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The measure received important aid from the recommendation of Morgan Lewis, who then filled the executive chair. The fund thus established produced an income, in 1810, of twenty-six thousand dollars; and Daniel D. Tompkins, then governor, in two successive annual speeches, urged the importance of an immediate organization of the common schools. A law was passed in 1811, authorizing the governor to appoint commissioners to devise a system for that purpose. Jedediah Peck, John Murray, junior, Samuel Russell, Roger Skinner, and Robert Macomb, were appointed such commissioners; and in 1812, they submitted to the legislature a report, which was adopted, and is the basis of the existing system of common schools.

The fund was increased in 1819, by various appropriations, which raised its productive capital to about $1,200,000. The new constitution, adopted in 1821, not only declared the school fund to be inviolable, and guarantied its perpetual application, but added to it all the unappropriated public lands. Forty thousand dollars were added to the fund in 1824; and in 1827, other appropriations were made to the amount of about $180,000.* In 1838, an annual appropriation of $110,000 was added to the income of the fund, and the principal was also considerably augmented. The invested and productive capital of that fund is now $2,036,625. The sum annually distributed from the state treasury in support of common schools, is $261,000. Adding to the principal the unsold lands, valued at $200,000, and principal moneys sufficient to yield an interest equal to the amount annually appropriated from the treasury, beyond the income of the invested and productive capital, the entire capital would be $5,820,000. The whole capital permanently invested for the support of education in colleges, academies, and common schools, including all endowments, contributions from the treasury, and moneys derived from taxation in the school districts, is $10,500,000.+

The chief features of the common school system, are the annual election of commissioners of common schools by the people in the several towns; the division of towns by the school commissioners, into school districts; the election of trustees in such school districts by the inhabitants thereof; the erection and

Report of A. C. Flagg, superintendent of common schools. + Governor's message, 1842.

maintenance of a school house in each district, with funds derived from the tax levied upon the inhabitants by the trustees, in pursuance of a resolution passed at an annual meeting of the inhabitants; the employment of teachers whose qualifications are approved by inspectors elected by the people; a contribution by means of taxation in each school district, of a sum equal to that apportioned to the district out of the public funds; the supplying of any deficiency in the funds necessary for the support of the schools, by the charging of tuition fees upon such parents and guardians as are of sufficient ability; the exemption of the poor from all charges for tuition fees; the maintenance of a school in each district, not less than four months in each year; the visitation and examination of schools by the inspectors, and by a deputy superintendent of common schools for the county, the latter officer being appointed by the supervisors; and a supervision and care of the entire school system of the state, by the secretary of state, who is superintendent of common schools, and to whom annual reports of the condition, progress, and statistics of each school district are made by the trustees thereof; the maintenance of schools wherever necessary for the education. of children of African descent; the maintenance of normal schools in the most flourishing academical institutions, for the instruction of teachers of both sexes; the publication and distribution to each school of a periodical journal, exclusively devoted to the cause of education and not of a sectarian or party character, and in which are published the laws of the state, the regulations established by the superintendent, and his decisions upon questions affecting the organization, administration, and government of the schools; and a comprehensive annual report to the legislature by the superintendent, of the condition of the schools throughout the state.*

The whole number of school districts in the state is 10,886, in which schools are maintained during an average period of eight months in each year. The number of children instructed is 603,583. The whole amount of money expended for the payment of wages of teachers is $1,043,000;† of which $560,000 are public money, and the remainder is contributed by individuals.

*Laws of New York, 1841.

In 1850, the whole number of children instructed has increased to 800,000; and the whole amount of money expended for schools to $1,322,696.24.-Ed.

† Annual report of S. S. Randall, deputy superintendent of common schools, 1842.

It is apparent that the efficiency of the public school system must depend in a great measure upon the ability, zeal, and efficiency of the superintendent of common schools. That office was filled in 1813, by the appointment of Gideon Hawley, who gave place in 1821 to Welcome Esleeck. Mr. Esleeck held the office only a few months; it then devolved upon John Van Ness Yates, who retired in 1826, when Azariah C. Flagg succeeded to that trust, and retained the same until 1833. Mr. Flagg was succeeded by John A. Dix, who gave place, in 1839, to John C. Spencer. Mr. Spencer retired in 1842, and the place is now filled by Samuel Young. To Gideon Hawley is justly ascribed the merit of organizing the system, and bringing it into successful operation; to John Van Ness Yates, that of an assiduous and enlightened administration; to John A. Dix, that of codifying and interpreting upon fixed and enlightened principles the vast body of school laws; and to Azariah C. Flagg, and John C. Spencer, high praise is awarded for earnest and well-directed efforts to remove obstacles which prevented the system from becoming such as its founders originally proposed it should be: a uniform plan of universal education, as well in the cities as in the country. The latter gentleman, during his occupancy of the office, induced the legislature to revise the entire system, and increase its efficiency and usefulness by important amendments and improvements, and especially by those which secure more effectual visitation of the common schools by the appointment of local superintendents. The enlightened efforts of George Clinton, of Lewis and of Tompkins, have been already acknowledged. Nor was less zeal exhibited by De Witt Clinton and William L. Marcy, successors in the executive office. To William A. Duer the system is much indebted, for his successful efforts in inducing the legislature to make the support of schools by the people, with public aid, compulsory.

The maintenance of school district libraries may now be regarded as a cardinal feature of the system of primary education; an improvement which, if not suggested, was brought into public favor through the patriotic efforts of James Wadsworth of Geneseo, aided and sustained by William L. Marcy, under whose administration this important project was carried into successful operation. Bountiful and widely-extended as the provision for this system seems to be, the people of the state of New York are

as yet scarcely enjoying its first fruits. When it is remembered that knowledge exerts a self-expanding and self-regenerating power, and that the relations not only among the several American communities, but between all regions of the earth, are becoming more and more intimate, it is perhaps not presumptuous to suppose that the ripened fruits of the plan are to be developed in the intellectual, moral, and social improvement of the whole human family.*

The first notice of a library which we meet, bears date a hundred and fourteen years ago; when an association in England, called the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," transmitted to Richard Montgomerie, governor of the province, a thousand volumes, a gift from Dr. Millington, rector of Newington. The society informed the governor, that the books were. intended as a library for the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and requested that the assembly would provide a depository. The subject was referred to the corporation of the city of New York, who assigned an apartment in the city-hall. In 1754, the sum of six hundred pounds was subscribed by an association in the city of New York, and expended in the purchase of seven hundred volumes of "new and well-chosen books." The society was incorporated in that year; and it was expected that its collection, containing the two libraries which have been mentioned, would, by further contributions, "become vastly rich and voluminous." The society still exists, and its library, now amounting to forty thousand volumes, proves that the expectations of its founders have been fully realized. Notwithstanding, however, the advantages thus enjoyed by the citizens of the embryo metropolis, the historian, in 1762, gave this unfavorable account of the intellectual condition of the colonists: "Their schools are in the lowest order; the instructors want instruction; and through a long shameful neglect of all the arts and sciences, the common speech is extremely corrupt, and the evidences of a bad taste, both as to thought and language, are visible in their proceedings public and private. There is nothing the ladies so generally neglect as reading, and indeed all the arts for the improvement

*Notes concerning common schools were received from Gideon Hawley, LL. D., and Samuel S. Randall, Esq., the deputy-general superintendent.

† American Gazetteer, 1762.

of the mind. a neglect in which the men have set the example.”*

The legislature, in 1796, passed an act by which, after reciting that a disposition for improvement in useful knowledge, and for procuring and erecting social and public libraries, had manifested itself in various parts of the state, and that it was of the utmost importance to the public that the sources of information should be multiplied, and institutions for that purpose encouraged and promoted, provision was made for the incorporation of public library associations. Valuable libraries were established under this law in many of the principal towns; and they were exempted by a subsequent act, and still remain free from taxation.

A state library, deposited in the capitol, was commenced in 1818. The law department therein contains 4,273 volumes; and the scientific, literary, and miscellaneous division contains 4,218 volumes. The collection has been enriched by very munificent donations from the government of Great Britain; and the selection, which has hitherto been made with great care, is now continually increased by means of annual legislative appropriations of about three thousand dollars.

But the most important public measure in relation to libraries was the act before referred to, by which the sum of $55,000 of public money was annually, for five years, devoted to the establishment of a school library in each of the eleven thousand school districts in the state. Each district was, moreover, obliged to raise a sum equal to that apportioned to it from the treasury; so that the amount devoted to the establishment of these collections, which, as they are distributed so as to bring a library within the reach of every family, may be called domestic libraries, is $550,000. The Messrs. Harper, publishers in New York, acting in harmony with the intentions of the legislature, have already issued from their press two hundred volumes, constituting a series of popular works, chiefly by native authors, on subjects in the various departments of science and literature, and especially designed for these libraries. Mr. Wadsworth, already honorably mentioned, continues to favor the enterprise by an annual contribution to the writers of such works as are

* American Gazetteer, 1762.

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