schools. Mr. Robinson had always identified himself with every movement in the South School District, the Society, and the city, for the advancement of public schools, and education generally. Mr. Bunce's name does not appear in the call or the proceedings of that meeting, or of any subsequent meetings, except as a member of the school committee of the Society, and until the final vote was taken on the evening of the 8th of March, when his name was placed on the committees to complete the work of that evening.

The notice was given on the following morning, and on the evening of January 11, 1847, the legal voters of the First School Society came together with a promptness and in numbers, which no question of water, fire, travel, or traffic, ever brought together before. Every body was there, and wondered that every body else had come, and all were surprised to find themselves so nearly of one mind. The object of the meeting was stated-a distinct but simple, and it would seem unobjectionable proposition to appoint a committee to inquire into the expediency of establishing a Public High School of a grade higher than the District Schools, the number of children of both sexes of proper age and attainments to attend, the cost of a suitable site, building and equipment, and the annual expense, to report to a future meeting, was presented, and discussed with ardor on both sides, and adopted with unprecedented unanimity. The enthusiasm of the meeting was all on one side, and the chief speaker in opposition, who from all his antecedents ought not to have been there, declared to me that "after the first five minutes he never spoke to judge, jury, or popular meeting, with so little hope of making a favorable impression, as on this occasion, and the worst of it was, the clergymen had studied the subject so thoroughly, they beat me both on the law and the facts."

The following is the form in which the Resolution passed Jan. 11th:Resolved, That Amos M. Collins, Rev. Dr. Burgess, D. F. Robinson, Walter Pease, Edward Button, Roderick Terry, and Timothy M. Allyn be a committee on behalf of this Society, to inquire as to the expediency of establishing a Public High School, wherein shall be taught such branches of general education as are usually taught in schools of like character, and can not now be thoroughly acquired in the District Schools--such High School to be under the regulations now provided by law, or hereafter to be provided by this Society; also to inquire as to the number of scholars of ench sex of the proper age and attainment to attend such High School; also to inquire as to a suitable location, plan of building, expenses thereof, and the current expenses of supporting such a school, and what per cent. tax will be required for that purpose; also whether and upon what terms the funds of the Hartford Grammar School can be made available for its support, and to report the same, together with such other information as they may think advisable, to a future meeting of this Society.

After seven weeks of inquiry and consideration, the majority of this committee, through the Rev. George Burgess, submitted to a special meeting of the Society, held at the City Hall on the 1st of March, 1847, a Report in which the several subjects referred to the committee were considered in the most thorougli manner, and their conclusions stated in the most simple and conciliatory form. The committee close with submitting the following resolutions for the action of the Society :

1. Voted, That this Society proceed to establish a free High School for instruction in the higher branches of an English, and the elementary branches of a classical education, for all the male and female children of suitable age and acquirements in this Society who may wish to avail themselves of its advantages.

2. Voted, That ( -) be, and they are hereby appointed a building committee, who are empowered and directed in behalf of, and for the account of, this Society, to purchase such site or lot of land, with or without buildings thereon, as in their judgment shall most economically and best accommodate the Society for a public English and Classical High School, and forthwith proceed to remodel, fit up, or erect, as they may find it necessary, a suitable building and outhouses for said school, with accommodations for not less than two hundred and fifty scholars of both sexes; also to prepare the grounds, erect necessary fences, provide suitable chemical, philosophical, and astronomical apparatus for said school; also to place in said building the neces sary stoves or furnace, seats, desks, and fixtures, the whole not to exceed in expenditure twelve thousand do"

3. Voted, That the Society's Committee be, and they are hereby directed to borrow on the credit of this Society such sum or sums of money, not exceeding in all twelve thousand dollars, as the Building Committee, appointed by a previous vote of this Society, shall need in the performance of their duties as specified in said vote, and pay over the same to suid Committee from time to time as required, taking proper vouchers therefor.

4. Voted, That a committee of nine, consisting of (

-), be appointed to make,

if practicable, such agreement with the Trustees of the Grammar School, as, in their opinion, shal be just and reasonable, for making the funds of said Grammar School avalable for the support of the High School, or some department thereof; also that the action of the committee in these premises be binding upon the Society.

After an animated discussion of the 1st Resolution, by which the Society ordains the establishment of a "Free High School," and various attempts to modify the same, its further consideration was postponed to an adjourned meeting to be held on the 8th.

On the 8th of March, the City Hall was crowded at an early hour, and according to the record-"The meeting was called to order by the Hon. A. M. Collins, Chairman, as per adjournment, and the minutes of the previous evening were read by the Clerk. The consideration of the 1st Resolution presented by the majority of the committee on the subject of a High School, was resumed, and after a full discussion, and the rejection of a motion to amend, it was passed. The 2d, 3d, and 4th of said Resolutions were then taken up and passed separately; the report of the majority of the committee was accepted and approved, and the Chairman was directed by vote of this meeting to fill, as early as practicable, the blanks occurring in the 2d and 4th of said Resolutions."

The Chairman subsequently filled the above blanks as follows:-The blank in the second resolution was filled by the names of D. F. Robinson, Thomas Belknap, James M. Bunce, Walter Pease, Jr., Edward Button, E. D. Tiffany, and A. M. Collins.

The blank in the fourth resolution was filled by the names of Rev. Dr. Burgess, Wm. J. Hamersley, D. F. Robinson, Rev. Dr. Bushnell, James M. Bunce, Rev. Mr. Turnbull, Francis Parsons, Gurdon Robins, and N. H. Morgan.

No further action on the part of the Society was called for until Aug. 6, 1847, when the committee charged with the erection of the building, having reported that the same would be ready for occupancy before the close of the year, they were authorized "to employ teachers, and make such other arrangements as were necessary for the opening of the school."

At the annual meeting held on the 29th of October, the committee reported that the building was completed, and would be equipped for occupancy within the sum of $12,000, appropriated on the 8th of March for this purpose; that Joshua D. Giddings, who won his early reputation as a teacher in the common schools of this State, and was now at the head of the Fountain Street Grammar School in Providence, R. I., had been appointed principal, and that arrangements had been effected with the Trustees of the Grammar School, by which they will supply and sustain a teacher for the Classical Department; and close with an earnest appeal to the Society "to sustain the work so conspicuously begun, by appropriations liberal enough to make the school of the highest advantage to our children and to the credit and profit of the community in which we live." Resolutions imposing "a tax of one and threefourths cents on the dollar on the polls and ratable estates of the inhabitants of the Society for the maintenance of the High School, and schools for the colored children," was passed, and another to effect the speedy and effectual organization of the High School, as follows:

Voted, That [blank afterwards filled with the names of D. F. Robinson, Thomas Belknap, James M. Bunce, Walter Pense, Jr., Edward Button, E. D. Tiffany, and A. M. Collins] be a committee to organize the said school at the earliest practicable time; to make all necessary rules and by-laws for its regulation; to determine the qualifications of the scholars who are desirous or being admitted thereto either by themselves or through such persons as they may appoint for the purpose; to decide all questions relating to the admission of children and youth-provided that no scholars are to be admitted for pay; to provide for the expulsion of refractory and unmanageable pupils: and to discharge all the functions relating to said school which will not interfere with the school laws of the State.

On motion of I. W. Stuart the following Resolutions were offered and passed

unanimously:

Whereas, in pursuance of a resolution of the First School Society of Hartford, the committee, styled the Building Committee for the High School, have, with great diligence and care, attended to the duties of their appointment; and whereas, particularly this committee, consisting of Messrs. J. M. Bunce, A. M. Collins, D. F. Robinson, T. Belknap, E. Button, E. D. Tiffany, and Walter Pease, Jr., have to the money appropriated by public tax, most liberally added the further sur of two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars from their private purses, to enlarge and beautify and render commodious the building for the High School, therefore

Voted, That the thanks of this Society be, and they hereby are gratefully tendered to the Building Committee for the assiduity and the liberality with which they have labored in the duties assigned them by this Society.

Voted, That the Clerk of this Society transmit a copy of this and the foregoing resolutions to the Chairman of the Building Committee, to be by him read to said committee, and also other copies of these resolutions, one to each of the gentlemen whose generous donations to the High School of Hartford, this Society does hereby acknowledge.

In the efforts put forth from 1845* to the decisive vote on the 8th of March, and even to the dedication of the building on the 1st of December, 1847, I had some share, although from holding office in another State, and from choice, my name is not attached, so far as I know, to a single document, and does not appear in the proceedings of a single meeting. When the work was undertaken by Mr. Bunce, and in every stage to selecting the teacher, he sought my coun⚫sel and cooperation; and both were given freely and promptly, although to do so, cost time and thought, and five visits from 'Rhode Island. In looking over the files of our Daily Journals for 1846-7, I find seven articles which were once in manuscript in my hand-writing; and in the proceedings of one of the crowded meetings which was held in the City Hall, I recognized the outline of an address for which I prepared a brief at the request of Mr. Bunce, to be used by some one who might not be as familiar with the facts and arguments as I was thought to be. Nearly all the allusions to the experience of other cities, and the estimated cost of the new school, were drawn from memoranda and documents which I furnished. The principal campaign document, entitled "Considerations and Facts respecting a Public High School in the First School Society of Hartford," in which the public character of the institution proposed, and the power of the Society to establish and maintain the same; the extent in respect to studies and persons (age, sex, and preparation) to which the instruction should be offered; the expense both of outfit of building and annual

*The following were the principal exercises of the session:-Introductory Lecture-Dignity of the Teacher's Office and Female Education, by Joel Hawes; Duties of Examining Committees, by Prof. Sanborn, of Dartmouth College; Ideal of the Perfect Teacher, by Prof. Olmsted, of Yale College; Study of Physiology, by Dr. E. Jarvis; Intellectual Arithmetic, by F. A. Adams; Teachers' Institutes, by Salem Town; Methods of Teaching Geography, by W. B. Fowle; Vocal Music in Common Schools, by A. A. Johnson; Geography and History, by George S. Hibbard; Training of Students for the University, by Prof. Porter, of Yale College; concluding Lecture by Henry Barnard, on Schools in relation to other Educational Agencies of Cities. Among the subjects discussed besides the topics of the lectures were Methods of Teaching English Grammar: Ways and Methods of interesting Parents in the Schools where their children are taught; Organization of Schools for Cities and populous Villages. This Inst topic was discussed by Nathan Bishop, Superintendent of Public Schools in Providence, W. B. Fowle of Boston, and Henry Barnard, and incidentally by Horace Mann, Cyrus Pierce, and others.

maintenance, and its apportionment on different classes of tax-payers; and the advantages which might reasonably be anticipated from such a school, from the admitted principles of school organization, and from the experience of other cities, were elaborately set forth in a pamphlet of sixteen pages,*-was prepared by me, and printed at the expense of Mr. Bunce. A copy of this document, together with the report of the majority of the committee, appointed at a public meeting of the Society held at the City Hall Jan. 7, 1847, drawn up by Rev. Dr. Burgess; and of the minority, in which the general principle is yielded, provided a union could be effected with the Grammar School-was left with every family of the Society five days before the adjourned meeting on the 8th of March, when the legal voters, in full force, decided by an overwhelming majority "to establish a Free High School for instruction in the higher branches of an English, and the elementary branches of a classical, education, for all children, male and female, of suitable age and acquirements, in this Society who may wish to avail themselves of its advantages." This resolution, together with the first draft of two other resolutions, by which a committee was appointed with full power to purchase a site, and build and furnish a suitable house within the expense set forth in the pamphlet and report (the calculations for which I furnished), without the necessity of reporting to the Society until the work was done, and another committee was also appointed for to confer and arrange with the Trustees of the Grammar School for making the funds of the latter available for the support of the classical department, were prepared by me at the request of Dr. Burgess; who was also pleased to ask and receive suggestions from me in the preparation of his report before it was submitted to the committee of which he was chairman, or at least the organ for this purpose. During the four weeks spent in Hartford in February and March, 1847, in assisting, in such ways as were open to me, the preparation of the public mind for the right action on the questions before the Society, I prepared and delivered a lecture before the Young Men's Institute on my old topic-" Our City, and Our Duties to its Past, Present, and Future Interests," in which I presented, under the first head, the claims of the Historical Society, which had recently come into possession of the library and collections of Dr. Robbins from my timely interposition in its behalf, and of a Rural Cemetery (by extending Zion Hill so as to embrace the old Wells Vineyard on the south to Washington street on the east), in which the present should be wedded to the past by ties of family affection, of artistic memorials of public service, and the near attraction of flowers and shrubbery, and a landscape of unsurpassed beauty in cultivated valley and wooded uplands in the distance. Under the second head, my favorite themes, of the institutions on the one hand which should prevent crime and poverty, dry up the sources of vice and demoralization, and at the same time develop to the fullest measure all the industrial resources which nature, science and art could command, by a liberal and comprehensive system of public education, were dwelt on; and as part of this system, a Public High School was not forgotten. Under the third head, my remarks were confined to suggesting

*The greater portion of this document has been republished in many forms, and more than 100,000 copies have been circulated in different States. The arguments for a public school of this grade have been frequently cited in support of similar movements elsewhere, and more than 30,000 copies of this portion were printed at the expense of Hon. James Wadsworth, of Geneseo, N. Y., in an extra number of the District School Journal,

precautions "against any limitations in endowments and institutions designed to meet present and prospective wants, which experience has shown have a fatal tendency to prevent their adapting themselves or being adjusted to the changing and altered circumstances of a progressive age and country, like that in which it is our privilege to live.

There is yet no plethora of educational endowments, but the experience of this town and this State has already shown, that both religion and education, which are living interests, and should touch the conscience, heart, and habits of every living man and woman, may be hindered and not fostered by bequests and funds designed to foster them. The administration of a permanent fund for the poor may be so hampered as in the next generation to increase the class and the evil it was intended to relieve, and at the same time dry up in the community that charity which should be in every heart a well of living waters. Asylums for Orphans may be so managed, while they provide for the physical necessities of the children, as to leave their moral nature uneducated, which can be best trained in the daily discharge of those little offices of mutual help which the necessities of the family in its normal state require. Our State School Fund was for a time a great help in the impoverished condition of the people, and enabled the poorer districts to employ teachers for a longer period in the year, but it soon diminished, and finally destroyed, the habit of taxation. Our School Society and independent District organization, by bringing the administration of the schools nearer to the changing centers of population, undoubtedly for a short time operated favorably, but as constituted, they destroyed the principle of gradation. The transference of the bequests of Hopkins and others to a close, self-perpetuating corporation led to a more economical management as well as increase of the fund and its income, and may have kept alive the fires of classical learning which otherwise would have died out among us. But if the fund is to be administered only in the interest of a class, and that a small one; and of one sex, and that by no means the most essential in the civilization of a state; of certain professions, which though important are not the only important occupations for which special educational facilities should be provided; and for the culture of languages and literatures of peoples dead beyond all resurrec tion, to the exclusion of sciences which are creating new industries, and of languages of nations with which we have constant and constantly growing relations, and of literatures, of which to be ignorant, will be poorly compensated for by any amount of Greek and Latin in the original; then it is time, for the People, the vast majority of families who have sons and daughters to be educated, who, as men and women, will make the Future into which we, city, State, and country, are fast entering-to establish schools of different grades, such as our fathers, acting in the spirit with which they ordained the code of 1650, would provide now, not only to exclude the barbarism of a single illiterate citizen, but to train all youth for the service of the country, for active usefulness and for domestic life. I speak as one proud of the State and city of my birth, but I am compelled to say, that in providing for the Future, in a welladjusted system of public schools for children, rich and poor, and for all occupations and professions, we are behind-and far behind, and falling every day still further behind, the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the cities of Providence and Boston. In the vote soon to be taken, and with every prospect of a decision in favor of a Public High School, I trust Hartford will place her system on a higher and an ascending grade.

With that address and other local work, my coöperation in the efforts in which so many were glad to share, did not end. Within a few weeks I was called on to furnish the plan of a suitable building, and to name the places which a sub-committee, charged with this duty, could visit and examine the best buildings in which such schools as was designed here, were in actual operation; and still later, I was asked to suggest the names of teachers, with whom correspondence could be had, and, in November, 1847, "to come to Hartford once more to finish up the work."