Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter 26: Ooloniaii Period - Education at Massachusetts, 1882

Pennslvania William Penn'8 Great Law William And Mary College

State Education is natural in its application. In the beginning Qod created the heavens and the earth, and every organism after its own kind. Now, in pursuance of this well known law of nature, 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 relating to living organisms, we shall expect to find its proper manifestation in the early institutions they created for their own especial purposes immediately after their arrival here. We look into their history, and we find that by authority of the General Court of Massachusetts, in 1836, 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 nourtering children."

After the date above, matters of education ran through the civil authority, and is forcibly expressed in the acts of 1642 and 1647, passed by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 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 much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor to teach by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as shall enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the Capital laws, under penalty of twenty shillings for each offense. By the act of 1647, support of schools was made compulsory, and their blessings universal. By this law "every town containing fifty house-holders was required to appoint a teacher 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 t4set 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 Protestant Dutch, the conception of a school system guaranteed and protected by the State, seems to have been entertained by the colonists from Holland, although circumstances hindered its practical development. The same general statement is true of the mixed settlements along the Deleware; Menonites, Catholics, Dutch, and Swedes, in connection 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 provincial 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 cause 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 taught 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 such 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 statute on State Education, passed in 1870, and amended 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 our 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 schools were free for boys and girls. In 1755, Pennsyl-

State Education

In Virginia, William and Mary College was famous even in colonial times. It was supported by direct State aid. In 1726, a tax was levied on liquors for its benefit by the House of Burgesses? in 1759, a tax on peddlers was given this college by law, and from various revenues it was, in 1776, the richest college in North America.

These extracts from the early history of State Education in pre -Colonial and Colonial times give abundant evidence of the nature of the organisms planted in American soil by the Pilgrim Fathers and their successors, as well as other early settlers on our Atlantic coast. The inner life has kept pace 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.

Sixteen And Thirty-Six Granted In Aid Of Education

STATE EDUCATION UNDEB THE CONFEDERATION - ORDINANCE OP 1787 - PROVI8ION FOR EDUCATION - AID GIVEN TO STATES IN THE NOTTHWEST TERRITORY - OHIO - INDIANA - ILLINOIS - MICHIGAN - WISCONSIN - MINNESOTA - SECTIONS OF LAND SIXTEEN AND THIRTY-SIX GRANTED IN AID OF EDUCATION.

On the 9th of July, 1787, it was proclaimed to the world, that on the 15th of November, 1778, in the second year of the independence of America, the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Ehode Island, Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had entered into a Confederate Union.

This Confederate 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 cessions were made by several of the States, from 1781 to 1802, of which the Virginia grant was the most important.

The Confederate 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 memorable 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 necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

What is the territory embraced by this authoritative enunciation of the Confederate government ? The extent of the land embraced is almost if not quite equal to the area of the original thirteen colonies. Out of this munificent possession added to the infant American Union, have since been carved, by the authority of the United States government, the princely states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and in part, Minnesota. In this vast region at least, the government has said that education 4 '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 schools was no idle boast, made for the encouragement of a delusive hope, but the enunciation of 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 dictates of an enlightened conscience, "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 Government, 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 Constitution was inaugurated. The first State government erected in the new territory was the State of Ohio, in 1802. The enabling act, passed by Congress on this accession 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 cause 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

Aid To States In The Northwest Territory

"That section number sixteen, in every township, and where such section has been sold, granted or disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and most contiguous to the same, shall be granted to the inhabitants of such 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 institutions of learning. This was the beginning of substantial national recognition of State aid to schools by grants of land out of the national domain; but the Government aid did not end in this first effort. The next State, Indiana, admitted in 1816, was granted the same section, number sixteen, in each township; 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 Michigan, in 1836, the same section sixteen, and seventytwo sections in addition thereto, were set apart to said State for the purpose of 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 east of the Mississippi, and in part west, takes its territory from two different sources; that east of the Father of Waters, from Virginia, which was embraced in the Northwest Territory, and that lying west of the same, from "the Louisiana Purchase," bought of France by treaty of April 30, 1803, including also the territory^ west of the Mississippi which Napoleon had previously acquired from Spain. The greater portion of Minnesota, therefore, lies outside the first territorial acquisition of the Government of the United States; and yet the living spirit that inspired the early grants, out of the first acquisition, had lost nothing of its fervor in the grant made to the New Northwest. When the Territory of Minnesota 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 support in Congress, aided by Hon. H. M. Rice, then Delegate from Minnesota, our enabling act was made still more liberal in relation to State Education, than that of any State or Territory yet admitted or organized, in the amount of lands granted to schools generally.

"And be it further enacted, That when the lands in 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 out 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 character 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 assembled: That the Governors and legislative assemblies 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 support of schools therein.

(2) "And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby authorized and directed to set a} art 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 otherwise appropriated, a quantity of land not exceeding 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 subdivisions of not less than one entire section." [ Approved February 19, 1851.]