ville to make the purchase, but only to learn that he had been forestalled by Fisk University. Dr. Phillips was sorely disappointed. The now urgent needs of the school demanded immediate action. Rev. Dr. Simmons, secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, came to Nashville, and with Dr. Phillips spent a month in canvassing for a location for the school. At last the present location, on the Hillsboro turnpike, 2 miles from the heart of the city, was selected. There were a mansion house and outbuildings and 30 acres of land beautifully situated on elevated ground. The Mission Society was not able to pay the price asked-$30,000. Thereupon Dr. Nathan Bishop and wife, of New York, offered to furnish the means, and the place was bought. Two stories were added to the mansion house, making it four stories in all. Plans were made and work begun on an additional building, to cost $10,000 or $12,000. Dr. and Mrs. Bishop again stepped in, and a building costing three times as much was erected instead. Centennial Hall, as this building is called, is a four-story brick exclusive of basement, 49 feet in width by 185 feet in length. The basement is used as a boarding department, the first floor for school purposes, and the three upper floors as dormitories for young men.

The Mansion House, also a four-story brick, is 48 feet in width by 80 feet in length, and furnishes apartments for some of the teachers and dormitories for the young women. The Mansion House and Centennial Hall are united by a hall way and at a distance present the appearance of a single structure. Since these buildings were erected two residences have been built on the grounds, one for the president and one for the principal of the normal school. The institute was removed to its new location on the first Wednesday in October, 1876. In 1883 it was incorporated as Roger Williams University. Dr. Phillips deplored the change of name; no good would come of calling the school what it was not; possessed of the name of a university it would ape the ways of a university; its true scope would be lost sight of and its true aim perverted.

At the top of the curriculum stands the college course of four years. Next below is the college preparatory course of three years. Then comes the normal course, and still lower the English department, furnishing elementary instruction. There is also a theological course of two years. The rudiments of knowledge are thoroughly taught; the college course is not very full and not very advanced. The degrees of B. A. and B. S. are conferred upon graduates. Bachelors of three years' standing who in the mean time have been engaged in literary or scientific pursuits are admitted to the master's degree on the presentation of a suitable thesis. The degree of bachelor of divinity is given to such as complete both the college and the theological course. Provision is made for instruction in instrumental and vocal music. Industrial training for both sexes is supported by an annual appropriation of $1,000 from the Slater fund.

Every student is required to do work for the university amounting to one hour daily or pay $2 per month in lieu thereof. The whole ten dency is to dignify labor. Another thing in which Roger Williams is like the other colored schools of the State is this: All of them are under the patronage of some Christian organization, and religious education is deemed of paramount importance; Roger Williams has daily classes in Bible study, and every student is required to attend one of these classes. "Recognizing the importance of exercise in student life, a military company has been formed under the laws of the State, and regular drill is given in military tactics." The enrollment of Roger Williams has reached nearly 300; in 1888-'89 it was 286; in 1889-'90, 273; in 1890-'91, 226. Among these is found a number of "State normal" students. The majority of the students teach school during vacation and many of them do so during a part of the school year.

Dr. Phillips was at the head of the Nashville Normal and Theological Institute until 1882, when he was succeeded by Rev. William Stewart. Dr. Phillips retained his professorship, however, and when the institute was incorporated as Roger Williams University he was elected president of the board of trustees, a position which he held until his death, in April, 1890. Rev. William Stewart was president of the school until 1884. Rev. Edward C. Mitchell was then president pro tempore for one year. From 1885 to 1887 the position was filled by Rev. William H. Stiffler.

In 1887 Rev. Dr. A. Owen, the present president, came into office. Dr. Owen was for seven years president of Denison University. Six inale and 5 female teachers assist him in the work of instruction. The Roger Williams property is valued at $100,000. With its splendid site and handsome buildings the university adds no little to the beauty of Nashville's environs. Moreover it is one of the institutions that make Nashville the educational center of the South for blacks as well as whites.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

See Baptist Home Mission Monthly, November, 1888; The Freeman, Indianapolis, July 20, 1889; Slater Fund Reports.

HOFFMAN HALL.

Hoffman Hall is the living attestation at once of the zeal of a great church for the uplifting of the Negro and of the kindly feelings of brotherhood that exist between two denominations of Christians. It is a theological college of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the educa tion and practical training of colored candidates for the ministry estab lished in connection with and located in proximity to Fisk University, a colored institution of the Congregational Church. The Episcopalians have no school in Tennessee for the higher education of the Negro, and by invitation of the authorities of the Fisk they founded their theolog

ical school by the side of the Fisk, where their students enjoy at the same cost the same advantages as Fisk students. "Undergraduates reside in the hall, and either pursue the full classical course at Fisk University, taking their degree (recommended wherever possible), or pursue such partial course at the university, supplemented by studies at the hall, as may be arranged by the principal." The past year, the first year in the history of Hoffman Hall, there were four theological and four undergraduate students. The regular instructors are Rev. Meredith O. Smith, B. D., principal of the hall, and Archdeacon Colbraith B. Perry. Four "honorary professors," pastors of churches in different parts of the country, are in residence annually from two to three weeks each, during which time they give daily instruction. Hoffman Hall is so named in honor of Rev. Charles F. Hoffman, D. D., by the aid of whose munificence it was built. A small debt still remains unpaid.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF TENNESSEE.

By THADDEUS P. THOMAS, M. A.

FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

One cause of the slow development of the system of public schools in Tennessee and throughout the entire South has been the failure to recognize the importance of laying a good educational foundation. There has been a tendency to forget the fact that the effectiveness of the higher education depends largely upon the vitality of the common schools. In New England colleges were organized before there was an efficient public-school system; but if New England was the first to make the error she was also the first to rectify it. In the West, owing to the wise provisions of the ordinance of 1787, the educational system "was built from the bottom." In the South the case has too often been the reverse. In addition to this, public sentiment in all the earlier history of the State was never warmly in sympathy with the idea of State management of common schools, but it was believed that these would succeed better in private hands. It is largely due to these causes that the public-school system of Tennessee, as a vigorous and effective system, has no real history before 1873.1

PUBLIC LANDS IN TENNESSEE CEDED TO THE STATE.

In 1790 North Carolina ceded all the land within the present limits of the State to the General Government. In 1796 Tennessee was admitted into the Union, but the General Government retained the public lands. It was not until 1806 that Congress ceded these lands to the State:

Provisions were made for the benefit of education similar to those made in the case of Ohio, but differing in one important particular. In Ohio, and in the other States carved out of the Northwest Territory, the sixteenth section in each township was designated and conveyed direct to the inhabitants of the township. The admirable system of United States surveys definitely located the grant, and the title was vested in the township. Tennessee, which had been admitted ten years before its land cession, had not been reached by this system of surveys. The township and section could not, therefore, be designated, and Congress did not vest title in the inhabitants of a township or district. The provision was in the following words: "And the State of Tennessee shall, moreover, in issuing grants and perfect

(See paper on "Education in the South," by W. R. Garrett, in the "Proceedings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association," at its meeting in Washington, March, 1889.)

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ing titles locate 640 acres to every 6 miles square in the territory hereby ceded where existing claims will allow the same, which shall be appropriated for the use of schools for the instruction of children forever." This provision imposed a duty on the State, but failed to vest the title in the subordinate civil division. Tennessee had no series of civil divisions of 6 miles square corresponding to the township. The grant was not thus definitely located and vested. In the mean time much of the land had been taken up by valid claims and with the rapid stream of immigration which poured in the squatter preceded the surveyor. Many acts were passed by the legis lature to protect the school lands, but from the vague nature of the grant and possibly from the failure to appreciate its value, the opportunity to utilize it was lost.1

The same act of Congress provided that 100,000 acres of land should be set apart for the use of academies, one academy for each county; and 100,000 acres for the use of two colleges, which have since developed into the Peabody Normal College and the State University at Knoxville.

ACT OF 1830.

Though the messages of the governors constantly refer to the subject, no definite plan for a system of public instruction was attempted until the passage of the act of January 14, 1830, by which provision was made for laying off school districts. Five trustees were to be elected in each district and the chairmen of the boards of trustees were to select commissioners who were to divide the school money appropriated for their county among the several districts. The trustees were to employ and dismiss teachers and make annual reports to the commissioners, who were then to make annual reports to the legislature. An important clause in the constitution of 1834 was the one which provided that the common-school fund should be "a perpetual fund, the principal of which should never be diminished by legislative appropriations." But the school money was used for private purposes more than once, and in one case this was done by the superintendent of public schools, Robert H. McEwen, who had been elected in 1836. A large part of the school fund was also lost on the failure of the Bank of Tennessee, which had been created in 1838 and in which the school fund had been invested. But the State has made good these losses.

THE WAR.

Previous to the war there was no real vigor in the public school system. The State superintendent did not have sufficient executive power, but was merely an agent to look after the school fund. The system was characterized by a lack of unity in its organization. The interest on the school fund, amounting to $90,000 annually, was distributed among the counties; but the sum was so small and so injudiciously used that the schools were generally maintained only a few weeks out of the year. During the war education was practically suspended throughout the South. The evils resulting from the war continued for

Education in the South, W. R. Garrett.