The "Catholepistemiad" had neither students nor endowment, indeed little save a wordy plan for a wonderful organism; but something of a practical nature was accomplished. Mr. Monteith was made president of the institution and given seven professorships, and Father Richard was honored with six others. The salary for a professorship was fixed at $12.50 a year, and so the president would have the magnificent income of $87.50 per year, not counting the sums he might receive as honoraria from possible students. The other professor of six branches would have $75 per year. The corporation secured a site for a school in Detroit, let a contract for the erection of a building, and in a year from the date of the statute of organization had the lower story occupied with a systematic English school, and a portion of the second story with a classical school, and another with a library.1 It will be noticed that the plan included the establishment of schools and other sources of popular enlightenment and education. Judge Woodward first put into this grotesque statute the idea that has had so much influence in the Statethat the system of education should be one system; that there should be an organic connection between the primary and secondary schools and the university; that the whole structure should be symmetrical. He saw clearly the truth that there is no need of a superstructure without a foundation, and of little comparative use is a foundation without a superstructure.

In accord with this comprehensive plan the president and professor set about establishing branch schools and variously building up the educational facilities of the Territory. Several regulations were made and promulgated as decrees by this small but energetic faculty. Primary schools were instructed as to subjects to be taught, and schools were established in Detroit, Mackinaw, and Monroe. It was enacted that the French, Latin, and Greek languages, antiquities, English grammar, composition, elocution, mathematics, geography, morals, and ornamental accomplishments be the curriculum of the classical schools ; and this same faculty, so diversely constituted religiously, one might think, enacted that the Scriptures should be read throughout the course. In October, 1817, there was established in Detroit a college known as the "First College of Michigania." Aid was received for the work from voluntary subscriptions by the citizens of Detroit, and the funds at the disposal of the faculty were increased by the transference of a considerable sum which had been originally sent from Montreal and Mackinaw for the relief of the sufferers by the fire of 1805.

By the law of 1821 the Catholepistemiad became the University of Michigan. Other changes were made superseding the nomenclature and the system contained in the wordy, but far from useless, statute of 1817. The general impression that this statute of Judge Woodward was simply a verbal monstrosity containing more sound than sense, and to be called to mind as a mere historic curiosity, which had no influence and 1From MS. of John Monteith, quoted in "American State Universities," p. 98.

transmitted no momentum, is an impression to be forgotten, due, as it is in most instances, to a lack of appreciation of the scope of the plan and of the fact that the University of Michigan, established by the act of 1821, was only the transformed Catholepistemiad, and indeed not so much transformed as merely reclothed and rechristened. The act of April 30, 1821, repealed the act of 1817 and gave into the hands of a new board, composed of twenty-one trustees, of whom the governor was to be one, the control of the funds in the possession of its predecessor. It continued the comprehensive scheme of general control and common organization of educational matters, and, moreover, intrusted to the board the management of land grants, already mentioned, of 1804 and of the treaty at Fort Meigs in 1817.

During the 16 years that followed very little was done in the direction of higher education. The land grants were cared for, as has been shown in the preceding chapters, and the board continued a supervising care over the schools and academies already organized under the direction of the faculty of the Catholepistemiad. But the "Lancasterian" school in Detroit, as well as the classical school, soon became dependent for its support upon fees received from the pupils. The importance of this intermediate existence is apparent from the fact that when the university began an actual existence good schools were preparing suitable students.

The organization of the university upon the entrance of Michigan into the Union will next claim our attention. It may be well, however, to state clearly here the fact already suggested, that the University of Michigan has had a continuous corporate existence since 1817. So the supreme court decided, in a decision rendered in 1856 on an action of ejectment brought by the regents, the validity of whose claim depended upon their identity with the board of 1821. And above all, it is worth while again to state that the system of education which has done so much for Michigan, contemplating an organic connection between high and low, between primary school and university, has been in existence ever since it took form in the unique, absurd, admirable statute of 1817.1

While we are celebrating to-day the semicentennial of the present form of the organization of the university, let us not forget that, without impropriety, a semicentennial celebration might have been held 20 years ago; that a just conception of the functions of a university was at least 70 years ago made familiar to the citizens of Michigan; that what may be termed the Michigan idea of a university was never entirely forgotten from that day until now; and, therefore, that the memory of the fathers who framed the charter and nourished the feeble life of those earlier universities should be cherished by us to-day and by our descendants forever.-(University of Michigan, Semicentennial, p. 159, President Angell's oration.)

713-No. 4-3

CHAPTER IV.

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

It is not within the province of this sketch to go into the history of the struggle of Michigan for statehood. The people of the whole State. were aroused by the contention, and all were interested in politics and constitution-making. This fact largely accounts for the high standard of intellectual vigor and acuteness of those who formed the first constitution and guarded the organizing of the new State. Probably an unusual number of these men were men of education and of generous and liberal conceptions. Certainly they had an appreciation of broad measures and a comprehensive system of popular education. To Isaac E. Crary, chairman of the committee on education in the constitutional convention, may be attributed much of the wisdom of the convention in its establishment of an educational system. He had, it seems, made a study of Cousin's famous report on the Prussian system of education, and he had been impressed with the scope and symmetry of the plan. With such conceptions in his mind he framed an article on the subject of education, which was incorporated into the first State constitution. The plan contemplated a library for each township in the State, the establishment of common schools, and a university.

Provision was made for the appointment of a superintendent of public instruction, an officer whose duties are now not unfamiliar, but then unknown to any one of the States of the Union. The article also defi

The following sketch of Mr. Crary is taken from President Angell's oration, delivered at the semicentennial celebration in 1887. The facts were obtained by him. from Mr. Crary's widow, then resident in Marshall, Mich.

"Isaac Edwin Crary was born at Preston, Connecticut, October 2, 1804. He was educated at Bacon Academy, Colchester, and at Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford. He graduated from the college in its first class, 1829, with the highest honors of the class. For 2 years he was associated in the editorial work of the New England Review, published at Hartford, with George D. Prentice, subsequently the wellknown editor of the Louisville Journal. He came to Michigan in 1832. He was Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Michigan and was the first Representative of the State in Congress. He was once speaker of the Michigan house of representatives, and was a member of the convention which drafted the first constitution of the State. He was the author of the enacting clause of Michigan laws, The People of the State of Michigan enact, He died May 8, 1854.”

nitely described the duties of the legislature with regard to the lands granted for the support of the university. The funds accruing from the rents or sale of such lands the article declared

Shall be and remain a permanent fund for the support of said university, with such branches as the public convenience may hereafter demand for the promotion of literature, the sciences, and the arts, and as may be authorized by the terms of such grant.

The ordinance of admission, as already stated, gave to the State the seventy-two sections granted in the act of May 20, 1826, and the legis lature began the management and control of the lands, with the consequences outlined in the second chapter of this monograph.

Even before Michigan was admitted into the Union steps were taken to put the new constitution into effect. Doubtless at the suggestion of Mr. Crary, the governor appointed Rev. John D. Pierce the first Superintendent of Public Instruction. It was he who had put into Mr. Crary's hands Cousin's Report, and the two friends had talked over together questions of educational interest. To this man was now given the opportunity of bringing the theoretical measures to a practical realization, and the occasion was not master of the man. He combined rare philosophical grasp with genuine practical sagacity, and at once began the duties of a new office in a way that inspired confidence and had immediate effect. "Henry Barnard," says President Angell, ❝did no more for the schools of Rhode Island, nor Horace Mann for those of Massachusetts, than John D. Pierce did for those of Michigan." He first visited the East to converse with men versed in educational matters, and returned to outline a comprehensive scheme for the establishment of the university. This was embodied in an act passed by the legislature March 18, 1837. The object of the university was declared to be to provide the inhabitants of the State with the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the various branches of literature, science, and the arts. The government of the university was vested in a board of regents to consist of twelve members and a chancellor, who was ex officio president of the board; the members were to be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate. The governor, lieutenant-governor, judges of the supreme court, and chancellor of the State were ex-officio members of the board. The regents had power to enact laws for the government of the university; to appoint professors and tutors; to fix salaries, and to appoint a steward and fix the amount of his salary. Section 8 of this law, embracing as it does nearly the present development of the university, may well be given in full:

1 Mr. Pierce graduated at Brown University in 1822, and came to Michigan as a preacher in the service of the Presbyterian Home Missionary Society. He was superintendent of Public Instruction in Michigan from 1836 to 1841. He died April 5, 1882, aged eighty-five.—(University of Michigan, Semicentennial, p. 161.)

The university shall consist of three departments

1. The department of literature, science, and the arts.

2. The department of law.

3. The department of medicine.

In the several departments there shall be established the following professorships: In the department of literature, science, and the arts, one of ancient languages; one of rhetoric and oratory; one of philosophy and history, logic, and the philosophy of the human mind; one of moral philosophy and natural theology, including the history of all religions; one of political economy; one of mathematics; one of natural philosophy; one of chemistry and pharmacy; one of geology and mineralogy; one of botany and zoology; one of fine arts; one of civil engineering and architecture. In the department of law, one of national, international, and constitutional law; one of common and statute law and equity: one of commercial and maritime law. In the department of medicine, one of anatomy; one of surgery; one of physiology and pathology; one of practice of physic; one of obstetrics and diseases of women and children; one of materia medica and medical jurisprudence: Provided, That in the first organization of the university the regents of the university shall so arrange the professorships as to appoint such a number only as the wants of the institution shall require, and to increase them from time to time as the income of the fund shall warrant and the public interests demand: Provided always, That no new professorships shall be established without the consent of the legislature.

By succeeding sections the government of the internal affairs of the university was laid down, in most respects such as it still continues to be. The regents were given power to regulate the course of instruction and prescribe, under the advice of the professors, the books to be used in the various departments and to give appropriate degrees. And they had power also to remove any professor or tutor if they deemed such removal for the best interests of the university. The act likewise prescribed that the fee of admission should never exceed $10, while tuition should be entirely free to residents of the State. The regents, with the superintendent of public instruction, were authorized to establish branches of the university, and it is noteworthy that this act made it incumbent on the board to establish, in connection with every such branch, "an institution for the education of females in the higher branches of knowledge," whenever suitable buildings were in readiness. It appears, therefore, that the idea of coeducation had its welldeveloped germ in the first act passed by the State legislature for the establishment and organization of the university.

The board of regents at their first meeting asked for several amendments to the act, and such amendments were made. By the amended act, the board was authorized to elect a chancellor not a member of the board, and to prescribe his duties. The governor of the State was made ex-officio president of the board, and the board were allowed to establish branches without obtaining further authority from the legislature. It was also made permissible to expend at once, from the interest arising from the university fund, as much as might be necessary to purchase philosophical and other apparatus, a library, and cabinet of natural history.?

Michigan Laws, 1837, p. 308.

2 Ibid.,,

.p. 309.