en received with a
shudder of horror.

"The interests of education," says Chancellor Kent, chief justice of New
York, "had engaged the attention of the New England colonists, from the
earliest settlement of the country, and the system of common and grammar
schools, and of academical and collegiate instruction, was interwoven
with the primitive views of the Puritans. Everything in their genius and
disposition was favorable to the growth of freedom and learning. They
were a grave, thinking people, having a lofty and determined purpose.
The first emigrants had studied the oracles of truth as a text book, and
they were profoundly affected by the plain commands, awful sanctions,
sublime views, hopes and consolations, that accompanied the revelation
of life and immortality. The avowed object, of their emigration to New
England, was to enjoy and propagate the Reformed faith, in the purity of
its discipline and worship. They intended to found republics on the
basis of Christianity, and to secure religious liberty, under the
auspices of a commonwealth. With this primary view, they were early led
to make strict provision for common school education, and the religious
instruction of the people. The Word of God was at that time almost the
sole object of their solicitude and studies, and the principal design,
in emigrating to the banks of the Connecticut, was to preserve the
liberty and purity of the gospel. We meet with the system of common
schools, in the earliest of the Colonial records. Provision was made for
the support of schools in each town, and a grammar school in each
county. This system of free schools, sustained by law, has been attended
with momentous results; and it has communicated to the people, the
blessings of order and security, to an extent never before surpassed in
the annals of mankind."

STATE OF NEW YORK

George Clinton, the first governor, in presenting the matter of public
education to the first legislature of New York, used the following
language: "Neglect of the education of youth is one of the evils
consequent upon the evils of war. There is scarcely anything more worthy
your attention, than the revival and encouragement of seminaries of
learning; and nothing by which we can more satisfactorily express our
gratitude to the Supreme Being for his past favors, since piety and
virtue are generally the offspring of an enlightened understanding."

Later, when the phrase "Common schools" had come into use