網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

In the act of Congress of 1812, organizing the Territory of Missouri, this article of the ordinance of 1787 was carried across the Mississippi and somewhat amplified, as the following extract from that act shows:

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be encouraged and provided for from the public lands of the United States in said Territory in such manner as Congress may deem expedient.

When the State of Missouri was organized out of this Territory, Congress deemed it expedient, as above provided, to devote two townships of land to "a university," and one thirty-sixth of the entire public domain, together with saline and swamp lands, to "township [now district] schools."

The university, called "a seminary of learning," and "the township [now district] schools" were planted together as coordinate and constituent parts of the public-school work of Missouri in the enabling act of Congress, March 6, 1820; in the ordinance of July 19, 1820, acquiescing therein, prior to the constitutional organization of the State; and also in the first constitution of the State, adopted in St. Louis, July 19, 1820, in the following explicit utterances, in the first and second sections of the sixth article:

*

Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged in this State. One school or more shall be established in each township.

*

*

The general assembly shall take measures for the improvement of such lands, etc., to support a university for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security

* *

*

of the funds and endowments of such institution.

Missouri stipulated and covenanted in her original organization to promote or move forward the sciences, the arts, and literature.

In the light of the foregoing it is clear that the higher education. was thus identified with the lower, as coordinate and constituent, necessary parts of one whole-the public-school work of Missouriupon the original organization of the State. And further, that "the maintenance and promotion of the university, as well as of the public school, was a covenant obligation, an inalienable obligation, deliberately and solemnly assumed by Missouri, as one of the organic conditions on which she was constituted a State and united with her sister States in the Federal compact.'

[ocr errors]

THE IDEA OF THE UNIVERSITY.

The idea of a university for Missouri, called "a seminary of learning," was engendered in the act of Congress, February 17, 1818; was embodied in the enabling act of Congress, March 6, 1820, and in the ordinance, July 19, 1820, acquiescing therein, prior to the constitutional organization of the State, and the second section of the sixth

* From a published address delivered by President S. S. Laws before the Missouri legislature in 1877.

article of the constitution of 1820 (written by David Barton) gives it birth as part of the organic law of Missouri. The original constitution of Missouri decrees that this "seminary of learning" shall be "a university for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences"a comprehensive and masterly definition of a true American university. The constitution of 1865 says:

The general assembly shall establish and maintain a State university, with departments for instruction in teaching, in agriculture, and in natural science, as soon as the public-school fund will permit.

The constitution of 1875 puts it, in Article XI, sections 5 and 6:

The annual income of the public-school fund, together with so much of the ordinary revenue of the State as may be by law set apart for that purpose, shall be faithfully appropriated for establishing and maintaining the free public schools and the State University, and for no other uses or purposes whatsoever. The general assembly shall, whenever the public-school fund will permit and the actual necessity of the same may require, aid and maintain the State University now established, with its present departments, namely:

A college of languages and sciences, with professional schools in agriculture, in teaching, in law, in medicine, and in mining. We see, therefore, that the university is an integral part of the publicschool organization established by law and embedded in the successive constitutions (1820, 1865, and 1875) of this State; and it is the traditional and established policy of this State to support and promote the university as the crown and glory of the public-school system.

THE MEANS FOR FOUNDING THE UNIVERSITY.

The means for founding the university was a grant of two townships (46,080 acres) of land from the United States Government to the State of Missouri "for the use of a seminary of learning." One of these townships, to be "located on the waters of the Missouri," was reserved for the Territory of Missouri for "the support of a seminary of learning" by act of Congress, February 17, 1818, and this township, together with "one" additional "entire township" (making two townships in all) was, by the enabling act of Congress, March 6, 1820, donated to the State of Missouri "for the use of a seminary of learning," but it was not until the passage of the act of January 24, 1827, that these seminary lands were authorized to be selected for and confirmed to the State of Missouri "for the purposes of a seminary or seminaries of learning."

The legislature of Missouri was, by act of Congress, March 3, 1831, authorized to sell these seminary lands and invest the proceeds solely for the use of such seminary. And the Missouri legislature did, by acts of December 31, 1830, January 17, 1831, January 29, 1833, and March 17, 1835, provide for the sale of said "seminary lands." The result of this legislation (offering them at a minimum price of $2 per

acre*) and of the threats and forcible overawings of a land mob of banded settlers, was that barely $78,000 was realized for these magnificent lands, then worth at least $128,000. This $78,000 was invested in the stock of the old Bank of the State of Missouri, and when it had grown by accumulation to $100,000, as by the Geyer act provided, then the question of locating and instituting the university began to be agitated.

II. FOUNDING THE UNIVERSITY.

LOCATING THE UNIVERSITY.

BILL FOR LOCATING.

On February 8, 1839, the general assembly passed an act making provision for selecting a site for the university. This act, drawn by Hon. James S. Rollins, provided that the site should contain at least 40 acres of land in a compact form, within 2 miles of the county seat of Cole, Cooper, Howard, Boone, Callaway, or Saline, which were central counties of the State, and to select the site this act appointed five commissioners: Peter H. Burnett, of Clay; Chauncey Durkee, of Lewis; Archibald Gamble, of St. Louis; John G. Bryan, of Washington, and John S. Phelps, of Green. These commissioners, by the terms of the act, were to meet in the city of Jefferson on the first Monday of June, 1839, and thereafter at the county seat of each county mentioned to receive conveyances of land and subscriptions of money as bids. After visiting all these county seats and receiving bids as required, the commissioners were to return to the seat of government and open the bids, "and the place presenting most advantages, keeping in view the amount subscribed, the locality, and other advantages," was to be entitled to the location.

The contest-a spirited one, awakening the liveliest interest in Boone, Callaway, and Howard-closed with the following bids in land and money: Boone, $117,900; Callaway, $96,000; Howard, $94,000; Cooper, $40,000; Cole, $30,000. Saline did not enter the contest.

LOCATED IN BOONE COUNTY.

On June 24, 1839, the commissioners met in Jefferson City, opened the bids, and unanimously located the State university in Boone County. This bonus of $117,900, offered by the citizens of Boone County, was a most remarkable subscription for a new and undeveloped county with less than 14,000 population, when there was comparatively little money in the country and before the effect of the great financial crisis of 1837 had passed away. To the honor of

* About 25,000 acres of these lands were in Jackson County and among the best in the State. They would have then sold for $5, $8, and $10 per acre at a fair and open sale.

+ President Read's History of the University.

these citizens of Boone County, let it be said and forever remembered that not one dollar of this sum was ever repudiated, but the whole collected and appropriated to the benefit of the public school fund of the State as provided in the constitution of the State.*

The following marvelous facts-self-sacrificing acts-illumine the brightest page of this university's history: Edward Camplin, who could neither read nor write, subscribed and paid $3,000 to the Missouri University; five young men, students then in the Academy of Bonne Femme, subscribed each $100, and afterwards by their own exertions earned the money and paid their subscriptions. Other men actually subscribed and afterwards paid more than they were worth at the time of their subscriptions, selling their farms, selling themselves out of house and home. The subscriptions of these citizens of Boone County were largely due to the energy, zeal, and eloquence of Hon. J. S. Rollins, Hon. John B. Gordon, Sinclair Kirtley, Judge David Todd, Warren Woodson, James M. Gordon, Dr. A. W. Rollins, William Cornelius, Dr. William Jewell, and Hon. A. W. Turner.

INSTITUTING THE UNIVERSITY.

THE ORIGINAL GEYER ACT.

On February 11, 1839, the general assembly passed an act "to provide for the institution and support of the State university and for the government of colleges and academies." This act, drafted by Hon. Henry S. Geyer, provided for academies and colleges in different parts of the State, to be articulately connected above with the State university and below with the district schools, and, further, that every college, academy, and seminary then existing or thereafter incorporated in the State, if not by its charter expressly exempted, should be under the visitorial power of the university curators. This act incorporated into the legal code of Missouri that admirable educational system which the great statesman, Thomas Jefferson, urged upon Virginia in 1779: "A general system of public education, satisfying alike the demands of all classes of the community, and comprehending three classes of schools," unified, graded, and organically articulated "as necessary parts of one whole," namely:

1. Elementary schools, to be maintained at the public charge and to be free to all.—(Missouri "township" (now district) schools.)

2. General schools, which should correspond to academies and colleges, for such as had time, means, and inclination for further culture; to be assisted to some extent from the public treasury, to be supported chiefly by the fees of pupils, and designed to embrace a thorough course of general instruction in languages, ancient and modern, natural science in all its departments, and philosophy, mental, moral, and political.-(Missouri's high schools, academies, and colleges.) 3. A university, in which should be taught, in the highest degree, every branch

* Switzler's History of the University.

of knowledge, whether calculated to enrich, stimulate, and adorn the understanding or to be useful in the arts and practical business of life.

For the university, the plan assumed that a large contribution from the public treasury would be necessary, because a larger expenditure would be requisite for buildings, repairs, salaries, apparatus, and incidental charges; and local and individual interests are less concerned in proportion, or seem to be less concerned in maintaining it; while sectarian and sectional jealousies would cause private contributions to be reluctantly and scantily doled out.—(Missouri University with its academic colleges and organically articulated professional schools.)

THE AMENDED GEYER ACT.

In obedience to the sentiment of the times, Missouri inaugurated Jefferson's general system of public education as to the district schools and the university, but she repealed, February 24, 1843, that portion of the Geyer act which provided for the government and partial support of the academies and colleges of the university. Virginia did the same. Michigan adopted and inaugurated this complete system of public education with its three classes of schools. The wisdom of her choice is to-day patent in the robust vigor of her entire public-school system and the marvelous growth and power of her university.

Those States which inaugurated only the district schools and the university are now dotted all over with "high schools," outgrowths from the district schools in response to public demand. These “high schools" continue to articulate with the more famous of our progressive universities, and just now the dry bones of the most conservative of our State universities are beginning to show signs of life in nervously seeking to articulate with "high schools" and academies. Wherever tried, the admission of students without examination upon certificates of "high schools," of whose excellence the university is satisfied, works well. One-third of the students at Harvard come thus from the public schools. The proportion in most universities is larger.* One-half of the 400 academic students in Michigan University during the session of 1889-90 came from articulate "high schools," of which it then had 71.†

ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

ITS LEGAL ORGANIZATION IN 1839.

February 11, 1839, the general assembly, in joint session, elected by vote, 91 to 1, the first board of curators: Eli E. Bass and T. M. Allen, of Boone County; I. O. Hockaday and John A. Henderson, of Callaway; Dr. John J. Lowry and Roland Hughes, of Howard; Thomas A. Smith and M. M. Marmaduke, of Saline; George C. Hart and Gabriel Tutt, of Cooper; Judge William Scott and R. W. Wells, of Cole; Thomas Allen, of Ray; David Weir, of St. Clair, and Josiah Spalding, of St. Louis.

*Bryce's American Commonwealth.

The Nation, January, 1890.

« 上一頁繼續 »