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in itself, progress, but the more so as Eustis soon (1835) added himself to the number of those who were advocating the free-school system. In 1836 the committee of education again reported the existing system as entirely defective, and recommended public free schools. Again, in 1844, the same policy was pressed, and the appointment of a superintendent other than the secretary of state was recommended, and he was to visit the schools.*

In 1845 a commission of five members was appointed to extend the free public-school system. We shall see below that the schools in New Orleans furnished the bridge between the two systems.

STATISTICS.t

In 1834 1,175 indigent children were educated by the State, 217 being from New Orleans. The whole number of pupils in the parochial schools was estimated at 1,500, while the number of educable boys between 5 and 15 was about 12,000. Twenty-one out of 32 parishes had reported.

In 1836 the report did not cover so many parishes, and so is not suitable for a comparison, but it does inform us that the course in the country schools embraced reading, writing, arithmetic, and history. The report of 1844 is, for the reason just mentioned, also unavailable for furnishing us a term of comparison whence we might discern some growth in the system. This must be limited, however, to the country schools, for in New Orleans a great improvement had been going on, and to this we must now turn our attention.

THE CENTRAL AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF NEW ORLEANS. These were, as was seen above, the successors of the College of Orleans, and perhaps there was no very great difference of grade intended to be made between the old college and the new central school. The nomenclature adopted for the new departure seems possibly to be derived from Lakanal, last president of the College of

In the central school French, English, Latin, mathematics, and literature were to be taught, and in each of the schools 50 indigent children were to be instructed gratis, in this respect there being some enlargement of the old number.

APPROPRIATIONS.

Out of the sums that had been formerly granted to the College of Orleans, $7,000 came to the new system of schools. On the 15th of April, 1826, two theaters were licensed on condition of paying $3,000 each (?) annually to the schools in the city.

*Messages, reports, etc.. cited by Lusher.

+ Reports of the condition of the parochial schools. (Eustis, Blache; cited by Lusher.

ORGANIZATION-COURSE OF STUDIES.

These schools were to be intrusted to a director having general supervision. One or more professors were to be employed for the Central School to give instruction in French, English, Latin, mathematics, literature, etc. Each of the primary schools was to be intrusted to a professor who should teach reading, writing, the elements of English and French grammar, and arithmetic.

This plan contemplated too limited a number of instructors, and on the 14th of March, 1827, after but a single year's operation, the teaching force was authorized to be enlarged. The number of beneficiary students was also raised to a maximum of 100 for each of the three schools. The new order of things in New Orleans was regarded as an improvement. Governor Henry Johnson, in his message, January 7, 1828, declares:

The establishment of the Central and primary schools in New Orleans has proved highly beneficial. They are in a flourishing condition, and now contain upward of 250 scholars.*

On the 12th of January, 1829, a report on these schools was made to the legislature, from which we see that the schools had given instruction in the branches contemplated by their act of establishment, and that in the Central School two "respectable professors had also taught Spanish and drawing."

STATISTICS.

At any rate, the finances of the schools were in a sound condition. Receipts during the past year had reached $9,475.53, and expenditures were $8,863.34, leaving a balance of $613.29, to which was to be added a balance from the previous year of $1,135.95; total balance, $1,749.24. The report for 1831 states that there were 245 scholars in the schools, but there was now a deficit of $791.25. For the next year the report went to show that these schools had acquired a character as schools for the indigent alone, and the courses of instruction had been adapted to such of them as had but a short time to stay at school. The number of pupils was but 10 greater than in the previous report.†

THE NEW ORDER.

Without any important changes this system must have continued until 1841, when appropriations of $7,500 were granted to the primary schools on condition that the city raise half the sum. The number of schools was by this act fixed at one or more for each of the three municipalities of the city of New Orleans, and to the right bank (Algiers?) a sum of $800 was granted for a school. With this act the rise of the free public schools began in New Orleans. In the first Reports cited by Lusher.

*Cited by Lusher.

part of 1842 there were in the American quarter 300 children in private schools, 2,000 in none; at its close the public schools of this quarter and Lafayette had over 1,000, the next year 13, and in 1844 1,800 pupils.*

* * * It is pleasanter to know that the city's public schools grew rapidly in numbers and efficiency, and that even when her library facilities were so meager the proportion of youth in these schools was larger than in Baltimore or Cincinnati, only slightly inferior to St. Louis and New York, and decidedly surpassed only in Philadelphia and Boston.†

In evidence of the ardor with which the new system was advocated may be cited the fact that in 1844 a single municipality raised by taxation or otherwise $11,000 for its public schools, and the people had not been long habituated to levying special taxes for public schools.

EFFECT ON THE STATE AT LARGE.

But the public schools of New Orleans were to play a larger part than the education of the children in their bounds. They were to educate the public sentiment of the State, so as to bring about the general adoption of the system for the whole Commonwealth. In 1844 the legislature was attending school exhibitions and examinations in the municipal schools, and they gave expression to their approbation in the following terms:

The members of this house have viewed with pride and pleasure the zeal and enterprise manifested by the authorities of the second municipality in the establishment of numerous public schools by which the inestimable blessings of education have been dispensed to more than 1,200 pupils; and the enlightened philanthropy and vigorous efforts displayed by that section of the city, as well as by the third municipality, in the great cause of public instruction, call for and merit an expression of the cordial approbation of the legislature.§

It was in this same legislature that the committee of education came out squarely for the adoption of the free-school system. This had been done before, but the present committee attacked very sharply the subsidized colleges and academies. To these we must now turn our attention.

THE COLLEGE OF LOUISIANA.

Though the Central School of New Orleans may be considered the virtual successor of the College of Orleans in respect of its situation, the College of Louisiana was much more so in respect of its dignity and aims. This institution was chartered by the legislature in 1825, and its very inception seems to have been an act of hostility to the existing College of Orleans. It was, in the first place, directed that the annual State appropriation of $5,000 be transferred from the latter to the former. The location of the new college was the small

*Cable, Creoles of Louisiana.
† Ibid., p. 259.

Report cited by Lusher.
§Cited by Lusher.

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country village of Jackson, in the parish of East Feliciana. The influences which should surround it were sure to be English, and not French, as had been the case with the older institution. The name, too, suggests the well-known rivalry between the country parishes and the city. Conjecture is rendered certainty by the act of the following year, which brought to an end the College of Orleans, transferring its operation to the Central and two primary schools, so far as the city was concerned.

AIMS.

The new institution was to give courses in English, French, Greek, and Latin, logic, rhetoric, ancient and modern history, mathematics, natural, moral, and political philosophy, and degrees were to be conferred such as were usual with any university, college, or seminary of learning in the United States.

FOUNDERS.

The organization of the board of trustees shows, but to a less extent than had been the case in the College of Orleans, some partiality for men in public offices, for the board of trustees was to be composed of the governor (Henry Johnson), the judges of the supreme court (George Mathews, François Xavier Martin, Alexander Foster), and the following private citizens: John Shea, Thomas Butler, John C. Williams, Clark Woodroff, Thomas W. Scott, William S. Hamilton, Adlai Donald, James M. Bradford, Alexander Barrow, Samuel M'Caleb, William Silliman, John B. Dawson, Lafayette Saunders, J. A. Smith, A. G. Scott, Thomas Cooper, Thomas W. Chinn, William Garret Johnson, B. O. Williams, John Crocker, James Villeré, P. Derbigny, Armand Duplantier, sr., A. B. Roman, Samuel Steer, L. Esneault, Armand Beauvais, and Sosthène Allain.

APPROPRIATIONS.

We have seen that in the act of incorporation the sum of $5,000 yearly had been transferred to the College of Louisiana. In 1831 a grant of $5,000 yearly for four years was made, and it was expressly provided that this in no sense interfered with the previous appropriations. Free board and tuition were in consequence to be given to 15 students appointed by the governor, on the basis of not more than one from each senatorial district. When this appropriation had reached its time limit, in 1835, a further sum of $15,000 annually for ten years was granted. The college was to be inspected yearly by a joint committee of the legislature, and in 1836 an act was passed requiring the Citizens' Bank of New Orleans to pay $5,000 annually to this institution. In 1842 all existing appropriations to schools were cut off, but a fresh grant of $10,000 yearly for two years was made to this college.

CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS.

From a report to the legislature on this college, March 7, 1827,* we learn that the college had been organized with an eminently capable president in December of 1826; a tutor for preparatory students, and a professor of French and Spanish had been employed. There were thirty-odd pupils in the preparatory departments, and students were rapidly coming forward for the academic departments. The instruction given was similar to that of the most respectable literary institutions of the Union. Boarding was $2 per week; there were no dormitories; tuition fees ranged between $30 and $60. Arrangements had been made for the gratuitous instruction of all indigents that would attend the college. In 1830 the faculty consisted of Mr. Gird, a West Pointer, who was president and professor of mathematics and the higher branches; Dr. Ingles, also a West Pointer, professor of chemistry and natural philosophy; a professor (name omitted) of French and Spanish who had been educated in a university at Florence, Italy, and had taught in Harvard; Mr. January, professor of ancient languages and conductor of the English department. The number of students was between fifty and sixty.†

Acting Governor Jacques Dupré probably but embodied the prevailing opinion of the institution in saying:

The college at Jackson, in the parish of East Feliciana, is in a progressive state of improvement; able and intelligent professors have been engaged, who manifest the greatest devotion to their duties, and I therefore think that institution well deserving the fostering care of the legislature.

In the same month of January, 1831, Governor Roman writes from a somewhat different point of view that he thought the College of Louisiana had failed to justify expectations of it, but he had hope in its recent reorganization.

OUTFIT.

The report for 1831 announces that there were four college buildings and over eighty students. The faculty numbered five professors and a chaplain. The course embraced English, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, pure and mixed mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, natural history, geography, moral and political philosophy, ancient and modern history, logic, and rhetoric. The college had received, between August 3, 1829, and the same date in 1830, from State aid, the sale of books and stationery, tuition fees, and private donations, $15,436.84, and had expended $15,296.62. With no very great or expensive faculty, it would seem that this institution was comfortably well provided for. It was provided that 10 pupils from that Congressional district should be maintained and educated gratis.

* Cited by Lusher. + Report, from Lusher. + Messages cited by Lusher.

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