It is equally well known, however, that this theocratic form was soon broken; and while the United States is beginning to find herself again approaching this mode of government, it is a remarkable fact, and one well worthy of our closest consideration, that the ancient theocracy of New England was broken by the power of the educational system there introduced. When this is read from the pages that follow, let the reader answer the question whether or not the repudiation of Protestant principles and the principles of republicanism by the United States in the nineteenth century is equally due to the present system. Bear in mind the question as we proceed.
The educational history of the United States may conveniently be studied in three sections; 1, colonial; 2, revolutionary; 3, nineteenth century.
I. The Colonial Period.
The founding of Harvard
Since Harvard College, the American Cambridge, “accomplished,” as Boone says, “a much needed work, with manifold wholesome reactions upon society and government, so that it has been affirmed, with show of truth, that ‘the founding of Harvard College hastened the Revolution half a century,’”[159] our study of the schools of the colonial period will center around this institution. It can be stated with safety that the history of Harvard, its leading men, and its varying attitude toward different Colonial problems, throws light on the development of the question of education at the time when the foundations of our national government were laid.
When Boston was but six years old, plans were laid for America’s first college. “Among the early educational leaders,” says Boone, “were such men as the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, John Cotton, and John Wilson, Jr.; all clergymen and all college-bred; Stoughton; Dudley, the deputy-governor, and, above all, ‘Winthrop, the governor, the guide and good genius of the colony.’ Such were the men ... of the infant colony.... Here were learning and character; world-wisdom and refinements of heart; breadth and wholeness of culture, such as could alone justify the boldness of their attempt.”[160] The institution was started in poverty, four hundred pounds being voted by the people. The high motive which prompted the enterprise was “an unbounded zeal for an education, that to them seemed not so much desirable as necessary, that ‘the light of learning might not go out, nor the study of God’s Word perish.’”
Object of Harvard to train ministers
The object of the school, as held by the founders, is well described by a Boston citizen, who writes thus in 1643 to some of his friends: “After we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and to perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Howard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning, then living among us) to give the one half of his estate ... toward the erecting of a College, and all his library.”
In the contemplation of a college by those noble men, the uppermost thought was how to gain an educated ministry. This object was lost sight of.