HERE was a marked increase in

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public interest in education during the last decade of the Eighteenth and the first quarter of the Nineteenth centuries. This was shown in several ways: in the establishment of new collegiate institutions, in the development of the academy, in improved provisions for the advanced education of women, in the institution of land grants for educational purposes, in the general effort by the National government to work out some stable educational system, in the active encouragement given to the cause by many leading public men, and in the appearance of practical educators working not only for the education of their pupils, but trying also to arouse people to the necessity for improved schools.

To the colleges existing in 1789 seven were added before the close of the century-three in Tennessee and

one each in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and North Carolina. For the period between 1800 and 1830 the record was even more notable and significant. These 30 years included the first marked development of the United States previous to the great wave of European immigration. In 18 States 33 colleges were established. With the exception of Pennsylvania, which had four, and New York, which had three, the original 13 States gave way to the newer commonwealths, especially those of the West - Ohio with five, Illinois with three and Kentucky, Vermont and Maine with two each.

During the next three decades immigration attained large proportions, the telegraph and railroads opened new territories to settlement, and the great westward distribution of population set in. With all this material expansion education kept pace. The new States particularly seemed to vie

with each other in their activities in this direction. Elementary and secondary education became more widely and more firmly established, and the institutions of higher learning grew in number, in size and facilities. From 1830 to 1865 180 collegiate institutions were founded. The energy and enterprise of the Middle West was still manifest, for of these 180, Ohio had 16, Iowa and Indiana 12 each, and Illinois 11.

For elementary education Virginia made her first general provision in 1818, when money was appropriated for the support of charity schools in various towns. The measure was not popular, however no more than the subsequent modifications of it in 1846 and other years. It was only after the Civil War that Virginia, in her new constitution of 1870, established a full State system of public schools. West Virginia set up a public school system immediately after the formation. of the State in 1861.

North Carolina and Pennsylvania were the first States to provide for schools in their constitutions. This the former did in 1817, but the system did not obtain a strong hold, and nothing definite in the way of legislation was really accomplished before 1839. The law, which provided for schools in each of 1,250 school districts, partly supported by funds from the State treasury, was the basis of school organization till the close of the Civil War. In its early statehood career South Carolina manifested special in

terest in education. Before 1826 32 academies had been instituted, while there were more than 9,000 pupils in the elementary schools. Still the schools were not sufficient in number, and only after the Civil War was an adequate public school system established. Georgia displayed a remarkable educational development in the first half-century. Six academies were in existence in 1800, 64 in 1829, and 186 in 1840. A legislative act of 1823 provided for the distribution of the sum of $500,000 among the free schools and academies of the State, and this was in a large measure responsible for the rapid increase in the number of educational institutions there.

Massachusetts schools did not show much progress under the workings of the school law of 1789. In 1826 the system was much improved and in 1834 a permanent school fund was established. Three years later (in 1837) came the greatest advance of the century in the creation of a State board of education, with Horace Mann, the famous educator, as the first secretary. This legislation inaugurated the educational revival out of which grew our National educational system. In its final analysis, the revival of 1837-1850, which has been recognized as the turning point in American educational progress, may be briefly summarized as the stimulation of public interest in improved supervision and administration, better school buildings, teachers of a higher

class, well-arranged courses of study, good text books, and in an advanced and uniform system.

Connecticut made many futile attempts to encourage public schools in the latter part of the Eighteenth and the early years of the Nineteenth centuries, but it was not until 1837 (when Henry Barnard was appointed secretary of the State board of education) that real progress began. School laws, which gradually worked out the problems of public school education, were enacted in Rhode Island in 1828 and 1843; in Maine in 1827, 1846, and 1854; in New Hampshire in 1808, 1828, 1846, and 1850; in Vermont in 1825, 1826, and 1874; in the District of Columbia in 1804, 1848, and 1862 (with colored schools established in the latter year); in Delaware in 1792, 1797, 1812, 1837, and 1865; in Pennsylvania in 1834 (when a State system was established) and in 1854; in New Jersey in 1816, 1824, 1831, 1839, and 1845; in Maryland in 1812, 1826, and 1865.

Even more rapid and more pronounced than in the older States was the educational advance in the Middle, Western, and other States. The work was started in Ohio where academies were incorporated in 1802 and public school laws enacted in 1821, 1837,

1853, and 1855. Indiana progressed especially in the matter of founding seminaries, of which there were 24 in 1843, several of which ultimately developed into universities or colleges. During that part of the century which immediately preceded the breaking

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out of the Civil War, the record of all the States and Territories west of the Alleghanies and the Rockies, including those of the Southwest, is not dissimilar. Immediately upon settlement, measures were taken to establish public educational institutions. In most cases the schools were poor affairs and the teaching sadly inefficient. But these conditions were quickly remedied by legislation demanded by public sentiment and the coöperation of the people in a cause everywhere recognized as supremely important. There were few if any public interests with which legislation in the several States of that period concerned itself more constantly and more effectively than with that of education.

In 1800 in eight representative States, North and South, there were 102 academies, distributed as follows: Maine, 5; New Hampshire, 10; Vermont, 10; Massachusetts, 17; New York, 19; Maryland, 5; North Carolina, 30; Georgia, 6. In 1820 the total in the same States was 265, distributed as follows: Maine, 20; New Hampshire, 18; Vermont, 24; Massachusetts, 19; New York, 33; Maryland, 24; North Carolina, 113; Georgia, 14. In 1840 the same States, exclusive of North Carolina and Georgia, had 426:

Maine, 31; New Hampshire, 59; Vermont, 22; Massachusetts, 78; New York, 176; Maryland, 40. In 1850 the number in all the States was 6,085,

distributed as follows: