"In the United States the benevolence of the inhabitants has led to the establishment of Charity Schools, which, though affording individual advantages, are not likely to be followed by the political benefits kindly contemplated by their founders. In the country a parent will raise children in ignorance rather than place them in charity schools. It is only in large cities that charity schools succeed to any extent. These dispositions may be improved to the best advantage, by the Legislature, in place of Charity Schools, establishing Public Schools for the education of all children, the offspring of the rich and the poor alike."
[4] In 1821 the counties of Dauphin (Harrisburg), Allegheny (Pittsburg), Cumberland (Carlisle), and Lancaster (Lancaster) were also exempted from the state pauper-school law, and allowed to organize schools for the education of the children of their poor.
[5] Some 32,000 persons petitioned for a repeal of the law, 66 of whom signed by making their mark, and "not more than five names in a hundred," reported a legislative committee which investigated the matter, "were signed in English script." It was from among the parochial-school Germans that the strongest opposition to the law came.
[6] For Stevens's speech in defense of the Law of 1834, see Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1898-99, vol. I, pp. 516-24.
[7] By 1836 the new free-school law had been accepted by 75 per cent of the districts in the State, by 1838 by 84 per cent, and by 1847 by 88 per cent.
[8] This State had enacted an experimental school law, and made an annual state grant for schools, from 1795 to 1800. Then, unable to reënact the law, the system was allowed to lapse and was not reëstablished until the New England element gained control, in 1812.
[9] By his vigorous work in behalf of schools the first appointee, Gideon Hawley, gave such offense to the politicians of the time that he was removed from office, in 1821, and the legislature then abolished the position and designated the Secretary of State to act, ex officio, as Superintendent. This condition continued until 1854, when New York again created the separate office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
[10] When Connecticut sold its Western Reserve, in 1795, and added the sum to the Connecticut school fund, it was stated to be for the aid of "schools and the gospel." In the sales of the first national lands in Ohio (1,500,000 acres to The Ohio Company, in 1787; and 1,000,000 acres in the Symmes Purchase, near Cincinnati, in 1788), section 16 in each township was reserved and given as an endowment for schools, and section 29 "for the purposes of religion."
[11] The Public School Society continued to receive money grants, it being regarded as a non-denominational organization, though chartered to teach "the sublime truths of religion and morality contained in the Holy Scriptures" in its schools. In 1828 the Society was even permitted to levy a local tax to supplement its resources, it being estimated that at that time there were 10,000 children in the city with no opportunities for education.
[12] The question may be regarded as a settled one in our American States. Our people mean to keep the public-school system united as one state school system, well realizing that any attempt to divide the schools among the different religious denominations (the World Almanac for 1917 lists 49 different denominations and 171 different sects in the United States) could only lead to inefficiency and educational chaos.