EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
Among the various topics of interest connected with the history, progress and actual condition of the United States, none deserves a more attentive consideration than that of the means by which the public mind is developed and matured.
'Whatever peculiar interest may be attached to the United States as a nation, must obviously be attributable to other causes than mere local and physical advantages. Whatever hopes may be en tertained in regard to the amelioration of man's social condition and political relations, as develop ed in the western hemisphere, must be founded on the presence and action of causes not operative in the despotic nations of Europe. The acknowledge ment, both theoretical and practical, of a few important maxims in politics, and the wide and general diffusion of intelligence by all the appro priate means, constitute the main differences be tween the population of this country and that of several nations in the eastern hemishere. The original individual dispositions of men here are probably much the same as in Europe; and it would be vain to expect, from the mere advantage of local situation, an exemption from the evils which beset the race, whether in their individual or their social capacity, so long as the intelligent prin ciple of the mass of society lies dormant, and those moral energies which prove conservative in all times of difficulty and danger, are permitted to re ceive but a partial development, or a meager ali ment, when brought into action.
It is proposed in the following sketch, after a brief account of the early efforts which were made to promote the cause of intelligence among the first colonists, and a concise statement of the results of those attempts previous to the revolution, to con sider the means and the authority by which public provision for general education has been made.
Referring next to the different classes of semina ries and institutions by which education is promot ed, we may consider in particular the number and character of each class with its influence on the state of general intelligence.
We shall then present some statements respect ing institutions peculiarly appropriated to certain classes or professions of the community; and finally, note the influence of voluntary associations, having for their avowed object the advancement of learning or the promotion of education.
Education, regarded as a great public interest, is necessarily considered in close connexion with the means provided, and the institutions established for the purposes of public instruction. Though some affect to draw a broad distinction between these two things, they are in fact so intimately connected, that any reference to a system of public education, of which instruction is not the predominant and most important feature, becomes almost ridiculous.
It may be added that much of what is called teach ing is neither instruction nor education, as it nei ther conveys knowledge nor developes the under standing. Such is all that species of dogmatising which consists in forcing upon the mind general 4ruths without the concomitant, or rather the ante cedent examination of the facts on which they are established.
The amount of public patronage to seminaries of learning, must not he assumed as the absolute meas ure of education in any part of the country, and least of all in those states where public schools, academies, and colleges have been longest estab lished. The amount of money paid and the quantity of instruction given in private schools and families, is, in all the states, very considerable; and, though it does not effect all the objects of education, and though it confines the views of youth and limits the number of those parents who take a deep interest in public instruction, yet it serves to bound, in some degree, the inroads of ignorance and error, vice and superstition.
The early colonists of the eastern portion of the Union brought from the parent country some just and admirable ideas of the true basis of liberty, which they endeavoured to establish on the founda tion of universal intelligence. One of the first acts of legislation of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, received its royal charter in 1628, was a law for the education of every child in the colony. This law merely made it obligatory on parents to educate their own children and apprentices; but in 1647 the same colony enacted a law to establish schools for instruction in the common branches of an English education in every town containing fifty families; and a school for the higher branches in each town containing one hundred families. The germ of all the common school systems of the United States, may thus be regarded as coeval with the settlement of the country; and the spirit which dictated this admirable provision for universal in telligence (though blended in the minds of the early colonists with much of that puritanical austerity which is equally opposed to nature, reason, and ra tional religion) is to be commended as the essential principle of free government and of equal rights. A penalty of twenty pounds was affixed to the neglect of this law on the part of any town.