of the University of Michigan, Tappan, Frieze, Haven, and Angell, represent eastern New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

During the period of early French and English occupation something was done by the Jesuits and the priesthood, especially by Father Richard, to establish primary and secondary schools. His attempt to obtain from the legislature the endowment of his system was not successful. The usual attempts were made, before and during the war of the Revolution, to establish private English schools, and the advent of the New England people was signalized by the push of the different religious bodies to inaugurate the regulation system of denominational academies and colleges. Before 1850 several of these foundations were laid which, in time, became flourishing and useful institutions of learning. But, for some reason probably connected with the early trials of the country from war and financial embarassment, all these movements were anticipated by the activity of the public school, broadened to establish a system of public education similar to the attempt in New York and Georgia, in which a grand university organization was made to include the entire arrangement for schooling the whole population.

In 1817 the legislature passed "An act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigan,” and an attempt was made in Detroit, a building erected, and a small school of the elementary and secondary grade established. The plan included a central university and the establishment of local schools of all grades in a completo system. The leading central school was to be under an unsectarian influence, the leaders of the different churches being interested in the administration, and the use of the Bible being directed for moral instruction. It was a happy stroke of educational policy that identified the first real attempt to educate the people of Michigan with that uniformity of the entire system of popular instruction that has not yet been reached in any State east of the Alleghanies. As the first logical outcome of the New England common school was the cooperation of all sections in placing the educational clause in the ordinance of 1787, so the second and final step was taken when this grotesque Catholepistemiad, the University of Michigan, was held to include all that a great State could achieve for the schooling of its entire population.

In 1821 this motley group of Latinized pedantry slowly evolved into plain English as the beginning of a State university. The State was empowered to establish colleges, academies, and schools tributary to the University of Michigan. Religious tests in public education were, once for all, abolished. But it was not till 1829 that the general school laws were revised, a department of education established, and a superintendency of common schools recommended. The result was a threemonths' annual common school, still incumbered by a rate bill, only to be remitted to the children of the poor. But even then, according to our own experience in our student days at a period a dozen years later, the wages of teachers were on a par with those of the present negro schoolmasters and mistresses in Mississippi, $6 to $8 per month for women and $12 to $20 for men. The territorial council granted charters for a few private and denominational academies.

The leader of the common-school movement of Michigan was John D. Pierce, whose service to the State was as valuable as that of Horace Mann to Massachusetts, or Henry Barnard to Rhode Island and Connecticut. A missionary, sent from the East and a graduate of Brown University, Rhode Island, he saw at once the great necessity and opportunity of the new land in which his lot was cast, and where he gave up his beloved and accomplished wife to early death.

In 1835 a convention, which planned the admission of Michigan to the Union, placed in the first constitution of the State a provision for a three months' school and the establishment of the university. This provision was the united work of General Crary and Mr. Pierce. Crary was an Eastern man who had acquainted himself, like the educators of the Eastern States, with the early educational system of Prussia and the report of Victor Cousin of France. It was to his wise and farseeing

policy that the school lands of the new State were rescued from the wasteful management of the townships and intrusted to the permanent charge of the State. It is owing to this that the 1,000,000 acres of common school and 46,000 acres of university lands bequeathed to the State have been so wisely managed as to inaugurate a new policy in this respect for the entire Northwest.

The constitutional provision of 1835 reads as follows:

ARTICLE X.-Education.

SEC. 1. The governor shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the legislature, in joint vote, shall appoint a superintendent of public instruction, who shall hold his office for two years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by law. The legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientifical, and agricultural improvement. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State, for the support of schools, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, shall be and remain a perpetual fund; the interest of which, together with the rents of all such unsold lands, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of schools throughout the State. The legislature shall provide for a system of common schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each school district at least three months in every year; and every school district neglecting to keep up and support such a school may be deprived of its equal proportion of the interest of the public fund.

As soon as the circumstances of the State will permit, the legislature shall provide for the establishment of libraries; one at least in each township; and the money which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear proceeds of all fines assessed in the several counties for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied for the support of said libraries.

The legislature shall take measures for the protection, improvement, or other dis position of such lands as have been, or may hereafter be, reserved or granted by the United States to this State for the support of a university; and the funds accruing from the rents or sales of such lands, or from any other source for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund for the support of said university, with such branches as the public convenience may hereafter demand for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences, and as may be authorized by the terms of such graut; and it shall be the duty of the legislature, as soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of said university.

This action was followed by the appointment of Mr. Pierce as superintendent of public instruction in 1836, on the admission of Michigan as the thirteenth new and the twenty-sixth State in the Union. For five years the new Commonwealth enjoyed the great advantage of having this wise and enthusiastic leader of education in the foremost official position in the Commonwealth. His educational ideas were largely influenced by his careful inspection of all that was being done in the East, and by his friendship for the great leaders of the "revival season" of 1830 to 1860. The organization of the university that took place in 1852 was a happy outcome of the experience of all the great collegiate institutions that have come up, under different auspices, in the older portions of the country.

By 1840 the educational system of Michigan may be said to have been well begun, although it was yet a full decade before it was in fair operation. At this time there were in the State more than 200,000 people, and the great agricultural and mining industries were getting well on their feet.

With this brief record of the earlier years of public education in Michigan, the first chapter of the story of the common school in the Northwest is virtually closed. Until the end of the first half century of the Republic in 1840, the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had been, as Territories and Commonwealths, for almost this entire period enjoying the benefit of national aid to education from the munificent gift of public lands for the common and university schooling of their entire youthful population. Yet in all these States the progress from the old-time, scattered, inefficient, and almost hopeless private, church, and corporate system prevailing in the Central and Southern States from which a majority of their early emigration was drawn, had been slow and discouraging to the friends of universal education. But, by the year 1840, these States had made their way educationally "out of the woods,"

and were reasonably sure of a permanent success in the great enterprise of educating their own people. But more than one decade was to pass before either of them came in sight of their splendid achievements in popular education during the past quarter of a century.

The State of Michigan alone was an exception to this record because of the delay of its final settlement until the earlier conflict of the organization of the northwestern country had passed by. Being chiefly settled by colonists from New England, western New York, and northern Ohio, who brought with them their favorite idea of popular education and the actual common school of the earlier years; being also greatly favored by the first continuous line of transportation between the Northeast and the Northwest through the Erie Canal, and the introduction of steam navigation on the Great Lakes, Michigan was able to begin at the point where its older and more southerly neighbors had left off. There was never in this State any real struggle for the establishment of the common school such as we have recorded in its three neighbors, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Here, first, the wise policy of an effective correlation of all departments of public instruction was introduced and carried out with a vigor and public spirit that has placed Michigan high up on the roll of American States. Although, notably in Massachusetts and Virginia, and in less degree in New York and some of the later sixteen Commonwealths, State aid had been obtained for the earlier colleges; and, probably, the intention of the founders of Harvard was that it should become a State institution; and in the five new States beyond the Alleghanies a fair beginning had been made in the direction of establishing a State university founded on the land grant of Congress; yet in Michigan this policy was most fully apprehended and, from the first, carried out in an intelligent and successful manner. As a result, the University of Michigan now ranks all the State universities and maintains an enviable companionship with the most celebrated of the original foundations of the East; being in some ways the rival of them all and, in others, a model for the imitation of all establishments for the free higher education at the cost of the Commonwealth.

WISCONSIN.

The State of Wisconsin, last of this illustrious group of States organized out of the original Northwest, was, in succession, a portion of the Territories of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. The early history of its occupation by the French missionaries and traders from Canada, and the thrilling story of its Indian wars is every way as romantic and suggestive as of either of its neighbors. But in all this record there is little to interest the student of the American common school. No such idea as is contained in this title ever seems to have entered into the head of the benevolent "Fathers," who, through almost incredible toils, perils, and sacrifices, often unto death, for more than a century, virtually held the spiritual, social, and, in large measure, the industrial and civic affairs of this immense region under their control. Many of these were men of more than ordinary culture, and all of large native endowment for the work in which they were engaged. In some degree they provided for the schooling of the small class of superior families that were content to abide in the wilderness; and they gave to the children and youth of the "common people," and even to the Indians, the benefit of the regulation church catechizing, in some cases with the addition of the most elementary instruction in letters. But in neither the original civil nor educational government of the French provinces in the Canadas or Louisiana was there any real intention or practice of educating the masses of the people up to the self-respecting and self-helping conditions of their neighbors, the British provinces along the southern border.

The actual settlement of Wisconsin was delayed even beyond that of Michigan, of which it was, up to 1836, the "wilderness" portion. In 1818 the two counties of Brown and Crawford included its entire area of 54,450 square miles. In 1823 the Territory was first made a separate judicial district. In 1834 there were less than

5,000 people within its borders. Milwaukee was founded in 1835 and in this year the Territory sent its first delegate, George W. Jones, to Congress, and assumed its proper condition of separate Territorial existence in 1836. In 1836 the first Territorial legislature held its session, and in that year the first public school was opened, taught by Mr. West in Milwaukee. In 1838 the legislature took up its residence in the beautiful capital city of Madison, and in 1841 J. D. Doty was appointed governor. In 1846 the people voted on the decisive change to Statehood, and in 1848 Wisconsin was admitted to the Union-seventeenth of the new and thirtieth of the entire group of American Commonwealths. There were but 10,000 people in the Territory in 1836; but twelve years later, on its admission to the Union, there were 210,000.

The beginning of the common school in Wisconsin, in 1836, was made under the Michigan Territorial law. In 1836 the State University was nominally established by the dedication of two townships of Government lands, 46,000 acres, as its endowment, and the choice of Madison as its seat. Its original organization followed that of Michigan, and included the impracticable New York and Georgia scheme of making the university the working hand, instead of the crown, of the entire public school system; including, also, the establishment of subordinate schools and a board of examiners for them. At the beginning, apparently without serious debate, the public school system was rescued from all ecclesiastical entanglements by a declaration of absolute religious freedom in its administration.

In the first constitution of the State we read:

ARTICLE X.-Education.

SEC. 1. The supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a State superintendent and such other officers as the legislature shall direct. The State superintendent shall be chosen by the qualified electors of the State, in such manner as the legislature shall provide; his powers, duties, and compensation shall be prescribed by law: Provided, That his compensation shall not exceed the sum of twelve hundred dollars annually.

SEC. 2. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to the State for educational purposes (except the lands heretofore granted for the purposes of a university), and all moneys and the clear proceeds of all property that may accrue to the State by forfeiture or escheat, and all moneys which may be paid as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for any breach of the penal laws, and all moneys arising from any grant to the State where the purposes of such grant are not specified, and the five hundred thousand acres of land to which the State is entitled by the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands and to grant preemption rights," approved the fourth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and also the five per centum of the net proceeds of the public lands to which the State shall become entitled on her admission into the Union (if Congress shall consent to such appropriation of the two grants last mentioned), shall be set apart as a separate fund, to be called the school fund, the interest of which, and all other revenues derived from the school lands, shall be exclusively applied to the following objects, to wit:

1. To the support and maintenance of common schools in each school district and the purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.

2. The residue shall be appropriated to the support and maintenance of academies and normal schools and suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.

3. The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable; and such schools shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of four and twenty years, and no sectarian instruction shall be allowed therein.

4. Each town and city shall be required to raise by tax, annually, for the support of common schools therein, a sum not less than one-half the amount received by such town or city, respectively, for school purposes from the income of the school fund. 5. Provision shall be made by law for the distribution of the income of the school fund among the several towns and cities of the State, for the support of common schools therein, in some just proportion to the number of children and youth resident therein between the ages of four and twenty years, and no appropriation shall be made from the school fund to any city or town for the year in which said city or town shall fail to raise such tax, nor to any school district for the year in which a school shall not be maintained for at least three months.

6. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment of a State university at or near the seat of the State government, and for connecting with same, from time to time, such colleges, in different parts of the State, as the interests of education may require. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted by the United States for the support of a university shall be and remain a perpetual fund, to be called the "university fund," the interest of which shall be appropriated to the use of a State university, and ro sectarian instruction shall be allowed in said university.

7. The secretary of state, treasurer, and attorney-general shall constitute a board of commissioners for the sale of the school and university lands and for the investment of the funds arising therefrom. Any two of said commissioners shall be a quorum for the transaction of all business pertaining to the duties of their office. 8. Provision shall be made by law for the sale of all school and university lands after they shall have been appraised, and when any portion of such lands shall be sold, and the purchase money shall not be paid at the time of the sale, the commissioners shall take security by mortgage upon the land sold for the sum remaining unpaid, with seven per cent interest thereon, payable annually at the office of the treasurer. The commissioners shall be authorized to execute a good and sufficient conveyance to all purchasers of such lands, and to discharge any mortgages taken as security when the sum due thereon shall have been paid. The commissioners shall have power to withhold from sale any portion of said land when they shall deem it expedient, and shall invest all moneys arising from the sale of such lands, as well as all other university and school funds, in such manner as the legislature shall provide, and shall give such security for the faithful performance of their duties as may be required by law.

In 1850, at the second session of the State legislature, a complete system of public schools was established by law and a State superintendent of education appointed. The second report of Superintendent Root, in 1851, shows a phenomenal increase of interest during the first term of his administration. There were then 29 counties and 339 towns in the State; 1,800 entire and 700 partial school districts; 2,200 places where public school work was actually going on, with 68,000 children enrolled; 67 per cent of the school population in some sort of attendance five months in the year; men teachers receiving $17 and women $8 per month. There was $173,000 invested in 1,223 schoolhouses. There were also 87 private schools in the State, in which 3,500 pupils were instructed. The State school fund at that early period of its development amounted to $538,000, with an income of $47,000, about half a dollar a year to each child. Ten per cent of the State fund was appropriated for school libraries. This was the first response of Wisconsin to the new departure of its earliest State legislature in abolishing all Territorial statutes and inaugurating a complete system of instruction for the Commonwealth.

With this splendid record of the fifth and last of the original Northwestern States admitted to the Union, we suspend the attractive task of telling the story of the great development of popular education in the Northwest.