Jacob Morton, Samuel Miller, Joseph Constant, Thomas Eddy, Thomas Pearsall, Robert Bowne, Matthew Clarkson, Archibald Gracie, John M'Vickar, Charles Wilkes, Henry Ten Brook, Gilbert Aspinwall, Valentine Seaman, William Johnson, William Coit, Matthew Franklin, Adrian Hegeman, Benjamin G. Minturn, Leonard Bleecker, Thomas Franklin, Samuel Russell, Samuel Doughty, Alexander Robertson, Samuel Forbes, John Withington, William Edgar, George Trumbull, Daniel D. Tompkins, William Boyd, Jacob Mott, Benjamin Egbert, Thomas Farmar, and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, a body corporate under the style of "The Society for establishing a Free School in the City of New York, for the education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided for, by any religious society." The provisions of this Act were, that the yearly income of the Society should not exceed ten thousand dollars, and that on the first Monday in May in each year there should be elected thirteen Trustees to manage the affairs of the Society, who should be members of the said corporation, and actually residing in the city of New York; that the Trustees should meet regularly on the second Monday in every month, and that seven or more of them so convened should be a legal meeting of the Board: That any person who should contribute to the Society the sum of eight dollars, should be a member thereof; and that any person who should contribute the sum of twenty-five dollars, should be a member, and be further entitled, during the life of such contributor, to send one child to be educated at any school under the care of the Society; and whoever should contribute the sum of forty dollars, should be a member, and be entitled to send two children to be educated at any school under the direction of the said Society. The second section of the Act constituted the twelve gentlemen present at the original meeting, together with De Witt Clinton, the first Board of Trustees, who should hold office until the time fixed by the Act for the first election of officers. The limitation of the income of the Society to the sum of ten thousand dollars is an indication of the rigid views of responsibility, as well as of economy, which controlled the founders and early patrons of the Society. Experience and philanthropy soon taught a more enlarged view of the necessities of the enterprise. In conformity with the provisions of this Act, thirteen Trus tees were elected at a meeting held on the 6th of May, 1805, and the Board thus elected was organized as follows: DE WITT CLINTON, President. Gilbert Aspinwall, Thomas Eddy, Thomas Franklin, Matthew Franklin, Adrian Hegeman, William Johnson, Samuel Miller, Benjamin G. Minturn, Henry Ten Brook. The Society had now assumed a responsible form, and the Trustees soon began to realize the magnitude of the enterprise which they had undertaken. With a labor of the utmost importance before them, a wide field and an organization perfected, they were now to provide means for carrying on their work. A building was required for the school, and funds were needed to pay the salary of the teachers and the other expenses incident to such an institution. Sensible of the necessity of the undertaking, and anxious that the friendless children whose welfare they bad in view should begin to participate in the benefits designed to be bestowed upon them, the Trustees determined to make an immediate application to their fellow-citizens for pecuniary assistance. The following address was therefore published in the journals of the city: TO THE PUBLIC. Address of the Trustees of the "Society for Establishing a Free School in the City of New York, for the Education of such Poor Children as do not Belong to, or are not Provided for by, any Religious Society." "While the various religious and benevolent societies in this city, with a spirit of charity and zeal which the precepts and example of the Divine Author of our religion could alone inspire, amply provi le for the education of such poor children as belong to their respective associations, there still remains a large number living in total neglect of religious and moral instruction, and unacquainted with the common rudiments of learning, essentially requisite for the due management of the ordinary business of life. This neglect may be imputed either to the extreme indigence of the parents of such children, their intemperance and vice; or to a blind indifference to the best interests of their offspring. The consequences must be obvious to the most careless observer. Children thus brought up in ignorance, and amidst the contagion of bad example, are in imminent danger of ruin; and too many of them, it is to be feared, instead of being useful members of the community, will become the burden and pests of society. Early instruction and fixed habits of industry, decency, and order, are the surest safeguards of virtuous conduct; and when parents are either unable or unwilling to bestow the necessary attention on the education of their children, it becomes the duty of the public, and of individuals, who have the power, to assist them in the discharge of this important obligation. It is in vain that laws are made for the punishment of crimes, or that good men attempt to stem the torrent of irreligion and vice, if the evil is not checked at its source; and the means of prevention, by the salutary discipline of early education, seasonably applied. It is certainly in the power of the opulent and charitable, by a timely and judicious interposition of their influence and aid, if not wholly to prevent, at least to diminish, the pernicious effects resulting from the neglected education of the children of the poor. Influenced by these considerations, and from a sense of the necessity of providing some remedy for an increasing and alarming evil, several individuals, actuated by similar motives, agree to form an association for the purpose of extending the means of education to such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided for, by any religious society. After different meetings, numerously attended, a plan of association was framed, and a Memorial prepared and addressed to the Legislature, soliciting an Act of Incorporation, the better to enable them to carry into effect their benevolent design. Such a law the Legislature, at their last session, was pleased to pass; and at a meeting of the Society, under the Act of Incorporation, on the sixth instant, thirteen Trustees were elected for the ensuing year. The particular plan of the school, and the rules for its discipline and management, will be made known previous to its commencement. Care will be exercised in the selection of teachers, and, besides the elements of learning usually taught in schools, strict attention will be bestowed on the morals of the children, and all suitable means be used to counteract the disadvantages resulting from the situation of their parents. It is proposed, also, to establish, on the first day of the week, a school, called a Sunday School, more particularly for such children as, from peculiar circumstances, are unable to attend on the other days of the week. In this, as in the Common School, it will be a primary object, without observing the peculiar forms of any religious Society, to inculcate the sublime truths of religion and morality contained in the Holy Scriptures. This Society, as will appear from its name, interferes with no existing institution, since children already provided with the means of education, or attached to any other Society, will not come under its care. Humble gleaners in the wide field of benevolence, the members of this Association seek such objects only as are left by those who have gone before, or are fellowlaborers with them in the great work of charity. They, therefore, look with confidence for the encouragement and support of the affluent and charitable of every denomination of Christians; and when they consider that in no community is to be found a greater spirit of liberal and active benevolence than among the citizens of New York, they feel assured that adequate means for the prosecution of their plan will be easily obtained. In addition to the respectable list of original subscriptions, considerable funds will be requisite for the purchase or hire of a piece of ground, and the erection of a suitable building for the school, to pay the teachers, and to defray other charges incident to the establishment. To accomplish this design, and to place the Institution on a solid and respectable foundation, the Society depend on the voluntary bounty of those who may be charitably disposed to contribute their aid in the promotion of an object of great and universal concern. After the appearance of this address, the labor of soliciting subscriptions was commenced, but, in consequence of adverse circumstances, among which was the occurrence of the yellow fever during the summer and autumn months, the progress made was slow; and it was not until after numerous meetings, and great efforts on the part of the Trustees, during the ensuing twelve months, that the subscriptions amounted to a sum sufficient to warrant them in hiring a teacher and opening the school. The subscription list, still preserved among the papers of the Society, bears at its head the honored name of DE WITT CLINTON, opposite to which is a donation of $200, followed by that of W. EDGAR, for $50, and MATTHEW CLARKSON, for $25, together with many of the most prominent and influential men of the time. The enterprise, thus originated and endowed, had reached, at the end of the year 1805, a position which led the Trustees to mature their plans for the opening of the school at as early a day as practicable. They had entered upon a work in which the adaptation of small means to produce the greatest result was a question of much importance. Diligent inquiry was accordingly made as to the best methods of instruction, and the systems adopted in other cities and countries in educating the same classes of children. Efficiency in operation, facility and simplicity, attractiveness and thoroughness, combined with economy, were eminently desirable, and care was taken to examine the merits of the various known systems of instruction. Among those which presented themselves prominently to the attention of the trustees, was that which had been for a few years successfully established in London by JOSEPII LANCASTER, and known as the LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM. This gentleman was then conducting his school in the British metropolis, with an average attendance of about one thousand pupils, and his extraordinary success and reputation as an instructor, together with the noticeable reform which had been effected in the moral and social condition of that class in the vicinity of his school, were such that the attention of the British public had not only been drawn toward the establishment, but it had received the notice of members on the floor of Parliament. The fame of the indefatigable founder had, moreover, become known in all parts of the world. A system of instruction which had been so honorably endorsed and supported, could not fail to command the consideration of the trustees. Economy in expense, and facility in communicating instruction, were the characteristic features of this system. It comprehended reading, writing, and arithmetic. The pupils themselves were made the instruments of their own instruction. A school was divided into classes of ten or fifteen scholars, who were placed under the care of a monitor, while he was himself a scholar in a class of a superior grade. The managers of the Society, after a careful consideration of the system devised by LANCASTER, with its apparatus and illustrations, did not long hesitate in regard to the propriety of an experimental test in their new school. In its introduction they derived essential aid from one of their own number, Benjamin D. Perkins, who had seen it in full operation in England, and who was acquainted with its regulations from a personal communication with its author. A teacher who appeared to be well qualified for the undertaking, William Smith, and who was employed by the Society for several years, was selected; and under his superintendence a school was opened on the 19th of May, 1806, in a small apartment in Bancker (now Madison) street. In a few days the attendance rose to forty-two, and the whole, |