HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIANA. INTRODUCTION. There are three distinct periods of educational history in Indiana: First, from the year of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, until the adoption of the first Constitution at the time of the admission of the State into the Union in 1816. Second, the time of the operation of the old Constitution from 1816 to 1851. Third, from 1851, when the new Constitution was adopted until the present time. The history of the first period is the record of pioneers, in their attempt under the fostering care of the Federal Government to make provision for the future education of the people under the care of the State. The period in our continental history preceding and including the Ordinance of 1787, recorded legislation of vital importance in the subsequent history of Indiana Education. The record of that time be. longs as much to the history of the other States of the Northwest as to that of Indiana; but no sketch of Indiana educational history would be acceptable without some appreciation of this influence. To that early legislation and its influence we call attention in the first chapter of this work. The second period was one of preparation, during which the people were getting ready for the fulfillment in law of the educational provision of their first Constitution. That Constitution asserted that "it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in regular gradation from township schools to a State university wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all." Circumstances seemed not to "permit" while that Constitution endured. Not that the Constitution was at fault, but preparation for common schools in "regular gradation" was necessary. That period of foundation-laying lasted a generation. For thirty-five years this provision of the Constitution was left unsatisfied by the general assembly of the State. The college, the academy, and the seminary had yet to lay the foundation for free common schools. This was the period of the rise and growth of the State and sectarian colleges and of the county seminaries. School lands were |