Ohio History Journal

  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  •  
  • 3
  •  
  • 4
  •  
  • 5
  •  
  • 6
  •  
  • 7
  •  
  • 8
  •  
  • 9
  •  
  • 10
  •  
  • 11
  •  
  • 12
  •  

LAND GRANTS FOR EDUCATION IN THE OHIO

LAND GRANTS FOR EDUCATION IN THE OHIO

VALLEY STATES.

 

 

BY CLEMENT L. MARTZOLFF.

In the discussion of the subject at hand I find I am con

fronted with three very positive limitations. First, because the

story of land grants for education is one that even the most

investigating historian can find but little new general material

upon which to write. Second, the program committee has wisely

limited the time in which the subject may be presented. How-

ever laudable this restriction may be in the interests of the

audience, there is a constant feeling on the part of the writer

that he has to confine himself to certain lines and consequently

many pertinent facts and observations must be omitted. Third,

this being an organization for the Ohio Valley it has been thought

best to speak only of those educational land grants made in the

six Ohio Valley states-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania,

West Virginia, and Kentucky.

The lands granted for educational support by the govern-

ment are in themselves an admission that education is one of

the functions of the state. When these donations were made in

the Ohio Valley it was not a new idea. It was as old as history

itself. Aristotle recognized it and Plato dreamed it into his

Republic and Laws. To the careful student of history there is

nothing so evident as the fact of education's being a function of

the state. It has from the earliest periods of written history

been so regarded. Nor is it seen alone in the theories of philos-

ophers and men who had visionary ideas on the subject. The

actions of emperors and kings who might be thought the least

likely to encourage schools and the means of education, are

concrete evidences of this inherent duty of a state toward its

citizens. Whether the government has been democratic like

Athens, imperial like Rome, royal like France or constitutional

like England, the necessity for the fostering care of the state

has ever been recognized.

(59)