CHAPTER LV.

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE TRUSTEES OF GRIFFIN'S
FREE SCHOOL.

        Whereas Moses Griffin, late of the town of Newbern, by his will devised all the residue of his estate to Edward Graham, William Gaston, John Devereux, Francis Hawks, and John Oliver upon trust, that they should, out of the rents and profits of his estate, both real and personal, purchase two acres of land in some convenient and healthy place near the town of Newbern; and as soon as the funds arising from the issues and profits of his said estate should be deemed by the said trustees sufficient, that they should erect a brick house one and a half story high upon the said two acres of land, which said house the said testator directed to be thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, and to have a large room suitably furnished for a school room laid off on the first floor, the remainder of said house to be furnished in a plain manner fit for the accommodation of indigent scholars; which house should be called Griffin's Free School. And whereas also the said testator

directed further that as soon after the erection of the said house, as the funds arising from the issues and profits of his estate, both real and personal should admit of, a schoolmaster should be employed for the purpose of teaching and educating therein as many orphan children or the children of such poor and indigent persons as were unable to accomplish it by their own means, and who in the judgment of the said trustees were best entitled to the benefit of said donation, as the funds might be found equal to; with a further direction to the said trustees that the said poor and indigent children should be boarded, clothed and apprenticed from the rents and profits of his estate, whenever the funds arising therefrom should be sufficient; with a permission by the said testator that the schoolmaster who might be employed by his said trustees should receive from the parents and guardians of twenty-five scholars other than indigent ones, such tuition as he might make terms for.

        And whereas the said Edward Graham and Francis Hawks have died since their said testator, and it is desirable that the said trustees should have a perpetual succession: Therefore,

        Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That William Gaston, John Devereux, John Oliver, George S. Attmore, George Wilson, James C. Cole, John N. Roberts, John T. Lance and John M. Bryan, be, and they are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name of the Trustees of Griffin's Free School; and shall have a perpetual succession and a common seal; and be in law capable of suing and being sued, impleading or being impleaded, in all courts either of law or equity; and may take and receive from the said surviving trustees, or the personal representatives of those who are dead, conveyances and assignments for all the lands,

funds, stocks or choses in action which they hold from the said testator; and further may take and receive, either by gift or will, any personal estate, funds or choses in action which may be given to them for the use of the said school.

        II. And be it further enacted, That upon the death or removal of any of the said trustees, or upon any of them refusing to act in the said trust, the vacancy thus created shall be filled by the remaining trustees.

        III. And be it further enacted, That five of the said trustees shall be a quorum, for the transaction of all business.

        IV. And be it further enacted, That the said trustees may elect a secretary and treasurer, who shall give bond, satisfactory to the trustees, for the faithful discharge of his duties as secretary and treasurer, and who shall receive such compensation as may be settled by the said trustees.

        And whereas it is represented that a suit in equity is now pending for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the assets of the said Moses Griffin, which may be in the hands of John Devereux or John Oliver, survivors of his executors who proved the said will, or which may have come to the hands of Edward Graham or Francis Hawks:

        V. Be it further enacted, That when the accounts in the said suit have been taken and a final decree passed therein, it shall and may be lawful for the said surviving trustees, or the executors or administrators of those who are dead, to pay any balance in their hands to the secretary and treasurer of the corporation hereby created; and the receipt of such secretary and treasurer shall be a final discharge to the said trustees or said executors or administrators for the amount thus paid: Provided always, and it is hereby declared, that the said will of the said Moses Griffin, as above recited shall be held and deemed to be the fundamental law of the said corporation: And provided

further, that this act shall not be in force unless the surviving executors and trustees of the said Moses Griffin shall, within twelve calendar months after the passage thereof, file in the office of the Secretary of the State their assent in writing to the same.

--Laws of 1833-34, chapter LV, pp. 54-55.

1817

• 1. GOV. MILLER'S MESSAGE ON EDUCATION.
• 2. ASSEMBLY COMMITTEES ON EDUCATION.
• 3. MURPHEY'S REPORT ON EDUCATION.
• 4. WALKER'S REPORT ON EDUCATION.
• 5. MURPHEY'S BILL TO DIFFUSE KNOWLEDGE.
• 6. FEMALE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF WILMINGTON.
• 7. LOTTERY FOR SMITHVILLE ACADEMY REFUSED.

1. GOV. MILLER'S MESSAGE ON EDUCATION.

        Blessings of free government dependent on education.

        Attention invited to consideration of a plan of public instruction.

        To enlighten the public mind in a free government, has ever been held the surest mode of perpetuating the blessings of that government. In proportion as each individual in a community is informed, just in that proportion is he calculated to appreciate the benefits derived from the community. To devise a plan by which instruction may be extensively diffused, occupied some portion of the attention of the last Legislature; and as the subject may again be submitted for consideration, it may not be unreasonable for me thus to invite your attention to it in a particular manner.

--House Journal, 1817.

2. ASSEMBLY COMMITTEES ON EDUCATION.

        Senate committee.

        The Senate Committee on Education: Thomas Wynns, Hertford; Archibald D. Murphey, Orange.

--Senate Journal 1817-18, p. 8.

        House committee.

        House Committee on Education: Alfred Moore, Brunswick; David F. Caldwell, Iredell; Hutchins G. Burton, Halifax; and Stephen L. Ferrand, Salisbury.

--House Journal, 1817-18, p. 14.

3. MURPHEY'S REPORT ON EDUCATION.

        Saturday, Nov. 29, 1817.--Mr. Murphey handed in the following report:

        The Committee to whom were referred so much of the Message of his Excellency the Governor, as relates to public instruction, Report In Part:

        Zeal for the public welfare has taken place of war and political strife.

        Sentiment now in favor of internal improvements and education.

        The people will love a government ambitious for their happiness.

        That we have much reason to thank Providence for the arrival of a period, when our country enjoying peace with foreign nations and free from domestic inquietude, turns her attention to improving her physical resources, and the moral and intellectual condition of her citizens. The war of party spirit which for twenty years has disturbed her tranquility and perverted her ambition, has terminated; and political strife has yielded its place to an honorable zeal for the public welfare. Enlightened statesmen will avail themselves of this auspicious period to place the fortunes of the State upon a basis not to be shaken; to found and cherish institutions which will guarantee to the people the permanence of their government, and enable them to appreciate its excellence. The legislature of North Carolina, giving to their ambition an honorable direction, have resolved to improve this period for the best interests of the State; to adopt and carry into effect liberal plans of internal improvements; to give encouragement to literature, and to diffuse the lights of knowledge among all classes of the community. Let us foster the spirit which has gone abroad; it will lead to the happiest results. If we ourselves should not live to witness them, and of seeing our children receive from our hands a country growing rich in physical resources, and advancing in moral and intellectual excellence. This is the true way of giving strength and permanence to the government; of giving to it roots in the hearts of the people, and nurturing it with their affections. What people will not love a government

whose constant solicitude is for their happiness, and whose ambition is to elevate their character in the scale of intelligent beings. Having commenced this great work of Humanity, let us persevere in it with a patience that shall not tire, and with a zeal that shall not abate; praying to the Father of all good, that he will enlighten and direct our course and finally crown our labors with success.

        Committee have prepared a system of public instruction for all, in schools, from highest to lowest.

        Your committee have entered upon the duties assigned to them with a full conviction of their importance, and of the difficulties which attend their discharge. But believing that let the subject be taken up when it may, those difficulties will exist, and availing themselves of the light thrown upon the subject by the wisdom of others, they have prepared a system of public instruction for North Carolina, which with much deference they beg leave to submit to the consideration of the General Assembly. In digesting this system they have adhered to the general principles of the report on this subject, submitted by the committee to the last Legislature, and have embraced a provision for the poor as well as the rich, and a gradation of schools from the lowest to the highest.

        Ample funds and board of administration necessary.

        To give effect to any plan of general education, it is essentially necessary that ample funds be provided, and that these funds and also the execution of the general plan, be committed to the care and direction of a board composed of intelligent and efficient men. Your committee reserve for a more special report their views with respect to the creation of a fund for public instruction. This subject requires a minuteness of detail, which would only embarrass the general views which it is now their object to present to the consideration of the General Assembly.

        Outline of plan of instruction.

        Your committee have considered the subject referred to them under the following divisions:

• 1. The creation of a fund for Public Instruction.
• 2. The constitution of a board to manage the fund and to carry into execution the plan of public instruction.

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• 3. The organization of schools.
• 4. The course of studies to be prescribed for each.
• 5. The modes of instruction.
• 6. The discipline and government of the schools.
• 7. The education of poor children at the public expense.
• 8. An Asylum for the deaf and dumb.

        Views on school fund reserved for special report.

        Having reserved for a more special report the creation of a fund for public instruction, your committee will first submit their views with respect to the constitution of a board for the management of this fund, and the execution and superintendence of the general plan of education which they recommend.

THE BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

        Board, with Governor as the head, to have charge of schools and the school fund.

        As the whole community will be interested in the plan of education, the members of the board should be selected from different parts of the State. They have charge of all our literary institutions; and to give more weight and respectability to their deliberations and resolves, the governor of the State should be placed at their head. It will be their province to manage and apply the fund committed to their care, to carry into execution from time to time as it shall be found practicable, the different parts of the plan of public education; to superintend the same when in full operation; to prescribe general rules and regulations for the discipline and government of the schools; to make annual reports to the Legislature of their proceedings and of the state of the schools under their charge. Your committee do therefore recommend--

        Assembly to elect the board of six.

        1st. That there shall be elected by joint ballot of the two Houses of the General Assembly, six directors who shall be styled, "The board of public instruction"; that three of the directors shall reside at or to the eastward of the city of Raleigh, and three shall reside at or to the westward thereof.

        Governor ex-officio president.

        2d. That the governor for the time being, shall be ex officio president of the board; but the board may appoint a vice-president who shall preside in the absence of the governor.

        Secretary to be appointed.

        3d. The board shall appoint a secretary and such other officers as may be necessary for conducting their business, who shall receive a reasonable compensation for their services.

        Compensation of members of board; annual and other meetings.

        4th. Until otherwise ordered, the members of the board shall receive the same compensation for their traveling to and from the place of their meeting; and the same per diem during their attendance on the board, as is now allowed by law to members of the General Assembly. They shall hold an annual meeting in the city of Raleigh at or near the time of meeting of the General Assembly. The president of the board may at his own pleasure, or shall at the request of any two of the directors thereof, convene extra meetings of the board for the transaction of any extraordinary business. A majority of the whole number of directors shall be necessary to constitute a board for the transaction of business, but the president or any single director may adjourn from day to day until a board is formed.

        Board may make rules and alter them.

        Board to have power to locate all schools, fix salaries of teachers appoint trustees, and devise plan of promotion from lower to higher schools.

        5th. The board may at any time enact, alter or amend such rules as to them may seem proper for the purpose of regulating the order of their proceedings; they may adjourn for any period or meet at any place, where they may think the public interests shall require. They shall have power subject to the limitations to be provided by law, to establish and locate the several academies directed by law to be established; to determine the number and titles of the professorships therein; to examine, appoint and regulate the compensation of the several professors and teachers; to appoint in the first instance the trustees of the several academies and primary schools, according to such general rules as shall be established by law; to

provide some just and particular mode of advancing from the primary schools to the academies, and from academies to the university, as many of the most meritorious children educated at the public expense, as the proceeds of the fund for public instruction may suffice to educate and maintain, after the whole system of public instruction hereby recommended, shall be put into operation; to manage the fund for public instruction, and apply its proceeds in carrying into execution and supporting the plan of education committed to their care; and in giving effect to this plan, the board shall regard the primary schools at its foundation, and care shall be taken that the proceeds of the fund for public instruction shall not be applied to the establishment of any academy, so long as it is probable that such application may leave any primary school unprovided for. And the board shall have power to enact, alter or amend such bye-laws, rules and regulations relative to the various subjects committed to their trust, as to them may seem expedient: Provided the same be not inconsistent with the laws of the State; and they shall recommend to the General Assembly from time to time, such general laws in relation to public instruction, as may in their opinion, be calculated to promote the intellectual and moral improvement of the State.

        Members of board ex-officio trustees of the University.

        6th. The directors of the board of public instruction for the time being shall, ex officio, be trustees of the university of this State.

        Treasurer of state to have charge of school fund.

        7th. The treasurer of the State shall have charge of the fund for public instruction, and the proceeds thereof shall be paid upon warrants drawn by the president of the board; and all expenses incurred in carrying into effect the system of public instruction and supporting the same, shall be charged upon this fund and paid out of the proceeds thereof.

        Board to make annual report of condition of public education.

        8th. The board of public instruction shall annually submit to the General Assembly at or near the commencement

of their session, a view of the state of public education within the State, embracing a history of the progress or declension during the year next preceding, and illustrating its actual condition and future prospects; and also setting forth the condition of the fund committed to their trust for public instruction.

        Board to be a corporation.

        9th. The board of public instruction shall be a body politic in law; shall have a common seal and perpetual succession; shall by the name and style of "The Board of Public Instruction," be capable of suing and being sued, pleading and being impleaded; and shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges of a corporation.

THE ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS.

        General outline of course of study in three classes of schools.

        In arranging the system of schools, your committee have endeavored to make the progress of education natural and regular; beginning with primary schools, in which the first rudiments of learning are taught, and proceeding to academies, in which youth are to be instructed in languages, ancient and modern history, mathematics and other branches of science, preparatory to entering into the University, in which instruction is to be given in all the higher branches of the sciences and the principles of the useful arts.

        Impossible to locate a primary school convenient to every family.

        The primary schools first in importance.

        Committee has studied other school systems

        In making this arrangement the greatest difficulties have occurred in organizing the primary schools. These difficulties arise from the condition of the country and the State of its population; it being found impossible to divide the State into small sections of territory, each containing an adequate population for the support of a school. Any attempt to divide the territory of the State into such small sections, with a view of locating a school in each, would prove unavailing; and however desirable it may be, that a school should be established convenient to every family, the time has not arrived when it can be done. The primary schools are of the first importance in any

general plan of public education; every citizen has an interest in them, as the learning is indispensable to all, of reading, writing and arithmetic, is here to be taught. By judicious management and a proper selection of books for children while they are learning to read, much instruction in their moral and religious duties may be given them in these schools. Your committee have diligently examined the plans of public instruction which have been submitted to the General Assembly of our sister State, Virginia, and also those which have been carried into effect in some of the New England States; they have also examined the plan which was drawn up and adopted by the national convention of France, and which now forms the basis of public instruction in all of the communes of that empire; and deriving much aid from this examination upon every part of the subject referred to them, they have suggested a system which they hope may be found to suit the conditions of North Carolina. In designating the schools of different grades, they have adopted the names in common use. Your committee do therefore recommend that as to

THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

        Counties to be divided into townships; one or more schools to be established in each and in towns; houses and land to be donated.

        1. That each county in this State be divided into two or more townships; and that one or more primary schools be established in each township, provided a lot of ground not less than four acres and a sufficient house erected thereon, be provided and vested in the board of public instruction. And that every incorporated town in the State containing more than one hundred families, shall be divided into wards. Such town containing less than one hundred families shall be considered as forming only one ward. Each ward upon conveying to the board of public instruction a lot of ground of the value of two hundred and fifty dollars, shall be entitled to the benefits and privileges of a primary school.

        Five township trustees to manage schools and select children to be educated.

        2. The Court of Pleas and Quarter sessions shall annually elect for each township in their respective counties, five persons as trustees of the primary schools to be established in such county, who shall have power to fix the scites of the primary schools to be established thereon, superintend and manage the same, make rules for their government, appoint trustees, appoint teachers, and remove them at pleasure. They shall select such children residing in their township, whose parents are unable to pay for their schooling, who shall be taught at the said schools for three years without charge. They shall report to the board of public instruction, the rules which they may adopt for the government of said schools, and shall annually report to the said board the state of the schools, the number and conduct of the pupils educated at the public expense, such books, stationery and other implements for learning, as may be necessary.

        Each teacher's salary to be $100.

        4. The teacher of each primary school shall receive a salary of one hundred dollars, to be paid out of the fund for public instruction.

        This plan divides the expense of schools between individuals and the public.

        Number of children to be taught.

        This plan for establishing primary schools is simple, and can easily be carried into execution. It divides the expenses of these schools between the public and those individuals for whose immediate benefit they are established; it secures a regular stipend to the teachers, and yet holds out inducements to them to be active and faithful in their calling; and it enables every neighborhood, whether the number of its inhabitants be few or many, to have a primary school, at the cheap price of a small lot of ground, and a house erected thereon, sufficient for the purpose of the school. Were these schools in full operation in every section of the State, even in the present state of our population, more than fifteen thousand children would annually be taught in them. These schools would be to the rich a convenience, and to the poor, a blessing.

ACADEMIES.

        Coursse in the Academies.

        One in each district; houses and land to be donated.

        After children shall have gone through the course of studies prescribed for the primary schools, those of them who are to be further advanced in education, will be placed in the Academies, where they will be instructed in languages, ancient and modern history, mathematics and other branches of science preparatory to their entering into the University. The Academies shall be located in different districts of the State for the convenience of the people, and the expenses of purchasing suitable sites and erecting thereon the necessary buildings, shall be divided between the public at large and the several districts. Private liberality has of late erected many small Academies in the State, which deserve the consideration and patronage of the Legislature. From the benefits which have accrued to the public from these small Academies, we may form an opinion of the good which would flow from larger institutions of the same sort, if regularly located throughout the State, and aided with suitable funds. The state of learning among us will never become respectable until we have such regular Academical institutions. Your committee do therefore recommend:

        State board to divide state into academical districts.

        1st. That the board of public instruction shall divide the State into ten Academical districts, containing each one or more counties, and as near as practicable, an equal number of white population, and number the districts from one upwards.

        Board may take over private academies.

        2d. When in any of the districts there is an Academy established, the trustees thereof may submit to the board of public instruction, a report on the actual condition of their institution, its relative position to the boundaries of the district, the number and dimensions of the buildings, their value and state of repair, the extent of ground on which they are erected; the number and denomination of the professors and teachers employed therein, and of the pupils educated thereat. If the board should

think the Academy properly situated for the benefit of the district, and that the buildings and grounds will answer their intended purposes, notice thereof shall be given to the trustees; and upon conveyance being made of the said ground and houses to the board of public instruction, the academy shall be entitled to the same benefits which may be extended to any academy that may be erected, and shall be subject to the same rules and regulations in relation to the government thereof, which the board of public instruction or the General Assembly may provide for the general government of the Academies of the State. But the trustees of such academies may continue to hold their offices and to supply vacancies occurring in their body.

        Board may appropriate one-third value of private buildings for repairs.

        3d. In case the buildings of any academy already established and so accepted by the board of public instruction require repair or any alteration or enlargement, the board shall appropriate a sum sufficient to repair, alter or enlarge the said buildings, provided the sum so appropriated shall not exceed one-third part of the value of the entire buildings, when so altered, repaired, or enlarged. The alterations or enlargement of the buildings shall be planned by the board of public instruction and executed according to their order.

        Board may contribute one-third to erect new buildings.

        4th. In any academical district where there is no academy now established, or none which the board of public instruction shall think will answer their intended purpose, the board may accept a lot of ground, of sufficient extent in their estimation, and conveniently situated for the erection of an academy for the district provided that two-third parts of the sum required for the erection of suitable buildings for the said academy be previously subscribed by one or more persons, and the payment thereof assured to the board of public instruction.

        Eleven trustees to be appointed by board to manage each academy.

        5th. When any conveyance of the lot of ground on which the buildings are erected, shall be accepted of by the board, they shall appoint eleven persons residing

within the district, trustees of the Academy, who shall be deemed a body corporate by such title as the board of public instruction shall prescribe; shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges of a corporation; shall have power to elect a president from their own body, and to fill all vacancies which occur therein. They may make, alter or amend such bye-laws, rules and regulations as they shall deem necessary or expedient, for the government of their own body, and of the professors, teachers and pupils of the academy of which they have charge; provided they be not inconsistent with such general regulations as the board of public instruction may provide for the general government of the academies of the State.

        Powers of trustees of an academy.

        6th. The trustees shall provide by contract for the erection of the necessary buildings of their academy, and appoint a treasurer who shall have authority to collect the several sums subscribed thereto, and shall be entitled to receive in virtue of their order upon the board of public instruction, signed by their president such sums of money as the board may, from time to time appropriate for the erection of the buildings, their repairs or alterations, salaries of professors and teachers, and other purposes of the academy.

        Method of selecting teachers.

        7th. As soon as any academy is ready for the admission of pupils, the trustees may recommend to the board of public instruction, any person to be a professor or teacher therein, who, if approved after examination, in some mode to be prescribed by the board, shall be regarded as a professor or teacher of such academy, but subject to removal at the pleasure of the trustees or the board. Where vacancies shall occur among the professors or teachers during the recess of the board, the trustees may make temporary appointments, to be confirmed or disapproved by the board at their next session.

        One-third of salaries to be paid by academy board.

        8th. The trustees of any academy may fix the salaries of their respective teachers, subject to the control of the

board of public instruction; one third part of the salaries shall be paid by the board at such times and in such way as they shall prescribe.

        Certain pupils to be taught free.

        9th. The professors and teachers in any academy shall be bound to instruct, free of charge for tuition, the pupils whom the board of public instruction may designate to be taught in said academy at the public expense.

        Summary of plans as to academies.

        Your committee have perhaps gone into unnecessary details respecting the academies. Their plan simply is, to divide the State into ten academical districts, and that one academy be erected in each; that the State shall advance one-third of the sum required for the erection of necessary buildings, and one-third of the sum to be paid in salaries to professors and teachers, making it their duty to teach poor children free of charge.

THE UNIVERSITY.

        What it has done.

        Why legislature withdrew its support.

        This institution has been in operation for twenty years, and has been eminently useful to the State. It has contributed perhaps more than any other cause, to diffuse a taste for reading among the poor, and excite a spirit of liberal improvement; it has contributed to change our manners and elevate our character; it has given to society many useful members, not only in the liberal professions, but in the walks of private life; and the number of pupils who are honored with seats in this legislature is a proof of the estimation in which they are held by their fellow citizens. When this institution was first founded, it was fondly hoped that it would be cherished with pride by the legislature. But unfortunately the nature of the funds with which it was endowed, in a short time rendered it odious to some, and cooled the ardor of others. The torrent of prejudice could not be stemmed; the fostering protection of the legislature was withheld and the institution left dependent upon private munificence.

        Private donations.

        Escheats and other funds.

        Present condition of the school.

        Individuals contributed not only to relieve its necessities,

but to rear up its edifices and establish a permanent fund for its support. At the head of these individuals stood the late Governor Smith, Charles Gerard and Gen. Thomas Person. The first two made valuable donations in lands, and the last, with a sum of money, with which one of the halls at the university has been erected. To enable them to complete the main edifice, the trustees have been compelled to sell most of the lands devised to them by Mr. Gerard, and as the lands conveyed to them by Governor Smith lie within the Indian boundary, the trustees have not been able as yet to turn them to a productive account. With the aid thus derived from individuals, together with the occasional funds derived from escheats, the institution has progressed thus far. The Legislature after exhausting its patience in endeavoring to collect the arrearages of debts due to the State, transferred to the university those arrearages, with the hope that they would be able to enforce payment. But no better fortune has attended their efforts than those of the State, and this transfer has proved of no avail to the institution. The surplus remaining in the hands of administrators where the next of kin have made no claim within seven years, have also been transferred to the trustees; but this has yet yielded a very small fund and probably never will yield much. The legislature have enlarged the rights of inheritance, and in this way have nearly deprived the institution of the revenue from escheats. Amidst all these embarrassments, the trustees have never lost sight of the necessity of accumulating a fund in bank stock, the annual proceeds of which would enable them to continue the operations of the institution; and they have succeeded so far as to be able to support two professorships, and employ two or three tutors. But there is little prospect of adding to this fund, until the lands given by Governor Smith can be sold; and if that period be waited for, the institution must necessarily languish and sink in

respectability. It is at this moment almost destitute of a Library, and entirely destitute of Aparatus necessary for instructing youth in mathematical and physical sciences. Add to this, that one half of the necessary buildings have not been erected.

        The benefit of higher education.

        In this state of things and at a moment when former prejudices have died away, when liberal ideas begin to prevail, when the pride of this State is awakening and an honorable ambition is cherished for her glory, an appeal is made to the patriotism and the generous feelings of the Legislature in favor of an institution, which in all civilized nations, has been regarded as the nursery of moral greatness, and the palladium of civil liberty. That the people who cultivate the sciences and the arts with most success, acquire a most enviable superiority over others. Learned men by their discoveries and works give a lasting splendor to national character; and such is the enthusiasm of man, that there is not an individual, however humble in life his lot may be, who does not feel proud to belong to a country honored with great men and magnificent institutions. It is due to North Carolina, it is due to the great man who first proposed the foundation of the University, to foster it with parental fondness and give to it an importance commensurate with the high destinies of the State. Your committee deem this subject of so much interest, that they beg leave in a future report to submit to the two houses a plan for increasing the funds of the University.

        The need of secondary schools to prepare for the university.

        This institution has uniformly labored under the double disadvantages of a want of funds, and the want of subsidiary institutions, in which youth could be instructed preparatory to their entering upon a course of the higher branches of science in the University. This latter disadvantage has been so great, that the trustees have been compelled to convert the University, in part into a grammar school. This disadvantage has been of late removed in

part, by the establishment of academies in different parts of the State; but it will continue to be much felt, until regular academical institutions shall be made and the course of study prescribed for them.

        Defects of the present college courses.

        Another serious disadvantage and a consequence of the one last mentioned, is the necessity which the peculiar state of academical learning has imposed upon the trustees, of conferring the honorary degrees of an University upon young men who have not made that progress in the sciences, of which their diploma purports to be a testimonial. This is an evil which is found in almost all of the Universities of the Union. A young man enters into an University with only slight acquirements in classical education, and after remaining four years, during which time he is instructed in only the outlines of the general principles of science, he receives a degree: the consequence is that he leaves the University with his mind trained only to general and loose habits of thinking: and if he enters into professional life, he has to begin his education anew. The great object of education is to discipline the mind, to give to it habits of activity, of close investigation: in fine, to teach men to think. And it is a reproach upon almost all the literary institutions of our country, that the course of study pursued in them teaches most young men how to become literary triflers. Their multifarious occupations dissipate their time and attention: They acquire much superficial knowledge; but they remain ignorant of the profounder and more abstract truths of philosophy. Indeed, the road to the profound sciences is of late so infested with pleasant elementary books, compilations, abridgements, summaries and encyclopedias, that few, very few in our country ever travel it.

        New plan of instruction necessary

        To remove this reproach upon the state of learning among us, a new plan of instruction in our university must be organized; a plan which shall give to the different classes in the institution, an arrangement founded

upon a philosophical division of the present improved state of knowledge; and which in its execution shall train the mind both to liberal views and minute investigation.

        Needs of the university.

        Your committee have been thus particular in submitting to the two houses an exposition of the actual condition of the university, with a view of recalling their consideration to the solemn injunction of the constitution as to every part of the subject referred to them; "That a school or schools shall be established by the Legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more Universities." Our university is the only institution which the legislature has yet founded and endowed in compliance with this injunction; but even as to this institution the spirit of the constitution is far from being complied with. We have not buildings for the accommodation of youth, nor books, nor apparatus for their instruction--your committee do therefore recommend,

        Three new buildings, library, etc.

        1st. That three additional buildings be erected at the university; two for the accommodation of students and one for the library and apparatus. This last building to contain suitable rooms for the delivery of lectures by the different professors.

        2d. That a library and suitable apparatus for instructing youth in the mathematical and physical sciences, be procured for the use of said institution.

        More funds and teachers.

        3d. That funds be assigned for endowing to (two) professorships, and supporting six additional teachers.

        These are the present wants of the University; as our population encreases, the number of buildings must be encreased, and more funds be provided for supporting teachers. In a subsequent part of this report your committee have recommended that there be four classes in the university with a professor at the head of each, who shall

be assisted with such adjunct professors or teachers, as the state of the institution may require.

THE COURSE OF STUDY.

        Courses in the primary schools.

        1st. In the primary schools should be taught reading, writing and arithmetic. A judicious selection of books should from time to time be made by the board of public instruction for the use of small children; books which shall excite their curiosity and improve their moral dispositions. And the board should be empowered to compile and have printed for the use of primary schools, such books as they may think will best subserve the purposes of intellectual and moral instruction. In these books should be contained many of the historical parts of the old and new testament, that children may early be made acquainted with the books which contains the word of truth, and the doctrines of eternal life.

        Courses in the academies.

        2d. In the academies should be taught the Latin, Greek, French and English languages, the higher rules of arithmetic, the six first books of Euclid's elements, Algebra, Geography, the elements of Astronomy, taught with the use of the Globes, ancient and modern history. The basis of a good education is classical and mathematical knowledge; and no young man ought to be admitted into the university without such knowledge.

        Courses in the university.

        3d. In the university the course of study should occupy four years; and there should be four classes to be designated.

        1st. The class of languages--In this class should be studied, 1st. the more difficult Latin, Greek and French classics: 2d. Ancient and Modern history: 3d. Belles letters: 4th. Rhetoric.

        2d. The class of mathematics--in this class should be studied, 1st. Pure mathematics: 2d. Their application to the purposes of physical science.

        3d. The class of physical sciences--In this class should be taught, 1st. Physics: 2d. Chemistry: 3d.

The philosophy of natural history: 4th. Mineralogy: 5th. Botany: 6th. Zoology.

        4th. The class of moral and political science--In this class should be taught. 1st. The philosophy of the human mind: 2d. Morals: 3d. The laws of nature and of nations: 4th. Government and legislation: 5th. Political economy.

THE MODES OF INSTRUCTION.

        Understanding of mental science necessary to correct method.

        The great object of education is intellectual and moral improvement; and that the mode of instruction is to be preferred which best serves to effect this object. That mode is to be found only in a correct knowledge of the human mind, its habits, passions, and manner of operation. The philosophy of the mind, which in ages preceding has been cultivated only in its detached branches has of late years received form and system in the schools of Scotland. This new science promises the happiest results. It has sapped the foundation of scepticism by establishing the authority of those primitive truths and intuitive principles, which form the basis of all demonstration; it has taught to man the extent of his intellectual powers, and marking the line which separates truth from hypothetical conjecture, has pointed out to his view the boundaries which Providence has prescribed to inquiries. It has determined the laws of the various faculties of the mind, and furnished a system of philosophic logic for conducting our enquiries in every branch of knowledge.

        Pestalozzi and Lancaster.

        Methods of Lancaster recommended for primary schools.

        This new science has given birth to new methods of instruction; methods which being founded upon a correct knowledge of the faculties of the mind, have eminently facilitated their development. Pestalozzi of Switzerland and Joseph Lancaster of England, seem to have been most successful, in the application of new methods to the instruction of the children. Their methods are different but each is founded upon a profound knowledge of the human mind. The basis of each method is, the excitement

of the curiosity of children; thereby awakening their minds and preparing them to receive instruction. The success which has attended the application of their methods, particularly that of Lancaster has been astonishing. Although but very few years have elapsed since Lancastrian schools were first established, they have spread over the British empire, extended into the continent of Europe, the Island of St. Domingo, and the United States. Various improvements in the details of his plan have been suggested by experience and adopted; and it is probable that in time, his will become the universal mode of instruction for children. The Lancastrian plan is equally distinguished by its simplicity, its facility of application, the rapid intellectual improvement which it gives, and the exact discipline which it enforces. The moral effects of the plan are also astonishing; exact and correct habits are the surest safeguards of morals; and it has often been remarked, that out of the immense number of children and grown persons instructed in Lancaster's schools, few, very few have ever been prosecuted in a court of justice for any offense. Your committee do therefore recommend that whenever it be practicable, the Lancastrian mode of instruction may be successfully introduced into the primary schools. The general principles of this method may be successfully introduced into the academies and university; and your committee indulge the hope, that the board of public instruction, and the professors and teachers in these respective institutions, will use their best endeavors to adopt and enforce the best methods of instruction which the present state of knowledge will enable them to devise.

THE DISCIPLINE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOLS.

        Obedience to law should be inculcated.

        In a republic, the first duty of a citizen is obedience to the law. We acknowledge no sovereign but the law, and from infancy to manhood our children should be taught to bow with reverence to its majesty. In childhood parental authority enforces the first lesson of obedience; in youth

this authority is aided by the municipal law which in manhood wields the entire supremacy. As the political power and the social happiness of a state depend upon the obedience of its citizens, it becomes an object of the first importance to teach youth to reverence the law, and cherish habits of implicit obedience to its authority. Such obedience not only contributes to the strength and tranquility of the state, but also constitutes the basis of good manners, of deference and respect in social intercourse. But in our country, youth generally become acquainted with the freedom of our political institutions, much sooner than with the principles upon which that freedom is bottomed, and by which it is to be preserved; and few learn until experience teaches them in the school of practical life, that true liberty consists not in doing what they please, but in doing that which the law permits. The consequence has been, that riot and disorder have dishonored almost all the colleges and Universities of the Union.

        Measures should be taken to suppress disorder.

        The temples of science have been converted into theatres for acting disgraceful scenes of licentiousness and rebellion. How often has the generous patriot shed tears of regret for such criminal follies of youth? Follies which cast reproach upon learning and bring scandal upon the State. This evil can only be corrected by the moral effects of early education; by instilling into children upon the first dawnings of reason, the principles of duty, and by nurturing those principles as reason advances, until obedience to authority shall become a habit of their nature. When this course shall be found ineffectual the arm of the civil power must be stretched forth to its aid.

        Discipline at the university.

        The discipline of a University may be much aided by the arrangement of the buildings, and the location of the different classes. Each class should live together in separate buildings, and each to be under the special care of its own professors and teachers. A regular system of subordination

may in this way be established; each class would have its own character to maintain, and the Esprit de Corps of the classes would influence all their actions. Similar arrangements may in part, be made in the several academies, and the like good effect expected from them.

        Athletics.

        The amusements of youth may also be made auxiliary to the exactness of discipline. The late president of the United States, Mr. Jefferson, has recommended upon this part of the subject, that through the whole course of instruction at a college or university, at the hours of recreation on certain days, all the students should be taught the manual exercise, military evolutions and manoeuvers, should be under a standing organization as a military corps, and with proper officers to train and command them. There can be no doubt that much may be done in this way towards enforcing habits of subordination and strict discipline--it will be the province of the board of public instruction, who have the general superintendending care of all the literary institutions of the state, to devise for them systems of discipline and government; and your committee hope that they will discharge their duty with fidelity.

THE EDUCATION OF POOR CHILDREN AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE.

        Duty of the state to educate the poor.

        One of the strongest reasons which we can have for establishing a general plan of public instruction, is the condition of the poor children of our country. Such has always been and probably always will be the allotment of human life, that the poor will form a large portion of every community; and it is the duty of those who manage the affairs of a state, to extend relief to this unfortunate part of our species in every way in their power.

        Those educated beyond primary schools to be fed and clothed by the State.

        Providence, in the impartial distribution of its favors, whilst it has denied to the poor many of the comforts of life, has generally bestowed upon them the blessing of intelligent children. Poverty is the school of genius; it is

a school in which the active powers of man are developed and disciplined, and in which that moral courage has acquired, which enables him to toil with difficulties, privations and want. From this school generally come forth those men who act the principal parts upon the theatre of life; men who impress a character upon the age in which forms grows up in it. The State should take this school under her special care, and nurturing the genius which there grows in rich luxuriance, give to it an honorable and profitable direction. Poor children are the peculiar property of the State, and by proper cultivation they will constitute a fund of intellectual and moral worth which will greatly subserve the public interest. Your committee have therefore endeavored to provide for the education of all poor children in the primary schools; they have also provided for the advancement into the academies and university, of such of those children as are most distinguished for genius and give the best assurance of future usefulness. For three years they are to be educated in the primary schools free of charge; the portion of them who shall be selected for further advancement, shall, during the whole course of their future education, be clothed, fed and taught at the public expense. The number of children who are to be thus advanced, will depend upon the state of the fund set apart for public instruction, and your committee think it will be most advisable to leave the number to the discretion of the board, who shall have charge of the fund; and also to leave to them the providing of some just and particular mode of advancing this number from the primary schools to the academies, and from the academies to the university.

AN ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

        Humanity demands education of deaf and dumb.

        If there be any of our species who are entitled to the public consideration of the government, it is surely the deaf and dumb. Since the method of instructing them in science and language has been discovered, numerous

asylums in different countries have been established for their instruction. While we are engaged in making provisions for others, humanity demands that we make a suitable provision for them. Your committee do therefore recommend that as soon as the state of the fund for public instruction will admit, the board who have charge of that fund, be directed to establish at some suitable place in the State, an asylum for the instruction of the deaf and dumb.

        Your committee have now submitted to the two houses their general views upon the subject referred to them, they have proposed the creation of a fund for public instruction, the appointment of a board to manage this fund and to carry into effect the plan of education which they have recommended. This plan embraces a gradation of schools from the lowest to the highest, and contains a provision for the education of poor children--and of the deaf and dumb.

        Benefits of education.

        When this or some other plan of judicious education, when light and knowledge shall be shed upon all, may we not indulge the hope, that men will be convinced that wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace; and be induced by such conviction to regulate their conduct by the rule of christian morality, of doing unto others as they wish they would do unto them; and that they will learn to do justly, to love mercy and walk humbly before their God.

        Your committee will forthwith report bills to carry into effect the several measures recommended in this report.

Respectfully submitted.

A. D. MURPHEY, Chairman.

        Senate resolution on Murphey's report.

        The house taking the foregoing report into consideration, Resolved unanimously that they do concur therewith. On motion of Mr. Davidson1,

        1 Wm. Davidson, Mecklenburg.

        Action of the House.

        Mr. Speaker--We propose that the report of the committee on that part of the Governor's message relative to public instruction be printed, one copy for each member of this General Assembly.

--Senate Journal, pp. 30-42.

        Thursday, Dec. 4th, 1817. Received from the House of Commons the following message.

        Mr. Speaker--Your proposition to have printed, the report on Public Instruction, we assent to.1

        1 See House Journal for December 4, 1817, p. 40.

--Senate Journal, 1817-18, p. 49.

4. WALKER'S REPORT ON EDUCATION.

        Monday, Dec. 8, 1817.--The Speaker laid before the House the following letter:

To The Honble
The Speaker of the House of Commons,
Sir,

        Walker's letter

        Having been appointed by the Speakers of the two Houses of the Legislature; of NO. Ca: in obedience to a joint Resolution of that Honble body, at their last Session; a Commissioner, in common, with two other gentlemen, to digest a plan of Popular Education, and being unable to communicate with those Gentn on the subject--I have deemed it my duty, through you, to lay before your Hon: body the Plan of Education herewith submitted--Accept, Sir, of my Respects

JOHN M. WALKER.

        House resolution to print Walker's report.

        The report was read and ordered to be sent to the Senate with a message, proposing to have it printed, one copy for each member of the assembly.

--House Jornal, 1817, p. 59.

        To The Honorable the Legislature of North Carolina, Gentlemen,

        Importance of public education.

        At a time when the American people; from St. Croix, to the Mississippi, accord in estimating the vast importance of public Education. And when the Executives of every state, are annually increasing the recommendation of the subject, to the immediate representatives of the people: I cannot fail to be duly impressed with the importance of the trust, committed to me, by your honorable Speakers--Nor can I fail felicitating my fellow-citizens,

in common with your selves, in anticipation of the future, compared with a retrospect of the past.

        Legislature of 1815 began the work of internal improvements.

        Too long have the energies of our state lain slumbering in listless inactivity; the Legislature of 1815, has immortalized itself, by cutting the Gordian Knot which had thus bound it in torpid lethargy. That Legislature took a comprehensive view of the duties of Legislation: its predecessors had contented themselves with passing honest laws and imposing moderate taxes: this was but part of their duty: the creating new rights and new interests, constitute the most important branch of legislation. The head, the heart, the mountain, the valley, the lake, the river, are a like the common property of the state and constitute the rich mines into which the Legislators should dig and search; and like the polisher of the diamond bring the hidden treasure to light, in its true and valuable form. That legislature commenced the great work of internal improvement, on a scale which vanquished the checkered interest of locality by interesting every section in equal rights and equal privileges. Already North-Carolina begins to emerge from her dormancy; to assume her destined station among the galaxy of her sister states, whose brilliant corruscations of inventive genius, has astonished an admiring world.

        Education of the poor of first importance.

        Among the remaining objects of National importance, which that Legislature has left for its successors to accomplished, may be placed first in importance the Educating the poor.

        There are few subjects on which human ingenuity has been more generally exerted, and as few, in which it has more generally failed: whether this has proceeded from the want of invention or the irremediableness of the subject, I shall proceed in the duty assigned me, stimulated by the maxim "Ex cohesione scintillum ex citat."

        The resolution began a new era.

        Indeed, it would be a melancholy reflection, if, while Natural science was daily enlarging, so as not to be confined by the earth nor the heavens, Moral and Political

phylosophy should be so limited as not to overcome the obstacles to human happiness, arising from ignorance.--However formidable these obstacles may have been let us not despair, for the American Revolution has opened wide the temple of Nature. Morality, Politics and Phylosophy shine on her altars with new lights. Morality, which heretofore, was confined to the narrow actions of individuals, is now made the broad basis on which is bottomed the wide Republic of America; Politics has opened her vast field of principles, and secured to the American citizens those rights and liberties, where before were only found in the pages of Antiquity, While Phylosophy, like the radiant sun, illumines the whole, enlivens the mind, and animates the genius to its utmost achievements. Witness the brilliant discoveries and inventions since our Revolution.--What age or what country can boast a Franklin, Rittenhouse, and a host of others, whose inventions have created a new era in the interest of our country, by inviting from the American farmer, to reward whose labour Nature seems to have exausted all her stores, a portion of skill and industry to be added to the Manufacturer. Allready Europe pays tribute to our inventive genius.--In clothing her nakedness and in guiding her mariner from clime to clime, she is indebted to our inventions.--To our Rittenhouse she is indebted for the "Prophetic Planatarium," which unlocks the arcana of the celestial world. To our Franklin she is indebted for the pointed rod which draws down innocuously the fiery wrath of Heaven, beneath our feet. These are some of the rich gifts with which Nature has adorned the genius of Columbia--Let us emulate her munificence, in improving the genius and talents of those who are unable to visit her temple. This will be national charity:--That virtue which Nations and individuals are so eloquently invited to practice, by the offer of every reward, which can awaken the present, or render happy the future life:--This will be the highest species

of charity, dessiminating, among the poor, knowledge and virtue.

        Our form of government makes education a necessity.

        Patriotism joins charity, in pleading another reason, for educating the poor, derived from the principles of our Government.

        The number of schools decreasing

        The masses destitute of education.

        Liberty will vanish when wealth and education are possessions only of a few.

        Happy government! where governor and governed are interchangeable terms:--when he who sits on the highest spoke of Government which, by the salutary principles of rotation in office, is made alike obedient to the laws of its own revolution:-- where all are equally invited and equally entitled to interchange the duties of citizen and officer. But in vain will our Fathers have hungered and toiled; in vain will they have fought on the ensanguined field for these inestimable principles; if ignorance prevents their sons from enjoying the fruits of their victory:--In vain may the legislator lucubrate over the mid night lamp in digesting equal laws:--In vain may the erudite Judge preside on the bench, if ignorant Juries decide the fact, and apply the law. What our renown armies may have acquired for a Nation;--What ever wealth industry may have accumulated; all these weigh light in the scale of comparison, with the helping of a wise Legislature; a learned bench, and an enlightened Jury. View the Grand Juries of our country, the Paladium of our liberty; the great inquest of the Nation; the grand arbiter of Honour, fame and reputation, and say, what cost will be too great to enlighten the yeomanry of our country from whence they are taken? These considerations apply alone to us as individuals; what shall we say when we compute the National loss? What germs of genius have not the chilling blast of poverty smothered from their country's service? How oft has Nature, always mindfull of equality in her works, compensated by fertility of genius, the scantiness of Fortune? Where are the Bacons and the Newtons of the old World? Where the Franklins and Thompsons of the New? They rise in

evidence. Let us not be tantalized by the deceptive appearance of progressive education in our state. While each county vies with its fellow in erecting Academies in its bosom, the great mass of people are destitute of schools. It is a melancholy fact that our schools are lessening in their number and usefullness. The time has been when there was scarcely an old field whose bosom was not enlivened by a country school, whose gayfull numbers at their halcion meridian, enlivened the sterility of the field, or gladdened the solitude of the woods with their schoolboy's note. What avails it us to point to our University the pride of the state? or boast of our more numerous ornaments, our Academies? While the great mass of our fellow-citizens are destitute of Education and the means of Education. And while too, this partial system of Education is spreading its influence in a balefull manner in our country, by destroying that happy equilibrium of our constitutions, equality, which it was the pride and glory of our fathers to establish and which should be our rich inheritance to maintain.--It requires but little experience and less foresight into human nature to foretell what will be the condition of our country when wealth and learning are the inheritance of the few, and ignorance and poverty the lot of the many. Compare the happy days of Rome when liberty gladdened the hearts of her citizens, and equality pervaded their condition, with those tumultuous and contentious days, when her citizens were divided into a few learned Patricians and many ignorant Plebeians. These remarks are not made to discourage the Academic system, but to call your attention to the effects which that system is producing--and from thence to draw a strong argument, for the general diffusion of Education among the poor, in order to counteract the increasing inequality of condition. For it may be affirmed that every Academy established puts down 3 or 4 country schools, by monopolizing those children,

whose parents are able and determined to support a school, it leaves the balance of the neighborhood too poor to support such teachers (at the present prices), as are worthy to teach.

        Scarcity of native teachers.

        Too few teachers and price of tuition too high as a result.

        Increase of the number of teachers the remedy.

        Did this assertion, that our schools are lessening in number and usefullness require support, we have only to look around and compare what portion of those who teach in our state, are native Carolinians:--scarcely one in ten. Why this aversion to so honorable and lucrative a profession? Is it because too few are educated among us? Or is it because our educations are too superficial to be retailed to others? Or is it the remnant of that Feudal Aristocracy inherited from our translantic Ancestors? who considered the peasantry as exchangeable stock, and whose policy it was to discourage the profession of country schools, to keep them ignorant and consequently poor, that they might be the more docile under their tyrany. How different were the sentiments in our antient sisters, Greece and Rome, where teaching was the most honourable of professions, whose children were committed to their teachers, not only in the hours of learning, but in the hours of vacation, that they might learn by precept and example. The cause of this partial distribution of learning is too evident to require investigation; it arises from the disparity of the number of those to be taught and the number willing to teach; thereby creating a competition between the parents, which raised the price too high to be purchased by the many. Change but this competition to the teachers by multiplying their number, and the price will be again reduced to a scale acceptable to all, to the child of poverty as to the child of wealth. Then shall our fields and woods again resound with the jocund sound of the school-boy's note. For the American poor, as yet, require no stimulus to educate their children.--Furnish them with teachers and their parental tenderness will prompt them to their use. Ignorance has not yet,

with all her train of vices, eradicated the finer feelings of their bosom, which, while it prompts them to obey the first law of nature, suffers them not to forget its dictates. It is not yet in America, as in some European countries. Where ignorance, poverty and vice, have destroyed the tenderness of parent, and where the offspring excites no other care or duty from the Parent, than sending it to its grave through the Nurse of a Foundling Hospital. It is common to the human bosom to Over-rate its chance of happiness; But the American Legislator should not be mislead by this sentiment. Nor should we think the same effects will not follow the same cause. Nor believe what has befallen other countries will not befall his, under similar circumstances. Is it not time then for the American Legislator to arrest the progress of ignorance?

        Education the best means to eliminate poverty and increase virtue.

        Humanity pleads a still stronger reason for educating the poor, derived from the policy of our government. The Continent of America is laid on a scale unparalleled by either of the old continents. Whether we regard the vastness of her territory or the grandeur of her scenery, or the richness of her productions. Her National origin differs as wide from the origins of the Nations of the old World, as her geographical features--The nations of the old world had their origin in the darkness of time and Nadir of Intellect, their progress to manhood was slow and tardy; time was required to change the simplicity of the shepherd state or the rugged frugality of the camp into the boundless splendor of luxury. While America arising in the Zenith of Intellect, and transplanted from the lap of wealth and cradle of luxury, into a land yielding almost without labour, every object which can gratify desire; luxury, scarcely sustained a check at her birth. It is a fact which the slightest gleanings in History will prove that in proportion as a Nation advances in extravagance and luxury the poor increase with accumulating misery--These facts should prompt us to adopt the policy

of our Government to the condition of our country. But we have without analogy of circumstances adopted the European Parochial policy. What Millions have Europe spent in mitigating the misery from poverty? And how far short has it fallen from accomplishing its object? Let the riots and tumults; the cries for bread, the haggard look and the chilled nakedness answer!! Happy America! still happier Carolina! you have not yet reached this achme of misery! May the period of its arrival be far, very far distant!!! But the history of other Nations, once abounding in rich redundant land like ours, and the rapid progress of population, which in our country as yet knows no check admonish us that the time is approaching; nay if we look at our Parochial list we shall find it approaching alarmingly fast. A few years ago there was not a beggar in America, but a short time past our paupers were so few as not to claim more than voluntary neighborhood charity,--Now they have increased so rapidly as to claim the attention of our courts, and parish levies are annually collected for their support. And it is equally a melancholy fact that larger sums of money are now expended in raising orphan and pauper children in ignorance and want, and too often in vice, than would be required, under a more judicious policy, to raise and introduce them to competency and virtue.

        The ignorant and the poor fill the jails.

        These facts should stimulate us to improve upon the Eropean policy--Let us prevent poverty, rather than exhaust our genius and resources in relieving its distress. The Golden maxim "a grain of prevention is better than a pound of cure," is as applicable to parochial policy, as to clinical practice. Let us give them education. Let us therefore light their taper and oil their lamp--Education is to labor what oil is to the lamp--It will light them into the avenues which lead to honor, wealth and happiness!! Look the world over--who are more industrious than the poor? Yet lamentable to be told! who fills your parochial

houses and parishes with poverty and industry? The poor. Who fills your Jails and Penitentiaries with convicts? The ignorant poor. Whence can this arise? Surely from the want of knowledge and foresight in directing their labor. Vain will be their labor and fruitless their toil, tho' exerted with the strength of an Anteus or a Herculees, if not directed by judgment and foresight, the offspring of enlightened minds. And shall we not enlighten their minds? Shall we not give them Education? Not that Aristotilian Education, which prepares the mind for disquisition and controversy, instead of thought and action, which stores the mind with antient song and fabled story, instead of things of men.--

        Inculcate the social duties.

        The greatest Logician of the past century has said "the great study of Man is Man":--Let us initiate them into this study:--Let us teach them the great moral lesson, which while it points out the true relationship they bear to the objects around them teaches them, also, the great duties they owe to the Creator, to themselves, and their neighbors, (which teaches them the love of virtue and the detestation of vice:--which inculcates the practice of all the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Temperance, fortitude and justice.--Then we may disgrace our land with Work Houses and Penitentiaries, with jails and gibbets; but there will be no convicts--their walls may prove what the state of society once was; the want of tenants, what it now is. There we may say with the Poet:--

        "Ingenuas didiisse fideliter artes

        Emollet mores nec sinit esse feros."

        Governments must take care to educate the young if they would perpetuate themselves.

        This is not hyperbole:--Various proofs of the solidity of these positions, that Education will lessen crimes and prevent poverty, will arise from considerations drawn from our social and moral nature:--That Man is a social animal, impelled to society, his history proves from its earliest day. Miserable wants be his situation, and abortive

the best gift of Nature, if; while irresistably led to form society, there was planted in his bosom principles which led to its destruction. If human society has been checkered by practices which threatened its existence, it has been because those governments which have been formed for its promotion, have not availed themselves of the due culture of those principles which led to their establishment, but have every where preferred governing the human mind by fear and terror rather than leading it by social and moral principles.--Accordingly we find in all governments penalties and stripes; Jails and gibbets are the engines of the Law, directed against the adult, while the young are permitted unrestricted and unchecked to progress in those very practices which lead to those engines. And if at any time we have seen governments encouraging the diffusion of learning, it has been that learning which act on the side of avarice, and not on the side of sociability--that learning which taught to calculate pence, and not weigh consequences--which improved the head and neglected the heart.

        The constitution of North Carolina cited.

        Is it not time to discard the habitude of imitation to such governments? Is it not time to carry our constitution into effect? Does not the forty-first article of our constitution which is a monument of the wisdom and philanthrophy of our fathers imperiously command that teachers shall be procured and paid by the publick to enable them to teach at moderate prices? How much more becoming a free Republican government like ours to reform practice by the mild influence of a moral education, than by humbling the mind into submission by servile fear?

        Education the basis of virtue.

        How much more becoming such a government to prevent crimes, by presenting them in an odious light in an early education, than to rely alone on severe punishment? Is not Education the basis of Virtue? Is not Virtue the basis of morals? And are not morals a surer basis to submission

to the laws than abject fear? Can anything but education elevate the mind to the dignity of virtue? Virtue may be inspired, it can never be commanded:--

        Ignorance the cause of much crime.

        All crimes proceed either from ignorance or temptation.--Charity for our species prompts us to believe that the greater portion of these crimes which checker society, spring from the first source.--The substituting knowledge for ignorance, by removing the cause will remove the effect.--And those crimes which spring from temptation will be annihilated, or very much lessened; for it is the province of a moral education to curb the efflux of inordinate passions and desire, at once the fountain and food of temptation.

        Example of Socrates.

        Did this reasoning stand in need of facts to support it, they abound in the history of man--Take the renowned Socrates among the Greeks, who was addicted, according to his Biographer, to every low and profligate vice:--Yet who ever more completely overcome his passions, by the principles of morality than Socrates? Whose name shines through the mouldering pages of antiquity with brighter panegeric than his?

        Example of Scotland and Switzerland.

        But why confine ourselves to individual examples? Whole, nations bear testimony, what education will do in preventing poverty and correcting vice. The benevolent Howard, who travelled over Europe to assuage the pain from vice, and mitigate the misery from poverty, affirms that he found fewer jails in Scotland and Switzerland, than in any other country in Europe. And that he everywhere found the peasantry poor, vicious, and miserable in proportion as they were ignorant.--All geographers and travellers tell us that the peasantry in Scotland and Switzerland are better educated than in any other country in Europe. Hence the disparity between poverty and vice, in these countries, compared with the rest of Europe. Let us compare the state of poverty and vice between Scotland and England. In Scotland, whose bleak Caladonian

Hills, without improvement from education, would scarcely afford habitation to man or hybernation to beast--yet here it is calculated that not more than one in forty derive assistance from charity.--Whilst in the rich irrigated vales of England, the mother of agriculture, the father of manufactories, and the mistress of commerce, it is calculated that one in seven are relieved by charity.

        Crime less in Scotland than England.

        The disparity between the crimes of the two countries, is still more apparent:--In Scotland it is calculated, that not more than one in Sixty Thousand in criminal--while in England it is computed that one in sixteen are criminals. These facts speak louder than volumes in praise of popular education.

        North Carolina can exempt herself from vice and poverty by education.

        North Carolina has advantages which should prompt her to emulate this happy state of exemption from vice and poverty, by disseminating education among the poor. She has no large towns from which eminate like the radii of a circle, Luxury, poverty and vice. Genius and fortune are more equally divided among her citizens--this real or apparent equanimity of circumstances is peculiarly favorable to the practice of those virtues, which honor the head and adorn the heart; and I cannot pass this part of the subject, without congratulating my fellow citizens on their general practice of these virtues; and adding my limited testimony, that fewer crimes are committed in Carolina, than in an equal population, on either side of the Atlantic.

        Plan of education.

        Influenced by these reasons which are suggested by charity, and plead by patriotism and humanity, I beg the liberty of recommending to the Legislature the adoption forthwith, of a system of public education, which promises universality in extent, facility in execution and economy in practice, contained in the subjoined resolutions.

        Three classes 186 young men to be educated to teach.

        1st. That three classes of one hundred and eighty six young men, between the age of fifteen and twenty years be annually and successively taught and prepared to teach

reading, writing, Arithmetic, English Grammar, Elements of Geometry, and Moral phylosophy at the public expense, they first giving bond to the Governor of the State for the time being, in the probable amount of the cost of their education, conditioned to teach in some county in this State, three years, at the moderate price of $8 per scholar, with liberty to enter into any other pursuit, after receiving their education, by cancelling their bond or so much as remains due, in proportion to the time they wish to avoid teaching. The first class to commence in 1818, or as soon thereafter as convenient. The second class 12 months after the first, and the third class 12 months thereafter.

        Overseers of the poor to select poor boys to be educated.

        2d. That the overseer of the Poor, in each and every county, be instructed to enter each and every parishioner and pauper, between the age of 10 and 15 years, whose parents or next of kin are unable to pay the moderate price of tuition, to such schools as may be thus established in their neighborhood; and that they be directed to pay such charges, as parish charges have heretofore been paid.

        Board of literature in each county to recommend young men.

        3d. That the first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions held in 1818, in each county appoint not less than 5 or more than 12 prudent, intelligent men, in the respective counties who shall constitute a Board of Literature, to continue in office 3 years, and who shall have power to fill vacancies, occasioned by resignation, death or removal, and whose duty it shall be to invite and recommend intelligent young men, of their respective counties to enter into the above class, to take their bonds as above conditioned, and transmit them to the clerk's office, in their respective counties: And further it shall be their duty to superintend and to aid the general operation of this plan.

        District trustees of public instruction composed of county boards to conduct schools to educate teachers.

        4th. It shall be the duty of this Board of Literature appointed as above, at their first meeting to elect one of their members, who shall constitute with others similarly elected in each county, in the district, a Board of Trustees

of Public Instruction, for their respective districts; who shall receive a commission from the Gov'r of this State for the time being, investing them with similar power and rights as have already been granted by law to Trustees of Literary Institutions, investing them with the additional power to select the scites within their district where the said Literary establishments shall be located; to contract for a house suited to the above purposes; to employ teachers; to superintend the Stewarts department; and all other powers necessary to carry the above object into operation. It shall further be the duty of said Board of Trustees to report to the Governor of the State the condition and progress of said schools under their charge annually; to grant diplomas, or certificates of proficiency in a neat elegant style, on parchment or vellum paper, to such scholars as are prepared to teach. And it shall further be the duty of the said Board of Trustees, semi-annually to lay before the Gov. for the time being, a statement of the amount necessary for the institution over which they shall preside, and it shall be the duty of the Governor to issue his warrant to the Treasurer for the amount that shall appear to be requisite.

        Each judicial district to have one school, cost to be paid out of public treasury.

        5th. That a school for the reception of this class be established in each Judicial District of this State, apportioning to each school a proportionate number of Scholars, according to the population of each District, and the Stewart's department be furnished and supplied out of the Public Treasury. Supposing it will require 3 years to prepare each class to teach, and by thus establishing the schools for their tuition, the cost of the State is not expected to exceed $50 the first year per scholar; $40 the second; $30 the third and succeeding years. Upon this supposition, the subjoined table will show the amount of cost, and the extent of operation of this plan

        

Date.	Classes.	Number of Scholars.	Rate Per Scholar.	Annual Cost.	Number of Teachers.	Time of Teaching.	No Scholars Per Teacher.	Number Annually Taught.	Grand Total.
1818	1	186	50	$9,300	_____	_____	_____	_____	_____
1819	2	372	40	14,880	_____	_____	_____	_____	_____
1820	3	558	30	16,740	186	3	25	4,650	13,950
1821	3	372	30	11,160	372	2	25	9,300	18,600
1822	3	186	30	5,580	558	1	25	13,950	13,950
1823	3	186	30	Dit to	_____	_____	_____	_____	_____
				57,660	per Scholar $1.24			_____	46,500

This table does not credit for 1,558 teachers which ought to be added to the number of 46,500 youths taught, which would reduce the price to $1.22 each for three years' tuition, or 40 cents annually to the State.

        Remarks on economy of the plan.

        Your Commissioner begs leave to make a few remarks on the foregoing Table and Plan of Education. 1st. On the economy of the plan. (a) When it is recollected that such is the benign influence of the Christian religion, which so happily pervades our country; that it cannot be doubted that there is a religious denomination in our Country, possessing commodious meeting houses in each district who would refuse tendering them, to the board of Trustees of Publick Instruction, to be converted into Academies at the moderate price of building chimnies.

        And when it is also recollected the facility and cheapness with which commodious log houses can be built in their vicinity for the accommodation of their classes, it cannot be supposed that the expense of educating these classes will exceed the amount expressed in the Table. From which amount, it is evident that for $57,660, expended in five years, the state will have taught 558 teachers in whose services the State will have an interest for three years, and 46,500 scholars, which to the state will not exceed $1.22 each for three years tuition. Education is never communicated except through teachers; the State therefore, if she promotes education, must either

raise her teachers or hire them, where they can be found; if the latter, it will be a moderate calculation, to estimate the salaries she will be obliged to give, to obtain such talents and learning, as she ought to encourage in teaching at $500 each--if she hires 558 teachers, then, even for one year, it will cost her $279,000.

        Remarks on facility in operation.

        2d. Its facility in operation.--The beneficial operation of this plan will be felt in the fourth year, when the first class leaves school; and commences teaching, by beginning that competition which will be completed in the fifth and sixth year, when all the classes will be in operation, which will keep it securely up after the first impediment is removed. For it is the fond hope and expectation of your Commissioner, that by educating such a vast number of youths whose talents might have wasted their blossoms in the desert air, abilities will be unfolded which will qualify and prompt their possessors for future teachers, and consequently all future expense to the State will be saved.

        "Diffusable operation" of the plan.

        3d. Its diffusable operation.--In turning out these young teachers, stimulated by the never slumbering passion, self-interest, under the unerring guide of moral obligation they will penetrate into the remotest corner of every county, in searching for schools. They will be invited, and their schools will be profitable in proportion to their talents, skill and assiduity.--This is a strong guarantee to the plan.

        Other remarks on the plan.

        Calculation showing how much the plan will save the state.

        It is impossible to do justice to the principle or its detail in these few lines--But your honorable body will redily perceive that should the expense be incurred, and the State disappointed in receiving the services of their teachers, it is manifest that the money will have been loaned to indigent young men for the acquirement of an education, they could not possibly acquire without its aid. For when it is considered that the disabilities which constitute the difference between minor and adult age, in civil

law are imposed for the benefit of the minor, the purchasing, under the condition herein proposed, an education which will introduce him into a profession, honorable and lucrative, and not like other professions and trades overstocked--they will not hesitate to remove the disability of the minor; to give his bond for this particular object--and if the Legislature deem it necessary the bond may be taken with security, to bear interest--But should the plan go into operation, its advantages should be incalculable. Shall we estimate its value by comparing it with other systems of popular education? While all which have heretofore been proposed has been limited to the poorer classes of citizens this will benefit all; the rich as well as the poor, by turning out such a number of decent young men who are master teachers, in the most useful branches of learning, to find schools wherever they are wanted:--Or shall we calculate its value by saving of money to the State? The average price of Tuition is now $15 or $20 per Scholar: this scheme will reduce it to $8 to the parent. and 40 cts. to the State, thereby saving $11.60 cts. on every scholar. The scheme proposes to educate 46,500 children, $11.60 cts. saved on each scholar, will be a clear saving to the state of $539,400.--Or shall we look around on the rising generation to estimate its value? What perfect forms--what sparkling eyes--what sprightly minds do we see destined by the hard grasp of poverty, to linger in the dust, unless elevated by education. Or shall we look around on the aged to behold the sad effects of the want of education? See the growing list of parishioners hanging on the cold hand of frigid charity! How different their situation would have been, had half the sums which are now given them in alms, been bestowed on them in an early charitable education? See the multiplication of vices and crimes keeping pace with the declension of learning in our State! View the criminal hurried heedlessly and uncalled for before his God! by those laws

which punish, but do not prevent crimes. What would his destiny have been, had his mind, in early youth, been enlightened by the moral precepts of a moral Education?

All of which is respectfully submitted by

JOHN M. WALKER,
one of the Commissioners on the Plan of Public Education.

        --Unpublished Legislative Documents, 1817.