158 COMMON SCHOOLS they were called (that is, schools in which Latin was taught, and which were supported in part by the proceeds of land, houses, or money granted either by the town or by indi- viduals, and in part by tuition money, and which were free only to the donors, and to them only in part), were established in Charles City, Va., in 1621, in Boston in 1636, in New Haven in 1638, in Salem in 1641, in Koxbury prior to 1645, and in most of the towns of New England within four or five years after their settlement; but these, though comprising at first perhaps the major part of the children of the settlement, were not common schools in the present sense of that term. The free pub- lic school (the common school of our time) was of New England origin, but whether it was first established in Massachusetts or Connecticut is a mooted point. Acts in regard to popular edu- cation were passed by the general court of Mas- sachusetts in 1642 and 1643. The law of the latter year provided as follows : " It is there- fore ordered that every township in this juris- diction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forth- with appoint one within the towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and reade, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children ; or by the inhabitants in generall by way of supply, as the maior part of those that order the pru- dentials of the towne shall appoint, provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other townes." But if the gen- eral assembly of Massachusetts were foremost in legislative action for popular education, the town authorities of Hartford, although a younger colony, had at an earlier date taken broader and more liberal ground for the educa- tion of all classes; and as Hartford was the central and controlling settlement of the Con- necticut colony, its action was but the precur- sor of the legislative action which followed a very few years later. A town school was established prior to 1642, and the funds for its support were voted from the town treasury ; and in 1643 a vote was passed, which in its spirit still governs the educational system of the state, " that the town shall pay for the schooling of the poor, and for all deficiencies." The colonies of New Hampshire and Vermont followed the example of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and established schools in every hamlet where the number of inhabitants and of children was sufficient to furnish employ- ment and support to a teacher. The records of the general courts and of the towns show that the prosperity of these " fountains of in- telligence," as they appropriately called the common schools, was an object of common soli- citude ; and though very heavily taxed for other objects, they never forgot to support and sustain the common school. We have seen that in Germany the thirty years' war broke up the system of public schools which Luther and his successors had reared with so much care ; but in New England, amid almost incessant con- flicts with the Indians and French, when the male population was greatly reduced in the successive campaigns, the abandonment of the schools was not even thought of. In 1670 the commissioners of foreign plantations addressed to the governors of the colonies several ques- tions relative to their condition. To one re- specting the means of education, the governor of Connecticut replied: "One fourth of the annual revenue of the colony is laid out in maintaining free (common) schools for the edu- cation of our children." To the same question Gov. Berkeley of Virginia replied: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." Soon after the close of the revolutionary war, the lands in Ohio known as the Western Reserve, belonging to Connecticut, came into market. The proceeds of that vast tract, amounting at the time of sale in 1795 to $1,200,000, were consecrated to the support of the common schools of the state. To the same cause Massachusetts set apart a por- tion of her wild lands in the then province of Maine. The New England school system at the commencement of the present cen- tury was based upon the following ideas: 1, the instruction of all the children of the state in the rudiments of an English education, viz., reading, writing, elementary arithmetic, ele- mentary geography, and grammar this to be accomplished by schools in every precinct or district containing 50 householders, or even a smaller number ; 2, each district to be indepen- dent of every other in its financial matters, hiring of a teacher, &c. ; 3, a superintendent or board of visitors in each town or school society, generally consisting of professional men, and almost invariably including the clergy, to examine the teachers, inspect the schools, prescribe text books, &c. ; 4, the support of these schools by taxation and rate bills, the poor being exempted from the latter ; 5, power of compelling attendance on the part of the town authorities. Under this system, which was extended to New York, Ohio, Pennsyl- vania, and the other northern and northwest- ern states, a moderate amount of education was diffused through the entire community. In time, as the result of a routine system, it became apparent that the standard of education had been lowered rather than raised. The at- tention of philanthropic men in all parts of th( country was directed to the subject, and in 1817 and the following years commenced a re- vival of education, the influence of which still felt. The movement resulted in the estab- lishment of the public school society in New York, and of improved school organizations in many other cities ; the revision of the school systems of most of the New England and of several of the middle and southern states be- tween 1821 and 1828; the efforts of Thomas H. Gallaudet, James G. Carter, and Walter
