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Mr. Barnabas C. Hobbs, Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his report in 1868, said:

"The General Assembly, in 1865, incorporated into our school law a provision requiring that 'The Bible shall not be excluded from the public schools of the State.' They spoke nobly for their heads and hearts. A sovereign State has given its insignia for the Divine Law. It marks the progress of Christian civilization, and indicates that toleration and mutual confidence have taken the place of jealousy and suspicion. It shows that the teachers of the common schools of our State have reached that standard which indicates large and liberal views; that they are guarded by prudence, and guided by that Christian patriotism which seeks to inculcate those cardinal and catholic principles which teach obedience to God and duty to man. The Bible is the universal law-book of the world, and was given by inspiration of God, with the injunction that it should be taught diligently to the children."

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And, in 1870, the same gentleman truthfully said: "Our State has a great future before it. Industry and thrift are rapidly advancing the happiness and material wealth of the State. But for lasting success the interest of the capitalist and laborer must be blended. The laborer is contented only when he sees a pleasing future for his children. The free schools of the State afford this guarantee. They are alike the friends to both capital and labor.”

CHAPTER XXXIII.

IN

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N the previous chapter we have traced the common school system of Indiana from its first organization down to 1870. By the statistics and suggestions contained in that chapter it may be seen that the system has been a complete It shall be the pleasure of the reader of this chapter

success.

to contemplate the present advanced condition of the schools and colleges of the State. In speaking of the history of the common schools of Indiana, the late lamented Milton B. Hopkins, then Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his report of 1872, said: "The fountain of knowledge and learning has

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been unsealed alike for all. The children of the poor and the opulent have sat down together at this fountain. The contest in reference to the fundamental principles that lie at the basis of the system has ceased. The enemies of free schools have

either been converted or have sunk away in sullen silence. The friends of this precious cause can now afford to seize upon a moment's leisure, and review as a matter of history, the origin, conflicts, struggles, reverses and triumphs of the great cause of popular schools." He continued: *

ORIGIN OF FREE SCHOOLS.

"In the year 1526 Martin Luther propounded to the Elector of Saxony the following proposition: 'Government as the natural guardian of all the young has the right to compel the people to support schools.' This proposition he argued thus'What is necessary to the well-being of a State, (and he might have added to its existence,) should be supported by those who enjoy the privileges of the State. Now nothing is more necessary than the training of those who are to come after us and bear rule.' Luther's proposition struck the mind of the Elector with all the force of an axiom, and just one year thereafter he invited the great reformer to draw up a plan for free schools, adapted to the exigencies of little Saxony. This Luther did, and in the year 1527 he produced with his own hand what is known as the Saxon Free School System.

“This inaugurated the era of public free schools supported by the State. Hitherto the work of education had been carried on exclusively by the church and educational corporations. These educated the few, but left the many untouched. The result was the few did the thinking; the many the serving. Luther's plan opened the door alike to all. The contest thus begun in Germany continued there for several centuries with varied fortune. After Luther's death other friends of popular schools bore the ark of the sacred cause on their shoulders. One by one the German States adopted, in substance, Saxony's system. The light of their example shot across the sea and fell upon Scotland, and the eloquent John Knox was heard in successful advocacy of popular schools in his own country.

"It is the part of candor, however, to confess that there was

*As the State has lost an efficient laborer in the cause of education in the death of Mr. Hopkins, we make a liberal extract from his able report of 1872, which our readers will not fail to appreciate.

one unfortunate feature connected with these systems. An anholy alliance had been formed between the State and the church; and while the State was asked to provide the revenue for the education of all the children, the church dropped upon her knees and asked permission to execute the system. The privilege was granted, and hence the schools of those times partook largely of the ecclesiastical. The pure waters of

science and literature were muddied with the sediment of a dogmatic and speculative theology. The prevailing desire was to make, not the intelligent thinking man or woman, but a blind devotee to the church. For the true model of a free school we have to look to this side of the Atlantic. Here the contest lies between Massachusetts and Hartford, in Connecticut. As early as in 1647 Massachusetts made it obligatory upon the inhabitants of every township of fifty householders to provide for the education of all; but the town of Hartford, six years before, in 1641, had established a town school, supported from the public treasury of the city. The crown of this honor, therefore, must be placed upon the head of the city of Hartford. Other New England States early fell into line, and by the time we reach the Revolutionary era free public schools are fixtures in all those States. Luther's proposition that it is the right of government as the natural guardian of the young to compel the people to support schools by taxation, had been a steady and growing principle with these colonies. from their earliest settlement. To this same principle and to that same Revolutionary period we must look for the origin of the free schools in Indiana.

nue.

“In the year 1780, Congress, realizing what must be the barren condition of the national treasury at the close of the war, commenced prospecting for some fruitful source of reveAnd to whom could the people's representative look but to the States themselves. They possessed no divine wand by the touch of which all turns to gold. Virginia, standing in the front of the battle, her patriotic bosom bare to the leaden storm; her giant arm uplifted to give a powerful blow for independence, was the owner of large possessions lying north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, and stretching north to

Lake Superior, a territory out of which have since been carved five great States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, containing an area of 239,522 square miles, 153,294,080 acres of land, and capable of supporting a population of fifty millions of souls.

"Congress ventured to hint to Virginia that a present of these lands for the benefit of the entire family of States would be very acceptable. A hint was all the patriotic heart of Virginia then needed, and on the first day of March, 1784, through her delegates in Congress, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, she made the solemn, patriotic and valuable conveyance.

"Does history afford another instance of patriotism like this, a civil State ceding away, in fee simple, so vast an area of the richest country on earth, without one dollar in compensation? Virginia may have committed errors since, but when I remember that from her the people of Indiana have their homes and firesides, I feel like spreading the cloak of universal amnesty upon my shoulders, walking backward, and covering up those errors.

"Next, the surveyor, with chain and compass, passed over this beautiful land, and marked it off into squares of six miles each, called congressional townships, and these again were divided into smaller squares of one mile each, called sections, making thirty-six sections in each township. These were numbered, commencing with the section in the north-east corner, counting westward and eastward, as a boy plows rows of corn, the sixteenth falling near the centre. In 1787 a territorial government was established over this country, and in the third article of the ordinance of 1787, the Congress declared that 'religion, morality and knowledge being essential to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.' This was the grain of mustard seed planted by patriotic hands. which has grown into our great educational tree.

"On the nineteenth of April, 1816, Congress invited Indiana to meet in convention, adopt a constitution, and take her position among the family of republican States, tendering for

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