Franklin's ideas on education differed from those of his contemporaries, and in order to show by comparison and contrast the educational notions which lie at the bottom of Franklin's philosophy, his ideas on education will be compared with those of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It may be premised that John Adams's ideas of education are typical of New England, and by comparing them and Franklin's it will be seen how the life of Franklin in Pennsylvania modified his early New England notions, and perhaps explain some of the variations between the general liberal plan of education characteristic of New England and the middle colonies.

Franklin, we have seen, was a self-educated man. John Adams received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Harvard College in 1775, and soon after became the teacher of the grammar school in the town of Worcester. As was the case so frequently in New England schools, teaching was but an expedient to supply for the time being the wants of life and afford sufficient leisure to read law.

Adams was closely associated with Franklin in public life, both being members of important committees in the old Congress, the most famous of which was the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, both having the independence of the colonies at heart while that independence seemed a great way off, and both serving their country in joint diplomatic relations in Paris. They were very

with the ministers of the oldest Episcopalian, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches in the town of Boston. The first loan was made May, 1791.

The treasurer of the fund, Samuel F. McCleary, in his annual report to the trustees, makes the statement of the condition February 1, 1892, viz:

Income to be loaned to young married artificers, under the age of 35 years, who have served an apprenticeship in Philadelphia, and faithfully fulfilled the duties required in their indentures, and who can furnish two satisfactory securities for the return of the money in ten annual installments, with interest at 5 per cent:

Philadelphia City loans:

6 per cent, taxable.

6 per cent, free

4 per cent

Invested capital, December 31, 1891.

Pittsburg City 7 per cent loans

$500.00 48, 200.00

100.00 1,000.00

much unlike in character, Franklin being easy, generous, liberal in his views, full of tact, wise in his observations, and preeminently happy in his relations with men. John Adams was upright, active, suspicious, puritanical, and abrupt, ever viewing public affairs as a lawyer considers his case in hand, and filled with an enormous capac ity for business. We have already seen how the various activities in which Franklin was engaged through life determined his educational notions; in a similar manner John Adams's activities, which were chiefly legal and political, gave character to his ideas on education. Franklin was ever suggesting education as a means for cultivating the applied arts, for improving agriculture, for extending the conquests of science, for promoting the general welfare. It must have been noticed in our outline of Franklin that he gave very little attention in his plan to political studies; he mentions them and urges the study of the principles of government, history, and politics, but he does not found his scheme of education upon a political basis; he rather founded his plans upon the scientific and industrial basis, for he was a man active in industrial affairs, little given to speculation, and apt to view political events as mere changes on the sea of public affairs. Adams, on the other hand, was a born politician. The oldest letter of John Adams,

United States 4 per cent loans..

Bonds and mortgages

Loans to young married artificers

$2,000.00 30, 200.00 209.56

Cash receipts and payments, January 1 to December 31, 1891.

82, 209.56

4, 678.63

6, 070. 44

3, 603.95

14, 353. 02

written while yet a school-teacher in Worcester, October 12, 1755, is a political essay, in which he says:

Be not surprised that I am turned politician; this whole town is immersed in politics. The interests of nations and the dira of war make the subject of every conversation. I sit and hear, and after having been led through the maze, I sometimes retire, and by laying together form some reflections pleasing to myself.

He was always "immersed in politics," and politics was the basis of his educational ideas. These first appear in his treatise on Government:

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower classes of the people, are so extremely’wise that to a humane and generous man no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

He is the type of those men who would prescribe the means and ends of the state and "by good laws regulate all the affairs of mankind." Nowhere does Franklin ever refer to a "law which should provide for the liberal education of youth;" Franklin never carried his scheme of education over into government. John Adams would embody a provision for education in the fundamentals of government, and this he did in the constitution of Massachusetts of 1780, of which instrument he was the chief author:

SECTION II.-The Encouragement of Literature, etc.

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the people.

His grandson, Charles Francis Adams, gives this information on the origin of this celebrated clause:

This feature of the constitution of Massachusetts is peculiar and, in one sense, original with Mr. Adams. The recognition of the obligation of a State to promote a higher and more extended policy than is embraced in the protection of the temporal interests and political rights of the individual, however understood among enlightened minds, had not at that time been formally made a part of the organic law. Those clauses, since inserted in other State constitutions, which, with more or less fullness, acknowledged the same principle, are all manifestly taken from this source. The following history of the origin of it is taken from an account given by the author in 1809:

"In traveling from Boston to Philadelphia, in 1774, 75, '76, and '77, I had several times amused myself, at Norwalk, in Connecticut, with the very curious collection of birds and insects of American production, made by Mr. Arnold; a collection which he

Life and Works of John Adams, Vol. I, p. 24.

that the general public education never can long exist in a simple democracy. The stinginess, the envy, and malignity of the base and ignorant would be flattered by the artful and designing. If the education of every family be left to its own expense, the rich only might have their children educated.

Franklin would never have mentioned education in such a connection. He did not view the state as merely a political concern. He frequently has occasion to remark on the different conditions of the rich and poor, and he was ever projecting schemes by which the poor might become rich. He would set everybody on the way to wealth. Industry, frugality, and self-education were the basis of Franklin's conception of state. Adams, on the other hand, viewed the state wholly as a lawyer, conceived it as an affair of laws which adjusted, or attempted to adjust the rights of the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, the good and the bad, and therefore placing law as of chief importance in the state, he would regulate education by law. Nowhere does Adams intimate that the individual should educate himself.

When in Holland in 1780 Adams wrote a number of letters upon interesting subjects respecting the Revolution of America and in reply to the inquiry "whether the common people in America are not inclined, when they are able to find sufficient means, to frustrate by force the good intentions of the politicians," wrote:

There

The difference in that country (America) is not so great as it is in some others between the common people and the gentlemen; for noblemen we have none. is no country where the common people, I mean the tradesmen, the husbandmen, and the laboring people, have such advantages of education as in that (America), and it may be truly said that their education, their understanding, and their knowledge are as nearly equal as their birth, fortune, dignities, and titles.

This might be expected from one whom his enemies sometimes called "the well-born" and it is eminently in keeping with the general tone of New England thought at the time. Nowhere in Franklin's writings is there found such a statement as Adams's, that knowledge among Americans is "as nearly equal as their birth, fortune, dignities, and titles." The counter statement is made by Franklin in his autobiog raphy when speaking of the beneficial effect of founding the Philadelphia Library.'

In other words, Franklin was a democrat in his educational ideas; Adams, a New England aristocrat of the radical type, who would direct and guard the people's interest, discriminate as to their "birth, fortune, dignities, and titles" and by the artifice of law attempt to equalize their condition as far as possible.

The different effect on America of the ideas of these two men is apparent in our time. Franklin's plan of self-education, rising to the dignity of utilitarian philosophy, has profoundly influenced the American people and stimulated thousands to improve themselves and acquire by frugality and industry advantages which were not theirs by birth. Adams, prescribing public education by the law of the

State, was among the founders of our public school system, by which the State educates the young at public expense. The ideas of Jolin Adams on education have eliminated largely and necessarily from the body of youth receiving instruction at the expense of the State that personal ambitious interest in self-education which is characteristic of those who follow Franklin's plan. Our public shools are characterized 'by a mechanism which produces a uniform training of an average quality and transforms ignorant childhood into book-taught youth, often without stirring that sense of personal concern in the acquisition of knowledge of which Franklin was always fondly speaking.

If John Adams was instrumental in founding the public school sys tem of the United States when he incorporated in the constitution of Massachusetts of 1780 that famous clause providing for the maintenance of public schools and higher institutions of learning, which has largely influenced the entire North, and which may be traced in these successive State constitutions that have been made from Massachusetts to Oregon, and if he was successful in incorporating education by law in the organization of the State, he yet failed, as all have failed, who would resolve education into a conformity to the requirements of a law however wise in its ultimate purposes, in founding a system of education which can compete in true value with that system which, like Franklin's, transforms every individual into an ever-improving, selfeducating soul.

Doubtless it has occurred to the reader that it is by the Franklin model that such men are made as Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Fulton, and other original and creative minds, who are selfeducated, yet who rank among the determinative forces in America. It is the old story of the college-made and self-made man, but we must admit that, as human nature is, it is better for our country to have the advantage of the results obtained by the application of John Adams' plan for education by prescribing it in the fundamental law of the State than to run the risk of securing an educated democracy by the application of Franklin's plan of self-education. The few will profit by Franklin's example, the many will be improved by the operation of the laws which John Adams favored. In fine, Franklin's ideas applies to individuals; Adams', to the welfare of the masses.

John Adams writes in 1785:

The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and must be willing to bear the expense of it. There should not be a district of one mile square without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the expense of the people themselves.

Benjamin Rush had written to Adams his opinions that

The benefits of free schools should not be overlooked. Indeed, suffrage, in my opinion, should never be permitted to a man that could not write or read.

To which Adams replied:

Free schools and all schools, colleges, academies, and seminaries of learning I can recommend from my heart, but I dare not say that the suffrage should never be

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