66

devoted to the College of Rapides (1819), for which the legislature in 1834 allowed a removal for the four months, June-September, to an eligible situation within the pine woods within 3 miles of Alexandria." The Academy of Alexandria was probably but another name for the same school.

On the 31st of March, 1853, the bill providing for the foundation of the State Seminary of Learning was approved by the governor, and $3,190 granted for the purchase of the site that had been fixed upon by the committee, J. P. Davidson, Henry Jackson, and R. H. Sibley. The superintendent of education was directed to "buy from Mrs. E. R. Williams her pine woods seat on the north side of Red River near Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides." The grounds thus to be secured had an extent of 438 acres and the maximum price was $3,190 for the grounds and all the improvements upon them. The title bestowed upon the institution was "The Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana." Two years later a further sum of $1,000 was granted for the purchase of an additional plot of ground containing 80 acres.

We have seen that several locations contended for this foundation, and at one time it seemed almost certain that Jefferson College would be the site selected. The State had expended already large sums of money there, but the mutual rivalries of Franklin, Jefferson, and Louisiana precluded the choice of any of them. Two considerations must have led to the final selection of Rapides Parish: (1) Ease of access by river, for the Mississippi on the south, the Atchafalaya on the southwest, Red River to the northwest, and the Ouachita to the north, all opened to students avenues of approach by water, then the only available means of communication within the State; (2) the wellknown character the pine woods bore for salubrity. If our knowledge could only go back so far, perhaps some enthusiasm for education born of the old Rapides College gave to the legislators of that parish the perseverance that gained the day for them. It was the humor of the time that only a location in the country could be a safeguard for students against vice.

THE ENDOWMENT.

In 1806, and again in 1811, Congress donated from the public lands two townships, 46,080 acres each, for the foundation of a Seminary of Learning in Louisiana. This course was only part of the general policy of the United States Government in respect to the encouragement of higher education in the public-land States. This policy has been conveniently summarized by Mr. J. A. Breaux, former superintendent of instruction in Louisiana, in his Compilation of Laws Relating to Free Public Schools, as follows:

July 23, 1787, Congress, in the "Powers to the. Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of Western Territory," ordered

That not more than two complete townships be given perpetually for the purpose of an university, to be laid off by the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the same shall be of good land, to be applied to the intended object by the legislature of the State.

This related to lands now in the State of Ohio, in the Symmes and Ohio Company purchases. They inaugurated the present method of taking from the public lands, for the support of seminaries or schools of a higher grade, the quantity of two townships at least, and in some instances more, to each of the States containing public lands, and special grants have also been made to private enterprises. In the legislation relating to the admission of the public-land States into the Union, from the admission of Ohio in 1802 to the admission [of Colorado] in 1876, grants of two townships of public lands, viz, 46,080 acres each, for university purposes are enumerated. Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are the exceptions, each having more than two townships in area. Nineteen States have had the benefit of this provision, and the two townships are reserved in the Territories of Washington, New Mexico, and Utah. These will be granted and confirmed to them upon their admission into the Union. These reservations in each case require a special act. All school, university, or agricultural college lands granted are sold by the legislature of the several States or leased, and the proceeds of sale or lease applied to education.

The sum derived from the sale of these lands was put in the State treasury as a perpetual seminary fund, on which the State was to pay an annual interest. Direct appropriations from the treasury have been a further source of financial supply. We have seen that these funds did not become immediately available, but the State constitution of 1845 recognized the endowment in article 136.

All

moneys arising from the sales which have been or may hereafter be made of any lands heretofore granted by the United States to the State for the use of a seminary of learning, and from any kind of donation that may hereafter be made for the purpose, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, at 6 per cent per annum, shall be appropriated to the support of a seminary of learning for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, and no law shall ever be made diverting said fund to any other use than to the establishment and improvement of said seminary of learning.

ORGANIZATION.

The organization of the institution proceeded slowly. It was not until March 17, 1857, that a commission was appointed to select a president.* Militarism had somehow gotten hold of the institution, and the first president selected was one well fitted to inaugurate such discipline, Col. W. T. Sherman. This selection is remarkable from one point of view, for the sectional spirit was already beginning to run high in Louisiana, as the act cited now will show:

Whereas Sydney S. Caldwell, a citizen of the State of Louisiana, is the author of a new system of English grammar highly recommended as a standard work by eminent grammarians;

And whereas it is desirable to encourage the production of, and introduction into the schools of Louisiana, a series of school books written by citizens of the State, published in the South, not contaminated by the fanaticism of Northern authors;

*Lusher.

And whereas Sydney S. Caldwell was born and educated in a Southern State, is now and has been for twenty-five years a citizen of Louisiana: Therefore. Be it resolved, etc.

The act authorizes the purchase of 500 copies of the new system of English grammar, at a cost of $1.000, the same to be distributed in each public school in the State.*

We can not doubt, then, that sectional feeling was alive in the State at the time when Colonel Sherman was brought in as president of the Seminary of Learning. He recognized it himself in his address at the laying of the corner stone of the institution:

The pecuniary foundation of this institution was derived from the munificence of the General Government of the United States. This fact we propose to commemorate and hand down through all time by an inscription on marble to be placed over the grand entrance, thus ever reminding the youth of the State as they daily pass beneath its portal that this is one of the innumerable and untold blessings which they enjoy from the union of these States, keeping alive in their hearts for ages and ages and ages to come a love and veneration for it, which shall not only render it indissoluble, but assist to carry out this great design in harmony and freedom to the end of time.t

Surely no one could have remained long in doubt after this utterance that Colonel Sherman's allegiance for the coming struggle would be to the General Government and not to the State of Louisiana.

OPENING-SHERMAN'S REPORT.

The institution was actually opened for the reception of students on the 2d of January, 1860. Colonel Sherman's report of April 28, 1860, furnishes us the most interesting information about the conditions that obtained at that time. He could not

withhold the expression of his earnest conviction that, in the course of study and array of text-books, there had been imposed upon the cadets a load which they could not bear, and that it was calculated to make imperfect and superficial scholars. In adding to a full scientific course of study a most complete classical one, we were apt to appall the mind of any ambitious youth who contemplated the task he had assumed.

The standard for admission was low, but not too low. The majority of applicants were very badly prepared, and, with every disposition possible to yield to the wishes of parents, the academic board was constrained to reject twelve of them at the beginning of the term.

There were 5 professors, 71 cadets, 31 beneficiaries, and 13 had been rejected, one because he was under age (15), the others for lack of preparation.

*In this connection it may be worthy of remark that in 1831 600 copies of Gayarré's Historical Essay on Louisiana had been purchased by the State for distribution among the several parishes, under the supervision and at the discretion of the boards of school administrators. In contrast with these acts stands the fact that Audubon, the most remarkable naturalist Louisiana, even America, perhaps, has produced, received from his native State the recognition of the purchase of one copy of his great work, the Birds of America (Martin's History of Louisiana, II, p. 437).

+ Lusher.

To coerce the institution to receive State cadets who could not read, who did not know anything (the standard was as low as possible,) would drag it down to a mere common school, instead of an institution of the higher order.

The text-books for the fiscal year were Davies's University Arithmetic, Bourdon's Algebra, Davies's Legendre's Geometry, Noël and Chapsal's French Grammar, Noble Butler's English Grammar, Ruddiman's Latin Grammar, and Tosse's Spanish grammar.*

EQUIPMENT.

In 1858 the seminary building had cost $71,075.64 and $30,000 was needed for its completion,* a sum that was appropriated by the State, but was to be refunded out of the seminary fund. The grants of land had now been capitalized at $136,000 in State bonds, paying 6 per cent annual interest ($8,190). In 1860, besides a generous appropriation for general purposes, an appropriation of $15,000 yearly for two years was granted for the maintenance of beneficiary cadets. In 1861 the institution was in possession of two professors' houses. Financial resources Estimated expenses.

Balance

$56,056. 02 43, 746.22

12, 310.60

III.—THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA IN NEW ORLEANS.

Had it not been for this institution Louisiana would have been entirely without means of higher education supported by the State between 1845-1860. As it was, the University of Louisiana was mainly a school for professional training in law and medicine, and, except for its buildings, can hardly be said to have been a protégé of the State at all.

EARLY MEDICAL EDUCATION.

In 1835 a faculty of seven members was incorporated as the Medical College of Louisiana. The Medical College of Orleans was also begun at the same time with a faculty of equal number.

To the former college were assigned, in 1843, the duties of attending physicians in the Charity Hospital, and a site for building was given them, 120 feet square, from the corner of Philippa and Common streets.

Strec 18:47 the State University was established. The faculties of medi

cine and law already in operation in New Orleans formed part of the system, and their diplomas were equivalent to licenses to practice within the State. Academic faculties were also constituted, and the privilege of establishing a grammar or preparatory school was granted. The real and personal property of the Medical College of Louisiana was transferred to the new corporation, and the Charity Hospital again put at the disposal of the medical faculty.

*Lusher.

APPROPRIATIONS.

An appropriation of $25,000 for the erection of the medical buildMr. H. A. Bullard, in an address before

ing was made in that year.

the Historical Society, thus characterizes this institution:

Colleges are springing up under the generous patronage of the legislature which promise soon to be amply sufficient for the education of the rising generation. The medical college of this city, the offspring of private enterprise and sustained by the devotion of a few medical gentlemen to the cause of science, deserves public encouragement, and I trust will receive it.*

The next year the University of Louisiana asked for $60,000,† but the appropriation it received was $35,000 to complete the medical buildings.

CONTEMPORARY COMMENT.

In 1850 the condition of this college was reported to the legislature. The medical faculty was composed of James Jones, Warren Stone, I. L. Riddell, A. H. Cenas, A. I. Wedderborn, G. A. Nott, Thomas Hunt, and T. R. Le Monnier. There were 176 matriculates.

The law course embraced common and civil law (which is the foundation of the legal system that obtains in Louisiana), public, international, and constitutional law. The lecturers were Henry A. Bullard, Theo. H. McCaleb, Randall Hunt, and Thomas B. Monroe. At the last session twenty-two bachelors of law had been graduated, and there were thirty-five in the class at that time.

Mr. Maunsel White had endowed a chair of political economy, commerce, and statistics, which was held by Mr. J. B. D. De Bow.

The academic or preparatory department had been established in December, 1847. The average number of pupils had been forty. Several had been prepared for Northern colleges. Mr. G. C. Anthon was the professor in that department. The sum of $6,000 was needed for buildings.

COURSES.

For the establishment of the college proper and the chairs of natural science and belles-lettres the board had no means. Several pupils in the preparatory department had gone through a course comprising— besides French and English branches-arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, descriptive geometry, analytical geometry and topographical engineering, Latin and Greek grammar, Latin prose and verse making, portions of Cæsar, Sallust, Cicero's orations, Horace's odes, the Anabasis and Iliad. It was protested that the work must not end there, and the establishment of professorships in the classics, mathematics, natural sciences, and belles-lettres was demanded. To this demand a deaf ear was turned, and the appropriation of $25,000 was expressly limited to the advancement of medical educa+ Lusher.

* De Bow's Review, January, 1847.