were under Presbyterian auspices, both church and schools being under the charge of missionaries, graduates of Princeton. For more than half a century Princeton influence was dominant in North Carolina. The most noted school for higher education in the colony was the classical school established at Charlotte in 1767 by Rev. Joseph Alexander, a graduate of Princeton. The community in which this school was located was noted for its intelligence. The school flourished, and to meet the demand of the growing and prosperous community it was decided to enlarge its scope. By an act of the Assembly it was chartered as Queen's College in 1770. It was in fact twice chartered, and the grant was twice repealed by royal proclamation. The principles of presbyterianism and democracy were not acceptable to George III. However, his disfavor had its natural results, for Charlotte came to be termed by Cornwallis "the hornets' nest of the Revolution." Queen's College continued to thrive, and in its halls were held the significant and decisive debates ending in the adoption of the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence of 1775.

Enough has been recited to show that the love of learning had taken deep root here and there, and was fast spreading among the colonists. Nearly a century before the Revolution, William and Mary's College had taken on new life. As early as 1660 the Virginia Assembly, moved by the growing spirit of the time, enacted that, "for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and the promotion of piety, there be land taken for a college and free schools." Subscriptions were also solicited, and they came from all classes in varying amounts. A quarter of a century later, certain wealthy planters subscribed £2,500. Royal aid and a charter were sought and obtained, with a grant of twenty thousand acres of land. The college became wealthy and prosperous. Jefferson and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence, three Randolphs, Monroe, and Chief Justice Marshall, were among its graduates.

In harmony with the spirit of the times, other colleges sprang into existence as the years went by: Yale, founded in 1701; the University of Pennsylvania in 1749; King's College, now Columbia, in 1754: Brown in 1764; Dartmouth in 1769; Queen's (Rutgers) in 1770. All these were pre-revolutionary, so that no less than

nine colleges were in active work prior to 1775, and no doubt hastened the belief "that all men are born free and equal," and established the determination to stand for that belief through sacrifice and suffering.

EARLY LEGISLATION BY CONGRESS FOR EDUCATION.

It is interesting to note the change in the American idea of education, its object and scope, as modified by time and events. In the early days the purpose was to educate men for the Christian ministry. As a natural result, of the nine colleges established prior to the Revolution, all but one, the University of Pennsylvania, were sectarian in their organization and management, and this one was upon a basis which embraced all denominations. But as time went on and the love of civil liberty, local self-government, and perhaps of independence, began to grow among the colonists, it became manifest to them that education must have a broader horizon in order to promote a growing fitness for self-government.

Men needed to become fitted for civil affairs as well as affairs ecclesiastical, for the service of the state as well as the church. So the friends of liberal education multiplied and were more aggressive. Not only the early New England statesmen, but in the more southerly localities such men as Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin, became its advocates. The eminent Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, voiced the spirit of the times, when in 1786 in a memorial to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, he maintained that a thorough system of popular instruction was "favorable to liberty, as freedom could only exist in the society of knowledge; that it favors just ideas of law and government; that learning in all countries promotes civilization and the pleasure of society; that it fosters agriculture, the basis of national wealth; that manufactures of all kinds owe their perfection chiefly to learning; that its beneficial influence is thus made co-extensive with. the entire scope of man's being, mortal and immortal, individual and social." And on a later occasion the same broad-minded man, addressing a member of Congress, said, "Let us establish schools in every township in the United States, and conform them to reason, humanity, and the state of society in America," and then

will "the generations which are to follow us realize the precious ideas of the dignity and excellence of republican forms of govern

ment."

One of Washington's maxims was, "Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

As one of the results of the tendencies of the times, it may be of interest to note that of the colleges established in the colonies before the Revolution, all but one were sectarian; of the four established during the Revolution, two were non-sectarian; and of the eleven established after that event and prior to the end of the century, eight were non-sectarian.

That education and sovereignty should be co-extensive is no new doctrine. It is the favorite maxim of aristrocracy the world ever, but aristocracy would have a restricted education, because it would have a restricted sovereignty. The fathers of the republic wished to clothe the people with education as well as sovereignty, and make them co-extensive by making both universal.

It will thus be seen that the American idea of education had expanded until it involved the welfare of the state as well as the welfare of the church. In fact the former would seem to be of primary importance in order to make possible the latter, securing to every man, through the state, the inestimable right to worship according to the dictates of his conscience.

Although we had at the date of our independence a liberal supply of colleges and preparatory schools, there was still a serious defect in our educational method. We were sadly lacking, except perhaps in New England, in schools for elementary instruction. The academies or grammar schools could fit advanced students for college, but we had no elementary schools to prepare them for this intermediate work. The theory of general education found no favor in the aristocratic social constitution of the mother country, and even in some of the colonies were to be found influences hostile to it. Planting the leaven of democracy among the people was followed by the natural development of its principles, especially in the direction of popular education, as essential to self-reliance and independent manhood.

After achieving our independence and before the adoption of the Constitution, the Continental Congress, in harmony with the growing spirit of equal privilege to all, seems to have assumed without question, that the government had the right and was vested with the power to meet the necessity of public education. So the question of the endowment of institutions of learning by the government, to aid the cause of education, met with no serious opposition in the Congress. The establishment of a common school system was first undertaken. In the ordinance of May 20, 1785, "for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory," this specific provision is found: "There shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools within said township." This endowment of 640 acres of land in each township six miles square, for the support of public schools within the township was the inception of the government policy to reserve certain sections of land for school purposes. This reservation for the support of schools was definitely provided for in the organization of each new State and Territory, until that of Oregon. In the act constituting the Territory of Orgeon, August 14, 1848, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Committee on Territories, inserted an additional grant for school purposes of the thirty-sixth section in each township, making the reservation for schools the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, or 1,280 acres, in each township, in all public land states and territories, thereafter organized. The grant was to be confirmed in the act of admission to the Union. Under such conditions have all public land states coming into the Union since that date been admitted. Minnesota, admitted in 1858, received her two sections in each township or about three million acres in all, for public schools, confirmed to her by the enabling act of February 26, 1857.

Congress, two years after providing by law for common schools, undertook the endowment of universities. In the act for the government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio River, passed July 13, 1787, this provision is found:

Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

By the act of July 23, 1787, in the "Powers to the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of Western Territory," it is provided:

That not more than two complete townships be given perpetually for the purpose of an university, to be laid off by the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the same shall be of good land, to be applied to the intended object by the Legislature of the State.

This inaugurated the plan of taking for the support of a state university at least two townships in each of the states containing public lands. In the legislation admitting the public land states into the Union, from the admission of Ohio in 1802, to the admission of Minnesota in 1858, grants of two townships, or 46,080 acres, for university purposes, are made. Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Minnesota are exceptions, each having more than two townships, the quantity granted to Minnesota being 82,640 acres. This was secured under the enabling act of Congress of February 26, 1857, and the acts of March 2, 1861, and July 8, 1870. The newer States and Territories have had or will have the benefit of this provision upon their admission into the Union.

LEGISLATION BY THE TERRITORY OF MINNESOTA FOR SCHOOLS AND A

UNIVERSITY.

The Territory of Minnesota was organized under and by virtue of the act of Congress of March 3, 1849. The organic act provided for the appointment of a Governor and a Secretary, and for the election of a Legislative Assembly of two houses. It also contained a reservation of the sections of land numbered sixteen and thirtysix for school purposes. At the first session of the Assembly it enacted a school law of liberal provision for carrying out the objects of the reservation.

Governor Ramsey, in his message to the Legislature that assembled in January, 1851, called attention to the importance of establishing a university, and recommended the Legislature to memorialize Congress for a grant of 100,000 acres of land for its endowment. Acting upon this recommendation, the Legislature passed an act, approved February 19, for the establishing of a university to be styled the University of Minnesota. The act provided