system within the borders of this State; for we are now entering upon a new era in the history of our schools, and we need, in particular at such a time, to study both the present and the probabilities of the future in the light of the past. As student and teacher I have always laid great stress upon this study of the historical development of our institutions as one of prime importance. We do not thoroughly understand the present until we know how and why it has become what it is. Moreover, from the accumulated experience of those who have gone before us we may learn to avoid a thousand errors; where they garnered only "barren regrets," we may reap a bountiful harvest of good results.

As the individual must live over in miniature the life of the whole human race, so those who would reform institutions must investigate the history of those institutions and understand the causes that led to failure or to success. Without this knowledge their labors will be short sighted and unfruitful, and to their hands no wide powers should be intrusted.

Let us trace, then, as briefly as possible, the origin and development of our publicschool system. From such a study I hope something profitable and something interesting may be gleaned together. Clearness of treatment will be promoted if we divide the whole subject into three periods.

I. From the beginning of this century to the framing of the second constitution

in 1845.

II. From 1845 to the civil war.

III. From the civil war to the present time (1894).

I.

Before the opening of the nineteenth century, as you doubtless know, public free schools did not exist in Louisiana. The Ursuline Nuns, ever since they were brought over by Bienville, had devoted themselves to the education of young women, and there were some private schools in New Orleans, but the policy of the Government had provided no system of public instruction. The truth is that monarchical governments in that day were unfavorable to the education of the masses. Knowledgo is power, and it was not considered desirable that the people should have much power.

In the year 1803, however, the great Territory of Louisiana, Jefferson's fine purchase, was formally transferred to the commissioners of the American Union. As you know, Louisiana then embraced a vast tract of country, from which many rich and prosperous States have since been carved. For nine years the southern portion was called the Territory of Orleans; but, finally, in 1812, much to the delight of its 60,000 inhabitants, it was erected into the State of Louisiana-one of the fairest sovereignties that go to constitute the American Union.

During the early period of its territorial government, there are to be found frequent references to the subject of public education. But many years were to elapse before educational views crystallized into any kind of system of free schools. Nor was this tardy recognition of the value of common schools peculiar to Louisiana. It was equally the case in the early history of all the Southern and most of the Northern States. It would be interesting to trace the development of public schools in the United States at large; to show how the enduring system established in Massachusetts by the old Puritans of the seventeenth century was modeled after the system of schools which they had learned to know during their sojourn in Holland-a system in which Holland at that time led the world. It would be interesting to show that the main object of the Puritans was to keep out "that old deluder, Satan," by teaching all the children to read the Bible, thus preparing them to exorcise the evil spirits that ever torment the ignorant. It would be still more interesting to show why that old royalist, Governor Berkeley, feared the rise of public (I had almost said republican) schools, and devoutly thanked God that there were none in Virginia. Such themes, however, while they would be fruitful of suggestions as to the progress of our American civilization, would occupy far more time than has been allotted to this whole paper. I can not forbear, however, mentioning one fact which may make our Louisiana teachers rejoice that they live in this day and generation rather than in the New England of the seventeenth century. In an old New England town book (date 1661) the duties of the schoolmaster are laid down as follows: (1) To act as court messenger; (2) to serve summonses; (3) to conduct certain ceremonial services of the church; (4) to lead the Sunday choir; (5) to dig the graves; (6) to take charge of the school; (7) to ring the bell for public worship; (8) to perform other occasional duties. With these manifold functions to discharge, it is easy to understand the importance attached, in early New England, to the office of schoolmaster.

But to return to Louisiana. No sooner had the United States taken possession of Louisiana than the enlightened policy of our first American governor, W. C. C.

Claiborne, spoke out in no uncertain accents on the subject of public education. I quote from his address to the territorial council in 1804, just ninety years ago: "In adverting to your primary duties," he says, “I have yet to suggest one than which none can be more important or interesting. I mean some general provision for the education of youth. If we revere science for her own sake or for the innumerable benefits she confers upon society, if we love our children and cherish the laudable ambition of being respected by posterity, let not this great duty be overlooked. Permit me to hope, then, that under your patronage, seminaries of learning will prosper, and means of acquiring information be placed within the reach of each growing family. Let exertions be made to rear up our children in the paths of science and virtue, and impress upon their tender hearts a love of civil and religious liberty. My advice, therefore, is that your system of education be extensive and liberally supported."

These were noble sentiments, but if we may judge by the words of the same governor some years later, they found as yet only a feeble echo in the hearts of the people. For in 1809 we find Claiborne lamenting the general "abandonment of education in Louisiana." It is true that in 1805 the College of Orleans was established-a college in which the honored historian of Louisiana, Charles Gayarre, was a pupil; but though it lingered on till 1826, it was never in a flourishing condition, and the legis lature finally concluded to abolish it and appropriate its funds to the establishment of one central and two primary schools. In the constitution of 1812, under which Louisiana was admitted to the Union, there is no mention of a system of public education; it was perhaps intended that the whole matter should be left to legisla tive action. During the ensuing war of 1812-15 with England, in which Louisiana bore so glorious a part, the people were too much absorbed in the defense of their soil to make any provision for education.

According to the annual message of Governor A. B. Roman (in 1831), it was the year 1818, just one hundred years after the founding of New Orleans, that witnessed the enactment of the first law concerning a system of public schools. The governor doubtless means the first effective law; for ten years previously (1808), an act was passed to establish public schools, but it was rendered nugatory by the proviso that the school tax should be collected only from those who were willing to pay it. Beginning in 1818, however, the legislature made comparatively liberal appropriations for educational purposes, the amounts increasing from $13,000 in 1820 to $27,000 in 1824. Little attention was paid to elementary instruction, but it was proposed to establish an academy or a college in every parish in the State. Lottery schemes-not peculiar to Louisiana, but used freely for educational institutions at this period, both in the North and in the West-were set on foot to raise funds for the College of Orleans and for an academy recently established in Rapides Parish. In addition, one-fourth of the tax paid by the gaming houses of New Orleans was presumably sanctified by its appropriation to the cause of education.

In spite, however, of all these efforts the message of Governor Roman in 1831 makes patent the fact that the system of public instruction in Louisiana has been a failure. The main cause of the failure was recognized by this enlightened Creole and he sets it forth in the clearest and strongest language. It may be summed up in a few words. The schools had not been wholly free. In every academy estab lished and in every primary school provision was made to receive without tuition fees a certain number of indigent pupils. In the two primary schools of New Orleans, for instance, gratuitous instruction was given only to children between the ages of 7 and 14, and preference was to be shown to at least 50 children from the poorer classes. Thus a certain number of poor children, marked with the badge of charity, were to be admitted to the schools and there associate with others that paid. Such a system of public schools could not be successful. The pride of the poorer classes was hurt. One of the parishes refused to take the money appropriated for public schools, while in many others the parents, though living near the schoolhouses, would not send their children because it was repugnant to their feelings to have them educated gratuitously.

In twelve years, declares Governor Roman, the expenditure for public schools had amounted to $354,000, and it was doubtful whether 354 indigent students had derived from these schools the advantages which the legislature wished to extend to that class. In conclusion the governor uttered these significant words, words which should be engraved over the portals of our legislative halls: "Louisiana will never reach the station to which she is entitled among her sister States until none of her electors shall need the aid of his neighbor to prepare his ballot."

Thus we see that the necessity of a new system was beginning to be felt-a system under which the schools should be absolutely free, under which the sons and daughters of the rich and poor should sit side by side, and know no distinction except that which is created by superior abilities. Unless the schools could be raised to a higher level in public esteem, there was no hope of their success.

There were other causes of failure which perhaps did not escape Governor Roman, but which he fails to mention. There was, first of all, the sparseness of the country population, which in Louisiana, as elsewhere in the South, made the problem of educating the people a far different matter from what it was in Massachusetts. In the South large plantations and the absence of towns tended to make the progress of public schools slow and uncertain; while in Massachusetts the fact that the whole population was grouped first in settlements around the churches and then in regular townships, made the organization of public schools a comparatively easy task. In discussing the backwardness of the South in educational facilities, this important consideration is too often omitted. If, with the increase of the population at the present day, it has less significance, it certainly had a great deal before

the war.

In the second place, among the old Creoles of Louisiana, the education of young children was regarded as a matter that concerned not the State but the family. Exception must be made in favor of enlightened men like Governor Roman, but the fact remains that for many years the scheme of free public schools was looked upon as a useless innovation. As late as 1858, says De Bow's Review, every Louisiana planter had a school in his own house to educate his children.

From other sources we know that when children were ready for higher instruction their parents, if they were prosperous, most often sent them to Northern colleges or to France. This feeling against the public schools arose partly from what Mr. Lafargue has called the aristocratic and somewhat feudal social system of that day, and partly from the force of custom-a custom that dates back to the eighteenth century when Etienne de Boré, the first successful sugar planter in Louisiana, received his education first in Canada and then in France.

Last of all it has been claimed with some justice that slavery impeded the progress of the public schools, as that institution impeded the rise of the white laboring classes from whose ranks these schools have always drawn the largest number of pupils. This was certainly true of the country parishes; but to a far less extent of New Orleans where all classes of society were duly represented.

All these causes were more or less operative to hinder the progress of the free school system until the civil war came and radically changed the conditions of Southern life.

From 1835 to 1845 Louisiana continued to make generous appropriations for the cause of education, but instead of establishing what was especially needed for the mass of the people, a good system of elementary instruction, the public funds were expended in founding a number of pretentious academies and colleges. These were required to give free instruction to a small number of indigent pupils, but how many such pupils were actually received it is impossible to say.

The student who examines the early records of the State is amazed at the number of these transitory institutions, many of which hardly survived the generous donations made for their support. As far as I know, the only ones now remaining of some twenty odd which were once scattered through the various parishes of the State are Centenary (once the College of Louisiana), now administered by the Methodists; Jefferson College, now under control of the Marist Fathers, and the Louisiana State University, which was once the Seminary of Learning in Alexandria.

To illustrate the preference in that early period for these higher institutions, none of which gave free tuition except to a few indigent pupils, it will suffice to say that in 1838 the amount appropriated for public schools was $45,633, while during the same year the subsidies to colleges and seminaries were $126,000. During the period of which we are about to speak, however, far less was given for the support of these institutions. Many of them being found superfluous had doubtless already disappeared.

II.

We now enter upon our second period, 1845-1860. During the year 1845 Louisiana received a new constitution. In it full expression was given to the democratic tendencies of the day. The Whigs had yielded to the Democrats, and the latter proceeded to grant the people many privileges which had been previously denied. The privilege of choosing the governor from the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes was taken from the legislature, and the right to vote was no longer restricted to owners of property. But best of all its democratic measures this constitution provided for a system of public schools under the care and supervision of a superintendent of education, to be appointed by the governor, and of parish superintendents, to be elected by the people. The importance of this departure can not be exaggerated. Up to this time such schools as had existed in the State had been under the care of the secretary of state, whose other official duties were too numerous for this additional burden. From this time on we are to see a superintendent of

education devoting his time and energies to the establishment of an extensive system of public free schools and making regular reports to the general assembly.1 The constitution of 1845, and the laws passed by the legislature to carry out its provisions, created a new era in the history of education in Louisiana. Up to 1845, although large sums in proportion to the educable population had been expended, the system had been a failure, and the secretary of state had declared it should be consigned to "an unhonored grave." Let us see what were the provisions for the organization and support of the new system. In the first place the schools were to be absolutely free to all white children. Of course, as it was one of the corollaries of the institution of slavery that it was dangerous to educate the slaves, no provision was made for the education of the negro until he had been emancipated.

For the support of the new system, the constitution declared that the proceeds of all lands granted by the United States Government for the use of public schools, and of all estates of deceased persons falling to the State, should be held by the State as a loan, and should be a perpetual fund, on which annual interest at 6 per cent should be paid for public schools, and that this appropriation should remain inviolable. The lands referred to were the public lands which the Federal Government had retained when Louisiana was made a State, and which that Government was now granting to the State for educational and other purposes. In 1847 these land grants amounted to 800,000 acres, and in many instances proved to be very valuable. Moreover, there are many references in these old acts of the legislature to the location of the sixteenth sections in townships for school purposes and to the sale of these sections. For the further support of the schools it was now provided by an act of the legislature that every free male white over 21 years of age should pay a poll tax of $1, and that a tax of 1 mill should be levied on all taxable property. As early as 1842 the police jurors 2 were authorized to levy a tax for schools not to exceed onehalf the annual State tax. Provision was now made that whenever a parish raised not less than $200 the governor should authorize the State treasurer to pay over to said parish double the amount so assessed.

Certainly no happier choice for State superintendent of education could have been made throughout the extent of Louisiana than was made in 1847 by Governor Isaac Johnson. The man he chose was a ripe scholar. He had been trained in all the learning of that day. First under a private tutor and then in Georgetown College he had saturated his mind with all that was best in classical literature, and he had caught an inspiration which made him one of the great teachers of his time. A brilliant orator, he spoke and wrote with convincing eloquence whenever the sacred cause of education was at stake. Such a man was Alexander Dimitry, the first superintendent of education, whom Louisiana honors and reveres as the organizer of her system of public schools.

Both the reports of Mr. Dimitry, which are generally supposed to be lost, are to be seen in the Fisk Library of New Orleans. The first was rendered in 1848 and the second in 1850. To the student of our educational progress both are interesting and instructive.

The first describes how the 47 parishes had been divided into school districts by the police jurors, assisted by the parish superintendents. The services of these superintendents, who were elected at a salary of $300 a year, were very efficient, but the schools in the parishes were not generally welcomed, and Mr. Dimitry declared that he viewed them rather in the light of an experiment. It was only natural that he should hold this opinion; for when the free schools were first established in New Orleans, during the years 1841 and 1842, the announcement, says Mr. Dimitry, was received by some with doubt, and by others with ridicule, if not hostility. "When the schools in the second municipality were opened personal appeals and earnest exhortations were made to parents, and yet such were the prejudices to be overcome that out of a minor population of 3,000 only 13 pupils appeared upon the benches." Fortunately, public sentiment in the city gradually changed, and in 1848 Mr. Dimitry was able to declare that thousands were blessing the existence of the city schools, for in 1849, out of an educable population of 14,248, the number attending the free schools was 6,710, or nearly 50 per cent. In the country parishes his labors were soon rewarded with more than anticipated success, for out of an educable population in 37 parishes of 28,941 the number attending in 1849 was 16,217, or more than 50 per cent.

In his last report Mr. Dimitry complained of the opposition shown by many to the new system, and especially to a portion of the law which prescribed the levying of a district tax for the schools. But he had reason to congratulate himself on having

Mr. R. M. Lusher, formerly State superintendent of education, and a noble worker in that office, wrote a sketch of the public school system in Louisiana. In this sketch he makes the curious error of stating that all the reports of the State superintendents from 1847 to 1860 were burned during the In the Fisk Library of New Orleans may be found nearly every one of the reports which he supposed to be destroyed, beginning with that of Alex. Dimitry in 1848. County officers in Louisiana.

war.

created a sentiment in favor of the free schools and in obtaining an attendance of more than 50 per cent of the educable population-a per cent, it is to be remembered, far higher than that of the year 1894, when 70 per cent of our educable population are not receiving any instruction either in public or private schools. (Estimate made by the Times-Democrat.)

Throughout this period (1848-1850) moreover, the State was prosperous, and the sums appropriated to the public schools in 1849 amounted to nearly one-third of a million dollars, a higher ratio per educable youth than at the present day. Such was the condition of the public schools during Dimitry's able administration. By annual visits to the different parishes, he kept himself in touch with his superintendents, and inspired the State at large with much of his own zeal and enthusiasm. In the years 1851 and 1852 important changes were made in the administration of the schools. First of all, the State superintendent was no longer to be appointed by the governor, he must be elected by the people. Then followed an act of the legis lature which proved to be extremely unwise. That body in a fit of economy abolished the office of parish superintendent and substituted in each parish a board of district directors who were to receive no salary. Moreover, the salary of the State superintendent was reduced to $1,500 a year, and he was relieved from the duty of an annual visit to each parish. The effect of these changes upon the schools in the country parishes is abundantly shown in the reports of the State superintendents, Robert C. Nicholas, in 1853, Dr. Samuel Bard, in 1858, and Henry Avery, in 1861. They all declare that the system outside of New Orleans had been seriously crippled; that the district directors took no interest in their work, and that often it was impossible to find out who were directors in a parish. Loud complaints, moreover, came from many of the parishes that the teachers appointed were not only incompetent, but often drunkards and unprincipled adventurers. It is not, therefore, surprising to learn that many parents demanded and actually obtained their children's quota of the public-school funds, which they used in part payment of the salaries of private tutors and governesses. Such a method of appropriating the public money, however, not only produced general demoralization, but worked great injustice to the poorer classes.

In spite of complaints and appeals, the legislature failed to restore the parish superintendents and to reform the abuses just mentioned. Hence a pessimistic writer in De Bow's Review for 1859, taking up an annual report of the State superintendent, gives a gloomy account of education in Louisiana. He even goes so far as to conclude that the New England system of forcing education on the people was not adapted to Louisiana; that such a law was theoretical and void of practical results. He then continues in the following strain: "If a law were passed by the State of Louisiana appropriating $300,000 a year to furnish every family with a loaf of bread more than half the families would not accept it. The report of the superintendent for 1859 proves that more than half the families in Louisiana will not accept the mental food which the State offers their children. Some parishes will not receive any of it. Tensas, for example, which is taxed $16,000 for the support of public schools has not a single school. The truth is the government does more harm than good by interfering with the domestic concerns of our people.”

This Jeremiah then proceeds to detract as much as possible from the merit of the public schools in New Orleans, though he admits that these schools were regarded as very successful.

I have quoted the words of this critic quite fully because, while they contain some grains of truth, I believe they also contain a great deal of error. Luckily the reports from 1856 to 1861, from which he forms his conclusions, are still in existence, and they do not justify his statement that at this period the people were opposed to the public schools because "they did not wish to accept the mental food offered them by the State." On the contrary, here is an extract from the report of 1859 which throws much light on the condition of affairs in many of the parishes: "Under the present law nearly every wealthy planter has a school at his house and draws the pro rata share out of the public treasury. The poor children have not the benefit of these schools, and in this parish, which pays about $14,000 in school tax, there is consequently not enough in the treasury to pay the expeuse of a single school at the parish seat, where it ought to be."

This extract shows what pernicious custom lay at the root of the failure. The money was misappropriated in favor of the private schools; so that where public schools were established, cheap and worthless teachers had to be employed, who soon brought their schools into disrepute. The inefficiency of the school directors followed as a matter of course. Seeing that the rich planters were satisfied, the legislature simply did nothing but appropriate ample funds, which often never reached the schools for which they were destined. Under these circumstances it is even remarkable that in 1858, according to Dr. Bard's report, the number of pupils attending public schools in the country parishes was 23,000 out of an educable population in the whole State of 60,500.