everywhere accepted the declaration of the town of Boston, in the
revolutionary struggle, "We can endure poverty, but we disdain slavery."
Ignorance is quicksand on which no stable political structure can be
built; and I predict the future greatness of our beloved state, in those
historical qualities that outlast the ages, from the fact that she is
not tempted by her extent of territory, salubrity of climate, fertility
of soil, or by the presence and promise of any natural source of wealth,
to falter in her devotion to learning and liberty. And I anticipate for
Massachusetts a career of influence beneficial to all, whether disputed
or accepted, when I reflect that, with less good fortune in the presence
and combination of learning and liberty, Greece, Rome, Venice, Holland,
and England, enjoyed power disproportionate to their respective
populations, territory, and natural resources. And, while the object for
which we are convened may pardon something to local attachments and
state pride, the day and the occasion ought not to pass without a
grateful and hearty acknowledgment of the interest manifested by other
states and sections in the cause of general learning, and especially in
common-school education. The Canadas are our rivals; the states of the
West are our rivals; the states of the South are our rivals; and, were
our greater experience and better opportunities reckoned against us, I
know not that there would be much in our systems of education of which
we could properly boast. It is, indeed, possible that North Carolina,
untoward circumstances having their due weight, has made more progress
in education, since 1840, than any other state of the Union.
Education is not only favorable to liberty, but, when associated with
liberty, it is the basis of the Union and power of the American states.
As citizens of the republic, we need a better knowledge of our national
institutions, a better knowledge of the institutions of the several
states, a more intimate acquaintance with one another, and the power of
judging wisely and justly the policies and measures of each and all.
These ends, aided or accomplished by general learning, will so
strengthen the Union as no force of armies can--will so strengthen the
Union as that by no force of armies can it be overthrown.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] Grote's Hist., vol. xi., p. 266, et seq.
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND.
[Extract from the Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the
Board of Education.]
The Massachusetts School Fund was established by the Legislature of 1834
(stat. 1834, chap. 169), and it was provided by the act that all moneys
in the treasury on the first of January, 1835, derived from the sale of
lands in the State of Maine, and from the claim of the state on the
government of the United States for military services, and not otherwise
appropriated, together with fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter to
be received from the sale of lands in Maine, should be appropriated to
constitute a permanent fund, for the aid and encouragement of Common
Schools. It was provided that the fund should never exceed one million
of dollars, and that the income only should be appropriated to the
object in view. The mode of distribution was referred to a subsequent
Legislature. It was, however, provided that a greater sum should never
be paid to any city or town than was raised therein for the support of
common schools. There are two points in the law that deserve
consideration. First, the object of the fund was the aid and
encouragement of the schools, and not their support; and secondly, the
limit of appropriation to the respective towns was the amount raised by
each. There is an apparent inconsistency in this restriction when it is
considered that the income of the entire fund would have been equal to
only forty-three cents for each child in the state between the ages of
five and fifteen years, and that each town raised, annually, by
taxation, a larger sum; but this inconsistency is to be explained by the
fact that the public sentiment, as indicated by resolves reported by the
same committee for the appointment of commissioners on the subject,
tended to a distribution of money among the towns according to their
educational wants.
As early as 1828, the Committee on Education of the House of
Representatives, in a Report made by Hon. W. B. Calhoun, declared, "That
means should be devised for the establishment of a fund having in view
not the _support_, but the _encouragement_, of the common schools, and
the instruction of school teachers." This report was made in the month
of January, and in February following the same committee say: "The
establishment of a fund should look to the support of an institution for
the instruction of school teachers in each county in the commonwealth,
and to the distribution, annually, to all the towns, of such a sum for
the benefit of the schools as shall simply operate as an encouragement
to proportionate efforts on the part of the towns. A fund which should
be so large as to suffice for the support of the whole school
establishment of the state, as is the case in Connecticut, would, in the
opinion of the committee, be rather detrimental than advantageous; it
would only serve to draw off from the mass of the community that
animating interest which will ever be found indispensable where a
resolute feeling upon the subject is wished for or expected. Such a
result is, in every sense, to be deprecated, and whatever may tend to
it, even remotely, should be anxiously avoided. A fund which should
admit of the distribution of one thousand dollars to any town which
should raise three thousand dollars, in any manner within itself, or in
that proportion, would operate as a strong incentive to high efforts;
and, if to this should be added the further requisition of a faithful
return to the Legislature, annually, of the condition of the schools,
the consequences could not be otherwise than decidedly favorable." This
report was accompanied by a bill "for the establishment of the
Massachusetts Literary Fund." The bill followed the report in regard to
the proportionate amount of the income of the fund to be distributed to
the several towns. This bill failed to become a law.
In January, 1833, the House of Representatives, under an order
introduced by Mr. Marsh, of Dalton, appointed a committee "to consider
the expediency of investing a portion of the proceeds of the sales of
the lands of this commonwealth in a permanent fund, the interest of
which should be annually applied, as the Legislature should from time to
time direct, for the encouragement of common schools." The adoption of
this order was the incipient measure that led to the establishment of
the Massachusetts School Fund. On the twenty-third of the same month,
Mr. Marsh submitted the report of the committee. The committee acted
upon the expectation that all moneys then in the treasury derived from
the sale of public lands, and the entire proceeds of all subsequent
sales, were to be set apart as a fund for the encouragement of common
schools; but, as blanks were left in the bill reported, they seem not to
have been sanguine of the liberality of the Legislature. The cash and
notes on hand amounted to $234,418.32, and three and a half millions of
acres of land unsold amounted, at the estimated price of forty cents per
acre, to $1,400,000 more; making together a fund with a capital of
$1,634,418.32. The income was estimated at $98,065.09. It was also
stated that there were 140,000 children in the state between the ages of
five and fifteen years, and it was therefore expected that the income of
the fund would permit a distribution to the towns of seventy cents for
each child between the afore-named ages. This certainly was a liberal
expectation, compared with the results that have been attained. The
distributive share of each child has amounted to only about one-third of
the sum then contemplated. The committee were careful to say, "It is not
intended, in establishing a school fund, to relieve towns and parents
from the principal expense of education; but to manifest our interest
in, and to give direction, energy, and stability to, institutions
essential to individual happiness and the public welfare." In
conclusion, the committee make the following inquiries and suggestions:
"Should not our common schools be brought nearer to their constitutional
guardians? Shall we not adopt measures which shall bind, in grateful
alliance, the youth to the governors of the commonwealth? We consider
the application, annually, of the interest of the proposed fund, as the
establishment of a direct communication betwixt the Legislature and the
schools; as each representative can carry home the bounty of the
government, and bring back from the schools returns of gratitude and
proficiency. They will then cheerfully render all such information as
the Legislature may desire. A new spirit would animate the community,
from which we might hope the most happy results. This endowment would
give the schools consequence and character, and would correct and
elevate the standard of education.
"Therefore, to preserve the purity, extend the usefulness, and
perpetuate the benefits of intelligence, we recommend that a fund be
constituted, and the distribution of the income so ordered as to open a
direct and more certain intercourse with the schools; believing that by
this measure their wants would be better understood and supplied, the
advantages of education more highly appreciated and improved, and the
blessings of wisdom, virtue, and knowledge, carried home to the fireside
of every family, to the bosom of every child." The bill reported by this
committee was read twice, and then, upon Mr. Marsh's motion, referred to
the next Legislature.
In 1834, the bill from the files of the last General Court to establish
the Massachusetts School Fund, and so much of the petition of the
inhabitants of Seekonk as related to the same subject, were referred to
the Committee on Education.
In the month of February, Hon. A. D. Foster, of Worcester, chairman of
the committee, made a report, and submitted a bill which was the basis
of the law of March 31, 1834. The committee were sensible of the
importance of establishing a fund for the encouragement of the common
schools. These institutions were languishing for support, and in a great
degree destitute of the public sympathy. There were no means of
communication between the government and the schools, and in some
sections towns and districts had set themselves resolutely against all
interference by the state. In 1832, an effort was made to ascertain the
amount raised for the support of schools. Returns were received from
only ninety-nine towns, showing an annual average expenditure of one
dollar and ninety-eight cents for each pupil.
The interest in this subject does not seem to have been confined to the
Legislature, nor even to have originated there. The report of the
committee contains an extract from a communication made by Rev. William
C. Woodbridge, then editor of the _American Annals of Education and
Instruction_. His views were adopted by the committee, and they
corresponded with those which have been already quoted. The dangers of a
large fund were presented, and the example of Connecticut, and some
states of the West, where school funds had diminished rather than
increased the public interest in education, was tendered as a warning
against a too liberal appropriation of public money. On the other hand,
Mr. Woodbridge claimed that the establishment of a fund which should
encourage efforts rather than supply all wants, and, without sustaining
the schools, give aid to the people in proportion to their own
contributions, was a measure indispensable to the cause of education. He
also referred to the experience of New Jersey, which had made a general
appropriation to be paid to those towns that should contribute for the
support of their own schools; but, such was the public indifference,
that after many years the money was still in the treasury. Hence it was
inferred that all these measures were ineffectual, and that mere
taxation was, upon the whole, to be preferred to any imperfect system.
But the example of New York was approved, where the distribution of a
small sum, equal to about twenty cents for each pupil, had increased the
public interest, and wrought what then seemed to be an effectual and
permanent revolution in educational affairs. These facts and reasonings,
say the committee, seem to be important and sound, and to result in
this,--that no provision ought to be made which shall diminish the
present amount of money raised by taxes for the schools, or the interest
felt by the people in their prosperity; that a fund may be so used as
satisfactorily to increase both--and that further information in regard
to our schools is requisite to determine the best mode of doing this.
These opinions are supported generally by the judgment of the present
generation. Yet it is to be remarked, by way of partial dissent, that
the public apathy in Connecticut and the states of the West was not in a
great degree the effect of the funds, but was rather a coëxisting,
independent fact. It ought not, therefore, to have been expected that
the mere offer of money for educational purposes, while the people had
no just idea of the importance of education or of the means by which it
could be acquired, would lead them even to accept the proffered boon;
and it certainly, in their judgment, furnished no reason for
self-taxation. It is, however, no doubt true that the power of local
taxation for the support of schools is in its exercise a means of
provoking interest in education; and it is reasonable to assume that a
public system of instruction will never be vigorous and efficient at all
times and under all circumstances where the right of local taxation does
not exist or is not exercised. When the entire expenditure is derived
from the income of public funds, or obtained by a universal tax, and the
proceeds distributed among the towns, parishes, or districts, there will
often be general conditions of public sentiment unfavorable, if not
hostile, to schools; and, there will always be found in any state,
however small, local indifference and lethargy which render all gifts,
donations, and distributions, comparatively valueless. The subject of
self-taxation annually is important in connection with a system of free
education. It is the experience of the states of this country that the
people themselves are more generous in the use of this power than are
their representatives; and it is also true that when the power has been
exercised by the people, there is usually more interest awakened in
regard to modes of expenditure, and more zeal manifested in securing
adequate returns. The private conversations and public debates often
arouse an interest which would never have been manifested had the means
of education been furnished by a fund, or been distributed as the
proceeds of a general tax assessed by the government of the state.
I have no doubt that much of our success is due to the fact that in all
the towns the question of taxation is annually submitted to the people.
It is quite certain that the sum of our municipal appropriations never
could have been increased from $387,124.17, in 1837, to $1,341,252.03,
in 1858, without the influence of the statistical tables that are
appended to the Annual Reports of the Board of Education; and it is also
true that the materials for these tables could not have been secured
without the agency of the school fund. Our experience as a state
confirms the wisdom of the reports of 1833 and 1834; and I unreservedly
concur in the opinion that a fund ought not to be sufficient for the
support of schools, but that such a fund is needed to give encouragement
to the towns, to stimulate the people to make adequate local
appropriations, to secure accurate and complete returns from the
committees, and finally to provide means for training teachers, and for
defraying the necessary expenses of the educational department. The law
of 1834, establishing the school fund, was reënacted in the Revised
Statutes (chap. 11, sects. 13 and 14). The Revised Statutes (chap. 23,
sects. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, and 67) also required that returns should be
made, each year, from all the towns of the commonwealth, of the
condition of the schools in various important particulars. The income of
the fund was to be apportioned among the towns that had raised, the
preceding year, the sum of one dollar by taxation for each pupil, and
had complied with the laws in other respects; and it was to be
distributed according to the number of persons in each between the ages
of four and sixteen years. These provisions have since been frequently
and variously modified; but at all times the state has imposed similar
conditions upon the towns. By the statute of 1839, chapter 56, the
income of the school fund was to be apportioned among those towns that
had raised by taxation for the support of schools the sum of one dollar
and twenty-five cents for each person between the ages of four and
sixteen years; and, by the law of 1849, chapter 117, the income was to
be apportioned among those towns which had raised by taxation the sum of
one dollar and fifty cents for the education of each person between the
ages of five and fifteen years. This provision is now in force. By an
act of the Legislature, passed April 15th, 1846, it was provided that
all sums of money which should thereafter be drawn from the treasury,
for educational purposes, should be considered as a charge upon the
moiety of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands set apart for
the purpose of constituting a school fund. This provision continued in
force until the reörganization of the fund, in 1854. By the law of that
year (chap. 300), it was provided that one half of the annual income of
the fund should be apportioned and distributed among the towns according
to the then existing provisions of law, and that the educational
expenses before referred to should be chargeable to and paid from the
other half of the income of said fund. These provisions are now in
force.
The limitation of the act of 1834, establishing the fund, and of the
Revised Statutes, was removed by the law of 1851, chapter 112, and the
amount of the fund was then fixed at one million and five hundred
thousand dollars. By the act of 1854 the principal was limited to two
millions of dollars. The Constitutional Convention of 1853 had, with
great unanimity, declared it to be the duty of the Legislature to
provide for the increase of the school fund to the sum of two millions
of dollars; and, though the proposed constitution was rejected by the
people, the provision concerning the fund was generally, if not
universally, acceptable. Under these circumstances, the legislature of
1854 may be said to have acted in conformity to the known opinion and
purpose of the state.
On the 1st of June, 1858, the principal of the fund was $1,522,898.41,
including the sum of $1,843.68, added during the year preceding that
date. In this statement no notice is taken of the rights of the school
fund in the Western Railroad Loan Sinking Fund.
It may be observed that the committee of 1833 contemplated the
establishment of a fund, with a capital of $1,634,418.32, and yet, after
twenty-five years, the Massachusetts School Fund amounts to only
$1,522,898.41. Its present means of increase are limited to the excess
of one-half of the annual income over the current educational expenses.
The increase for the year 1856-7 was $4,142.90; and for the year 1857-8,
$1,843.68. With this resource only, and at this rate of increase, about
one hundred and sixty years will be required for the augmentation of the
capital to the maximum contemplated by existing laws. But the
educational wants of the state are such that even this scanty supply
must soon cease. It is then due to the magnitude of the proposition for
the considerable and speedy increase of the school fund, that its
necessity, if possible, or its utility, at least, should be
satisfactorily demonstrated; and it is for this purpose that I have
already presented a brief sketch of its history in connection with the
legislation of the commonwealth, and that I now proceed to set forth its
relations to the practical work of public instruction.
When the fund was instituted, public sentiment in regard to education
was lethargic, if not retrograding. The mere fact of the action of the
Legislature lent new importance to the cause of learning, inspired its
advocates with additional zeal, gave efficiency to previous and
subsequent legislation, and, as though there had been a new creation,
evoked order out of chaos.
Previous to 1834 there was no trustworthy information concerning the
schools of the state. The law of 1826, chapter 143, section 8, required
each town to make a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, of the
amount of money paid, the number of schools, the aggregate number of
months that the schools of each city and town were kept, the number of
male and female teachers, the whole number of pupils, the number of
private schools and academies and the number of pupils therein, the
amount of compensation paid to the instructors of private schools and
academies, and the number of persons between the ages of fourteen and
twenty-one years who were unable to read and write. The Legislature did
not provide a penalty for neglect of this provision, nor does there seem
to have been any just method of compelling obedience. The Secretary of
the Commonwealth sent out blank forms of returns, and replies were
received from two hundred and fourteen towns, while eighty-eight were
entirely silent.
The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year
1826. There were one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six district
schools, supported at an expense of two hundred and twenty-six thousand
two hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety cents ($226,219.90), while
there were nine hundred and fifty-three academies and private schools
maintained at a cost of $192,455.10. The whole number of children
attending public schools was 117,186, and the number educated in
private schools and academies was 25,083. The expense, therefore, was
$7.67 per pupil in the private schools, and only $1.93 each in the
public schools. These facts are indicative of the condition of public
sentiment. About one-sixth of the children of the state were educated in
academies and private schools, at a cost equal to about six-sevenths of
the amount paid for the education of the remaining five-sixths, who
attended the public schools. The returns also showed that there were
2,974 children between the ages of seven and fourteen years who did not
attend school, and 530 persons over fourteen years of age who were
unable to read and write. The incompleteness of these returns detracts
from their value; but, as those towns where the greatest interest
existed were more likely to respond to the call of the Legislature, it
is probable that the actual condition of the whole state was below that
of the two hundred and eighty-eight towns. The interest which the law of
1826 had called forth was temporary; and in March, 1832, the Committee
on Education, to whom was referred an order with instructions to inquire
into the expediency of providing a fund to furnish, in certain cases,
common schools with apparatus, books, and such other aid as may be
necessary to raise the standard of common school education, say that
they desire more accurate knowledge than could then be obtained. The
returns required by law were in many cases wholly neglected, and in
others they were inaccurately made. In the year 1831 returns were
received from only eighty-six towns. In order to obtain the desired
information, a special movement was made by the Legislature. The report
of the committee was printed in all the newspapers that published the
laws of the commonwealth, and the Secretary was directed to prepare and
present to the Legislature an abstract of the returns which should be
received from the several towns for the year 1832. The result of this
extraordinary effort was seen in returns from only ninety-nine of three
hundred and five towns, and even a large part of these were confessedly
inaccurate or incomplete. They present, however, some remarkable facts.