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or squandered, not poured into formal school-

system of free public schools for Virginians.

ing, which many settlers neither wanted nor

"The most effectual means of preventing [the

needed.24 Indeed, between the signing of the

perversion of power into tyranny are] to illumi-

nate, as far as practicable, the minds of the peo-

Declaration of Independence and the 1830s,

ple at large," Jefferson wrote, "and more espe-

American education remained much as it had

cially to give them knowledge of those facts

been since the colonial period: decentralized,

which history exhibits, that possessed thereby

entrepreneurial, and driven by the demands of

of the experience of other ages and countries,

individual parents and local communities, not

they may be enabled to know ambition under

school districts or states.

all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural

According to the "foundation of democra-

powers to defeat its purposes."21

cy" thesis, Americans during this period should

have been socially fractured and civic involve-

A few years after Jefferson introduced his

ment low. They weren't. Indeed, as Alexis de

public schooling proposal for Virginia, former

Tocqueville observed in 1831:

Continental Army Surgeon General Benjamin

Rush put forth an argument for public educa-

In the United States the interests of the

tion in his state, Pennsylvania. Unlike

country are everywhere kept in view;

Jefferson, though, Rush justified his plan

they are an object of solicitude to the

more as a means for creating homogeneity

people of the whole Union, and every

than giving citizens the ability to identify

citizen is as warmly attached to them

threatening government. "Our schools of

as if they were his own. He takes pride

learning," he wrote, "by producing one gener-

in the glory of his nation; he boasts of

al and uniform system of education, will ren-

its success, to which he conceives him-

der the mass of the people more homoge-

self to have contributed; and he rejoic-

neous and thereby fit them more easily for

uniform and peaceable government."22

es in the general prosperity by which he

profits.25

By 1787, the notion that at least some pub-

licly financed schooling was essential for peace-

ful, effective republican government had been

Clearly, public schooling was not neces-

accepted by many of the nation's leaders. The

sary for unity, at least not in the early repub-

Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest

lic. It also wasn't necessary to get people to do

Ordinance of 1787 confirmed this, with the

their civic duty: While data on such activities

Land Ordinance requiring that one thirty-sixth

as voting in the earliest decades of the repub-

of every township in western territories be set

lic are not available, existing evidence sug-

aside to fund public schooling, and the

gests that people were highly civic-minded.

Northwest Ordinance declaring that "religion,

De Tocqueville's observations, of course, tes-

Until the 1830s,

morality, and knowledge, being necessary to

tify to this, and it was, after all, in this period

American educa-

good government and the happiness of

that a new republic was created, power

tion remained

mankind, schools and the means of education

changed hands peaceably between different

shall forever be encouraged" in the territories.23

political parties, and the United States estab-

much as it had

lished a national identity. What greater evi-

Despite clear enthusiasm for public school-

been since the

dence of civic success could there be?

ing in certain quarters, however, the most cele-

colonial period:

Despite great civic and social accomplish-

brated early American plans never amounted

ments, by the 1830s many political leaders

to much. Jefferson's legislation to establish free

driven by the

were beginning to advocate very intensely for

public schooling in grades one through three

demands of

systems of state-run schooling. Indeed, just a

in Virginia, for instance, was never enacted.

few years after de Tocqueville undertook the

Similarly, though the Continental Congress

individual

journey across the United States that in-

did pass the Land and Northwest Ordinances,

parents and local

formed his analysis of American society and

the proceeds from renting the land set-aside

communities.

democracy, Horace Mann was appointed sec-

for education typically ended up either stolen

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