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THE EDUCATIONAL VIEWS
AND INFLUENCE OF
DE WITT CLINTON
BY
EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, M.A., PH.D.
TEACHERS COLLEGE, goLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION, NO. 44
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1911
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK
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PREFACE
The history of education in the United States has yet to be
written—and the first big step in the process is the completion
of a series of the educational history of the individual states.
The present study is a contribution to the history of education
in the State of New York, during the period of foundations,
or rather, during the period of the transformation of the English
colonial character—and consequently education—to a distinctly
American one. This study centers about the rich personality of
one of New York’s greatest sons—De Witt Clinton. His educa-
tional significance has received very slight recognition from his
biographers. Though he is not mentioned in either of the
histories of education in the United States, and though mentioned,
is not adequately treated, in any of the histories of education in
New York State this study establishes, we believe, the claim
that Clinton should be ranked with Mann and Barnard in a
trinity of educational leadership in the United States. Preced-
ing the study of De Witt Clinton, there is, by way of introduc-
tion, a statement of the physical, social and educational condi-
tions in the State of New York from 1783 to 1805.
The student of the educational history of Massachusetts is, in
general, oppressed by the wealth of material. It would seem that
whenever any one did anything educationally, there was a fellow-
townsman nearby to record his work, or else he himself took
the time later to record it. Consequently, the educational history
of Massachusetts is, at present, the most complete. The student
of the educational history of New York has just the opposite
111
iv. Preface
experience. He is oppressed by the scantiness of material.
Governor Fenner, when he invited Henry Barnard to become
State Superintendent of Education in Rhode Island, gave expres-
sion to what, unfortunately, may be called the New York view:
that it was better to make history than write it.
The writer has quoted freely from the sources, especially in
Chapter III. The reasons for this are: (1) the conclusions
are so novel to the general reader or teacher that they would
probably be dismissed merely as other illustrations of reading
into things conclusions, which the things themselves would not
warrant being read out of them; (2) the reader has the oppor-
tunity of forming his own conclusions; (3) the material quoted
from is either bulky or generally inaccessible; and finally (4)
there may be those like George Eliot, who prefer to “learn from
the man himself what he thought, than hear from others what he
ought to have thought.”
The author wishes to acknowledge his obligations to the
librarian of the Columbia University Library, the Bryson Library,
Teachers College, the New York State Library, the New York
City Library, the Library of the New York Historical Society,
the Lenox and the Astor Foundations, and the branch libraries
(especially the Hamilton Fish Branch) of the New York Public
Library, and to the authorities of the New York State Education
Department, for many kindnesses, courtesies, and privileges. He
is under deep obligations to Dr. Paul Monroe, of Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University, for patient, kindly, and valuable
criticism extending over several years’ study. His greatest obli-
gation is to his mother, who, through long years of sacrifice, made
it possible for him to secure an education.
E. A. F.
CONTENTS
- PAGE.
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ANDREW SLOAN DRAPER xi
PART I
CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE, 1783-1805
I. PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
Statistics of population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
The growth of population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Lack of ready and comfortable means of communica-
tion and transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Character of newspapers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The system of poor-relief ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Philanthropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The general movement toward secularization . . . . . . . . . . 7
II. EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introductory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Types of education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO
Common school education or the education of the
English school . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO
The buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO
Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - II
The teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I2
The text-books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I3
The Schoolmaster’s Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . I3
Pike's Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e s e s e < * I4.
Morse's Geographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I5
Dilworth’s “New Guide to the English
Tongue" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
Caleb Bingham's texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Webster's Grammatical Institute of the
English Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I7
The content of a common school education . . . . 19
The method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2O
The spirit . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • * * * * * * * * * * 2O
Academies—a classical education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2I
vi Contents
Fashionable education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Private Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The educational movement—1787-1800 . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Regent's interest in common schools . . . . 26
The first statute relating to elementary schools 28
The law of 1795 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The breakdown of the law of I795 in the Long
Island towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Educational conditions in various places . . . . . . . . . . 3O
In New York City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3O
In Albany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3I
In Hudson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
In Newburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
In the Mohawk and Black River countries . . . . . . 35
Higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
History of the Regents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Academic education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Collegiate education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4O
Professional education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4I
Divinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4I
Law . . . . . . . . . . . . v e e s e s • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * e 4I
Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
The financial situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Conclusion—the general situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
PART II
THE EDUCATIONAL VIEWS OF DE WITT CLINTON AND
THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
III. EDUCATIONAL VIEws of DE WITT CLINTON ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The fundamental proposition—the sociological con-
ception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Its realization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Lancasterian System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The training of teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5I
Its extent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Indians and Africans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Deaf and dumb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Criminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Juvenile delinquents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Its institutional organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Its scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Contents vii
Enrichment of common school education . . . . 60.
Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6I
Agricultural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Technical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G3
Its support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64.
Restatement of proposition—the educational implica-
tions of democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.
IV. SIGNIFICANCE OF CLINTON'S VIEws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The comprehensiveness of the plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The emphasis on the less formal educational agencies .. 67
An underlying educational sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67.
PART III
INFLUENCE OF DE WITT CLINTON AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
V. THE CONDITIONS AND BASES OF CLINTON's INFLUENCE . . . . . . . . . 73
VI. CLINTON'S INFLUENCE ON THE LESS FORMAL EDUCATIONAL
AGENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
New York Historical Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.
Lyceums of Natural History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
The State Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Other libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
VII. INFLUENCE ON FORMAL EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Common School education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89.
The Public School Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89.
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOI
The minor school societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO2
The Economical School Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO3
The Orphan Asylum Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOS
The Infant School Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO6
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO3
The training of teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO9
State legislation . . . . . . . . . . e & & # * is e º e º ſº tº € e º & ſº tº º IO9.
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III
The Society of Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II2
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II.3.
Free School Society's training of teachers . . . . . . . . . II4
The Lancasterian System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II4
Secondary education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II8.
VIII. INFLUENCE ON SPECIAL FORMS OF EDUCATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I2I
Education of women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I2I
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I24
Education of juvenile delinquents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I24.
viii
Contents
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I26
Education of deaf and dumb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I29
Agricultural education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *g, * g º ºs e º 'º º I30
Technical education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I31
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I35
Medical education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I35
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I39
IX. The SIGNIFICANCE of CLINTON's EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE . . . . I4I
The problem of the chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4I
The changed conditions in 1830 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4I
Elementary education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I43
Infant schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I44
Higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I44
Professional education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I44
The less formal educational agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . I44.
The significance of the less formal educational agencies. I45
The movement towards free public schools . . . . . . . . . . . . I47
The movement for the professional training of teachers. I49
The Lancasterian system ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I50
A broader elementary school curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I52
Scientific basis for professional and technical training.. I52
EPILOGUE. THE PLACE OF CLINTON IN AMERICAN EDUCATION ... . . . . . I54
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I56
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Edward A. Fitzpatrick, with whom I have no personal
acquaintance, sent me the proof-sheets of his study of the rela-
tions of De Witt Clinton to American, and particularly to New
York education, and asked me to comment upon his work. It
is obviously impossible for one in my official position to assume
such a task very often ; indeed, I did not assume this one. But
his subject is one of such peculiar interest to me that I could not
refrain from reading enough to know whether he had written
something worth reading, and thereupon found that what he had
written was so well worth my reading that I read the whole of it.
Having done so, I can justly say no less than that the author
has, in striving to do educational justice to the memory of De
Witt Clinton, rendered a very substantial service to the history
of education in the great state which Clinton served with So
much distinction, and that of course means to the history of edu-
cation in America. The work is not only marked by laborious
research, but also by a confident grasp upon the general and
widespread facts of educational history which is not often pos-
sessed by a young man in his college days.
He very appropriately portrays the New York educational
situation as it existed in the last two decades of the eighteenth
century and in the first decade of the nineteenth, in order to
elucidate the educational activities which De Witt Clinton set
in motion. This portrayal is doubtless more complete than the
period has had at the hands of any previous writer. Educational
facts have been gleaned not only from laws and official reports,
but also from the newspapers and school announcements of the
times and from other primary sources of information, until the
work affords us a clearer view of the low state of education in
New York a hundred years ago than any to which we have been
accustomed.
ix
X Introduction
This, however, is only the prelude to the real work of the
author—that of showing Governor Clinton's strong grasp upon
the sociological situation and his remarkable fertility of mind in
seeing the remedies for it, as well as that of revealing his fore-
sight, energy, and courage, and his commanding influence in
compelling New York to take the steps which have given her
educational eminence, thus entitling him to a yet higher place in
our history because of what he did for learning than because of
what he did in the building of the Erie Canal, with which his
name has been most conspicuously identified.
I have, of course, read much in the history of New York
education, and have not been wholly ignorant of the obligations
under which it lies to De Witt Clinton, but it involves no humili-
ation to say that I have not heretofore appreciated the many-
sidedness of his persistent activities for the intellectual progress
of the state. I knew what he had said, many times and force-
fully, in his state papers as Governor, but I had too much of the
feeling that he had said it perfunctorily and because it was good
political policy to say it. That was natural enough, as things
ordinarily go, but Mr. Fitzpatrick’s study shows that it was
very unjust. The evidence here brought back to the light and
assembled in a very systematic whole shows that at all times
and places he worked sagaciously and incessantly to advance the
moral and intellectual progress of his people, and, wholly apart
from the other large things he did, is entitled to rank among the
very first educational propagandists of America.
The young man who has made this apparent is entitled to and
has the appreciative acknowledgments of the New York State
Education Department.
A. S. DRAPER,
Commissioner of Education.
ALBANY, N. Y.,
July 17, 1911.
PART I
CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK STATE
1783-1805
CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
STATISTICS OF POPULATION
In 18OO New York was a sparsely settled frontier settlement—
in no sense the empire state. The settlements already made were
on two narrow oblongs extending north and east from New York
City; the one north was forty miles in breadth and was divided
by the Hudson; the one east was Long Island. On the 44,OOO
square miles there lived, according to the census of 1800, 586,050
people; of those 20,613 were slaves and Io,374 were included in
the class of “all other persons except Indians not taxed.”
The population was almost entirely rural; there was an
average of less than fourteen persons to the square mile.” There
were but three incorporated cities: New York, Albany, and
Hudson. New York City had a population of 32,328; Albany had
but 3,498 and Hudson only 2,584. Western New York remained
practically a wilderness—this fact is indicated on Morse's map
of the State (1804) by the absence of any names of towns in that
part of the State. A few settlers had gathered at Buffalo.
Neither Rochester, Rome, nor Syracuse had any existence. Utica
was insignificant. Schenectady had “decayed” since the Revolu-
tion and had not been rebuilt. Canandaigua, the chief town in
Ontario County, contained seventy dwelling houses, and Geneva
contained a like number. Bath, the chief town in Steuben
County, contained but thirty houses,” and the enumeration of
*Pioneer Association of Genesee County. History of its organization, p. 20.
*For the relation between the growth of an urban population and the
development of the graded school see Harris's monograph on Elementary
Education in Butler's Education in the United States.
*P. 1183—“A description of the Genesee Country in the State of New York” ;
Document H, in O’Callaghan's Documentary History of New York.
I
2 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clunton
the inhabitants in the town itself and the district eight miles
around it, showed that there were “above eight hundred souls.”
Steuben County had but 1,788 souls. There were seven other
counties with less than ten thousand inhabitants. Richmond had
4,563; Kings, 5,740; Rockland, 6,353; Tioga, 6,889; Onandago,
7,406; Clinton and Essex Counties together, 8,514; and Schohary,
9,808. But very few counties had more than twenty-five thou-
sand inhabitants. It is no wonder, then, that with such a scat-
tered population, schools were not more adequately provided.
THE GROWTH OF POPULATION
But the growth of population is more significant than the fact
of population. In 1790 the population of New York City was
33,131 ; in 1830 it was 197, II2. In 1790 there was one city of
over eight thousand inhabitants and the total urban population
was 33,131 ; in 1830 there were seven cities of over eight thou-
sand inhabitants with a total urban population of 271,481. The
population of the state in 1790 was 340, I2O, and in 1830 it was
I,918,608. The increase of population in the State was con-
siderably over fivefold (5.64); the increase of urban population
was over eightfold (8.19)."
LACK OF READY AND COMFORTABLE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
- AND TRANSPORTATION
Nor was this population welded closer together by easy and
ready means of communication, or transportation. The stage
coach was the usual means of land travel. A contemporary ad-
vertisement reads:
“Federal Line (of Stages) for Philadelphia will leave for New York
every day at eight o'clock in the morning (Sundays excepted) and arrives
at Philadelphia early next. Fare of each passenger, four dollars.
“Albany stages will leave New York every day at ten o’clock in the morn-
ing; arrives at Albany the fourth day at nine o'clock in the morning. Fare
of each passenger, seven dollars.”
*P. 1135—“Description of the Settlement of the Genesee Country in the
State of New York in a series of letters from a gentleman to his friend” pub-
lished in O’Callaghan’s Documentary History of New York.
"Cf. Census Reports.
Physical and Social Conditions 3.
Roads were few and in exceedingly poor condition. Travel
was expensive. The trip to Albany was less comfortable and
less regular than the voyage to Europe. There was no Erie
Canal. There were no steamboats and no railroads.”
CHARACTER OF NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers were not the significant social force that they are
to-day. The newspapers at the end of the eighteenth century
consisted almost entirely of advertisements and the “latest
European intelligence.” Advertisements occupied about half of
the newspaper and, occasionally, two-thirds. The “latest Euro-
pean intelligence” was mostly political and was published at least
two months after the facts occurred, occasionally taking the form
of a detailed report of the debates in the British House of Com-
mons. “The Spectator” published the debates in the United States
Congress, giving over half of the paper to this department. Oc-
casionally laws passed by Congress were published. Besides the
foregoing, these eighteenth century newspapers contained long
political discussions by “Scipio” and the like, quotations from
a “late London paper,” or other newspapers, or an extract from
a letter from an American in Paris dated three months earlier.
Surely there was little possibility in this material to arouse the
people to an adequate conception of their social needs.”
THE SYSTEM OF POOR-RELIEF
One of the big problems connected with a rapid increase in
population and especially of its concentration in rather small areas
is poor-relief, with its usual development of beggars, criminals
and the like. The system of administration of poor-relief was
borrowed from England,” and it was accompanied here by the
“The number of letters was almost One a year for every grown inhabitant
in the United States.” Adam's History of the United States, v. 1, p. 62.
7‘‘Of American newspapers there was no end, but the education supposed to
have been widely spread by eighteenth century newspapers was hardly to be
distinguished from ignorance. The student of history might search forever
these storehouses of political calumny for facts to instruct the public in any
useful object.” Adam's History of United States, v. 1, p. 120.
8‘‘The principles of administration of poor relief laid down in the act of
Elizabeth and modified by the Act of Charles II. remained practically un-
4 The Educational Views and I nfluence of De Witt Clinton
same evil results as there. The situation is clearly and sharply
stated in the following rather long quotation from De Witt
Clinton. It may be observed here in passing that his remedy,
“intellectual, moral and religious cultivation,” is not an English
O1162.
“Our statutes relating to the poor are borrowed from the En-
glish system, and the experience of that country, as well as Our
own, shows that pauperism increases with the augmentation of the
funds applied to its relief. This evil has proceeded to such an
alarming extent in the City of New York, that the burden of
heavy taxation which it has imposed, means a diminution of the
population of that city, and a depreciation of its real property.
The consequences will be very injurious to the whole State; for
the delay of our great market will be felt in every department of
productive labor. Under the present system the fruits of in-
dustry are appropriated to the wants of idleness; a laborious poor
man is taxed for the support of an idle beggar; and the vice of
mendacity, no longer considered degrading, infects a considerable
portion of our population in large towns. I am persuaded that
the sooner a radical reform takes place the better. The evil is
contagious, and a prompt extirpation can alone prevent its
pernicious extension. The inducement to pauperism may be des–
troyed by rendering it a greater evil to live by charity than by
industry, its mischiefs may be mitigated by diminishing the ex-
penses of our charitable establishments and by adopting a system
of coercive labor; and its cause may be removed by preventing
intemperance and extravagance and by intellectual, moral and re-
ligious cultivation. It is the decree of heaven that our lives
should be spent in useful or active employment. “In the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground,”
was the declaration of the Almighty to our first parent; and a
course of blind, indiscriminating, prodigal benevolence defeats its
own object, by attempting to counteract the laws of our nature,
and the designs of Providence. Charity is an exalted virtue, but
it ought to be founded on reason, and regulated by wisdom.
While we must consider as worthy of all praise and patronage
the religious and moral societies, Sunday, free and charity Schools,
houses of industry, orphan asylums, saving banks and all other
establishments, which prevent or alleviate the evils of pauperism,
by inspiring industry, dispensing employment and inculcating
altered until after the separation of the colonies from the mother country,
Though none of the poor relief Orders may be traced to any single enact-
ment of Parliament, it is clear that the early settlers drew largely upon
their knowledge of English law and tradition in their administration of
public relief.” Cumming's Poor Laws of Massachusetts and New York, p. 16.
Physical and Social Conditions - 5
economy; by improving the mind, cultivating the heart, and
elevating the character, we are equally bound to discourage those
institutions which furnish the ailment of mendacity, by removing
the incentive to labor, and administering to the blandishments of
sensuality.”
PHILANTHROPY
This leads to the larger question of charity or philanthropy
which, as the next section and the thesis proper show, had im-
portant bearings on education. The prevailing conception of
charity is well illustrated in the free (“free” was, at this time,
synonymous with “charity”) schools. These were maintained by
churches, exclusively, and were restricted to the poor of the de-
nomination—until, in some cases, it was financially profitable to
admit others.” At best it was a recognition of a group obliga-
tion toward the unfortunate members of the group—and the
group was usually a religious denomination. In fact, charity (and
education was a phase of charitable endeavor) was regarded as a
primary duty of the church, and it was the church which ad-
ministered the system of public relief. Unquestionably this was
the course of the main current, but below there was a strong
undercurrent. The movement toward secularization was its most
general expression, and is discussed later. Its concrete embodi-
ment in this connection is found in the poor-relief law of I784,”
and the organization of the Association for the Sick Poor in 1795.
By the law of 1784, the offices of the church-warden and the
vestryman in the city of New York and in Queens, Richmond and
Westchester counties were abolished, and the relief of the poor
was made a public function, to be administered not as heretofore
by church officers, but by public officers. This is a significant in-
dication of the direction in which things were moving. The
name of the “Association for the Relief of the Sick Poor,” is not
exactly descriptive of its function, for it was educational
as well as humanitarian in the general sense. Its consti-
tution restricted its membership to the Society of Friends,
but provided that “no relief be afforded to the people
°Messages from the Governors (1818), v. 2, pp. 914-5.
19Cf. Documents in School Controversy as published in Bourne's History of
Public School Society, pp. 61-63.
11Chap. 35, Laws of 1784.
6 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
called Quakers.” When the society opened a school in 18O1, it
was intended for those whose parents belonged to no religious
society, and who, from some cause or other, could not be ad-
mitted to the charity schools of the city.”
As a private matter, philanthropy was sustained by religious
sanctions as now, but much more universally then—the personal
reward of the charitable in a future life. Or as Cummings rather
aptly puts it: “The system of poor relief was founded upon a
liberal interpretation of the doctrine that it is more blessed to
give than to receive, which mainly regarded the poor and needy
merely as a means of grace given by divine wisdom to the end
that the elect may have proper exercise for their virtues.”
But that misery or indigence was frequently of social origin
and no matter what its origin, had important social effects, and
that the remedy, charity, or whatever you choose to call it, was a
vital social problem—a view which Clinton was about to impress
upon his generation in a masterly way—had hardly been con-
ceived by the community itself or by any large group in the com-
munity—except possibly the Quakers. The proposal that the
community was the only power to deal with the problem in a
large and comprehensive way, was against the individualistic bent
of the people; it was “undemocratic.” And yet it is easily de-
monstrable, were this the place, that such community action is
the only possible reconcilation between charity and democracy.
As remarked above, the poor relief law of 1784 was an indi-
cation of the direction in which things were moving, i.e., the move—
ment from a religious to a secular view of human affairs. The
Free School Society itself offers further indications of this move—
ment. It announced as a “primary object” that in Sunday School
as in the Common School, “it will be a primary object, without
observing the peculiar forms of any religious society, to inculcate
the Sublime truths of religion and morality contained in the Holy
Scriptures.” As usual the religious motive is asserted. This of
itself is not noteworthy. But the publications of the society dur-
ing its first year (1805) are prophetic of the new tendency.
*Cf. Original name of Public School Society.
*Poor Laws of New York, p. 16.
Physical and Social Conditions 7
From the address “to the public” we learn that its purpose was
not merely moral and religious instruction, but “the common rudi-
ments of learning, essentially requisite for the due management of
the ordinary business of life.” In its memorial to the Legis-
lature, this new note was sounded more clearly : “The conse-
quences of this neglect of education are ignorance and vice, and
all those manifold evils resulting from every species of immorality,
by which public hospitals and alm-houses are filled with objects of
disease and poverty, and society burthened with taxes for their
support.” And again: “The rich having ample means for the
education of their offspring, it must be apparent that the laboring
poor—a class of citizens so evidently useful—have a Superior
claim to public support.”
THE GENERAL MOVEMENT TowARD SECULARIZATION
But the movement toward secularization was broader than
this, and had been gaining impetus steadily during the eighteenth
century. It is impossible here to indicate its progress in Europe
since the Reformation, nor its course in New York State during
the colonial period. Its momentum can be judged by two facts
of post-Revolutionary history.
The first, of wider significance, is found in the Constitution of
the United States. Section three of article six requires that “no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under the United States,” and the first clause of the
first amendment is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The other is the Regents legislation. By the Act of May, 1784, the
church was permitted no ea officio regents and instead there was
to be an elective clerical representative who might be a member
of any sect. Further, any denomination might establish a profes-
sorship in divinity. And, finally, there was to be no religious tests
for professors. This applied only to Columbia College, and any
prospective colleges organized by the Regents. The legislation
of 1787 went even further by providing that there was to be no
clerical representation as such on the Board of Regents or the
trustees of any college or academy. It was provided with refer-
ence to Columbia, for example, that the old charter be “absolutely
ratified and confirmed in all respects except . . . . that no per-
8 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
sons shall be trustees of the same in virtue of any offices, char-
acters, or description whatever, excepting also such clauses as
require the taking of oaths and subscribing the declaration therein
mentioned, and which render a person ineligible to the office of
President on account of his religious tenets; and prescribe a form
of public prayer to be used in the said college.” Practically the
same provisions were made for the academies.
CHAPTER II
EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS
INTRODUCTORY
Educationally, things were at a low ebb at the beginning of
the nineteenth century. Naturally the upheaval caused by the
Revolution was evident in every phase of human activity. Gover-
nor George Clinton in his message of January 21, 1784, says:
“Neglect of education is among the evils consequent on war—
perhaps there is scarce anything more worthy your attention than
the revival and encouragement of seminaries of learning; and
nothing by which we can satisfactorily express our gratitude to
the Supreme Being for his past favors, since piety and virtue are
generally the offspring of an enlightened understanding.”
Education was very inadequately provided for at the beginning
of the century; elementary education more so than either second-
ary or advanced.” There were no public elementary schools, few
academies, and only two colleges. There were a few professional
schools, but attendance at these was not a necessary passport to
the practise of the profession.
The elementary schools so far as they existed were ungraded
and housed most unsuitably. More often the elementary school
was the living room of some old woman of the neighborhood—
the “dame school.” Teachers were untrained and were in many
cases illiterate. Expert supervision of instruction was probably
not dreamed of. Text-books were few and poor. Compulsory
school attendance and all the machinery of the present-day educa-
*There is no mention of education in the first constitution of the State.
*Cf. the following divisions of this chapter “Higher Education,” and “Private
Schools within New York City.” Cf. especially Gov. George Clinton’s state-
naent in 1795 given later.
9
Io The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
tion were non-existent. So likewise was the provision for de-
fectives and delinquents.
TYPES OF EDUCATION
Common School Education or the Education of the English
School”
The Buildings. In the Regents Report to the Legislature in 1794,
it was pointed out, as already indicated, that common schools
were greatly neglected in those parts of the State remote from the
academies. However, there were common schools independent of
the academies; such schools as, for example, the one kept by
Ichabod Crane. These buildings were usually small, one-room,
one story frame buildings, “without the slightest attempt at archi-
tectural beauty.” A detailed description of the school buildings
in New Rochelle from 1791–1796, follows:
“The inside of these school houses was of the crudest and cheap-
est finish. As to the outside, they were small, unpainted shanties,
usually located on some surplus angle of the streets or rocky land,
unfit for cultivation, thus economizing ground and making these
barren spots, where no vegetation could grow, produce the
precious fruits of education. The houses were ceiled round with
unpainted boards shrunken from their grooves; consequently no
ventilators were needed. Their fixtures were extremely rude and
simple, consisting for the most part of pine boards nailed up to
the sides and ends of the rooms for desks, with sometimes a shelf
underneath on which to keep books and slates. They were fur-
nished with seats of long oaken slabs, with legs driven into auger
holes at each end, and all of the fixtures and furniture were
curiously notched and carved into many fantastic and grotesque
images by the busy jack-knives of the mischievous tyros. The
School-room was sometimes warmed by a fire in an open fire-
place, but mostly by a small cast-iron stove set upon a pile of
bricks in the middle of the room.”*
There is a peculiar inversion of a problem we are dealing with,
in connection with the old school house. We are trying to make
a Social center of the school house. At the beginning of the last
*Special attention is given to elementary education, because it was in this
field that Clinton made his most significant contribution to education and
gave most freely Of his great ability.
*Coutant's Reminiscences. Cf. also Scharf's History of Westchester County,
p. 696.
Educational Conditions II
century, the school activity was carried on in the social center.”
In a description of the old school house in Utica, it is stated that
it was “the sanctuary of the fathers of Utica and the seat of learn-
ing of their sons, as well as the ordinary place of assembly for
Secular, as well as sacred purposes.”
Such a description is significant for its omissions, as well as its
inclusions. There were no blackboards, no charts, no maps, no
globes—practically nothing in the way of school apparatus except
the ferule. A few steps from the door of the school house you
were in the midst of nature in her infinite variety—but nature-
study was not a school-study at the time. The arrangement of
the room seems to indicate that the class recitation as we know
it was not possible, i.e., that the instruction must have been
individual. A study of the text-books confirms this inference.
Organigation. The common school of the period was frequently
the lower school of the academy. It was natural that if the
academies were to have any students to pursue the academic
studies and in the absence of any other adequate institution, they
must themselves give the prospective student his preparatory train-
ing. To anticipate somewhat a report that will be given in full
later," it may be pointed out that in the sixteen academies report-
ing to the Regents in 1804, there were 963 students in all. In
fourteen of these academies reporting the fact, 480 students were
studying reading and writing, 429 students in sixteen academies
were studying grammar and arithmetic, while only 213 students
in fifteen academies were studying the “dead languages.” The
conditions are even more striking in 1807. In nineteen academies
reporting there were 1,490 students. In eighteen of these
academies reporting the fact, 631 students were studying reading
and writing, while only 214 in fifteen academies were studying
the “dead languages.” ~~
Provision for common school education was made also by the
ministers in their homes.” For example, on March 4, 1801, Rev.
Seth Hart advertised that he “was disposed to take 6 or 8 boys to
board and lodge in his family and be instructed in reading, writ-
"Cf. Newburgh also.
*Bogg, Pioneers of Utica, p. 92.
"On page 39.
*Cf. Ondernook's Queen County, p. 91.
12 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
ing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, and the Latin and
Greek languages.” Sometimes, as in the case of Rev. Matthial
Burnet, the minister himself taught the Latin and Greek, and an
assistant was engaged “to attend part of every day to instruct
(such as may desire it) in writing, vulgar arithmetic and book-
keeping.” . ..
Beside these types there was in New York City another type—
the merely private common school—the teachers of which were
not “boarded round,” nor aided by the literature fund of the State,
and the sessions of which were not held in the public school house.
The Goodrich and Ely School in Albany is an academic representa-
tive of this class; others are given under the head of private
schools. In the New York City directory for 1786, it is an-
nounced that Edward Fogarty taught reading, writing, and arith-
metic and language if required, from nine to twelve and from
two to five o’clock each day in his school at 46 Wall Street. At
other times he would “attend a Ladie's Boarding School or fam-
ilies.” So likewise John Trent Care taught reading, writing and
vocal music in his school. He also taught a morning school from
six to eight o'clock for young ladies.**
The Teachers. The teachers in such schools were untrained.
In the message of 1826, De Witt Clinton wrote: “With full ad-
mission of the merits of several who now officiate in that capacity
(i.e., of teachers), still it must be conceded that the information
of the instructors of our common schools does not extend beyond
rudimental education.” Along with the facts given in the pre-
ceding section, this is a fair statement of the situation. Such
a situation is perfectly intelligible, when we remember that in the
United States there were no teachers colleges or colleges with
pedagogical courses, no normal or training schools, no teachers' in-
stitutes, not even the pedagogical departments—a course of
lectures on the “Principles of Teaching” in the academies. There
were no magazines specially or even incidentally devoted to edu-
cation. No distinctly pedagogical work had been written or
*Newspaper : May 17, 1784.
19New York City Directory, 1786, p. 139.
*Ibid., p. 134.
Educational Conditions I3
printed in America, except text-books.” However, during the last
decade of the eighteenth century, at least one association of
teachers was formed: the Society of Associated Teachers, organ-
ized in New York City in May, 1794. This society held meetings
until 1807 at least. The first institution in America to make
actual provision for the training of teachers was the Public School
Society, of New York. This work received legislative recogni-
tion in 1827. This will be treated in detail later.
The Teart-Books. Dr. Francis was a student with Washington
Irving in 1797 in a male seminary on John Street, New York.”
He says, “I remember well the elementary books scattered about,
SO characteristic of a common English school, at that period the
Columbian Orator of Bingham, and Hamilton Moore's Monitor:
the School-master's Assistant of Dilworth and the Arithmetic of
Pike, with here and there a copy of Dytch's English Dictionary.”
After commenting on the presence in the school room of ballads
on “Commerce,” “Freedom,” and the like, he proceeds to say:
“The leading teacher was ever insisting on the importance of
rhetoric, and striving to make everybody a Cicero; he assigned to
Irving the heroic lines: ‘My voice is still for war,’ while I, nearly
seven years younger was given for rhetorical display: ‘Pity the
Sorrows of a poor old man.’ The Principal stuck earnestly to
Dilworth, while the assistant, for his instruction, held to Noah
Webster; the slender duodecimo volume of Morse's Geography
was in use. There was a special teacher of elocution by the name
of Milne.” It will be profitable to examine these text-books,
actually used in the schools of New York State, to find out some-
what more definitely the method and content of the elementary
school education of the period.
The School-Master’s Assistant,” by Dilworth, was an arith-
metic text by a British School-master, used extensively in America
before the days of Pike. The twenty-third edition was published
in 1786." An accurate notion of the field covered by this work
and its character may be secured from its title page:
1°Cf. Christopher Dock’s Schul Ordnung. Neef’s Sketch of a Plan and
Method of Education was published in 1806.
18Dr. Francis, In Old New York, p. 3. Also Irving Memorial, 66–68.
*Preceding all the editions examined, there is “an Essay on the Education
Of Youth humbly offered to the consideration of parents.”
*Copy in Lenox Library, New York.
14 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
“The ‘School-master’s Assistant,’ being a compendium of arith-
metic, both practical and theoretical in five parts containing: -
“I. Arithmetic in whole numbers, wherein all the common
rules, having each of them sufficient number of questions with
their answers, are methodically and briefly handled.
“2. Vulgar Fractions, wherein several things not commonly
met with, are there distinctly treated of and laid down in the most
plain and easy manner.
“3. Decimals, in which among other things, are considered the
Extraction of Roots; Interest, both simple and compound; an-
nuities; rebate and equation of payments.
“4. A large collection of questions with their answers serving
to exercise the foregoing rules, together with a few others, both
pleasant and diverting. . -
“5. Duodecimals, commonly called cross multiplication, where-
in that sort of arithmetic is thoroughly considered and rendered
very plain and very easy; together with the method of proving
all the foregoing operations at once by division of several de-
nominations, without reducing them to the lowest terms men-
tioned.
“The whole being delivered in a most familiar way of question
and answer. 53
Pike's Arithmetic. Pike's famous arithmetic is described on the
title pages of various editions as “a new and complete system of
arithmetic for the use of citizens of the United States.” It was
a book of 5% by 8 inches, consisting of 576 pages and costing
$2.50.” It was intended to supplant the “School-master’s As-
sistant.”
This purpose is avowed indirectly in the preface to the first
edition: “but as the United States are now an independent nation
it was judged that a system might be calculated more suitable to
our meridian than those heretofore published.” Another purpose
of the text is indicated in this same preface by this statement:
“Among the miscellaneous questions, I have given some of a
philosophical nature, as well with a view to inspire the pupil
with a relish for philosophical studies as to the usefulness of them
in the common business of life.” This text was not completed in the
common school as a list of its contents will show.” The preface
16 Advertisement in Mercantile Advertiser.
17Besides the fundamental processes, duodecimals, the rule of three and
“rules for reducing all the coins from Canada, to Georgia, also English, Irish
and French coins and Spanish dollars each to par”—the usual course of study
in arithmetic—there were sections on the following:
Educational Conditions I5
to the third edition says that it has been introduced “as a classic
into several of our universities.” -
The defects of this work are indicated in the “publisher’s
notice” in an abridgment. Two especially are pointed out: the
one, want of conformity to the federal notation, and the other,
simplicity and attraction to the scholars in a few of the rules.
The following paragraph is also found in this notice:
“Some of the old and obsolete rules of tare and trett, etc., have
been omitted and the duties of custom house allowance of our
own country substituted. Several rules such as Position, Alliga-
tion, Permutation, etc., are inserted in this work more for the
purpose of gratifying the curiosity and exercising the mind than
for their utility in business.”
And it is truly remarkable how those subjects which so early
were regarded simply as gratifying the curiosity and exercising
the mind were continued in the texts until near the end of the
century. -
Morse's Geographies.** Morse prepared on a concentric circle
plan, resembling very much the series of language texts
prepared by Comenius, a series of four books on geog-
raphy. The first is a small astronomical and geographical cate-
chism for the use of children under eight years of age. The sec-
ond, the “Elements of Geography,” intended primarily for chil-
dren from eight to fourteen years old, but “usefully read by those
Single and Double Fellowship ; Fellowship, Tare and Trett, Involution,
Evolution, Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression, Commission, Alligation
Medial and Alternate, Position, and Permutation and Combinations. Besides;
these subjects there were miscellaneous questions on gravity, on screws, and
the Specific gravity of bodies. In addition there Were a series Of chronological
problems which are utterly unintelligible to the school teacher of to-day. The
following is an example:
“To find the Gregorian Epact. Rule—Subtract 11 from the Julian Epact.
If the subtraction cannot be made add 30 to the Julian Epact, then subtract,
and the remainder will be the Gregorian Epact, if nothing remains the epact is
29. -
“Or take 1 from the Golden Number, divide the remainder by 3, if 1 re-
mains add 10 to the dividend which sum will be the epact ; if 2 remains add 20
to the dividend, but if nothing remains, the dividend is the epact.”
The use of logarithms was also taught, and the plane geometry of the
right angle triangle and mensuration in fifty-four articles.
18Copies of these texts in various editions may be Secured in the Lenox.
Library, New York. Teachers College has a copy of the eleventh edition of
“Geography Made Easy.” (1807) The twentieth edition was published in
1819.
I6 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
of more advanced years.” This is the text referred to by Pr.
Francis. “Geography Made Easy” is the third of the series and
is confessedly an abridgment of the American Universal Geog-
raphy, and is intended for use in the higher classes of the
academies. The final one is the great “American Universal
Geography”—a complete system for the higher classes of the
academies, for colleges, and for private families. The title page
of this indicates the range covered in each of these works. It
reads:
“The First Part treats of astronomical geography and other
useful preliminaries to the study of geography in an en-
larged and improved introduction—of the Western or American
continent—of its discovery—its aboriginal inhabitants and
whence they came—its divisions—but more particularly of the
United States of America, generally and individually—of their
situation, dimensions, divisions, rivers, lakes, climate, mountains,
latitude, produce, natural history, commerce, manufacturers, popu-
lation, character, curiosities, springs, mines and minerals, military
strength, constitutions, islands, history of the war and the suc-
ceeding events—with a view of the British, Spanish, French,
Portuguese and other dominions in the continent and in the
West Indies.”
The second part gives similar facts for the remainder of the
world.
Dilworth's New Guide to the English Tongue. For the study
of language there were three famous texts: the work respectively
of the author of the “School-master’s Assistant,” of Caleb Bing-
ham, and of the greatest of all, Noah Webster. Dilworth’s text
was used during Noah Webster's school days. Says Webster:
“When I was young, the books used were chiefly Dilworth’s
Spelling-book, the Psalter, Testament and Bible. . . . . No
English grammar was generally taught in common schools when
I was young except that of Dilworth’s.” -
Dilworth’s text is a “New Guide to the English Tongue,” in
five parts, which had reached its forty-sixth edition in 1784.”
This was a combination child’s prayer-book, language book, reader
and speller. It had forms of prayer for children on several oc-
19A merican Journal of Education, v. 25, p. 961.
*The 1784 edition was used. This copy was secured at the Lenox library.
Educational Conditions 17
casions. It set the standard of form and arrangement practically
for the nineteenth century. First—that is, after the alphabet—
there was a list of monosyllables, those of two letters first, then
three and so on. Following that there was a list of polysyllables
beginning with those of two syllables and ending with words of
six syllables. The third part was a “large and useful table of
words that are the same in sound but different in significance.”
The two remaining parts are indicated accurately in the following
quotation from the title page:
“A useful collection of sentences in prose and verse, divine,
moral and historical, together with a select number of fables
for a better improvement of young beginners.
“A short but comprehensive grammar of the English Tongue,
delivered in the most familiar and instructive method of question
and answer; necessary for all such persons as have the advantage
of an English Education.”
Caleb Bingham's Texts. The Bingham books are the “Ameri-
can Preceptor,” which was first published in 1789, and which
reached its sixty-eighth edition in 1829, and the “Columbian
Orator,” published in 1799 and designed “as a second part” of the
“American Preceptor.” The former of these “was a new selection
of lessons for reading and speaking designed for the use of
schools.” In the preface the author says that preference is given
to works of American genius; that no place is given
to romantic fiction; and that “tales of love have not gained ad-
mission.” “Nor,” says he, in the next paragraph, “is there to
be found a word or a sentiment which would raise a blush on the
cheek of modesty.” The selection is exceedingly miscellaneous.
By way of introduction there are the rules for elocution and the
select sentences. Among the selections are: Franklin’s “The
Whistle,” J. Q. Adam’s “Oration,” “George Washington's Resig-
nation,” “Mr. Pitt's Speech, 1775,” “Brutus and Cassius,” an
oration of Demosthenes, a speech of St. Paul's, and four quota-
tions from Addison. The “Columbian Orator” is simply a three
hundred page second volume.
Webster's Grammatical Institute of the English Language.
“In the year 1782,” writes Noah Webster, “while the American
army was lying on the bank of the Hudson, I kept a classical
school in Goshen, Orange County, State of New York. I there
18 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
compiled elementary books for teaching the English language.
The county was then impoverished, intercourse with Great
Britain was interrupted, school books were scarce and hardly at-
tainable, and there was no certain prospect of peace.” -
In that statement is found the origin of the “Grammatical Insti-
tute of the English Language, comprising an easy, concise and
systematic method of education designed for the use of English
schools in America.” The “Grammatical Institute” was made up
of three parts: a speller, a grammar and a reader. The first
edition of each of these was published, respectively, in 1783, 1790,
1792. The design of the “Institute,” one reads in the preface to the
first part, “is to furnish schools of this country with an easy, ac-
curate and comprehensive system of rules and lessons for teach-
ing the English language.” The patriotic and literary purposes
are stated definitely in the same preface as follows: “to diffuse
uniformity and purity of language in America—to destroy the
provincial prejudices that originate in the trifling differences of
dialect and produce reciprocal ridicule—to promote the interest
of literature and the harmony of the United States.”
The title page of the first part of the “Institute,” the famous
Webster “blue-back,” reads as follows: “The American Spelling
Book, containing an easy standard of pronunciation, being the
first part of a grammatical institute of the English language—to
which is added an appendix, containing a moral catechism and a
federal catechism.” In form and arrangement it is very similar
to Dilworth, and frequently in substance. Instead of the differ-
ent forms of prayer for children it substitutes the moral and the
federal catechism. In the speller proper there is some note-
worthy changes. The names of all the local places of England, the
abbreviation of English titles are omitted and American geo-
graphical names and the like substituted. In short, Webster’s
“blue-back” is practically an American adaptation of Dilworth.*
Part two of the “Institute,” is the grammar, “a plain and com-
prehensive grammar,” the title page reads. The “Advertise-
ment” informs us as follews: “As this work is designed for gen-
eral use, the most necessary rules and definitions are given in the
*Quoted in Scudder, Noah Webster, p. 33.
*The 1798 edition was used. It was secured at Teachers College, New York.
*It may be said, in passing, that Webster’s list of words is more pedagogical.
Educational Conditions I9
text by way of question and answer.” “The design of this part
of the Institute,” the preface says more definitely, “is to furnish
schools with a collection of rules or general principles of English
grammar.” The first quarter of the book—twenty-nine pages—is
a catechism on the rules of grammar, and exactly the same amount
of space is given to false syntax. The remaining fifty-eight pages
are given over to many of the finer points of language and to
punctuation and grammar.
“An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking
calculated to improve the minds and refine the tastes of youth,
and also to instruct them in the geography, history and politics
of the United States to which is prefixed rules in elocution and
directions for expressing the principal passions of the mind,” con-
stitutes the third part of the “Grammatical Institute.” The les-
sons in this book are classified under four headings: Lessons
in Reading; Lessons in Speaking; Dialogues; and Poetry. Typi-
cal selections under each are: Under the first: Discovery and
Settlement of America, “Geography of United States,” “Brief
History of the Late War”; under the second : Hancock's and
Warren’s “Orations on the Boston Massacre,” “First Petition of
Congress to King of Great Britain,” Cicero’s “Oration against
Verres,” and “Speech of Caius Marius”; under the third heading:
“Brutus and Cassius,” “Wolsey and Cromwell,” and “Shylock
and Tubal”; under the last: Shakespeare’s “The World Com-
pared to a Stage,” and quotations from Pope.
The Content of a Common School Education. The school ses-
Sion was short—very short; attendance was intermittent; teachers
were frequently incompetent; the benefits of a class recitation
were not realized and consequently the acquirements of the
Scholars were limited. After attendance at school for a few
winters, pupils gained a tolerable proficiency in reading, writing,
and ciphering through the “rule of three.” Under the conditions
this was no mean accomplishment. But those who secured what
was called at that time a “good English education,” gained much
more. Arithmetic included besides arithmetic proper, a smatter-
ing of elementary science, inventional geometry, and the mathe-
matical side of astronomy. The reading material included valu-
able but most uninteresting supplementary geographical, historical
*The 1792 (Hartford) edition was used.
20 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
and political information. Geography, itself, included history, an
elementary discussion of astronomy, civil government, and much
miscellaneous information on a wide range of topics. Geography
was, like reading, a general information subject. There was, dur-
ing this period, tremendous emphasis on what Bingham calls the
“ornamental and useful art of eloquence.” This is a case of a
clear response of the curriculum to the social demands of the
time.
The Method. While much might be said in favor of the curri-
culum, especially as contrasted with the isolated character of
modern courses of study, little or nothing can be said in favor of
the method. For in the first place, it is utterly mechanical. The
1method of solution of the chronological problem given by Pike and
quoted above is one indication of this mechanical process. The
progress of the spelling book on the mere basis of length of words
or number of syllables, is so much more evidence of this. The
catechetical method—the method of Dilworth, of Morse, and of
Webster—is the expression, from another viewpoint, of this
nechanical character. There was no searching of the mind on
the part of the pupils; no attempt to formulate problems; no ex-
pression of individual opinion; no contributions from the various
1members of the class—none of the advantages of the modern reci-
tation. The pupils came up to the teacher; the teacher took the
book, asked the appropriate question to which the pupil gave as,
dutifully and as mechanically the set reply. It need only be
named to be perceived that this mechanical, catechetical, individual
1method placed the emphasis on Memory, which means ultimately,
“words, words, words.”
The Spirit. One thing apart from the method and content of
the education strikes you forcibly while reflecting upon these texts:
it is that there is here consciously the attempt to embody the new
spirit of American life—call it what you will, a new patriotism,
democracy or Americanism. Here is conscious, mental revolt—
as conscious as the political one. Pike thought that since the
United States had become an independent nation, a system (of
arithmetic) might be calculated more suitable to our meridian than
those heretofore published. Likewise, Bingham announces in his
preface that preference is to be given to the publications of Amer–
Educational Conditions 2I
ican genius. But in Webster this spirit is strongest.” The pre-
ceding text-books are condemned because they are not specially
designed for American schools. And it is declared—such hereti-
cal doctrine—that the Revolutionary orations are not inferior in
any respect to the orations of Cicero and Demosthenes. This re-
sult, the new democratic spirit, extends in Webster’s case even
further: it extends to the Latin domination of the English lan-
guage as opposed to the language of the people. The sentences
on this subject in the preface to part two of the “Institute,” are
emphatic and virile. The Lindley Murray domination would
never have been, had Webster gained the day, but here tradition
and the opposing forces were too strong for him.
ACADEMIES-A CLASSICAL EDUCATION
The following account deals with typical aspects of the various
academies: the buildings, subjects of studies and rates of tuition,
the library and apparatus; the text-books; the teachers; and the
students. -
The Erasmus Hall Academy, a neat, two-story frame building,
consisting of four large halls, thirty-four by twenty-two feet, for
the use of students, and twelve lesser rooms for the teacher and
boarders, was built in 1786. It was incorporated by the Regents
on November 17, 1787—the same day as the Clinton Academy at
Easthampton. The rates of tuition were from two to five dollars
per quarter. The exact prices for the various subjects or group
of subjects are not given. But we can be sure they were not
different from those of the Clinton Academy. There, the rates
of tuition per quarter were $1.50 for reading and writing; $2.50
for English grammar and ciphering; and $5.00 each for mathe-
matics and book-keeping; the dead languages; logic, rhetoric, and
*In the Preface to Webster’s American Selections, are the following state-
ments : *
“But none of these (a list given, including the “Preceptor”), however
judicious the selection, is calcuſated particularly for American schools. The
essays respect distant nations or ages, or contain general ideas of morality.”
“In the choice of pieces I have been specially attentive to the political
interest of America. I consider it as a capital fault in all our schools that the
books generally used contain subjects wholly uninteresting to our youth,
While the Writings that marked the Revolution, which are not inferior in any
respect to the Orations of Cicero and Demosthenes, and which are calculated
to impress interesting truths upon young minds, lie neglected and forgotten.”
22 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
composition; moral philosophy; natural philosophy; or the
French language.” ‘.
Erasmus Hall had a library of 650 volumes. This was the
largest number in any academy in New York State at the time;
i.e., of those reporting to the Regents in 1804-05. The Oyster
Bay Academy had no library;” Columbus Academy at Kinder-
hook had but 17 volumes;* Lansingburgh but 42;” while
Farmer's Hall at Goshen had 556.” Erasmus Hall had, too,
practically a complete outfit of the apparatus used in the academy
of the day; a set of elegant globes, an Orrery, an air pump, a
telescope, an electrical machine, a thermometer, a barometer, a
Hadley’s quadrant, a theodolite and chain, two prisms, a magnet,
drawing instruments, maps, etc.” The only other piece of ap-
paratus mentioned in the reports of the other academies is a
case of surveying instruments, at Union Hall, Jamaica.”
The texts used in these academies are given in the following list
taken from a minute of the trustees of the Oyster Bay Academy:*
English : I. The Monitor—to be read daily as the last lesson;
2. Webster’s Grammar—to be read or repeated by memory;
3. The Testament or Bible—to be read by inferior scholars and
once a day by all.
Latin: I. Ross’, Ruddiman’s, or John Holmes' Grammar;
2. Colloquia Corderii, Erasmus, Selectae Veteris, Selectae
Profanis, Nepos, Aesop's Fables, Florus, Mair's Introduction,
Caesar, Virgil, Cicero's Orations and De Oratore, Horace.
Greek : Moore's Grammar, Testament, Lucian's Dialogues,
The Cyropaedia, Longius, the Iliad.
Rhetoric : Blair’s Belles Letters.
Geography: Guthrie's or Solomon's Grammar.
Mathematics: Stone's Euclid, Martin's Trigonometry, or
Warden’s Mathematics.
An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the teaching and
teachers of the academies in the special message sent to the Legis-
lature by Governor Lewis in February, 1805.” The subject of
*Report to Regents, 1805. Hough, p. 414. This report and the others men-
tioned below are to be found summarized in Hough, pp. 412–421.
*Report, 1805.
28Report, 1804.
29Report, 1805.
30Report, 1805.
81 Feport, 1804.
3*Report, 1805.
*Newspaper reprint: Ondernook's Queens County, p. 80.
*Messages from the Governors, vol. 1, p. 557.
Educational Conditions 23
this message is the establishment and distribution of an “adequate,
permanent and certain” school fund. The Governor doubts the
wisdom of permitting academies to participate in such distribution.
His opinions are the result of reflections carried on for twenty
years, while “I had the honor,” he says, “of being a trustee of
Columbia College.”
His first reason is the difficulty of keeping them (the academies)
supplied with unexceptionable teachers. He observes that the
academies that have come under his observation have been for
months at a time without a teacher. This was due to the fact that
many of the men who taught in the academies were just from col-
lege and were using teaching as a stepping-stone to the recognized
professions. “A suspension of academic instruction is the conse-
quence, and before a successor can be procured, the students are
frequently dispersed.” Then add to this first fact, these others:
that each teacher introduces a new system of education, and that
the systems in the different academies are likewise diverse, and
consequently “there is an almost insurmountable difficulty of pur-
suing with effect a collegiate course”—and it will be understood
why the Governor thought academies should not participate in a
general fund. **
Young women were apparently admitted to the academies, for
the Lansingburgh Academy in a report to the Regents in January
I805, says that the “average board for males, exclusive of wash-
ing, was about $2.00 per week, and for females, $1.50.” It is
unlikely in the light of the subsequent history, especially of the
work of Mrs. Emma Willard, that the young women studied the
substantial or serious part of the curriculum. Possibly some
clue may be found in the advertisement of the Union Hall Acad-
emy at Jamaica in the New York Journal,” “a room is devoted
to the instruction of young ladies in the refinements of the needle.”
Fashionable Education”
A prevailing type of education, i.e., fashionable education, is
keenly and accurately characterized by Timothy Dwight, thus:
85June 3, 1796.
*In a dialogue in Bingham’s Columbian Orator, the preceptor soliloquizes
thus :
“I am heartily sick of this modern mode of education. Nothing but
trash will suit the taste of people of this day. I am perplexed beyond all
24 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
“The end proposed by the parents is to make their children ob-
jects of admiration. . . . . That I have not mistaken the
end may be easily proved by a single resort to any genteel com-
pany. To such company the children of the family are regularly
introduced, and the praise of the guests are ministered to them as
regularly as the dinner or tea is served up. . . . .
“The means of effectuating this darling object are the communi-
cation of, what are called, accomplishments. The children are
Solicitously taught music, dancing, embroidery, ease, confidence,
graceful manners, etc., etc. To these may be added what is called
reading, travelling. . . . .”
This form of education was embodied in special institutions.
The directories and newspapers of 1786 indicate that there were
the following main types. There were riding schools for the im-
provement of gentlemen desirous of acquiring the art of riding
with grace and elegance. A typical School gave lessons four days
a week, from six to eight in the morning, and from four to six
in the evening for ten dollars.” There were many musical
Schools, both for instrumental and for vocal music. Some ad-
vertised simply as singing Schools, some as schools for vocal music
and others as schools which taught the “harpischord, German
flute and clarinet.” Dancing schools were numerous. “The
days of attendance,” one advertisement reads, “will be on Mon-
day, Wednesday and Friday, from nine to twelve in the morning
for young ladies, and on the same days for gentlemen, from six
to nine in the evening.” Another school announces the same
hours for men, but takes the ladies in the afternoon from two to
five. Fencing schools were also very numerous.* Other schools
contributed an intellectual veneer, such as the French schools, the
purpose of which was to give a mastery of French; and the
endurance with these frequent solicitations of parents, to give their children
graceful airs, polite a CCOmplishment, and a Smattering Of What they call the
fine arts ; while nothing is said about teaching them the substantial branches
of literature. If they can but dance a little, flute a little, make a handsome
bow and courtesy, that is sufficient to make them famous in this enlightened
age. . . . . For my part, I am Convinced that, if I had been a dancing-
master, music-master, stage player or mountebank, I should have been more
respected and much better supported than I am at present,” p. 185.
87Dwight’s Travels, v. 3, pp. 512-13.
88New York City Directory, 1786, p. 182.
*Ibid., p. 126.
*Ibid., p. 168.
*Ibid., pp. 163 and 251, for example.
Educational Conditions - 25.
schools where young gentlemen were taught useful and polite
literature.”
The arrangement of hours for these various kinds of education
for the different sexes is significant. For the young gentlemen,
hours are either very early in the morning or very late in the
afternoon or in the evening, so that the main part of the day is
given over to more substantial studies or to the occupations of
life. The arrangement of hours for the young ladies would seem
to indicate that these special forms of education were their main
Occupation. In the main, so far as they were admitted to the
Schools, giving presumably the more intellectual work, it was
only early in the morning, during the noon recess, or in the even-
ing, that is, at odd times. This will appear more evident in the
subdivision headed “Private Schools.” These, so far as the
young ladies were concerned, combined this fashionable education
with more Solid studies, or, at least, presumed to do so.
Private Schools
In addition to the fashionable schools there were several private
schools; the main type may be indicated in the following adver-
tisements. The first though in New Jersey apparently attracted
the genteel young women of New York. It is quoted here be-
cause the advertisement appeared in a New York paper, and gives
the curriculum of the Young Ladies Seminary in full:
BETHESDA SELECT BOARDING SCHOOL.
PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.
The House lately occupied by a Hotel.
By the desire and approbation of several respectable families, Mrs.
Philip has altered her plan and has taken that well-known house at Pater-
son. Her terms are $451 per annum, which includes Board, Spelling, Read-
ing, Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, the use of Globes, Plain
Work, Marking, Darning, Embroidery, Clock Work, Point Work, Filigree
raised and flat, Paper Work, Tambour, Muslin Work of every description,
making Artificial Flowers, etc. Several young ladies of genteel family are
already engaged, and she has room for many more. She desires to ac-
knowledge with gratitude the favors she has received from many families
in New York, and hopes still to meet their patronage.
Further particulars may be known respecting the school by inquiring
of Mrs. Howe at her Music Warehouse on Pearl Street.
The health, morals and behavior of the young ladies will be particularly
*Ibid., pp. 163, 178, 110 and 251.
26 The Educational Views and I nfluence of De Witt Clinton
attended to. They will not be allowed to walk out without sufficient at-
tendance. 48
In Mrs. M. Scott's school at the corner of Smith and Duke
streets, young ladies received practically the same instruction as in
the foregoing; the same attention was paid to “forming the man-
ners and improving the morals of those tender minds committed
to her care.” It was also announced that “for those who desire
to be taught writing, a proper master will attend three days in the
Week.”44 -
Another, a shorter advertisement, indicates definitely the sub-
jects taught, the provision for the education of girls and for the
evening school.
James Main’s Academy, No. Io Gold Street, for the English, French,
Latin and Greek Languages, Writing, Accounting, Mathematics, Geography,
is again open for the reception of his pupils.
An Evening Class from 6 to 8.
Tuition for young ladies between hours of I2 and 2. **
Still another advertisement seems to indicate that some of these
private schools had a narrower curriculum: “Mr. Coffey has re-
moved his grammar school to No. 21 Smith street, where he in-
structs youth in the Greek and Latin languages.” The advertise-
ment goes on to say that “if the number of his students exceeds
twenty-five, Mr. Coffey engages himself to engage an assistant.”
THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT—1787-1800”
The Regents’ Interest in Common Schools
The committee appointed by the Board of Regents, January 13,
1787, have given in their report of February 16, 1787, an ex-
cellent statement of the situation, with reference to the common
schools and its only solution. They say:
“But before your committee conclude, they feel themselves bound
in faithfulness to add that the erecting of public schools for teach-
ing reading, writing, and arithmetic is an object of very great im-
portance, which ought not to be left to the discretion of private
men, but ought to be promoted by public authority. Of so much
48The Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 20, 1799.
44Ibid., Nov. 5, 1799.
*New York City Directory, 1786, p. 166.
*Ibid., 1786, p. 166.
*Cf. Andrew Draper’s speech before N. Y. State Teachers’ Association
(1890), on the “Origin and Development of the New York Common School
System.”
Educational Conditions 27
knowledge no citizen ought to be destitute, and yet it is a reflection
as true as it is painful that but too many of our youth are brought
up in utter ignorance. This is a reproach under which we have
long labored unmarred by the example of our neighbors who not
leaving the education of their children to chance, have widely dif-
fused throughout their State a public provision for such instruc-
tion.
“Your committee are sensible that the Regents are invested
with no funds of which they have the disposal, but they neverthe-
less conceive it to be their duty to bring the subject in view before
the honorable, the Legislature, who alone can provide a remedy.”
The Regents made two other significant statements on this sub-
ject in their reports to the Legislature in 1793 and I794, respect-
ively. In the first of these the Regents urged upon the Legis-
lature, because of the general social results that would follow,
the desirability of establishing schools where children would be
taught “the lower branches of education, such as reading their
native language with propriety, and so much of writing and
arithmetic as to enable them when they come forward in active
life, to transact with accuracy and dispatch the business arising
from their daily intercourse with each other.” How this is to
be accomplished is left to the Legislature. Such a recommenda-
tion would have been pointless, if there existed to any general
extent these schools for the common branches” and judging from
the rapidity of settlement and the character of the settlers, condi-
tions would become worse—were actually becoming so. The con-
dition is admirably and emphatically pointed out in the 1794
recommendation.
“After another year's experience and observation, we beg leave
to Solicit the attention of the Legislature to the establishment of
the Schools for the common branches of education—an object of
acknowledged importance and extensive utility. Institutions of
this description, so well adapted for the diffusion of that kind of
knowledge which is essential to the support and continuance of a
republican government, are greatly neglected, especially in those
parts of our country (i. e., State) remote from the academies.
The numerous infant settlements annually forming in our State
chiefly composed of families in very indigent circumstances and
placed in the most unfavorable situations for instruction appear to
call for legislative aid in behalf of their offspring.”
*Senate Journal, 1793, p. 93.
*Cf. below : “Educational conditions in various places.”
*Senate Journal, 1794, p. 16.
28 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
It was not until the next year (1795), that there was any
legislative response to these recommendations, and perhaps even
then, the Legislature would not have responded but for the re-
peated and emphatic co-operation of Governor George Clinton.
Or it would be more in accord with the facts to say that the result
was brought about through the reinforcement of the Governor's
vigorous recommendations, by the emphatic statements and Sug-
gestions of the Regents.
The First Statute Relating to Elementary Schools
In the meantime there was passed (1791) the first statute relat-
ing to an elementary school in New York State.” The preamble
reads:
“Whereas, the magistrates, town-officers, and other inhabitants
of the town of Clermont in the county of Columbia have by their
petition represented to the Legislature that there are moneys in
the hands of the overseers of the poor of said town arising from
the excise, and from fines which are not wanted for relief of the
poor and prayed that so much of the said money as shall remain
in the hands of the overseers on the first of April next, and shall
not then be wanted for the support of the poor of said town,
may be by law appropriated to the purpose of building a school
house and maintaining a school-master in the same town, and
that Robert R. Livingston . . . . may be authorized to put
such a law in force.”
There you have the system at its best. Heretofore, apparently,
education of the poor was not regarded as a town function nor
even a phase of poor relief. In this instance it was to be provided
for, from the money not wanted for the relief of the poor—and,
moreover, to use this money, appeal had to be made to the Legis-
lature. Of course, the fundamental conception is that education
is a private matter and a phase of charitable endeavor.
The Law of 1795
The law of 1795 was the first general statute relating to ele-
mentary schools—and the only one passed during the eighteenth
century. It was “An act for the encouragement of schools.”
In addition to establishing the district system, it appropriated fifty
thousand dollars a year for five years “for the purpose of en-
*Chap. 41, Laws of 1791.
Chap. 75, Laws of 1795, passed April 9.
Educational Conditions 29
couraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns
of this State, in which the children of the inhabitants residing in
this State shall be instructed in the English language, or be taught
English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such other
branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to Com-
plete a good vocation.” The act required the town to raise
as much as it received from the State. Energetic efforts were
made in 1800 and thereafter to secure a continuance or renewal
of the act, but all failed until the Common School Fund was pro-
vided for in 1813.
The Breakdown of the Law of 1795 in the Long Island Towns
If the Long Island towns are typical of the whole State, the
system organized under the Act of 1795 broke down completely.”
At the town meeting in Huntington, to take that for illustration,
On April 4, 1797, four commissioners of schools were appointed
among persons to transact public business. Similar provision was
made in April, 1798, but no provision was made in 1799 and 18OO,
for the election of these officers. No reference to schools is found
after 1800 until 1813, when three school commissioners were
elected and it was “voted that the town raise, by tax, as much
money as is granted to said town by law, from the Common School
Fund.” At a special town meeting on December 23, 1813, six
inspectors of common schools were elected, and a similar election
was held in 1814. Thereafter commissioners and inspectors were
elected annually during our period.
Huntington is typical of the other Long Island towns; in East-
hampton, Southampton, Babylon, and Brookhaven, the same pro-
vision for education was made from 1795 to 1800; then there is
absolutely no mention until 1813 of any similar provision or con-
tinuance of the old provisions.” In that year the distribution of
the Common School Fund began and these towns complied with
the law. w
It may be well to note that in Easthampton in 1796, and again in
I797, 1798, 1799, and 18OO the town clerk, supervisors and as-
Sessors were chosen commissioners of schools. And at the town
meeting of April 3, 1798, it was “voted that the trustees be im-
powered to repair the school house.”
*The town records of these towns.
30 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS IN VARIOUS PLACES
In New York City. The later Public School Society was in-
corporated by an act passed April 9, 1805. It was an act in-
corporating the “society for the establishment of a free school in
the city of New York for the education of such poor children
as do not belong to or are not provided for by any religious
society.” The name of this society clearly indicates Several
things. It indicates that there was no such thing as a public
school in our sense—open to the public free of expense—for
then these children could have been provided for. It in-
dicates that there were no charity schools open to all poor chil-
dren. It indicates, too, that there were several schools by the
various religious denominations, and open only to the poor of
the denomination. It intimates that these charity schools did not
provide for all the poor members of the denomination, for the
act provided for “such poor children as are not provided for by
any regular religious society.” It is also intimated that the
richer children were provided for by other means, either by tutor
at home, or in private schools.
In an 1805 Directory,” it is stated that church schools were
supported by the Dutch Reformed, Episcopal, Presbyterian,
Methodist and Roman Catholic denominations. The Roman
Catholic school had the largest number in attendance; one hun-
dred. The school, in connection with the New York Orphan
Asylum (the first of its kind established), was not organized until
1806. Sunday Schools were also used to give secular instruction.
There was also a special school to give colored children the ele-
ments of an education. This school was conducted by the Manu-
mission Society. It was opened in 1787 in Cliff Street and soon
numbered one hundred children. Several other schools were or—
ganized by the Society later.
In Jones’ Directory for 1805-06, there are given fifteen thou-
sand names. Those who have any connection with education
whatever are grouped under the heading: “Learned professions
and public officers.” A careful examination of this list shows
that there are eighty-six men classed as teachers simply and thirty-
three women. Of the women, twelve were widows and five were
*Longworth’s New York Register, 1805-06, p. 76.
Educational Conditions - 3I
married. In addition two men are given as “teacher and book-
seller,” and as “teacher and captain of the city watch,” respective-
ly. - •,
All the other persons given are indicated as teachers of special
subjects; though in the list is found a “junior” and an “assistant”
teacher. Of these special teachers there are 3 teachers of
language, I of mathematics, 2 of French, I of French and music,
I of French and English. I of German, I of music, and I merely
a teacher in academy. There is also listed 2 writing masters, I
teacher of needlework, I teacher of navigation, I philosophical
lecturer, I moral and philosophical lecturer, and I professor
of music.
Examination of the list reveals also the number of certain
types of schools. There are given the names of twelve academies
or seminaries for young ladies; two boarding Schools and One
Episcopal academy. The academies were conducted, in the largest
number of cases, by married women. There is listed also two
drawing academies, one academy of painting and one mercantile
academy.
In Albany. Albany was the other large city of the State at
this time. In the Gagette of 1789, a writer says: “At that period
(seven or eight years ago) a competent English teacher was
scarcely to be found. We have now an academy which flourishes
under the direction of Mr. Merchant.” “In 1785 Elihu Goodrich
and John Ely opened a school. . . . They taught Greek and
Latin for 40s a quarter; grammar, arithmetic and writing for 30s;
reading and spelling for 20s. The hours of study were from 6 to
8, and from 9 to I2 in the forenoon, and from 2 to 5 and from 6 to
8 in the afternoon.” -
In the Albany Register of November 1, 1799, there is the ad-
vertisement of the Trinity School. This school, so the advertise-
ment reads, prepared its pupils for the “University, Navy, Army,
or Counting House.” In an earlier advertisement printed during
the same year, the terms of tuition are given as follows: “The
Greek and Latin languages, History, Geography, and the other
branches requisite for completing a good classical education, four
dollars. Mathematics, three dollars. Spelling, reading, writing
*Munsell’s Annals of Albany, v. 2, pp. 201-2.
32 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
and arithmetic, two and a half dollars, but with modern history,
geography, or grammar, three dollars.” The advertisement con-
cludes with the usual remark: “Diligent attention shall be paid
to the improvement of the pupils in good morals and useful
learning. Public examination will be held twice a year.”
Albany had its schools for giving fashionable or polite education.
Mr. Danglebut, for example, announces in the Albany Register
in an advertisement dated September 20, that he will open on
October first, his dancing school, “where he will teach music on
the Forte Piano, Violin, German Flute, Flageolette and Clarinet.”
A Mr. Carpenter announces in the same paper the opening of a
dancing school. “He flatters himself that by his manner of
teaching, his scholars will soon acquire those graceful deport-
ments and easy manners, which are so highly useful in society.”
Mr. Carpenter also announces that in compliance with certain
Solicitations he will open an academy of the French language,
provided he secures enough students, and that he will continue to
give instruction in private families as usual.”
In Hudson. There was in Hudson as early as 1785 provision
for the three types of education regarded as essential in those
days: the elementary, the academic and the fashionable or polite.
Seventeen hundred and eighty-five is the year of the incorporation
.0f Hudson. At that time there was one school house, a small
frame building standing on the country road near the river. Ap-
parently the proprietors regarded this school house as unsatis-
factory, for on April 19 of the same year they voted:
... that a lot 50 x 120 on Diamond Street would be granted
to any person or persons, who would build a school house not less
than 40 feet by 24, such persons not to receive more than nine
per cent. On the cost of the building for the use of it and to have
the power to sell it to the corporation at large for their own use
whenever they had opportunity so to do and that it should con-
tinue to be used for a school house for every description and de-
nomination of people then settled or which should thereafter
Settle.”59
& C.
*Albany Register, Sept. 6, 1799.
5°Cf. issue of Nov. 1, 1799.
*Issue of April 29, 1800.
*Issue of April 8, 1800.
*Ms. Reprinted in Miller's Historical Sketches of Hudson, p. 12.
Educational Conditions 33
Beside being used for the main purpose we find in the pro-
prietor's minutes that a Joseph Marshall designed opening a school
in the Diamond Street school house, from 5 to 7 o'clock P. M.
each day, for the instruction of misses in writing, ciphering, com-
position, English grammar, and geography.”
The Hudson Gagette contained two interesting advertisements
during the same year. The one is the advertisement of Ambrose
Liverpool. He advertised that he would open a seminary “where
he would teach all the English branches, also at convenient times
the principles of several musical instruments, and that he had sev-
eral dozen strong English beer to dispose of.” The other is
the advertisement of M. Robardet, from Connecticut, who adver-
tised that he would open a class for instruction in the polite ac-
complishments of dancing after the most approved method.
Scholars varying in age from seven to fifty are received.
In a newspaper of Nov. 26, 1805, one reads, “a school building
was erected by the charitable contributions of the benevolent for
the benefit of neglected and helpless female children; and a family
of twenty-three gathered under the care of a discreet governess
were daily instructed in reading, writing and plain work, and in
the strict observance of every Christian and moral duty.” In
August, 1810, there was being considered the project to establish
a free school on the plan of Joseph Lancaster. As yet it is be-
lieved there were no public schools in the city. The society of
mechanics had a number of years previously erected a building in
Chapel Street, called Mechanics’ Hall, and maintained a school out
of their funds, but it is presumed that its benefits were confined
chiefly to the children of mechanics.”
In Newburg. In the letters patent of Dec. 18, 1719, the town
of Newburg was known as Quassing. In the letters patent of
March 26, 1752, it was given its present name. These letters
vested the lands in two persons named in the document in trust
“for the proper use, benefit and behalf of a minister of the church
of England as by law established to have the cure of souls of the
aforesaid tract of 2,190 acres of land and of a schoolmaster to
*Ibid., p. 3.
*Ibid., p. 62.
*Munsell’s Annals of Albany, v. 4, p. 332.
*Ibid., v. 1, p. 74.
34 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
teach and instruct the children of the aforesaid inhabitants and
their successors forever, and to no other use whatever.” From
the “Account Book of the Glebe,” it is known that this school was
continuously in existence from 1760 to the Revolution. From
the same source it appears that Richard King was the teacher
from 1782 to 1790.*
In 1790 the following agreement was made with the Reverend
Mr. Sperin:
(The Trustees) “Agreed that the Reverend George H. Sperin
shall be entitled to receive the whole of the rents and benefits
arising from the Glebe lands, while he continues to officiate as
minister, and teaching the inhabitants of the German patent on
the following terms, vig.: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geog-
raphy, History and English Grammar at 12 shillings per quarter;
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic at 8 shillings per quarter.
“Provided always that no children incapable of studying the
above branches shall be admitted or received into the school.
“And should a poor child come properly recommended as such,
he shall be received into the English school gratis.
“And if a youth of strong natural ability of the like description
offer, he shall be received into the Classical school, also gratis.
“Provided also that should the rents and privileges of the Glebe
hereafter become more valuable, that then, in such cases, the terms
of teaching the children living in the patent shall be reduced in
such manner as to be equivalent to said advantages, so far as may
relate towards supporting of a school and as the trustees shall
deem proper.”
During the same year the Reverend Mr. Sperin advertised in
the Goshen Repository, wherein he “informs the public that he
proposes opening an academy for the instruction of youth in the
Greek and Latin languages and the different other branches of
literature, when a sufficient number of pupils shall offer them-
Selves. . . . Boarding, washing, and lodging at 20 pounds per
year (or $1 a week), and 5 pounds for tuition.” It is significant
that those who wished to encourage the enterprise were to send
their names to the minister or “to Isaac Belknap and Cadwallader
Calden, Trustees of the Glebe Lands at Newburg.” In an ad-
vertisement in the New York Journal and Patriotic Register
64p. 33.
*Minutes of the Trustees. Printed in Ruttenher’s History of the Town of
Newburgh, p. 245.
*Goshen Repository, July 13, 1790.
Educational Conditions 35
dated “Newburg, August 6, 1791,” Mr. Sperin informs the public
that he has “engaged as an assistant in his academy at Newburg, a
young man eminent for his mathematical ability, and that in ad-
dition to the Greek, Latin and English languages—logic, rhetoric,
history, geography, etc., the following branches will be taught:
Vulgar and decimal arithmetic, book-keeping, mensuration, navi-
gation, gauging, surveying, dealing, geometry, astronomy and
algebra at his usual price of two pounds per annum.”
In 1803 there was passed “An act to alter and amend the charter
of the Glebe land in the German patent in the village of Newburg.”
It provided that the “moneys arising from the annual income of the
Glebe shall forever thereafter be appropriated solely to the sup-
port of schools on the said Glebe.” Regarding the distribution
of the money, it is provided that the trustees of the Glebe shall
give two hundred dollars to the trustees of Newburg Academy,
“who shall apply the said sum of two hundred dollars solely to the
use of Schools taught in the academy,” and that the remainder
shall be paid “to the trustees of other schools which are or may
hereafter be established on the Glebe.”
In the Mohawk and Black River Counties. The Journal of Rev.
John Taylor, narrating his doings on a “Mission through the Mo-
hawk and Black River counties in the year 1802,” gives some in-
sight into the educational conditions in that region. In Amster-
dam there is no school mentioned, but he observes that among the
Dutch who constituted one fourth of the inhabitants, a consider-
able portion can neither read nor write. At Whitesborough, four
miles from Utica, which contains no church, he notes “in this town
or rather parish, is an academy, which is in a flourishing state.
A Mr. Porter, an excellent character and a preacher, is preceptor.
They have one usher and about sixty scholars.” At Floyd,
which is eleven miles north of Utica, and which contains eight
hundred inhabitants, he writes: “I then visited a school of about
thirty children, catechised them, gave advice and prayed with
them. On inquiry I found they had but few school books and no
catechisms.” On August 23, 1802, he visited a school at Camden
67Cf. issue of New York Journal for Sept. 14, 1791.
*Chap. CX, Laws of 1803.
epp. 112.
79Extending from July 20 to Oct. 12, 1802.
7ip. 114.
36 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
and gave the “instructress” five catechisms. In the next five
towns visited no mention is made of schools. On Sept. 8, he
visited a school of twenty-five children in Champion, which had an
excellent “instructress.” There are seventy families in the town.
In the next thirteen towns visited there is no mention made of
schools. In Northampton he visits a school, and on his return no
mention is made of schools in the eighteen towns he visited. How-
ever, at Williamston he visited the College, which had ninety
Scholars, a president and four tutors and two elegant buildings.
At Clinton, he saw Clinton Academy from the distance.
HIGHER EDUCATION
History of the Regents. “There were no efficient educational
institutions. A few private and parish schools, a few academies,
King's College defunct—such was the condition of education in
1783,” i.e., before the organization of the Regents. We have
had Governor George Clinton’s statement of the situation and his
recommendation for the revival and encouragement of seminaries
of learning.
The status of higher education in New York State is intimately
connected with the history of the Regents. To state, therefore,
the conditions of higher education it will be necessary to trace the
history of the Board of Regents.
On May 1, 1784, there was passed, “An act for granting certain
privileges to the College heretofore called King's College, for alter-
ing the name and charter thereof and erecting an university within
the State.” This was in part in response to Governor Clinton's
suggestion, and the petition of the governors of King's College—
most of whom were members of the State government—dated
March 24, 1784, submitting the charter for revision and cor-
rection to the Legislature and requesting its aid.
The first section of the act vested all the rights, privileges and
immunities heretofore granted to King's College in the Regents
of the University of the State of New York, “who are hereby
erected into a corporation or a body corporate and politic.” This
section named certain State officers, the mayors of New York
and Albany, two men from each county as Regents of the Univer-
**Sherwood’s University of the State of New York, p. 48.
*Chap. 51, Laws of 1784.
Educational Conditions 37
sity and provided for the election of the representatives of the
clergy of the respective religious denominations. Section two pro-
vided for the filling of vacancies. Section three, four and five,
provided for the management of Columbia. Other sections pro-
vided for the founding of academies, the amount of estates, real
and personal, that may be held, for the endowment of a pro-
fessorship of divinity, for the granting by the University of the
degrees that may be conferred by all or any of the Universities
of Europe, and for changing the name of the college from King's
to Columbia. An amendatory act was passed November 26,
I784,” which named thirty-three new Regents and provided that
a quorum should consist of nine, including the Chancellor. How-
ever, both these acts were repealed by the last section of the act
of April 13, 1787.”
The twenty-two sections of this act may be divided into four
general subdivisions. The first seven sections provide for the in-
corporation of the University, its management, organization,
powers, and duties. The next four sections (8–II), provide for
the organization and control of Columbia College. The follow-
ing eight sections (I2-19) provide for the incorporation, organi-
zation, and control of the academies. The last three sections
(2O-22) are general and miscellaneous in character.
It is well at this point to give in more detail the provisions for
incorporation of academies and colleges. Section seven enacts:
“That any citizen or citizens or bodies corporate, within this State
being minded to found a College at any place within the same,
he or they shall, in writing, make known to the Regents the place
where, the plan on which, the funds with which it is intended to
found and provide for the same, and who are proposed for the
first Trustees; and in case the said Regents shall approve thereof,
then they shall declare their approbation by an instrument under
the common seal and allow a convenient time for completing the
same. . . . If satisfactory, then the Regents shall forthwith
incorporate the Trustees, who shall have perpetual succession, and
enjoy all the corporate rights and privileges enjoyed by Columbia
College, hereinafter mentioned.” Section twelve enacts that the
7*Chap. 15, Laws of 1784.
*Chap. 82, Laws of 1787.
38 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Regents have somewhat similar power in the incorporation of
academies.
This Regents legislation passed so soon after the Treaty of
Paris, was an indication that the government was going to exer-
cise vigorously its control over education—at least in the field
of secondary and higher education. This was regarded at the
time as the proper field for state activity and this limitation of
the sphere of state activity furnished the basis for the establish-
ment of two distinct organizations for the public control and ad-
ministration of education. The Legislature kept control of ele-
mentary education in its own hands until in 1812 it transferred its
executive and some of its legislative functions not, as might have
been expected, to the Regents of the University, but to the newly
created officer, the Superintendent of Common Schools.
But practically from the beginning the Legislature delegated its
power over secondary and higher education to a private corpora-
tion—the Regents of the University—a private corporation which
however was created by the Legislature, its membership main-
tained by the Legislature and accountable to the Legislature. It
was practically a State Bureau of Education—a central organ of
administration and control,
Academic Education. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth
century, nineteen academies were incorporated. Those incorpor-
ated during the last decade were Washington and Montgomery in
1791; the academy of Dutchess County and Union Hill in 1792;
Hamilton, Oneida, Refugees and Schenectady, in 1793; Johnstown
and Oxford in 1794; Kingston and Canandaigua in 1795; Cherry
Valley, Lansingsburgh and Ostego in 1796; and Columbia in 1797.
The following table indicates in a general way, the situation with
reference to the incorporated academies:”
7°FHough, p. 421.
Educational Conditions 39

I804 I805 I8O6 1807
~5 # rej # ~5 # †:
ck | "C ck; "U ck | "C º .#
O E O E O E O 5
C/)
STUDIES TAUGHT * | *- * | *- ‘S | “.. * {−4
O O o O o O O ‘5
3. * 3. gº 3. * > 3. º
O O O o
2. 2. 2. 2.
Reading and Writing: . 14 so to 205 to 208 18 62I
English, Gram. and Arith. 16 ; Jo 228 IO 312 19 §
Math., Bookkeeping, etc.. 12 I 23 7 36 7 5.I I5 I34.
Dead Languages . . . . . . I5 2I I84 || IO | I3O I 2I
Logic, Rhet., Comp., etc.| 6 . ; 48 4. 38 ; ;
Moral Philosophy, etc..] — * I I 2 I4 3 22
Natural Philosophy . . . . — tº-º-º: I I 3 I4 4. 36
French Language . . . . . . 4 38 I I — mº-e 4. I6
Total number of students. I6 963 II 652 | Io 67I 19 || 1490
FUNDS.
Value of Academy lot
and building . . . . . . . . I7 ||37948 II |27650 9 |2235o 19 |59150
Value of other real estate. 6 || 3837 || 4 || 84OO || 6 || 6453 7 |16259
Value of personal estate. 8 || 4556 || 5 || 44Oo | 6 || 5292 3 || 9066
Value of Library and Ap-
paratus . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4 577I
ANNUAL INCOME
From funds ........... 7 || 626 || 3 || 2 IO | 6 || 594 487
From tuition . . . . . . . . . I2 7036 6 || 3878 9 5398 97.45
Teachers’ salaries in Farmer’s Hall, Union Hall, Clinton and Columbia
Academies are not reported, the teachers receiving tuition money for pay.
Collegiate Education. The acts (1784) organizing the Regents,
provided for the revival of Columbia College. DeWitt Clinton
was the first matriculated student of Columbia College.” He
received the bachelor’s degree in 1786 and the master's in 1789.
The act of 1787 gave Columbia its own Board of Trustees who,
On May 21, elected Willian S. Johnson, LL.D., President. There
were then—Nov. 12, 1787—three professors in Arts, three in
Medicine, but none in Law or Divinity. “An extra Professor of
German was employed, but without fixed salary.”
"Cf. “De Witt Clinton and Columbia.”—Columbia University Quarterly,
Sept. 1909.
*Hough, p. 121.
40 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
In 1792,” the college received a grant of £7,900; £1,500 for a
library, £200 for chemical apparatus, £1,200 for a wall to support
grounds and £5,000 for a hall and wing to building. Their next
grant was after the opening of the century (18OI), when Columbia
shared with Union a land grant in the northern part of the
State.8° -
After many unsuccessful attempts to found a college at
Schenectady, beginning with the proposed Clinton College in 1779,
a college was incorporated on February 25, 1795—Union Col-
lege.” The financial condition of the college was reported in
I798 to be as follows:
Given by Trustees of the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2O3OI.60
Given for House and Lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57I2.50
House and Lot for President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3500.00
Lot on which new College is to be built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325O.OO
Philosophical and Mathematical apparatus and Library . . . . . . . . . . 2516.00
Cash raised for apparatus and Library but not expended . . . . . . . I234.00
$36514. Io
In addition to this property the College owned I,640 acres of
improved lands. The faculty consisted of a president, a pro-
fessor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, a professor of
Mathematics and one tutor. The Legislature before this had
made the following appropriations:
Act of April 9, 1705, for books and apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3750,00**
Act of April II, 1796, for building. . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * IOOOO.OO88
Act of March 30, 1797, for salaries two years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I500.0034
Libraries. Now for a few words as to the chief suplementary
means of education: libraries. During the colonial period there
were six attempts to establish an institutional library in New York,
exclusive of the purely commercial circulating libraries—these last
principally owned by booksellers. These attempts were the Trin-
ity Parish Library, 1698; the Sharpe Collection (1713-15), which
never attained an independent existence; the Corporation Library
*Chap. 69, Laws of 1792.
*Chap. 82, Laws of 1801.
*Chap. 92, Laws of 1795.
*Chap. 76, Laws of 1795.
88Chap. 57, Laws of 1796.
*Chap. 65, Laws of 1797.
Educational Conditions 4I.
(1754); the Library of King's College (1757); and the Union
Library Society (177I).
All of these were prostrated by the war. But two of these later
became significant in the intellectual life of the city and State, but
only after they began anew.”
Professional Education. Professional education was not more
advanced than elementary. So far as there was any, it was car-
ried on by an apprentice system. Judging from the absence of spe-
cial schools, and the failure of the medical and law school estab-
lished in connection with Columbia, it may fairly be said that the
people had not yet in any adequate degree felt the necessity for a
scientific preparation for professional men.
Divinity: Apparently the ordinary way of preparing for the
ministry was by placing oneself under the instruction of a regular-
ly ordained minister and later be examined by a Board of Min-
isters. In 1784 the Dutch Reformed Church discontinued the
above practice and indicated two of its members to do the work.
However, in 1784, Dr. John Livingston, pastor of the Collegiate
Church of New York City, was elected by the synod to be pro-
fessor of divinity in the church at large. Until 1810 when Dr.
Livingston became head of Rutgers College and its professor of
divinity, he taught the students gratuitously. About ninety men
were licensed during this period. It will be observed that this is
essentially the empirical way, and it is not, strictly speaking, pro-
fessional preparation. The colleges, of course, prepared for the
ministry. Divinity was taught in Columbia and in the College
of New Jersey, Yale, Harvard, and William and Mary. So also
were Greek and Hebrew.
Law: There was but one attempt to establish a law school in
New York in the eighteenth century (1797), and that was a
failure. This was the attempt made by James Kent in con-
nection with Columbia. Mr. Kent delivered but a single course
of lectures, and it was not until sixty years later that a depart-
ment of law authorized to grant degrees was established at Co-
*For a full and detailed discussion of this subject see Keep’s, The New
York Society Library, to which the writer is indebted for the facts in the
preceding paragraph.
42 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
lumbia. It may be remarked here that Chancellor Kent was an
intimate friend of Clinton's, and also that the subject of profes-
sional education for lawyers did not receive any consideration
from Clinton. This is the more surprising when we remember
that Clinton was himself a lawyer, and one of no mean attain-
mentS.
Medicine: The first and only attempt in New York to establish
a medical school before the beginning of the nineteenth century—
in fact, the first of the academic institutions to provide medical
instruction, was the organization in 1766, of a medical department
in connection with King’s (Columbia) College. The faculty con-
sisted of six. In 1770 two students who had previously received
the degree of Bachelor (B. M.) were granted the degree of Doctor
of Medicine (M. D.)—the first conferred in the country.” -
It will be seen that professional education before the nineteenth
century and well into the nineteenth century was not theo-
retical and practical, but merely empirical. The medical schools
were the offices of the practising physicians; the law Schools were
the offices of the practising lawyers; the theological Seminaries
were largely the studies of the minister's houses.
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION
The conception that money spent on education and the like for
the removal of adverse social conditions and the improvement of
others, was not really a government expenditure, but an invest-
ment—an investment that would yield a manifold return in the
form of a worthier citizenship—or, if you choose, a citizenship
with greater tax-paying capacity, has not, as yet, gained currency.
Without some such conception, in such adverse conditions as pre-
vailed, the amount of money involved in the organization of a
state system in any thorough-going way, would have made such
a project utterly disheartening. The attitude of the people toward
rate bills later—and the difficulty of collecting them, indicates that
even a half century later, the financial problem was far from solu-
tion. The failure of the legislation of 1795 was an early indica-
tion of this. It was a gigantic proposition which Clinton and his
colleagues had undertaken. The creation of a permanent state
8°Cf. Davis contributions to the History of Medical Education and Medical
Institutions in the United States of America, 1776, 1876, p. 20.
Educational Conditions 43
school fund was a master stroke in hastening the day of the Social-
ly supported school system. The Lancasterian system was a vital
factor in this problem. Both are discussed in detail later.
CoNCLUSION.—THE GENERAL SITUATION
George Clinton clearly saw the situation and comments on it
keenly in his speech to the Legislature of January 3, 1795. He
says:
“While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal
endowment of academies are highly to be commended and are at-
tended with the most beneficial consequences; yet it cannot be de-
nied that they are principally conferred on the children of the
Opulent and that a great proportion of the community is ex-
cluded from their immediate advantage; the establishment of the
common school throughout the State is happily calculated to
remedy this inconvenience and will therefore re-engage your early
and decided consideration.”
While it is true that in the academies, in a number of instances,
the elementary subjects were taught, it is also true that academies
were encouraged almost to the extent that elementary schools
were neglected.
Reflection on the preceding statement will show that so far as
formal education is concerned, the grade most adequately pro-
vided for was the higher education in the academies and colleges;
the grade of education most needed was the elementary. A press-
ing need in all schools was well-trained teachers; but it was most
pressing in elementary schools. An education for girls beyond
Sewing and reading, and co-ordinate with that of boys was not
seriously considered by the eighteenth century.
And what as to the governmental relation to education ? The
wide powers of the Regents—who were practically a State Bureau
of Education—is a striking instance of this with reference to
Secondary and higher education. But what a contrast the field
of elementary and special forms of education presents | Apart
from the temporary expedient of an annual appropriation for five
years to the local communities, which were required to raise an
equal amount, there is absolute silence. No instance whatever of
state encouragement, aid, support, control, or administration of
the professional training of teachers; of various supplementary
means of education, such as libraries; of the education of women
44 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
in academies or elsewhere; of professional training of doctors or
lawyers; of technical education; of the education of delinquents or
defectives. Nor had the State, itself nor exercising its power,
delegated it to the inferior administrative units.
It seems rather surprising that the conditions of American life
did not force these needs and problems to the foreground for
formulation, at least, if not for solution. It is not so surprising
after all when we remember that there were, as already explained,
other problems more immediately significant to the people of New
York. It was left for DeWitt Clinton in the first quarter of the
nineteenth century to formulate the problems in detail—though
it must be admitted others had stated them in general terms—and
to strive heroically and persistently for their solution.”
87De Witt Clinton, the second son of James Clinton and Mary De Witt ; born
at Little Britain, March 2, 1769; educated at Ringston Academy, 1782–1784,
and Columbia, College, 1784–1786; received from Columbia, the B. A. in 1784,
the M. A. in 1786, and the L.L. D. in 1824 and from Queen’s College the
LL. D. in 1812; studied law in the office of Samuel Jones 1786-1789, and was
admitted to the Bar 1789 ; Secretary to Governor George Clinton 1789-1795;
married Marie Franklin (died 1818) a Quaker, 1795, and had four sons and
three daughters; Secretary, Board of Regents, 1794-1797; Regent of the Uni-
versity, 1808-1828; member of the Assembly 1797–1798 ; member of the State
Senate 1798–1801, 1803-1811; Lieutenant-Governor, 1811-1813; United States
Senator 1801-1803 ; Mayor of New York City 1803–1807, 1809-1810, 1811-1815;
Canal Commissioner 1809–1824 (removed) ; candidate for President 1812.
(defeated) ; Governor 1817-1822, 1825-1828; married Catherine Jones 1824;
died at Albany, February 11, 1828.
PART II
EDUCATIONAL VIEWS OF DE WITT CLINTON
AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
CHAPTER III
EDUCATIONAL VIEWS OF DE WITT CLINTON
THE FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITION.—THE SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEP-
TION
In this chapter is given a statement of Clinton’s educational
views as revealed in his speeches and messages to the Legislature
as the Chief Executive of New York State. That a lay person
should, in the early nineteenth century, have held educational
views of such insight and such breadth, is truly remarkable. With
Clinton, however, the fundamental conception was not original.
It may be found in the utterances of a number of the American
statesmen of the time. It may be found in the writings of Jeffer-
son and Madison. For example, its most popular expression is
found in Washington’s “Farewell Address”: “Promote then as
an object of primary importance, institutions for the general dif-
fusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of govern-
ment gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opin-
ion be enlightened.” However, in no other writer of the period,
with the possible exception of Jefferson, is there so decisive, clear,
and convincing a statement of the underlying sociological con-
ception, as in De Witt Clinton. In no other writer, without ex-
ception, are the implications of this conception so clearly and
fully conceived and so forcefully expressed.
De Witt Clinton’s fundamental conception of education is the
current sociological one. It regards education as the salvation
of mankind, as the means through which society will set about
consciously to improve itself, as the absolutely indispensable foun-
dation to democracy. Its implications as conceived and expressed
by Clinton, relate to the extent of education, its method, its
47
48 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
aspects, its institutional organization, its officers, and its support.
Education should extend to all classes. It should not be merely
literary or academic, but should include the vocational as well;
both the professional and the technical, as well as the trade. It
should have a scientific basis. It should be given by every
possible type of educational institution, the less formal:
the literary, philosophical and historical Societies, as well
as the more formal institutions: the elementary School, acad-
emies, and colleges. It should be in the hands of informed and
specially trained teachers. In all its forms it should be aided by
society acting in its corporate political capacity, and at least in its
earliest stages, the elementary school, should be so supported.
De Witt Clinton has in several of his messages to the Legis-
lature stated his fundamental thesis. In 1825 he wrote:
“A republican government is certainly most congenial with the
nature, most propitious to the welfare and most conducive to the
dignity of our species. Man becomes degraded in proportion as
he loses the right of self-government. Every effort ought, there-
fore, to be made to fortify our free institutions; and the great bul-
wark of security is to be found in education; the culture of the
heart and the head; the diffusion of knowledge, piety and morality.
A virtuous and enlightened man can never submit to degradation;
and a virtuous and enlightened people will never breathe in an
atmosphere of slavery. Upon education we must therefore rely
for the purity, the preservation and the perpetuation of republican
government.”
In 1826, he wrote: “I consider the system of our common
Schools as the palladium of Our freedom for no reasonable appre-
hension can be entertained of its subversion, as long as the great
body of the people are enlightened by education.” In the
January, 1820 speech, he said: “The stability and duration
of republican government depends upon the ascendency of
knowledge and virtue. The mind duly enlightened and the
heart properly cultivated can never submit to the dominion of
anarchy and depotism.” In the 1826 message there is found
this excellent statement of the proposition which is here
*Messages from the Governors, v. 3, p. 60. See infra 156.
*V. 3, p. 117.
8V. 2, p. 1018.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 49
used by way of summary. “The first duty of government and
the surest evidence of good government is the encouragement
of education. A general diffusion of knowledge is the precursor
and protector of republican institutions, and in it we must confide
as the conservative power of the state that will watch over our
liberties and guard them against fraud, intrigue, corruption and
violence.”4 -
Such is the main proposition. It may be briefly restated thus,
with some of its implications. The people are the “supreme and
sovereign power of the community, . . . the source of all
legitimate government.” It is essential, therefore, that they be
enlightened. As a matter of self-protection, and self-perpetua-
tion the state must assume the duty and the responsibility of se–
curing this general enlightenment. It must encourage every neces-
sary means to secure this great end and, if necessary, create new
Ones. It must support liberally—or, to use Clinton’s own words—
“munificently,” all such means. It must see to it that these means
reach every class—yes, every member, irrespective of race, color,
sex or condition in life.
In such a statement emphasis is not placed on the results of
education in terms of individual culture or discipline. It is nearly
always on the protection, preservation, and perpetuation of the
republican form of government.
Its Realigation
The Lancasterian System. The State undertaking so tremend-
ous a task, naturally sought for the system which would accom-
plish its great purpose most expeditiously and with the least ex-
pense. Clinton believed that such a means was the so-called Lan-
casterian system. The ideal of this system was a thousand pupils
to a teacher—an ideal which was realized by Joseph Lancaster
himself in his London school. The actual teaching was done by
monitors.
Reference to this system is found in the messages of 1818,
November, 1820, and in 1822. The reference in 1818 is selected
for quotation: g -
“Having participated in the first establishment of the Lancas-
terian system in this country, having carefully observed its prog-
*V. 3, p. 114.
50 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
ress, and witnessed its benefits, I can confidently recommend it
as an invaluable improvement which by a wonderful combination
of economy in expense and rapidity of instruction has created a
new era in education; and I am desirous that all our common
schools should be supplied with teachers of this description. As
this system operates with the same efficacy in education that
labor-saving machinery does in the useful arts, it will be readily
perceived that it is peculiarly adapted to this country.”
The Training of Teachers. Clinton was not afraid to follow
his argument whithersoever it led. He saw clearly that if educa-
tion was of such transcendent importance to the state it could not,
to accomplish its mission, be left in the hands of incompetence—
to jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none. In the speech of 1820,
he said: “The education of youth is an important trust, and an
honorable vocation, but it is often committed to unskillful hands.
Liberal encouragement ought unquestionably to be dispensed for
increasing the number of competent instructors.” But the ar-
gument is stated in full in the message of 1826:
“Ten years of the life of a child may now be spent in a common
school. In two years the elements of instruction may be ac-
quired and the remaining eight years must now be spent in repeti-
tion of idleness, unless the teachers of the common schools are
competent to instruct in the higher branches of knowledge. The
Outlines of geography, algebra, mineralogy, agriculture, chem-
istry, mechanical philosophy, surveying, geometry, astronomy,
political economy and ethics might be communicated by able pre-
ceptors without essential interference with the calls of domestic
industry.
“The vocation of the teacher in his influence on the characters
and destinies of the rising and all future generations has either
not been fully understood or duly estimated. It is or ought to be
ranked among the learned professions. With the full admission
of the merits of several who now officiate in that capacity, still
it must be conceded that the information of many of the in-
structors of the common school does not extend beyond rudi-
mental education—that our expanding population requires con-
stant access to their numbers; it is necessary that some new plan
FV. 2, p. 903.
*V. 2, p. 1049.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 5I
for obtaining able teachers be devised. I, therefore, recom-
mend a seminary for the education of teachers in the
monitorial system of instruction, and in those useful branches
which are proper to engraft on elementary attainments. A com-
pliance with this recommendation will have a benign influence on
individual happiness and social prosperity.”
He follows his argument still further and now makes bold to
recommend what the twentieth century has not yet accomplished—
a central high school in each county. He says in 1827, in lan-
guage Somewhat similar to that of the message of 1826:
“Too many (teachers) are destitute of the requisite qualifications
and perhaps no inconsiderable number are unable to teach beyond
rudimental instruction. Perhaps one-fourth of our population
is annually instructed in our common schools and ought the mind
and the morals of the rising and perhaps the destinies of all future
generations to be entrusted to the guardianship of incompetence?
The scale of instruction must be elevated, the standard of educa-
tion ought to be raised, and a central school on the monitorial
plan ought to be established in each county for the education of
teachers and as exemplars for other momentous purposes con-
nected with the improvement of the human mind.”
The recommendation of his last message (1828), indicates how
this desirable object may be obtained. He says:
“In the meantime I consider it my duty to recommend a law au-
thorizing the supervisor of each county to raise a sum not ex-
ceeding two thousand dollars provided that the same sum is sub-
scribed by individuals for the erection of a suitable edifice for a
monitorial high school in the county town. I can conceive of no
reasonable objection to the adoption of a measure so well calcu-
lated to raise the character of our school masters and to double
the power of our artizans by giving them a scientific education.”
Supervision. Clinton recognized that supervision was a factor
in the effectiveness of the school system. In 1826 he made the
unusual suggestion:
“I consider the system of our common schools as the palladium
of Our freedom, for no reasonable apprehension can be enter-
TV. 3, IOI). 115-16.
*V. 3, p. 159.
*V. 3, pp. 212-13.
52 The Educational Views and I nfluence of De Witt Clinton
tained of its subversion, as long as the great body of the people
are enlightened by education. To increase the funds, to extend
the benefits, and to remedy the defects of this excellent system,
is worthy of your most deliberate attention. The officer who now
so ably presides over that department is prevented by his other
official duties from visiting our schools in person, nor is he indeed
clothed with this power. A visitatorial authority for the purpose
of detecting abuses in the application of funds, of examining into
the modes and plans of instruction and of suggesting improve-
ments, would unquestionably be attended with the most propitious
results.”
- Its Extent
He now follows his argument in another direction—the persons
who are to profit by this education. It is part of this Sociological
conception of education that education shall be universal—truly
universal; that it shall reach all classes and members of Society;
the male and the female; the white, and the black, and the red; the
dumb, the blind; the man young in crime and, if possible, the
hardened criminal.
Women. The higher education of women was, at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, a novel proposition; but Clinton thor-
oughly believed in it and urged it upon an unwilling generation
insistently and forcefully. In 1819 Clinton said: “Beyond initia-
tory instruction, the education of the female sex is utterly ex-
cluded from the contemplation of our laws.” In January, 1820,
after noting that the Waterford Academy for female education in-
corporated at the last session, had already attained to great use-
fulness and prosperity, he proceeds to say: “As this is the first
attempt ever made in this country to promote the education of
the female sex by the patronage of government; as our first and
best impressions are derived from material affection; and as the
female character is inseparably connected with happiness at home,
and respectability abroad, I trust that you will not be deterred by
common-place ridicule from extending your munificence to this
meritorious institution.” -
Indians and Africans. Just as Clinton drew no sex line in
education, so he drew no color line. “In attending to the general
10V. 2, p. 972.
11 V. 2, p. 1018.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 53
interest of the community,” he said in his speech of January, 1820,
“let us not overlook the concerns of two unfortunate races of
men, who will be forever insulated from the great body of people,
by uncontrollable circumstances, and who ought to receive Our
benevolence and sympathy. I refer to the Indian and African
population.” Then, with reference to the Indians, so long as
they continue amongst us, he recommends that a board of com-
missioners be appointed, selected from the religious Societies who
have interested themselves in the welfare of the Indians. This
board shall have power, “to investigate their situation and wants,
to diffuse among them education, agriculture, morality and re-
ligion, and to recommend to the Legislature such measures as
shall be most conducive to the attainment of these desirable ob-
jects.” -
And with reference to the African population a similar recom-
mendation is made: “It is due, however, to justice to say that
the establishment of schools and churches for their benefit, under
the auspices of benevolent men, has had a benign influence in the
improvement of their minds and morals; and it is therefore be-
lieved that the benevolence of the State will never be withheld
from the encouragement of such laudable undertakings.”
Deaf and Dumb. In the speech of January, 1820, and immedi-
ately preceding the last recommendations, there is to be found the
following statement:
“Among the numerous and interesting objects which have ex-
perienced the benevolence of individuals and the countenance of
government, it is pleasing to observe that the interests of the dumb
and the insane have not been overlooked; two unfortunate de-
scriptions of our fellow creatures shut out from the blessings of
social communion and entitled to our deepest sympathy.” The
annual grant of ten thousand dollars to the governors of the New
York Hospital, for an asylum for lunatics, on the Island of New
York, is commended, as the judicious direction of the fund by its
benevolent administrators. So the New York Institution for the
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, is approved as having “de-
12V. 2, p. 975.
18V. 2, p. 977.
14.V. 2, p. 979.
i5V. 2, p. 974.
54 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
served well of the friends of humanity,” and he cherishes, “the
fullest confidence that you (the Legislature) will take this inter-
esting establishment under your especial protection, and that your
munificence will only be exceeded by its merits.” One way
Clinton suggests of supplying its deficiencies is by taking a liberal
portion of the school fund applicable to the city of New York.
It is significant that a part of the general School fund is selected
for the education of this special class.
Criminals. The criminal class was of special concern to Clinton,
as would be expected of one holding Clinton's views. And were
Clinton living to-day, there would be no one more thoroughly in-
terested and more actively engaged in our modern system of re-
form schools, children's courts, patrol system, and other similar
developments of the modern sociological movement. The ques-
tion of the New York House of Refuge and the penitentiary sys-
tem occupies a large amount of space in the messages. It is
treated in the speeches of 1819, January, 182O, November, 1820,
1822, and in the message of 1825.
In 1825, in urging upon the Legislature the necessity of being
liberal in the support of education, Clinton points with pride “to
one fact derived from past experience.” It is: “Of the many
thousands who have been instructed in our free schools in the
city of New York, there is not a single instance known of anyone
having been convicted of crime.” Apparently the fundamental
proposition is supported by experience.
In 1818, Clinton pointed out that the existing system was a
failure. In 1819, he made the following vigorous statement:
“The state of our penitentiaries requires your serious considera-
tion and must excite your sincere regret. As the only legitimate
object of punishment is to prevent crime, by reforming the of
fender, by incapacitating him from perpetrating future mischief,
or by deterring the others by the infliction; and, as none of these
consequences has resulted, the failure must be imputed to the
system, its defective arrangement or improper administration. As
it has succeeded in other places, and is strongly recommended by
the voice of reason, as well as humanity, the fault must be as-
16V. 2, p. 974.
1TV. 2, p. 61.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 55
cribed to other causes than the system itself. In order to reform
an offender he must be placed beyond the influence of bad advice
and example, his mind and his passion must be disciplined by in-
tellectual, moral and religious instruction; and he must be sub-
jected to privations, to labor and solitude; and in order that his
punishment may have effect on the conduct of others, it is equally
necessary that it should be certain, and that its realities should be
unquestionable. On the present plan there is no classification of
age or crime. Each apartment is calculated for about eighteen
persons. All descriptions of convicts are crowded together with-
out distinction—the young and the old—the healthy and the un-
healthy—the novice and the adept in crime; and here the hardened
offender boasts of his vices, unfolds his expedients, and completely
eradicates every remaining impression of rectitude. Such is the
perversity of human nature, that a man destitute of virtue will be
vain of his vices, and as a spirit of proselytism prevails among
the wicked as well as the good, our penitentiaries become schools
of turpitude, in which profligacy is inculcated in its most odious
forms, and in all its terrible enormities.”
What use to make of the pardoning power, troubled Clinton
Sorely—though in the recommendations of January, 1820, he saw
a way out. Two paragraphs after the preceding in the speech
of 1819, we read: “In consequence of the crowded state of the
prisons, the executive is reduced to this dilemma, either to exercise
the pardoning power to a pernicious extent, or to witness the de-
struction of the whole penitentiary system. He is also frequently
deceived by misrepresentations; and pardons are sometimes
granted to the worst on the recommendations of the best men of
the community, who, in listening to their sympathy, lose sight of
their patriotism, and who submit themselves to the influence of a
sickly and fastidious humanity, which confines its views to the
offender, and does not perceive in his punishment, the establish-
ment of general security.” -
In the speech of January, 1820, Clinton makes what is probably
his most important contribution to the subject. It may be well
first to state the recommendations of 1819. “Each offender
should have a separate dormitory. And, as in the daytime the
18V. 2, p. 981.
197. 2, p. 982.
56 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
prisoners would be employed in labor and under the eye of the
keepers, prevented from speaking to each other, and be in the
night time, in a state of insulation, punishment would be appalling,
and cleanliness, order and regularity would predominate; and as
no conspiracies could be formed, no riots or insurrections would
occur, and no military guard would be required.” In 1820,
after expressing his gratification at the arrangement for Solitary
cells and separate dormitories in the state prison at Auburn,
and commenting on the fact that in no country in the world are
fewer crimes committed, he proceeds to recommend “a moral
classification of criminals with distinctive appellations and accom-
modations according to their grade of guilt. And if the pardoning
power be confined to the best of the proposed divisions, a powerful
appeal will be made to the hopes and fears, the enjoyments and
privations of the prisoners, and a continual incentive to reforma-
tion will be in full operation.” In November, 1820, he recom-
mended a paid board rather than the present arrangement, for re-
sponsibility could then be placed.”
A summary of his recommendations is made in the message
of 1822. He says: “The end of punishment is the prevention
of crime by the infliction of pain and the operation of fear; and
if in exercising this salutary influence on society, it can at the
same time restore the guilty to virtue, it will be entitled to ad-
ditional credit. Our present system may be improved in a moral
classification of offenders, in the introduction of solitary imprison-
ment, in the establishment of a diet adapted to the nature of the
offense and the character of the criminal, and in a division of
prisons, appropriating one for the reception of minor offenders,
and the purposes of productive labor, and personal reformation;
and the other to severe and inexorable punishment where society
should not afford its comforts and where the pardoning power
should never reach.” -
The striking thing in the preceding statement is the distinctly
advanced view of punishment—far in advance of his time—that
it should be educative if possible. While Clinton is impatient with
the “sickly and fastidious humanity, which confines its views to
20V. 2, p. 982.
*V. 2, p. 1015.
*V. 2, p. 1051.
*V. 2, p. 1108.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 57
the offender and does not perceive in his punishment the establish-
ment of general security,” still, on the other hand, he was search-
ing for a system which would reclaim the offender and make him
a useful member of society. In his earlier messages—those just
quoted from—such a system was merely hoped for rather than
conceived as probable. The proposed moral classification of
criminals with its less severe regimen for the novice and the
person young in crime; with some of the comforts of life, pro-
ductive labor, the opportunity for personal reformation and the
hope of an abbreviated sentence through executive clemency, was
a step in the direction which Clinton wished to go further and
more decisively, but he did not feel sure of his ground. One can
readily understand, then, Clinton’s enthusiastic and whole-souled
approval of the House of Refuge for the reformation of juvenile
delinquents, a practical embodiment of his views.
Juvenile Delinquents. In the message of 1825, the House of
Refuge in the city of New York is first mentioned.* In the
message of 1826, an extended appeal is made in favor of it. “The
best penitentiary system which has ever been devised by the
wit and established by the benevolence of man, is in all proba-
bility the House of Refuge in the city of New York, for the refor-
mation of juvenile delinquents. It takes cognizance of vice in its
embryo state and redeems from ruin and sends forth for use-
fulness, those depraved and unfortunate youths who are some-
times in a derelict state, sometimes without subsistence, and at all
times without friends to guide them in the path of virtue. The
tendency of this noble charity is preventive, as well as remedial;
and during the short period of its existence, its salutary power has
been felt and acknowledged in the haunts of vice and in the
diminution of our criminal proceedings. I cannot recommend
its further encouragement in language too emphatic; and I do be-
lieve, if this asylum were extended so as to comprehend juvenile
delinquents from all parts of the state, that the same preserving,
reclaiming, and reforming effects would be correspondingly ex-
perienced.” The appeal is successful, and in 1827, there is the
statement that the grant for the extension and support, in the city
of New York, of the House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents
24V. 3, pp. 82-83.
25V. 8, pp. 130-31.
58 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
has been faithfully and beneficially applied. “A separate and ac-
commodating building has been erected for females, and
schools on the monitorial plan have been successfully established.
The institution now contains one hundred and thirty-one males
and thirty females, who have been rescued from the most abject
debasement. . . . . It must be considered a noble, as well as
successful experience in favor of humanity.”
Its Institutional Organization
Following his argument in still another direction we find Clinton
supporting every variety of educational Society—educational in
the broader, as well as in the narrower sense. If education is of
such tremendous importance to society, society acting in its
corporate political capacity should freely and liberally encourage
and support every means of extending it. However, the indis-
criminate encouragement and patronage of these Societies, was not
a part of Clinton's program. The steward had to render an ac-
count of his stewardship in terms of social service. In the mes-
sage of 1825, Clinton writes:
“While our primary schools cannot be too numerous, our highest
seminaries ought to be very limited in number. The creation of a
college imposes the duty of endowing it. We have now four
colleges for literary and scientific instruction and two for medical
education. They are all under the superintendence of highly
gifted and enlightened men, and are eminently entitled to your
liberal patronage. But until the government shall see fit to aug-
ment the funds of existing institutions to the full extent of their
wants, I am persuaded that there ought to be no increase; and not
even then unless peremptorily required by the exigencies of edu-
cation. Perhaps indeed in a case of so much importance, the
authority of the Regents of the University ought to be only recom-
mendatory and the incorporating power exclusively vested in the
Legislature, as a more safe depository than a single body, as the
source from which munificent endowments must emanate, and as
most comfortable to the spirit, if not the letter of the Constitu-
tion.”27
The cause of the literary, scientific, philosophical, and historical
*V. 3, pp. 162-63.
27V. 3, p. 61.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 59
Societies is urged upon the Legislature in practically every message
and speech. In the speech of 1818, Clinton said: “There
is an intimate and immutable alliance between their advance-
ment (the Societies noted above) and the prosperity of the
State.” The same reason is given in more detail and much
more significantly in the message of 1827. After urging the
claim of the common School—a cause “consecrated by religion
and enjoined by patriotism”—he continues: “Nor let us be regard-
less of the ample encouragement of the higher institutions de-
voted to literature and science. Independent of their intrinsic
merits and their diffusive and enduring benefits, in reference to
their appropriate objects, they have in a special manner a most
auspicious influence on all subordinate institutions. They give
to society men of improved and enlarged minds, who, feeling the
importance of information in their own ea perience, will naturally
cherish an ardent desire to eartend its blessings. Science de-
lights in expansion, as well as in concentration, and after flourish-
ing within the precincts of academies and universities will spread
itself over the land enlightening society and ameliorating the condi-
tion of men. The more elevated the tree of knowledge, the more
expanded its branches, and the greater will be the trunk and the
deeper its roots.”
Among the institutions which Clinton specially noted apart
from the House of Refuge, the Orphan Asylum, the Institution
for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, the Lunatic Asylum,
for their distinctly social service, and as worthy of the generous
and munificent support of government, were Columbia, Union,
and Hamilton Colleges, the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
the New York Historical Society, the New York Institution, and
the Mechanic and Scientific Institute of New York. In 1826 he
adds the general recommendation—“and all other establishments
connected with the interests of education, the exaltation of litera-
ture and science, and the improvement of the human mind.”
This sociological conception regards education simply as the
means of a more thorough and widespread dissemination of all
knowledge. It resembles somewhat the pansophic idea of
28V. 2, p. 906.
*V. 3, pp. 160-61.
3°W. 3, p. 118.
60 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Comenius and Bacon, in the early seventeenth century—though
it does not attempt to formulate all knowledge—only here there
is a more conscious and more insistent emphasis on the production
of certain desirable social ends.
This is the idea underlying the recommendations in connection
with the institutions noted above, and it underlies several recom-
mendations which follow. This is only the fundamental proposi-
tion stated in other terms. In 1825, Clinton wrote: “In further-
ance of this invaluable system (the common schools), I recom-
mend the distribution of useful books.” In 1827, he makes this
significant recommendation: “Small and suitable collections of
books and maps attached to our common schools (and periodical
examinations to test the proficiency of the schools and the merits
of the teachers), are worthy your attention when it is understood
that objects of this description enter into the very formation of
our characters, control our destinies through life, and protect the
freedom, and advance the glory of our country.”
Its Scope
Enrichment of Common School Curriculum. This conception
of education—securing desirable social results by the diffusion of
knowledge—is further illustrated in his recommendations in con-
nection with medical, technical, military, and agricultural educa-
tion. It will be noticed from these headings that there is no re-
liance on the three R’s as such, nor on the merely formal side of
knowledge. The striking statement of 1826 naturally comes to
mind that with competent instructors, “the outlines of geography,
algebra, mineralogy, agriculture, chemistry, mechanical philosophy,
Surveying, geometry, astronomy, political economy, and ethics
might be communicated . . . . without essential interfer-
ence with the calls of domestic industry.” The proposed cen-
tral school of the New York Public School Society, would teach
“natural philosophy, mercantile arithmetic, book-keeping, and the
outlines of natural science.”* These statements would be much
more significant, however, if we knew just what Clinton meant
&TV. 3, p. 61.
*2W. 3, p. 160.
88V. 3, p. 116.
*V. 3, pp. 159-60.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 6I
by practical mathematics, mercantile arithmetic, etc. This last
school he “cannot recommend too emphatically to public patronage
and general imitation.”
Medical. With reference to medical education, he says: “The
appropriations to medical education do not exceed sixty thousand
dollars, a sum by no means commensurate with the object. Every
well-educated physician becomes not only a conservator of health,
but a missionary of science. Wherever he establishes himself,
he will convey and communicate useful knowledge. Two hundred
of our youth annually, dispersed over the country, instructed in
medical knowledge and its cognate sciences, will, in the course of
a few years, effect an augmentation in the state of general infor-
mation, equally honorable and beneficial, to the community. And
no measure can be more conducive to the prosperity of our medical
institutions, to the respectability of the profession, and to the
preservation of the public health, than a law rendering an attend-
ance upon lectures in the university, an indispensable passport to
medical practice.”
Military. After commenting in the 1818 speech, on the fact
that war will continue because it is deeply planted in the con-
stitution of human nature, he suggests that essential improve-
ments may be made in the promotion of military instruction. In
I819, he said: “Fully persuaded that you justly appreciate this
bulwark of national safety, and this palladium of free states, I
consider it unnecessary to press the importance of its encourage-
ment. If the physical force of the state were properly instructed
in the military art, it would form an impregnable defense of the
country, and I do not despair to see the accomplishment of this
desirable object by the establishment of military schools and by
the extension of beneficial immunities.” In November, 1820,
Clinton said: “A laudable provision for the distribution of
elementary books in the military art has been confined to the
infantry. The other departments of our military force are
anxious to enjoy similar benefits.”
Agricultural. On the subject of agricultural education, his pro-
gram, completely outlined, is given in his first message (1818):
35V. 2, p. 905.
*V. 2, p. 979.
*V. 2, p. 1050.
62 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
“And it has not been sufficiently understood that agriculture is a
science, as well as an art; that it demands the labor of the mind,
as well as of the hands; and that its successful cultivation is inti-
mately allied with the most profound investigations of philosophy,
and the most elaborate exertions of the human mind. If not
the exclusive duty, it is certainly the peculiar province of the
state governments to superintend and advance the interest of
agriculture. To this end, it is advisable to constitute a board
composed of the most experienced and best informed agricultural-
ists and to render it their duty to diffuse agricultural knowledge;
to correspond with the county societies; to communicate to them
beneficial discoveries and improvements; to introduce useful
Seeds, plants, trees and animals, implements of husbandry, and
labor-saving machines; to explore the minerals of the country and
to publish periodically the most valuable observations and treatises
On husbandry, horticulture, and rural economy. The county so-
cieties ought to be enabled to distribute adequate premiums; and
a professorship in agriculture connected with the board or at-
tached to the university might also be constituted, embracing the
kindred sciences of chemistry and geology, mineralogy, botany,
and the other departments of natural history, by which means a
complete course of agricultural education would be taught, de-
veloping the principles of the science, illustrating the practice of
the art, and restoring this first and best pursuit of man to that in-
tellectual rank which it ought to occupy in the scale of human
estimation.”88 -
In 1819, after regretting the failure of a measure embodying
the recommendations of 1818, and asking why the state should en-
courage the arts and sciences in general, “and agriculture, the
most important of all arts, the most useful of all sciences, be
alone proscribed from the participation of its bounty,” he goes
on to say: “The societies already constituted have, by stimulating
emulation and diffusing information, affected great good; and if
they be assisted in their useful and honorable career, by pecuniary
appropriations, and if a board of agriculture, connected with a
course of appropriate studies, be instituted, we have every reason
to believe that the most beneficial consequences will result in
multiplying the products of this country; in increasing the value
88V. 2, p. 898.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 63
and ameliorating the quality of our commodities; in preventing an
undue augmentation of the learned professions, and in maintain-
ing the equilibrium of society, by restoring the most numerous
calling to its merited intellectual rank.” He then proceeds to
recommend that this proposed board of agriculture be given in-
creased powers. --
In the speech of January, 1820, there is to be found this com-
ment: “The law which passed at the last session for the encour-
agement of agriculture has fully realized the patriotic views of the
Legislature. The institution of a board to superintend this im-
portant pursuit with authority to receive and communicate useful
information, and to dispense the means of valuable improvement
will always be considered an important era in our history.” Then
not satisfied, he says further: “The excellence of this system,
may, however, be greatly improved by extending the duration,
augmenting the fund, and enlarging the power of the superintend-
ing board.”
But bolder still, he recommends (1826) what the twentieth
century is only beginning to realize: “I have at various times
Solicited the attention of the Legislature to the encouragement of
agriculture, the first and best pursuit of man; and which in its two-
fold character, as an art and a science, is susceptible of great im-
provement, and demands and deserves your fostering patronage.
A wide and unea plored field lies before us. Experimental and
pattern farms; plantations of useful trees for ship-building, archi-
tecture and fuel; labor-saving machines; improved seeds and
plants of those productions now used; new modes of cultivation;
and the whole range of rural economy are subjects deserving
your animating support.”
Technical. Still another means through which this sociological
conception finds expression, is given in the message of 1825—this
is the most important on this subject: “The Mechanic and
Scientific Institute of New York has been established for the
purpose of diffusing the benefits of science throughout the various
mechanical professions by means of lectures, apparatus, models,
books, and public exhibitions of ingenuity, skill, and industry.
89 V. 2, p. 969.
49W. 2, p. 1005.
*V. 3, p. 126.
64 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
The usefulness of this institution would be greatly enhanced by the
erection of an edifice adequate for its purposes; and it is believed
that an appropriate site may be concurrently granted by the State
and City of New York without inconvenience to either, from con-
tiguous property in that city belonging to both, and now un-
Occupied. As this is the first organized school of the kind in the
world, and is destined to increase the skill, and elevate the char-
acter of the mechanical interest, by applying philosophy to the
arts, and imparting the benefits of science to that most useful body
of our fellow citizens, its claims upon the public bounty will not
escape your favorable attention.”
Its Support
After noting Clinton's extensive program, it will be interesting
to see his attitude toward its support. In 1818, he said: “Funds
to the amount of $750,000.OO have been granted to the three col-
leges, and about $100,000.OO to the incorporated academies.
While this liberality reflects honor on the State, it cannot be too
forcibly inculcated, nor too generally understood, that in promot-
ing the great interests of moral and intellectual cultivation, there
can be no prodigality in the application of public treasure.”
In January, 1820, he said: “In such a cause, liberality can rarely
degenerate into profusion.”* In 1822, he said: “I am happy
to have it in my power to say that this State has always evinced
a liberal spirit in the promotion of education, and I am persuaded
that no consideration short of total inability will ever prevent
similar demonstrations.” And so similar recommendations are
made in the other messages.
The speech of November, 1820, sums up this point and states
its relation to the fundamental thesis: “the whole appropriation
for the promotion of education may be estimated at two millions
and a half dollars. Although the sum may appear highly liberal,
yet when we look at the resources, population and extent of the
State, and consider that knowledge is essential to the happiness
and dignity of man; to the existence of republican government
and to national power and glory, we must feel persuaded that
4°W. 3, p. 67. i
*V. 2, p. 904. Cf. Elliott's Some Fiscal Aspects of Education, p. 4.
*V. 2, p. 1018. -
*V. 2, p. 1100.
Educational Views of De Witt Clinton 65
more munificent dispensation ought to be afforded for its en-
couragement and diffusion.”
RESTATEMENT OF PROPOSITION.—THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICA-
TIONS OF DEMOCRACY
The foregoing presentation makes evident the fact that Clinton
saw clearly the educational implications of democracy. It may
be here indicated again from a somewhat different approach.
In the message of 1825, Clinton said: “As connected with these
important topics permit me to request your attention to a more
accurate definition, a more liberal extension, and more secure en-
joyment of the elective franchise. Without the right of suffrage,
liberty cannot exist. It is the vital principle of representative
government, and it ought, therefore, to be effectively fortified
against accident, design or corruption.” After enumerating
the various alternatives necessary to secure the right of suffrage,
and pointing to a few illustrations which show the complexity and
the liability to fraud and injustice of the present arrangement, he
says: “I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether the
constitution ought not to be so modified as to render citizenship,
full age and competent residence the only requisite qualifica-
tion.”48
It is necessary to keep in mind, however, in this connection, the
statement of the message of 1827: “But after all the great bul-
wark of republican government is the cultivation of education and
the right of suffrage cannot be exercised in a salutary manner
without intelligence.” Hence the responsibility of the State,
and hence Clinton's elaborate educational program as the chief
executive officer of the State.
There is no better concluding paragraph for this chapter than
the following from the speech of 1822 : “The first duty of a
state is to render its citizens virtuous by intellectual instruction
and moral discipline, by enlightening their minds, purifying their
hearts and teaching them their rights and obligations. Those
Solid and enduring honors which arise from the cultivation of
46V. 2, p. 1049
47V. 3, p. 58.
48V. 3, p. 59.
49W. 3, p. 158.
66 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
science and the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge, will out-
live the renown of the statesman and the glory of the warrior;
and if any stimulus were wanting in a case so worthy of all our
attention and patronage, we may find it in the example before
our eyes, of the author of the Declaration of Independence, who
has devoted the evening of his illustrious life to the establish-
ment of an university in his native state.”
50V. 2, p. 1100. -
*Clinton has embodied his views of science mainly in his Phi Beta Kappa.
Address and the Introductory Discourse before the Literary and Philosophical
Society, and i cidentally in the Columbia, College Alumni and the American
Academy of Arts addresses. He is a thorough Baconian in his attitude to-
Ward the significance of science in our social life, in its futility as a mere
Science of description and nomenclature, in its possibilities of growth and evo-
lution, and in its method.
CHAPTER IV
SIGNIFICANCE OF CLINTON'S VIEWS
THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE PLAN
The first significant thing to be noted in a statement of Clinton's
educational views relates to the extent of his educational scheme—
it is its comprehensiveness, both as it relates to grades of instruc-
tion included in it, and to the classes of society to profit by it. It
includes elementary, secondary, and higher education. It provides
means for both males and females, for the poor as well as the
rich, for the colored person as well as for the white, for the
criminal as well as the law abiding, for the defective as well as
the normal, for the deaf and dumb. Of course, it is significant,
too, that so much actually secured effective and successful em-
bodiment in institutions, as will be shown.
THE EMPHASIS ON THE LESS FORMAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.
Another significant thing is the emphasis on the less formal
educational agencies, on literary, philosophical, and historical
societies, on agricultural and horticultural societies, on lyceums of
natural histories, and on libraries. Education was thus conceived
to be a broader process than school instruction. It thus becomes
a social process, in which many and various institutions take part.
AN UNDERLYING EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY
The foregoing points, the comprehensiveness of the scheme, both
as it relates to the grades of institutions and to the individuals
included under it and the emphasis on the less formal educa-
tional agencies, are even more significant when they are unified.
67
68 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
They are, then, found to be after all, only various expressions of
a unique pedagogical contribution for the time—an educational
Sociology.
Education, it is agreed, has both a psychological and a sociologi-
cal phase; this latter is usually referred to as the ethical, especially
by the Herbartians. The objection to the latter term is that it is
usually interpreted in terms of the individual rather than of the
social. With the psychological phase we have, at this time, noth-
ing to do. -
The sociological phase provides pedagogy with its ends. The
dominant view all over the world at the beginning of the century
was the disciplinary one. Psychical processes were regarded
as ends in themselves; the object being the development of cer-
tain so-called faculties of imagination, judgment, etc. The sub-
ject was as nothing; the discipline, everything. The subject
matter was suitable in proportion as it was dull and uninter-
esting; it was unrelated to the life-needs of the child and the
social demands of the time.
As already remarked, the early American statesman had an en-
tirely different conception, which was in the third chapter denomi-
nated the sociological. It was there noted that Clinton gave
emphatic expression to this view almost continuously during his
public career. He regarded it as the duty of the state—and its
prime duty—to see to it that the individuals of which it was
composed, were enlightened. He definitely set up the proposition,
which quite recently has been admirably developed by one of
America’s leading sociologists, that the state or Society acting in
its corporate political capacity, should set about to improve itself.
In other words, the state’s function is the administration of the
social estate. The social estate is, in the language of President
Butler, the spiritual inheritance of the race. It is society's duty
to see that each individual gets his share—that the possibility of
inheriting the total social heritage should exist for everyone.
Participation in the social inheritance does not diminish it; it in-
creases it, rather.
It was Clinton’s purpose to provide for a more general partici-
pation in this social inheritance by female as well as by male,by the
colored man as well as by the white. It was Clinton's purpose to
See that every possible means should be used for the diffusion of
Significance of Clinton's Views 69
this social inheritance, and that new means should be created for
its wider diffusion, i.e., lyceums of natural history and historical
societies. Looking at these last statements from the other point
of view, Clinton recognized clearly that this social inheritance is
transmitted not only by the formal educational agencies where
there is this conscious effort on society’s part, but also in the less
formal institutions. Besides clearly recognizing the need and
function of these latter institutions in the social economy, he made
powerful and persistent efforts to have them increase in number
and power. With what success his efforts were attended will
appear in succeeding chapters.
PART III
INFLUENCE OF DE WITT CLINTON AND ITS
SIGNIFICAN CE
CHAPTER V
THE CONDITIONS AND BASES OF CLINTON'S
INFLUENCE
From an educational standpoint, the problem before New York
State at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was to provide
for an adequate educational environment which would offer to all
an opportunity to develop whatever mental powers they possessed,
thus producing those men, the leaders and others, who would carry
on efficiently the work of society and raise it progressively to
higher levels of individual and social achievement.
Modern sociological theory has stated the social problem in the
following terms: How shall society, acting in its corporate
political capacity, set about consciously to manufacture those
agents of civilization, which shall raise the level of social achieve-
ment, and how shall society secure the universal distribution of
the social heritage? Clinton felt keenly the problem and
sought its solution in the establishment of an educational environ-
ment, though he probably would not have stated the problem as
we do, nor have called his solution an educational environment.
What, then, is an educational environment? In general and in
social terms, it is such an environment as will provide the condi-
tions for producing those changes in all individuals which shall
best secure social stability and social progress. Or in the terms
of the members of society, it is such an environment as is “favor-
able to the exercise of native powers, and adapted in any given
case to the particular quality, shade, or timber those powers may
possess.”
Concretely, what is such an environment? Lester F. Ward,
quoting de Candolle, gives a list of twenty “causes.” We shall
quote here those applicable to the United States:
73
74. The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
“The existence of numerous families having traditions favorable
to science and to intellectual occupations of all kinds.”
“Primary, and especially secondary and higher education, well
organized and independent of political parties and religious sects,
tending to stimulate research and to encourage young persons and
professors to devote themselves to science.”
“Abundant and well organized facilities for scientific research
(libraries, observatories, collections).”
Public opinion favorable to science and to those who pursue
it.”
“A large number of scientific societies or academies.”
For New York State at the beginning of the nineteenth century
the provision of such an environment had to be a creation. The
readers of the following sections will see that the purpose of
Clinton’s educational endeavors is easily and most aptly stated
in terms of an educational environment, embodying the foregoing
features.
It is particularly difficult at times to determine how far Clinton
is responsible for the educational achievements and movements of
his time in New York State. The following evidence shows that
Clinton had the power, or at least, that his contemporaries believed
that he had the power (the second chapter contains the evidence
that he had the inclination), to determine and, in a large measure,
control, the trend of events.
During his ten years in the State Legislature, practically every
piece of educational legislation was referred to him. Almost
every legislative bill bearing on education which became a law
was introduced by him. Other evidence is found in Clinton's
correspondence. The chairman of the Board of Trustees of Co-
lumbia College, appeals to Clinton in the interest of a measure
as follows: “Your assistance in accelerating its accomplishment
is highly desirable and can hardly fail to be decisive.” The
good old Quaker, John Murray, Jr., writes to Clinton as follows:
“And although we are unwilling to trespass too much on thy time,
yet as we have reason to believe, it was through thy exertions
the bill for incorporating the Manumission Society passed the
*Ward's Applied Sociology, p. 146. Almost all the factors not mentioned are
not applicable to American conditions or are already Secured, e. g., a clergy
not restricted to celibacy ; or they are such as cannot be produced if absent,
e. g., a geographical position under a temperate or northern climate.
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 55.
Conditions and Bases of Clinton's Influence 75
Senate last session, we cannot forbear to solicit thy renewed at-
tentions to that subject. Thy interest with some of the leading
members of the Assembly may be conducive to the passing of the
bill.” Nor was the social influence of Clinton hardly less decisive,
at least in the opinion of his contemporaries, than his political in-
fluence. A. Hyde Neuville, when organizing the Economical
School Society, wrote to Clinton, “Deign, Sir, to place your name
first on the list of actual members of the society—it will assure the
success of the institution.”
Though this evidence is probably sufficient to establish the point,
it may be well, by way of confirmation, to quote Mr. McBain's
conclusions in his study of certain political aspects of Clinton's
career. These conclusions are stated in several places; two are
selected for quotation. Mr. McBain says:
“His coming into his own as leader of the Republican party
(18or) in his State had not been accomplished without commo-
tion, but his conduct in the controversy which developed served
to exhibit at once his weakness and his strength as a politician.
He never showed any great power in the handling of men, and
his inability to hit upon a working basis with Jay was an illustra-
tion of his tactlessness, but in every great movement of his life
he manifested an overmastering belief in himself which carried
conviction to those around him, and the loyalty with which his
party supported him in 1801 was an evidence of his ability to
command a following that was not wholly personal.”
“It was in this position as one of the members of the Council of
Appointment that De Witt Clinton came to be recognized as per-
haps the dominant factor in New York politics. Many had held
the position before without achieving fame or power. But the
moment was critical, the council was small, a majority of the
members were of the triumphant incoming party and the political
power which lay potentially in the hands of that council was
enormous. It was easy to see that under such circumstances a
man of Clinton's overtopping personality came into the exercise
of his own strength.”
The influence of Clinton is largely the influence of a group.
Clinton was prominently connected with two groups of individuals,
the one mainly philanthropic, the other mainly scientific. Repre-
*L, to C., v. 3, p. 64.
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 48.
5McBain's De Witt Clinton and the Origin of the Spoils System, p. 96.
*Ibid., p. 77.
76 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
sentatives of the former group were the Quakers: Thomas Eddy
and the Murrays; representatives of the latter were Doctors
Hosack and Mitchell. The typical institution of the first was the
Free School Society; the typical institution of the second was the
Literary and Philosophical Society. The point here—apart from
Clinton’s identity with both groups—is that while it would be
manifestly unfair to give the fellow-workers and co-laborers, the
“talent” of praise, it would be also manifestly unfair not to give
them any. To Clinton the main award is given because in these
respective groups, he was the dominant and the dominating per-
sonality. The remainder of this chapter is evidence of the truth
of this contention.
Another way of expressing the thoughts of the preceding
paragraphs is that the influence of Clinton was largely the in-
fluence of the societies which he organized, for which he secured
incorporation and legislative grants, and which he assisted both
pecuniarily and with his more valuable services. Ultimately, how-
ever, this is simply saying that he had tremendous political power
and that he used it beneficently. Then apart from this political
power he was an active and zealous worker as a member of these
societies, so much so that his colleagues in recognition of his un-
usual ability and his equally unusual breadth of information, raised
him to the highest office in their gift. He was President of the
Free School Society, the Literary and Philosophical Society, the
New York Historical Society, the Antiquarian Society, the Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Bible Society,
and the Presbyterian Education Society.
A rather striking testimonial to the stimulus which Clinton
gave to the intellectual life of the community in his election as
honorary member of numerous learned societies. With most of
these, strange to say, his connection was not merely formal. He
was in frequent correspondence with the officers of these Societies,
making many valuable suggestions. Only a general state-
ment of his connection with these societies can be given.
He was an honorary member of four of the county agricultural
societies, and of three agricultural societies of other states. He
was, too, an honorary member of four lyceums of natural history
in New York State, and of the Western Museum Society. He
was a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Science
Conditions and Bases of Clinton's Influence 77
of Philadelphia, and a member of the American Geological So-
ciety, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston).
His interest was not confined to the scientific societies, but
extended to the philosophical, literary and historical societies.
He was a member of several literary and philosophical societies,
including the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and
the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York. He was a
corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
His connection with the New York Historical Society will be in-
dicated in some detail later. He was identified in several capac-
ities with the American Antiquarian Society and the American
Bible Society.
CHAPTER VI
CLINTON'S INFLUENCE ON THE LESS FORMAL
EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
It is not possible to trace Clinton’s connections with the various
societies of which he was a member. In some cases the material
is not existent, or if existent, is not generally accessible or known;
in other cases it would be unprofitable. His relations with the
New York Historical Society are treated in detail because his
influence here is typical, and because of the general educational
influence exerted by the society through its collections, its meet-
ings and its publications.
The minutes of the first meeting show Clinton to have been
one of the eleven founders. The minutes are given below:*
“NEw York, November 20, 1804.
“The following persons, vizt:—Egbert Benson, De Witt Clinton,
Rev. William Linn, Rev. Samuel Miller, Rev. John N. Abeel,
Rev. John M. Mason, Doctor David Hosack, Anthony Bleeker,
Samuel Bayard, Peter G. Stuyvesant and John Pintard, being as-
sembled in the Picture Room of the City Hall of the City of New
York, agreed to form themselves into a society, the principal
design of which should be to collect and preserve whatever may
relate to the natural, civil or ecclesiastical History of the United
States in general, and of this state in particular, and appointed
Mr. Benson, Doctor Miller, and Mr. Pintard, a committee to
prepare and report a draft of the constitution.”
The next meeting of the society was held Monday evening,
December Io, of the same year. De Witt Clinton was present
*Reproduced in Kelby's The New York Historical Society, 1804-1904, pp. 1-2.
78
Clinton's Influence on the Less Formal Educational Agencies 79
at this meeting. A constitution was adopted, the institution was
given its present name, and officers were elected.
It may be well at this point to state the offices held by Clinton
in the society. He was a member of the “Standing Committee,”
1808-09; second vice president, 1810-15; first vice president,
1816; and president, 1817–1819.” Clinton delivered the discourse
at the anniversary meeting of the society, December 6, 1815.
The subject of the discourse was “The Iroquois.”
Clinton’s other services may now be briefly indicated. On
February 1, 1809, the petition of Egbert Benson, praying for in-
corporation, was received in the Senate and referred to a select
committee, consisting of Messrs. Clinton, Comstock and Taylor.
On February 2, 1809, Mr. Clinton reported and brought in a bill
embodying the prayer of the petitioners. It was read a first time
and by unanimous consent a second time, and referred to a com-
mittee of the whole and ordered engrossed. The entry for the
next day, February 3, is after the third reading “the bill do pass.”
It was amended in the Assembly, February 9, and passed as
amended with the concurrence of the Senate, February Io, 1809.
On March 20, 1810, a petition from the Society praying the
Legislature to grant them such aid as shall be meet and the gen-
eral interest of the State permit, was received. Clinton looked af-
ter the interests of the bill in the Senate, where it passed. He sent
the following letter to Mr. Pintard, secretary of the society, on
the day it passed:
“ALBANY, March 22, 1810.
“DEAR SIR:
“I have the pleasure of informing you that the bill for endow-
ing the Historical Society and killing the wolves and panthers,
passed the Senate this morning without opposition. If the
Federal Assembly shall act as liberally as the Republican Senate,
it will go through, but I am fearful that your party will be very
deficient in this respect.
“The Mechanics' Bank bill has passed the Senate with equal
unanimity.
“I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,
“DE WITT CLINTON.”
“John Pintard, Esq.”
*Cf. Relby. -
*Given in Campbell's Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton,
80 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Mr. S. L. Mitchell proves Clinton’s fear well grounded, for he
writes under date of April 3, 1810 : “The vote in spite of all
that the friends of the project could say was ‘43 to 27.’” -
The following resolution was passed at a meeting held January
II, 1814:
“Resolved, That application be made to the Legislature of this
State for their patronage of this society, and that Mr. Clinton be
appointed to draft a suitable memorial on the subject.”
“At the next quarterly meeting held April 12th, Mr. Clinton
informed the Society that, agreeably to their request at the last
meeting he had drawn up a memorial to the Legislature of this
State for their patronage which he presented at the present ses—
sions of both Houses. That a clause granting this Society
$12,000, which was included in the bill entitled ‘An act for insti-
tuting a lottery for the promotion of Literature,” had passed the
Senate, but was non-concurred in the House of Assembly. Ayes
4I, nayS 44.
“The act became a law on April 15, 1814.”
The society a little later, 1816, established a mineralogical
cabinet. The most zealous workers in this direction of the so-
ciety’s work were Dr. Mitchell, De Witt Clinton and Colonel
George Gibbs. In 1829, this aspect of the society’s work had
become so large and tended to overshadow the main work of the
society, that it was dropped and the collection was presented to
the Lyceum of Natural History.
In his message to the Legislature in 1826, Clinton made the
following recommendation with reference to the Historical So-
ciety:
“The charter of the Historical Society of New York has ex-
pired, and its finances are in a state of great depression. Its col-
lections of books, manuscripts, medals and maps, illustrative of
the antiquities and history of our country, are very valuable and
ought to be preserved for the public benefit. The resuscitation of
this society, and a liberal provision for its extended usefulness are
measures worthy of your adoption.” -
The recommendation resulted in the passing of “An act for re-
newing and continuing in force an act entitled An act to in-
corporate the New York Historical Society, passed February Io,
1809.” This act passed February Io, 1826,” and remained in
force until February Io, 1839. The message of 1827, says:
*Chap. 41, Laws of 1826.
Clinton's Influence on the Less Formal Educational Agencies 81.
“The charter of the New York Historical Society which had
expired by its own limitation was renewed at the last session,
but without the pecuniary aid that was solicited and which
would have been worthily bestowed, considering the light which
its researches and collections have shed on the history of America
in general, and of this state in particular.
“In 1814 the Historical Society addressed a memorial to the
Legislature, wherein it indicated several places for important ac-
quisitions . . . . and it would be very useful to obtain
transcripts of all public documents in those quarters which may
elucidate our annals in their aboriginal and colonial state.”
An act embodying these recommendations was passed March I,
1827.5
LYCEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY
Another kind of institution and a new factor in the educational
environment with which Clinton chose to identify himself was the
lyceum of natural history. In a letter (1823) to James Smith,
an English scientist of the time, referring to certain letters of his
Own, written in a “session of great pressure of official business,”
he says: “My object was to attract public attention to Natural
Science and our internal resources.” In another letter (1815) he
says: “Having been engaged since my youth in the active scenes
of political life, I have had little time for scientific investigation,
but I have never ceased to hold in the highest respect those men
who devote themselves to the acquisition and propagation of
knowledge, and the most pleasing retrospect of my past life arises
from my having had it sometimes in my power to promote with
effectiveness the interests of Science.”
Judging from Clinton's scientific views and his personal interest
in scientific work, it is natural to expect that he would encourage
and lend his powerful assistance to institutions for the encourage-
ment of scientific investigation and the spread of scientific knowl-
edge. And this expectation is borne out by the facts, though pre-
viously the Legislature had not given aid to such institutions; at
least in the “Index to Laws, 1777-1857, State of New York,” I
find no law affecting a lyceum of natural history or a similar in-
stitution before Clinton's first year as Governor.
*Chap. 51, Laws of 1827.
*L. B., v. 5, June 4, 1823.
*L. B., v. 2, p. 259.
82 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Before referring to the laws, it may be well to introduce one of
Clinton’s letters dated from Albany, December 4, 1823, and ad-
dressed to Charles Dewey, Esquire, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
After thanking him for the Rev. Mr. Hitchcock's discourse on the
“Utility of Natural Science,” Clinton goes on to say:
“I see you have established a Lyceum of Natural History in
Pittsfield. Institutions of this kind are appreciated and have met
with considerable encouragement. They are admirably calculated
to elicit a spirit of accurate observation and rational inquiry, and
the collections which they form will establish the ground-work of
important results.”
On April 20, 1818, there was passed “An act to incorporate the
Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York.” Other
acts were passed to incorporate the Troy Lyceum of Natural
History, March 7, 1820," the Hudson Lyceum of Natural History,
March 9, 1821,” the Catskill Lyceum of Natural History, Febru-
ary 28, 1822,” the Delaware Chemical and Geological Society,
April 12, 1822,” the Utica Lyceum, January 21, 1826,” and the
New York Atheneum on April 17, of the same year.” During the
interim between Clinton's first period of service and his second
(in 1823), the Albany Lyceum of Natural History was in-
corporated. . -
The impetus given to the movement at its beginning carried it
on for many years. In 1830 we find, for example, a law incor-
porating the Rochester Atheneum, and in 1832, a similar
law for the Buffalo Lyceum. During this decade we find
laws giving legal status to the following institutions: Brooklyn
Lyceum (two laws, 1834, 1835), Schenectady Lyceum and
Academy, York Literary and Scientific Institute, and the New
York Museum of Natural History. Several similar laws were
passed during the next decade (1841–1850), and in 1857 we find
two acts connected with what is probably the most famous of
these scientific institutes: Cooper Union. -
*L. B., v. 5, Dec. 4, 1823.
*Chap. 197, Laws of 1818.
19Chap. 62, Laws of 1820.
*Chap. 83, Laws of 1821.
*Chap. 41, Laws of 1822.
*Chap. 181, Laws of 1822.
*Chap. 18, Laws of 1826.
*Chap. 285, Laws of 1826.
Clinton's Influence on the Less Formal Educational Agencies 83
One of the lyceums of natural history is worthy of detailed
notice—the first to be incorporated—the Lyceum of Natural His-
tory in the City of New York. This is interesting apart from the
facts that Clinton was an honorary member of it, and that it was
before this society that Samuel L. Mitchill discoursed on the
“Character and Scientific Attainments of De Witt Clinton,” on
July 14, 1828. This lyceum continues to-day as the Academy of
Sciences. It holds general meetings and monthly meetings by
sections. It publishes annals in Octavo and memoirs in quarto,
and has a library numbering 18,000 titles. There is an alliance of
the academy and numerous scientific societies.**
LIBRARIES
Clinton clearly perceived that libraries were important elements
in the educational environment. His conception was pos-
sibly too far in advance of the time and the conditions to
secure adequate practical embodiment. Clinton was impressed
as to the value of mercantile libraries and encouraged them when-
ever the opportunity offered itself. He was probably more
forcibly impressed by the value to the community of a public
library, the so-called district library in its midst, but his energetic
efforts in behalf of such libraries were fruitless, until 1835, seven
years after his death.
But Clinton's great service to the library movement is found in
his service in connection with the origin and early growth of the
State Library. This library was instituted during Clinton’s second
year as Governor. He selected the original list of books, was
chairman of the Board of Trustees during the first decade of its
history, and during this period recommended and secured legis-
lation providing adequate financial support for the library and
widening its scope, and as Governor signed all such legislation.
But Clinton probably never dreamed of the possibilities of the in-
stitution as realized to-day. -
The State Library. The State Library was instituted” during
Governor Clinton’s first administration. The law, “An act for
*Cf., Cattell’s Scientific Societies and Associations, p. 8, in Butler’s Educa-
tion in the United States, p. 872.
*The necessity for a State Library was undoubtedly forced upon the State
by a policy originated by Massachusetts some years before the formation of
the library of an interstate exchange of State documents, and the action of
84 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
the establishment of a public library at the seat of government,”
was passed April 21, 1818.* Section one of this law provides that
the governor, lieutenant governor, chancellor, and a chief justice
of the Supreme Court, shall constitute a board of trustees, and it
shall be their duty to cause to be fitted up some proper room in
the capitol for the use of the government and the people of this
State, and it shall be the duty of the said trustees “to cause to be
expended the money appropriated by this act, or which may be
hereafter appropriated in fitting up such room and in the pur-
chase of such books, maps and other literary publications for the
use of said library as they may deem expedient.” Section two pro-
vides for the appointment of a librarian by the trustees, “who
shall receive whatever compensation they shall determine,” and it
provides further that “no book shall at any time be taken from the
library for any purpose whatever.” Section three provides for an
appropriation of three thousand dollars and an annual appropria-
tion of five hundred dollars to carry into effect the provision of
the act. -
“An act to enable the Trustees of the State Library to carry
into effect a resolution of the Senate and Assembly, authorizing
them to purchase one of Theo. Newell's astronomical machines,”
was passed January 14, 1820. The act provided for an appropria-
tion of one thousand dollars.”
The next law was passed April 18, 1825, and was “An act for
the gradual enlargement of the New York State Library, and
more effectually to promote the purposes for which it was estab-
lished.” Section one of this act provides for an appropriation
of one thousand dollars for the purchase of books and maps for
the use of the library and for fitting up and repairing the room
or rooms in which the books are kept. Section two provides that
the “assistant register of the Court of Chancery shall pay from a
fund in his charge, to the trustees of the State Library, three
hundred dollars annually, for the gradual increase of said library,
provided, however, that if the interests or profits do meet the con-
Congress in distributing certain Congressional documents to all States.”
Frank Tolman, Reference Librarian, N. Y. State Library.—[A personal
letter.] -
18Chap. 276, Laws of 1818.
1°Chap. 4, Laws of 1820.
*Chap. 203, Laws of 1825.
Clinton's Influence on the Less Formal Educational Agencies 85
tingent expenses of the court, the appropriation shall be reduced.”
Section three provides that the contingent expenses of the library
shall be paid by the treasurer when duly certified to by a majority
of the trustees. The fourth section of the act provides for an an-
nual report to the Legislature informing it how the money is ex-
pended, together with “a true and perfect catalogue of all the
books, maps and charts then remaining within and belonging to
said library.” The remaining sections of the act provide for the
repeal of the second section of the Act of April 21, 1818, and in
its place there is substituted a provision permitting members of
Legislature during sessions of the Legislature, of Senate only, or
of the Court of Errors, under proper rules, etc., to take to their
boarding houses or private rooms any books belonging to said
library except such books as trustees believe shall be always kept
at the library for reference. It provides, further, that no more
than two volumes may be taken at once, and that the President of
the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly shall not give a mem-
ber his certificate of attendance unless he has returned all books
he has borrowed from the library and settled all accounts in the
way of fines and otherwise.
The last act passed during Clinton's administration was an act
providing for an appropriation of one thousand dollars, to be ex-
pended by the trustees for books, maps, and charts. Section two
provides for an annual appropriation of one thousand dollars for
the gradual enlargement of such library.** -
The history of the State Library may be viewed also from the
standpoint of the Reports of the Trustees. The first report
follows:”
THE TRUSTEEs of THE PUBLIC LIBRARY established in the
Capitol respectfully report:
That in pursuance of the act passed at the last session entitled
“An act for the establishment of a public library at the seat of
government,” the Board of Trustees constituted by that act have
caused to be fitted up a room in the Capitol for the reception of a
library and have selected and purchased upwards of six hundred
volumes of books proper for such an establishment.” They have
21Chap. 293, Laws of 1827.
*A. J., 1819, p. 148. *
*Mr. Tolman, Reference Librarian of the State Library, says in a private
letter : “The first books purchased by the library were selected largely by
him.” [De Witt Clinton.]
86 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
endeavored to make such selections within the means provided
as in their judgment would best meet the views of the Legislature
and correspond with the character of the State.
The catalogue of the books and maps together with the sums
expended for the same and for the requisite preparations and ac-
commodations in the Library Room will appear in the annexed
schedules.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
DE WITT CLINTON,
JoHN TAYLOR,
JAMES KENT.
The final paragraph of the report for 1825—also signed by
De Witt Clinton, is: -
“It gives the trustees great pleasure to state that this infant in-
stitution, under the fostering care of the Legislature, promises
to realize the expectations of the founders and to extend its use-
fulness throughout the State.”
The last report signed by Clinton, was the report for the year
ending December 31, 1827. In this report we find this summary
of the possessions of the library:
191 volumes Folios.
I54 volumes QuartOS.
2,30I volumes Octavos.
99 volumes Duodecimos.
I5 volumes Decimo Sexto.
2,76O Books.
23 Maps.
4 Charts.
I2 Portrait Prints.
I B11St.24
The report of 1828—signed by Mr. Van Buren, as chairman—
includes in the possessions of the library “I Monumental Engrav-
ing (De Witt Clinton).”
Other Libraries. Herbert Adams, in his “Public Libraries and
Popular Education,” says:* “The school district library of the
State of New York is a good historic starting point for American
popular education in connection with libraries.” On the following
page we find this statement: “In the report of the Department
*S. J., 1828.
*A. J., 1829.
26p. 96.
Clinton's Influence on the Less Formal Educational Agencies 87
of Public Instruction for 1889, it is said that New York State was
the first to undertake to establish libraries as factors in educa-
tional work. De Witt Clinton was the father of the idea.”
Clinton, after commenting on the fact that he is deeply im-
pressed with the momentous relation of this department of our
social policy (i.e., education) to the cardinal interests of the
State, in his message to the Legislature in 1825, goes on to say:
“In furtherance of this invaluable system, I recommend tº
the introduction and the distribution of useful books.” This last
idea is made more definite in his 1827 message, where he recom-
mends “small and suitable collections of books and maps attached
to our common schools are worthy of attention when it is re-
membered that objects of this description, enter into the very
formation of our characters, control our destinies through life,
and protect the freedom and advance the glory of countries.”
These recommendations had no immediate effect, but reinforced
by the efforts of Dix, Flagg and others, they were embodied in
the law of 1835—the first law authorizing a community to tax
itself to establish and maintain public libraries. It may be
stated in the words of Mr. Dix, “the object was not so much for
children attending schools, as for those who have completed their
common school education. Its main design was to throw into
school districts and places within reach of all their inhabitants,
a collection of good works on subjects calculated to enlarge their
understanding and store their minds with useful knowledge.”
However, school libraries intended for the pupils had long be-
fore been established by the Free School Society. In the fourteenth
annual report, April 30, 1819, is this statement; “Libraries have
been recently annexed to each of our schools, consisting of books
of Voyages, Travels, Histories, etc., which are to be circulated
among those scholars who, for their progress in learning, are de-
serving of reward.” The remainder of the paragraph is taken
up in soliciting donations of books.
One other important phase of library work is the organization
*Cf. p. 100. “Though the free public library is now the prevailing type in
the United States, the school district type is worthy of commemoration be-
Cause it marks pioneer influence in many individual American common-
WealthS and the recognized principles that the library is a feature of public
education and deserves to be supported like common schools by public taxation.
It is not enough for a community to educate its children ; it should educate
itself. The public library is for all, adults, as well as children.”
88 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
of mechanics’ libraries. Clinton’s attitude toward these insti-
tutions is indicated in the following letter, dated from Albany,
Dec. II, 1826, and addressed to W. Wood, Esq., Canandaigua:
“SIR:
“I hear with no common gratification that it is in contemplation
to establish a library in the flourishing village of Canandaigua for
the benefit of young men engaged in mercantile and other busi-
ness or who are desirous of devoting a portion of their time to the
acquisition of useful information. Fully impressed with the
benefit of such institutions; also believing that they have derived
their impulse in a great measure from your benevolent exertions,
in behalf of Mrs. Clinton and myself I ask from you the favor to
present to that library the books accompanying this communica-
tion as a testimonial of our high respects for the principles and
of our own best wishes for its success.
“Blair's Lectures, 3 vols. for myself,
“Blair’s Sermons, 2 vols. for Mrs. C.”
*L. B., v. 8, p. 53.
CHAPTER VII
INFLUENCE ON FORMAL EDUCATION
COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION
The Public School Society
Great as was Clinton’s influence in connection with the estab-
lishment and progress of learned societies, lyceums of natural
history, and libraries, it is almost entirely overshadowed by
the far-reaching consequences of his connection with the Public
School Society and the various minor school societies.
One relying mainly on Bourne’s “History of the Public School
Society,” would come away from a careful perusal of that work
with something like the following as a statement of De Witt
Clinton's relation to the society:
Clinton was not present at the first meeting of the twelve
founders of the Free School Society at John Murray's house on
Pearl Street, on February 19, 1805. However, Clinton and
thirty-five others were, by the act of April 9, 1805, constituted a
body corporate under the title of “A Society for establishing a
Free School in the City of New York, for the education of such
poor children as do not belong to or are not provided for by any
religious society.” The second section of the act constituted
Clinton and the original twelve a Board of Trustees, until the
regular election. At the regular election May 6, 1805, Clinton
was elected president, to which office he was annually re-elected
until his death in 1828. An address to the public, dated May 18,
1805, soliciting aid, was issued in the name of the trustees.”
*Chap. 108, Laws of 1805.
*Bourne’s History of the Public School Society, pp. 6-8.
89
90 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
De Witt Clinton headed this list with the largest donation—$2OO.”
He made a long address, which Mr. Bourne prints entire, at the
dedication of the new school building, December II, 1809." The
next reference we find to Clinton is his offering of a resolution
(December, 1818), granting permission to Joseph Lancaster to
use the schoolrooms of the society at such times as they were not
being used for instruction, for the purpose of delivering lectures.”
His name is subscribed along with the other trustees to an address
to the parents and guardians of children belonging to schools
under the care of the New York Free School Society, dated April
9, 1819. The reader may wonder, for no explanation is given,
that later documents quoted in the work are signed by the Vice
President for the Trustees and not by the President. The last
reference but one to Clinton comes in connection with the Bethel
School controversy, i.e., relating to the distribution of the Com-
mon School Fund in support of sectarian education. The original
bill was amended in the Assembly to vest in the corporation of the
City of New York the power of distributing school moneys in
such manner as they, in their wisdom, shall think proper. The
Free School Society’s committee not having instructions from
their constituents, did not know what to do; they consulted
Clinton, who advised them that they would not be warranted in
an opposition which would embarrass the passage of the bill, and
they accordingly gave their assent to the proposed amendment.”
The bill became a law November 19, 1824. The last reference
is the resolution on the death of Clinton, which may be given here
most conveniently:
“The Trustees of the Public School Society being informed of
the sudden decease of His Excellency De Witt Clinton, who among
his other testimonials of public esteem and confidence has held
the office of President of this Society from its first organization.
“Resolved, As the sense of this board that while it is our duty
to bend with unmurmuring submission to the will of Divine
Providence, we view this event as a signal calamity to our coun-
try, to the cause of Science and public improvement, and the many
useful institutions of which the deceased was a distinguished
Ornament and a patron. That he occupied a large place in the
*Bourne, p. 8.
*Ibid., pp. 14-24.
*Ibid., p. 32.
*Ibid., p. 74.
Influenca on Formal Education . 9I
affection and respect of his countrymen, as one of the most able
and successful benefactors; and that, as connected with this and
similar associations, the cause of literature and benevolence has
sustained in his death and unspeakable and irreparable loss.”
An examination of the sources shows that the foregoing ac-
count is very unsatisfactory and incomplete.
After incorporation, an address was issued May 18, 1805, ask-
ing for funds. Clinton contributed, as already noted, the largest
sum, $200, and his name appears first on the list of subscribers.
The original list is preserved in the files of the New York
Historical Society.” There is also in the possession of the New
York Historical Society, a copy of the list of original “subscribers
to the New York Free School Society obtained by De Witt Clinton,
Esq., and Frederick De Peyster, in the First Ward.” The total
amount collected in this ward was $5,820. .
On March 21, 1806,” the memorial of De Witt Clinton, presi-
dent of the “Society for establishing a Free School in the City of
New York, for the education of such poor children as do not be-
long to or are not provided for by any religious Society,” praying
that the time for holding meetings may be discretionary with the
trustees, rather than prescribed as now, was read. Mr. Clinton
asked leave to bring in a bill embodying the object prayed for in
the memorial. Leave being granted, Clinton brought in an appro-
priate bill, in the form of an act to amend the original bill. The
bill was read a first time, and by unanimous consent, was read a
second time, and was referred to a committee of the whole. On
March 24, 1806, Mr. Graham reported the bill from the committee
of the whole without amendment. It was read a third time and
passed March 25, 1806. It passed the Assembly April 2, 1806,
and to the Council of Revision it did “not appear improper that it
should become a law.”
On February 3, 1809, a memorial from the trustees of what,
during the following year, was known as the Free School Society
praying legislative aid, was read and referred to Messrs. Clinton
(chairman), Taylor and Graham. Two weeks later (February
7Bourne, p. 109.
*This list is reproduced in Palmer’s History of the New York Public Schools.
*This and the following references can be readily found in the Senate
Journal, under the dates given.
19Chap. 125, Laws of 1806.
92 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
17) Clinton reported as follows: “That the committee
are of opinion that until aid can be afforded from the
fund allotted to common schools, it is highly expedient and
proper for the Legislature to assist the said institution
in some other shape: That under this impression (they) pray for
leave to introduce a bill.” Leave being granted, Clinton introduced
a bill called “An act for the encouragement of the Free School
in the City of New York,” which provided for the payment out
of the excise money of four thousand dollars to the Trustees
for a new building and of one thousand dollars annually until the
pleasure of the Legislature shall otherwise determine. It was
read twice and referred to a committee of the whole.
On February 20, the bill was read a third time and passed. The
memorial was read in the Assembly on February 3, 1807, and
referred to a select committee of which Mr. Rutgers was chair-
man and after the usual procedure became a law, February 27,
1807.11
To any one following the history of the society, which was at
successive periods known as (I) the Society for Establishing a
Free School in the City of New York, for the education of such
children as do not belong to or are not provided for by any re-
ligious society, 1805–1808; (2) the Free School Society (1808-
1825); and (3) the Public School Society (1825–1853), it must
be evident that the society could not have developed and become
the tremendous factor it did in New York education, if indeed it
could have lived, had it not been so liberally and frequently as-
sisted by the Legislature and the Common Council of the city, but
especially the former. It must appear, too, to any one following
the facts as they are presented here, for example, that without
Clinton’s powerful assistance, it is very doubtful if such aid
would have been forthcoming. At any rate this is the opinion of
the Trustees, and two letters written by John Murray, Jr., could
be introduced to support the statement, and as directly bearing
on our main topic. One is given in full:
“NEw York, Ist mo. 29, 1807.
“RESPECTED FRIEND, DE WITT CLINTON:
“I am requested by the Trustees of the New York Free School
to forward to thy care, a Memorial which they have prepared ad-
iiChap, 20, Laws of 1807.
Influence on Formal Education 93
dressed to the Legislature and which thou wilt please to present
accordingly, a copy will be forwarded to Col. Rutgers in order
for him to lay the same before the Assembly. As the subject is
one which thou hast manifested a zeal to promote we need not
say more than to repeat our confidence in thy further exertions
for the promotion of an Institution which is admitted to be of
great importance to the Community at large, and perhaps the
Mayor cannot exert his influence in any department, civil or re-
ligious in a cause more laudable or useful.
“And although we are unwilling to trespass too much on thy
time, yet as we have reason to believe it was through thy exertions
the bill for incorporating the Manumission Society passed the
Senate last session we can not forbear to solicit thy renewed atten-
tion to that subject. Thy interest with 'some leading members of
the Assembly may be greatly conducive to the passing of the bill
which we understood would probably have got through the House
!had it not been neglected and put off to a late period in the Ses-
sion; therefore should early attention be given to the subject,
and the bill called up by some influential members, perhaps it
might be got through without much opposition. . . . .
“thy aft friend,
“JoHN MURRAY JUN.”
The other letter dated March 12, 1808, simply reinforces this
last one.”
Valuable supplementary material has been found in the minutes
of the Common Council of New York City. During 1807 a
resolution was passed granting the request of the Trustees of the
New York Free School Society for the use of twenty feet of the
Bridewell yard joining their school house for privies. On Janu-
ary 18, 1808, the Committee of the Corporation appointed to con-
fer with the Committee of the Free School, reported as follows:
After assigning other property for the State arsenal, the report
goes On:
“That the State shall assent to this arrangement it will be ex-
pedient to grant the new building and suitable adjacent ground
to the Trustees of the Free School to be occupied as long as they
use same for the purpose of their Institution and on the express
condition that the said Trustees shall educate the children of the
Alms House gratuitously.
“The committee confidently recommend this plan. It will ac-
commodate the State in a more public and spacious arsenal. It
will accommodate the corporation in the education of their poor
*L. to C., v. 3, p. 64.
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 19.
94 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
children. It will accommodate the Trustees of the Free School
with a convenient place and it will redound to the corpora-
tion and the general good of the community in the means it will
afford for the diffusion of knowledge among the necessitous, an
object of the first importance and which has hitherto been ne-
glected in this city particularly as it respects the poor children
under the care of the corporation.
“J. D. MILLER,
“JAcOB MoTT,
“JASPER WARD.”
“Jan. 18, 1808.”14
It is always difficult to point out just what influence a pre-
siding officer exerts, and Clinton's case as presiding officer of the
Council is no exception. One may be sure that he manifested
the same zeal here as he did at Albany. The only concrete
piece of evidence available is his letter from Albany, dated March
25, 1808.
“SIR:
“I send you by Mr. Fairlie for the information of the Common
Council three papers printed by the State printers which con-
tain most of the acts passed this session that apply immediately
to the City of New York. These acts being published officially
are sufficiently authenticated for every purpose that may be
wanted by the Common Council. -
“The Common Council will observe that no notice will be taken
in the Act for the erection of a new arsenal of the intended
appropriation of the present one for the use of the Free School.
This was considered as an arrangement proper to be made by
the Common Council and the Trustees of that establishment
without the interference of the Legislature, but it has been fully
understood that the design of the corporation as expressed in that
memorial will be fully carried into effect. The Free School
is undoubtedly one of the most useful institutions we have, and I
have no doubt will receive additional patronage from the corpora-
tion. To prevent any further misunderstanding I would recom-
mend that the agreement between the Council and the Trustees
of the Free School be reduced to writing and signed. . . . .
“I am, etc.,
“DE WITT CLINTON.”
“P. C. VAN Dyck, Esq.”14
During March, 1808, the Trustees of the Free School Society
in the City of New York prayed for certain changes in their act
*Minutes of the Common Council (Ms.).
Influence on Formal Education 95
of incorporation and for legislative aid, which prayer was read
and referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. Denning,
Adams and Coe. On March 18, Mr. Denning reported favorably,
using the words of the memorial which had been written by
Clinton.
The bill embodying the change was introduced and read a first
time and by unanimous consent was read a second time and re-
ferred to a committee of the whole. The next day Mr. Taylor,
from the committee on the whole, reported the bill and it was
ordered engrossed. On March 21, it was read a third time and
passed. The bill was passed in the Assembly, March 29, and be-
came a law April 1, 1808.* Although it appears Clinton had
absolutely nothing to do with this act so far as the legislative
record goes, still we know from Mr. Murray's letter that his in-
fluence was potent. -
On February 3, 1810, the Trustees of the Free School Society
presented a memorial for legislative aid and for certain alterations
in their act of incorporation. It was read and referred to a
Select committee, consisting of Messrs. Clinton (chairman), Mc-
Lean and Hall. Clinton, on March 23, 1810, reported that the
prayers of the petitioners ought to be granted, and asked leave to
bring in a bill, which bill was introduced, read twice and re-
ferred to a committee of the whole on March 2, 1810, and ordered
engrossed. It passed the Senate the next day. It became a law
March 24, 1810.” The law provided that members of the society
who paid fifty dollars would be entitled to send one child to the
School. It appropriated four thousand dollars. It permitted
the appointment of not more than five additional trustees.
The memorial of the Trustees of the Free School Society,
stating that it is in the power of the Legislature without any
interference with the revenue of the State, to contribute essential-
ly to the great object of the society and praying for the patronage
of the Legislature, was read (March 2, 1811), and on motion of
Clinton it was ordered that leave be given to present a bill. In
accordance with such leave Clinton brought in a bill entitled
“An act for the further encouragement of free schools in the City
of New York.” The bill was read twice at this meeting, ordered
15Chap. 111, Laws of 1808.
*Chap. 214, Laws of 1810.
96 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
engrossed on the sixth, and was read the third time, and passed on
the seventh. It passed the Assembly on the twenty-ninth and be-
came a law April 1, 181 I.” This act provided that out of the excise
funds there shall be paid to the Trustees of the Free School So-
ciety, “the sum of four thousand dollars for the purpose of
erecting another building; and for every year thereafter, until
the pleasure of the Legislature shall otherwise determine, there
shall be paid to the said trustees out of the said fund in addition
to the annual sums heretofore granted, the sum of five hundred
dollars for the purpose of promoting the benevolent objects of the
said corporation.”
The next step taken by the Legislature was a decisive one; it
related to the distribution of the Common School Fund. Before
the details are given a general statement may be permitted in this
connection. It is difficult to point out in detail just what influence
Clinton had, though there can be no doubt that as in all educa-
tional questions he exercised very great influence—much more
than we can now trace. Says Renwick in his “Life of De Witt
Clinton”:''” “In almost all his messages to the Legislature this im-
portant subject (common school education) held a prominent
place, and there are abundant reasons for believing that it is in a
measure owing to his constant exertion and his unwearied per-
severance that the school fund, and the common schools are at the
present time in so flourishing a condition.”
A letter from the father of the Common School Fund, Jedidiah
Peck, reinforces the preceding statement. The letter follows:
“BURLINGTON, March 9, 1810.
“DEAR SIR:
“Your obliging favor of the second ultimo did not come to hand
until last evening with its inclosure. I thank you for the present
and compliment you have paid me on the score of the common
school funds: it gratifies me to find the funds are increasing. I
anticipate great advantage in the diffusion of useful knowledge
from them amongst the lower order of the people. I have read
your address with peculiar satisfaction; and am glad to hear you
are making such strides in improvement and extension in the
education of poor children in the common school; although I stood
in need of no further obligations from you to give me perfect
17An Account of the Free School Society of New York, p. 33. All the laws to
1814 are quoted in full.
18p. 35.
Influence on Formal Education 97
satisfaction, that you would do all in your power that was reason-
able to protect and preserve those funds for the uses they were
appropriated for. When I left the Legislature you voluntarily
gave me your word of honor that you would be a guardian of the
common school funds; this was satisfactory to me and when I
have heard some one speak doubtfully as to the common people
reaping any benefit from them I have observed that you had en-
gaged to support and guard those funds and that I did not doubt
but we should yet reap the benefit of them. It is true as you
say while in the Legislature I watched with great anxiety over
the destiny of that child, which had cost me much labor and travail
for six years to bring it forth; and as it is a great favorite of
mine, I hope it will grow to a glorious perfection, and that its
benign influence throughout the state may be felt amongst all
orders, especially the poor; for which it was principally pro-
jected.” -
The matter of the distribution of the school funds was settled
by the legislation of 1813. At this time Clinton was presiding
officer of the Senate, and it is difficult to indicate just what form
his influence took, and to what extent he exercised any influence
at all. The only piece of evidence bearing directly on this par-
ticular case is a letter from Divie Bethune, which is quoted below.
It also indicates the attitude of the Trustees of the Free School
Society toward Clinton—and thus reinforces some points indi-
cated above.
- NEw York, Feb. 26, 1812.
THE HON. DE WITT CLINTON,
DEAR SIR:
The deep solicitude I feel for the welfare of the New York
Free School Society, must plead my excuse for thus intruding
On your time. Mr. Buckley has informed you of the appointment
Of himself, and W. De Peyster, on the special mission recom-
mended by you. The crisis is important to the future prosperity
of the school, and probably decisive as to the extent of a system,
which liberally endowed, might prove a blessing, and a glory to
our state, if not to the United States. Sensibly impressed with
the propriety of improving the present moment, I have ventured
On the throwing in my mite of exertion, however small, into the
general stock.
Having lately received Joseph Lancaster's report of his com-
mencement, progress, and success from 1798 to 1811, I have
made interesting extracts, accompanied by a few reflections, tend-
ing to enlist the popular feeling in favor of our Valuable Institu-
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 56.
98 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
tion, in the disposition of the school fund, without adverting
to the latter in direct terms. I have given them to Mr. Lang
(his paper being less occupied by political matter), and expect
they will appear in his Gazette on Friday, or Saturday. If you
should judge these extracts and remarks calculated to produce a
good effect, you could have them copied into one of the Albany
papers, and thus bring them home to the desk of each member of
the Legislature.
Another measure has suggested itself to my mind this evening,
and is the immediate cause of my addressing you. It is this, and
one which, I think, could be completely accomplished; to draw up
a short, concise, and expressive Petition to the Legislature, re-
questing them to place the proportion of the School Fund for
this city, under the direction of the New York Free School So-
ciety. I have no doubt but a goodly number of respectable men,
of every denomination in the midst of us, would cheerfully sign
such a petition.
This would create a united and powerful interest in our favor;
would hardly leave any excitement for, and many obstacles against
any one religious denomination undertaking the unpopular, and
unpropitious task of opposing us with any proper position of
animation, or prospect of success.
I am induced to submit this plan to your consideration im-
mediately, as your sanction of it would strengthen the disposi-
tion and exertions of our trustees to carry it into effect. I have
not had an opportunity of Sounding one of them since I thought
of it, but shall to-morrow. If you should recommend such a
measure, you will be able to have postponed the ultimate decision
of the Legislature, until a general petition should be executed and
Sent up. -
Your answer, should you favor me with one, shall be com-
municated to the trustees. -
I am with much respect,
Dear Sir,
DIVIE BETHUNE.29
The legislation of 1813 was decisive, for it provided the basis of
a permanent means of support.
During Clinton’s life two more laws were passed, the law of
April 5, 1817, and that of January 28, 1826. The former, “An
act respecting the Free School Society of New York,” provided
in section one that a number of additional trustees not exceeding
twelve may be appointed. The second section follows:
*L. to C., v. 5, p. 4.
*Chap. 145, Laws of 1817.
Influence on Formal Education 99
“And be it further enacted that if any surplus School money
shall remain in the hands of the trustees after an ample compen-
sation to the teachers employed by them, it shall and may be
lawful to apply such surplus to the instruction of School masters
on the Lancasterian plan, to the erection of buildings for Schools,
and to all the needful purposes of a common school education and
to no other purpose whatever.”
The remainder of the act points out that on Manhattan Island
and two adjacent settlements, about one thousand children are
destitute of the means of education, that a lot has been appro-
priated, and that with a sum of money out of the excise fund
raised in the said city as has been done on similar and former
occasions, the trustees will be enabled with their other resources
to dispense the blessings of education in that quarter of the city.
It, therefore, provided for the payment to the Trustees of the
Free School Society of two thousand dollars for the exclusive
purpose of erecting a suitable building.
The act of 1826* provided for a change of the name of the
society to the “Public School Society of New York.” It was
further enacted that it shall be the duty of said society to provide,
as far as in their means, for the education of all children in the
City of New York not otherwise provided for; whether such chil-
dren be or be not the proper objects of a gratuitous education
and without regard to the religious sect or denomination to which
such children or their parents belong.
Another important provision” is the one permitting the trustees
“to charge a moderate compensation adapted to the ability of the
parents, to be applied to the erection of school houses, the pay-
ment of teachers’ salaries, and to such other expenses as may be
incident to the education of children. Provided that such pay-
ment or compensation may be remitted by the trustees, in all cases
in which they shall deem it proper to do so. And, provided,
further, that no child shall be denied the benefits of the said insti-
tution, merely on the ground of inability to pay for the same, but
shall at all times be freely received and educated by the said
trustees.”
The fourth section is as follows: “That nothing in this
act shall be construed to deprive the said society of any
revenues or of any rights to which they are now, or if this
*Chap. 25, Laws of 1826.
23Sec. 3.
:
:
‘.
º
i
IOO The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
act had not been passed, would have been entitled, and
that the receipts of small payments from the scholars shall not pre-
clude the trustees from drawing from the Common School Fund
for all the children educated by them.” The other provisions with
the exception of the last, provides for minor matters: amount of
subscription to become a member; increase in number of trustees;
times of meeting, etc. The last section provides for a step in the
direction in which things were moving. It was further enacted:
“That the said society is hereby authorized to convey their school
edifices to the Mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the City of
New York upon such terms and conditions and in such form as
shall be agreed upon between the parties, taking back from the
said corporation a perpetual lease thereof upon condition that the
same shall be exclusively and perpetually applied to the purpose
of education.”
In conclusion we may see what an examination of the books of
minutes reveals as to Clinton's connection with the society. The
written volumes of minutes in the possession of the New York
Historical Society begin with the second volume, and the first
minute is for the annual meeting of 1817 under date of May 5.
The first volume is unfortunately lost—at least it is not to be
found among the Public School Society papers, now in the pos-
session of the Historical Society.
Clinton was present at the special meeting held May 19, 1817,
to take measures for building a school house in the neighbor-
hood of Manhattan Island.* A committee was elected with
Thomas Eddy as chairman.
The next meeting that Clinton attended was held December 4,
1818. We find the following minute under this date: “On
motion of the President it was resolved that Joseph Lancaster be
permitted to use the School rooms of this society at such times as
shall not interfere with School hours, for the purpose of deliver-
ing lectures on the system of education invented by him.”
At the annual meeting of May 7, 1824, Clinton was re-elected
president as usual. We find also this minute: “The society
having been informed that at the request of the Board of Trustees
the Honorable De Witt Clinton, the President of the Society, is
24Cf. Chap. 145, Laws of 1817.
*Minutes of the Public School Society, v. 2, under date given (Ms.).
Influence on Formal Education IOI
engaged in writing a history of the society from its commence-
ment, and which is nearly ready for the press, it was ‘Resolved,
That said History be printed and distributed under the direction
of the trustees.’”
The next important reference to Clinton during his life is
found under date of November II, 1825. This was a special
meeting called after public notice. De Witt Clinton was present
and presided. The following significant resolution was passed:
“Resolved, That this society approve of the plan proposed in the
report of the Committee of the Trustees in relation to the changes
of the Free School Society into a Public School Society and the
trustees are hereby authorized to take such measures to carry the
said plan into effect as they deem proper.”
By another resolution the trustees were authorized to apply to
the Legislature for such alterations in their act of incorporation
as they may deem proper.”
Summary. The significance of the Public School Society lay
in these facts: First, during a period when the necessity of the
Social control of education was not clearly seen nor adequately
felt by Society, this society provided educational opportunities
for the children of the city. Secondly, this society educated pub-
lic opinion to the point where it saw clearly its duty as to the social
control of education, and acted on its conception of its duty.
Thirdly, this society organized and developed a fairly adequate
machinery for carrying on the work of education. Finally, this
society perceived clearly the necessity for well informed and well
trained teachers, if the social results—yes, and the individual
results—were to be at all realized, and it provided means (from
our standpoint, of course, rudimental) for the professional train-
ing of teachers.
Nor was the society of merely local significance; its influence
was state-wide and even national. This influence will be shown
in detail in the discussion of the Lancasterian system and the
training of teachers. -
It may be safely said that without Clinton the Public School
Society would have been impotent to do its great work. It was
*I have found no trace of this “History.”
*Cf. Clinton's message for 1826 and Chap. 25, Laws of 1826.
Io2 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Clinton who introduced and secured the passage of the act of incor-
poration, and the successive acts modifying the act of incorpora-
tion to meet the changed conceptions of the society’s work and
the consequent changed needs. Whenever any questions affecting
the Public School Society were before the Legislature, Clinton in-
variably looked after its interests and they were protected.
As Mayor of New York City, and consequently a member of the
Common Council, Clinton was as ever the zealous guardian of the
interests of the society. :
Important as was the conception and organization of the Society,
the financial support conditioned both and made the continuance
of the society possible. This financial support was provided for
by means of ward collections, subscriptions, grants of the Com-
mon Council of New York City, special legislative grants and the
general act of 1813, besides the membership fees, which were
comparatively insignificant. Clinton paid his membership
fees, made a collection in the first ward, and contributed
generously besides. He was instrumental—as already indicated
in detail—in securing the special legislative grants and his influ-
ence was not lacking in securing the Common Council grants.
Though the record of the legislation of 1813 does not bear on the
face of it the evidence of Clinton's agency in securing its passage, .
we know, nevertheless, from other sources his vital connection
with it.
One other contribution Clinton made to this society, namely, his
own services. During a quarter of a century, i.e., from the in-
ception of the society in 1805 to his death in 1828, Clinton was
president of the society. Until his first term as Governor (1817)
he was actively in charge of its affairs and presided at its meet-
ings, but thereafter while annually re-elected to the presidency,
he presided only at extraordinary meetings. However, he con-
tinued to keep in touch with the affairs of the society.
The Minor School Societies
The work of the Public School Society was supplemented by
the work of several minor societies, which provided educational
opportunities for certain special groups of children. These were
the Economical School Society, the Orphan School Society, and
the Infant School Society. Clinton’s influence was as manifest
in these minor Societies as in the main one.
Influence on Formal Education IO3
The Economical School Society. The first of the lesser school
societies to be discussed is the Economical School Society. The
purpose of this society is indicated in detail in the report made by
Clinton which is given below in full.
A. Hyde Neuville addressed to Clinton on April II, 1809, the
following letter:
“I have the honor of addressing you on the plan of a liberal in-
stitution. You are so well known to be the zealous protector of
all establishments of this kind, that I believe myself sufficiently
authorized in claiming in favor of this one, your benevolent in-
terest.
“Deign, Sir, to place your name first on the list of actual mem-
bers of the society—it will assure the success of this institution.”
The Economical School Society secured during the following
year favorable legislative action. On February 20, 1810, the
trustees and members of the Economical School Society prayed
the Legislature to grant “such aid as in their wisdom shall be
deemed proper.” The petition was read and referred to a select
committee consisting of Messrs. Clinton, Selden, and Bartow.
On March 6, Clinton reported as follows:
“That the said institution was originally founded for the educa-
tion of poor persons driven by the unfortunate events of war in
foreign parts; that it has since been extended to the indigent of
all nationalities; that it is formed on the celebrated plan of Lan-
caster; contains upward of 200 scholars; is calculated to be emi-
nently useful, and is supported principally by the founders. It is,
therefore, the opinion of the committee that it is justly entitled
to the favorable notice of the State.”
Leave was asked to bring in a bill granting the prayer of the
petitioners, which was granted. The bill was read a first time
and, by unanimous consent, a second time, and referred to a
committee of the whole. On March 7, it was reported amended
and Ordered engrossed. It passed the Senate the next day.
On March 1, 1812, A. Hyde Neuville addressed “To the Hon.
De Witt Clinton, President of the Senate,” the following letter:
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 48.
*Senate Journal, March 6, 1810.
104. The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
“SIR : -
“I have the honor of addressing to you the petition of the
trustees of the Economical School who are so fortunate as to
reckon you one of their members.
“A year ago you were so good as to promise me your assistance
for this year—I presume, therefore, to observe to you that the
building we have constructed will oblige us to loan the sum of
about $1,200–and if we could obtain the assistance of the State”
our establishment would be in a flourishing situation and we
should not be obliged to importunate the Legislature.
“Deign to accept, Sir, the homage of my respect and high con-
sideration.”
We find this plea of M. Neuville answered in Chapter 52 of the
Laws of 1813: “An act supplementary to an act entitled An act
for the establishment of common schools,” which extended the
provision of the latter act to the City and County of New York.
It “authorized, empowered and required the Mayor, Recorder and
Aldermen of the City of New York, to raise and collect a tax on
the inhabitants of the said city equal to the amount which shall be
apportioned by the State.” It provided, further, that this money
should be distributed and paid to the Trustees of the Free School
Society, the Orphan Asylum Society, the Society of the Economi-
cal School, the African Free School, and such incorporated re-
ligious societies, which now support or hereafter shall establish
charity schools within the said city, as may apply for Same,
“provided, however, in every case that the session is at least of
nine months duration.”
Clinton later became president of the society. This fact ap-
pears indirectly from a letter written by Clinton as directed in a
resolution passed unanimously “by a meeting of the Trustees of
the Economical School of New York on the 19th of May, 1814.”
The resolution recites the fact that A. Hyde de Neuville, the or-
ganizer, a Trustee and Secretary of the Society, who is about to
resign, has unremittingly and with a liberal appropriation of his
time, talent and money devoted himself to the school—by which
means it (the school) has arrived at such flourishing state, that it
now dispenses the blessings of education to several hundred chil-
dren—it was resolved that the President signify the high sense of
appreciation of the Board of Trustees. This he did in a letter
dated from New York on the same day.
89Fart of the Common School Fund.
Influence on Formal Education IO5
The last reference found is contained in a Report of a Committee
of the Trustees of the Free School Society on the Distribution of
the Common School Fund, dated at New York, January 28, 1825.
The report says: “Of these Io,383 children, 6,976 were educated
in the schools of the Free School Society, the African Free School
Society, the Female Association, the Mechanics Society, the
Hamilton Free School, the Orphan Asylum and the Economical
School, and the remaining 3,407 attended the various sectarian
or church schools.” The report contains a plan for the distribu-
tion of the fund, and no provision is made for the Economical
School Society which had already become a part of the Public
School Society and hence no separate provision was necessary.
The report proposed that the Female Association and the African
School Society should likewise become an integral part of the Free
School Society. For the Economical School Society this union
with the latter was a perfectly natural result, with Clinton as its
president and with aims identical with those of the Free School
Society.
The Orphan Asylum Society. Another of the minor societies
in which Clinton's influence was felt is the Orphan Asylum So-
ciety. The principal facts in connection with this society may be
briefly given. The society was incorporated April 7, 1807, and
Clinton was instrumental in securing the incorporation. This so-
ciety was included in the distribution of the school funds provided
by chapter 52 of the laws of 1813. In the first controversy with
the religious societies, when the distribution of the fund was left
to the Common Council (1825), the Orphan Asylum Society was
continued as a beneficiary. In the second controversy the Roman
Catholic Benevolent Society, in behalf of its Orphan Asylum,
claimed to be entitled to part of the fund on the same ground as
was the Orphan Asylum. It was then (1831) decided that this
claim was “in full accordance with the cardinal principles of the
ordinance of 1825 recognizing the peculiar claims of the orphan
asylum as a justifiable and the only justifiable exception to the
general principle that the Public School moneys were applicable
only to secular instruction.”
*Randall’s History of the Common School System of the State of New
York, p. 76.
IOf The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Clinton's influence on this society may be best indicated by the
following two letters. The first is quoted in full:
“NEw York, April 16, 1808.
“DEAR SIR:
“I have just had the honor of receiving you polite letter inclos-
ing extracts from the acts of the Legislature.
“We are sensible, however, that any feeble testimony of grati-
tude we can render, will be a slight compensation to the applause
of your heart, and we pray and trust that both will be infinitely
exceeded by the blessing which heaven has peculiarly promised
for the charitable.
“With respect and esteem, I have the honor to be
“Your most humble servant,
w “SARAH HOFFMAN.”
“To HON. DE WITT CLINTON.”82
The other letter is from the secretary of the society, and opens
somewhat as the preceding closes. She says in part: “These
general reflections are roused by your (Clinton’s) well timed
exertions in the presentation of their late petition to the Legis-
lature.” She goes on to say:
“Therefore, I am directed to express these sentiments to you,
Sir, and through you, to all those gentlemen who concurred with
you in obtaining the liberal grant of 500 dollars per annum for
this institution. And with sincere wishes for your prosperity and
private happiness,
“I have the honor, Sir, to subscribe myself in their name, your
most obedient, humble servant,
“MARY STANSBERY, Secretary.”
“New York, April 17, 1811.”
The Infant School Society. Clinton was interested in all fields
of education, in elementary, secondary and advanced. He was
interested, too, in what would now be called the kindergarten
stage. However, Clinton's inspiration came from England—the
home of the infant school movement. In Clinton’s Letter Books,
we find the following letter:*
“ALBANY, 2I, Jan., 1825.
“My WoRTHY FRIEND,
“I thank you for your kind letter containing an outline of the
Infantile Schools of London. These establishments possess merit
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 27.
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 78.
*W. 6, p. 380.
Influence on Formal Education Io?
and if the execution is only equal to the plan they must achieve a
wonderful revolution. I have written a friend in New York
urging their introduction into that city.”
In his message to the Legislature the following year we find
this statement: “In early infancy education must be usefully
administered. In some parts of Great Britain infant Schools
have been successfully established, comprising children from two
to six years of age whose tempers, hearts and minds are ameli-
orated, and whose indigent parents are enabled by this means to
devote themselves to labor without interruption or uneasiness.
Institutions of this kind are adapted only to a dense population
and must be left to the guardianship of private benevolence.”
Another letter dated Albany, January 9, 1827, shows Clinton's
evident pleasure at the success of the efforts to establish an infant
school Society. It reads:
“MADAM :
“Your letter of the fifth afforded me great pleasure. I now feel
assured that the establishment of Infant Schools, a plan which
has long been a favorite of mine, will at length succeed in such
hands as is proposed. There can be no doubt of the realization of
all the anticipated blessings.
“I beg leave to offer you and your associates, the expression of
my high sense of the benevolence, public spirit and good sense
which mark the undertaking and so assure you that my best ser–
vices will be at your command.”
Another valuable letter dated from Albany, 7th Oct., 1827,
follows:
“MADAM :
“I had the honor of receiving your interesting communication
relative to the Infant Society of the City of New York. I re-
joice that this excellent establishment is under such able direction.
I will certainly visit it as soon as I reach the City. Its prosperity
lies near my heart and will always command my best exertions.
“I enclose checque for 15 dollars to constitute me a member for
life.”86
The first meeting of what was to be the Infant School Society
was held May 23, 1827. The fourth meeting was held on June
28, 1827, “at which a constitution was adopted, officers and man-
ager were chosen and a letter was read from his Excellency
*L. B., v. 8, p. 141.
*L. B., v. 8, Oct. 7, 1827.
108 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
De Witt Clinton, Governor of the State, who consented to become
the patron of the Society, which in fact was organized at his sug-
gestion.”
In the message to the Legislature the following year (1828)
Clinton wrote:
“The institution of infant schools is the pedestal to the pyramid.
It embraces those children who are generally too young for com-
mon schools; it relieves parents from engrossed attention to their
offspring, softens the brow of care and lightens the hand of labor.
More efficacious in reaching the heart than the head, in improving
the temper than the intellect, it has been eminently useful in lay-
ing the foundation of good feelings, good principles and good
habits.”88
In May, 1827, the Infant School Society secured permission to
use the basement rooms of School No. 8, and several months
later received similar permission for No. IO. Women were em-
ployed as teachers. The Public School Society soon took control
of the work in conjunction with the ladies of the Infant School
Society. After the full adoption of the Infant School System in
1830, there was no reason for the separate existence of the Infant
School Society. -
Summary. Clinton was instrumental—and largely so—in se-
curing acts of incorporation for the Manumission Society (the
African Free School), Economical School Society and the Orphan
Asylum Society. Knowing as we do that Clinton played an
important part in securing the legislation providing for the
Common School Fund, we may be sure that these three societies
were included in the distribution of the fund along with the Public
School Society through Clinton’s instrumentality; in the case of
the Economical School Society, this is clear. He was largely
responsible, too, in securing in 1811, the grant of five hundred
dollars annually for the Orphan Asylum Society. The distribu-
tion of the Common School Fund made the further appeal of
these societies to the Legislature unnecessary.
Clinton had been interested in infants’ schools several years
before the organization of the Infant School Society. He sug-
87 Bourne, p. 659.
88The following year the Female Association conducted infant schools instead
of girls’ schools.
Influence on Formal Education IO9
gested the organization of the society, encouraged it at the be-
ginning by letter and by becoming its patron, became a life mem-
ber and noticed it favorably in his last message to the Legislature.
The Training of Teachers
Clinton's thought, here as elsewhere, was far in advance of his
time. No community under the circumstances could have adopt-
ed his suggestions. Nevertheless it was a great service to keep
before the minds of the people and the Legislature the im-
portance, necessity and duty of providing for adequately trained
teachers, not merely through the initiative of the prospective
teacher nor through the agency of privately endowed and ad-
ministered institutions, but in public schools set apart for this
sole purpose. Nowhere in the United States at this time was
there such an institution nor was there to be any until 1839.
Clinton's contribution here was twofold. He impressed upon his
generation the necessity for professionally trained teachers, but
more than that he emphasized the amazing doctrine for the time
that the provision of such teachers was an imperative social duty.
The result of this public discussion and agitation together with
Clinton's private efforts was fourfold: (1) the passage of the law
of 1827, and ultimately, with additional forces at work, the
laws of 1834 and 1844; (2) the incorporation of the Society of
Teachers; (3) the Public School Society's efforts in training
teachers; and (4) the training given under the direction of
various Lancasterian societies.
State Legislation. “It is clear, therefore,” says B. A. Hinsdale
after indicating the conditions, “that at the opening of the century
there was an urgent need of a general educational revival through-
out the country, and particularly of a revival or creation of in-
terest in the training of teachers.” It is almost needless to say
that it must be a creation. In the next paragraph we find this
statement: “In America, as in Europe, the demand for better
teachers was a marked feature of the great democratic movement
toward education; perhaps it may be called the feature of this
movement.”
The connection between the democratic movement of educa-
tion and trained teachers was clearly perceived by Clinton and
*Hinsdale, Horace Mann, p. 9.
IIo The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
found adequate and repeated expression as noted in Chapter II.
In general his argument took this form: The general enlighten-
ment of the people is absolutely essential to the protection, preserv-
ation, and perpetuation of our republican form of government
To what kind of people is this great work entrusted? Clinton’s
own question is more significant: “Ought the mind and the
morals of the rising and perhaps the destinies of all future genera-
tions to be entrusted to the guardianship of incompetence?” There
then follows in successive messages his series of recommenda-
tions: “I, therefore, recommend a seminary for the education
of teachers in the monitorial system of instruction.” (1826) In
1827 we have his commendation of what was being done by the
New York Public School Society and certain public-spirited citi-
zens in Livingston County, and his recommendations of a “central
school in each county for the education of teachers and other
momentous purposes connected with the improvement of the
human mind.” Less than two months before his death, we find
his county monitorial high school recommendation, “a measure so
well calculated to raise the character of our schoolmasters and to
double the power of our artizans by giving them a scientific edu-
cation.” (1828)
In 1821 the Board of Regents, of which Clinton was one,
speaking of the academies says that “it is to these seminaries that
we must look for a supply of teachers for the common school.”
The committee to whom was referred that portion of the Gover-
nor’s message referring to the education of teachers was of a
similar opinion. The report prepared by the chairman, John C.
Spencer, says: “But in the view which the committee have
taken, our great reliance for nurseries of teachers must be placed
in our colleges and academies. In connection with these the com—
mittee admit that the establishment of a separate institution for
the Sole purpose of preparing teachers would be a most valuable
auxiliary.” But as yet no legislative action whatever had been
taken.
The first law on the subject was passed April 13, 1827. This
was “An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appro-
priation to common schools, to increase the literature fund and
to promote the education of teachers.” No further reference
49Chap. 228, Laws of 1827. The italics are ours.
Influence on Formal Education II E.
is made to the subject, that is, the bill proper contains no refer-
ence to it. The increase of the Literature Fund, by providing
increased amounts of money for the academies and the changed
basis for the distribution of the money, by requiring increased
scholarship in higher branches of education than heretofore, was
intended as the means for promoting the education of teachers.
In the 1828 Report of the Regents we find the statement:
“The academies have become, in the opinion of the Regents, what
it has always been desirable they should be, fit Seminaries for im–
parting instruction in the higher branches of English education
and especially for qualifying teachers of Common Schools.”
Soon, therefore, beginning with Canandaigua and St. Lawrence
Academies in 1831, in the reports of the academies we find “Prin-
ciples of Teaching,” as a special study. Clinton’s recommenda-
tion of a seminary for the education of teachers was not carried
out in New York State until 1844. The logical outcome of his
last three messages was the famous law of May 2, 1834*—“the
first law passed in New York and indeed in this country, making
provision for the education of teachers for common schools.”
The first section of this act provides that revenue may be dis-
tributed by the Regents of the University to the academies subject
to their visitation. Section two reads:
“The trustees of academies to which any distribution of
money shall be made by virtue of this act shall cause the same
to be expended in educating teachers of common schools in such
manner and under such regulation as said regents shall prescribe.”
This—the first form of the normal school idea in the United States
if we except the Lancasterian attempts—continued in force as the
only system of training teachers, until the establishment, by the
law of May 7, 1844, of the Albany Normal School.
Summary. Clinton’s influence in this connection is not easily
nor exactly measurable. Probably his most important service
was bringing definitely to social self-consciousness the need of pro-
fessionally trained, or, at least, more adequately trained teachers,
and its connection with the very foundation of the social structure.
It, however, did not remain merely an idea. As a direct result
*Hough’s Historical and Statistical Record, p. 528.
*Chap. 241, Laws of 1834.
*Gordy’s Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea, in the United States,
p. 31.
:
:
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i
2.
tº
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i
112 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
of the 1827 message, though the legislative committee was not
willing to go as far as Clinton was, we have the law of 1827–
the first on the subject. The more adequate response to Clinton's
efforts is the academy movement in the training of teachers—
which the law of 1827 really initiated. The ultimate response was
the law establishing the State Normal School at Albany (1844).
Had Clinton lived longer there can be little doubt that the move-
ment would have been greatly accelerated.
The Society of Teachers
On February 4, 1811, George Ironside sent to Clinton, with his
permission, the petition and bill of the Society of Teachers.”
This petition was received by the Senate and read March 4, 181 I.
Clinton, on this day introduced “An act to incorporate the Society
of Teachers in the City of New York for benevolent and literary
purposes.” On the same day it was read twice and referred to a
committee of the whole. This committee made an amendment
and on March 25, it was read a third time and passed. It passed
the Assembly on April 4 and the Council of Revision on the 5th.
This act made the society a “body corporate and politic,” there-
by granting them the usual privileges of a corporation. The act
was to be operative for a period of fifteen years. The aim or
purpose of the society may be definitely indicated from the pre-
amble to its constitution. The men interested in the movement
“formed themselves into a society or organization for the relief
and benefit of decayed teachers and their families, the widows and
children of deceased teachers, and for the discussion of literary
subjects and the promotion of science among the members of the
society under the name and title of ‘The Society of Teachers of
the City of New York for Benevolent and Literary Purposes.’”
Apparently the society was not organized under the act of
1811, for during the first year of Clinton's first term as Governor
(April, 1818) he approved a bill entitled “An act to revive an act
entitled ‘An act to incorporate the Society of Teachers in the City
of New York for benevolent and literary purposes.’”
The detailed statement of the society's aims prepared by a
committee” and intended for publication appeared in the Academi-
*L. to C., v. 4, p. 65.
*Laws of 1818, p. 137.
*Messrs. Picket and Payne.
Influence on Formal Education II3
cian of October, 1818. Besides the importance of the statement
with reference to the professional training of teachers it throws
interesting side-lights on the social status of the teacher. It is
said that the improvements which every day appear “have created
the necessity for an association of professional men by whom
the improvements may be tested, embodied and carried out in a
practical application.”
The report further points out that there are two ways of bene-
fiting teaching: the one by developing principles and accom-
panying them with lucid demonstration both as to what they are
and their relations, and the other by following out the practical
application of these principles and applying “to them those me-
chanical facilities which fit them for the business of teaching.”
The purpose of the society was to embody into a system the ex-
cellences of each and to add “whatever the intelligence and ob-
Servation of American instructors may furnish.”
The purposes of the society as stated were to secure grading
of the schools, the establishment of a high school, and owing to
the “precarious nature” of the business to provide for those who
otherwise would “drag out their old age in indigence.”
Finally, it was the purpose of the society to “vindicate to our-
selves the name and character of a liberal profession.” That this
was a difficult proposition was clearly recognized by these men.
The report says: “The consideration in which his labors (the
teacher's) are generally held is far below their intrinsic dignity
and the station they have to claim from their usefulness to So-
ciety.” The committee express the hope that the time is not
far distant “when the instructors of youth shall be welcome as
brethren by the members of the liberal professions.” And a final
quotation: “There is nothing then in the nature of the duties
of an instructor which can disqualify him for occupying an equal
rank with men of the other liberal professions.”
Summary. There is very little existent material bearing on
the doings of this society. One significant fact for us, however,
is that a body of men with such fine professional aspirations
looked up to Clinton as their champion. Clinton made the exist-
ence of the Society possible through his securing for it the act of
incorporation. It was probably Clinton's influence, too, which
secured the revival of the act during his first term as Governor.
II.4 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Free School Society’s Training of Teachers
In the Ninth Annual Report we find this statement: “From
the commencement of the society it has been an object of great
interest to train up young men for the office of teachers in similar
institutions. The realization of their wishes in this respect is in
part accomplished.” A youth educated in the Chatham Street
School was at this time superintending a similar school in New
Brunswick, New Jersey, and an application had come to fill the
vacancy in Newburg, New York.
The 1815 report indicates the places where the Lancasterian
system was introduced. The eleventh report (1816) records the
fact that the school at New Brunswick is being “conducted with
great propriety.” It also says that the “benefits derived from the
Lancasterian system of instruction will very soon bemade generally
known and enjoyed in the United States.” The means of bring-
ing this about is indicated in the fourteenth report (1819) : “With
a deep solicitude for diffusing the means of education among the
poor and for the general extension of the Lancasterian system
throughout the country the Trustees invite all those persons who
are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of this method of instruc-
tion to repair to the schools under their charge, where in the
space of six or eight weeks a competent knowledge of the Lan-
casterian method of instruction can be obtained without fee or
reward.” The invitation is repeated in the report of 1820.
The further development of this movement is best indicated in
connection with the progress of the Lancasterian movement and
will be found in the next section.
The Lancasterian System
The point of departure here may well be the statement of the
Lancasterian system contained in Clinton’s address at the opening
of the first school of the Free School Society, December II, 1809.
The first part of the address referring to Lancaster and the Lan-
casterian system opens with this sentence: “In the year 1798 an
obscure man by the name of Joseph Lancaster, possessed of an
original genius and a sagacious mind, and animated by a Sublime
benevolence, devoted himself to the education of the poor of
Great Britain.” Clinton proceeds to give a general exposition
of the system and refers to Lancaster’s “Improvements in Educa-
Influence on Formal Education II5
tion” for a more detailed account. After referring to Lan-
caster’s work in England—paying special attention to the Borough
Road school—he also says:
“When I perceive that many boys in our school have been taught
to read and write in two months, who did not before know the
alphabet, and that even one has accomplished it in three weeks—
when I view all the bearings and tendencies of this system—when
I contemplate the habits of order which it forms, the spirit of
emulation which it excites, the rapid improvement which it pro-
duces, the purity of morals which it inculcates—when I behold the
extraordinary union of celerity in instruction and economy in
expense—and when I perceive one great assembly of a thousand
children, under the eye of a single teacher, marching, with un-
exampled rapidity and with perfect discipline, to the goal of
knowledge, I confess that I recognize in Lancaster the benefactor
of the human race. I consider his system as creating a new era
in education, as a blessing sent down from heaven to redeem the
poor and distressed of the world from the power and dominion
of ignorance.”
The address later points out that the system had already been
extended to the charity schools of the Dutch, Episcopalian, and
Methodist Churches and to the Presbyterian School in Rutgers
Street and to the school of the Manumission Society. Two depu-
tations had visited the school and made highly favorable reports.
As a result of one of these, the Adelphia Society (Philadelphia)
was organized, which soon erected a handsome two-story building
and adopted the Lancasterian system. The other deputation was
from the Philadelphia Free School Society, which, as a result of
the report of the deputation, adopted the system where it “flour-
ishes beyond expectation.” Two female schools, the Aimwell.
School in Philadelphia, and another in Burlington, New Jersey,
had also embraced the plan “with equal success.”
We find in the reports of the society that the system was later
extended to the female schools of the city, the schools of the
Orphan Asylum and the Economical School. In the tenth annual
report (1815) we find a summary statement “that schools in this
improved method of tuition, have been established in Philadel-
phia, Baltimore, Georgetown, Albany, Hartford and New Bruns-
wick,” and similar schools on a smaller scale in Burlington and
Mount Holly, New Jersey, and at Flushing, Long Island.
*Bourne, p. 19. The italics are ours.
II6 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
The spread of the system was a distinct purpose of the trustees
of the Free School Society. It was avowed by Clinton in his
1809 address. It was definitely avowed by the trustees in 1819,
and the training of teachers was one phase of it.
Requests for teachers frequently came to Clinton as president
of the Free School Society. The following letter is a typical
instance of Clinton’s recommendation:
“ALBANY, 3d March, 1816.
“GENTLEMEN:
“I have the pleasure of introducing to you Mr. E. Baker, whom
I have heretofore recommended to you and I confidently hope that
such an arrangement will be made as will confer all the benefits
of this invaluable system of your village which I have no doubt
will be fully effected by employing him.”
The following is a detailed statement of the progress of the
Lancasterian movement in New York State.” We have already
noted that Clinton was instrumental in Securing permission for
Lancaster to use the rooms of the Free School Society for lectur-
ing when they were not being used for purposes of instruction.
Lancaster's further progress in the State is indicated in the fol-
lowing letter to Clinton:
“WATERFORD, 9 mo. IIth, 1818.
“HonoRED FRIEND: -
“My lecture at Troy was crowned with all the anticipated suc-
cess. The president and trustees waited on me in a body and we
walked together to the Lecture Room. About 200 persons at-
tended—the receipts about $48—the expense little except our
carriage and advertisements which were only a trifle. The
lectures at New York, Albany, Troy, and Waterford established
a kind of criterion by which I may expect that the produce of
lecturing will be likely to clear all the travelling expenses attend-
ing it.
“The lecture here was numerously attended. I shall leave the
bearer, my kind and hospitable friend, Mr. Morgan, to report.
“I feel deeply indebted to thy kind attention for much of the
hospitality I have received at Troy. I slept at the house of Gen-
eral Thomas—my own fellow professors behaved with kind and
brotherly attention. I am to visit the school at Troy to-day by ap-
48L. B., v. 2, p. 279.
*The historian of the Lancasterian movement in the United States and in
South America, Will find exceedingly valuable information in the volumes
containing the letters to Clinton. See v. 8, pp. 20, 54, 56, 58 ; v. 9, pp. 5, 11,
16, 20; v. 11, pp. 30, 34; v. 12, p. 5; v. 14, pp. 14, 32, 51.
Influence on Formal Education II7
pointment at three o’clock. I am also invited to lecture at Lan-
singburgh which invitation I shall accept for the sake of being
near my friends on the first day.
“The City of Hudson is now a place where I should make some
arrangements prior to their papers being published. The favor
of a line from thyself introducing me to some person there will
be acceptable and may be addressed to me at Albany, as soon as
leisure admits. I should be glad to lecture at Hudson about the
19th or 20th on my way to New York visiting Schenectady in the
interim. -
“I remain with much respect,
“Thy obliged friend,
“Joseph LAN CASTER.”
“TO GOVERNOR DE WITT CLINTON.”50
State legislation gives further details as to the progress of the
movement. The commissioners appointed by the Governor pur-
Suant to the act of April 9, 1811, to report a system for the or—
ganization and establishment of common schools and for the
distribution of the Common School Fund, applied to the Trustees
of the Free School Society, through Clinton, for information as
to the Lancasterian system. The information was supplied. In
the report we find the following paragraph:
“As to the particular mode of instruction best calculated to com-
municate to the young mind the greatest quantity of useful knowl-
edge in a given time, and with the least expense, the commission-
ers beg leave to observe that there are a variety of new methods
lately adopted, in various parts of Europe, of imparting instruc-
tion to youths, some of which methods have been partially intro-
duced into the United States. The Lancasterian plan, as it is called
which has been recently introduced in some of the large towns
of the United States, merits the serious consideration of the
Legislature. As an expeditious and cheap mode of instructing
a large number of scholars, it stands unrivaled, and the certificates
of the Trustees of the New York Free School, together with those
of diverse tutors, carry with them the evidence of its vast utility
and success. The commissioners, therefore, recommend that a
number of Lancaster’s books, containing an account of his teach-
ing, etc., be printed by order of the Legislature and distributed
among the several towns of this state.”
The progress of the movement outside of New York City is
most conveniently indicated by the organization of Lancaster
*L. to C., v. 8, p. 56.
*Randall, p. 21.
118 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
school societies. The “Albany Lancaster School Society” was
incorporated May 26, 1812.* The school organized by the so-
ciety later became a city institution. In 1816 a Schenectady Lan-
caster School Society was authorized and continued in existence
for a quarter of a century.” The Catskill Lancaster School So-
ciety” was incorporated by the act of March 14, 1817,” and
abolished by an act of April 20, 1830: (Chap. 284). By an act of
April 15, 1817,” a number of men of Hudson incorporated into a
society for the establishment of a Lancasterian school which con-
tinued in existence long after Clinton's death. And finally the
“Monitorial School Society,” in the village of Lansingburgh was
incorporated April 14, 1827.” The next year Clinton died and it
is significant that no more Lancasterian School Societies were or-
ganized.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
By the opening of the nineteenth century, the system of second-
ary education in New York State had been fairly well established
and its details well organized. There was little opportunity in
this field and consequently it is here that Clinton's influence on
education was least felt. His connection with secondary educa-
tion may be briefly stated. He was Secretary of the Board of
Regents from 1794 to 1797 and was elected Regent in 1808 and
continued as such until his death. He visited academies and re-
ported on their work, and took a prominent part in the promotion
of medical education, as will be noted later.
Another phase of this movement which attracted Clinton's atten-
tion, probably to a greater extent that we can now trace, is the
high school movement. The men identified with this movement
were Clinton's personal friends who had worked with him in
several of the philanthropic-educational movements previously
discussed. The leader of this movement was John Griscom, who
travelled extensively in Europe, noting especially the monitorial
high schools in Scotland, and who embodied his experience in a
noteworthy book “A Year in Europe.” It was Clinton who sup-
plied him with the introductions to the prominent people in Europe
52Chap. 55, Laws of 1812.
58Hough, p. 430.
54Chap. 87, Laws of 1817.
55Chap. 272, Laws of 1817.
59Chap. 272, Laws of 1827.
Influence on Formal Education II9
whom he met. Under these circumstances it is a safe inference
that Clinton was consulted in the planning and organization of the
High School Society. This inference becomes a certainty—at
least a probability—when considered in connection with certain
other facts. The High School Society proposed establishing
monitorial high schools—a favorite idea of Clinton's. In the first
report of this society (1824), and thereafter, Clinton's name is
found among the stockholders. The Society was incorporated
the following year (1825) when Clinton became Governor.
The great immediate problem in secondary education was to
secure adequate funds to support the system. This was accom-
plished at the time by means of the Literature Fund. The
first step in this direction was taken in 1790 when the
Legislature authorized the Regents to lease out certain land and
apply the rents and profits to aid the academies and colleges of
the State. It will be noticed that this provided for no capital, and
hence it missed its opportunity.
This was remedied by the act of 1813. An act passed April
I2,” directed that the Crumhorn Mountain tract be sold for the
benefit of academies as the Regents of the University might di-
rect. It was sold and $10,416 capital was thereby added to the
Literature Fund. The next day there was passed “An act to au–
thorize the sale of lands appropriated for the promotion of
literature.” By this act the commissioners of the Land Office
were required to sell all the land formerly granted for the pro-
motion of literature, in the Military tract, and in Chenango and
Broome counties, and to invest the proceeds as best calculated to
secure the principal and interest. From a report made in 1818,
it appears that funds amounting to $29,735.09 were derived from
the sale of these lands.
Evidence is wanting as to Clinton's direct connections with
these laws. However, we know that he was actively interested
in the distribution of the Common School Fund during these
very years, and it is not unlikely that these bills received some of
His attention and assistance.
The two succeeding laws on the subject were passed during
57Chap. 187, Laws of 1813.
58Chap. 191, Laws of 1813.
12o The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
Clinton's first and last terms as Governor. In 1819" the arrears
of quit rents were divided equally between the Literature and
Common School Funds. In 1827° securities of the Canal Fund,
amounting to $150,000, were transferred to the Literature Fund.
The income from the total fund under control of the Regents,
including this addition, was to be distributed to the incorporated
academies and seminaries, not colleges, which were under the
control of the Regents, or that might place themselves under their
control, on the basis of the number of pupils instructed during the
preceding year, who had pursued classical studies or the higher
branches of an English education, or both.
*Chap. 222, Laws of 1819.
*Chap. 225, Laws of 1827.
CHAPTER VIII
INFLUENCE ON SPECIAL FORMS OF EDUCATION
EDUCATION OF WOMEN
Clinton's most significant relation to the higher education of
women is through the academies. But, by way of introduction
and because of its own significance, we shall state the provisions.
made by the Free School Society for the elementary education of
girls. In this connection it will be necessary to state some pre-
liminary facts regarding the Female Association.
In March, 1798, there was formed by several ladies of the
Quaker persuasion an “Association for the Relief of the Sick
Poor.” While only Quakers could become members, it was,
provided that no relief be afforded to any of the people called
Quakers. The purpose of the society was wider than the name in-
dicates, for in 18OI they opened a school for boys and girls pro-
viding “that instruction which was best suited to the conditions.”
Their plans are indicated in the following quotation:
“The Association of Women Friends for the Relief of the
Poor, having concluded that a part of their funds should be ap-
propriated to the education of poor children of the following de-
Scription, viz., those whose parents belong to no religious society,
and who, from some cause or other, cannot be admitted into any
of the charity schools of this city, have appointed the following
persons as a committee to open a school for that purpose: Lydia
P. Mott, Caroline Bowne, Sarah Collins, May Minturn, Jr.,
Hannah Bowne, and Susan Collins, who have, agreeably to per-
mission, rented a room at the rate of £16 per annum, and en-
gaged a widow woman of good education and morals as an in-
structor, and allowed her a salary of £30 a year to be advanced at.
the discretion of the committee which met at the school room, on
the 28th of the I2 month.”
*Bourne, p. 653.
I 2 I
I22 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
These women became convinced that their plans could be
much more advantageously prosecuted by admitting only girls,
and they therefore discharged the boys.
It will be readily noticed that the germ of the Free School Society
is contained in the efforts of these ladies. The field of endeavor
of both would have been the same. The discharge of the boys
made some provision for them necessary. We can readily be-
lieve that the Female Association interested the men in the propo-
sition, when we remember the character of these women, and
especially the fact that several of the leaders of the association
were members of the families of the trustees of the Free School
Society.
The Free School Society provided in almost all of its schools
accommodations for the association's girls. Soon after the Free
School No. I was erected, accommodations were offered to and
accepted by the association, and about six years later an ad-
ditional room was provided for it. In December, 1811,
apartments in No. 2 were offered and accepted as a school
for girls. Similar provisions with similar oversight were made
in the successive buildings until 1828 when the association ceased
to conduct schools for girls. This was due to the fact that the
law of 1828 deprived the association of a share of the school
fund. With its own funds thereafter the association conducted
infant schools.
By the law of ISI3 schools not incorporated were excluded
from the benefits of the Common School Fund. The friends of
the association immediately took action and the association was
incorporated by an act of March 26, 1813. Another act passed
April 12, 1819, permitted the association to use the school money
for purposes other than that for the payment of teachers’ salaries.
We may be sure that Clinton's influence was at the service of the
society in both instances.
As already noted, Clinton in his message of 1819 said, “Beyond
initiatory instruction the education of the female sex is utterly
excluded from the contemplation of our laws.” This was rem-
edied at the session of 1819; for on March 19 there was passed
an act to incorporate the Female Academy at Waterford.” Com-
*Chap. 52, Laws of 1819.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I23
menting on this, Clinton said: “As this is the first attempt ever
made in this country to promote the education of the female sex
by the patronage of the government . . . . I trust that you
will not be deterred by common-place ridicule from extending
your munificence to this meritorious institution.”
The next year, another female academy or seminary was in-
corporated, still another in 1821, two more in 1822 and an act
passed for the relief of the trustees of the Albany Female
Academy, and one in 1825. These were: in 1820, March 24,” the
Female Seminary in the village of Catskill; in 1821, Feb. 6,” the
Female Academy in the City of Albany; in 1822, March 15,” the
Female Seminary at Newtown, Long Island, and on April 12,” the
Female Academy in Cooperstown, and in 1825, April 14," the
Female Seminary in Canandaigua. During the year of Clinton's
death (1828), two female academies were incorporated. The
Albany Female Seminary (April 9),” and the Cortland Female
Seminary (April 18),” and an act was passed to relieve the
Cooperstown Female Academy (April 19).”
The Female Seminary in the village of Catskill was the only
institution not organized.* All these institutions were in exist-
ence at the middle of the century and many are in existence to-day.
It may be well to indicate briefly the progress of the movement
for the ten succeeding years. During 1829 and 1830 no academies
were incorporated; during 1831 one was, the Buffalo Female
Seminary,” which, however, was not admitted by the Regents.
In 1833 the Bernville Academy and Female Seminary” was
incorporated, but was not organized. In 1834 the Poughkeepsie
Female Seminary was incorporated.” During the next year no
female academy or seminary was incorporated, but during the
four succeeding years twelve more were incorporated. In 1836
three, the Fulton Female Seminary,” the Mount Pleasant Female
Seminary” and the Poughkeepsie Female Academy;" in 1837
*Chap. 106, Laws of 1820. 11PHough, p. 597.
*Chap. 53, Laws of 1821. *Chap. 227, Laws of 1831.
*Chap. 53, Laws of 1822. *Chap. 51, Laws of 1833.
*Chap. 183, Laws of 1822. *Chap. 40, Laws of 1834.
"Chap. 149, Laws of 1825. *Chap. 447, Laws of 1836.
*Chap. 189, Laws of 1828. *Chap. 288, Laws of 1836.
*Chap. 256, Laws of 1828. *Chap. 286, Laws of 1836.
19Chap. 282, Laws of 1828.
124 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
four; the Rochester Female Academy,” the Schenectady Young
Ladies’ Institute,” the Troy Female Seminary” (which had
been in existence with Mrs. Willard as principal since 1821), and
the Utica Female Academy;” in 1838 three, the Auburn Female
Seminary,” the Batavia Female Academy,” and the Rutgers
Female Institute;” in 1839 two, the Amsterdam Female Semin-
ary” and the Seward Female Seminaries.” -
It is noteworthy at this point that in the seven years after
Clinton’s death but three female academies were incorporated,
and of these three one was not organized, and one was refused ad-
mission to the University by the Regents.
Summary. When it is remembered that in 1819 the secondary
education of girls was, to use Clinton's phrase, a matter of com-
mon-place ridicule, and that in the succeeding nine years eight
female academies were incorporated, only one of which was not
organized, great credit must be given to Clinton for his cham-
pionship of so worthy a cause and more for the results that were
accomplished. The almost total collapse of the movement after
his death is, from the legislative standpoint, indirect evidence of
the strength of his influence. However, after 1835 the movement
acquired new strength.
EDUCATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTs
B. K. Pierce in his book “A Half Century with Juvenile De-
linquents,” which is a history of the New York House of Refuge,
says: “De Witt Clinton was Governor of the State; the managers
of the House of Refuge were his intimate friends; he had be-
come personally interested in their benevolent movements and
familiar with the discipline of the new institution. The Governor
ever remained a strong friend of the House of Refuge. Mr.
Maxwell in his happy speech at the opening of the present House
in referring to the early friends of the institution spoke warmly
of Governor Clinton.” This statement, together with the quota-
18Chap. 231, Laws of 1837. *Chap. 55, Laws of 1838.
19Chap. 283, Laws of 1837. *Chap. 192, Laws of 1838.
20Chap. 339, Laws of 1837. *Chap. 3, Laws of 1839.
*Chap. 284, Laws of 1837. *Chap. 130, Laws of 1839.
*Chap. 279, Laws of 1838.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I25
tion from the messages, shows that in this problem Clinton was
keenly interested and actively engaged. How successful his ad-
vocacy of the needs of the Society for Juvenile Delinquents, is
indicated below. -
During the interim between Clinton's two periods as Governor
(on March 29, 1824) there was passed “An act to incorporate
the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the
City of New York.” The most significant section of the act
follows:
“And be it further enacted that the said managers shall have
power in their discretion to receive and take into the House of
Refuge, to be established by them all such children who shall be
taken up or committed as vagrants or convicted of criminal Of-
fenses in the said city, as may, in the judgment of the Court of
General Sessions of the peace (or other proper authority) . . . .
be proper objects, and the said managers shall have power to
place the children committed to their care, during the minor-
ity of said children at such employment, and to cause them to be
instructed in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be suit-
able to their years and capacities, and they shall have power in
their discretion to bind out the said children with their consent
as apprentices, as servants during their minority to such persons
and at such places, to learn such proper trades and employments
as in their judgment will do most for the reformation and amend-
ment and the future benefit and advantage of such children. Pro-
vided such charge and power . . . . shall not extend to
females beyond the age of 18 years.”
Clinton became Governor in 1825. He made no specific recom-
mendation except to remind the Legislature of their duty, because
as he said: “I understand that a board composed of intelligent
men have been charged by the Legislature to consider this sub-
ject and that their report will in due time be presented to you.”
However, there was passed, April 9, 1825,” “An act in Aid of
the Managers of the Society for Juvenile Delinquents in the City
of New York.” It provided for the payment to the society, out
of moneys not otherwise appropriated, the sum of two thousand
dollars annually for five years—the first payment to be made on
May 1, 1825. *
In the 1826 message we have the noteworthy commendation
*Chap. 107, Laws of 1825.
126 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
of the institution as the “best penitentiary institution ever de-
vised by the wit and established by the beneficence of man.”
During the same month—January 28, 1826—there was passed
“An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to incorporate the So-
ciety for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City of
New York, passed March 29, 1824, and for other purposes.”
This act provided that “the managers . . . . shall receive
and take into the House of Refuge all such children as shall be
convicted of criminal offenses in any city or county of this state.”
The duties of the managers are the same as in the original act.
It provided also by way of support that the commissioners in
charge of the Marine Hospital should pay over to the Juvenile
Delinquent Society all money in excess of the expenses. In ad-
dition it provided that they shall “also pay the balance or surplus
as the one administering the government may think necessary
for the erection of a House of Refuge for Female Juvenile De-
linquents.” The one “administering the government” apparently
thought a House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents necessary,
for we find in the message of 1827:
“The provision made at the session for the extension and Sup-
port, in the City of New York, of a House of Refuge for juvenile
delinquents has been faithfully and beneficially applied. A
separate and accommodating building has been erected for fe-
males, and schools on the monitorial plan have been successfully
established. The institution now contains 131 males and 30 fe-
males who have been rescued from the most abject debasement
and it is preventive as well as remedial in its influence. It must
be considered a noble, as well as successful experiment in favor
of humanity.”
Summary. Clinton's interest in the work of the Society for the
Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents was shown by his elaborate
and enthusiastic comments in his messages. These messages, too,
were not without legislative effect. There was no specific refer-
ence to the Society in the 1825 message, though an appropriation
act was passed the following April, which Clinton approved. The
extension of the work of the society recommended by the mes-
sage of 1826 was embodied in Chapter 24, Laws of 1826. This
law provided, at the option of the one administering the govern-
*Chap. 24, ILaws of 1826.
Influence on Special Forms of Education 127
ment (Clinton), for a House of Refuge for Female Juvenile De-
linquents. Clinton exercised his option, for in the 1826 message,
is found the statement that adequate provision had been made for
WO111611.
EDUCATION OF DEAF AND DUMB
The beginnings for the education for the deaf and dumb were
not auspicious. The men interested in the movement were not
getting along amicably. Clinton in a letter dated from Albany,
Dec. 16, 1817, to a person connected with the Hartford Institu-
tion, says: “I received your two letters respecting the education
of the Deaf and Dumb and thank you for these kind attentions.
An institution for that purpose has been incorporated and organ-
ized in New York, but it has done nothing. The first requisite
is to raise funds and when I was lately in that city I turned my at-
tention to the subject, but the truth is there is so much littleness
on the part of many of the managers that I am afraid nothing
efficient will be done.”
However, in the message of January, 1819, Clinton could say
that “the New York Institution for the instruction of the Deaf
and Dumb has deserved well of the friends of humanity and that
he cherishes the fullest confidence that you (the Legislature)
will take this interesting establishment under your especial pro-
tection and that your munificence will only be exceeded by its
merits.” The act of incorporation made De Witt Clinton presi-
dent. In the list of names and addresses of officers and directors
we find naturally the names of many friends of Clinton. In the
list of those elected May 22, 1819, Clinton's name is found in the
list of directors. -
To what extent the Legislature responded to the appeal of
Clinton the following facts show. It will be necessary at first,
however, to refer back to the article of incorporation. The act
to incorporate the members of the New York Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb had been passed April 15, 1817.” It was formed
according to this act, “for the purpose of affording the necessary
means of instruction for the Deaf and Dumb–and also pro-
vides for the support and maintenance of those in that condition
whose parents are unable to maintain them during their course of
*Chap. 244, Laws of 1817.
I28 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
tuition.” The act made the members a body corporate and politic
in fact and in name, with the usual privileges. It was to continue
in force until April 1, 1837, and the act is declared to be a public
act. - . . . . * * :
An act relative to Lotteries was passed April 13, 1819.”
Section 36 provides that half of the fines and forfeitures under
this act shall go to the person who shall prosecute violations of
it, and the other half, if offenses are committed in the City of
New York, shall be equally divided between this institution and
the Free School Society. Section 38 provided that these institu-
tions should report to the Comptroller the several sums received.
The same day another act was passed. This was “An act in Aid
of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and
Dumb.” This act appropriated for the institution the sum of
ten thousand dollars, provided no part of the sum shall be used
for purchase of land or erection of building, and required an au-
nual report.
Section 13 of “An act to provide for the payment of certain
officers of government and for other purposes” passed April 3,
1821,” provides that two thousand five hundred dollars shall be
paid to the treasurer for the charitable purposes of the institu-
tion during the ensuing year.
There was passed on April 16, 1822, “An act to provide for
the instruction of the indigent deaf and dumb within this state.”
Without going into the machinery of selecting the pupils, this act
provided that each senate district (of which there were eight)
was entitled to send four indigent deaf and dumb persons be-
tween the ages of ten and twenty-five to the institution. These
were to be provided with board and tuition for a period not
exceeding three years. The state was to pay one hundred and
fifty dollars per year for each pupil. It was further provided
that if there were any indigent deaf and dumb still remaining,
the supervisors of the county could send them on the same terms
as the state, adding only their travelling expenses. This money
was to be raised and levied according to the sixth section of the
act to support common schools.
80Chap. 212, Laws of 1819.
*iChap. 238, Laws of 1819.
*Chap. 22, 1 aws of 1821.
*L. B., v. 12, p. 59.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I29
In response to a letter from Clinton dated December 20, 1824,
Samuel Akerly, Secretary of the Institution, advises him that the
present age limits should be maintained, and at the suggestion of
the head teacher adds that the period of instruction should be
increased to five or six years. The “Act extending and sup-
plementary to certain acts providing for the Indigent Deaf and
Dumb within the State,” was passed April 18, 1825, and ex-
tended the period of instruction to four years.” It extended the
act five years from May 1, 1826. It provided, further, that
pupils might be taken from districts already sending the full num-
ber allowed to them until the limit established by law for the
entire state was reached. This act also provided for a second
asylum—The Central Asylum.
“An act to provide for the building of an asylum for the deaf
and dumb in the City of New York,” passed March 23, 1827,”
appropriated ten thousand dollars upon the condition that the in-
stitution raise an equal sum. It also provided:
“That it shall be the duty of the Superintendent of Common
Schools from time to time to inquire into the expenses of said
institution and the system of instruction pursued therein; to visit
and inspect the schools and the lodgings of the pupils; to ascertain
by a comparison with other similar institutions, whether any im-
provement can be made, and for that purpose to appoint such
and so many persons as he shall from time to time deem necessary,
visitors of the said school; to suggest to the Directors and to the
Legislature such improvements as he shall deem expedient and
report annually to the Legislature in all the matters aforesaid and
particularly the conditions of the schools, the improvement of the
pupils and their treatment in respect to their board and their
lodging.”
On April 15, 1830, an act was passed almost doubling the num-
ber of state pupils and extending the act five years from May 1,
1831.
Summary. Clinton was made president of the Society for the
first year by the act of incorporation and continued during the
following years as a director. He did not retain the presidency
because of his election as Governor. His appeals to the Legis-
84 Chap. 189, Laws of 1825.
35Chap. 97, Laws of 1827.
130 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
lature found immediate response in the acts which have just been
passed in review. These provided generously for the financial
support of the institutions, especially the New York City one, for
an effective means of organization and oversight, for increasing
facilities for the instruction of deaf and dumb, for increasing
the numbers who may profit by such instruction, and for lengthen-
ing the term during which the deaf and dumb may be instructed.
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
There was given in Chapter III Clinton's complete program as
outlined in his message of 1818. The recommendations con-
tained therein were not carried into effect during the session of
1818. As a result we find the following statement in the message
of 1819: “I have to express my regret at the failure of a
measure generally admitted to be proper and expedient, on ac-
count of a difference of opinion as to its modifications. That this
important pursuit is the foundation of wealth, power and prosper-
ity; that it requires the energies of the mind, as well as the labor
of the body; that it demands the light of science to guide its
progress, and munificence of government to accelerate its move—
ment, to extend its usefulness and to diffuse its blessings, are
positions which can not be controverted.” After much further
pointed discussion he recommends: “The Board of Agriculture
ought also to be invested with authority to make a statistical
survey of the State and to obtain periodical return of births, mar-
riages and deaths . . . . complete information of the state
of the country, with a view to its melioration, would effect great
improvements in the practical pursuits of life, would open new
and important views in the science of political philosophy; a
science of all others the most interesting and the least understood.
The special designation of a fund for these objects either by some
of the expedients proposed at the session, or by others which can
be easily devised, is required by every description of public spirit
and public duty.”
The effect of this was the act of April 7, 1819.* The first sec-
tion of this act provided an appropriation of ten thousand dollars
annually for two years for the promotion of agriculture and fam-
ily domestic manufacturers. It further apportioned the amount.
*Chap. 107, Laws of 1819.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I31
among the various counties, e.g., Albany was to receive three
hundred and fifty dollars.
Section two provided that any agricultural society which would
secure by voluntary subscription any sum of money and sub-
scribe an affidavit to be filed with the comptroller should receive
an equal amount, “not, however, in any case exceeding the
amount to which such county or counties would be entitled accord-
ing to the apportionment aforesaid.” -
In the message of 1820 there is a statement of Clinton's evident
pleasure at the passage of the bill during the last session. But not
satisfied he observes that the excellence of the provisions for the
promotion of agriculture may be “augmented” by extending the
duration of the act, by augmenting the fund and by enlarging the
powers of the supervisory board. This resulted in the passage
of the act of March 24, 182O,” entitled “An act to extend an act
entitled ‘An act to improve the agriculture of this state, passed
April 7, 1819, and for other purposes.” Section one extended the
provisions of the act for four years with the exception of the
eighth and last clause. Section two provided an appropriation of
five hundred dollars “to enable them (the members of the Board
of Agriculture) to buy such books as they deem necessary to aid
them in publishing their annual volume and in the diffusion of cor-
rect agricultural information.” It provided further for an annual
appropriation of one hundred seventy five dollars for five years
for the counties of Cattaraugus and Niagara, provided they should
form an agricultural society. The fourth section authorized that
the Legislature might at any time amend or repeal the act.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Clinton's most significant relation to the education of mechanics,
apart from his encouragement of apprentices’ libraries, is in con-
nection with the Rensselaer School. A word may be said about
two other institutions: The General Society of Mechanics and
Tradesmen of the City of New York, and the Mechanic and
Scientific Institute. Clinton approved on January 26, 1821, “An
act to amend an act entitled ‘An act relative to the General So-
ciety of Mechanics and Tradesmen in the City of New York,
87Chap. 97, Laws of 1820.
132 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
passed April 3, 1811,'” which permitted the society to “appropri-
ate part of their funds to the support of a school for the gratuitous
education of the children of deceased or indigent members of the
said Society, and also to the establishment of an apprentice li-
brary, for the use of the apprentices of mechanics in the City
of New York.” Section two provided that the society “may
be by law entitled to a portion of the money, arising from the
general school fund.”
Clinton approved the next year (March 22, 1822) the act in-
corporating the Mechanic and Scientific Institute. The preamble
informs us that the association was formed for the “purpose of
instituting and maintaining scientific and practical lectures ap-
plicable to the acts, and for collecting and forming a repository
of machinery, tools, and generally, for enlarging the knowledge
and improving the condition of mechanics, artisans and manu-
facturers.” In the message of 1825 is a recommendation in
favor of the institution, “the first organized school of its kind
in the world.” Therein Clinton recommended that the City and
State may grant from contiguous property, owned by them and
unoccupied, an appropriate site on which the institution may con-
struct a building adequate for its purposes. The site was
granted.
The incorporation of the Rensselaer School must have pleased
Clinton immensely. Here was a splendid illustration of what
Clinton had already said of the Mechanic and Scientific Institute
of New York that “it is destined to increase the character of
our mechanic interest, by applying philosophy to the arts,
and imparting the benefits of science to that most useful body
of our fellow citizens.” It was the practical embodiment of
what Clinton praised so highly in his Phi Beta Kappa address:
the experimental method of Bacon. It was, too, a big step in
restoring the “most important interest and the most numerous
calling—agriculture—to its merited intellectual rank.” And
again it was in line with Clinton’s recommendation in his message
of the very year of the incorporation of the school. After
stating that agriculture “demands and deserves your fostering
patronage,” he goes on to say: “A wide and unexplored field lies
before us. Experimental and pattern farms, plantation of use-
ful trees for ship building, architecture and fuel; labor saving
Influence on Special Forms of Education I33
machines; improved seeds and plants of those productions now
used; new modes of cultivation, and the whole range of rural
economy are subjects deserving your animating support.”
On March 21 of the year this recommendation was made
Clinton signed the bill which incorporated the Rensselaer School.
Because this school deserves greater attention than it has yet
received in the history of American education, and because the
statement is so similar to what Clinton had been wont to say
whenever this subject was discussed, it is well to quote the pre-
amble of this act:
“Whereas the Honorable Stephen Van Rensselaer has procured
suitable buildings in the City of Troy in Rensselaer County and
there has set up a school and at his own private expense, has fur-
nished the same with a scientific library, chemical and philosoph-
ical apparatus, instruments for teaching land surveying, and
other branches of practical mathematics which are useful to the
agriculturalist, the machinist, and to other artists, and furnished
separate and commodious rooms for instruction in natural philoso-
phy, natural history, the common operation of chemicals, and an
assay room for the analysis of soils, manures, minerals and animal
and vegetable matter with the application of these departments
of Science to agriculture, domestic economy and the arts.
“And whereas said Van Rensselaer has employed teachers and
caused an experimental system of instruction to be adopted by
them, whereby each student is required to observe the operation
of the select number of agriculturalists and artists in vicinity of
said school and to demonstrate the principles upon which the re-
Sults of such operations depend, by experiment and specimens
performed and exhibited by his own hands under the directions
of said teachers, and whereas one important object of said
school is to qualify teachers for instructing youth in villages and
common School districts belonging to the class of foreigners and
mechanics, by lectures or otherwise in the application of the most
important principles of experimental chemistry, natural phil-
OSophy and practical mathematics to agriculture. domest's
econemy, and art, and manufacturers. And whereas the
trustees of said school who were appointed to take charge thereof
by said Van Rensselaer by an instrument of writing dated No-
vember 5th in the year 1824, had represented to the Legislature
that after having tested the plan of said school by a trial of one
year, they find it to be practicable and in their opinion highly
beneficial to the public. And whereas the Legislature considers
it their duty to encourage such laudable efforts and such muni-
ficient application of the surplus wealth of individuals,” it in-
corporated the school.
134 The Educational Views and I nfluence of De Witt Clinton
It would seem fair to infer that Clinton had a hand in the
plan and organization of this school, because it was the embodi-
ment of so many of his cherished ideas, and because of his
personal friendship with the founder, and his service with him
on the Board of Canal Commissioners; yet there is no more
positive evidence to support the inference.
However, Clinton addressed the Honorable the Assembly on
February 8, 1828 as follows: “I lay before you certain proceedings
of the trustees of the Rensselaer School at Troy, by which it
appears that they offer gratuitous use of the school to the State
for the purpose of educating teachers in the application of the
experimental sciences to agriculture and the useful arts. The
importance of the subject and the liberality of the offer will, I
am pursuaded, ensure your attention to this communication.”
Clinton transmitted with this message (I) the proceedings of
the trustees, (2) two letters from Van Rensselaer to Dr. Blatch-
ford. The one dated Albany, November 4, 1826, practically
gave Dr. Blatchford complete control of the institution; the
other is given below in full, and (3) the letter of transmittal ad-
dressed to Governor Clinton dated February 4, 1828. The sec-
Ond letter to Dr. Blatchford follows:
“Hous E OF REPRESENTATIVEs, December 31, 1827.
“DEAR SIR:
“I take the liberty of suggesting to you and the trustees the
propriety of offering the school (over which you preside with so
much dignity and usefulness) to the Legislature to educate
teachers as proposed by Governor Clinton in his message at a
former Session of the Legislature—perhaps an amendment to
the charter extending the power of the trustees to change the lo-
cation of the school if they deem it necessary.”
The Governor's message and the accompanying material were
first referred to the Committee on Colleges, Academies and Com-
mon Schools, and then to the Regents. The Regents returned
a highly favorable report signed by John Tayler, Chancellor,
and Gideon Hawley, Secretary. One paragraph may be here
quoted:
“The public advantages to be derived from accepting the offer
of the trustees of the Rensselaer School derive their principal
importance from the consideration, Ist, That a knowledge of
Influence on Special Forms of Education I35
the science taught in that school is indispensable to the improve-
ment and permanence of our manufacturing establishment, 2d,
That this knowledge may be obtained there in a shorter time, at
less expense and in a more efficient form than in any other exist-
ing school, and 3d, That, the public interest requires its dif-
fusion in the most expeditious way and most practical form.”
The matter was again referred to the Committee on Colleges,
Academies and Common Schools. But apparently nothing be-
came of it. Probably if Clinton had lived, his power and influ-
ence would have secured favorable action in the matter.
Summary. Clinton had deep and abiding interest in the edu-
cation of mechanics. Apparently his election to the governor-
ship was a signal for attempts to secure legislative enactments,
for we have the act amending the charter of the General Society
of Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York City and the act in-
corporating the Mechanic and Scientific Institute passed by
the Legislature and signed by Clinton during his first period of
governorship. His most significant relation to the education of
mechanics is through the Rensselaer School. This was incor-
porated at the beginning of Clinton's second period of governor-
ship. It was the expression of so many of Clinton's cherished
ideas that it does not seem unlikely that he was consulted in the
organization of the institution. The transmission of the special
message of 1827 to the Legislature, together with the accom-
panying material, showed that at that time Clinton was in con-
sultation with the officers of the school. The change proposed by
the founder had its inspiration in a previous message of Clinton's.
Clinton died a week after the special message was transmitted.
We can be sure that had he lived the proposition would have
been accepted by the State.
MEDICAL EDUCATION
Clinton was especially interested in medical education. As a
Regent of the University his work was devoted mainly to the
medical schools. His relations with medical education center
about his work as a Regent and his recommendations as Gover-
nor.” His work as Regent settled the disgraceful quarrels be-
*New York State Assembly Journal, 1829, p. 282.
*Clinton's work as a Regent was largely concerned with the College of
Physicians and Surgeons. He was one of a committee of three to report on
136 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
tween the rival medical faculties and gave New York at least
one efficient medical school. His recommendations as Governor
related to raising the educational requirements and protecting
the New York schools from the rivalry of institutions in neigh-
boring states having inferior educational requirements.
The first topic relates to Clinton's connection with the medical
colleges. A full medical faculty was organized in connection with
Columbia in 1769, and in May, I770, the first degree of M. D. was
granted in America. But the institution did not prosper and
was discontinued. In the autumn of 1791 the private associa-
tion, under the superintendence of Nicholas Romayne introduced
no fewer than sixty medical students into the college and there-
by prevailed on the Legislature of the state to make a grant of
$30,000 to the trustees for the purpose of enabling them to
enlarge their building. But owing to “internal jealousies and
outward prejudices,” the institution did not prosper and was
finally discontinued in 1810. -
However, in the meantime, the Regents of the University,
being satisfied that a proposed institution in the City of New
York might be “of public importance in the diffusing the knowl-
edge of the healing art,” granted to the Medical Society of the
County of New York a charter incorporating the members of
the Society into a College of Physic and Surgery with all the
rights and privileges as might conduce to the promotion of
medical knowledge and public good. Here, too, the “internal
jealousies and outward prejudices” were at work. In April,
1811, a committee of the Regents reported “that unfortunate
misunderstandings have taken place between several professors
of that institution, which have already materially impeded its
operation and unless something effectual be done by the Regents,
it will become degraded in the estimation of the public and its
usefulness be inevitably destroyed.” The report goes on to
the “professorships and officials proper to be established for the College of
Physicians and Surgeons,” and such regulations as will be necessary to
carry into effect the charter (Minutes of the Regents, Ms., v. 1, p. 289). We
notice Clinton’s share in the union of the College of Physicians and Surgeons
and the Medical School of Columbia, College. The report of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons was frequently referred to Clinton. On page 322
of volume 1, and page 127 of volume 2 of the Minutes of the Regents we find
able and elaborate reports made by Clinton on this subject.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I37.
state that the union of both medical colleges was an object of
the first importance.”
The suggestion apparently originated with Clinton. At least
Dr. Hosack said: “At that time the Mayor of this city, a
member of the Board of Regents (De Witt Clinton), communi-
cated to me an outline of the measures which in his opinion
would be proper to adopt in order to place the medical School
upon a permanent basis.
“The great object proposed was to unite, as far as was pos-
sible, the talents of both medical schools.
“Having thus freely expressed my individual opinion upon the
arrangements proposed, I also at the suggestion of Mr. Clinton
called a meeting of the Faculty of Physic of Columbia College
and communicated to them the contemplated plan of union.”
At a meeting of the Regents, April 1, 1811, it was “Resolved:
That the Regents living in the City of New York be a committee
to visit, in the recess, Columbia College and the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons and the Academy in the southern district,
and that they be authorized to signify to the Trustees of Co-
lumbia College that the object of the Regents in uniting the
medical institutions of said city is by combining the talents of the
professors in one seminary to render the state of medical educa-
tion more respectable and useful and that the said committee be
further authorized to request, in behalf of the Regents, the co-
operation of the said trustees, in carrying out the new arrange-
ments into effect.”
Clinton and the other Regents living in New York City sub-
mitted the following report:
To THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF
NEW YORK :
The Regents of the University having authorized the members
of that Board residing in the City of New York to effect a union
between the College of Physicians and Surgeons and Faculty of
Physic attached to Columbia College, the underwritten have the
honor to report that this object, so important to medical science,
*Hough, p. 380. The references to Hough are given rather than directly to
the manuscript Minutes of the Regents because the former is the more ac-
cessible.
*Hosack’s Observations, p. 2.
*Minutes, Board of Regents, v. 2, p. 24.
I38 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
has been accomplished with their approbation and satisfactorily
to all concerned. ---
The increased number of students and the flourishing condi-
tion of the College already exhibit the benefits which such an
auspicious arrangement was calculated to produce. It was
necessary to extend the list of professors in order to effect
this coalition and as this has, of course, produced a
correspondent combination of information and talents, the under-
written earnestly recommend it to the Regents to sanction the ar-
rangement without any alteration. To omit any of the professors
that have been nominated would have an invidious appearance
and might reintroduce that spirit of discord which is now happily
extinguished.
And the underwritten would further respectfully suggest to
the board the expediency of not making any new appointments
or arrangements in relation to this establishment unless rendered
absolutely necessary. The College is now in a flourishing way.
and the Regents having done all that duty and the interests of the
institution requires, any further interposition might have a ten-
dency to check instead of accelerating its prosperity.
Dated 22d of January, 1814. -
DE WITT CLINTON,
MATTHEw CLARKSON,
HENRY RUTGERS.**
Clinton's efficient aid in securing support for the College of
Physicians and Surgeons is indicated in the following paragraph
from the “Memoir of De Witt Clinton.” (1828)*
“The honor of the munificient appropriations made to our vari-
ous seminaries of learning must be shared by him with others, but
it would be unjust in me, a member of the medical profession, not
to acknowledge the debt of obligations in behalf of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons by which an institution humble and un-
pretending in its commencement, has been enabled in a few years,
to have held honorable competition with the oldest and most
powerful medical school in our country.”
The second topic relates to Clinton’s influence on medical edu-
cation during the period that he was Governor. References are
found to medicine and surgery in the messages of 1818, 1819,
182O, and 1826. The first is probably the most significant. It is
quoted in full in the preceding chapter and may be here sum-
marized. After commenting on the fact that an educated physi-
*Hough, pp. 156-7.
44P. 46.
Influence on Special Forms of Education I39
cian is not only a conservator of health, but a missionary of
science, he goes on to urge “a law rendering attendance upon
4ectures in the university an indispensable passport to medical
practise.” The immediate effect of this—though all that was
urged was not secured—was Chapter 206 of the Laws of 1818,
passed April 20. It provided besides the details of appeal from
the decision of county societies, a number of censors, etc., that
after May 1, 1821, a person to be admitted to examination as a
candidate to practice physic and surgery in New York State,
must have studied medical science for four years after his six-
teenth year of age with a regular physician and surgeon. It
provided, further, (I) that the requirement for any portion of
this time not exceeding a year could be satisfied by attendance in
either medical college of the state and (2) that persons attending
one or more complete courses of lectures delivered by each of the
professors in all branches of medical science in the medical in-
stitutions of this state or elsewhere, could count such attendance
in lieu of one year of study.
A further step in advance was taken the next year in Chapter
247 of the Laws of 1819, passed April 13. The second section of
this act provided that no student should be granted the degree
of doctor of medicine until he fully completed the requirements
as noted above and “shall also in addition thereto have attended
a complete course of lectures delivered by each of the professors
of such college.”
The next measure, apart from those bearing on the support of
the medical colleges and those in relation to the county societies,
was preventive. It was “An act relative to the degree of doctor
of medicine conferred by colleges without the state.” This law
may be quoted in full. It was enacted,
“That all diplomas granted by authorities out of this state to in-
dividuals who have pursued their studies in any medical college
not recognized by the laws of this state shall be void and have
no effect as it regards authorizing the said individuals to practice
physic and surgery in this state.”
Summary. At the end of the first decade of the nineteenth
century there were in New York City two medical schools, the
*Chap. 185, Laws of 1827.
140 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
one attached to Columbia College, and the College of Physicians
and Surgeons. Neither was eminently successful because its
work was hampered both internally and externally. To Clinton
it seemed desirable to unite the two institutions and, thereby, se–
cure to New York at least one successful medical school. Clinton
was made chairman of the committee of the Board of Regents to
effect this union, which, according to the report of January 22,
1814, was accomplished to the satisfaction of all concerned. As
Governor he continued his interest in the institution and so recom-
mended it frequently and successfully to the patronage of the
Legislature. Two other valuable things recommended by Clinton
were brought to pass by the Legislature with his own approval as
Governor, namely, making attendance at a university a necessary,
though, at first, it is merely a permissive qualification to become
a doctor of medicine, and preventing doctors with inferior qualifi-
cation from outside of New York from practising within the
State.
CHAPTER IX
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CLINTON'S EDUCATIONAL
INFLUENCE
THE PROBLEM OF THE CHAPTER
The first two chapters furnished the background for the present
study—a statement of the physical, social and educational con-
ditions at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The third
chapter stated the educational views of Clinton largely in his own
words for reasons heretofore explained. In Chapters V, VI, VII,
and VIII, was stated the educational influence of Clinton, both the
direct and indirect. These four chapters were statements of the
facts. There was no attempt to state the significance of these
facts. Their significance when viewed in the light of subsequent
history lies in this truth: that Clinton is entitled to a secure place—
and by no means a minor one—in the history of American educa-
tion. The detailed statement of this is the problem of this
chapter.
To Clinton belongs all the prestige of the pioneer. However,
his place is due not merely to the fact that he was among
the first in the field, but to the worth of the results ac-
complished. And when it is remembered that these were the
results of pioneer efforts we will the more readily grant, I
think, the contention that Clinton is one of our great American
educators. -
THE CHANGED ConDITIONS IN 1830
There can be no doubt in the mind of the student of the history
of New York State during this period that there was an intellectual
and moral awakening." It may be called, too, a period of origins
*By way of confirmation of our own conclusions and because of its perti-
nence here, we quote the following from Keep’s New York Society Library,
spp. 316–18 :
I4 I
142 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
and organization. The main concern here is the educational aspect.
It were a comparatively easy task to show Clinton's share in the
moral and humanitarian aspects of the movements from his
letter books, from letters written to him, and from his legislative
record. It would be found to be as important and extensive as
in the intellectual aspect. In fact, the whole educational move-
ment began as a philanthropic-humanitarian movement, and being
one expression of it, cannot, possibly, be separated from the other.
However, there is excluded from this study Clinton's connection
with such institutions as the Sailors Snug Harbor, for instance.
The foregoing statement is proved by contrasting the conditions
at the beginning of the century and at the end of our period.
In Chapter II there was noted, in a general way, the educational
conditions before Clinton took an active part in their improve-
ment. What, then, was accomplished by Clinton and his fellow
workers after their efforts of a quarter of a century? The fol-
lowing is a summary statement:
Elementary Education. Probably the greatest achievement was
the initiation and development of public elementary schools. In
New York City there had been successfully established a system
“Within a few years, however, there Came a change. Wounds inflicted
by the War of 1812 fast turned to unheeded scars; New York was soon again
on its bounding course toward predestined Supremacy in population and
Wealth. These Strides in local prosperity Seem happily to have been attended
or closely followed by a deepening inclination to reflect soberly on involved
responsibilities. Men felt constrained to look more scathingly to themselves,
their manners and their minds (as well as to their creature wants) and
to their fellows no less. The period from 1814 to 1830 may fairly be char-
acterized as an age of foundations. Under the influence of a Steadily grow-
ing humanizing Spirit, there began to flourish asylums for the bodily and
mentally infirm, institutions to encourage thrift and saving among working
people, societies for the relief of the poor and the destitute and a determined
effort to ameliorate the moral and physical condition of public offenders.
“Furthermore this moral awakening was accompanied, if not caused by
an intellectual stir, and renascence. The growth of American democracy,
the discussion of Socialistic views, a reaction against the hitherto accepted
tenets of theology, these played a part in stimulating desire for knowledge
and its dissemination. Promptings of this nature accordingly led to the
formation of Such associations as the Literary and Philosophical Society, the
Lyceum of Natural History, the New York Law Institute, the American Bible
Society and various Episcopal Theological Societies that culminated in the
establishment of the General Seminary ; the Mercantile and Apprentice Li-
brary and Other institutions of similar purport. But of them all, the one
which Seems to have attracted most widespread attention, and which cer-
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence 143
of public schools by a semi-public body—the Public School Society.
In this society Clinton was easily the dominant personality and
without his tremendous political and social influence, the Society
could not have done its great work. It was but a step to pass
from the control of this system by this society to its control by
a board of education, and that step was prepared for in the
legislation of 1826 and actually consummated in 1853. Many
of the other private philanthropic societies, aided by Clinton, pro-
vided free public education for special groups of normal chil-
dren, for example: The Economical School Society and the
Orphan Asylum Society. The education of girls was seriously
considered at this time and similar means for the elementary and
secondary education of boys and girls were provided. Nor was
the education of special classes neglected. Provision was made
for the education of the deaf and dumb in two well-equipped
and state-aided institutions. And a philanthropic society, in
which Clinton was interested, provided educational and other fa-
cilities for the reformation of juvenile delinquents.
The movement for free public schools was by no means con-
fined to New York City. The spread of the Lancasterian move-
ment throughout the State and country is evidence of this. Lan-
tainly gathered unto itself the Support of the community to a remarkable
degree was the New York Atheneum.”
The following two letters will be interesting in this connection. They are
another illustration of the fact that when Clinton was not active in an edu-
Cational or philanthropic movement he was probably consulted :
“ALBANY, 9 August, 1824.
“GENTLEMEN : -
“I feel honored by your invitation to pronounce an address at the opening
of the Atheneum and highly appreciate the principles and the organization
of the institution. I should be happy to show my respect for them and the
Bentlemen who have favored me with this call, did not my engagements
render my attendance impracticable.”
(Letter Books, V. 6, p. 212.)
“ALBANY, 9 August, 1824.
“DEAR SIR :
“I am much indebted to you for the pamphlet relative to the New York
Atheneum and entirely approve of the constitution and organization of the
institution. It will reflect honor on the City, as well as on its patrons, and
do much good to the cause of useful knowledge. -
“If you can excite a spirit sufficiently munificient in the community and
if the lecturers will devote themselves to the duties assigned to them, I am
persuaded that the patriotic and enlightened views of the founders of the
institution will be realized.”
(Letter Books, V. 6, p. 214.)
I44. The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
casterian societies were incorporated in seven cities of the State
and Lancasterian schools were established in many more. In
1828 there were according to the annual report of the State
Superintendent 441,856 children under instruction, whereas in
1800 there was no State Superintendent, and all schools were
private or charitable and the number attending unknown.
Infant Schools. Steps were taken toward the end of the period,
to provide for the education of children below the common
school age, from two to six years old, by the Infant School So-
ciety, which was organized at Clinton's suggestion. This so-
ciety received executive sanction in the message of 1827. The
movement was continued by the Public School Society and the
Female Association.
Higher Education. Higher education likewise made great
strides. In 18Oo there were 19 academies; in 1830 there were
58. In the 58 academies in 1830 there were 4,303 scholars of
whom 2,222 were academic scholars. In 1800 there were 2 col-
leges: Columbia and the recently organized Union. In 1830
there were 4, the new ones were Hamilton and Geneva. The
University of the City of New York was organized in 1831.
Professional Education. Columbia's was the only medical
school in the State at the beginning of the century and had but
2I students. In 1807 the College of Physicians and Surgeons
was chartered and was combined with Columbia in 1813. In
1831 there were 182 students and 33 graduates in the combined in-
stitution. In 1812 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the
Western District was chartered. In 1831 there were 205 students
attending and 39 graduates for that year. No law schools existed
in the State during this period. At the beginning of the century
there were no theological seminaries. In 1830 there were three:
The Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute established by
the Baptist Education Society incorporated in 1818, the Pres-
byterian Theological Seminary (1820) and the General Theo-
logical Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1822). It
will be noticed that all three were organized during Clinton's first
period as Governor.
The Less Formal Educational Agencies. The educational en-
vironment was even further extended through state encouragement
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence 145
and aid of the less formal educational agencies: libraries; lyceums
of natural history; literary, philosophical, historical, agricultural
and scientific societies. In this movement, Clinton was undoubt-
edly the foremost figure. Positive evidence has been presented
to sustain this contention. Indirect evidence vouched for by a
contemporary, himself a factor in this movement, is now offered.
Professor Renwick says with reference to the Literary and Phil-
OSophical Society that “other more important pursuits withdrew
him from its meetings, and with his personal attention the prosper-
ity of the society seems to have departed.” Again, with reference
to the Historical Society and the American Academy of Arts, the
same writer says: “The result of his resignation was disaster
to both institutions,” for, the statement goes on in substance, the
distinguished man who succeeded him could not maintain the
decided superiority over his fellows which Clinton was always
able to maintain. -
There was noted at great length in Chapter III Clinton's
reiterated and emphatic recommendations of educational insti-
tution to legislative patronage. In Chapters VI, VII, and VIII,
there was noted the success of these recommendations in the form
of grants to special institutions. More significant provision
was made for the support of education in the form of school
funds. In 18OO the Literature Fund was practically non-existent;
in 1830 the principal of the fund was $153,218 and the amount ap-
portioned $10,000, making an average of $172, to each of the
academies. The Common School Fund was non-existent in 1800;
in 1828, the capital of the fund was $1,630,825.05. The aggre-
gate amount of public money received and expended by the sev-
eral districts in the payment of wages of duly qualified teachers
was $222,995.77, of which $100,000 was paid from the state
treasury, $1 IO,542.32, raised by tax upon the several towns and
$12,453.45 from the proceeds of gospel and School lots and other
local funds. --
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LESS FORMAL EDUCATIONAL
AGENCIES
In Chapter III, the significance of Clinton's educational views
was stated. Not only did Clinton hold such views, but he tried
to make them socially effective by impressing them upon those
who were administering the social estate and their advisors. He
146 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
wished to make these views a social leaven. Consequently Clin-
ton expressed them upon every opportune occasion: in his
reports as chairman of legislative committees, in his guber-
natorial messages to the Legislature, in his addresses and in his
correspondence.
The next topic is closely akin to the last. It is the significance
of Clinton’s influence on the less formal educational agencies. At
the beginning of the century there were very few such agencies,
but at the end of the first quarter of the century they were con-
siderable in number and various in purpose. Chapter VI con-
tains a statement of Clinton's direct influence in stimulating and
organizing some of the typical ones. It is fairly certain that his
indirect influence was hardly less potent. In New York at that
time those agencies were much more significant as educational
forces than now—to a much greater extent they were the
centers of intellectual life. They made a much wider appeal.
One of the causes of the difference, is the different conceptions
of scholarship and learning. The scholarly man, then, was not
the specialist in a particular field of knowledge, or in a narrow
portion of it, but the general scholar.
But, morever, these agencies offered a means of development
and dissemination of the matter in new fields of knowledge and
to fairly well organized fields of knowledge which had not been
admitted as yet to the curriculum of the educational institutions.
This was notoriously true of science and modern history which
had not been admitted to the conventional curriculum of
Latin, Greek, and mathematics. With the recognition of these
fields of knowledge by the academies and colleges, the agencies
devoted to them became less significant. They tended to become
mere storehouses of documents or museums. .
However, Clinton saw their value in the situation in New York
at the time, and made them, by his active participation in their
work, very much more significant than they would otherwise have
become. This is shown by the fact that immediately upon his
withdrawal from the active participation in the affairs of these
societies, they languished Nevertheless their usefulness as edu-
cational factors persisted long beyond Clinton's time.
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence I47
THE MOVEMENT TowARDS FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Our interest normally centers in the next topic: The state-
ment of Clinton's share in the development of free public Schools.
That underlying all his efforts and the efforts of his colleagues
this was the great idea they were trying to work out, is evident
in the report of the Public School Society of the year of Clinton's
death. It reads: “The trustees have long been impressed with
the conviction that a system of Public Free Schools supported
by a general tax, and to which the children of all classes should
be admitted as a matter of right, and not of charity, is the most
republican plan, best agreeing with the genius of our institu-
tions and best calculated to foster those feelings of independence
in the poorer classes of society on which the welfare of the com-
munity so much depends.”
In the message of 1826 Clinton himself commenting on the
important change which has taken place in the free schools of
New York says that by an agreement between the corporation of
that city and the trustees of the Free School Society their schools
are to become public schools and consequently to admit the chil-
dren of the rich, as well as the poor. “And,” the statement con-
tinues, “by this annihilation of factitious distinctions there will
be a strong incentive for the display of talents and a felicitous ac-
commodation to the genius of republican government.” The meet-
ing during this year which settled the change of policy of the
society—making it a public school society—was attended by
Clinton and it was the only one he had attended in eight years.
However, though not present at the meetings, his influence in
other matters was exerted indirectly, but always powerfully.
An even more forceful expression of Clinton’s view is con-
tained in the 1827 message. After saying that seminaries for
general education are either not provided in the old world or
but imperfectly supplied by Charity and Sunday Schools, he
urges upon the Legislature to “spare no exertion and to shrink
from no earpense in the promotion of a cause consecrated by re-
ligion and enjoined by patriotism—the cause, let it be repeated,
is seminaries for general education,” i.e., free public schools.
There can be no doubt, after the foregoing statements have
been read, of the end Clinton had in mind. The steps in the evo-
lution toward this goal extend beyond Clinton's time. The
148 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
steps will now be indicated. As already noted the liberal Sup-
port of the society secured largely through Clinton's efforts made
the steps possible. The society was organized (1805) and in-
corporated for the establishment of a free school for those poor
children who were not being provided for in the religious charity
schools. The next step was taken by the act of April I, 1808,
“An act in relation to the Free School Society of New York,”
which extended the field of the society to all children who are the
proper object of a gratuitous education and changed the long
and cumbrous name of the society to “The Free School Society.”
The next step during Clinton’s life—and final one—was pro-
vided for in the act of January 28, 1826. This was also “An act
in relation to the Free School Society of New York.” It changed
the name of the society to the “Public School Society” and further
extended its powers so as to embrace all children whether the
objects of a gratuitous education or not. It permitted the
trustees to charge a fee, and still participate in the Common
School Fund. The factitious distinctions were not gotten rid of,
for a pay system was introduced. Even though the cost was
trivial, varying from twenty-five cents to two dollars, it worked
very unsatisfactorily.
It will be well to follow briefly the results of this act of 1826.
In February, 1827, a committee was appointed to report the effects
for the pay system. They reported that the true and legitimate
system for the public schools would be to open their doors to
all classes of children free of any expense and the only branches
that should be taught are such as have been designated, viz.,
reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic. However, the com–
mittee recommended that the fees be continued and that the
maximum fee be one dollar per quarter, and that the higher
branches be taught only to the more meritorious and by way of
reward. This report was not acted upon. However, a similar
report was accepted later.
On February 2, 1832, it was resolved: “That the pay system
be abolished.” During this same year the carrying out of the
permissive provisions of the act of 1826 providing for the con-
veying of the Society’s property to the city and receiving it back
in perpetual lease was proposed and discussed but was not acted
upon. It was finally acted upon before the dissolution of the
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence 149
society in 1853 when the Board of Education assumed control of
the school property, etc., and naturally assumed all the privileges
of the Free School Society.
In short, the act of January, 1826, practically prepared the
way for free schools in New York City. It was an impossibility
at that time for any one to accomplish so much for the State as a
whole.
THE MOVEMENT FOR THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS
It is a truism that as the teacher so the school. Clinton knew
this; knew that a scheme of education might be perfect as ma-
chinery, and yet fail miserably if it were not controlled, guided,
and utilized by effective and informed personalities. The teacher
is the school. This statement leads to another of Clinton's contri-
butions: the adequate conception of the need for the professional
training of teachers and a partial satisfaction of it in practise.
It has been noticed already that with the trustees of the Free
School Society (of which Clinton was one) as early as 1814 it
was “an object of great interest to train up young men for the
office of instructor in similar schools,” and that the realization
of such an object was in part accomplished. This appears to be
the first actual provision in the United States for specially train-
ing teachers for their work. In 1819 the society included in its
annual report an invitation to those who might wish to secure a
competent knowledge of the Lancasterian movement, to do so,
free of expense, in the schools of the society.
Clinton’s recommendation in 1826 of a seminary for the educa-
tion of teachers was not carried into effect until 1844—the Al-
bany Normal School. The immediate result of Clinton's work
was the organization of teachers’ departments in the academies.
This was provided for in the act of 1827, but only indirectly.
It received direct legislative sanction in 1835. This was probably
the best means for professional preparation at that time—at
least it was the only means that could be utilized. It was un-
questionably a means of educating the people and the Legislature
to the fact that professional training should include more than
a knowledge of the subject matter and some lectures on “prin-
ciples of teaching.” It taught them, further, that what was
wanted were not Schools where professional training was an
15o The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
incidental, but the prime object of the institution. Here as
elsewhere “Governor Clinton was far in advance of even the
educated public opinion of the State.”
THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM
Clinton was not primarily interested in method, though,
in carrying out his ideas, it was quite essential that he
consider the means, i.e., the question of method. He was
convinced that the Lancasterian method of mutual instruction
was the best possible. The things that especially appealed to
him are indicated in the address of 1809:
“It (the Lancasterian system) comprehends reading, writing,
arithmetic and the knowledge of Holy Scriptures. It arrives
at its object with the least possible trouble and expense. Its dis-
tinguished characters are economy, facility and expedition, and
its peculiar improvements are cheapness, activity, order and
emulation. . . . . Instruction is carried on through the in-
strumentality of the scholars. The discipline of the school is
enforced by shame rather than by infliction of pain.”
One other significant characteristic not mentioned above, but
contained in the message of 1818, is that the Lancasterian system
operated with the same efficacy in education that labor-saving
machinery does in the useful arts. Clinton came later to believe
that the system was adapted to the higher grade of instruction
and hence in 1828 we have his county monitorial high school
recommendation.
To Clinton the system was superlatively good, and he held
fast to that which he believed good. Clinton's faith in the
system was firm and could not be shaken. It is easy for us to
See the weaknesses of the system—its mechanical and formal char-
acter; the impossibility of having monitors take the place of
trained teachers; its fundamental misconception, that teaching is
merely the imparting of information, and not a human ex-
perience in which a relatively immature and undeveloped person-
ality meets a more developed one and is enriched
There were those in Clinton's day who saw the weaknesses. A
man named Hutton sent to Clinton on January 13, 1818, an
elaborate critique of the method. After stating that the Lan-
*Gordy's Rise and Growth of Normal School Idea in United States, p. 26.
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence I51
casterian system has been his peculiar study for the past five
years and for part of that period the business of his life he says:
“the experience of a few years, I am persuaded, will reduce that
system to its original and proper sphere—the instruction of those
who cannot otherwise obtain instruction.” “There is economy,”
he observes, “because one teacher is paid where ten are actually
employed.” He further points out that the monitors are ignorant,
that the education of the bright boy selected as monitor practi.
cally stops, that the physician has gotten credit for what is
nature's due. But probably the most significant sentence, at
least the most interesting, follows: “But I presume you never
saw that system in operation but when De Witt Clinton was
present. When such a name was whispered round the School,
what stillness! what subordination what assiduity l’’
However, one gets nowhere by pointing out the weaknesses
of the system. The important question is: “What is its signifi-
cance?” The following is an answer to that question.
From the narrow standpoint of teaching its great contribution
was a technique of classroom management and instruction. It
was a step in the direction of class instruction, rather than in-
dividual instruction. Lancasterian schools were graded schools
and graded in each subject. The discipline was mild, and was
enforced through shame rather than by the infliction of pain.
But from a larger standpoint, and this is its great significance
and our chief concern, it was a long step in the way of free public
education. It accustomed people to send their children to schools
and to contribute to the support of these schools; it led first to
state aid and finally to state support. The lure in the system was
its cheapness. At the beginning of the century it would have been
impossible to secure state support for any expensive educational
system. As already remarked the Lancasterian system attracted
people and was supported. The people thereby became accus-
tomed to support their schools. Apparently, once launched upon
the policy they continued to do so as a matter of habit, even
though education became more expensive, and they did this the
more readily when they saw that the free public school was really
an implication of their theory of government. The Lancasterian
System, however, made the acceptance of the implication a matter
of little difficulty.
152 The Educational Views and Influence of De Witt Clinton
A BROADER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM
If Herbert Spencer's question had been proposed to Clinton
he would have given Herbert Spencer's answer. The knowledge
of most worth is science. However, there would have been dif-
ferences of detail. In short, the content of education was to be
scientific. The statement in the message of 1826 is significant.
In this connection, Clinton says: that ten years of the life of a
child may be spent in a common school, that in two years the ele-
ments of instruction may be acquired and the remaining eight
years must either be spent in repetition or in idleness, that with
competent teachers of common schools “the outlines of geography,
algebra, mineralogy, agriculture, chemistry, mechanical philoso-
phy, Surveying, geometry, astronomy, political economy, and
ethics might be communicated in that period of time by able pre-
ceptors, without essential interference with the calls of domestic
industry.” When it is remembered that the curriculum of the
time consisted of the four R's : reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic and re-
ligion (catechism) it can be seen how revolutionary such a pro-
posal was. Here was a serious proposition for the enrichment
of the curriculum in the direction of a more scientific content.
So far as the elementary schools are concerned this enrichment
has had to wait until recent times. As usual Clinton was far in
advance of his time educationally.
SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL TRAINING
An important conception growing out of the last topic is that
professional and technical training should be based on scientific
knowledge. And Clinton succeeded, along with others, in mak-
ing provision for such training in institutions. The Mechanic
and Scientific Institute is recommended to public patronage be-
cause it proposes “imparting the benefits of science to that most
useful band of our fellow citizens”—the mechanics. Hence,
too, the recommendation of a professorship of agriculture
connected with the Board of Agriculture, or attached to the Uni-
versity embracing the kindred sciences of chemistry and geology,
mineralogy, botany and other departments of natural history.
Hence, too, the recommendation that attendance at the University
be made an indispensable passport to medical practise. Even
teaching was to be prepared for by a scientific training in so far as
The Significance of Clinton's Educational Influence 153
that was possible then. Clinton’s viewing with favor the Rens-
selaer Polytechnic School—certainly one of the most influential
schools of applied science in the country—is in line with the fore-
going.
Here, too, Clinton was in advance of his time, and when
it is remembered that the nineteenth century did not accomplish
all he conceived, we should be grateful for the conceptions and
for the results accomplished.
EPILOGUE
THE PLACE OF CLINTON IN AMERICAN EDUCATION
The last chapter warrants assigning to Clinton a secure place—
and no minor one—in the history of American education. That
chapter stated the significance of Clinton's practical influence.
He deserves, too, a place as an educational theorist.
Clinton is, of those whose work is finished, perhaps the greatest
theorist whose name will be recorded in the future adequate
history of American education with the exception of Dr. William
T. Harris. We are lauding, even now, as a remarkable contribu-
tion to educational theory an educational sociology, and yet here
was a man who had formulated in no uncertain terms the funda-
mental conception of an educational Sociology, had seen its im-
plications and had stated them so clearly and so sharply that they
would now be matters of current opinion and belief but for their
hitherto inaccessible form. It may be urged that Clinton was
simply giving expression to what have been called “world views.”
True, but so did Montaigne and Comenius and Spencer. It is
Clinton's great glory that he was the adequate spokesman of his
generation—and of the educational implications of the American
Revolution. Here is the fullest, clearest, in short, the most ade-
quate expression from the political side of the educational idea
which Luther had developed from the religious side.
As a practical reformer, Clinton deservedly ranks with Mann
and Barnard in a trinity of educational leadership in American
education during the early nineteenth century. He did for New
York what Mann did for Massachusetts and Barnard did for
Connecticut—and his work, like theirs, was not confined to his
own State.
I54.
Epilogue I55
Clinton was directly or indirectly responsible for the first
step, and several succeeding ones, in the direction of free public
schools in New York City; the initiation and the tremendously
tapid and beneficent growth of the Lancasterian system; the
initiation of the movement for professional training of teachers
of New York State; the passage of the first act in which the
education of women was promoted by the patronage of govern-
ment; the beginning of infant schools; the organization and the
growth of the State Library during the first decade of its exist-
ence, fathering the idea of school district libraries, and encourag-
ing apprentice libraries; the introduction or extension or both
of the less formal educational agencies, such as learned societies
and lyceums of natural history; the extension of the opportunity
for education to the deaf and dumb and other special classes;
the construction of a system of juvenile reformation; and the pro-
tmotion of medical, agricultural and technical education on a
Scientific basis.
Surely, a similar achievement by almost any other man would
have been sufficient to elevate him into the ranks of our fore-
nost educational reformers and formers. But in Clinton’s case
his achievement in the sphere of education has been overshadowed
by his great—though not greater service—in many other spheres.
Perceiving that fact it was my purpose to bring into sharp relief
the great historical and practical significance of this undeservedly
neglected phase of Clinton's service in behalf of his fellow
men—a purpose which, I believe, has been realized.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPT SOURCE MATERIAL
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY:
De Witt Clinton Papers.
Letter Books, 8 volumes.
Letters to Clinton, I4 volumes.
Miscellaneous Papers, I volume.
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT:
Minutes of the Board of Regents, 1784-1830.
CITY LIBRARY, CITY HALL, NEw York:
Minutes of the Common Council, New York City.
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY:
Minutes of the Public School Society, 1817–1830.
Financial Records of the Public School Society, 1805-1830.
PRINTED SOURCE MATERIAL
Addresses of De Witt Clinton :
To Benefactors and Friends of the Free School Society delivered
December, 1809 (New York, 1810).
Introductory Discourse before the Literary and Philosophical Society
of New York, May 4, 1814 (New York, 1815).
Discourse before New York Alpha of Phi Beta Kappa, July 22, 1823
(given in Campbell).
Discourse before the American Academy of Arts, October 23, 1816
(New York, 1816).
Address to the Presbyterian Education Society (given in Hosack’s
Memoir of De Witt Clinton). -
Address before American Bible Society, May 8, 1823.
Address to the Alumni, Columbia College, May, 1827 (given in
Campbell).
Speeches and Messages to Legislature (given in Senate and Assembly
Journal, 1818–1828).”
*Since this work was finished, the State of New York has published the “Messages
from the Governors,” edited by Charles Z. Lincoln. Vols. II. and III. contain
Clinton’s speeches and messages.
I 56
Bibliography I57
Academician, 1818-19.
Annals of Education, 1831.
CAMPBELL, W. W. Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton (New York,
1849). This contains addresses.
Commercial Advertiser, 1799–1800, New York City.
HosacK, D. Memoir of De Witt Clinton with an appendix containing
documents illustrative of the principal events of his life. (New York,
I829.)
Observations of the Establishment of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons in the City of New York. In a letter to James S.
Stringham. (New York, I81 I.)
Hough, F. B. Historical and Statistical Record of the University of
the State of New York during the century 1784–1884, with an intro-
ductory sketch by David Murray, Secretary of the Board of Regents.
(Albany, 1885.)
Laws of New York State, 1784–1857.
Longworth’s New York Register and City Directory. I800-1806.
Jones Directory. (New York City, 18OI-1806.)
Munsell's Annals of Albany. Io vols. (Albany, 1850-59.)
New York State Assembly and Senate Journals, 1798–1830.
RANDALL, S. S. History of the Common School System of the State of
New York from its origin in 1795 to the present time (1871), includ-
ing the various city and other special organizations and the religious
controversies of 1821, 1832, and 1840. (New York and Chicago, 1871.)*
Reports, etc.:
Board of Regents. Annual Reports to the Legislature, 1784.
State Library, New York. Annual Reports to the Legislature,
I818-1830.
New York Institution for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb. Acts
and By-Laws and Reports of the Director. 1831.
New York Public School Society. Annual Reports, 1806-1830.
New York High School Society. Annual Reports, 1825–1828.
Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City of
New York. Annual Reports of the Managers, 1825–1830.
Society of Teachers of the City of New York. Constitution. New
York, I811.
Superintendent of Common Schools Annual Reports, 1814-1828.
*For the various other secondary sources see the foot-notes.
UNIVERSITY OF MICH!3AN
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