THE CONSTITUTION OF MAINE, JANUARY 5, 1820.

The following article is still in force:

ARTICLE VIII.-Literature.

A general diffusion of the advantages of education being essential to the promotion of the rights and liberties of the people, to promote this important object, the legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty, to require the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools, and it shall further be their duty to encourage and suitably endow, from time to time, as the circumstances of the people may authorize, all academies, colleges, and seminaries of learning within the State: Provided, That no donation, grant, or endowment shall at any time be made by the legislature to any literary institution now established, or which may be hereafter established, unless, at the time of making such endowment, the legislature of the State shall have the right to grant any further powers to alter, limit, or restrain any of the powers vested in any such literary institution as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interests thereof.

The act of the general court of Massachusetts, which gave permission to the district of Maine to frame a constitution and to become an independent member of the Union, was made a part of said constitution. It provided that the grant which has been made to the president and trustees of Bowdoin College out of the tax laid upon the banks within this Commonwealth shall be charged upon the banks within the said district of Maine, and paid according to the terms of said grant; and the president and trustees and the overseers of said college shall have, hold, and enjoy their powers and privileges in all respects, so that the same shall not be subject to be altered, limited, annulled, or restrained, except by judicial process, according to the principles of law; and in all grants hereafter to be made, by either State, of unlocated land within the said district, the same reservations shall be made for the benefit of schools and of the ministry as have heretofore been usual in grants made by this Commonwealth. And all lands heretofore granted by this Commonwealth to any religious, literary, or cleemosynary corporation or society shall be free from taxation while the same continues to be owned by such corporation or society.

THE CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1822.

Neither the first constitution of this State nor the amendments adopted in 1801 made any reference to schools or education.

ART. VII, SEC. 10. The proceeds of all lands belonging to this State, except such parts thereof as may be reserved or appropriated to public use or ceded to the United States, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, together with the fund denominated the common-school-fund, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of common schools throughout this State.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MISSOURI, AUGUST 10, 1821.

ARTICLE VI.-Education.

SEC. 1. Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged in this State; and the general assembly shall take measures to preserve from waste or damage such lands as have been, or hereafter may be, granted by the United States for the use of schools within each township in this State, and shall apply the funds which may arise from such lands in strict conformity to the object of the grant; and one school or more shall be established in each township as soon as practicable and necessary, where the poor shall be taught gratis.

SEC. 2. The general assembly shall take measures for the improvement of such lands as have been, or hereafter may be, granted by the United States to this State for the support of a seminary of learning, and the funds accruing from such lands, by rent or lease, or in any other manner, or which may be obtained from any other source, for the purposes aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund to support a university for the promotion of literature and of the arts and sciences, and it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as may be, to provide effectnal means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institution.

ORDINANCE ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION WHICH FORMED THE CONSTITUTION OF MISSOURI, JULY 19, 1820.

Whereas the act of Congress of the United States of America, approved March 6, 1820, entitled "An act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain Territories," contains certain requisitions and provisions, and, among other things, has offered to this convention, when formed, for and in behalf of the people inhabiting this State, for their free acceptance or rejection, the five following propositions, and which, if accepted by this convention in behalf of the people as aforesaid, are to be obligatory on the United States, viz:

1st. That section numbered sixteen in every township (when such section has been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be) shall be granted to the State, for the use of the inhabitants of such township, for the use of schools.

"5th. That thirty-six sections, or one entire township, which shall be designated by the President of the United States, together with the other lands heretofore reserved for that purpose, shall be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning, and vested in the legislature of said State, to be appropriated, solely for the use of such seminary, by the legislature."

* *

Now this convention, for and in behalf of the people inhabiting this State, and by the authority of the said people, do accept the five before-recited propositions offered by the act of Congress under which they are assembled. * And this convention, for and in behalf of the people inhabiting this State, and by the authority of the said people, do further ordain, agree, and declare that this ordinance shall be irrevocable, without the consent of the United States.

THE CONSTITUTION OF TENNESSEE, MARCH 5, 6, 1835.

ARTI. XI, SEC. 10. Knowledge, learning, and virtue being essential to the preservation of republican institutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and advantages of education throughout the different portions of the State being highly conducive to the promotion of this end, it shall be the duty of the general assembly, in all future periods of this government, to cherish literature and science. And the fund called "the common-school-fund," and all the lands and proceeds thereof, divi

dends, stocks, and other property of every description whatever, heretofore by law appropriated by the general assembly of this State for the use of common schools, and all such as shall hereafter be appropriated, shall remain a perpetual fund, the principal of which shall never be diminished by legislative appropriation, and the interest thereof shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of common schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of all the people thereof; and no law shall be made authorizing said fund, or any part thereof, to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of common schools; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly to appoint a board of commissioners, for such term of time as they may think proper, who shall have the general superintendence of said fund, and who shall make a report of the condition of the same, from time to time, under such rules, regulations, and restrictions as may be required by law: Provided, That if at any time hereafter a division of the public lands of the United States, or any of the money arising from the sale of such lands, shall be made among the individual States, the part of such lands or money coming to this State shall be devoted to the purposes of education and internal improvement, and shall never be applied to any other purpose.

SEC. 11. The above provisions shall not be construed to prevent the legislature from carrying into effect any laws that have been passed in favor of the colleges, universities, or academies, or from authorizing heirs or distributees to receive and enjoy escheated property, under such rules and regulations as from time to time may be prescribed by law.

AMENDMENT OF 1870.

The amended constitution of 1870 contains in Article XI, section 12, the same general declaration and provisions as formerly existed, down to and including the pledge that "no law shall be made authorizing said fund, or any part thereof, to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of common schools." In place of the suc ceeding portions the following is substituted:

The State taxes derived hereafter from polls shall be appropriated to educational purposes, in such manner as the general assembly shall, from time to time, direct by law. No school established or aided under this section shall allow white and negro children to be received as scholars together in the same school. The above provision shall not prevent the legislature from carrying into effect any laws that have been passed in favor of the colleges, universities, or academies, or from authorizing heirs or distributees to receive and enjoy escheated property under such laws as may be passed from time to time.

III. THIRD PERIOD, 1835-1861.

Discussion; Arkansas, 1836; Michigan, 1887; Pennsylvania, 1838; Rhode Island, 1842; New Jersey, 1844; Florida, 1845; Louisiana, 1845; Texas, 1845; New York, 1846; Iowa, 1846; Wisconsin, 1848; Illinois, 1848; Kentucky, 1850; Michigan, 1850; California, 1850; Ohio, 1851; Indiana, 1851; Virginia, 1851; Louisiana, 1852; Connecticut, 1855; Massachusetts, 1857; Oregon, 1857; Minnesota, 1858.

In this period we find education much more fully dealt with in the State constitutions than in the previous ones. The provisions following make this fully apparent. But it is important to state the main causes that produced the expansion, and consequently we are required to take the year 1835 as the beginning of a new period.

The democratic theory of government, as expounded by Mr. Jeffer son, now reached its culmination. Heretofore the constitutions had

been drawn in general terms; legislation, left to the legislature, had been carefully excluded from them; large powers had been intrusted to the constituted authorities, and some of the distrust of the people that marked the old English régime in America had been manifested. Time had revealed unexpected defects in the working of the State governments. Faith in legislators, governors, and judges tended to a minimum; faith in the sovereign people to a maximum. The elective franchise was widely extended, and the number of elective officers greatly increased, while governmental powers were materially limited. Moreover, American life was rapidly growing in complexity and in compass, which brought new interests and new questions within the range of State recognition, and gave new importance to old interests and questions. As a result, the States began to define in their constitutions governmental powers and functions with more fullness and particularity. Legislation, or what would have been regarded as such at an earlier day, began to find its way into the fundamental laws of the States. Constitutions became more expanded and more bulky. Compare, for example, the constitutions of New York framed in 1778 and 1821 with that framed in 1846.

But it is more to our purpose to observe that about 1835 the country began to show a remarkable growth of interest in schools and education, which has been appropriately called "the American educational renaissance." The decade 1835-1845 saw the first normal school founded, the first State board of education created, the first State secretary or superintendent appointed, the first teachers' institute held, the first school libraries founded, and contact with the schools of Germany first practically established. Educational journalism also expanded, and attained to new power and usefulness. The State schools grew rapidly in number, in character, and in influence, while the State. school funds, arising from the Congressional land grants, assumed a new value and importance. Also the State universities of the West, which now began to exercise an appreciable influence, called for State regulation.

It was in this period, too, that the State schools were first antagonized by ecclesiastical bodies. This antagonism was due to a variety of causes. The growth and increasing excellence of the State schools drew away pupils from church and private schools. Again, as these schools grew in power they were less subject to ecclesiastical direction, becoming mere civil or secular institutions. Then the rapidly increasing school funds and revenues from which the State schools derived their strength became an object of envy and desire to the managers of competing schools, while certain ecclesiastical influences became more pronounced in State affairs. Such causes as these compelled the safeguarding of school funds and revenues against misappropriation and division.

Still another factor must be mentioned. As already hinted, the States generally had in their early constitutions limited the suffrage to the more substantial classes of society. Very naturally its practical extension to all male citizens 21 years of age and upward led to the lowering of the total electorate in intelligence and character, especially in view of the growing aggregations of ignorance and vice in cities, and brought up the question whether the ballot-box should not be safe. guarded by an educational barrier.

The student of the educational provisions which follow will readily discover the operation of everyone of the causes now enumerated. And still it is noteworthy that several of the States framing new constitutions in the years 1835-1861, or amending old ones, did not yield to the new influence, but adhered to the earlier practice.

THE CONSTITUTION OF ARKANSAS, JUNE 15, 1836

ARTICLE VII.--Education.

SEC. 1. Knowledge and learning, generally diffused through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government-and diffusing the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the State being highly conducive to this end-it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide by law for the improvement of such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such lands, or from any other source, to the accomplishment of the object for which they are or may be intended. The general assembly shall from time to time pass such laws as shall be calculated to encourage intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, by allowing rewards and immunities for the promotion and improvement of arts, science, commerce, manufactures, and natural history; and countenance and encourage the principles of humanity, industry, and morality.

This section was included in the constitution of 1864-65 as Article VIII, section 1.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MICHIGAN, JANUARY 26, 1837.1

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. SEC. 2. 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.

SEC. 3. 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 any school district neglecting to keep up and support such school may be deprived of its equal proportion of the interest of the public fund.

This constitution was framed in 1835.