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VIRGINIA.

EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS.

THOUGH no organized Educational Societies have existed in the State of Virginia, yet several important Conventions have been held, whose proceedings are deserving of notice. The first of these met at Clarksburg, in the north-western part of the State, on the 8th of September, 1841. The deficiencies of the then existing common school system and the condition of the people in point of intelligence, as referred to by Gov. David Campbell in the annual message of 1839,* and the alarming state of ignorance prevailing among the people, as shown by the census of 1840,† had excited general astonishment and apprehension. The first movement towards amendment was made by the people of Western Virginia in calling the above Convention. The feeling that prevailed in that section of the State is shown in the following extract from a letter of Judge E. S. Duncan, of Harrison county, which was read before the Convention:

We in Virginia have been olamoring for the last fifteen or twenty years, about State rights and State sovereignties, forgetting or neglecting all the while

"The statements furnished by the clerks of five city and borough courts and ninety-three of the county courts, in reply to inquiries addressed to them, ascertain that of those who applied for marriage licenses, a large number were unable to write their names. The years selected for this inquiry were those of 1817, 1827, and 1837. The statements show that the applicants for marriage licenses in 1817 amounted to 4,682; of whom 1,127 were unable to write ;-5,048 in 1827, of whom the number unable to write was 1,116;-and in 1837, the applicants were 4,614; and of these the number of 1,047 were unable to write their names. From which it appears there still exists a deplorable extent of ignorance, and that in truth it is hardly less than it was twenty years ago, when the School Fund was created. The statements, it will be remembered, are partial, not embracing quite all the counties, and are moreover confined to one sex. The education of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect.

"There are now in the State 200,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen. Forty thousand of these are reported to be poor children; and of them, only one-half to be attending schools. It may be safely assumed that of those possessed of property adequate to the expenses of a plain education, a large number are growing up in ignorance for want of schools within convenient distances. Of those at school, many derive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity of the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence and inattention. Thus the number likely to remain uneducated and to grow up without just perceptions of their duties, religious, social, and political, is really of appalling magnitude and such as to appeal with affecting earnestness to a parental legislature."-Message of Gov. Campbell, Jan. 9th, 1839.

"To show the lamentable degree of ignorance in Virginia and the necessity of an effectual reform in our school system, we need only examine the returns of the late census. More than 58,000 adult white persons were returned as unable to read or write. This amount of ignorance

to perform the very duties those rights required of us. We very properly deny to the Federal Government the right to interfere with our domestic concerns for the purpose of internal improvement or education, but we take care not to exercise the right ourselves for any valuable purpose. In truth, recent developments show much to alarm us about the condition of our noble State. The late reassessment of the lands shows an enormous decline in their value, and the census discloses the melancholy fact that in Virginia, proud old Virginia, there are more persons at this time who can not read or write than there were ten or twelve years ago, although our white population has diminished. Something therefore must be done speedily to arrest the State in its downhill course, or she will have little left but the shadow of her former greatness. I am gratified that the movement in favor of education has originated in the West. This is as it should be. Judging from the past we have little to expect from the East, and I verily believe that the regeneration of the State must depend upon the energy and patriotism of the West.

I suppose the Convention will memorialize the Legislature on the subject of education, as well as appeal to the people for their individual support. The latter, I fear, is the only reliable hope for success. I begin to despair of any valuable action on the subject by the Legislature, until that body be remodeled and the free white population of the West have its just weight in the councils of the government. Appeal directly to the people and arouse them to the necessity of educating their offspring. The people of the West, although poor, have the means, and, above all, they have the energy, and if they will it, they can do much towards the education of their children from their own resources. They should form local or neighborhood associations for the purpose.

The Convention at Clarksburg was attended by one hundred and thirteen delegates from sixteen counties of North-western Virginia and the valley of the Shenandoah. George H. Lee, of Harrison county, was elected President. Communications were received from Alex. Campbell, of Brooke county, from Hon. E. S. Duncan, and from J. D. D. Rosset, of Jackson county, on the subject of education; and from Pres. Ruffner, with the outline of a plan for the improvement of common schools. The deliberations of the Convention resulted in the appointment of two committees, by whom an Address to the People and a Memorial to the Legislature were prepared.

A second Convention was held at Lexington on the 2d of Oct., 1841, composed of delegates from the counties of Bath, Augusta, and Rockbridge, in the Shenandoah Valley. At the request of this Convention, a plan for the organization and support of common

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is enough to alarm us; but were this all that the census discloses, we should not have thought it necessary to mention the subject here. An attentive examination of the returns will show, beyond question, that they come far short of the truth. * Many and great errors evidently exist in these returns. They must be errors of defect, for no cause of excess can be assigned; while the negligence of the marshals and the reluctance of individuals to report their ig norance, may easily account for defects. We venture to assert also, that multitudes were reported as able to read, who could indeed labor through a printed page, but who were in no proper sense readers of books or even of newspapers, and who were in reality as ignorant, if not quite so illiterate, as those who had never learned the alphabet. When these things are taken into account, we must conclude that not less than 150,000 of the adult white population of Virginia are in a state of debasing ignorance. This is more than one-third of the 377,000 citizens over twenty years of age."—Henry Ruffner, Pres. of Washington College, Va.

schools was prepared by Pres. Henry Ruffner, and laid before the Legislature.

Yet a third Convention was held at Richmond on the 9th of December of the same year, during the session of the Legislature. One hundred and twenty-nine delegates were present from thirty-seven counties, besides members of the Assembly who were invited to take part in its proceedings. James M. Garnett was elected President; Gen. Edward Watts, N. E. Venable, R. W. Carter, and J. H. Peyton, Vice-Presidents; R. H. Toler and E. G. Crump, Secretaries. Reports were made by committees, on the University-CollegesMilitary Schools-Academies-and Primary Schools. The latter report was especially elaborate and received the profoundest attention. The report recommended the district free school system, and was drawn up and ably defended by Rev. Benj. J. Smith, of Augusta. The existing system was defended by Rev. Dr. W. S. Plumer, of Kanawha county, who urged the expediency of adhering to it and blending with it the plan of county taxation. The report was adopted and a committee was appointed to present its principles in a memorial to the Legislature. An Address to the People was also prepared by a committee, consisting of Messrs. Thos. Ritchie, B. M. Smith, and R. G. Scott.

So far as legislative action was concerned, the result of these conventions was the referment of the subject to the Committee on Schools and Colleges. A Bill establishing Common Schools was reported, which only reached a second reading. The effect upon the people, however, was not thus wholly negative.

Four years afterwards, a General Convention was again called, which met in Richmond, Dec. 10th, 1845. The attendance was large, there being present two hundred and thirteen delegates from fifty-one counties. Gov. James McDowell was elected President; Judge J. T. Lomax, Judge E. S. Duncan, T. J. Randolph, Spicer Patrick, A. T. Caperton, W. H. Macfarland, J. H. Carson, and Samuel Watts, Vice-Presidents; J. S. Gallagher and R. B. Gooch, Secretaries. The main purpose of this Convention was to devise an improved system of public instruction. Various suggestions and projects were received from Hon. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts, Howard Meeks, Agent for Education in Maryland, C. List, of Pennsylvania, S. A. Jewett, Col. F. H. Smith, P. V. Daniell, Jr., and others. Messrs. S. M. Janney, of Landon county, and D. N. Edgington, of Ohio county, in behalf of a minority of the committee to whom the subject had been referred, presented a plan of a district school system which, after discussion and amendment, was adopted.

This plan was afterwards laid before the Legislature with a memorial praying its adoption. An Act was accordingly passed on the 6th of March, 1846, which made important changes in the school system, creating a larger number of school districts, providing for an enumeration and registration of children, establishing the office of County Superintendent of Schools, and regulating the distribution of the school quota among the districts. This system was partially carried into effect, with favorable results. The census of 1850 showed that of the total number of 413,428 adult whites, 77,005 could not read and write. The census statistics of 1860, which would show more conclusively the result of the educational movements in the State, are not yet accessible.

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The Convention of 1845, in order to secure the better success of any measures that might be adopted by the Legislature, appointed a Central Committee of Education," consisting of Messrs. A. Stevenson, H. L. Brooke, C. F. Osborne, T. H. Ellis, S. Maupin, W. S. Plumer, R. T. Daniel, W. H. Macfarland, James Lyon, P. V. Daniell, Jr., R. B. Gooch, G. W. Munford, and H. W. Moncure, residents mostly of Richmond, whose duties were to watch over and promote the success of the new system, to ascertain its advantages and defects, with a view to its improvement, and to collect and diffuse information upon the subject of popular education. The formation of county and town associations of the friends of education was strongly recommended, but it is not certain that any were ever organized.

In 1856, July 23d and 24th, pursuant to a call through Gov. Wise, a convention of delegates from the principal colleges and academical institutions of Virginia assembled at Richmond, of which Rev. Dr. Smith, of Randolph Macon College, was appointed President, and Rev. Dr. Regland, of Richmond College, Vice-President. The condition of the Literary Fund and its application; the evils of premature admission of students to colleges, and the remedies; the affiliation of the Academies, Colleges, and the University of the State; the qualification of students of professional schools of Law, Medicine, and Theology; the education of girls; a system of Normal Schools and schools of applied Science, were discussed and referred to committees, to report at a future meeting, to be called by the Executive Committee.

The new State of West Virginia has promptly inaugurated an excellent school system, the influence of which will doubtless be speedily seen and felt.

XI. NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION.*

BY E. E. WHITE,

Commissioner of Common Schools of Ohio.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION next to universal liberty, is a matter of deep national concern. The one distinctive, exhaustive idea of a democratic government is, that it is a government by the people and for the people-i. e. by the whole people and for the whole people. A democracy is in other words but an organized people— they constitute the state. Its constitution and laws are but their recorded will, and all governmental power emanates from and centers in them.

In such a government, in its pure form, sovereignty is a universal right to be exercised by all for the happiness and well-being of all. It is a right that can neither be denied nor restricted except by usurpation, and this is true whether the usurping power is one man or twenty millions of men. The right of sovereignty may be forfeited by crime or by its treasonable exercise, but it is in no sense an accident of birth or condition.

When the exercise of sovereignty by the people is both universal and for the welfare of all, a democracy is the perfection of human government. But to the extent that such right is withheld from the people or is wrongfully exercised by them, just to that extent are democratic institutions imperfect and a failure. Hence the capability of the people to exercise sovereignty for the general welfare, is a fundamental and vital condition of republican institutions. When such capability does not exist, to the extent it is wanting, is the universal exercise of sovereignty a condition of national weakness, if not of peril. I am thus led to inquire what this capability includes, and what are the essential conditions of its existence ?

It clearly requires the necessary intelligence to determine what will best subserve the interests of all; and the degree of this intelligence must not only be sufficient for self-government on the part of individuals and individual communities, but the people, as a whole,

A paper read before the National Association of School Superintendents, at Washington, D. C., February 7, 1866.

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