In compliance with this wise recommendation, Senator Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia, was made chairman of the committee, which reported a bill, embodying what were believed to be the best features of those systems which had been most successful in other States, and at the session of 1834 it passed both branches of the Legislature with a unanimity rarely equaled in legislation. The bill was approved by the Governor April 1, 1834.
Although the school bill was adopted with comparative unanimity, it was at once attacked by a storm of opposition in certain sections of the State. The opposition was well crystallized when the Legislature convened in the fall of 1834.
Governor Wolf’s message was firm, but the members had been flooded with petitions for the repeal of the measure.
On April 11, 1835, Thaddeus Stevens, by a memorable speech and a remarkable parliamentary effort, swayed the opposition, and by a vote of 55 to 30 successfully defended the schools when threatened with destruction.
Thus public education in Pennsylvania was saved; but Governor Wolf, who had advocated it so strenuously, was defeated for a third term by Joseph Ritner.
Retiring from the gubernatorial chair, he was appointed by President Jackson in 1836, to the office of First Comptroller of the Treasury. After holding this position for two years he was appointed by President Van Buren to be Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which he held until his death on March 11, 1840.
Lands Set Apart for Soldiers of Revolution,
March 12, 1783
The soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line who served in the War of the Revolution were by act of legislation entitled to wild lands of the State and a large area of the northwestern portion of the State north of the depreciation lands and west of the Allegheny River was set apart and surveyed to the officers and soldiers.