CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCHOOL OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS.

It has been said that Franklin educated the people of the American colonies in the knowledge of their liberties. His utilitarian notions in education, formulated in his Plan for an English School, and in his Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, and illustrated in his life and writings and in the institutions founded according to his ideas, culminating in the foundation of the University of Pennsylvania, are always illustrative of the education which he considered was best adapted to such a country as ours. America in his day was agricul tural, and I have already referred to the interest which Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin took in agricultural affairs, and in the provision for the study of chemistry, botany, fruit culture, viticulture, and the care of stock. Hamilton, whose life was in the city and among politicians, advocated a political education. In the correspondence between Hamilton and Washington much is said by each of them in support of the founding of a national university in which jurisprudence, politics, history, social science, and cognate subjects should be taught. Jefferson prescribed American history as one of the subjects in dispensable in an American school. It may be concluded, then, from the public services and from the writings of these eminent men that they considered the principles of republican government and its history in this country as well worthy of a place in university study.

Philadelphia is identified with several of the epoch-making events in American history. There the Declaration of Independence was made; there the Constitution of the United States was framed by a company of unequaled legislators, and Benjamin Franklin was a member of the committee that drew the Declaration and of the convention that made the Constitution. Philadelphia' is an American city in America; its material prosperity is to be attributed to the character of its inhabitants. Whether or not they have incorporated into their systems the spirit of Franklin's Way to Wealth, they have exemplified the enormous efficiency of Franklin's maxims in the accumulative productivity of wealth for which the city is famous. The city has always been national in its sympathies, and at no time was this spirit more grandly displayed than during the civil war. Among the effects of the civil war of an educational character is the present interest in the history and institu

tions of the United States. Previous to the war American history was scarcely considered worthy of a place in a college course; it was studied in meager outline in some of the public schools of the States, and in a few of the wealthier universities a brief course of lectures was delivered, usually by the president, on the Constitution of the United States. This course rarely covered more than twelve lectures. The civil war transformed America into a new nation, or, at least, awakened its people and the nations of the world to a clearer definition of the place of America in the modern world. The effect of this awakening was seen in the establishing of courses of study in American history (1870-1885) at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Syracuse, and Wisconsin. The subject was not made of sufficient importance to require the entire attention of a professor except in the University of Pennsylvania, where the historian, John Bach McMaster, was elected professor of American History in 1883. The lectures in these schools, except in Pennsylvania, were usually given by the professor of law, of history, of political science, or of English literature. These lectures were a brief summary of some important political events in the history of the country and a comment upon the text of the national Constitution.

The civil war was the most important economic event in modern American history. The nation, in the language of Lincoln, had a new birth of freedom, and this freedom was of the whole estate, political, constitutional, social, industrial, and literary. Thus it came to be seen that American history comprised a large group of essential interests: The history of the land, the method of its acquisition, its use, and the political geography of the public domain; the history of the people, the · native races, emigration, and immigration; movements of population, transportation, labor and manufactures, inventions, social experiments; the people in politics, finance, education; the power of public opinion. A third element was that of the constitution of government in America, its origin, growth, and final definition; its relation to the governments of antiquity, of the middle ages, and of modern times; the nature of the colonial efforts in government; the causes leading to the independ ence of the United States, and the formation of State constitutions and of the Constitution of the United States; the nature and jurisdiction of local government; the problems of municipal government; the history of the judiciary, and the interpretation of government in acts of Congress, acts of State legislatures, and in the decisions of courts. Another phase of that history is the history of American legislation in the State legislatures and in Congress upon an almost bewildering variety of subjects; the history of the treaties of the nation; the legis lation of courts upon important subjects, municipal legislation, and not least in importance, the history of that obsolete legislation, by which costly experiment so much that is admirable in our present laws was obtained.

Another element of American history is the history of literature in America. Franklin was fond of prophesying on the future greatness of the English language; that it would become an imperial tongue spoken by untold millions in this country, and that its literature would contain the productions of chiefest value to the human mind. But not alone has the English tongue been spoken in America; there the Spanish tongue divides with the English in importance, for the language of South America is chiefly Spanish. This large group of essential interests to the people, their history in full, is a subject of importance to those who would know what is best for such a country as ours. If American institutions are worth having they are worth understanding; if American history is worth making it is worth reading.

It is not strange, then, that a school founded for the special study of American history and institutions should be created in some American university at some time not long after the American civil war; that such a school should be founded in an institution fairly equipped to administer wisely the provisions of such a foundation, and in such a place as by its historical associations, its liberal facilities, and its nearness to the national capital and to the great municipal centers of the country, would enable students to avail themselves of an adequate his torical equipment. Under these controlling conditions the School of American History and Institutions was founded in the University of Pennsylvania in 1891.1

The school was established in 1891 by the trustees of the university as the result of the coöperative labors of William Pepper, M.D., LL.D., provost of the university; Joseph D. Potts, John B. Gest, and Hon. S. W. Pennypacker, of the board of trustees; Charles Elmer Bushnell, Ferdinand J. Dreer, Hon. Thomas Cochran, Joseph G. Rosengarten, Richard L. Austin, John Bach McMaster, and Francis Newton Thorpe.

The school was instituted by Prof. Thorpe, and the idea of such a school was formulated by him in 1886 when he was a fellow in history and political science in the university. Six years before, while at Oxford University, the idea of such a school had occurred to him. While fellow in the university his special studies were with Prof. McMaster, at that time professor of American History in the Wharton School. During the years 1885-91 a library essential to the work of the school was collected. At present it comprises about 14,000 volumes, classified as follows:

LIBRARY OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

(a) National documents: A practically complete legislative record of the Government of the United States, consisting of the American Archives; the Annals of Congress, 1789-1822; the Congressional Debates, 1822-1837; the Congressional Globe, 1833-1873; the Congressional Record, 1873–1891; the Journal of Congress, 1789-1891; the American State Papers, 1789-1828; a practically complete set of the Reports of Committees, Executive Documents, Miscellaneous Documents of both Houses from the beginning of the National Government to the Fifty-second Congress.

(b) State documents: Journals of the House and Senate; debates and proceedings of the State legislatures; departmental reports (agriculture, education, railroads, labor, transportation, insurance, prisons, etc.).

(c) Canadian Public Documents, 1843-1890.

(d) Municipal Documents (police, fire, water, charities, etc., hospitals).

Philadelphia has such historical associations as make it the fit place for the location of such a school. The historical material in the libraries of New York, Baltimore, Albany, Worcester, Boston, Harrisburg, and Washington are readily accessible. The faculty of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy made possible the study of economic and financial subjects comprised in the study of American history and institutions. The law school afforded opportunity for the study of jurisprudence. Finally, it was possible to gather a faculty for the teaching of American history, institutional and constitutional; the historian of "The People of the United States" was transferred from the Wharton school to the chair of American History in the newly established school; the chair of American Constitutional History was created and filled; courses of study were arranged and the school entered upon its work October 1, 1892.

It is the first school of its kind. Its courses are taken by graduates and undergraduates. Its graduate classes have the use of an ample. library equipment, selected with care. In order to make the opportunities of the school as useful as possible there is a Saturday class in

(e) Corporation documents: Reports of turnpikes, railroads, canals, insurance companies, etc.

LIBRARY OF THE LAWS.

(a) National: United States Statutes at Large; reports of Supreme Courts; reports of Court of Claims; Digest of Federal Decisions.

(b) State Laws: Laws of each State and Territory, 1775-1890.

(c) Municipal Law (the ordinances of seventy-five American cities have been collected).

(d) Constitutional Law: Constitutions of each State; Constitution of foreign States; Treatises in Constitutional Law.

The John Alexander Jameson Library of American Conventions; the Journals, Proceedings, Debates and many documents pertaining to them.

The Forster Papers and MSS., 1786-1834, pertaining to the early history of the Northwest.

The Robert Purvis Library of Anti-slavery Literature.

American Biography and History.

The History of Education in America.

Collections have been begun in these subjects: American Newspapers; American Magazines; Mines and Mining; Silk; Iron and Steel; Sugar; Wool; Cotton; and other business and manufacturing interests. Also, on Woman Suffrage; the Temperance Movement in America; Transportation; the History of the Society of Friends.

LIBRARY FACILITIES IN PHILADELPHIA.

The aggregate library facilities of the city include over 750,000 volumes, distributed in the Philadelphia, Library, founded by Benjamin Franklin, and rich in public documents; in the Mercantile Library, having large collections of Americana; and the Library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, all of which are accessible to students. In the University Library, in addition to the special Library of the School of American History, are the Colwell, Carey and Wharton collections in political economy, in social and political science. The University Law Libraries and the Hirst Free Law Library afford every opportunity to consult the Law Reports of the several States and treatises on the law.

American History and Government, for the convenience of teachers in Philadelphia, which is largely attended.

For this class Prof. McMaster's courses cover the Political and Economical History of the United States. The courses follow an outline prepared specially for the purpose. Maps are drawn and papers are prepared and discussed at the class, and the methods of historical study are made an important element.

Prof. Thorpe's courses deal with the development of Government in America, local government, State government, national goverment, discussions of important questions involved in the growth of American civil institutions. Papers are prepared and discussed before the class. A special outline is arranged for its convenience.

Through the generosity of Mr. Charles Elmer Bushnell, of Philadelphia, the school is enabled to offer a free scholarship for a period of five years to graduates of the Central High School of Pittsburg, Pa. The scholarship is granted each year, but holders of it are eligible to reappointment.

The founder of the school was imbued with the same notion to which Franklin so often gave utterance: that education in American universities and colleges should prepare "for such a country as ours." The efficient coöperation realized in the establishing of this department of the University of Pennsylvania suggests what may be done elsewhere. Every institution of learning in America should provide instruction in the principles of American government and in American history. It is encouraging now to believe that no American university will neglect to create a chair of American history, and, as far as possible, provide adequate library facilities for the study of the whole subject. The subject is comprehensive, interesting, and popular. No better proof of this can be given than the record of the university extension movement in this country. The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, of Philadelphia, has had more requests for courses of lectures on American history than on any other subject. The substantial interest in the subject which this request implies is a sufficient foundation for the adequate support of such a school as this in the University of Pennsylvania.

By American history I mean not merely military or political history, but the history of American people in all their interests: industrial, social, political, literary, financial, religious, military, economic, and constitutional. Since 1880 the wealthy universities have founded chairs of American history, and separated the subject from a discordant mass of mathematics, language, European history, literature, political economy, and law. The changes made during the last few years may better be understood by comparing the study of American history at present with that study in 1885-86. At that time I made a brief comparative study of the work offered in the leading American universities, which was republished by the Bureau of Education under the title of "The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities." It was edited by Dr. H. B. Adams, and comprises the eighth chapter of the book. (The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities; Bureau of Education, Washington, 1887.)