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be invested in bonds for the benefit of Delaware College at Newark, which was adopted as the State college in the same year.1 In 1873 the State granted the college three thousand dollars a year for the next two years.2 Four years later the agricultural college bonds were cancelled, and certificates of permanent indebtedness issued, bearing interest at six per cent.3

We thus find Delaware giving financial aid to Newark College through a long period, adopting it as Delaware College in 1867, and maintaining it to-day as a State institution. From the nature of the assistance given, no money estimate of it can be made.

1 Laws, XIII, 127. Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1867, 143; same for 1880, 50.

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CHAPTER V.

STATE EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST.

The similarity of views entertained and expressed by the people of the different colonies on the subject of education is, in itself, sufficient evidence that they were capable of being united into a great nation. The people of the colonial period did not all approach the subject in the same way nor attempt to solve the problem of schools alike, but in the variety that characterized their actions there existed a common sentiment favoring universal education for a free and sovereign people. Freedom meant then, as now, something more than release from despotism and the shackles of human bondage. It meant an emancipated mind, a cultivated nature, an enlightened understanding. Let that educational pessimist who now sits down discouraged at the outlook, in this age of colleges, libraries, and apparatus, surrounded by the wealth of old and flourishing communities, and in the presence of thousands of young men and women who are capable, willing, and able to receive the highest culture, consider the high resolves of the early communities, the self-denials, the grinding poverty, the thirst for knowledge in behalf of the rising generation, and the use of every opportunity for the upbuilding of the State and people, and he will be strengthened in educational faith and in hope for the future.

Let him consider the attempts of rude settlements to plant institutions of learning in the wilderness, or in sparsely settled communities, and he will never look with contempt upon small beginnings nor sneer at half-equipped colleges.

In the group of States to be considered in this chapter, the idea of independent State action in education reached its maximum among the original Commonwealths of the nation. Virginia, though not the foremost to declare for this principle, sounded the clearest note and attained the highest results. The royal charter, the early schools, the founding of William and Mary College were indeed for humanity and the Gospel. The Assembly very early gave its support to these ends, but the University of Virginia was for the people and the State. It was a State university, created by the State, controlled by the State, and supported by the State. It represented a people's higher education. Not only did the University of Virginia tend to strengthen administration and

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the sovereignty of the people within the borders of the State, but scores of young men went out from the halls of that venerable institution into fields of culture in other States. The University of Virginia was a beacon light of letters to the whole South, and in some respects an example and model for institutions at the North. Its purpose was to strengthen "government for the people, of the people, and by the people," through the training of its own sons to self-government.

The people of Maryland very early taxed themselves in various ways on exports and imports, directly and indirectly, for the support of schools. Though independent State action was not so clearly developed as in the case of Virginia, there nevertheless existed a grand concep tion of a State system of education in colonial Maryland, however imperfectly realized.

The Carolinas afford striking examples of early struggles for educational enlightenment. No sooner did the sovereign consciousness of these free, independent, and responsible Commonwealths awaken than the people began to vote for the higher education. North Carolina was the second State in the Union to declare boldly in her Constitution for a State university. South Carolina fostered and aided colonial schools, and finally declared for a State college which afterward developed into a university. In the support of State institutions the Carolinas have been zealous and constant.

In Georgia, separate and isolated communities established schools of higher learning. Academies are coeval with the organization of counties. In the first Constitution (1777) it was declared that county schools should be supported by the State, and six years thereafter the Legisla ture gave to each county one thousand acres of land for the support of these schools. But what is more remarkable, three years before the enactment of the famous Ordinance of 1787, the Legislature of Georgia granted forty thousand acres for founding a university.

Florida, too, after emerging from the influences of Spanish domination, readily accepted the principles of State education.

Far short of the ideals of Southern statesmen have fallen the results of wise and generous provisions for education. But if failures have at times occurred, they may be attributed to the economic and social conditions of the country and of the communities, rather than to any lack of enthusiasm or desire to work for the highest good of the people. The leaders of every State in the Union have been mindful of the ad. vantages of education in the acquisition and maintenance of civil liberty.

But let the records of the South tell their own story of this desire for knowledge, and for the support of church and State, in concise but convincing terms. There is no more convincing testimony than the finan cial history of southern education. Indeed, this kind of evidence is the special object of this entire monograph. The facts gathered from many and varied sources may seem hard and cold; but to a student

of educational history there is no chapter so eloquent and so stimulating as the story of money appropriations for sound learning, whether by private philanthropy or by a poor but patriotic people.

VIRGINIA.

ATTEMPTS TO FOUND A UNIVERSITY.

To the Virginia colony belongs the honor of making the fist organized attempt to found a college in America. Very early in the history of the colony plans were discussed for the establishment of a school of learning of high order, but the first decided movements were made in 1619. The King favored the project, and "had formerly issued his letters to the several bishops of the kingdom for collecting money to erect and build a college in Virginia for the training up and educating infidel children in the true knowledge of God, and accordingly there had been already paid near fifteen hundred pounds towards it and more was expected to come.”1

Sir Edwin Sandys, president and treasurer of the Virginia Company, had received from an unknown hand the sum of five hundred pounds sterling, to be applied by the company to educate a certain number of Indian youths in the English language and the Christian religion, and to bring them up to some trade, until twenty-one years of age, when they were to enjoy the same privileges and liberties as the native English in Virginia.

Sir Edwin Sandys was an enthusiast on all subjects that pertained to the well-being of the colonists, and he was especially devoted to the cause of education. At the General Quarter Court of the company he expressed the sentiment which has since been the foundation principle of all our public education. "He reminded them that the maintenance of the public in all states was of no less importance even for the benefits of private men than the root and body of a tree are to its particular branches." 2

By Sir Edwin's motion a grant of ten thousand acres was made for the benefit of the university, and this land was laid off and surveyed at Henrico, on the James River, below the site of Richmond. One thousand acres of this grant were to be devoted to the education of Indians, and the remainder was to lay the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English. The land was to be leased to "tenants at halves," and the rents arising therefrom were to be applied to the support of the university. Fifty men were to be sent out as tenants in 1619, and fifty more the following year. As the average wages of one man were estimated at ten pounds per annum, it was thought that an annual revenue

Stith History of Virginia, 162.

2 Stith, 163.

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