The History of Education Part 68

Notwithstanding the statements of the Declaration of Independence, the change came but slowly. Up to 1815 but four States had granted the right to vote to all male citizens, regardless of property holdings or other somewhat similar restrictions. After 1815 a democratic movement, which sought to abolish all cla.s.s rule and all political inequalities, arose and rapidly gained strength. In this the new States to the westward, with their absence of old estates or large fortunes, and where men were judged more on their merits than in an older society, were the leaders. As will be seen from the map, every new State admitted east of the Mississippi River, except Ohio (admitted in 1802), where the New England element predominated, and Louisiana (1812), provided for full manhood suffrage at the time of its admission to statehood. Seven additional Eastern States had extended the same full voting privileges to their citizens by 1845, while the old requirements had been materially modified in most of the other Northern States. This democratic movement for the leveling of all cla.s.s distinctions between white men became very marked, after 1820; came to a head in the election of Andrew Jackson as President, in 1828; and the final result was full manhood suffrage in all the States. This gave the farmer in the West and the new manufacturing cla.s.ses in the cities a preponderating influence in the affairs of government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 199. DATES OF THE GRANTING OF FULL MANHOOD SUFFRAGE Some of the older States granted almost full manhood suffrage at an earlier date, retaining a few minor restrictions until the date given on the map. States shaded granted full suffrage at the time of admission to the Union.]

EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EXTENSION OF SUFFRAGE. The educational significance of the extension of full manhood suffrage to all was enormous and far-reaching.

There now took place in the United States, after about 1825, what took place in England after the pa.s.sage of the Second Reform Act (p. 642) of 1867. With the extension of the suffrage to all cla.s.ses of the population, poor as well as rich, laborer, as well as employer, there came to thinking men, often for the first time, a realization that general education had become a fundamental necessity for the State, and that the general education of all in the elements of knowledge and civic virtue must now a.s.sume that importance in the minds of the leaders of the State that the education of a few for the service of the Church and of the many for simple church members.h.i.+p had once held in the minds of ecclesiastics.

This new conception is well expressed in the preamble to the first (optional) school law enacted in Illinois (1825), which declares:

To enjoy our rights and liberties, we must understand them; their security and protection ought to be the first object of a free people; and it is a well-established fact that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom, which was not both virtuous and enlightened; and believing that the advancement of literature always has been, and ever will be the means of developing more fully the rights of man, that the mind of every citizen in a republic is the common property of society, and const.i.tutes the basis of its strength and happiness; it is therefore considered the peculiar duty of a free government, like ours, to encourage and extend the improvement and cultivation of the intellectual energies of the whole.

UTTERANCES OF PUBLIC MEN AND WORKINGMEN. Governors now began to recommend to their legislatures the establishment of tax-supported schools, and public men began to urge state action and state control. An utterance by De Witt Clinton, for nine years governor of New York, may be taken as an example of many. In a message to the legislature, in 1826, defending the schools established, he said:

The first duty of government, and the surest evidence of good government, is the encouragement of education. A general diffusion of knowledge is a precursor and protector of republican inst.i.tutions, and in it we must confide as the conservative power that will watch over our liberties and guard them against fraud, intrigue, corruption, and violence. I consider the system of our common schools as the palladium of our freedom, for no reasonable apprehension can be entertained of its subversion as long as the great body of the people are enlightened by education.

After about 1825 many labor unions were formed, and the representatives of these new organizations joined in the demands for schools and education, urging the free education of their children as a natural right. In 1829 the workingmen of Philadelphia asked each candidate for the legislature for a formal declaration of the att.i.tude he would a.s.sume toward the provision of "an equal and a general system of education" for the State.

In 1830 the Workingmen's Committee of Philadelphia submitted a detailed report (R. 315), after five months spent in investigating educational conditions in Pennsylvania, vigorously condemning the lack of provision for education in the State, and the utterly inadequate provision where any was made. Seth Luther, in an address on "The Education of Workingmen,"

delivered in 1832, declared that "a large body of human beings are ruined by a neglect of education, rendered miserable in the extreme, and incapable of self-government." Stephen Simpson, in his _A Manual for Workingmen_, published in 1831, declared that "it is to education, therefore, that we must mainly look for redress of that perverted system of society, which dooms the producer to ignorance, to toil, and to penury, to moral degradation, physical want, and social barbarism." Many resolutions were adopted by these organizations demanding free state- supported schools. [8]

IV. ALIGNMENT OF INTERESTS, AND PROPAGANDA

THE ALIGNMENT OF INTERESTS. The second quarter of the nineteenth century may be said to have witnessed the battle for tax-supported, publicly controlled and directed, and non-sectarian common schools. In 1825 such schools were still the distant hope of statesmen and reformers; in 1850 they had become an actuality in almost every Northern State. The twenty- five years intervening marked a period of public agitation and educational propaganda; of many hard legislative fights; of a struggle to secure desired legislation, and then to hold what had been secured; of many bitter contests with church and private-school interests, which felt that their "vested rights" were being taken from them; and of occasional referenda in which the people were asked, at the next election, to advise the legislature as to what to do. Excepting the battle for the abolition of slavery, perhaps no question has ever been before the American people for settlement which caused so much feeling or aroused such bitter antagonisms. The friends of free schools were at first commonly regarded as fanatics, dangerous to the State, and the opponents of free schools were considered by them as old-time conservatives or as selfish members of society.

Naturally such a bitter discussion of a public question forced an alignment of the people for or against publicly supported and controlled schools, and this alignment of interests may be roughly stated to have been about as follows:

_I. For Public Schools._ Men considered as: 1. "Citizens of the Republic."

2. Philanthropists and humanitarians.

3. Public men of large vision.

4. City residents.

5. The intelligent workingmen in the cities.

6. Non-taxpayers.

7. Calvinists.

8. "New England men."

_II. Lukewarm, or against Public Schools._ Men considered as: 1. Belonging to the old aristocratic cla.s.s.

2. The conservatives of society.

3. Politicians of small vision.

4. Residents of rural districts.

5. The ignorant, narrow-minded, and penurious.

6. Taxpayers.

7. Lutherans, Reformed-Church, Mennonites, and Quakers.

8. Southern men.

9. Proprietors of private schools.

10. The non-English-speaking cla.s.ses.

THE WORK OF PROPAGANDA. To meet the arguments of the objectors, to change the opinions of a thinking few into the common opinion of the many, to overcome prejudice, and to awaken the public conscience to the public need for free and common schools in such a democratic society, was the work of a generation. To convince the ma.s.ses of the people that the scheme of state schools was not only practicable, but also the best and most economical means for giving their children the benefits of an education; to convince propertied citizens that taxation for education was in the interests of both public and private welfare; to convince legislators that it was safe to vote for free-school bills; and to overcome the opposition due to apathy, religious jealousies, and private interests, was the work of years. In time, though, the desirability of common, free, tax- supported, non-sectarian, state-controlled schools became evident to a majority of the citizens in the different American States, and as it did the American State School, free and equally open to all, was finally evolved and took its place as the most important inst.i.tution in the national life working for the perpetuation of a free democracy and the advancement of the public welfare.

For this work of propaganda hundreds of School Societies and Educational a.s.sociations were organized; many conventions were held, and many resolutions favoring state schools were adopted; many "Letters" and "Addresses to the Public" were written and published; public-spirited citizens traveled over the country, making addresses to the people explaining the advantages of free state schools; many public-spirited men gave the best years of their lives to the state-school propaganda; and many governors sent communications on the subject to legislatures not yet convinced as to the desirability of state action. At each meeting of the legislatures for years a deluge of resolutions, memorials, and pet.i.tions for and against free schools met the members.

The invention of the steam printing press came at about this time, and the first modern newspapers at a cheap price now appeared. These usually espoused progressive measures, and tremendously influenced public sentiment. Those not closely connected with church or private-school interests usually favored public tax-supported schools.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Explain why the development of a national consciousness was practically necessary before an educational consciousness could be awakened.

2. Show why it was natural, suffrage conditions considered, that the early interest should have been in advanced education.

3. Why did the Sunday-School movement prove of so much less usefulness in America than in England?

4. Show the a.n.a.logy between the earlier school societies for educational work and other forms of modern a.s.sociative effort.

5. Explain the great popularity of the Lancastrian schools over those previously common in America.

6. What were two of the important contributions of the Infant-School idea to American education?

7. Why are schools and education much more needed in a country experiencing a city and manufacturing development than in a country experiencing an agricultural development?

8. Show how the development of cities caused the old forms of education to break down, and made evident the need for a new type of education.

9. Show how each extension of the suffrage necessitates an extension of educational opportunities and advantages.

10. Explain the alignment of each cla.s.s, for or against tax-supported schools, on historical and on economic grounds.

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying _Book of Readings_ the following ill.u.s.trative selections are reproduced:

307. Fowle: The Schools of Boston about 1790-1815.

308. Rhode Island: Pet.i.tion for Free Schools, 1799.

309. Providence: Rules and Regulations for the Schools in 1820.

310. Providence: A Memorial for Better Schools, 1837.

311. Bourne: Beginnings of Public Education in New York City.

312. Boston Report: Advantages of the Monitorial System.

313. Wightman: Establishment of Primary Schools in Boston.

314. Boston: The Elementary-School System in 1823.

315. Philadelphia: Report of Workingmen's Committee on Schools.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. Just what advantages for boys and for girls existed in Boston (307 a, b) before the creation of the reading schools?

2. What improvements and additions did the reading schools (307 c) introduce?

3. State the main features of the Rhode Island pet.i.tion (308) of 1799.