VERMONT. THE FIRST SCHOOLS. The first schools of Vermont existed before any legislative enactment was made by the State for the control of education. The systems which had existed in other parts of New England obtained here, and the town schools, similar to those in New Hampshire, were especially in vogue before and after the separation of Vermont from that province. Schools were supported and controlled by the communities in which they were situated, although the central legislative authority sanctioned by law as early as 1782 these local institutions. Even in the Constitution of 1793 the responsibility is thrown upon the local authorities, as it declares that "a competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for the convenient instruction of youth and one or more grammar schools to be incorporated and properly supported in each county."1 In 1794 the towns were authorized to support schools by a local tax, and at the same time a general law2 was passed to aid such schools by a landed endowment. The law provided that the lands heretofore granted by the British Government to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts should be granted for the purposes of. education to the respective towns wherein they lay, to be leased for the support of schools, the leases to extend "as long as water runs or wood grows." Likewise certain glebe lands were in the same year confirmed for the support of religious worship; subsequently the law was repealed, in 1805, and the lands were appropriated to schools. It was not until 1797 that the Legislature assumed any direct control of the town schools, which it did by enacting that each town should support a school or schools, and that any town failing to comply with the law should forfeit its right to its proportion of the general tax. But the chief action of the State in educational affairs was directed toward the maintenance of a State university. THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. The State took a decided course in regard to the supervision and support of higher education. At the time of the organization of the State government, in 1798,5 the University of Vermont was endowed with lands which proved subsequently to amount to twenty-nine thousand acres. In 1791 the university was organized; the preamble of the act of incorporation shows forth the spirit and intent of the found 1 Chap. II, sec. 41; A Revision of the Frame of Government of 1786. 2 Laws of Vermont (1808), I, 227. 3 Ibid., 234. 4 Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1876, 391. 5 Address by Hon. Justin Morrill, 8. ing as follows: "Whereas the education of youth is necessary for the advancement of morality, virtue, and happiness, and tends to render a people or State respectable; to promote which establishments for seminaries' and colleges have been patronized by all good governments; and whereas several grants of land have already been made by this State, and private and liberal donations have been offered for promoting so useful an establishment within the same, which demand the attention of the Legislature for laying the foundation for an institution so beneficial to society: Therefore, SEC. I., It is hereby enacted, That there be and hereby is a college instituted at such a place in the township of Burlington * as the corporation herein names," etc. It was incorporated further that "the estate of said university, both real and personal, to the extent of one hundred thousand pounds sterling ($333,333), shall be exempt from taxation," and that all persons, officers, and students belonging to the university shall be exempt from taxes and military duty. * This law was modified, in respect to property, in 1802, so that the estates of the president and professors lying within the town of Burlington should be exempted from taxation to the amount of one thousand dollars each.3 It was further provided in the charter that the university could hold land to the extent of seventy thousand acres. The early years of the university, planted as it was in the wilderness, were full of struggles and misfortunes. The State was generous in the extreme at the beginning, but failed to support the university it had created. The land was poor and brought little income, the whole tract bringing but twenty-five hundred dollars at that time.1 In 1813 the buildings of the university were seized by the Government and used for the storage of United States arms, by which much damage was suffered, and the houseless students all left, most of them to shoulder muskets against the British invaders. The buildings were rented in 1814 for the United States Army. Worse misfortunes occurred in 1824, the buildings being consumed by fire, but were restored by the citizens of Burlington in the following year. For the first ninety-five years of the corporate existence of the university the State never gave anything toward the support of it more than has been set forth in the above statements. The trustees in their report5 of 1886, realizing this, after speaking of the resources of the university, state: "Of the above the only item which includes any gift or grant from the State to the university is ' value of lands. The reservation of lots for the benefit of the university in the later grants to townships resulted in securing to the university about twenty-nine thousand acres of land scattered throughout 1 Laws of Vermont, Slade, 581. 2 Ibid., 583. 3 Ibid., 586. 4 Letter from President M. H. Bartlett, December 20, 1888. 5 Biennial Report, 1886, 5-6. the State, mostly wild mountain land of little value. From the 'public lands' included in the above item an annual rental of about twentyseven hundred dollars is received, making the gift to the university from the State to be of the value of about forty-five thousand dollars. As most of these lands were at an early day leased in perpetuity, their rental value can never be greatly increased. A portion of the original grants still remain unleased, the land being either worthless or inaccessible. When it is remembered that the Legislature of Vermont granted to Dartmouth College, before the chartering of the University of Vermont, the entire township of Wheelock, consisting of twenty-three thousand acres, from which, or from the capital arising therefrom, that institution still derives a revenue, and that the above grant of wild lands and the remission in 1852 of a small debt due the State for borrowed money, constitute the sum total of the gifts, grants, donations, and largesses of the State of Vermont to the University of Vermont, during the entire history of both, it will be seen how deficient the State has been in that care and interest and support by which institutions of learning are built up, and which the university had every right to expect from the State which called it into existence." THE CONGRESSIONAL GRANT. Vermont sold one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land scrip granted by the Federal Government, which yielded the sum of $122,626, which at present gives an income of $8,130. An attempt was made in 1863 to form a new institution by consolidating Norwich University, Middlebury College, the University of Vermont, and an agricultural college not then created. It is needless to say that such a scheme failed. In the following year the State chartered the Agricultural College of Vermont, thinking that a separate institution would be in demand by some wealthy town. "Accordingly the college went up and down the State offering itself to the highest bidder." In 1865 the Legislature, finding that the former plans failed, proposed a union with the University of Vermont. It asked that the University curriculum be enlarged so as to include departments of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and that one-half of the trustees be appointed by the Legislature. The proposition was acceded to, and in 1865 the law forming the University of Vermont and the State Agricultural College was enacted. Each corporation was to elect nine trustees, who with their successors were to constitute thereafter the board of trustees, with the addition of the ex-officio members, the Gov. ernor of the State and the president of the college. In speaking of this new partnership of the university and the college, Judge Powers says: "The firm assets were made up by the contributions on the part of the university of all its lands, buildings, libraries, and appliances, worth 1 Biennial Report of University of Vermont, 1886, 5-6. hundreds of thousands of dollars, and on the part of the State by the con. tribution of eight thousand dollars not obtained from the pockets of the tax-payers, but eight thousand dollars of other people's money." On the other hand, the State appropriated in 1886 the sum of thirtyfive hundred dollars annually for an experiment station under the care of the university; in 1888 the sum of six thousand dollars per annum for chemistry for the next four years, two thousand four hundred dollars for tuition, and three thousand six hundred dollars for instruction in branches relating to the industrial arts.1 The following statement, together with what has already been given, will give a fair estimate of the financial condition of the university, exclusive of the Congressional grant: The appropriations to Vermont University and State Agricultural College are as follows: Grant of "town lots," 29,000 acres; annual rental is $2,500; estimated value. $50,000 For instruction 10,500 24,000 2,400 3,600 Total 90,500 1 Pres. M. H. Bartlett letter of December 20, 1888. CHAPTER IV. STATE AID TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE STATES. The honor of planting the first schools in the territory about to be considered belongs to the Swedes and the Dutch. The colonists brought with them the institutions of their native land and endeavored to foster them in the settlements. For many years these schools were very meager affairs. They were elementary in their nature, embracing only two or three branches in their curricula. It was customary for the West India Company to send out a school-master with each party of emigrants departing for any of the colonies. The schools in New Amsterdam were supported by the Reformed Dutch Church in connection with the authorities. The church was a state institution in the mother country, and all education was intrusted to its immediate care. The company made itself responsible for the appointment of school-masters, preachers, and tenders of the sick. These three offices frequently devolved upon the same individual, but more frequently the school-master was chorister of the church.1 3 The schools in New Amsterdam were licensed by civil authority. The first school-master regularly employed in the colony was Adam Rolanstein, who came to the settlement about the year 1633.2 It was not, however, until the year 1638 that any mention was made of taxation for the support of schools. This proposition received no definite action. In the year 1654 the burgomasters agreed to support at the expense of the city, one school-master, one minister, and one dogwhipper (sexton). This proposal was never put into practice. The first academy and classical school in New Amsterdam, taught by Alexander Carolus Curtius in 1659, was supported in part by tuition and in part by the Court through taxation of the people. After the English obtained possession of the territory the same general plan of education was pursued in the New York colony as existed formerly. Thus we find that Johannes Van Eckkelen, in 1682, engaged with the "Honorable magistrates" to "serve the Church and school" for a salary of two hundred and thirty-four guilders, in grain, in addition 1 Pratt: Annals of Public Education in the State of New York. 3 Ibid., 5. 4 ▲ Ibid., 6. 880-No. 1-9 129 |