All these Addresses were published, but copies of them are now quite rare. The only publications of the Society are the Addresses before mentioned, and a volume of "Transactions." There were no meetings of the Society between September 15, 1832, and March 18, 1837. At the latter date, General Cass was absent as Minister to the Court of France, and Henry R. Schoolcraft was elected President in his place. With that exception, the old corps of officers was very generally re-elected. On the 28th of February, 1838, Dr. Pitcher presented to the Society, in the name of General Cass, the Pontiac MS. in French, relating to the siege of Detroit in 1763. This was afterward translated by Professor Louis Fasquelle, the present Professor of Modern Languages in the University of Michigan, and is incorporated in Parkman's "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac." From March 23, 1838, to June 13, 1840, there were no meetings of the Society, and only two subsequent to that time. The last meeting previous to its re-organization was held January 27, 1841. On the 4th of August, 1857, there was a meeting of such of the old members of the Society as were living in Detroit or its vicinity. Officers were chosen temporarily, and many new members elected. A few days afterward a permanent organization was effected. The Society thus resuscitated is, except in name, almost a new organization. The greater part of the valuable collections made in its earlier days have been lost or dispersed. Of its library, but a single volume remains. Since its late reorganization, however, it has already received many valuable contributions, beside very many cheering assurances of sympathy and co-operation from those whose assistance is of the highest importance to its welfare. The Society is now apparently established upon a firm basis, and it is certainly to be hoped that no untoward events will lesson its usefulness. The above account is taken from a full history of the Society in the Historical Magazine, Vol. I. p. 353. Officers for 1857-58 (chosen August 5, 1857): - President, Benjamin F. H. Witherell. Vice-Presidents, Henry P. Tappan and W. Walton Murphy. Corresponding Secretary, Charles I. Walker. Recording Secretary, Bela Hubbard. Treasurer, Robert E. Andrews. Librarian, George S. Frost. Curators, Rev. D. C. Jacokes, J. R. Williams, and Thomas M. Cooley. th XXVI. INDIANA. Capital, Indianapolis. — Area, 33,809 square miles. - Population, 1850, 988,416. THE State Board of Education consists of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Governor, Treasurer, Auditor of State, Secretary of State, and Attorney-General. The State Superintendent is chosen by the voters of the State at the general election, and holds his office for two years. He is ex officio President of the Board of Education. The present Superintendent is Prof. Wm. C. Larrabee. The existing School Law was enacted March, 1855, and provides that the Common School Fund shall consist of the following items: 1. The sum of ten cents on each one hundred dollars of the list of property taxable for State purposes. 2. The Surplus Revenue Fund. 3. All funds heretofore appropriated to common schools. 4. The Saline Fund. 5. The Bank Tax Fund. 6. The funds derived from the sale of county seminaries. 7. All funds derived from fines and forfeitures on account of breaches of the penal laws of the State. 8. All funds derived from estates which shall escheat to the State for want of neirs or kindred entitled to such property. 9. All funds derived from the proceeds and sales of all lands which have been, or may hereafter be, granted to the State, where no other purpose is expressed in the grant. 10. The proceeds of the sales of the swamp lands granted to the State of Indiana by the act of Congress of September 28, 1850, after deducting the expense of selecting and draining the same. 11. The taxes which may from time to time be assessed upon the property of corporations for common school purposes. 12. The funds arising from the 14th section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana. 13. All unreclaimed fees, as provided by law. The amount of fund arising from all these sources is thus given and classified by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in his Report for 1856. The details from which the above summary is deduced may be presented in 151,590.00 Estimated value of unsold school sections, Grand aggregate, $4,929,866.24 The following statistical view of the educational condition of the State is also taken from the Report of the Superintendent for 1856. The Free School system, though, from the small amount of funds provided for carrying it out, it is entirely inadequate to the educational wants of the State, has nevertheless some excellent features. It is protected by the Constitution, and is comparatively safe from the attacks of ignorance and selfishness. No hasty legislation can affect it, and no portion of the State can escape from its elevating and humanizing influence. The State levies a tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars on all the property within her limits, and devotes it to the education of her youth. This is equally distributed to all parts of the State. Hence a rich county is made to pay its part in furnishing education to a poorer one. This admirable feature of equality per vades the whole school system of Indiana. By means of township supervision, equal educational privileges are secured to the various districts of each township, while the burden of erecting school-houses is borne equally by all. The injustice and inequality of the District system, so common in the older States, is done away, and all derive equal benefits from the State tax. By the 27th section of the Revised School Law, it is enacted that "the schools in each township shall be taught an equal length of time, without regard to the diversity in the number of pupils in the several schools." The school-houses being erected also at the expense of the township, equal accommodations are provided for all, without that inequality in taxation which under the district system must oppress the smaller and poorer districts. This feature of equality, and this exemption from hasty legislation, by means of constitutional protection, form the basis for a school system which, when supported by ample funds, will be as complete and as perfect as that of any other State. As yet, however, the advantages from it have hardly been felt, except perhaps in the improved condition of school-houses, for which, as stated above, an assessment of $796,105.18 has been made during the past two years. The average duration of schools has been only three months during the past year. So inadequate to our educational wants is the small amount now received, that many of the most devoted friends of education in the State are of the opinion that under its influence we have retrograded from even the low position which the census of 1840 assigned us. The Report of E. P. Cole, Esq., on the educational condition of the State, delivered before the Teachers' Association at Richmond, August, 1857, gives facts which can scarcely leave room for doubt that such is really the case. He says: "In 1840 we were at the lowest point of depression as a State among the free members of this Confederacy. But our educational zero has sunk about two degrees, and the number of counties below that dismal point has increased more than fifty per cent during this period of ten years. Would this have been the result had we directed our attention and means to the establishment of a wise and efficient system of free schools? Had we taxed ourselves as freely for their support, and adopted as generous a policy for their improvement, as they deserve, should we now have had the humiliating fact staring us in the face, that the number of our adult population unable to read or write has increased from 38,100 to 75,017 within the last ten years? It would probably surprise some of the members of the Legislature to learn that the number of their constituents over the age of twenty years unable to read or write increased more than one hundred per cent during the decade between the years 1840 and 1850, while the aggregate increase of their constituency did not reach fifty per cent during the same period. The census of 1840 on the subject of adult ignorance was, undoubtedly, very imperfect. Astounding as were its disclosures, we are now compelled to admit that even then we were in a worse condition than the census of that year showed us to be. It seems that the inaccuracies were in our favor, and that it did not reveal the actual state of adult ignorance, but cast a partial veil over our literary poverty. Five counties, in 1840, were not represented on this point. In 1850 these same counties contained an aggregate of 3,509 adults unable to read or write. Of these Morgan had 1,362 and Posey 1,469. Monroe was reported in 1840 as containing nine persons unable to read or write, while the census of 1850 stated the number of that class to be 1,000. It surely cannot be very gratifying to find, on comparing the statistics of adult ignorance of 1840 and 1850, that most of the counties below zero in 1840 have sunk still lower. A few instances will be sufficient to corroborate the statement. Ripley, in 1840, contained 208 unable to read or write. In 1850 the number had increased to 2,075; with an aggregate population at these periods as follows: in 1840, 10,392, and in 1850, 14,822. Putnam had in 1840, 1,021, and by the census of 1850 the number had increased to 2,134. Fountain, with 874 in 1840, finds herself reported in 1850 as containing 1,457 adults unable to read or write. Hendricks, with 924 in 1840, increased to 1,333 in 1850. Green's retrocession in the scale is indicated by the figures 740 in 1840, and 1,515 in 1850. Davis had in 1840, 667; in 1850 the number had swelled to 1,173. Owen, with 793 in 1840, had 1,126 in 1850. Scott, with 470 in 1840, had in 1850 increased her rank and file to 900. With a general increase of less than forty per cent, her literary retrocession was almost one hundred per cent. Martin, which in 1840 could only muster 620 adults unable to read or write, which was only three less than one half of her population, of that popular class, in 1850, could parade a regiment of 1,113 strong, which shows that she had receded even from her former forlorn condition." One thing seems almost certain. While education was left to private enterprise, and while the success of the schools depended wholly on the ability of the teacher, the standard of qualifications was higher than it is under the present order of things. The free schools have crippled the flourishing private institutions which might then be found in every village, and the divided support has introduced poorer schools and less qualified teachers. The result could hardly have been otherwise. But the new system is gradually winning its way to favor. Many of the larger places in the State have established free schools, which are kept open during the year. Many difficulties have attended this, and even at the present time defective legislation endangers the existence of the free schools in those places where they have been longest established. The power of the cities and corporate places to raise a special school tax sufficient to keep annual schools is questioned. Decisions have been given for and against the power, and the case is now before the Supreme Court for decision. Among the counties of the State, Wayne, in the eastern part, has done more than any other for the establishment of free schools. This is one of the oldest and wealthiest sections of the State. The county seat, Richmond, has good school-house accommodations, and fine graded schools. Prof. Henkle is the present Superintendent. New Albany, in Floyd County, on the Ohio, one of the largest places in the State, has excellent school-houses, and her schools, under the charge of Mr. I. G. May, Esq., are among the best in the State. The schools of Indianapolis have been for the past two years under the charge of Mr. George B. Stone. Here the schools are graded, the school-houses are tolerably good, and the schools have enjoyed a degree of prosperity interrupted by as few opposing circumstances, perhaps, as any in the State. The report of the Superintendent for the past year gives 2,730 as the number educated in the public schools, at an expense of $ 17,381.86. Evansville, in the southwestern part, can boast the best school-house in the State. Madison at one time could boast schools equal to any of her sister cities; but an illiberal policy |