encouragement and patronage to those nurseries of piety and knowledge, the free schools, are without parallel in the history of this, or any other country. LETTER II. THE province charter from William and Mary, in 1691, ordained, "that the territories and colonies commonly called or known by the names of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the Colony of New Plymouth, the province of Main, the territory called Accada, or Nova Scotia; and all that tract of land lying between the said territories of Nova Scotia, and the said province of Main, be erected, united, and incorporated, into one real province, by the name of our Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." In this charter,* all grants before made to *«Provided, nevertheless, and we do for us, our heirs and successors, grant and ordain, that all and every such lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all other estates, which any person or persons, or bodies politick or corporate, towns, villages, colleges, or schools, do hold and enjoy, or ought to hold and enjoy, within the bounds aforesaid, by or under any grant or estate duly made or granted by any general court formerly held, or by virtue of any town, college, or school of learning, were confirmed. The laws which had been passed, under the colony charter of Massachusetts, for the regulation and support of free schools, were essentially confirmed, the first year after the province charter was received, by the following act of the " governer, council, and representatives, convened in general court or assembly." "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every town within this province, having the number of fifty householders or upwards, shall be constantly provided of a schoolmaster to teach children and youth to read and write; and where any town or towns have the number of one hundred families or householders, there shall also be a grammar school set up in every such town, and some discreet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues, procured to keep such school, every such schoolmaster to be suitably encouraged and paid by the inhabitants. And the selectmen and inhabitants of such towns respectively, shall take effectual care and make due provision for the settlement and maintenance of such schoolmaster and masters."* the letters patent herein before recited, or by any other lawful right or title whatsoever, shall be by such person and persons, bodies politick and corporate, towns, villages, colleges, or schools, their respective heirs, successors, and assigns forever, hereafter held and enjoyed, according to the purport and intent of such respective grant, under and subject nevertheless, to the rents and services thereby reserved or made payable, any matter or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding." [Province Charter.] *Prov. Laws, Chap. 13, sec. 4. These, together with the subsequent provisions, that grammar schoolmasters should be approved by the selectmen of the town, and the minister of the same, or of a neighbouring town, constituted all the legislative interference, which was deemed necessary to carry into effect the whole system. Indeed, laws were hardly necessary for such a purpose, in a community so deeply impressed with the importance of the subject. The colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, zealously emulated the older colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth, in their liberal policy for the encouragement of schools of learning and good morals. In Connecticut, every town was obliged by law to support a school for instruction in reading and writing, if the number of families amounted to fifty; and in every county town, a grammar school was instituted. 66 Large tracts of land were given and appropriated, by the legislature, to afford them a permanent support. While the resources of these colonies did not allow them to establish a college among themselves, they contributed liberally to the support of the college at Cambridge. Frequent contributions were made for that institution, and money was paid from their publick treasury. The inhabitants, for a series of years, educated their sons at that university. But the evil of sending their sons so far for an education, and a desire of multiplying the means of disseminating * Trumbull's Hist. Connecticut, Vol. i. p. 303. knowledge, induced them as early as 1654, to attempt the foundation of a college in New Haven. Though much interest was excited, and some liberal donations made, yet the patronage of the colonies was too inefficient for the magnitude of the object, and all their exertions ended in the establishment of a grammar school. Connecticut and New Haven, after a series of difficulties with each other, were, at length, united in one colony. In 1700, their united exertions established Yale College at New Haven. This institution originated with the clergy, and its management was, for some time, confined exclusively to them. It early received an efficient patronage, both from private and publick munificence. The sale of one hundred and seven thousand seven hundred and ninety-three acres of publick land, granted to Connecticut by Massachusetts, at the close of a long and obstinate controversy, afforded the colony an opportunity to add six hundred and eighty-three pounds to the funds of the college. The efforts of New Hampshire for the support of free schools, were more feeble, and suffered more interruptions, than those of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Dartmouth College,* at Hanover, had its origin from an Indian charity school in Lebanon, Connecticut. In 1770, it was removed to Hanover, and incorporated with the privileges of a college. Its * For a more full account of the origin and early history of this institution, see Adams' History of New England, p. 508; and Belknap's Hist. New Hampshire, Vol. ii, pp. 349–355. funds consist principally in lands, a great part of which are not yet productive. A college was founded in the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at nearly the same time the college was established in New Hampshire. These institutions, together with the primary and grammar schools, which have been before described, constitute all the publick provisions for education in New England, while it remained under colonial government. There is no period in the history of our country more interesting than that, while the colonies were struggling with the difficulties incident to a new settlement, and constantly manifesting their impatience of colonial dependence. There is no trait in their policy more important in its results upon the country, than their steady and efficient encouragement of the free schools. Though liable to frequent jealousies among themselves, and involved in constant and harassing wars with the natives, and the French colonies on their northern boundary, they still carried forward with few interruptions, the great work of making a moral and enlightened people. Though each of the colonies conducted its system of schools in a manner somewhat peculiar to itself; yet all proceeded upon the same general principle, which was to afford the means of learning to read and write, together with some knowledge of arithmetick, to every individual. With such a system, and so executed, few could be found so unfortunate as not to have learned the rudiments of reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetick. |