ates.[187]

Kentucky in 1823 was the fourth state in the Union to establish a
school. In this case, however, action was taken directly by the
legislature, and the school has always been the property of the state.
In 1826[188] Congress granted to it a township of land in Florida, on
the theory that this school would be the center for pupils from the
western and southern states; and it was for some years the place of
education for many of the children from the southern states,[189] and
also for a number from western states. With the establishment of this
school directly by the state begins a new policy in the provision for
the education of the deaf--the work no longer being entrusted to private
individuals and societies. All the states that followed Kentucky in the
creation of schools, with the exception of Maryland and some of the New
England states, adopted this policy.

Ohio came next in 1829, although an attempt had been made to establish a
school in Cincinnati as early as 1821.[190] Pupils were also received
into it from neighboring states.[191] In 1838 Virginia established a
joint school for the deaf and the blind, after exhibitions of pupils had
been given in the state. In Indiana a private school was started in
1841, and three years later the state institution, action being taken by
the legislature without a single dissenting vote. In this state another
stage is reached in the work of educating the deaf: education which had
hitherto been, by statute, free to the "indigent" only is in positive
terms made free to all. This was done in 1848, and the action has been
thus described:[192]

The doors of all asylums built at public expense for mutes, for the
blind, and for lunatics were thrown open to all, that their
blessings, like the rain and dew of heaven, might freely descend on
these children of misfortune throughout the state, without money and
without price.

Well might this paean break forth, for this is probably the broadest
benevolent legislation ever enacted up to this time.

In Georgia a private school was opened in 1842, and in 1846 the state
school was established, after a visit of pupils from the Hartford
school. In 1845 a school was started in Tennessee, after an exhibit of
pupils from Kentucky. The same year in North Carolina, after an exhibit
of pupils from Virginia, a school was opened for the deaf and the blind,
though one had been projected as early as 1828.[193] In 1846 a sc