ACCESS. EXIT. 1776. Thomas Wharton, Jun.-president of the Supreme Executive Council. 1778 1778. Joseph Reed, 1791. Thomas Mifflin-governor under the constitution of 1790. 1799. Thomas M'Kean. 1808 1839. David Rittenhouse Porter-first under const. of 1838-2d term expires in Jan. 1845 The state of Pennsylvania, having purchased from the aborigines the whole territory within her chartered limits, and driven them beyond the boundary; having done her full share in the revolutionary contest; having, with the aid of the general government, quelled three civil wars within her own limits; having quieted all the boundary claims of neighboring states; and having, for the government of the domain thus acquired, established a well-balanced constitution on the principles of republican freedom, was now fully prepared to lay aside the implements of war, and devote all her energies to the arts of peace. If not the first, Pennsylvania was one of the first states to engage in the great system of public improvement. She merits unquestionably the praise of having constructed the first stone turnpike in the Union, and probably of having attempted the first canal over one hundred miles in length. Her noble stone bridges, some of them constructed as early as 1800, at an expense of $60,000 and $100,000, conferred upon her the name of the state of bridges. The stone turnpike, from Lancaster to Philadelphia, 62 miles, was commenced in 1792, and finished in 1794, at a cost of $465,000, by a private company. Between that period and the war of 1812, some thirty companies received charters from the state, and constructed many miles of road. As late as the year 1832, 220 turnpike companies had been authorized by law, although all did not finally proceed in the prosecution of their respective works; yet passable roads were made by these companies to the extent of about 3000 miles. A continuous line of stoned turnpike now extends from Trenton, on the Delaware, to the boundaries of Ohio. The cost of this thoroughfare, which is in length about 340 miles, including the bridges, has been ascertained to transcend that of the celebrated road of Napoleon over the Simplon. William Penn himself was aware of the near approach of the headwaters of the Swatara and Tulpehocken creeks, and had foreseen their future connection. As early as 1762, it was proposed to connect the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio with those of the Delaware; and, as a part of the plan, Dr. David Rittenhouse and Rev. Wm. Smith surveyed a route for a canal between the Susquehanna and Schuylkill, by way of the Swatara and Tulpehocken. On the 29th Sept. 1791, a company to construct a canal by that route was incorporated; and another to make a canal from Norristown to the Delaware at Philadelphia, and to improve the navigation of the Schuylkill, was incorporated on the 10th April, 1792. After an expenditure of $440,000, these works were for a time suspended. In 1811 the two companies were united as the Union Canal Co., and were then specially authorized to extend their canal to Lake Erie, should it be deemed expedient. The Union Canal was, after many delays and embarrassments, completed in 1827, thirty-seven years after the commencement of the work. The Schuylkill Navigation Company was incorporated in 1815; the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in 1801; the Lehigh Navigation, first company in 1798, and again in 1813; the Conewago Canal Co., (on the west side of the Susquehanna, around Conewago falls,) in 1793; the Lackawanna Navigation Company in 1817. These were among the earlier and more important attempts to improve the rivers and construct canals by private companies. Some of the works, however, lingered under embarrassing circumstances until a later day, when the opening of coal mines, and the development of other resources of the state, justified their completion. During the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain, the enemy gained no foothold in Pennsylvania, nor did any very important event of the war occur in the state, except the preparation of Perry's victorious fleet at Erie, in the summer of 1813. (See Erie county.) To carry out successfully the gigantic project of uniting the great eastern with the great western waters, was supposed to require an amount of capital, and of credit, beyond the control of any joint-stock company; and the preeminent power and credit of the state herself was enlisted in the enterprise. Unfortunately, to do this required legislative votes, and these votes were not to be had without extending the ramifications of the system throughout all the counties whose patronage was necessary to carry the measure. In March, 1824, commissioners were appointed to explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburg by way of the Juniata and Conemaugh, and by way of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, Sinnemahoning, and the Allegheny-and also between the head waters of Schuylkill, by Mahanoy creek, to the Susquehanna-with other projects. In 1825, canal commissioners were appointed to explore a number of routes in various directions through the state. In August, 1825, a convention of the friends of internal improvement, consisting of delegates from 46 counties, met at Harrisburg, and passed resolutions in favor of "opening an entire and complete communication from the Susquehanna to the Allegheny and Ohio, and from the Allegheny to Lake Erie, by the nearest and best practicable route." The starting impulse being thus given, the great enterprise moved on, increasing in strength and magnitude as each successive legislature convened; and the citizens of every section were highly excited, not to say intoxicated, with local schemes of internal improvement. Contemporaneously with these enterprises, anthracite coal began to be successfully introduced for family use; and besides the discovery of vast and rich deposits of this mineral almost exclusively in Pennsylvania, the circumstance was an additional reason for the construction of improvements. Iron mines and salt wells were also opened, stimulated by the high tariff of 1828; and the rich bituminous coal-fields west of the Allegheny invited enterprise and speculation to that quarter. To describe the various public works that grew out of the powerful impulse given from 1826 to 1836, would require of itself a small volume. Suffice it to say that, in Oct. 1834, the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was opened for travelling: the main line of canal had been previously completed; and in the same month, on the comple tion of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, an emigrants' boat, from the North Branch of the Susquehanna, actually passed over the Allegheny Mountains, with all its family on board, and being launched into the canal at Johnstown, proceeded on its route to St. Louis! The commonwealth had not progressed far with her grand system of internal improvements, before there was perceived an equal necessity for a general system of education, to develop the mental resources of the citizens. William Penn had been careful to declare, in founding his colony, that "that which makes a good constitution must keep it, viz., men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth;" and in his frame of government had provided that the governor and provincial council "shall erect and order all public schools." The first republican constitution of 1776 had decreed that "a school or schools shall be established in each county." The constitution of 1790 provided that "the legislature, as soon as may be, shall provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the state, in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis." Unfortunately, the legislature for many years overlooked that part of the provision which requires the "establishment of schools throughout the state," and devoted their more especial attention to provide "that the poor may be taught gratis." Colleges and numerous academies, it is true, were incorporated throughout the state, and generally endowed by the legislature; the conditions of endowment often being that a certain number of poor children should be taught gratis. These enactments were not, however, the result of a great general principle emanating from the government, but were granted at the voluntary and often tardy solicitation of individuals, societies, or counties. The provision for the poor was nearly inoperative, for few of the freemen of Pennsylvania, poor and illiterate though they might be, were willing to place the fact on the public records of the county. These laws were partial and local in their object, and limited in their application. In short, education was generally left to voluntary effort. There was no general system of education; no efficient plan for furnishing, not to the poor alone, but to the people at large, the opportunity and the inducement to become intelligent. The extensive prevalence of the German language, or rather the Pennsylvanian dialect of the German, was not without a pernicious effect upon the cause of education. There were German newspapers, but not a very plentiful supply of German books, in past years; and the consequence was, that the minds of that class of our population, though naturally strong, were to a great extent without ample means for cultivation, and education among them gradually declined. The number of people who could neither read nor write, in either language, had increased to an alarming extent, and became an object of ridicule to the people of other states who had been more careful to provide a proper system of education. The state at length awaked from her lethargy, about the year 1833; the legislature took the matter seriously in hand, and passed an act "to establish a general system of education by common schools," approved by Gov. George Wolfe on the 1st April, 1834. It is worthy of remark, as exhibiting the tardiness of the state upon this subject, that the legislative committee are found referring to the example and experience, among others, of the young state of Ohio. The law of 1834 was found, in practice, to be defective in some points, and was amended in 1836. Under this law an excellent system has been gradually extended throughout the state, and promises, in the course of a few years, to raise up a whole generation of intelligent, well-educated youth. By this law the secretary of state is ex-officio the superintendent of common schools; a fund is provided for the support, in part, of the schools, while the supply of the other part is left to be made up by taxation, under prescribed forms, of the people in the several accepting districts; the state is laid off in school districts, generally corresponding with the township or borough divisions; and it is left optional with each township or district to decide for itself whether it will accept of the school law or not. If it accept, the taxes are assessed and the schools established accordingly, and its proper share of the general fund is received: if it do not accept, its share of the general fund is not received, and the citizens of the district are left to provide their own schools by voluntary effort, if they choose to have any; while the authorities of the township assess a tax upon the citizens for the education of the poor. From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. The following tables have been compiled from the reports of the superintendent. They show briefly, but comprehensively, the progress of the school system from the commencement, in 1836, to the end of the school year, 1841. The whole number of School Districts in the State-the number which have and which have not accepted. 1836, whole number 907 accepting, 536 non-accepting, 371 1837, 1838, ITITITI 1839, 1840, 1841, 1,001 1,033 1,050 1,072 840 887 917 384 155 Receipts and Expenditures of the several Common School Districts, exclusive of the City and The whole number of Scholars taught in the Common Schools, and the average number of months the Schools were open. 1835, number of scholars 100,000 Schools were open 3 months 12 days. 1836, 139,604 3 66 City and County of Philadelphia.-The schools in this district are not governed by the general law establishing a system of common-school education; but as they are organized in an important section of the commonwealth, for the same purposes as the other common schools throughout the state, and receive an equal share of the annual appropriation, the following information in relation to them, taken principally from the reports of the controllers, is submitted. The following table shows the annual receipts from the state and county treasury, the sums expended in purchasing and erecting schoolhouses, and the number of scholars educated in each year : 7 The whole number of children in the city and county of Philadelphia, according to the census of 1840, over five and under fifteen years of age, is Number educated in the public schools in 1841, Number not educated in 1841, in the public schools, 53,963 27,500 26,463 The number taught in private schools in the city and county of Philadelphia, is not known. Secondary Schools and Colleges.-The following sums have been paid at the state treasury to colleges, academies, and female seminaries. The number of scholars annually taught in them is annexed :Number of scholars, 4,479 In 1838, amount paid, $7,990 00 4,886 66 5,534 66 5,711 It appears that 41,743 of the children in the accepting districts were not, during the year 1841, educated in the common schools of those districts. There were educated during the year, in the academies and female seminaries, 4,154 scholars. These principally reside in accepting districts. The number taught in private schools in these districts is not ascertained. Hence it follows, that according to these estimates there were about 37,000 children, in 1841, in the accepting districts, who were not instructed either in the common schools, academies, or female seminaries. From the progress already made in the business of education, as will hereafter appear, and the capacity of the system to the wants of the people, there is every reason to believe that in the course of a few years, every child in the accepting districts, which is the proper subject of com. mon-school instruction, will be taught in the public schools. This belief is strengthened by the fact that the number of scholars taught in 1841 was 29,561 greater than it was in 1830. It would be interesting and instructive to trace the financial history of Pennsylvania from the adoption of the constitution of 1790, down to the present day, but, interwoven as the subject is with banking operations, with the politics of each successive epoch, and even with private speculations, it would be impossible to do justice to it within the restricted limits of this outline. A few prominent facts and dates will be stated, "without note or comment." "The first bank established in the state, and indeed in the United States, was the Bank of North America, which was chartered by congress on the 31st day of December, 1781, with a capital not to exceed ten millions of dollars, and without any limits being assigned as to its duration. This charter was confirmed by the state of Pennsylvania, on the 1st day of April, 1782. On the 25th day of February, 1791, the first bank of the United States was chartered by congress, with a capital of ten millions of dollars, and located at Philadelphia. Its charter expired without renewal on the 4th day of March, 1811. On the 30th day of March, 1793, the Bank of Pennsylvania was incorporated for twenty years. The charter was renewed on the 14th of February, 1810, for twenty years longer, with an increase of capital which is now $2,500,000. This bank was authorized to have branches, of which it established four, viz., at Lancaster, Reading, Easton, and Pittsburg, the last of which has been discontinued. On the 5th of March, 1804, the Philadelphia Bank was chartered, after having been some time in operation without a charter, to continue until 1st May, 1814, with a capital not to exceed two millions of dollars, of which 1,800,000 were raised. The charter was renewed from time to time. It was authorized, by an act of 3d March, 1809, to institute branches, of which it established four, viz., at Wilkesbarre, Washington, Columbia, and Harrisburg, the two last of which have been withdrawn. On the 16th March, 1809, the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank was incorporated, with a capital of $1,250,000, to continue until the 1st May, 1824." After the demise of the old Bank of the United States, in 1811, numerous state banks sprung up to supply the vacuum. During the war of 1812, the export of specie being checked, a considerable expansion took |