The movement as a liberalizing and unifying force.-The work of the conference and the boards can not be adequately stated in terms of schoolhouses and school programmes. They are touching life in another way-less tangible, perhaps, but none the less real and vital. With their simple creed of serving the highest interests of society, through the education of the child, they have furnished a convenient point of contact for all constructive social forces; and this simple fact of focusing all social interests on the one point and interpreting the whole in terms of the service of humanity, has tended and is tending on the one side to produce a livelier sense of social solidarity and on the other to give each individual a larger and holier view of his calling. This is not only a timely service to southern society, just emerging from the extreme individualism incident to the isolation of rural conditions; it is a wholesome antidote for the separateness and provincial attitude of American life as a whole. On this plane this whole movement overflows sectional boundaries and becomes a liberalizing and unifying force in our national life. In it professional men and men of affairs from the North and from the South, recognizing that all sections and all interests of society have a common stake in the education of the whole people, and having been moved by the passion of service in this one common cause of a common country, have been borne on to that larger patriotism which recognizes in every problem of American life the interests and responsibilities of American citizenship.

Note to p. 360, line 28.-Since this paper was put in type we have learned that Dr. H. B. Frissell, president of Hampton Institute, assisted actively and efficiently in organizing and conducting these earlier meetings of the conference, a fact which did not appear in the records. Too much credit can not be given Dr. Frissell for his services to this whole movement.

Note to p. 379, line 28.-Mr. Murphy was elected a member of the Board in August, 1903.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AMERICAN COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM IN WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, AND DELAWARE, 1863-1900.

By A. D. MAYO, A. M., LL. D.

The final establishment of the complete American system of common schools in the 16 States known as Southern, dating from the year 1863 in West Virginia and practically achieved in all these States by 1875, was made possible by the cooperation of the people of both sections of the Union in the State and National Governments. This movement originated in the organization by which an increasing number of the freedmen, at first emancipated by General Butler as "contraband of war" during the progress of the Union armies, were put in training for their new life as free laborers and prospective citizens by occupation in connection with the Army. At a later period they were enrolled as soldiers and laborers in the cultivation of vast areas of abandoned lands. Besides this, the instruction of these people of all ages in the rudiments of learning was at once attempted, with the result that probably more than a million of them were able to read before the close of the civil war. As fast as possible under the circumstances the poorer class of the southern white people was included in this dispensation of the rudiments of civilization. This early venture in a field hitherto only partly trodden, the combination of the industrial and educational agencies of civilized society with actual warfare, was developed by gradual steps into a well-digested plan by which the National Government, through the agency of the Freedmen's Bureau and in cooperation with a variety of operations in the Northern States, labored for several years to prepare 6,000,000 of the emancipated race for their final elevation to full American citizenship.

At this time there were several special movements and agencies of great importance to the educational future of the Southern States. Among these was the benefaction of the Peabody education fund, followed by a series of munificent gifts from northern and southern friends of education, like the Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Tulane, and Sophie Newcomb colleges, with others at later periods. Also may be named the corresponding gifts in the founding and support of a score of important schools of the secondary, higher, and industrial education for the colored race, to the extent probably of $50,000,000 during the past thirty years. The National Bureau of Education was established in 1867. The attempt to obtain national aid to education occupied the attention of the United States Congress from 1880 to 1890. These and other movements were the expression of a friendly and unselfish spirit of public cooperation and Christian brotherhood on the part of all sections of the country for the relief of the educational destitution which in 1865 was declared by their own educators the most dangerous element in the southern problem.

But no people as numerous and intelligent as the 12,000,000 of the white population of the 16 Southern American States in 1870 could either have been forced or persuaded to adopt a change so radical in their public policy as the complete establishment of the American common school for all classes and both races without a deliberate conviction that such a new departure was an absolute present

necessity and the condition of all subsequent progress of the South in its connection with the new national life. The steady growth of the idea of universal education in all the Southern States may be traced from the memorable plan of Thomas Jefferson at the foundation of the State of Virginia and the National Government to the breaking out of the war between the States in 1861. Through a varied experience of alternating success and failure the common school public in all these Commonwealths grew in strength until in 1860 four of these and several of their larger cities had adopted a well-defined system of public instruction for their white children and youth. In almost every Southern State at least one attempt had been made in this direction. The collapse of the Confederate government, and along with it the reorganization of the material, industrial, and social order of affairs in this section, was a great opportunity offered to the southern common school public. So determined was the purpose of this important body of people that at the close of the civil war the South was prepared to assume the heavy burden of schooling its 2,000,000 of colored children and youth along with the 3,000,000 of the dominant race.

The political power in all these States, with their assumption of full civic autonomy in 1876, was still in the hands of the old superior class, and this precious boon of free education which alone could make the new condition of the freedmen a success was practically their gift.

WEST VIRGINIA.

The first attempt of a Southern State, by its own voluntary movement, to put on the ground an effective system of common schools for all classes of its people was made by the new State of West Virginia in 1863. Immediately on the passage of the ordinance of secession by the State of Virginia in 1861 a convention of the 47 counties in the western portion of the State was summoned, by which, on August 20, 1861, an ordinance of separation from the mother Commonwealth was passed. On November 26 of the same year, 1861, a constitutional convention was called which proclaimed the fundamental law of the new State. The convention which adopted the ordinance for reorganizing the State government gave to the new Commonwealth the name of its favorite river, Kanawha. The movement at first embraced 47, but the organized State was composed of 55 counties. At the convention which framed the constitution the name West Virginia was adopted, and this document was ratified by a great popular majority in 1862. After long debate in Congress the State was admitted to the Union, with the proviso that children of slaves born after July 4, 1863, should be free; all minor slaves should be free after a certain age, and no slaves should be allowed to enter the State for permanent residence. The earliest successes in the war for the Union under Generals McClellan and Rosecrans virtually expelled the Confederate forces from all save the extreme northeastern corner of the State. West Virginia sent 36,000 soldiers to the Union and 7.000 to the Confederate armies.

The first constitution of West Virginia, adopted in June, 1863, and which remained in force until 1872, contained the following provisions for education:

ARTICLE VIII.-Taxation and finance.

SECTION 1. Property used for educational, library, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes, and public property, may by law be exempted from taxation.

ARTICLE X.-Education.

SECTION 1. All money accruing in this State being the proceeds of forfeited, delinquent, waste, and unappropriated lands, and of lands heretofore sold for

taxes and purchased by the State of Virginia, if hereafter redeemed, or sold to others than this State; all grants, devises, or bequests that may be made to this State for the purpose of education, or where the purposes of such grants, devises, or bequests are not specified; this State's just share of the literature fund of Virginia, whether paid over or otherwise liquidated, and any sums of money, stocks, or property which this State shall have the right to claim from the State of Virginia for educational purposes; the proceeds of the estates of all persons who may die without leaving a will or heir, and of all escheated lands; the proceeds of any taxes that may be levied on the revenues of any corporation hereafter created; all moneys that may be paid as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and such sums as may from time to time be appropriated by the legislature for the purpose, shall be set apart as a separate fund, to be called the school fund, and invested under such regulations as may be prescribed by law in the interest-bearing securities of the United States or of this State, and the interest thereof shall be annually applied to the support of free schools throughout the State and to no other purpose whatever; but any portion of said interest remaining unexpended at the close of a fiscal year shall be added to and remain a part of the capital of the school fund.

SEC. 2. The legislature shall provide, as soon as practicable, for the establishment of a thorough and efficient system of free schools. They shall provide for the support of such schools by appropriating thereto the interest of the invested school fund; the net proceeds of all forfeitures, confiscations, and fines accruing to this State under the laws thereof, and by general taxation on persons and property, or otherwise. They shall also provide for raising in each township, by the authority of the people thereof, such a proportion of the amount required for the support of free schools therein as shall be prescribed by general laws.

SEC. 3. Provision may be made by law for the election and prescribing the powers, duties, and compensation of a general superintendent of free schools for the State, whose term of office shall be the same as that of the governor, and for a county superintendent for each county, and for the election in the several townships. by the voters thereof, of such officers not specified in this constitution as may be necessary to carry out the objects of this article, and for the organization, whenever it may be deemed expedient, of a State board of instruction.

SEC. 4. The legislature shall foster and encourage moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; they shall, whenever it may be practicable, make suitable provision for the blind, mute, and insane, and for the organization of such institutions of learning as the best interests of general education in the State may demand.

Previous to 1860 the portion of the State of Virginia included in the new Commonwealth had been conspicuous for its attempts to improve the facilities for the public education of the white race. In 1810 its 47 counties were included in the annual distribution of the literary fund of $45,000. In 1818 commissioners were appointed from each county to receive and use their respective portions of this fund. In 1848 the representatives in the State legislature from Wheeling, then a city of 10,000, secured the passage of a law by which any city might establish a system of public schools by supplementing its portion of the literary fund through local taxation. In October, 1848, Wheeling opened its first public school. Under this and similar laws enacted previous to 1861 several of the largest cities in this section, including Charleston and Parkersburg, and 5 of the 47 counties adopted the partial educational system then in vogue. The agitation awakened by this movement had prepared the people of West Virginia, under the leadership of a body of enlightened public men, for the insertion of the important provision recorded in the new constitution of 1863. This action was followed in December, 1863, by the enactment of a public school law, amended during the subsequent nine years and reenacted on the formation of a new State constitution in 1872.

The original free school law of West Virginia, passed December 10, 1863, for that period was in advance of the school statutes of several of the Northern States. Every organized township in the State constituted a school district under the care and management of a board of education composed of three school commissioners, elected for three years. These, with the clerk of the township, were a body corporate, known as the board of education, having in charge all school property,

with full authority to manage the details of the educational affairs of the township. This board was authorized to divide the township into convenient subdistricts, each with a school population of not less than 50, where a school for not less than six months in the year should be established, its course of study arranged by the school board. The schools should be open to all children, white and colored, the races separate, and all persons over 21 honorably discharged from the National Army or Navy were entitled to five years' schooling. This board had the appointment of teachers, subject to the approval of the board of education of the district, and the fixing of their salaries, with power to dismiss pupils or teachers for cause; to see that the schoolhouses were kept in repair and proper condition, and to exercise immediate control over the interests of the school. The expenses were paid by drafts on the township treasurer.

The district or township board was authorized to establish a central or union high school by vote of not less than three-fifths of the voters, the expense to be met by assessment on the township. Stringent provisions were made for the moral and civic training of the pupils. Fifteen colored children were entitled to a separate school, and a smaller number could be educated at the pleasure of the district board. The county superintendent was elected by the people for two years. His duties were to distribute the State school fund to the several districts, distribute school blanks to boards of education, encourage and attend county institutes, act as president of the county board of examiners, keep a register of teachers' certificates, and report to the State superintendent. Each township should report to the county official and he to the State superintendent. This official at first was elected by joint vote of the legislature, to hold office for two years. Among his other duties, he should be the final court of appeal in all educational cases arising in the counties. His salary was $1,500 a year. The examination and certification of teachers was guarded by careful regulations. The interest of the State school fund, made up as provided in the constitution, with a capitation tax of $1 on each adult person and a general tax of 10 cents on the $100, was to be distributed per capita according to the school population, after the salaries of the State and county superintendents were paid. Each township was authorized to tax itself, not to exceed 25 cents upon the $100, to supplement its portion of the State fund for the support of a six months' school. Besides this the townships were empowered to levy a tax of 20 cents on the $100 for the building and furnishing of schoolhouses. The governor, auditor, treasurer, and secretary of state, and the general superintendent were a corporation under the name of the board of the school fund, for its investment and management, the investment being in State and United States securities.

The State superintendent might prescribe a series of class books for use throughout the State. The township, by a two-thirds vote, might raise additional funds, not exceeding 10 cents on $100, for the improvement of the schools and the building of schoolhouses. In 1865 an act was passed providing free schools for the city of Wheeling, the school board clothed with the usual powers of similar bodies of the North, and instruction to be provided in the German language, drawing and vocal music, with provisions for the exhibition of works of art and the embellishment of school grounds. The schools were to be in session not less than nine months in the year. The system was to be supported by an assessment not exceeding 40 cents on the $100.

Under the provisions of the general act the legislature elected Mr. W. R. White as State superintendent for the free schools of West Virginia. Mr. White occupied this position with ability, as far as represented by his reports, until 1869.

The population of West Virginia in 1860 did not exceed 270,000, thinly scattered over an area of 24,765 square miles. Notwithstanding the efforts of the previous ten years, the educational destitution of the more retired rural portions was very