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graduation from the academies, and of admission to the colleges of the State," and they have organized among the academies a far more extensive system of examinations than they are required to maintain. Medical students, unless college graduates, must take a regents' examination before beginning study at a medical school. The same rule holds in case of law students. The regents are further required to appoint boards of examiners in medicine to examine candidates for a State license to practice medicine.

It is specially in the field of academic examinations that the regents have advanced the interests of higher education during the last thirty years.

The supervisory powers of the university are vast and stringent.

"The regents shall, by themselves or their committees or officers, have full power to examine into the condition and operations of every institution in the university, and shall inspect the same, and require of each an annual report, verified by the oath of its presiding officer and including such particulars as may be prescribed by the regents, who shall annually report to the legislature on all departments of the university." Thus, while the various colleges and academies have no voice in the management of the university, the university has absolute power, in the name of the State, to inspect and to report to the legislature on all the affairs of these institutions.

It is, however, in regard to the incorporation of colleges and academies that the public character of the university is most clearly seen. The regents have power to "incorporate any college, academy, library, museum, or other educational institution under such name, with such number of trustees or other managers, and with such powers and privileges, and subject to such limitations and restrictions, in all respects, as may be prescribed by the said regents in conformity to the laws of this State." The regents may also suspend the charter of any institution for failure to report or other violation of law. Further, "the said regents may at any time for sufficient cause, and by an instrument under their common seal, to be recorded in their office, alter, amend, or repeal the charter of any college, academy, or other institution subject to their visitation."

The university is thus made coordinate with the legislature itself. It would seem that the State had so far abdicated its sovereignty, were the university not in fact a part of the State government.

State control of the university.-The constitution of the board of regents secures its control by the State. The life which vitalizes the corporation is the power of the people in their legislature. It has been seen that the governor of the State, the lieutenant-governor, the secretary of state, and the superintenent of public instruction are regents ex officio. The remaining 19 regents are elective, but there is no cooptative perpetuation in the university. "In the case of

Laws of 1889, chapter 468.

the death, resignation, or removal from the State of any elective regent, his successor shall be chosen by the legislature in the manner provided by law for the election of Senators in Congress, except that the election may take place at any time during the session of the legislature as it may determine."

State control is further insured by the fact that while the officers of the board of regents are elected by the regents, yet "each officer so elected shall, before entering on his duties, take and file with the secretary of state the oath required of State officers."

It is also provided that if any regent absent himself from the meetings for a year without satisfactory excuse the fact shall be reported to the legislature and a new regent elected in his place. The annual report which the regents are obliged to make is another important feature in State control.

It is a master stroke in the policy of State control that the regents are to serve without pay. A regular State department with its salaried officers would be more easily brought under the control of a political party. It was keen political insight which led the authors of this scheme thus to compel into this high service of the State the worthiest talent in the State. None but a citizen of worth and public spirit would accept a position of grave responsibility and important duty when only honor is to be gained. And honor is not certain, for they hold their position at the pleasure of the legislature. The policy is not a democratic one, but it has proved entirely successful; the legislature has uniformly chosen men of high character and wide reputation. They could have no motive to do otherwise when there were no "spoils" in the office. No suspicion of political corruption has ever touched the activity of the board of regents. They have been men chosen from among the foremost citizens of the State. It is interesting to note that Prussia is adopting in municipal administration this policy of gratuitous service by the citizens, but with this difference, characteristic of the Prussian state, that such service is there compulsory.

It is one merit of this peculiar constitution of the university that to each separate college and academy is left its own charter, with all the stimulus of private gain and ambition, no mean stimulus in a social régime where individualism is the dominant principle of activity, while the work of harmonizing this multitude of virtually independent institutions, of inspecting their action, of promoting plans of improvement, and of bringing the whole into organic relation to the State is performed by a few men whose very acceptance of the office proves their breadth of mind and zeal for the common good.

SUMMARY.

State educational poncy.-From the foregoing sketch it has become apparent that in New York the activity of the State is vital in every

department and branch of educational enterprise. The points in the State system which are most noteworthy are these:

1. The State system is not a monopoly. There exists perfect freedom for private educational enterprise, individual or associate, lay or clerical.

2. A public-school system for primary instruction, supported entirely by local or general taxation and State funds, and designed for the free use of all children under compulsory attendance laws. This system is organized upon a special territorial subdivision of the State, distinct in the main from the political subdivision, and all its parts are subordinated to the authority of a single head elected by the legislature the State superintendent of public instruction. The extraordinary judicial power of final decision upon appeal conferred upon this officer makes the central authority of the State supreme in the regulation of even the smallest affairs and in the remotest home of local self-government. An extensive system of agencies for the training of teachers for the primary schools is also maintained under the control of this department.

3. A system of secondary and higher education in which all colleges and academies having State charters are made parts of a vast corporation called the "University of the State of New York," in the government of which, however, they have no voice. Although for the most part these institutions are private foundations and are maintained by private funds, they are subject absolutely to the visitation. of the university, which has the power of life and death over these bodies corporate. The university, in spite of its form as a private corporation, is in fact a State bureau of administration, exercising the sovereign authority of the State over the colleges and academies, while leaving to them the largest liberty for self-government in their internal affairs.

4. In both systems the policy is to secure the largest possible benefit, consistent with State control, from individual initiative and local pride. Of the $17,000,000 paid for common schools in the year 1889-90, $13,000,000 were raised by local taxation, and $4,000,000 only were the product of State taxation and State funds. The highest educational service rendered in the State, viz, the work of the regents, is a service rendered gratuitously. New York is imperial in her educational methods, but the imperialism is half-feudal in its type, voluntary service by the people in return for the paternal supremacy of the State.

CHAPTER 2.

THE FOUNDING OF THE UNIVERSITY.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN COLONIAL TIMES.

Little was done for the advancement of higher education in the New Netherlands. The policy of the Dutch in the matter of popular schools

for elementary instruction was carried to the New World, and from the very beginning the Dutch settlers took care to provide public primary schools. In 1638 it was proposed, in certain articles for the colonization and trade of the New Netherlands, that "Each householder and inhabitant shall bear such tax and public charge as shall hereafter be considered proper for the maintenance of clergymen, comforters for the sick, schoolmasters, and such like necessary officers."1 There had been schools even before this. And later, in 1659, "Alexander Carolus Curtius, before a professor in Lithuania," was engaged by the directors of the West India Company and sent out to open a Latin school. 2 The English occupation in 1664, however, put an end to this school, which appears to have been the only academy in New Amsterdam.

Under the English régime Latin schools were encouraged. ing the Dutch rule, licenses from both civil and ecclesiastical authorities were necessary for the establishment of private schools. In 1702 the legislature framed “An act for encouragement of a grammar free school in the city of New York," but no permanent foundation was made under this act. The act contemplated the establishment of a public school supported by taxation, "for the education and instruction of youth and male children of such parents as are of French and Dutch extraction, as well as of the English." The schoolmaster was to be chosen by the common council of the city, and "lycensed and approved by the Right Hon. the bishop of London, or the governor or commander in chief" of the province. Lord Cornbury, then governor, urged the matter, and the "English society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts" became interested in the plan. This society was formed in 1701, and adopted a vigorous missionary policy in the colonies, spurred on by antagonism to the efforts of the Jesuits. Under Governor Dongan the Jesuits had actually established a Latin school in New York in 1688. In educational affairs the aim of this society was to strengthen and extend the influence of the English Church, and the schools of the colony fell virtually under the control of this propagandist corporation. They sent out missionaries and schoolmasters and organized schools throughout the province, which they in part supported. In their attempts to convert the Iroquois, likewise, they showed great zeal.

was

"The maintenance of a learned and orthodox clergy abroad declared to be "the principal," although "not the only intent of this corporation," and their standing orders in regard to schoolmasters show that they believed firmly in the dominance of the established church in education. The ecclesiastical bias, thus intensified in the schools of the colony, is important as helping to explain the controversies of the latter half of the century.

1 Pratt's Annals (see Conv. proc. 1868, p. 160).

2 Ibid., 1869, p. 144.

3 Ibid., 1868, p. 177.

In 1732 another attempt was made to establish a school under public authority. "An act to encourage a public school in the city of New York for teaching Latin, Greek, and mathematics," passed in that year, provided for an institution thoroughly civil in its scope and government. The education sought was secular rather than religious. The public good, not the advantage of the church, was the object in view. The school was to be under the visitation of the "justices of the supreme court, the rector of Trinity Church, and the mayor, recorder, and aldermen of the city of New York," who could remove the schoolmaster for cause and appoint a successor. This board of visitation is probably the prototype of the ex officio membership of the board of governors of King's College and of the board of regents. Provision was made for partial public support of the school, and for the instruction, free of tuition, of 20 young men recommended from the different counties by certain public officers in those counties. This last provision shows a remarkable grasp, for that time, of the meaning and functions of a State school. It was the beginning of the policy, consummated in the establishment of the University, of an educational institution which should be identified in its operation with the whole life of the State.

King's College.-The idea of a college seems to have lurked in both these schemes for a public grammar school, namely, the acts of 1702 and of 1732. But it was not till 1746 that public action was really taken in regard to the founding of a college.

In that year the legislature passed "An act for raising the sum of £2,250 by a public lottery, for this colony, for the advancement of learning and toward the founding a college within the same." This was the beginning of King's, afterwards Columbia College. It is not necessary here to tell the story of the founding of King's College. It has been often told, and there is nothing new to add. There was a fierce controversy over the charter. One party desired a royal charter; the other a charter from the colonial legislature. The royalist party prevailed and the charter was granted by King George II in 1754. In this controversy is seen that revolt against absolutism in church and state which was gathering strength both in America and in France at this time. The principles or tendencies of the conservative party were a church foundation aided by the state; an education in which the church standards should be the gauge of truth; the maintenance of the authority of the English King; a corporate organization in which the Church of England should control. It was a party of English sympathies, of aristocratic tendencies, of intuitional and scholastic knowledge, of ecclesiastical supremacy. The other party were learning a new philosophy. They favored knowledge, positive and practical. They wanted freedom and self-government in the church and in the state; and separation of church from state. They wanted an educa

'Pratt's Annals (see Conv. proc. 1869, p. 186).

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