were planting in the wilderness the germ which in many years would grow up and enlarge itself to a wide-spread, populous community. They were laying the foundations of a new empire, and spared no pains nor exertions to give it the elements of stability and strength in the virtue and intelligence of the people. In 1677 it was ordered, "If any county town should neglect to keep a Latin school according to order, there shall be paid a fine of seven pounds by the said county town to the next town in the county that will keep a Latin school in it." This fine was to be paid annually until the order was complied with, and the grand jury were required to make presentments to the county court, of all breaches of this order. In 1690 it was enacted as follows: "This court observing that, notwithstanding the former orders. made for the education of children and servants, there are many persons unable to read the English tongue, and thereby unable to read the holy word of God, and the good laws of this colony, it is hereby ordained, that all parents and masters shall cause their children and servants, as they are capable, to read distinctly the English tongue, and that the grand jurymen in each town do, once in the year, at least, visit each family they suspect to neglect this order, and satisfy themselves that all children under age, and servants in such suspected families, can read well the English tongue, or in good procedure to learn the same or not, and if they find any such children or servants not taught as their years are capable of, they shall return the names of the parents or masters of the said children, to the next county court, when the said parents or masters shall be fined twenty shillings for each child or servant whose teaching is thus neglected, according to this order." These enactments have, in substance, remained on the statute-book of Connecticut from their first promulgation, nearly two centuries ago, and in that state "all parents and those who have the care of children," are now required by law "to bring them up in some honest and lawful calling or employment, and to teach and instruct them, or cause them to be taught or instructed, to read and write, and cypher as far as the first four rules of arithmetic." And, in case parents and heads of families neglect their duty in this respect, the selectmen in their respective towns are required "to admonish them to attend to their duty, and if they continue to be negligent, whereby the children grow rude, stubborn, and unruly, they shall, with the advice of a justice of the peace, 1842.] Common School System of Connecticut. 335 take such children from their parents or those who have charge of them, and bind them out to some proper master, that they may be properly educated and brought up in some lawful calling or employment." What would our largest-liberty men say to this? How would they relish such an interference by the government in the management and education of their children? With what courtesy would they receive these annual visits of the grand jury, an inquisition established by the state on their hearth-stones, to ascertain and present for punishment their neglect or refusal to train up their children according to the orthodox standard? We are much mistaken if grand jurors would not meet with a sturdier opposition than the Heldebergers exhibited towards the sheriff, when, with his posse, he attempted to distrain for the rents due their landlord. The early settlers of Connecticut, knowing the value of freedom and the watchful care necessary for its growth and preservation, wasted none of their strength in quibbles on inalienable rights, nor in wrangling discussions on the point where the minimum of restraint meets the maximum of lawlessness. They acknowledged the truth that the rights and interests of the whole community are intermingled and blended together, and that every man has a direct and personal concern in the character, the principles, and habits of his neighbors. We have no rights contrary or injurious to the general good, and if we will not voluntarily discharge our duties as members of the community, the state has authority, from its right of self-preservation, to compel our obedience, and to take from us the means of doing injury. Happy was it for the men of the olden time that they had so few political free-thinkers among them. It saved them a multitude of troubles, and kept them in happy ignorance of many false lights which flit. across the political firmament, dazzling and bewildering the heedless and the unthinking of our day. They had left the home of their childhood, because freedom could not be enjoyed there. For liberty of conscience, they had braved the perils of the ocean, faced the dangers of a warfare with savage foes, and encountered the hardships of a new settlement in the wilderness; and when they had planted their little colony, they hedged and walled it around with laws and ordinances, and sedulously sought to guard it against its. most dangerous enemies, the idle and the vicious who were enjoying its benefits. They understood the principles of freedom too well to hope for its existence except under the protection of government. They did not regard it as a boon from heaven, falling, like the manna, in daily gentle showers, fit only for present enjoyment and not for preservation, but cherished it as a priceless treasure, and strove to perpetuate its blessings by requiring, under heavy penalties, the moral and intellectual culture of all within its influence. It would be an interesting and instructive inquiry, did our limits permit us to pursue it, to ascertain the direct bearing and influence of the legislative policy of the New England states on the character and prosperity of their inhabitants, and to contrast its effects with the results of the loose and temporary expedients which too strongly tincture the legislation of some of their sister states of the union. We should like to draw the parallel, and hold up to view the broad line of distinction between them. But we must content ourselves with only one side of the picture, and a rapid glance at some of the prominent features of the character of the people of New England must answer our purpose. They have derived from their soil and climate much of their energy and perseverance, and their habits of industry and economy. They have been compelled to spend their lives in active industry, to procure from the cultivation of a hide-bound soil, the means of a comfortable subsistence. As soon as the boy has gained strength for labor, he has been led to the field or the workshop, and there taught by experience what it is to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Hence he has learned early to struggle with difficulties and overcome them. Such training could not but produce a hardy and vigorous people, and it could do no more. Another element is wanting for the development of the higher and nobler faculties of his nature, and that is education. Without this they would have lived still on their native hills, an industrious and hardy race, good soldiers in war, perhaps quiet citizens in peace, capable of enduring great fatigue of body, worthy and contented diggers of the soil that furnished their sustenance. Or, perhaps, a vague, unregulated desire for liberty, an impatience under authority, might have made them turbulent and headstrong at home, and plunderers and depredators abroad, carrying their maxims to the extreme verge of licentiousness and insubordination. In either case they would not have filled an honorable or important place in our country's history. It is education that has raised them, 1842.] Common School System of Connecticut. 337 in spite of all untoward circumstances, to the elevated station they occupy. Sprinkled all over the sides of her ten thousand hills, stand the school houses of New England. In them, with the first opening of intellect, were her children taught to fear God, to respect the laws, and to feel that on their own exertions depended their success in life. There, was laid the foundation of that successful enterprise which has clasped the arts, literature, science and civilization in its embrace. Go where you will through the world, in the crowded city or on the broad prairie of the West, visit the region of polar snows or the scorched plains under the equator, the islands of the sea or the hamlet hid behind the mountains, there you will find the son of New England, true to his early culture, an honor to himself and to the land of his fathers. Is the forest to be levelled and the wilderness to be made to bud and blossom? His axe is the first to break the silence with its echoes, and under his hand are springing the first shoots of verdure and beauty. Is enterprise or resolute daring necessary to the success of any great and noble object? His foot-prints are the pathway for others to follow. In the pulpit, at the bar, in the hall of legislation, in short, wherever there are objects worthy of ambition, high honors to be won, or arduous duties to be performed, there, foremost and in the van, is found the son of New England. Her rocks and mountains, her pure air and rugged soil, have given health and strength to his body. In her school houses he has learned the rudiments of knowledge, the lessons of patriotism, the sweets of gratified ambition, and the principles of honesty. His whole education, physical, mental, and moral, has fitted him to act well his part in life. He has made his early home the abode of peace and plenty, of a well ordered and virtuous community, and has carried with him the influence of its institutions to bless and adorn the spot which shall receive him in his wanderings. These are the results of her system of education, and as she looks abroad and sees her sons scattered through every clime, and region, and nation under heaven, she may point to them with pride as the monuments of her policy, and like the Roman matron, exult in her jewels, brighter than the gems in the tiara of the monarch. Let us return to the history of the schools of Connecticut. In 1813, it was enacted that "The president and directors of all factories which are now, or hereafter shall be, legally incorporated, and the proprietor or pro43 NO. XX.-VOL. X. prietors of all other manufacturing establishments in the state, shall cause that the children employed in such factory or establishment, whether bound by indenture, by parol agreement, or in any other manner, be taught to read and write; and also that they be instructed in the first four rules of arithmetic, and that due attention be paid to the preservation of their morals; and that they be required by their masters or employers regularly to attend public worship." In the following section of the act the selectmen of the town are required to make annual visits, or oftener, to see that this law was observed, and the breach of any part of it is punishable by cancelling the indentures of the children, or imposing a fine, not exceeding one hundred dollars, on the proprietors of such establishments. This was the earliest legislative provision made in any country in behalf of the education of children employed in factories. Similar provisions have been since made in countries where education has received most attention, but to Connecticut belongs the honor of the first direct exercise of the power of the state for educating and ameliorating the condition of this most helpless. and injured portion of our race. The act requiring every township containing fifty householders to employ a teacher and establish a school, was subsequently, at various times, altered to suit the condition and wants of the people, and ample provisions exist for the establishment of common schools, in sufficient number to afford every one convenient opportunities for attending them. All inhabitants, living within the limits of ecclesiastical societies incorporated by law, constitute school societies, with power to subdivide themselves into school districts, which, by such subdivision, become corporations, obliged to establish and keep up public schools, to which all the children have a right to resort. These districts are clothed with all necessary power to build school houses, to lay and collect taxes, and superintend and direct the concerns of the schools; and, by law, "no child shall be excluded from any school supported in all or in part out of any money appropriated or raised by law for this purpose, in the district to which such child belongs, on account of the inability of the parent, guardian, or master of the same, to pay his or her tax or assessment for any school purpose whatever." This secures the cardinal principle of the common school system, the right of every child to partake of its benefits. In case of |
