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 institu tions of the past. The second phase is to be seen as the result of private benevolence. Clark, Cornell, Vassar, and Johns 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 North-Western States offered the best field for the study of the operation of this principle. More than twenty years ago, while then a 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 generation. 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 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 pertained as well to schools of higher grades. Since then, we think the discussion has closed and the question, "What sort of schools ought the State to keep," is answered in the States of the North-West 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 of thought.

It 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 recognized 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 one 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 establish a public in

stitution for classical learning, even before the State became a member of the Union. Gen. 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 steam-boat made its trial trip on the Hudson; it was but three years after Jefferson had completed his purchase of Louisiana, an event so freighted with future consequences 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,

History of Education in Wisconsin.

Commissioner.

The Wisconsin monograph was executed under the supervision of Prof. William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, by one of his advanced graduate students, Mr. David Spencer, who, amid the rich historical collections of Madison, had excellent materials for his constructive work. The accompanying letter, submitted when the monograph was officially approved for publication by the Secretary of the Interior, will suggest the general interest and character of the work:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., October 25, 1888.

The Honorable THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the manuscript of the History of Higher Education in Wisconsin. The preface will explain the nature of this work, which was prepared under the supervision of the most accomplished historian of the West, Prof. William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, aided by Mr. David Spencer, one of the instructors in that institution.

This is the first of a series of monographs relating to higher education in the group of north-western States composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and was undertaken with the approval and by the direction of the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, late Secretary of the Interior. It will prove a very valuable addition to the educational history of the country.

I respectfully recommend that the same be printed as a Circular of Information of

this Office.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. H. R. DAWSON,
Commissioner.

Object of this Series of Monographs.

The foregoing abstracts and illustrations of completed monographs will show the nature of the work now in progress. A third block of States in the South-West and along the Gulf of Mexico has been distributed among competent educational specialists, resident in or native of that region. A fourth and larger group is that beyond the Missis sippi and including all the States between that river and the Pacific Ocean.

The educational history of each State has been intrusted to competent hands, and the returns already promise a rich harvest of interesting experience. Whoever writes the history of schools, colleges, and universities in any of the States of the American Union necessarily writes, to a considerable extent, the history of culture and social prog. ress in that State; for with educational institutions is bound up more of the intellectual and moral interests of the Commonwealth than with any other class of public institutions, excepting perhaps the church. Among all the peculiar and splendid provisions of that justly celebrated Ordinance of 1787, passed by the aid of Southern votes in the interest of north-western colonization, there is nothing grander than the words, "Schools and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged" (Journal of Congress, IV, 753). Educational and moral forces were extended across a continent by the instrumentality of good laws, and by the efficient service of pioneers in the church and state. This movement forms a chapter of American history not yet fully written, but it is worthy of a special investigation and literary treatment.

The aim of this series of documents is to present the educational history of the several States in such a manner as to awaken or revive among our citizens an interest in the great work of education, while affording suggestions of practical value to those actually engaged therein. The monographs thus far published have been received with singular favor by all real friends of popular education, whether in its rudimen tary or higher forms. Particular pains have always been taken to show the intimate and necessary relation between the higher sources of learning and the broadening rivers of popular instruction. Although the special object of the series is to trace out the history of colleges and universities in regions where such a task has never before been systematically attempted, nevertheless considerable attention has been given. to common schools and secondary education. Some day, perhaps, these latter veins of popular interest will be worked more fully, although there can hardly be such picturesque variety of interest as is afforded by our American colleges and universities.

If the history of higher education in the West and South is almost unknown, because it is not yet written, the colleges of New England. and of the States along the Northern Atlantic sea-board have, in most cases, an established fame and, in some cases, an extensive literature. In fact, the materials are so rich and voluminous that there is an em

barrassment of riches for any investigator in these ancient fields. And yet there is great need of compact and readable accounts of the higher educational experience of States like Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Most of the published histories of Northern colleges are burdened with an excess of personal and antiquarian details of no permanent interest, except perhaps to the trustees, faculty, and alumni of individual colleges. The histories of educational institutions, like the histories of towns, are sometimes written for a peculiar constituency. The monographs, prepared under the national auspices of the Bureau of Education, are intended not so much for the benefit of particular institutions as for the average and enlightened citizen, in short for the greatest good of the greatest num ber. Accordingly, the local history of our older colleges will be rewritten from State and National points of view. An attempt will be made to give the salient features in the higher educational life of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. While holding the larger public interest in mind, the various writers will endeavor to make their reports truly representative, although within modest limits.

Throughout the entire series these main ideas have been emphasized: (1) The higher education, without neglect of primary and secondary

interests.

(2) Presentation of the subject in State monographs, at once representing the highest educational aims while conserving local and sectarian in

terests.

(3) Illustrations of monographs by plates and engravings, showing pictorially the institutions described, with their libraries, laboratories, and educational apparatus, as well as their external architecture.

(4) Bibliographies, indicating to students and future historians of American education the routes already traversed, suggesting the wealth of material still available, and showing to all special enquirers the way to faller information on subjects that may be briefly sketched.

(5) Description and narrative, rather than mere mathematical statistics, which have their proper place in the Annual Reports of the Bureau of Education, but are not so appropriate for other kinds of publication. (6) State unity, with local varieties in the grouping of higher educational institutions.

(7) The representative principle in the selection of writers and the treatment of institutions.

(8) Co-operation in the composition of State monographs.

(9) Editorial direction and critical supervision of all State returns, so that the treatment of institutions shall be in due proportion and in a strictly historical spirit.

(10) Responsibility to the Bureau of Education and the greatest possible economy in the conduct of the work.

All these principles, to the best of my knowledge and belief, have been faithfully and conscientiously observed. The work was begun

and has been carried forward by the Bureau for three years without any increase in its annual appropriations, and strictly within the letter and spirit of the law under which the Bureau was originally created. This Office was established in the year 1867 "to collect statistics and facts showing the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories." While the collection of educational statistics is one of the primary duties of the Bureau, the gathering of historical facts which alone can illustrate the educational progress of the country is a duty no less important. Indeed, the modern conception of "statistics," as developed by the present Commissioner of Labor, Col. Carroll D. Wright, is the historical conception. He said, in his Cambridge address to the American Historical and Economic Associations: "The statistician writes history. He writes it in the most concrete form in which history can be written, for he shows on tablets all that makes up the commonwealth."

History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education.

A more comprehensive research than any of those hitherto described has been prepared by Mr. F. W. Blackmar, of California, upon the subject of "Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in the United States." It is a comparative historical study of the policies pursued by the several States and the Nation at large in regard to the support of advanced learning. It does not assume to be a history of education in the United States, nor even the history of State institutions of a high grade, but rather the history of the relation of the state to higher education. The history of education is a history of ideas, of which the func tion of the state in advanced learning may be considered as one. The monograph aims to trace this idea in its development, and in its various relations and applications throughout the educational history of our country. To do this successfully requires careful discrimination as to what higher education really is; and as all the facts within the scope of the subject in hand can not be reproduced without enlarging the work to undue proportions, care must be exercised in selecting the material best adapted to clearly present the subject. In order to present the paper in a condensed form statistics have been freely used, which, though they may not give a high coloring to the work, will certainly enhance its usefulness to statesmen and educators.

The first part of the monograph treats of what may be termed national education. It presents in brief, early colonial education in general, the several policies of the States, the attitude of the country at large, and the rise of the national idea in education. It discusses the function of the state in higher education as shown in the sentiments and lives of the foremost statesmen and educators of the nation, and recounts the recent history of national education.

After reviewing the history of the great legislative acts, among which the Ordinance of 1787 and the Act of 1862 are most prominent, the sig