by the past as to what has been done; therefore, on every hand there is every reason why this should be made an opportunity for rejoicing, and here's hoping that we may all live to enjoy another one. (Loud and long continued applause.)

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF OHIO.

LEWIS D. BONEBRAKE.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

NO MINOR INSTITUTION.

The history of the public schools of Ohio and the statement of the present condition of public education in our commonwealth can not be condensed into

a few words or be covered by a few fragmentary sentences. The institution commonly called the free public school system is too large an institution; its history covers too much detail; its glorious achievements are too many, and its benefits are too farreaching, to condense them into a few words or adequately to recount them in small compass. The wisest statesmen of one hundred years ago could hardly have foreseen the wonderful development destined to come from the free school system in the ten decades covered by the first century of our statehood. The thoughtful and far-seeing might have hoped for larger usefulness, for extension and improvement, but the present glorious heritage of free universal opportunity for culture and learning at the expense of the state could hardly have been dreamed of even by the wisest of the period. The public schools are no minor institution.

389

LEWIS D. BONEBRAKE.

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION.

In a retrospect of the conditions as they existed a little more than a hundred years ago in America there is much of interest and profit. The closing years of the eighteenth century witnessed both in Europe and America, a remarkable outburst of the spirit of democracy. In the public meetings and the political discussions of the period the words "people," "demos," "citizen," "voter," "commons," "inalienable rights," and other similar expressions were in constant use. The teachings of Rousseau and his associates, and the declarations and doctrines of the French Revolution, were widely scattered and very much in evidence in the political assemblies. It was only five years prior to the time the bells tolled out the old century and their merry chimes welcomed in the new, that a young Corsican officer had with consummate skill planted his cannon in the streets before the Tuilleries, and by use of grapeshot and ball ended the great French Revolution. This act made Napoleon a prominent figure; and at once he began his remarkable career of twenty years in unsettling Europe, overthrowing hereditary thrones, and dispelling forever the ancient fiction of the divine rights of kings. The eighteenth century closed with him as First Consul of France; but the people felt somehow that he was of them and that his cause was theirs. England, Austria, Italy, the German States, and all Europe recognized his power. The French Revolution had passed beyond the political boundaries of France. There was a great awakening; in some way the people had learned that ability and talent, rather than kingly birth, counted in human affairs. A new day had come to Europe.

In America great events had transpired just prior to the close of the eighteenth century. Thirteen feeble colonies, wronged by unjust taxation, goaded by the calamitous inflictions of evilminded ministers and a foolish stubborn king, had at last sought independence, and achieved the same after a long and distressing conflict. Their Declaration made in 1776, and their Constitution made operative in 1789, bear every evidence of their sturdy faith in the people to rule themselves. Their yearnings for self-government were everywhere apparent; and their faith was clearly

and distinctly a faith in the power of majorities. In America at least there was a distinctive tendency to trust the people with larger power.

In a word, without effort at elaborate portrayal, it is safe to say that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the larger world-tendency among governments was to trust the people themselves with larger civic powers, and to grant to each member of society a wider range of liberties. The individual members of society were assuming, each man for himself and all in their collective capacity, a larger work of managing governmental affairs, where in former times such matters were intrusted to the few. It was clearly the growth of democracy.

PUBLIC EDUCATION A NÉCESSITY.

But a democracy to be successful and efficient must be made intelligent and resourceful. To grant large civic rights to the people without providing the means for their proper education; to permit the exercise of the franchise and the control of the affairs of the state itself, without providing culture for all and a general spread of intelligence, in the end would lead to anarchy, strife and tyranny. These matters were foreseen even prior to the inauguration of the Republic. The literature of the later colonial and revolutionary period abounds in references to the necessity of education. The New England free school, like the New England town meeting, was the outgrowth of the spirit of democracy; and the spirit of democracy was much in evidence in the early colonies. In President Washington's farewell address among other excellent recommendations he wrote the following: "Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

OHIO SYSTEM PART OF NATIONAL POLICY.

The truth of the matter is, the public free school system of Ohio must be linked in history to the public school system of New England and the East. It is not perhaps wise to refer at

length to the history of the early attempts at education in the colonies. Perhaps the free school system itself in the beginning was not definitely planned. The public school was a necessity that children should not grow up in ignorance. It was not the gift of any man, any prince, or any public benefactor. It was a growth, a development, an evolution. It simply grew at first a makeshift and a community necessity, later a definitely recognized institution, recognized as fundamentally worthy of public approval. From the very beginning spontaneity has been its keynote. Recognized in the town meeting, in colonial assemblies, then later in the surveys of public lands, in state constitutions and state legislation, the free public school system of the United States has taken on many forms. Each state and territory has done about as seemed wise and expedient according to local conditions. There is lack of symmetry and lack of definite form. Local preferences in all the states have made the systems dissimilar. Ohio is no exception to the rule.

CONGRESSIONAL ENACTMENTS.

ACTS OF 1785 and 1787.

As suggested already the public school system of Ohio must be connected with the system in vogue in the colonies at the time of the revolution. Very properly our school system must be recognized as a part of the growth of that system which had from the earliest settlement and occupancy of the East been growing and developing in the colonies and the original states.

As early as May 20, 1785, by act of the Congress then operating under the old Articles of Confederation, the public lands of the government were ordered to be surveyed in townships six miles square, section sixteen of each township being reserved for common school purposes. The famous "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio" was enacted on July 13, 1787. Said ordinance contained a strong declaration in Article III relating to education, which reads in part:

Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.