From The Second War With England To 1850.

were set apart to pay the costs of educating the youth even in the slight acquirements then deemed essentials, but where such information was imparted, the costs of tuition must be discharged by the parent or guardian of the children so taught. By the middle of the last century it had become a practice generally in townships throughout the present county of Delaware, to provide schools for the instruction of youths to which the several residents of the neighborhood made voluntary contribution, but the sum so contributed was a contract that could be enforced by process of law. The idea, however, of free public instruction for the children of persons in indifferent circumstances is presented throughout all our State history. The section of the Constitution of 1776 which provided that "a school or schools shall be established in each county by the Legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the teachers paid by the public as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices," did not bring into existence the freeschool system of which we are now so proud, nor did the seventh article of the Constitution of 1790, which directed that "the Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the State, in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis."

As far back in our county annals as 1794 we find Dr. William Martin, of the borough of Chester, in a lengthly article in the Aurora (a Philadelphia paper) for December 31st, urging the establishment of public seminaries of learning; but his views were far in advance of the times. On April 4, 1809, the Legislature enacted a law - the pauper law, as Thaddeus Stevens termed it - that the children of parents too poor to provide for the education of their offspring out of their own means, could have proper instruction given them at the public cost, and directing how the expenses thereby incurred should be defrayed. The act of April 3, 1831, provided that all money due the State by holders of patented lands, and all fees received by the land-office, should be invested until the interest annually would amount to one hundred thousand dollars, after which time the interest was to be applied to the support of common schools throughout the commonwealth. At the time of the passage of the act of April 1, 1834, about half a million dollars had been received from the sources named, and the opponents of the school law of 1834 - for they were many and included a large number of the ablest and best men of the State - were clamorous in their denunciation of the Legislature for having, as they alleged, violated their plighted faith in providing for the support of the schools by direct taxation instead of waiting until the fund set apart in 1831 had accumulated to two millions of dollars, when the interest alone should be applied to the maintenance of the schools. The act of April 1, 1834, however, was submitted to the various townships in Delaware County, when the result showed that fourteen townships were favorable to the adoption of the law and seven against it. Dr. George Smith at that time was the senator from this district, and Samuel Anderson, representative, both of whom were warm friends of the measure, Dr. Smith being particularly active in advocacy of the bill. The opponents of the law in this county assembled Oct. 30, 1834, at the public-house of Isaac Hall, in Nether Providence, and the list of the committee then appointed indicates how strong and influential that opposition was. The meeting was presided over by Benjamin Pearson, and Jonas P. Yarnall was secretary. The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

"Resolved, That we disapprove of the law passed at the last session of the Legislature as a system of general education, believing that it is unjust and impolitic. That it was never intended by our Constitution that the education of those children whose parents are able to educate them should be educated at the public expense."

Dr. Joseph Wilson, Joseph Gibson, James S. Peters, George Lewis, and Benjamin Pearson were appointed a committee to draft a memorial to the General Assembly, which contained a statement that while not disapproving of the clause of the Constitution providing for the education of the poor gratis, yet the law of 1834 was oppressive inasmuch as it "imposed a disproportionate and unreasonable burden on the middle class of the community, who can partake but little of its benefits;" that the authority of the school directors under its provisions was unlimited, having power to tax the citizens to any extent, and being "responsible to nobody;" that the assessments for State and county purposes were sufficiently oppressive "without any addition to carry into operation an experiment of doubtful efficacy," and for these reasons they petitioned for the repeal of the law. Capt. James Serrill and Joseph Bunting were appointed a committee to have the memorial printed, and a committee of sixty-four persons was appointed to circulate printed copies for signatures, which papers were to be returned to the chairman by the first Monday of November following.

In the mean time the friends of the law were not less active, for on Nov. 4, 1834, the school delegates in the various townships, excepting those of Aston and Concord, together with the county commissioner, met in the court-house at Chester in accordance with the provisions of the act. George G. Leiper was chairman, and Homer Eachus secretary. The proceedings were not harmonious, but a resolution was adopted by a vote of thirteen to nine, providing that two thousand two hundred dollars should be appropriated for school purposes, and a meeting of the citizens at the usual places of election in each township was called to be held in the afternoon of November 20th to ratify or reject the action of the deputies. Those citizens who favored the act also assembled in convention at Hall's Tavern, in Nether Providence on Nov. 13, 1834, when William Martin acted as president; J. Walker, Jr., and I. E.