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that included the whole country for years after the exhausting struggle for independence; during the stormy first quarter of a century, when the government and people were deeply agitated by the French Revolution and worried by British aggression, culminating in the war of 1812; while the emigrants to the new portion of the country in the West were still cultivating their fields and worshiping God with one hand on the rifle and one eye on the track of the treacherous savage; when the whole population of the Union was scattered through a territory almost as large as that occupied by the swarming millions of Europe, and hindered by laborious methods of transportation from social intercourse and industrial cooperation; went steadily to work to lay up a treasure in the strong box of almost every State against the time when they could do more than at present for the schooling of the children. There is a moral sublimity, not only in the devotion of the great men of every State, but in the persistent effort of thousands of little poverty-stricken communities, to push this one interest amid all the distractions of rival claims. It will be well to keep in view, at every subsequent step of our reading of this "great and wondrous story," this original gathering of public opinion in a current steadily increasing in power and volume, just as the majestic career of the "Father of Waters" may be predicted by one who sits on its wooded shores up in the wilderness of the mysterious borderland out of which it issues, gathering breadth and depth and majesty at every mile of its resistless journey downward to the sea.

admitted since the provision of these values give little id. "treasure laid up in Heaven": ruthlessly broken into and des

In 1836 the Government of revenue" among the 26 States appropriated their portion to the entire sum, $10,000,000; & Within the last thirty year States has distributed 9,600 encouragement of agricultu: tions, this bounty has bee statesmanlike Blair bill for overcoming of illiteracy, es thoughtful friends of popul

We have thus introduce funds for the support of period, particularly to dir able method of support t priation from public taxa income from this source system of public instru country for the America income of permanent chusetts now invests in t

We shall certainly fail mon school until we skilled supervision, by of our educational jo tors" is this Republic for evil of all the for which underlies the day of the least co training the com citizenship has continuous zeal to be taxed bey

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CHAPTER XXXVIII.

DUCATION IN THE NORTHWEST DURING THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC, 1790-1840.

By Rev. A. D. MAYO, A. M., LL. D.

We are now prepared to begin a more detailed examination of different portions the Union in their dealing with education during the first half century of the epublic. And by far the most interesting portion of the new nationality in this espect is the new Northwest. For here, at the earliest period, we find illustrated he facts we have already noted: (1) That only by the intense and persistent purpose of a whole people and its willingness to make a yearly sacrifice for the children can The American common school ever be placed on its feet, much less nursed up to its full stature. (2) We shall see how, even during their earliest years, the four Northwestern Commonwealths that had been admitted to the Union before 1840 were developing certain advanced ideas and broad methods of dealing with the entire subject of universal education which have become more powerful with the passing years, and, at present, are felt as one of the most decided modifying influences in the school systems of all the original States.

But we shall do great injustice to the people of these settlements in the boundless wilderness of the Northwest of 1790 if we estimate their progress in the establishment of an effective system of popular education by reference to the condition of the same communities within the period of the memorable era since 1860. The close of the civil war in 1865 left the group of Northwestern States by far the most conspicuous figure in the reconstructed Union. They had furnished nearly 1,000,000 soldiers, one-third the entire body of the Grand Army of the Republic. Their foremost military commanders had steadily gained the confidence of the people during these critical years, and the three who, in succession, held the supreme position in the national Army were natives of Ohio. With the exception of two Vice-Presidents called to the Chief Magistracy of the Republic by the providence of God and one President afterwards elected, the Presidency of the United States from 1860 to 1892 has remained in the narrow circle of the three Northwestern States first admitted to the Union. It was well-nigh impossible for the elderly Eastern visitor to the city of Chicago in the late memorial year to place himself back in the period of his own boyhood when the New England family was stowed away in the old-time emigrant wagon and the interminable journey "out West" began with a religious service in the old church, and home and neighborhood prayers and tears mingled with the "great expectations" and aspirations of its occupants. But if we can briefly run over some of the more evident obstacles to the establishment of a satisfactory arrangement of the general educational training of the children during the first thirty years after the settlement of Ohio, in the four States that then constituted the Northwest, we may better appreciate what was really accomplished against obstacles almost insurmountable.

1. First must be considered the original movement of the rival ecclesiastical forces of the old East to capture this new "land of promise" and preempt, especially, the ED 95-48*

1513

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

EDUCATION IN THE NORTHWEST DURING THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC, 1790-1840.

By Rev. A. D. MAYO, A. M., LL. D.

We are now prepared to begin a more detailed examination of different portions of the Union in their dealing with education during the first half century of the Republic. And by far the most interesting portion of the new nationality in this respect is the new Northwest. For here, at the earliest period, we find illustrated the facts we have already noted: (1) That only by the intense and persistent purpose of a whole people and its willingness to make a yearly sacrifice for the children can the American common school ever be placed on its feet, much less nursed up to its full stature. (2) We shall see how, even during their earliest years, the four Northwestern Commonwealths that had been admitted to the Union before 1840 were developing certain advanced ideas and broad methods of dealing with the entire subject of universal education which have become more powerful with the passing years, and, at present, are felt as one of the most decided modifying influences in the school systems of all the original States.

But we shall do great injustice to the people of these settlements in the boundless wilderness of the Northwest of 1790 if we estimate their progress in the establishment of an effective system of popular education by reference to the condition of the same communities within the period of the memorable era since 1860. The close of the civil war in 1865 left the group of Northwestern States by far the most conspicuous figure in the reconstructed Union. They had furnished nearly 1,000,000 soldiers, one-third the entire body of the Grand Army of the Republic. Their foremost military commanders had steadily gained the confidence of the people during these critical years, and the three who, in succession, held the supreme position in the national Army were natives of Ohio. With the exception of two Vice-Presidents called to the Chief Magistracy of the Republic by the providence of God and one President afterwards elected, the Presidency of the United States from 1860 to 1892 has remained in the narrow circle of the three Northwestern States first admitted to the Union. It was well-nigh impossible for the elderly Eastern visitor to the city of Chicago in the late memorial year to place himself back in the period of his own boyhood when the New England family was stowed away in the old-time emigrant wagon and the interminable journey "out West" began with a religious service in the old church, and home and neighborhood prayers and tears mingled with the "great expectations" and aspirations of its occupants. But if we can briefly run over some of the more evident obstacles to the establishment of a satisfactory arrangement of the general educational training of the children during the first thirty years after the settlement of Ohio, in the four States that then constituted the Northwest, we may better appreciate what was really accomplished against obstacles almost insurmountable.

1. First must be considered the original movement of the rival ecclesiastical forces of the old East to capture this new "land of promise" and preempt, especially, the ED 95-48* 1513

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