, and is as extensive as the government they have established for the protection of their rights and the growth of their physical industries, and the free development of their intellectual powers. The people, organized as a Nation, in assuming this duty, have in advance, proclaimed to the world, that " Religion, Morality, and Knowledge" are alike essential " to good government." And in organizing a government free from sectarian con- trol or alliance, America made an advance hitherto unknown, both in its temporal and spiritual pow- er; for hitherto the work of the one had hindered the others, and the labors and unities of the two were inconsistent with the proper functions of either. The triumph, therefore, of either, for the control of both, was certain ruin, while separation of each, the one from the other, was the true life of both. Such a victory, therefore, was never before known on earth, as the entire separa- tion, and yet, the friendly rivalry of Church and State, first inaugurated in the free States of America. This idea was crystalized and at once stamped on the fore-front of the Nation's life in the aphorism, " Religion, morality, and knowledge are alike essential to good government." And the deduction from this national aphorism, necessarily follows: "That schools and the means of educa- tion, should forever be encouraged." We assunie, then, without further illustration drawn from the aets of the Nation, that the means of edneation have not and will not be withheld. We have seen two great acquisitions, the Northwest Terri- tory, and the Louisiana Purchase, parceled out in greater and greater profusion for educational nses, till the climax is reached in the Mississippi Valley, the future great center of national power. At the head of this valley sits as regnant queen, the State of Minnesota, endowed with the means of education unsurpassed by any of her compeers in the sisterhood of states. Let us now inquire, as pertinent to this discussion,
WIIAT HIAS MINNESOTA DONE FOR STATE EDUCATION ?
The answer is in part made up from her con- stitution, and the laws enacted in pursnance there- of : First, then, article VITI. of her constitution, reads this:
SECTION 1. The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly npon the intel- ligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
Legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools.
SECTION 2. The proceeds of such lands as are, or hereafter may be granted by the United States for the use of schools in each township in this state, shall remain a perpetual school fund to the state. * * * * The principal of all funds arising from sales or other disposition of lands or other property, granted or entrusted to this state, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undimin- ished; and the income arising from the lease or sale of said school land shall be distributed to the different townships throughout the state, in pro- portion to the number of scholars in each town- ship between the ages of five and twenty-one years; and shall be faithfully applied to the spe- cifie objeet of the original grant or appropriations:"
"SECTION 3. The Legislature shall make sueli provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools in cach township in the state.
But in no case shall the moneys derived as aforesaid, or any portion thereof, or any public moneys or property, be appropriated or used for the support of schools wherein the distinctive doc- trines, creeds, or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect are promulgated or tanght."
THE UNIVERSITY.
. "SECTION 4. The location of the University of Minnesota, as established by existing laws, | Sept. 1851] is hereby confirmed, and said insti- tution is hereby declared to be the University of Minnesota. All the rights, immunities, franchises, und endowments heretoforo granted or conferred, uro hereby perpetuated nuto the suid University; and all lunds which may be granted hereafter by Congress, or other donations for said University purposes, shall rest in the institution referred to, in this section.
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