of opinion. The discussion on that subject runs back at least to Plato Between the state of the public mind on this theme a hundred years ago and the prevailing opinion of to-day, a wide and significant dif ference is to be distinguished. In the public conception of the relation of the State to education, there have been many changes and much growth. The evolution of the State university, one of the most recent of educational phenomena, and also one of the most interesting, is the outcome of these changing opinions. It is the origin and history of State institutions for higher learning, to which this sketch directs especial attention. For this study the States of the Northwest offer a productive and peculiar field. Those who are interested in studying the principle of State control of education will find in such a sketch as this some interesting illustrations and some useful experience. The educational history of. Indiana will serve to show how dominant is the idea that all functions of education have come to be vested in the State. At the time these western Territories were settled, and the first of their States was admitted to the Union, it was a dominant idea in the public mind that primary education might well be promoted by the State, but that the higher education should be left to the control of religious denominations, or to private benevolence. It was generallyunderstood that most of the great universities of the world had been established by the church, or by the king as the kind parental guardian of his people. It was forgotten that whatever church or prince had to give was derived for the most part from the people at large. Says President Charles Kendall Adams of Cornell University: "Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Prague, Salamanca, and Cambridge were endowed in some cases by the church, in others by kings and princes,' but in all cases with moneys which came directly or indirectly from the masses of the people. A peculiarity of the situation at the beginning of our national era was the fact that, while the State was inclined to keep its hold on the education of children, it appeared to be not unwilling to abandon its direction of the education of youth. In colonial and provincial days, the State, as we have seen, had all grades of education under its fostering care, but now that the churches began to contend with one another for the occupancy of the field in higher education, the State showed an unmistakable tendency to leave the endowment of the higher grades of schools to the churches. The doctrine was often put forward, and soon came to be very generally held, that the moral and religious character of students in the higher schools of learning would be unsafe unless such schools were under the direct control of the religious denominations-a doctrine built up on the singular postulate that children, so long as they are at an age that is peculiarly susceptible to religious impressions, may safely be left under the guidance of State schools, while at the moment they emerge from that age and enter upon a period less susceptible to such impressions, they must be under a more careful religious guidance than any which schools established by the State can afford." This conditon of the public mind at the time of the earliest organiza tion of States in the Northwest Territory led in large measure to decen tralization of effort in the establishing and the fostering of colleges. A generation later, in the newer States, there was a tendency toward centralization in a single university. The result of the differing policies may be seen in the numerous colleges of Ohio on the one hand, and the development of the University of Michigan upon the other. Indiana illustrates the effects of these conflicting ideas. In the first part of the century her people were influenced largely by the early opinions. The tendency to-day is toward more vigorous State support, and toward centralization of effort. A study of such an educational history can not fail to be profitable to the student of educational problems. Presi dent Adams points out the significant fact, that there were two great statesmen of those early days, who, above all, appreciated the paramount importance of the establishment by the State of institutions for higher learning; who looked forward to an education of the people, for the people, and by the people. One of these statesmen was the founder of the University of Virginia; the other entertained the loftier idea of a National University at the National Capital,1 In the history of institutions for higher learning there are three phases to be easily distinguished. In the first place, they may be established, endowed, and controlled by religious denominations. This has been the case with most of the great institutions of the past. The second phase is to be seen as the result of private benevolence. Clark, Cornell, Vassar, and Johus Hopkins are examples! In the third phase we see the college and the university founded and maintained by the State. President Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, in a recent lecture at that institution on "The Relation of the State to Education,” called attention to the pertinent fact that one tendency in higher education is very largely toward State maintenance and control; and he asserted that the northwestern States offered the best field for the study of the operation of this principle. More than twenty years ago, while professor in Yale College, in a discussion of the question, "What sort of schools ought the State to keep," President Gilman said: "The State may say to private parties, you may maintain the schools, and we will inspect them; you shall have the responsibility, and we will bestow encouragement and bounties. This would give us universal private schools. Or the State may say to the churches, you may do this work in your own religious way, and we will oversee and assist your efforts. This would give us universal parish schools. Neither of these plans stands any chance of adoption among us, at least in this genera tion. Again, the State may say, we will maintain schools for the destitute and neglected only, and all who can afford to pay must look out for themselves. This would establish pauper schools-like pauper homes in the almshouses. Or, finally, the State may establish Public Schools 1 Jefferson and Washington. adapted to the wants of all. The discussion is practically narrowed to a choice between these two conflicting theories." The essay from which I have quoted related chiefly, if not entirely, to the subject of common public schools for training in the elementary branches. But the same question pertains as well to schools of higher grades. Since then, we think the discussion has closed and the ques tion, "What sort of schools ought the State to keep," is answered in the States of the Northwest by the unquestioned establishment of public schools of all grades open to all the people. The history of this establishment includes the origin and development of the State University, the State Normal School, and the State Agricultural and Mechanical Institute. This sketch is a study along these lines. The sketch calls attention also to the development and value of the common school system. A writer in the English Westminster Review, for January, 1887, says: "The distinguishing feature of public education in America is that it is free. Tuition in all public schools, whether elementary or high, is essentially gratuitous; in no other country has it been so clearly recog nized that it is the duty of the State to provide free instruction for all the children of its people." Emile de Laveleye, in speaking of the United States some years ago, said: "It is not simply true that every oue knows how to read, but every one does read for purposes of instruction, entertainment, participation in public affairs, direction of labor, gaining of money, or investigation of religious truth. The American Union in consequence uses up as much paper as France and England combined. Free to all, open to all, receiving upon its benches children of all classes, and all religious denominations, the Public School obliterates social distinctions, deadens religious animosities, roots out prejudices and antipathies, and inspires in all a love of their common country, and a respect for free institutions. It is the American public school which enables their people to assimilate so great a number of foreigners every year into their nationality." The writer of this monograph believes that in no State is the American common school system to be seen to better advantage than in Indiana. The School Law of the State and its practical service have attracted favorable comment from various States of the Union, and professional educators frequently accord to it precedence over the laws of all other States. The scheme upon which the Indiana system operates and its official machinery are here presented. The monograph also traces the early struggles of pioneers to estab lish a public institution for classical learning, even before the State be-` came a member of the Union. General William Henry Harrison, at the "Boro of Vincennes," in 1807, became the President of the first Board of Trustees of the first institution of learning founded in Indiana Territory. This was the same year that Fulton's steamboat made its trial trip on the Hudson; it was but four years after Jefferson had completed his purchase of Louisiana, an event so freighted with future consquences to the Nation; scarcely a decade had elapsed since Great Britain had withdrawn her forces from north western soil; nearly a quarter of a century was to elapse before the opening of the National Road offered easy immigration to the West; and it was longer still till the railway and the locomotive should appear. Along the banks of the Ohio and the Wabash, and on the larger interior streams, lived a few thousand whites, while many Indian tribes lived in rude huts on the river banks or roamed the forests of the Territory. Tecumseh and the Prophet were yet to reach the fulness of their power. In these days, as this sketch shows, "with the howl of the wolf within hearing of their homes and the smoke of the wigwam within sight, the boys of the hardy settlers were learning to read, 'arma virumque cano."" The story of these times is surely not uninteresting in the history of education. I respectfully recommend that this valuable monograph be published at the earliest possible day. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, N. H. R. DAWSON, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C., April 11, 1889. SIE: I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of February 27, 1889, in which you recommend the publication of a monograph giving a sketch of higher education in the State of Indiana. Authority is hereby given for the publication of the monograph proIvided there are funds in sufficient amount, available for such purpose. Very respectfully, The COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. JOHN W. NOBLE, |