THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY
The history of the University of Michigan might properly be said to
begin in 1817. It is true that the University seal proclaims 1837 as the
year of its birth, but the present institution is only a successor of
two previous incarnations in Detroit, which were its direct
predecessors. The State Supreme Court, in fact, held in 1856 that the
corporate existence of the University began with the Act of the 26th of
August, 1817, and has been continuous throughout all the subsequent
changes of the organic law.
It would be difficult, however, to recognize the present University in
that curiosity of educational history established by the Act of 1817
under the sonorous title of the "Catholepistemiad, or University of
Michigania." This institution, in effect designed to be a university,
was to be composed of thirteen _didaxiim_, or professorships, of such
branches as _Catholepistemia_ or Universal Science, _Anthropoglossica_
or Literature, _Physiosophica_ or Natural Philosophy, _Polemitactica_ or
Military Science, and _Ennoeica_ or Intellectual Sciences, which
embraced all the _Epistimiim_ or "Sciences relative to the minds of
animals, to the human mind, to spiritual existences, to the Deity, and
to religion." It is worthy of note also that Chemistry, Medicine, and
Political Economy were provided for under the names of _Chymia_,
_Iatrica_, and _Oeconomica_. This scheme, which was prepared by
Augustus B. Woodward, Presiding Judge of the territorial Supreme Court,
went further than this provision for the University, however, for it
contemplated as well a complete state educational system, with
subordinate colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athenæums,
botanical gardens, laboratories and "other useful literary and
scientific Institutions consonant with the laws of the United States and
of Michigan." These the President and the Didactors were to provide for,
as well as for Directors, Visitors, Curators, Librarians, Instructors
and "Instructrixes" throughout the various counties, cities, towns,
townships, or other geographical divisions of Michigan.
To support this grand scheme, the public taxes were to be increased
fifteen percent, and a provision, which seems strangely unacademic to
the college community of a century later, was made for four successive
lotteries from which the Catholepistemiad might retain fifteen percent
of the prizes for its own use. Two of these lotteries apparently were
drawn.
The institution which arose in the shade of this immense growth of
pseudo-classical verbiage was a very modest undertaking indeed and
developed little beyond the primary school and classical academy first
established. These were housed in a little building in Detroit,
twenty-four by fifty feet, on the west side of Bates Street near
Congress, afterward occupied by one of the branches of the University.
Scarcely more ambitious was the faculty of two men, the Rev. John
Monteith, a Presbyterian clergyman who was President and seven-fold
_didactor_, and Father Gabriel Richard, a Catholic priest who was
Vice-President and incumbent of the other six _didaxiim_.
[Illustration: THE CATHOLEPISTEMIAD, OR UNIVERSITY, OF MICHIGANIA
A photograph of the original outline in Judge Woodward's handwriting;
now in the University Library]
Absurd as was the terminology and ridiculous as were its vast
pretensions in view of the little French-Canadian community it served,
nevertheless, the educational scheme which the act outlined was of
great significance in the future development of education in the State.
It was one of the first plans in America for a complete educational
program to be supported by the people of a state.[1] Its sources were to
be found, undoubtedly, in the strong influence of French thought on
contemporary American life, for this scheme was but a copy of the highly
centralized organization of state instruction which Napoleon gave to
France in the Imperial University of 1806-08. As Professor Hinsdale
says, "the ponderous name belonged to organized public education." Four
years later, another act established in Detroit "an University for the
purpose of educating youth" as the successor of the Catholepistemiad,
with little change in the broad and liberal outline of the plan save in
two particulars,--a change from classical to English nomenclature and
the substitution of a Board of Trustees for the self-governing President
and Didactors of the earlier scheme.
[Footnote 1: No one of the old states had what we would now call a State
University, although two or three states had institutions that bore that
name, while several of the states had voted money or wild lands to
promote higher education; nor had any of the new states, aided by the
bounty of Congress, established such an institution that was worthy of
the name, University.--Hinsdale, _History of the University of
Michigan_, p. 16.]
Michigan at this time was on the far edge of civilization; it was not
even organized as a territory until the year 1805. In 1800 the total
population was only 3,757, while in 1817 it could not have been more
than 7,000. The inhabitants of Detroit only numbered 1,442 in 1820.
Aside from the Indians, who for many years were to be a not
inconsiderable portion of the population, the early inhabitants were all
French settlers whose main business was fur trading. With the first
years of the nineteenth century, however, there came a constantly
increasing stream of "Bostonians," as the men from the East were called.
They were not welcomed at first, although their enterprise and
education were to transform Michigan within a surprisingly short period
into one of the most progressive of the new states. Nevertheless this
growth was at first slow and it was not until Michigan became a state in
1837 that the rapid increase in settlers from New York and New England
changed so completely the character of the people that it became in a
few years a predominantly agricultural, instead of a primitive
fur-trading community. The rapidity of this movement towards the West,
once begun, was most fortunate, as the settlers from the older states in
the East were enabled to put into effect immediately their own training
in the schools of New York and New England for the benefit of their
children. This is one of the underlying causes of Michigan's success;
whereas other states, whose settlement began earlier, failed through the
lowering of the standards of education inevitable in the hard life of
the generation succeeding the first pioneers.
The initial public support of education in Michigan, as in all of the
new states west of the Alleghenies, came from the important provision
made by the Federal Government in 1785 for a system of surveys of the
public lands. These had eventually been deeded to the Government by the
different states as the only practicable settlement of conflicting
claims which at one time promised to disrupt the new confederation.
Their acquisition by the nation and their eventual division and
admission to the Union as states contributed not a little to the
strengthening of the central authority at a time when it was a vital
necessity. The first survey of these lands provided, as is well known,
for division into townships six miles square, to be again sub-divided
into thirty-six lots one mile square called sections. The provision of
this ordinance of particular interest in this connection is the
following: "There shall be reserved the lot Number 16 of every township
for the maintenance of public schools within the said township."
In the Ordinance of 1787, providing for the administration of the
Northwest Territory, we have only the familiar general declaration that:
"Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," but an
ordinance adopted ten days later provided that in addition to the school
lot in every township: "Not more than two complete townships are to be
given perpetually for the purposes of a University, to be laid off by
the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the
same shall be of good land to be applied to the intended object by the
Legislature of the State." This was the fundamental action which made
possible the foundation of the University of Michigan almost at the same
time that the State was admitted to the Union.
For the most part the story of the land grants under this provision is
an unfortunate one of speculation, misappropriations, and sale by venal
Legislatures, whose only excuse was probably their inexperience and lack
of vision; and the natural desire of the people to benefit at once from
the endowment these lands represented. Michigan had her troubles in
common with the other new states, but she did manage to acquire enough
from these lands eventually to give the University needed support in her
very lean early years. Their history, therefore, is not without
interest. When Indiana territory was divided by Congress in 1804 into
the three districts corresponding to the present states of Indiana,
Illinois, and Michigan, one township was reserved in each for a seminary
of learning. This, in Michigan, was increased in 1826 to two townships,
which might be located by sections in any of the districts surveyed.
Even more important was a measure approved by Congress in 1836 which
permitted the State to control the selection, administration, and even
eventual sale of these sections with no reference to the limits of the
Congressional townships, thus permitting their consolidation into one
state fund. This precedent has been followed by all the states entering
the Union since 1837.
The plan of making a state trust of the public lands was a good one--on
paper. But with the rapidly growing population, envious eyes were soon
cast on these tracts by immigrants, many of whom settled on these
sections as squatters, to make endless trouble in the future with their
conflicting claims. The first lands definitely set aside were selected
by the Trustees of the old University of Detroit in 1827 within the
limits of what is now the city of Toledo. The selection could not have
been better, consisting in all of some 960 acres, but most unfortunately
the best part was exchanged in 1830, on the representation of
land-sharks, for poorer land and the land thus received was sold four
years later for $5,000. The remainder was disposed of fifteen years
later for about $19 an acre, bringing to the University a total of some
$17,000 for land which eventually came to be worth, literally, millions.
Meanwhile other tracts were being located in all the counties of the
State then organized. Soon after Michigan became a state, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction made an inventory of these which
showed that at $15 an acre they would bring a fund of $691,200 and an
annual income to the University of $48,384. At $20, which he thought
might easily represent their value, they would bring an annual income of
$64,912. The first sale justified his optimism, as the price averaged
$22.85 an acre, though only one-fourth of the purchase money was paid
in cash. But the people of the State soon began to murmur; they were not
interested in continuing these big reservations of choice land for an
object so remote as a university. The Superintendent of Public
Instruction, moreover, found himself involved in all kinds of trouble
with the purchasers. The matter finally came up to the Legislature under
the guise of a bill for the relief of certain settlers on university and
other state lands, which would have thrown these sections on the market
at a nominal price and insured the squatters permanent tenure. The bill
was a short-sighted and vicious one and was promptly vetoed by the young
Governor, Stevens T. Mason, because he felt these lands were given to
the State as a sacred trust. In this courageous action he performed one
of the greatest of his many services to the University.
But the Legislature had a different idea as to the sacredness of the
trust. Various measures were passed, lengthening the time of deferred
payment, successively lowering the minimum price at which the lands were
to be sold and eventually in 1841 making the minimum price of $12
retroactive. Under this measure, $35,651 were actually returned or
credited to purchasers. When the lands were all sold the average price
realized was not quite $12 an acre, resulting in a fund of some $547,000
from which the University now derives an annual income of $38,433.44.
While this amount is by no means as large as was hoped for in those
early days, this income, if it had been available in the first years,
would have helped the struggling institution materially.
To most of us this dissipation of what might have been, with more
careful and conservative management, a magnificent endowment seems
almost a tragedy. But there is another side. Michigan was far more
fortunate in her disposal of these public lands than any of her
contemporaries and obtained more than twice the amount realized from any
other state lands in the Northwest. For example, Wisconsin only realized
$150,000 from her 72 sections, while others fared worse instead of
better. Michigan is regarded in this respect as a model, instead of a
horrible example. Then, too, the early sale of the land was imperative
if the University was to live. The income from this source was almost
its sole support except the exceedingly slender student fees. We must
conclude, therefore, that the Government grants performed their
function; thanks to them we still have a University and still receive a
respectable income from the fund which represents their sale.
The Constitution prepared for the prospective State by the Convention of
1835 provided for a University and authorized its immediate
establishment upon the adoption of the Constitution. This provision was
the result of the joint labors of two men whose memory will always be
held in honor by the University;--John D. Pierce, a graduate of Brown
University and a missionary in the service of the Presbyterian Church,
who was then about forty years old, and General Isaac Edwin Crary, a
graduate of Trinity College, Connecticut (1827), who, with his bride,
made his home with Pierce in the tiny backwoods settlement of Marshall.
They were both men of unusual caliber and were interested vitally in the
affairs of the territory, particularly educational questions. Many are
the discussions these two must have held, to which a stray copy of a
translation of M. Victor Cousin's report on "The State of Public
Instruction in Prussia," made to the French ministry of Public
Instruction, which fell into the hands of Pierce, certainly contributed
not a little. Here was the account of a state system of public
instruction which was under successful operation. These men were
familiar with the previous experiments in the Michigan of territorial
days and with the efforts in other states in this direction, but nowhere
could they find the practical help they needed. The few colleges in the
country were practically all privately endowed institutions, having no
organic connection with the secondary schools, to say nothing of the
rare public high schools. Thus the orderly and consistent development of
a state school system in Prussia had a peculiar appeal to these pioneers
who were already considering the outline of the educational system in
the State of Michigan to be.
[Illustration: FOUR FOUNDERS OF THE UNIVERSITY
(From paintings)
Stevens T. Mason (1812-1843)
John D. Pierce (1797-1882)
Zina Pitcher (1797-1872)
Samuel Denton (1803-1860)]
General Crary became the chairman of the Committee on Education in the
Constitutional Convention and upon him devolved the immediate task of
drafting the educational article. He had, no doubt, Cousin's report at
hand as well as the advantage of the advice of Pierce. The result was
the most progressive and far-seeing provision for public instruction in
any state constitution up to that time; yet a measure that appealed to
the good sense and practical wisdom of the people of the State. In brief
it provided that the Governor, with the Legislature, should "encourage,
by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientifical, and
agricultural improvement" and that, in particular, there should be
appointed a Superintendent of Public Instruction, an officer then
unknown to any of the states; that there should be created a perpetual
and inviolable public fund from the sale of lands for the support of
public schools; and that provision should be made for libraries as well,
one at least in each township, to be supported from money paid for
exemption from military service and from fines collected for any breach
of the penal law. The section concerning the University was as follows:
The Legislature shall take measures for the protection,
improvement, or other disposition 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 sale 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 grant. 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 constitution went into effect as soon as Michigan became a state on
the 26th of January, 1837, though Pierce, afterwards known
affectionately in University circles as "Father Pierce," had already
been serving as the Superintendent of Public Instruction since the
previous July. Upon him fell the important task of preparing a system
for the organization of common schools, together with a university and
its branches. The system he devised has become a landmark in educational
progress throughout the world, as is shown by the numerous foreign
delegations which have visited the University in recent years for the
purpose of studying our educational system. As for the plans outlined by
Pierce, which were quickly approved by the Legislature in March, 1837,
we can best quote President Angell when he said fifty years later: "Our
means have not yet enabled us to execute in all particulars the
comprehensive plan which was framed by Mr. Pierce."
There was no precedent in America for the task set him. Eight of the new
states, it is true, had accepted federal grants of land but had failed
in the trust thus imposed, and the feeble schools they supported offered
no more guidance than Michigan's two experiments in Detroit. The field
was practically virgin soil, actually as well as metaphorically; the
problem was the effective organization of a university on the basis of
the land given by the Government to the State for this purpose.
The answer was the Organic Act of the University of Michigan approved
March 18, 1837. In essentials it provided for a Board of Regents with a
Chancellor who should be ex-officio President. Of the Regents twelve
were to be nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, while
the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and
the Chancellor of the State were to be members ex-officio. The
University was to consist of a Department of Literature, Science, and
the Arts, a Department of Law, and a Department of Medicine. The
professorships were specified and it is significant that, in addition to
the usual branches taught in those days, such as Ancient and Modern
Languages, Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Theology, provision
was also made for professorships in Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Fine
Arts, and Civil Engineering and Architecture. A limiting clause,
however, was incorporated in this ambitious scheme, which provided that
only so many professorships should be filled at first as the needs of
the institution warranted. While the immediate government of the
University was to be entrusted to the respective Faculties, the Regents
had final authority in the regulation of courses and the selection of
textbooks, and were empowered to remove any professor, tutor, or other
officer, when in their judgment the interests of the University required
it. The fees were to be $10 for residents of the State. A Board of
Visitors was also to be appointed by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to make a personal examination of the University and report
to him their observations and recommendations. It was also provided that
such branches of the University were to be established in different
parts of the State as might from time to time be authorized by the
Legislature. These branches, however, were not to confer degrees, though
they were to have Departments of Agriculture in connection and also an
"institution for the education of females in the higher branches of
knowledge, whenever suitable buildings should be provided for them." The
funds for these branches were to be appropriated from the University
Fund in sums proportionate to the number of scholars.
Shortly after the first meeting of the Board of Regents in 1837, the
Legislature, following some of their suggestions, modified the
University Act in certain particulars; abolishing the Chancellorship of
the Board of Regents and making the Governor the President of that body,
at the same time directing the Regents to elect a Chancellor of the
University who should not be a member of the Board. This act also gave
the Regents power to assign the duties of vacant professorships to any
professor already appointed and to establish branches in the different
counties without further legislative authority. The Board was also
authorized to purchase philosophical apparatus, a library, and a cabinet
of natural history.
These were the essential provisions for the University. With so novel a
scheme the Regents and the Legislature naturally had to proceed on a
more or less cut and try method, but those at all familiar with the
organization of the present institution will recognize familiar features
in this first plan. One of the practical problems which faced those who
held the fate of the University in their charge was the question as to
where students, sufficiently trained in the higher branches, were to be
found in a state which numbered, all told, not more than 100,000 souls,
scattered for the most part in little frontier settlements. This
explains the provisions for the branches, which were to be in effect the
high schools from which the University was to draw its students. For a
time this was the actual development; but after the branches were
discontinued, high schools, supported by the various towns of the State,
came into existence and were eventually bound to the University through
the admission of their students by certificate. Thus the same end was
accomplished and at less expense.
When one considers the actual situation in Michigan at that time, the
program outlined by this act seems extraordinarily ambitious if not
actually ridiculous. The hard and primitive life of those days is almost
inconceivable now, and yet the change has come well within the lifetime
of the oldest inhabitants of many thriving cities of the State. The
secret lay in the extraordinary increase of the population. Settlers
came in so rapidly that, where in 1834 there were but 87,278
inhabitants, there were over 212,267 in 1840, and it was precisely this
growth, evidences of which were on every hand, that encouraged those
educational pioneers to aim high. The result has justified their
optimism; though there were to be many years of small things and limited
means before the fulfillment of this early vision. As Professor Hinsdale
wisely says in his History: "A large scheme would do no harm provided no
attempt were made at once to realize it, and it might in time be well
filled out; while a small plan, in case of large growth, would require
reconstruction from the foundation." The result has amply proved the
worth of the venture.
As has been seen, the University was to be but a part of a complete
state system. As a corollary in the minds of its sponsors private
institutions were to be discouraged. Superintendent Pierce even queried
whether it would not be wise to forbid them altogether. That proving
entirely impracticable, the alternative was to make the University and
the branches so good that private schools could not meet their
competition. He first endeavored to prevent the chartering of private
colleges; later he sought to deny them the privilege of conferring
degrees. In this he asked the advice of Eastern educators, among them
President Wayland, of Brown, who wrote him, "By a great number of small
and badly appointed colleges you will increase the nominally educated
men, but you will decrease the power of education because it will be
little else but the name."
In spite of this support his efforts, however, were not effective and in
1839 the Legislature in the name of freedom and opposition to monopoly
passed an Act to incorporate the Trustees of Marshall College, in
Pierce's own home town. By 1850 several such charters were granted and
in 1855 the degree conferring power was given these institutions. It is
doubtless true that at least some of the opposition with which the
University had to contend during her early years may be traced to this
first policy, which aroused the sectarian spirit behind the smaller
colleges and it was important to that extent; but far more significant
was the alternative of concentrating all the energies of the State in
the one great institution. Events have proved this the wise course. We
have had the example of less wise counsel in neighboring commonwealths
where the state universities have suffered from a multiplication of
small schools and have only recently been able to acquire their full
stature as true universities.
The establishment of the branches, which preceded the opening of the
University by several years, and their quick discontinuance, is an
interesting episode connected with the University's early years. They
formed the necessary preparatory schools for the coming University, and
furnished the first instruction under its auspices in the new State. By
the end of 1838 five branches with 161 students had been established
with the "decided approbation and support of the inhabitants." For some
years these academies flourished in a modest way, though they never
enrolled more than 400 students in any one year. But this effort, which
originally aimed to cover every county in the State, soon arrived at the
place which might have been foreseen from the beginning. The branches
began not only to overshadow the parent institution but actually to eat
up all of the University's resources. The necessary action followed
quickly when the University began to demand all the available income; in
1842 the Regents gave notice that the appropriations for the branches
would be reduced and by 1846 all support was definitely withdrawn.
This was practically the end of these schools, though some of them
managed to maintain a precarious existence for a few years. They had,
however, served a useful purpose. Without the students they trained it
is difficult to imagine where the first classes to graduate would have
received the preparation which enabled the University to maintain
collegiate, instead of preparatory, courses,--the rock upon which so
many institutions stumbled. Then, too, they accustomed the people of the
State to the idea of schools affiliated with the University and prepared
the way for the local high schools which within a short time came to
serve the same purposes as had the branches. Finally they performed a
valuable service in the preparation of teachers for the common schools.
The $35,000 spent by the Regents on these branches was therefore far
from wasted. Rather it was one of the series of fortunate measures,
somewhat blindly entered upon, which served the University well; but it
is equally true that the abandonment of the policy came only in the nick
of time, for the Regents were already in serious financial difficulties.
With all of these favorable influences, the horoscope of the University
was at least propitious. The people of the State were familiar with the
idea of a state educational system; the immigrants from the East were
for the most part homogeneous and of a progressive spirit; it was
believed that an adequate income for the educational program was assured
from the sale of state lands; provision had been made for the proper
preparation of matriculates in the University; and above all, wise and
far-sighted men had devised a scheme of organization which showed
familiarity with the best there was in educational development at that
time. We can now take up the story of the University itself.