ORGANIZATION BY WORKINGMEN OF AN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY AND FOR THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL EDUCATION (1829) From Working Man's Advocate, October 31, 1829.
Reasons for the formation of the Association
Because industry is at present unprotected, oppressed, despised. And indirectly deprived of its just reward; and because there is in this republic no system of education befitting a republic; none which secures the equal maintenance, protection, and instruction of youth-of the children of the poor man as of the rich; none which is at once free from sectarian and clerical influences, and from aristocratical distinctions; none which is calculated to induce in the rising generation those habits of industry, those principles of sound morality, those feelings of brotherly love, together with those solid intellectual acquirements, which are necessary to secure to all the fair exercise of those equal political rights set forth in the institutions of the land.
Means by which the Association may attain the object
By procuring and publishing information as to the actual condition of the working class, and the actual remuneration for industry. By investigating the causes which depress industry and produce crime and suffering; and the measures which protect and favor industry, and which check oppression and vice.
By procuring information as to the state of public schools, as to the influence which rules them, and as to the value of the instruction they impart. By considering the practical means which are in the hands of the people to establish, through their representatives, a state system of education.
By printing and circulating tracts, calculated to give information to the people on these important subjects.
By corresponding regularly with similar societies in other towns and cities.
By promoting the gradual extension of the Association through all the states of the Union.
And, generally, by watching over the great interests of the people--a most necessary and most neglected duty; and by noting and proclaiming the influence, and opposing the success, of every measure that tends to injure or oppress them.
Character of the Association
It shall be such as to exclude no honest man. All who sign their names as members, shall be considered as having thereby expressed "THEIR INTENTION TO ASSIST IN DEFENDING THE RIGHTS AND PROMOTING THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE, AND IN CARRYING THROUGH THE STATE LEGISLATURES A SYSTEM OF EQUAL REPUBLICAN EDUCATION."
Although such an Association may expect to find the true friends of equal justice and popular instruction chiefly among the industrious classes, and may therefore reasonably be distrustful of others, it \rr;ll not prejudge nor exclude any man, be his class what it may.
It will not meddle with speculative opinions; neither with religion, nor with irreligion. These are matters between each man and his own conscience. He who has faith, let him have it to himself; he who is religious, let him be religious in his closet when the door is shut, but not in public--not in an Association whose object is to discuss and reform temporal concerns. Plans for this world, and hopes of another, are two distinct things, that had better be kept separate; for men may agree about the one, while they will probably quarrel about the other.
State religion and monied ascendancy have done much harm to the people in every age and in every nation. It behoves an Association, therefore, which has in view the benefit of the people, to watch the political movements of the clergy and the rich. If the clergy, forgetting that they profess to be the servants of one whose kingdom is not of this world, intermeddle with temporal matters, a popular Association ought to thwart all such mischievous and unrepublican intermeddling. If the rich, presuming on their riches, attempt to carry measures for themselves and against the laboring classes, a popular Association ought to thwart all such mischievous and unrepublican attempts. But, though it be hard for a rich man, or for a clergyman, honestly to espouse the cause of the people against monied and clerical oppression, the Association will exclude neither. Let both join it, if they see fit. Let both speak, if they will. If they speak well and advise aright, the people will be the gainers. If otherwise, the people are neither blind nor asleep; their eyes are open and their tongues are free: they can judge what is said, and they can reply to
The character of the Association, then, is not exclusive and not sectarian. It is NATIONAL.
THE WORKING MAN'S PARTY OF PHILADELPHIA CALLS FOR FREE, EQUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL (1831) From Stephen Simpson, The Working Man’s Manual, (Philadelphia. 1831), pp. 119-21, 126.
Nothing is so essentially connected with the wealth of nations, and the happiness of the people, as the proper cultivation, expansion, and discipline of the popular mind. Upon this depends not only the amount of public virtue and happiness-but the aggregate of industry, ingenuity, temperance, economy, and vigour.
When we look back to the small states of GREECE, so diminutive in extent, so trivial in physical resources, yet so colossal in all the moral grandeur of nations; so happy in peace, so blessed with abundance, so invincible in war, so inimitable in letters, so exquisite in taste, so unparalleled in the arts, so splendid in all things--we are compelled to refer all her transcendent excellences to her mind-her education, her literature, her science, and her philosophy. The example of ROME, not more extended in physical limits, and not less renowned in imperishable glory-extorts the judgment to the same acknowledgment of the supremacy of intellect over matter; and the all-powerful influence of public intelligence, in forming the national character, deciding its destiny, and moulding its people. In fine, the history of the world is but a repetition of the same truth illustrated by the same renown, tracking the career of intellect in the path of glory, and showing, that kingdoms, the most insignificant in magnitude, have, by the force of knowledge, eclipsed all their gigantic rivals in wealth, resources, and fame. We might contrast England with Russia--France with China--and Greece and Rome with all!
When history glares her blaze of truth in our eyes, let us not close them to its lessons. When the intellect of Rome was quenched by a barbarian deluge: what was the condition of the world?--To what era of all those blackened by crime, and debased by ignorance, do we look back, with the greatest horror? To the DARK AGES, to the midnight of mind that overspread the world, and permitted depravity to wage an unrestricted warfare upon virtue, knowledge, science, industry, and happiness. Sufficiently admonitory, then, is the lesson of the past, to urge us to the improvement of the present, and the perfection of the future. Cast upon the stage of existence in a new era, let us not disgrace our destiny by failing to make our advancement conform to our opportunities.
The spirit of the age, which now points to the universal education of the people, is an unavoidable effect of that law of our nature, which ordains that means must be adapted to ends, and that causes must conform to their consequences;-that as time rolls on, and reflection lights the torch of intellect, prejudice, bigotry, and superstition, must give place to reason, and humanity maintain her rights in defiance of prejudice or interest, riches or ambition. When, as a people, we inscribed the holy precepts of justice and of truth on our declaration of independence proclaiming that all men were created free and equal-with the same rights to the pursuit and enjoyment of happiness; we commenced the foundation, because we created the necessity of universal education, by adopting a form of government, whose existence and purity depended on the exercise of reason, and the preservation of public virtue. Where every man is an elector, and bound to judge and to choose those who may make laws, and administer the government, every one ought to receive an education, commensurate to his duties, as such; and where individual opulence does not furnish the means, the public are bound to impart the blessing in the fullest measure, and to the widest extent, at the common cost of society; not, however, as a bounty, or a charity, but as a Tight; that as all contribute their share of labour to the expense and support of government, so all are equally entitled to the great benefits of popular instruction. In the same manner, that the constitution protects our liberties, and that the law secures our rights of person and of property, without becoming a charity to the poor; so ought education to be dispensed to all who desire to receive its vivifying beams, and investigating spirit. Indeed, to conceive of a popular government devoid of a system of popular education, is as difficult as to conceive of a civilized society destitute of a system of industry. This truth has been generally received in this country, and never, I believe, directly denied; although its force has been attempted to be evaded by the rich and opposed by the aristocracy, who have heretofore, unfortunately, been our sole law makers, through the odious system of charity schools-the bare idea of which impresses a consciousness of degradation, and leads to results the very reverse of those that ought to be produced by popular instruction. I will not, however, enlarge upon this subject, which must be familiar to all; yet all may not have remarked, that the scanty pittance of education termed charitable, has never realized the equal benefits of instruction, to which the working people have been entitled as the producers of all the wealth of society. When it is solemnly inscribed upon our constitution, that education is an essential preliminary of government, its diffusive dispensation becomes a duty and a right of the first importance and magnitude: we are bound to consider it, not as an accidental but as an integral part of government, which, when we neglect or overlook, we violate the most sacred obligations, which, as good citizens, we have sworn to discharge.
The influence of education on the manners, is not less important that its operation on the mind; between which there exists so close an intimacy--so powerful a sympathy. Civility, politeness, deference, and all the amiable and softer virtues, are generally found to be residents of minds refined and educated; while ignorance assumes manners of corresponding rudeness, and imperious insolence. As it is the tendency of knowledge to inspire diffidence, the more the mind imbibes, the less it presumes to trespass upon the feelings or challenge the opinions of others. Besides that, in educated people there exists a natural assimilation, the general result of which is good breeding; hence one of the most salutary consequences of popular instruction-that those who labour, and have heretofore been rude and insolent, will gradually become polite and civil: and thus remove one of the most serious difficulties that prevents the working people emerging from that debasing condition in which they are now held by the customs of intellect and power. It is to education, therefore, that we must mainly look for a redress of that perverted system of society, which dooms the producer to ignorance, to toil, and to penury, to moral degradation, physical want, and social barbarism.
The power of the ballot boxes will do little, without the auxiliary help of our moral and intellectual energies. How can it be a marvel, that wealth practises oppression, when it holds as its allies, all the riches of knowledge, and the exterior semblances of virtue and truth? Moving in the high orbit of science, government and laws; ordaining justice and morality after their own images, how shall we ever counteract the principles of vassalage that now prevail, unless we procure EDUCATION for our offspring, and diffuse SCIENCE among our brethren? It is through this door that we must at last enter into the temple of justice, to consecrate on the altar of reason the true rights of man. Knowledge is power, in respect to the procurement of equity to the great mass of the sons of labour. It is the light of intelligence that abashes despotism-it is the fire of intellect that dissolves and melts the chains that enthral seven eighths of mankind to the caprice and luxury of the other few. "In what way shall this evil be attacked and removed?" I have answered, by giving our children equal or superior knowledge, virtue and intelligence, to the rich--by EDUCATION to direct and qualify us for government and laws; and by concentrating our SUFFRAGE to enable us to reach that point of influence, at which we shall be able to make the laws conform to the spirit of justice, and the government congenial to the equality of human rights.
PLATFORM OF THE BOSTON WORKING MEN'S PARTY (1830) From Boston Courier, August 28, 1830, as quoted in John R. Commons et al., eds., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society (Cleveland. 1910-11), vol. V, pp. 188-89.
1. That we are determined by all fair and honorable means, to exalt the character, and promote the cause, of those who, by their productive industry, add riches to the state, and strength to our political institutions.
2. That we exclude from our association none, who, by their honest industry, render an equivalent to society for the means of subsistence which they draw therefrom.
3. That we regard all attempts to degrade the working classes as so many blows aimed at the destruction of popular virtue--without which no human government can long subsist.
4. That we view with abhorrence every attempt to disturb the public peace by uniting with political doctrines any question of religion or antireligion.
5. That the establishment of a liberal system of education, attainable by all, should be among the first efforts of every lawgiver who desires the continuance of our national independence.
6. That provision ought to be made by law for the more extensive diffusion of knowledge, particularly in the elements of those sciences which pertain to mechanical employments, and to the politics of our common country.
7. That, as we hold to the natural and political equality of all men, we have a right to ask for laws which shall protect every good citizen from oppression, contumely and degradation.
8. That we are opposed to monopolies, under whatever guise they may be imposed on the community-whether in the shape of chartered institutions for private gain; or in that of taxes, levied, nominally for the public good, on the many for the advantage of the few.
9. That we regard the multiplication of statutes, and the mysterious phraseology in which they are ordinarily involved, as actual evils, loudly demanding correction.
10. That the people have a right to understand every law made for their government, without paying enormous fees for having them expounded by attorneys--by those perhaps who were instrumental in their construction, and in rendering them incomprehensible, even to themselves.
11. That every representative chosen to declare the sentiments of the people, is bound to obey the popular voice, and to express it, or resign his trust forthwith.
12. That we are resolved to advocate, as one of our leading objects, the entire abrogation of all laws authorizing the imprisonment of the body for debt-at least until poverty shall be rendered criminal by law.
13. That we will endeavor by all practicable means to obtain a reform in our militia system.
14. That for the purpose of securing these objects, we will adopt a system of social discipline: hereby organizing ourselves under the title of Working Men of Boston.
15. That, for the furtherance of this plan, we recommend that a general meeting of our brethren and friends in the city, be held at an early day, for the purpose of selecting two delegates from each Ward, and two from South Boston, in order to constitute a General Executive Committee.
Report of the Workingman’s Committee of Philadelphia (1830). From Working Man’s Advocate, March 6, 1830. Reprinted from the Philadelphia Mechanic’s Free Press.
A public meeting of the friends of general and equal education was held in the District Court room on the evenings of the 4th, 8th, and 11th, ult., M. M. Carll in the chair and John Thompson and Wm. Heighten secretaries. The proceedings of a joint committee appointed by the working men of the city and liberties of Philadelphia, consisting of a report, together with two public school bills, and other documents relating to public education, were presented. After much deliberation and some amendments made, the proceedings of the joint committee were unanimously adopted, and a committee appointed with instructions to procure their publication.
In pursuance of these instructions a resolution has been adopted by the committee to lay the whole proceedings before the public in the order in which they were presented to the meeting.
It was also resolved, by the committee, that all editors of journals, both in the German and English language, throughout the state, favorable to education, be respectfully requested to publish the same. Signed,
JOHN MITCHELL, Chairman. WM. HEIGHTON, Secretary.
Of the Joint Committees of the City and County of Philadelphia, appointed September, 1829, to ascertain the state of public instruction in Pennsylvania, and to digest and propose such improvements in education as may be deemed essential to the intellectual and moral prosperity of the people.
It is now nearly five months since the committees were appointed to cooperate on this arduous duty. But the importance of the subject; the time expended in research and enquiry, in order to procure information relative to it; and the multiplied discussions and deliberations necessary to reconcile and correct their own different and sometimes conflicting views, will, they believe, constitute a reasonable apology for this long delay.
After devoting all the attention to the subject, and making every enquiry which their little leisure and ability would permit, they are forced into the conviction, that there is great defect in the educational system of Pennsylvania; and that much remains to be accomplished before it will have reached that point of improvement which the resources of the state would justify, and which the intellectual condition of the people and the preservation of our republican institutions demand.
With the exception of this city and county, the city and incorporated borough of Lancaster, and the city of Pittsburgh, erected into "school districts" since 1818, it appears that the entire state is destitute of any provisions for public instruction, except those furnished by the enactment of' 1809. This law requires the assessors of the several counties to ascertain and return the number of children whose parents are unable, through poverty, to educate them; and such children are permitted to be instructed at the most convenient schools at the expense of their respective counties.
The provisions of this act, however, are incomplete and frequently inoperative. They are, in some instances, but partially executed; in others, perverted and abused-and in many cases entirely and culpably neglected. The funds appropriated by the act, have, in some instances, been embezzled by fraudulent agents; and in others, partial returns of the children have been made, and some have been illegally and intentionally excluded from participating in the provisions of the law. From a parsimonious desire of saving the county funds, the cheapest, and consequently the most inefficient schools have, been usually selected by the commissioners of the several counties.
The elementary schools throughout the state are irresponsible institutions, established by individuals, from mere motives of private speculation or gain, who are sometimes destitute of character, and frequently, of the requisite attainments and abilities. From the circumstance of the schools being the absolute property of individuals, no supervision or effectual control can be exercised over them; hence, ignorance, inattention, and even immorality, prevail to a lamentable extent among their teachers.
In some districts, no schools whatever exist! no means whatever of acquiring education are resorted to; while ignorance, and its never failing consequence, crime, are found to prevail in these neglected spots, to a greater extent than in other more favored portions of the state.
The "three school districts," however, which have been alluded to, are not liable to these objections. Much good, in particular, has resulted from the establishment of the first of these, comprising this city and county, and which owes its establishment to the persevering efforts of a few individuals, who, in order to succeed, even so far, were compelled to combat the ignorance, the prejudices, and the pecuniary interests of many active and hostile opponents.
But the principles on which these "school districts" are founded, are yet, in the opinion of the committees, extremely defective and inefficient. Their leading feature is pauperism!--They are confined exclusively to the children of the poor, while there are, perhaps, thousands of children whose parents are unable to afford for them, a good private education, yet whose standing, professions or connexions in society effectually exclude them from taking the benefit of a poor law. There are great numbers, even of the poorest parents, who hold a dependence on the public bounty to be incompatible with the rights and liberties of an American citizen, and whose deep and cherished consciousness of independence determines them rather to starve the intellect of their offspring, than submit to become the objects of public charity.
There are, also, many poor families, who are totally unable to maintain and clothe their children, while at the schools; and who are compelled to place them, at a very early age, at some kind of labor that may assist in supporting them, or to bind them out as apprentices to relieve themselves entirely of the burthen of their maintenance and education, while the practice formerly universal, of schooling apprentices, has, of late years, greatly diminished and is still diminishing.
Another radical and glaring defect in the existing public school system, is the very limited amount of instruction it affords, even to the comparatively small number of youth, who enjoy its benefits. It extends, in no case, further than a tolerable proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and sometimes to a slight acquaintance with geography. Besides these, the girls are taught a few simple branches of industry. A great proportion of scholars, how ever, from the causes already enumerated, acquire but a very slight and partial knowledge of these branches.
The present public school system, limited as it is to three solitary school districts, makes no provision for the care and instruction of children under five years old. This class of children is numerous, especially among the poor, and it frequently happens that the parents, or parent, (perhaps a widow) whose only resource for a livelihood is her needle or wash tub, is compelled to keep her elder children from the school to take charge of the younger ones, while her own hands are industriously employed in procuring a subsistence for them. Such instances are far from being rare, and form a very prominent and lamentable drawback on the utility of the schools in these districts. The care thus bestowed on infants, is insufficient and very partial. They are frequently exposed to the most pernicious influences and impressions. The seeds of vice, thus early scattered over the infant soil, are too often permitted to ripen, as life advances, till they fill society with violence and outrage, and yield an abundant harvest for magdalens and penitentiaries.
An opinion is entertained by many good and wise persons, and supported to a considerable extent, by actual experiment, that proper schools for supplying a judicious infant training, would effectually prevent much of that vicious depravity of character which penal codes and punishments are vainly intended to counteract. Such schools would, at least, relieve, in a great measure, many indigent parents, from the care of children, which in many cases occupies as much of their time as would be necessary to earn the childern a subsistence. They would also afford many youth an opportunity of participating in the benefits of the public schools, who otherwise must, of necessity, be detained from them.
From this view of the public instruction in Pennsylvania, it is manifest that, even to "the school districts," to say nothing of the remainder of the state, a very large proportion of youth are either partially or entirely destitute of education.
It is true the state is not without its colleges and universities, several of which have been fostered with liberal supplies from the public purse. Let it be observed, however, that the funds so applied, have been appropriated exclusively for the benefit of the wealthy, who are thereby enabled to procure a liberal education for their children, upon lower terms than it could otherwise be afforded them. Funds thus expended, may serve to engender an aristocracy of talent, and place knowledge, the chief element of power, in the hands of the privileged few; but can never secure the common prosperity of a nation nor confer intellectual as well as political equality on a people.
The original element of despotism is a MONOPOLY OF TALENT, which consigns the multitude to comparative ignorance, and secures the balance of knowledge on the side of the rich and the rulers. If then the healthy existence of a free government be, as the committee believe, rooted in the WILL of the American people, it follows as a necessary consequence, of a government based upon that will, that this monopoly should be broken up, and that the means of equal knowledge, (the only security for equal liberty) should be rendered, by legal provision, the common property of all classes.
In a republic, the people constitute the government, and by wielding its powers in accordance with the dictates, either of their intelligence or their ignorance; of their judgment or their caprices, are the makers and the rulers of their own good or evil destiny. They frame the laws and create the institutions, that promote their happiness or produce their destruction. If they be wise and intelligent, no laws but what are just and equal will receive their approbation, or be sustained by their suffrages. If they be ignorant and capricious, they will be deceived by mistaken or designing rulers, into the support of laws that are unequal and unjust.
It appears, therefore, to the committees that there can be no real liberty without a wide diffusion of real intelligence; that the members of a republic, should all be alike instructed in the nature and character of their equal rights and duties, as human beings, and as citizens; and that education, instead of being limited as in our public poor schools, to a simple acquaintance with words and cyphers, should tend, as far as possible, to the production of a just disposition, virtuous habits, and a rational self governing character.
When the committees contemplate their own condition, and that of the great mass of their fellow laborers; when they look around on the glaring inequality of society, they are constrained to believe, that until the means of equal instruction shall be equa-secured to all, liberty is but an unmeaning word, and equality an empty shadow, whose substance to be realized must first be planted by an equal education and proper training in the minds, in the habits, in the manners, and in the feelings of the community.
While, however, the committees believe it their duty to exhibit, fully and openly, the main features and principles of a system of education which can alone comport with the spitit [sic] of American liberty, and the equal prosperity and happiness of the people, they are not prepared to assert, that the establishment of such a system in its fullness and purity, throughout the state, is by any means attainable at a single step. --While they maintain that each human being has an equal right to a full development of all his powers, moral, physical, and intellectual; that the common good of society can never be promoted in its fullness till all shall be equally secured and protected in the enjoyment of this right, and that it is the first great duty of the states, to secure the same to all its members; yet, such is now the degraded state of education in Pennsylvania, compared with what, in the opinion of the committees, education for a free people should be, that they despair of so great a change as must be involved in passing from one to the other, being accomplished suddenly throughout the state. No new system of education could probably be devised with consequences so manifestly beneficial, as to awaken at once in the public mind, a general conviction and concurrence in the necessity of its universal adoption.
The committees are aware, also, that it is their duty to consult the views, the feelings, and the prejudices, not of a single district or county merely, but of the state in general. The measure which it is their business to propose, is one designed to be of universal extent and influence, and must, to be successful, be based upon the manifest wishes of nearly the whole commonwealth. It is not, therefore, to what would constitute a perfect education only, but also, to what may be rendered practicable-it is not with a view, exclusively, to the kind of education every child of Pennsylvania ought to have, but likewise to what it is possible, under existing circumstances, views, and prejudices, every child of Pennsylvania may and can have, that they have drawn up a bill or outline of what they deem a system of public education, adapted to the present condition and necessities of the state in general.
The principal points in which the bill for establishing common schools, accompanying this report, differs from the existing system of free schools, are as follows:
1. Its provisions, instead of being limited to three single districts, are designed to extend throughout the commonwealth. 2d, It places the managers of the public schools, immediately under the control and suffrage of the people. 3d, Its benefits and privileges will not, as at present, be limited as an act of charity to the poor alone, but will extend equally and of right to all classes, and be supported at the expense of all. 4th, It lays a foundation for infantile, as well as juvenile instruction. And lastly, it leaves the door open to every possible improvement which human benevolence and ingenuity may be able to introduce.
While, however, the committees would urge the establishment of common elementary schools throughout the state, as comprising, perhaps, the best general system of education which is at present attainable, it is but just to exhibit, also, some of the defects as well as the advantages of such schools; and to suggest such further measures as appear calculated to obviate such defects.
The instruction afforded by common schools, such as are contemplated in the bill for a general system of education, being only elementary, must, of necessity, produce but a very limited development of the human faculties. It would indeed diminish, but could not destroy, the present injurious monopoly of talent. While the higher branches of literature and science remain accessible only to the children of the wealthy, there must still be a balance of knowledge, and with it a "balance of power," in the hands of the privileged few, the rich and the rulers.
Another radical defect in the best system of common schools yet established, will be found in its not being adapted to meet the wants and necessities of those who stand most in need of it. Very many of the poorest parents are totally unable to clothe and maintain their children while at school, and are compelled to employ their time, while yet very young, in aiding to procure a subsistence. In the city of New York, a much more efficient system of education exists than in this city, and common schools have been in successful operation for the last ten or twelve years; yet there are at the present time upwards of 24,000 children between the ages of 5 and 15 years, who attend no schools whatever, and this apparently criminal neglect of attending the schools is traced, chiefly, to the circumstance just mentioned. It is evidently therefore, of no avail, how free the schools may be, while those children who stand most in need of them, are, through the necessity of their parents, either retained from them altogether, or withdrawn at an improper age, to assist in procuring a subsistence.
The constitution of this state declares that "the legislature shall provide schools in which the poor may be taught gratis." If this signifies that the poor shall have an opportunity afforded for instruction, it must involve MEANS equal to the end. The poverty of the poor must be no obstruction, otherwise the constitution is a dead letter-nay, worse, an insult on their unfortunate codition [sic] and feelings.
The committees, therefore, believe, that one school, at least, should be established in each county, in which some principle should be adopted, calculated to obviate the defects that have been alluded to, and by which the children of all who desire it, may be enabled to procure, a, their own expense, a liberal and scientific education. They are of opinion that a principle fully calculated to secure this object, will be found in a union of agricultural and mechanical with literary and scientific instruction; and they have therefore, in addition to a plan of common elementary schools, the substance of a bill providing for the establishment of high schools, or model schools, based upon this principle, which they also present for public deliberation.
Believing, as the committees do, that upon an equal education and proper training to industry, sobriety, and virtue, hangs the liberty and prosperity of the new world, and, perhaps, the ultimate emancipation of the old; and believing, as they do, that the union of industry with literature and science constitutes the only desideratum by which an equal education can be supplied and secured to all classes, they experience the most sincere pleasure in discovering that this good and great principle is gaining in popularity and dominion throughout the world. Not only are institutions of this kind established in France, Prussia, Germany, and Great Britain, in imitation of the original Hofwyl institutions in Switzerland, but in the United States, also, there are several. At Whitesborough, N.Y. there is one with from 30 to 40 pupils; at Princeton, Ky. another containing 80; a third exists at Andover, Mass. that accommodates 60 pupils; a fourth at Maysville, Tenn.; and a fifth has recently been established, at Germantown, in this county. At Monmouth, N.J. and at Cincinnati, Ohio, very extensive establishments, based upon this principle, have been or are about commencing.
The Germantown establishment had been commenced only seven months when its first report was made, in November last. The pupils are instructed in literature, the sciences, languages, morals, and manual labor. The latter consists of agriculture, gardening, and some mechanic arts. They are permitted to labor little or much, as their dispositions may incline them or their necessities dictate. The institution, at its commencement, on the Ist of May, 1829, had but four pupils-- at the date of the report it had 25. By an estimate made by the board of managers, as early as July last, it appeared that the balances against several of them for board and tuition were but very small, and that some of them, by their labor, had almost cleared their expenses. They generally work from two to five hours per day.
The first institution in which manual labor appears to have been combined with literature and science, was established many years since by Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, In the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.
The pupils of this institution, in addition to a common or elementary education, were instructed in almost every branch of literature and science. They were taught agriculture, gardening, and the mechanic arts, and their choice of the latter was greatly facilitated by the numerous workshops on the premises. The elements of drawing, surveying and geometry, botany, mineralogy, music, and athletic exercises formed a part of their amusements.
Hofwyl was an independent, self-governing community, regulated by a constitution and bylaws formed by the pupils themselves. It had its code of laws; its council of legislation; its representatives; its civil officers; its treasury. It had its annual elections, and each member had an equal vote; its labors and duties in which all took an equal share. It proposed, debated, and enacted its own laws independent even of Fellenberg himself, and never, writes one of the pupils after he had left it, "never perhaps were laws framed with a more single eye to the public good, nor more strictly obeyed by those who framed them."
The same writer considers this circumstance of forming the school into an independent juvenile republic, as the great lever that raised the moral and social character of the Hofwyl establishment to the height it ultimately attained. It gave birth, he says, to public spirit and to social virtues. It awakened in the young republic an interest in the public welfare, and a zeal for the public good, which might in vain be sought in older but not wiser communities.
Professor Griscom of New York, who, while in Europe in 1818-19, visited Hofwyl, observes, that "the principles on which it is conducted, appear calculated to afford the very best kind of education which it is possible to supply, whatever situation the pupil may be destined to fill in after life. But its greatest recommendation is in the moral charm which it diffuses throughout all its operations. Scholars thus educated, must become not only more intelligent men and better philosophers, but also more dignified members of society. I cannot," he further remarks, "but indulge a hope that this scheme of education, combining agricultural and mechanical with literary and scientific instruction, will be speedily and extensively adopted in the United States." This institution ranked among its pupils children from almost every country in Europe. It had dukes, and princes, some of them related to crowned heads, and children whose parents could not afford to pay for their education, yet all were on a perfect equality. There existed not the smallest distinction between princes and nobles on the one hand, and the objects of Fellenberg's charity on the other, save that in general the latter advanced more rapidly in their studies than the former, and became the best men and the greatest scholars.
The committees, however, are by no means disposed to urge the Fellenberg system as a model of educational perfection. Doubtless, like all human institutions, it is susceptible of still higher improvements; and such indeed appears to be the opinion of individuals intimately acquainted with the detail of its operations.-But to the committees it does appear that the principle which forms the basis of this system -- the union of agricultural and mechanical with literary and scientific instruction, is peculiarly adapted to the condition and necessities of the American people, and perfectly consistent with the nature and character of our free institutions.
Its principal features are essentially republican.
Its adoption and gradual extension in each county throughout the state, would, in time, remove every obstacle to education arising from poverty, and open the door of improvement equally wide to the children of all ranks and classes.
It would afford such an equal training and enlarged development of the physical, intellectual, and moral energies of the rising generation, as would secure for ever their real liberties and equal prosperity and happiness.
To the children of those insolated yet numerous families, who reside in thinly populated sections of the state, it would afford an easy and certain acquisition of morals, intelligence, and trades, which they can never acquire by any other means.
There is one point in which the committees believe that the gradual extension and ultimate universal adoption of this system of education will produce a benefit, the value of which no human calculation can ascertain. It is but too well known that the growing effects of INTEMPERANCE--that assassinator of private peace and public virtue, are in this country terrific; and that this fearful pestilence, unless checked in its career by some more efficient remedy than has yet been resorted to, threatens to annihilate, not only the domestic peace and prosperity of individuals, but also the moral order and political liberties of the nation. No people can long enjoy liberty who resign themselves to the slavery of this tyrant vice. Yet does it appear to the committees, that all efforts to root this moral poison from the constitution of society will prove futile until the trial shall be made upon our youth. When we behold the hundreds, perhaps thousands of youth, who, between the ages of 14 and 21 are daily and nightly seduced around or into the innumerable dens of vice, licensed and unlicensed, that throng our suburbs, we are constrained to believe that in many if not in most cases, the unconquerable habit that destroys the morals, ruins the constitution, sacrifices the character, and at last murders both soul and body of its victim, is first acquired during the thoughtless period of juvenile existence. This plan of education, however, by its almost entire occupation of the time of the pupils, either in labor, study, or recreations; by the superior facilities it affords for engrossing their entire attention, and by its capability of embracing the whole juvenile population, furnishes, we believe, the only rational hope of ultimately averting, the ruin which is threatened by this extensive vice.
The committee are aware that any plan of common and more particularly of equal education that may be offered to the public, is likely to meet with more than an ordinary share of opposition. It is to be expected that political demagogueism, professional monopoly, and monied influence, will conspire as hitherto (with several exceptions more or less numerous) they ever have conspired against every thing that has promised to be an equal benefit to the whole population. Nevertheless, the appearance, that something will now be done for the intellectual as well as every thing for the physical improvement of the state are certainly very promising. The public mind is awake and favorably excited, while the press also is somewhat active on this subject.