statutes of 1636, the government was practically put into the hands of the heads of colleges, and the colleges likewise in Cambridge acquired a larger control. New York seized the old officer and name and put them to a new use. The regents became the governing and not the teaching body. The teaching and governing functions became entirely distinct. This use of "regents" has been copied by Michigan, and generally by the state universities in the west.

Revolutionary idea in New York before 1784. If the new revolutionary ideas wrought out in the founding of the University are not of direct English origin, they were at least partly indigenous to New York soil, and indirectly English. We have seen the idea of state education struggling to the light in the laws of 1702 and 1732 for the establishment of grammar schools. But it is specially in connection with the founding of King's college that the new idea came most strongly into view. The many nationalities and religious sects in the colony tended to produce jealousy of any domination by a particular national or sectional element.

An act for vesting in trustees, the sum of £3443, 18s, raised by way of lottery, for erecting a college within this colony," passed November 25, 1751, appointed 10 trustees for the fund. The members of the church of England predominated however, and Trinity church proposed to grant the college the use of land for its buildings. William Livingston, a presbyterian and a graduate of Yale, a cultured and able lawyer, a writer of sprightly verse and vigorous prose, afterwards governor of New Jersey, led a determined crusade against the plan of procuring a royal charter for the college. He was afraid of the influence of the English church, since that church so largely controlled the moveHis articles, published in the Independent reflector in 1753, speak, with all the fervor and passion of the French writers of that period, about the divinity of "reason" and the curse of ecclesiasticism. This William Livingston was spoken of by President Timothy Dwight as a man of most versatile ability. He was nicknamed the "Don Quixote of the Jerseys." He was delegate froin New Jersey to the constitutional convention of 1787. Henry Brockholst Livingston, one of the regents, was his son, and John Jay married his eldest daughter. He was a cousin of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston.

ment.

The germ of the whole modern reform in education is contained in his arguments. This brilliant man represents at once the movement for positive knowledge of practical value, and for civil as against ecclesias tical control in education. "This, therefore, I will venture to lay down for a capital maxim, that unless the education we propose, be calculated to render our youth better members of society, and useful to the public 1 Pratt's Annals (see Conv. proc. 1873, p. 191).

2 These articles are printed in Pratt's Annals (see Conv. proc. 1873, p. 194–234).

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in proportion to its expense, we had better be without it." Education, he claims, "is to improve their (the youth) hearts and understandings, to infuse a public spirit and love of their country; to inspire them with the principles of honor and probity, with a fervent zeal for liberty, and a diffusive benevolence for mankind; and in a word, to make them the more extensively serviceable to the commonwealth.' He refers to Plato, Aristotle and Lycurgus as making "the education of youth the principal and most essential duty of the magistrate." It is thus to the old Hellenistic spirit that the modern world is ultimately indebted for the new education, an education which strives to be free from traditional bondage of every sort, which is organized upon state rather than church. foundations, and which seeks a knowledge practical rather than scholastic.

It is interesting to compare Livingston's words with what Montesquieu has said: "Political virtue, or virtue proper in a republic," writes Montesquieu, "is the love of country and of equality. It is in a republican government, that the whole power of education is needed, for all depends upon the establishment of this political virtue, this love of the laws and of the country, this love which demands an habitual preferment of the public weal to one's own interest and which is the source of all special virtues, for they are all nothing but this preferment.' And the Frenchman, like the American, mounts to Greek sources for his doctrine.

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Livingston has harsh words for the old colleges. "Freedom of thought rarely penetrates those contracted mansions of systematical learning." They are the source of "those voluminous compositions, and that learned lumber of gloomy pedants, which has so long infested and corrupted the world." The proposed college, he claims, is to be a public academy," and "a public academy is, or ought to be a mere civil institution, and can not with any tolerable propriety be monopolized by any religious sect." His plan for the charter and government of the proposed college contains several provisions which, while ignored in King's college as established, were triumphant in the organization of the University. Several features of his plan resemble strongly the French schemes of the next decade which we shall presently notice.

I He argues against a royal charter as being subject to the caprice of one man's will to change or repeal.

2 'Societies have an indisputable right to direct the education of their youthful members." He bases this proposition upon the social nature of man, and the obligations of civil government. Sensible of this," says he, "was the Spartan lawgiver, who claimed the education

1 Independent reflector, no. 13, March 23, 1753.

Esprit des lois, v. 4, ch. 5.

3 Independent reflector, no. 17.

of the Lacedæmonian youth, as the inalienable right of the commonwealth."

3 He claims that, therefore, the "legislatures are the lawful guardians" of the college, and that it should be incorporated by "act of assembly," and "be under the inspection of the civil authority." He urges that private contributions will be inadequate to erect a University which would" arrive at any considerable degree of grandeur or utility. The expense attending the first erection, and continual support of so great a work, requires the united aid of the public." If thus supported by the public, it ought to be created and superintended by the legisla

ture.

4 The advantages from such an institution are general and for the public good, and should be the public care. He asks: "Are the rise of arts, the improvement of husbandry, the increase of trade, the advancement of knowledge in law, physic, morality, policy and the rules of justice and civil government subjects beneath the attention of our legislature?"

5 He claims that the public control would prevent both domination by any sect or party and corruption in the officials, and that larger private donations may be expected than if the college were under royal control.

6 He would have no establishment of any particular religious profession in the college. No protestant was to be disqualified on account of his religious persuasion, from sustaining any office in the college. There was to be no chair of divinity.

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7 "All the trustees are to be nominated, appointed and incorporated by the act and, whenever an avoidance among them shall happen, the same (shall) be reported by the corporation to the next sessions of assembly, and such vacancy supplied by legislative act." The governor, the council and the general assembly are all to concur in these elections.

8 The election and deposition of the president by the trustees are to require legislative confirmation to be valid. "By this means, the president, who will have the supreme superintendency of the education of our youth, will be kept in a continual and ultimate dependence upon the public."

9 The by-laws made by the president and trustees are also to require legislative approval to be valid.

10 He would have the "Act of incorporation contain as many rules and directions for the government of the college as can be foreseen to be necessary." The object of this is to preserve the "guardianship of the legislature," and prevent "arbitrary domination in the college." He would give inferior officers and students an action at law for every injury against their rights.

Here is seen the spirit of the American revolution, the resistance to arbitrary power; the passion for self-government.

11 He proposes the establishing by act of legislature of "two government schools in every county," their “guardians" to be annually elected by the people of the county, and the expense of their maintenance to be a county charge. This is one of the most remarkable features of his scheme. He conceives it to be necessary in order to secure the success of the college. They would be accessible to the young men in every part of the colony and would become feeding schools for the college. But it is their public character which most draws our attention. He was a century in advance of the legislature of his state, in his ideas, nor have we indeed yet advanced so far as his plan.

Unless his plan for the college is carried out he fears it may prove a perpetual spring of public misery—a cage, as the Scripture speaks, of every unclean bird the nursery of bigotry and superstitionan engine of persecution, slavery and oppression - a fountain whose putrid and infectious streams will overflow the land, and poison all our enjoyments."

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After developing his plan he issued, in number 22 of the Independent reflector, an address to the "inhabitants of the province," full of grandiose invocation to the "Genius of liberty," the "Awful name of reason" and the Spirit of patriotism." "When shall we have one interest" he exclaims, "and that interest the common good." He is fearful lest "this precious and never-to-be surrendered equality will be destroyed." He pleads: "let us, therefore, strive to have the college founded on an ample, a generous, an universal plan. Let not the seat of literature, the abode of the muses, and the nurse of science, be transformed into a cloister of bigots, an habitation of superstition, a nursery of ghostly tyranny, a school of rabbinical jargon." "The legislature alone should have the direction of so important an establishment," he continues, “in their hands it is safer, incomparably safer, than in those of a party, who will instantly discern a thirst for dominion and lord it over the rest." His proposals and his address were in vain. The college received the royal charter. But the history which we have traced of the attempt to found the University 30 years later, was a fulfilment of his prophecy. It was the "thirst for dominion" of this same corporation which nearly succeeded in wrecking the movement for a University upon a broad civil foundation. The fervid language of Livingston grates upon our ears to-day, but the chief practical features of his plan, won a triumph in the final establishment of the University. The controversy over the founding of King's college foreshadowed the later controversy over the founding of the University. It is impossible not to conjecture that the founders of the University studied the plans of Governor Livingston.

Era of educational revolution in America, 1776-89. But the current of revolution in education which produced the University in New York had wider sources than the broadsides of the versatile governor of New Jersey. It needs but a glance at the history of the United States, from the declaration of independence till the organization of the federal government, to show as complete a revolution in educational ideas and plans as in political institutions. Everywhere throughout the new states, even during the turmoil and struggle of the war and the equally momentous turmoil and struggle of the reconstruction period, we see the new consciousness of political freedom and selfgovernment expressing itself in efforts toward a system of education, free from the domination of old traditions, political and ecclesiastical. Nowhere is this tendency more apparent than in the provisions of some of the new state constitutions.

Georgia. The constitution of Georgia adopted in 1777, provides that "schools shall be erected in each county and supported at the general expense of the state, as the legislature shall hereafter point out." This was followed up by the legislature, which passed in 1783 an act, authorizing the governor to grant 1,000 acres of vacant land for the establishment of free county schools.2

The message of the governor of Georgia to the legislature in July 1783, urging the establishment of seminaries of learning, suggests a doubt as to the originality of Governor Clinton in his similar message of January 1784. The University of Georgia, founded in 1785, with its general supervision over the literary interests of the state, and including within its organization all the public schools of the state,3 may well have been suggested by the plan of the New York University. The same liberal spirit in religious matters is evident here.

North Carolina. The constitution of North Carolina, adopted in 1776, renders all clergymen incapable of sitting in any branch of the state legislature, and forbids any established church. It provides: "That a school or schools shall be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged or promoted in one or more universities.' In 1789, the University of North Carolina was established. Its trustees are appointees of the government. In its incorporation the duty of the state to provide for the education of the young is

1 Poore's charters, 1: 383.

2 Jones, C: E. Education in Georgia (see Bureau of education, circular of information, no. 4, 1888).