and appointed by special vote of the trustees to carry on some line of broad study. These Fellows shall pursue studies in classes or groups, or singly as the case may require, under the direction of that branch of the faculty having charge of the particular line of study pursued. The object of this work shall be to add something original to the sum total of human learning and knowledge. Their studies may be continued so long as the faculty in charge shall deem it advisable, whether for one year or a lifetime.

Let me outline some of the possibilities of the work which might be done by the faculty and Fellows of this university. The department of geological survey should be established on such a basis that this whole country should be mapped out and its geological features and mineralogical riches should be carefully studied and published for the benefit of the country. The weather bureau should be organized in such a way as in a series of years to collect facts sufficient to form the data for a complete and scientific theory of tempests, tornadoes, and storms of all kinds. The entire theory of evaporation and the rainfall, of the winds, as to their direction and force, and all matters relating to the meteorology of the country should be elaborated and made plain. The coast survey should be reorganized and its work continued. Expeditions should be planned and executed for the study of ocean cur rents and tidal waves, and in fact of the entire theory and practical operation and effects of the tides. The most elaborate preparations should be made for the observation of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena. In cases of disaster, for example, the breaking down of a railroad bridge, the destruction in the Conemaugh Valley, a great fire, an epidemic, a blizzard or a tornado, an expedition should be immediately sent to the spot for careful investigation into the causes, circumstances, and results, and all this should be tabulated for future use. In short, the object constantly in mind for the work of the Fellows of the university would be to take advantage of all remarkable phenomena and so applying the full power of the microscope of all science as to educe in every instance such knowledge as shall be for the benefit of mankind. Among these Fellows we should expect to find our poet laureate, our best writers of fiction, philosophers, inventors, discoverers, benefactors. Fellows of the university should receive a fixed salary according to their grade and experience, a salary sufficient to induce them to remain permanently at their work. In

this way we should have clustering around the national university the ablest men, the highest scholarship, the soundest philosophy, the deepest science of the world, and who can measure or weigh, or estimate the advantages which would accrue to society and the world at large from such concentration of scholarship and learning.

The United States should be not only the greatest and strongest of the nations, but she should be the wisest and most beneficent. She has laid a broad foundation for a pyramid (which should be larger and more enduring than those of Egypt), in the general diffusion of the elements of learning for all her youth in our beneficent system of public schools. Let her now, by the establishment of this national university build securely and strongly upon this basis and extend upward this great pyramid till its apex shall be high up in the heavens, above all mists of ignorance, superstition, vice and crime.

USELESS QUESTIONINGS.

BY JULIA H. MAY.

A little girl looked on the starry sky

And wondering said, "Please teacher, just explain
How they do move." The Master knew 't was vain
To talk of Newton's laws, but answered, "I

Will tell you, when you're older, how and why.
The stars are there. They move. Look. Look again.
But do not try to tax your little brain

With puzzles now."

And thus sometimes we try
To question our great Teacher. "Not yet grown,'

He answers. "Heaven's maturity shall this

Reveal. Unknown shall then be fully known,
Not now; for mystery of the immortal is
Discerned by immortality alone.

Why not these foolish questionings dismiss?

1889.]

EDUCATION IN THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS.

91

EDUCATION IN THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS.

THE

BY B. A. HINSDALE, PH. D., UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.

I.

HE provisions of the State Constitutions concerning schools and education from the year 1776 to the present time, brought together in chronological order and accompanied by a suitable historical commentary, would form at once an interesting chapter in the history of American Jurisprudence and in the history of American Education. So much, it is believed, the present essay will make plain. It seems necessary, however, in one case to go

back of the State Constitutions.

The charter given to William Penn by Charles II. in 1681, authorized him, as the proprietor of the province conveyed, subject to the Crown, to make all laws necessary for its government, with the approbation of the freemen, or the greater part of them, or their delegates or deputies assembled; said laws to be not repugnant, but agreeable to the laws of England. Clothed with this ample power, animated by liberal sentiments, and desirous of making his colony attractive to settlers, Penn issued from time to time "Frames of Government of Pennsylvania" that really served the purposes of charters or constitutions. The "Frame" that bears the date of April 25, 1682, said to have been written in England, contained the following, which is the first provision of the kind in any similar American document:

"That the Governor and provincial Council shall erect and order all public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable inventions in the said province."

This provision, reaffirmed in the "Frame" of 1683, was "heard, read, and thankfully received" by the members of the provincial Council and Assembly. We are not here further concerned with this provision except to say, it was the work of William Penn, and not of the Colony of Pennsylvania.

But this is not the sole educational distinction that Pennsylvania enjoys. She has also the honor of being the first state to incorporate an educational provision in her constitution. Before

the declaration of independence, when the colonial governments were gradually slipping from the old foundations, owing to the practical denial of the king's sovereignty and authority, some of the colonies asked the advice of the Continental Congress concerning the anomalous state of affairs. The Congress responded in December, 1775, and again more fully in May, 1776, the second time recommending to the assemblies and conventions of the colonies where the existing governments were not sufficient to the exigency of their affairs, "to adopt such government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general." In pursuance of this recommendation, which was plainly necessitated by the logic of events, all the states but Connecticut and Rhode Island, which considered their Colonial Charters sufficient for present exigencies, proceeded to frame State Constitutions; some of them very rudimentary and imperfect, others well thought out and elaborated, but all of them legal instruments of a kind before unknown. The Pennsylvania Constitution, completed September 28, 1776, had this provision:

"A school or schools shall be established in each county by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities."

The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790 went still further, declaring:

"The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the state, in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis.

"The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning."

These sections were reaffirmed in 1838, and they continued the fundamental school law of the state down to 1873.

Education next appears in a constitution where few would look for it. North Carolina provided in 1776:—

"That a school or schools shall be established by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged, and promoted in one or more universities."

One of the sections of the so-called Vermont Constitution of 1777, which the people appear to have considered as law, ran as follows:

"A school or schools shall be established in each town, by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by each town, making proper use of school lands in each town, thereby to enable them to instruct youth at low prices. One grammar school in each county, and one university in this state, ought to be established by the General Assembly."

The first population of Vermont came from the older New England states; but this section bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Pennsylvania section of 1776. This is the earliest reference to "school lands" found in any of our constitutions. Vermont had a second constitution before she was admitted to the Union. This one, which bears the date of 1786, provides 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 be incorporated, and properly supported in each county in this state." Incorporated societies for the advancement of learning should also be encouraged and protected. The constitution of 1793 simply repeated these provisions, and they are in force today.

Massachusetts was the first of the colonies to found a system of public schools. No reference to schools or education, however, is found in any of her several charters, save the provision in the charter of 1691, that all lands, tenements, hereditaments, and other estates, held or enjoyed, or that ought to be held or enjoyed, by any college should in no wise be affected by said charter, but should remain inviolate. No doubt this guaranty was given in the interest of Harvard College. Increase Mather, who was so active in procuring the charter, was at the time president of Harvard. The constitution of 1780 contained a chapter entitled "The University at Cambridge, and encouragement of literature, etc." The first section, consisting of three articles, threw the strongest safeguards around the college; the second section was in these words:

"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural his