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IF a Scot were asked in
what direction the influence of his native land was most plainly and
characteristically to be seen in America, he would undoubtedly answer in
the direction of education. In surveying the entire scholastic
field—primary, grammar, and collegiate—in America, we are struck by the
fact that the underlying theory of the whole is that promulgated by John
Knox when he proposed an ideal system for Scotland, but was defeated by
the greed and treachery of the Scottish nobility—including even those
who were with him in the struggle against the old Church. In brief, his
system called for at least one grammar school in every parish, a burgh
or high school and, where possible, a collegiate institution in every
town, and a university in the principal cities, beside 'bairn schules'
in connection with each kirk. His theory is that the education of the
youth was part of the legitimate business of every State, and his wish
was that that education should be as liberal as possible. Education, the
education of the masses, has always been since Knox's time one of the
rifling principles of Scottish life. It was carefully fostered by the
Church; the management of the schools long formed part of the most
important business of every General Assembly, and their visitation and
supervision were regarded as not the least among the duties of the
clergy. It was only within a comparatively recent period in Scotland
that the State stepped to the front in educational matters, and the
Church gradually released its hold, until now the entire management,
even of the universities, is professedly secular. This change—this separation
of education from religion—it has always appeared to us, is one of the
things that the Old Country has learned from America, where scholastic
training from the beginning of the national history of the United States
has been secular, except where particular religions have founded schools
or colleges of their own.
In speaking of the Church
having control of the schools in Scotland, however, it must be
remembered that that control sprang from a different source from that
which actuates most Churches in educational matters. There never was,
there never will be, a more perfect system of republican government, a
more complete democracy, than that devised for the 1cirk by John Knox
and his associates. In that system the basis of everything was the Kirk
meeting, in which every one, every head of a family, had a voice and a
vote; from that popular meeting came the session, from the session the
Presbytery, from the Presbytery the Synod, from the Synod the General
Assembly. The last being thoroughly representative in its complexion,
was for many generations the real parliament of the nation, and thus it
was the voice of the Scottish people acting through their regularly and
honestly chosen delegates that inspired the zeal for the cause of
education throughout the country and maintained it.
Although the educational
system of the United States, the system made compulsory by State laws,
is as perfectly secular as can be devised, yet it should be remembered
that the earliest American teachers were either the clergy or that the
early schools were founded under the auspices of some Church. The
Presbyterian, as the representative Scotch denomination, for a long time
was as active in establishing schools as churches. Thus, in the early
history of the Carolinas, we find that one Synod admonished all the
Presbyteries under its control "to establish within their respective
bounds one or more grammar schools, except where such schools are
already established," and the early Presbyterian records all over the
Colonial settlements are full of such references, where the records are
found to exist. One of the most famous of the early educational
institutions in the Carolinas was the Innis Academy, founded in
Wilmington by Col. James Innis, a native of Dunse, who incorporated the
school in 1783. He had been an officer in the British Army, and
distinguished himself in the expedition against Carthagena, in South
America. The University of North Carolina, too, was established in 1795
by the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, an educational pioneer of Scotch and French
descent. Before that, however, in 168,,, the Rev. James Blair, a Scotch
missionary, founded William and Mary College, in Virginia, the most
ancient ot. the American colleges, and which still carries oil its good
work to the present day, and we have seen in the course of this work, by
the labors at Princeton of Witherspoon and other early Scotch teachers,
how active the pioneer Scots in America were in the cause of higher
education.
Among the most prominent
of the early Scotch teachers, whose life story has been preserved to us
mainly because he became as active as a patriot and a legislator as an
educator in his adopted country, was Peter Wilson, a native of the
little parish of Ordiquhill, Banffshire. He was born there in 1744, and,
after attending Aberdeen University for several sessions—long enough to
graduate, for in Scotland they used to enter college at an age when the
children of the present day are only half way through the grammar
schools--he left Scotland and landed in New York, in 1763. Wilson soon
received an appointment as a teacher in Hackensack Academy, New Jersey,
and served there as Principal for many years. His labors appear to have
been interrupted by they Revolutionary War, and the movement for
independence found in him one of its most devoted adherents and
promoters. From 1777 to 1783 he served in the New Jersey Legislature,
and afterward took a prominent and exceedingly useful part in codifying
and revising the laws of that State. In 1789 he accepted the
professorship of Greek and Latin in Columbia College, and remained there
till 1792, when he resigned to become Principal of Erasmus Hall Academy,
Flatbush, N. Y. That office he vacated in T797, when he returned to
Columbia. College as Professor of Greek and Latin and of (;reek
Antiquities, and taught until 1820, when he retired on a pension. He
died five years later, at New Barbados, N. J., and was buried in
Hackensack Churchyard, where a stone was erected to his memory on which
his career was summed up in the words: "A zealous and successful patriot
and Christian, and exemplary in all the public, social, and domestic
relations which he sustained." Dr. Wilson published several textbooks,
each of which bore evidence to his scholarship, but they are now
forgotten, for old textbook,, like old almanacs, seem to be neglected
and cast aside as soon as they have served their day.
A representative Scot,
whose life story, however, is rather a painful one, was James Hardie, an
Aberdonian and a graduate of Marischal College, Aberdeen. He was born in
1750, and after graduation became an inmate of the domestic circle of
Prof. James Beattie ("the Poet of Truth," as he has been called,) as
secretary, or tutor, or both. Beattie possessed influence enough and
heart enough to have advanced his protege's fortunes in a material way,
but there were several matters which caused the philosopher and poet to
believe that Hardie's interests would he best served by his removal from
his associates and accustomed haunts, and by beginning life anew in a
far country. He, therefore, advised him to emigrate to America, and the
advice was taken. Hardie settled in New York, and from 1787 till 1790
was employed as a tutor in Columbia College. He then lost his employment
on account of his dissipated habits, for lie did not "mend his ways" in
the new land, and, after drifting aimlessly along in the current of life
for several years, picking tip a precarious livelihood one way and
another, he obtained a minor position in connection with one of the city
departments. His salary was small, barely enough to keep body and soul
together, and he eked it out by doing hack work for the publishers when
he got the opportunity. In this way he became the author of quite a
number of books, the most curious of which are "An Account of the Yellow
Fever in New York," (1822,) and a descriptive account of the same city,
issued the same year. lie also completed a Biographical Dictionary,
which was issued in 1830, and Proved that he could be industrious and
Painstaking' when he liked. Hardie died in New York, in 1832, leaving
behind him nothing of real value to the world beyond the awful example
of a richly endowed life wasted.
We get a much more noble
illustration of the Scot abroad in studying the career of another
Aberdonian, John Keith. Born at Achlossan, in 1763, he graduated front
Aberdeen University in 1781, and soon after, before lie had even
attained full legal age, was admitted a member of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh. In his twentieth year he emigrated, and, after spending a
year or two in Virginia, finally settled in New York. He secured
employment as a teacher in Columbia College, and soon after became one
of the Faculty of that institution by accepting the Chair of
Mathematics. In 1795 he was transferred to the Chair of Geography,
History, and Chronology, and proved a most devoted teacher. But lie was
more than a teacher. He was a public-spirited citizen, and took an
active interest in matters far from akin to his profession. For
instance, the desirability of a system of internal waterways through the
State of Yew York, which was first suggested by the old Scotch Governor,
Cadwallader Colden, was a burning question early in the century. The
problem of the feasibility of such waterways was keenly debated, and De
Witt Clinton, their great and unswerving advocate, found no more
logical, determined, or efficient supporter than Prof. John Keith. The
latter readily foresaw the immense advantage these waterways would be,
not merely to the State, but to the entire continent, for lie believed
they could be connected so as to open up communication they with the
Mississippi. He advocated their construction as a matter of practical
necessity, and his position as a professor in Columbia College gave
great weight to his words. In 1810 he visited Lake Erie to examine into
the feasibility of the proposed Erie CanaI, and made private surveys and
calculations, with the result that he fully demonstrated the entire
practicability of the waterway long before any authoritative survey had
passed judgment upon the scheme. It is a pity that he was not spared to
see the great work fairly entered upon, but he died in 1812, when the
whole scheme was in that stage of all great American measures when it
was simply a football for politicians.
Among the names of the
early professors in Princeton College none is more highly cherished than
that of John Maclean, who became Professor of Chemistry and Natural
history in that young institution in 1795, the year after President
Witherspoon had passed to the rest he had craved and the reward he had
earned, and been succeeded by his son-in-law, President Stanhope Smith.
Dr. Maclean was born at Glasgow in 1771, and studied medicine in
Edinburgh, London, Glasgow, and Paris. His travels and reading, and his
own personal observation of European Governments, had made him become a
thorough believer in a republican form of government, and led him, when
his studies were completed, to throw in his lot with the United States.
He settled in Princeton in 1791, and, with the encouragement of Dr.
Witherspoon and the then limited Faculty, commenced lecturing on
chemistry before becoming a member of the professorial staff. He
continued to fill a chair in Princeton till 1812, when he resigned to
accept the Chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry in William and Mary
College. That post he resigned in the course of a year on account of
ill-health, and he died in 1814. His memoir was written by his son, John
Maclean, who was born at Princeton, in 1798, and graduated from the
college there in 1816. The story of this man's life was bound up with
that of the college of New Jersey, and to his enthusiasm and learning,
as well as to his industry as a professor and executive ability as its
President, it owed much of its renown as a seat of learning. He became
President in 1854, and continued to fill the office until 1868, when he
resigned the dignity into the hands of Prof. McCosh, but the remaining
years during which his life was prolonged (he died in 1886) were devoted
to advocating the interests of the college in every way that lay in his
power. President Maclean's name is yet one of the most honored on the
roll of Princeton's teachers.
Another of the early
professors of Princeton of whom mention might be made was Walter Minto,
who was born at Coldingham in 1753, and after graduating from Edinburgh
'University became tutor in the family of George Johnstone, once
Governor of West Florida, (see Page 80.) and traveled with his charges
over the Continent of Europe. When that position could no longer be
retained, Minto became a private tutor of mathematics in Edinburgh, but
his prospects were not inviting, and he emigrated in 1786, hoping to
find some opportunity in the New World. A year later he was appointed to
the Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Princeton, and filled
that position with much brilliancy until his death, in 1796. Professor
Minto received in 1787 the degree of LL. D. from Aberdeen University,
and was the author of several interesting works, the best remembered of
which is "An Account of the Life and Writings of John Napier of
Merchiston," which was published in 1787, and professed to be written in
conjunction with Lord Buchan, a celebrated amateur scientist and
would-be patron of learning of the time.
Reference has already
been made to the Scotch founder of William and Mary College. But many
more Scotch founders of institutions devoted to higher education could
readily be named. Dalhousie College, in Halifax, was organized mainly
through the exertions of one of the holders of that peerage, and Morrin
College, Quebec, was founded by a native of Dumfries-shire, who had long
practiced medicine in that historic city. Bishop John McLean of
Saskatchewan, a native of Portree, founded Emmanuel College, of which he
became War- den, and held that office, as well as its Chair of Divinity,
at his death, in 1886.
Judging by results, one
of the most noteworthy, if not the most noteworthy, of Scottish college
founders was James McGill of Montreal, to whose wise philanthropy that
city owes the great scat of learning which bears his name and of which
it is so justly proud. McGill was born at Glasgow in 1744. After
settling in Canada, he engaged in the fur trade for a time, but
afterward made his home in Montreal, where lie entered into business as
a merchant, He was successful from the start, and quickly won a large
fortune. For several years he represented Montreal in the Parliament of
Lover Canada, and became a member of the Legislative and Executive
Councils. His. whole life was an example of patriotism, and was devoted
to the advancement of the highest interests of the city in which he had
his home, and in which lie had risen to the most honorable eminence.
Connected by marriage with one of the most aristocratic of the olds
French families in the city, he had the social entree to both the
English and French speaking circles, and was held in the highest esteem
in these exclusive sets, as well as by all classes in the community. His
patriotic instincts even induced him to apply himself to military
matters. He became an officer in the militia service, and in the War of
1812 rose to the rank of Brigadier General. Throughout his life, Mr.
McGill was prominent in Montreal for his charitable gifts. He was noted
for his practical ideas in connection with his giving, but the most
conspicuous proof of this was given when, after his death, on Dec. 19,
1813, it was found that lie had bequeathed over £30,000 in property and
£10,000 in cash for the foundation of a great university in Montreal.
The bequest was not at once made available, for litigation—that bane of
will-making all over America, and which has so often upset from trivial
causes many kindly intentions—interfered, and it was not until 1821 that
the obstacles were cleared away and the institution established, with
full university powers, by royal charter. The real estate left by Mr.
McGill steadily continued to increase in value, and when the magnificent
mission of the institution began to become apparent, many of Montreal's
citizens liberally contributed to its resources, either by contributions
or bequests. Thus, Miss Barbara Scott bequeathed $30,000 for a Chair of
Civil Engineering, Major Mills $42,000 for a Chair of Classics, Mr.
David Greenshields $40,000 for a Chair of Chemistry, and Mrs. Andrew
Stewart $25,000 for a Chair of Law. Writing in 1884, Afr. S. E. Dawson
said: " The latest large benefaction which it has received is the Peter
Redpath Museum, which was erected by the Scot whose name it bears at a
cost of about $120,000, and contains very valuable collections, more
especially in geology and mineralogy. The university has four
faculties—of Arts, Applied Science, Medicine, and Law. Being
non-denominational, it has no theological faculty, but it offers
advantageous terms of affiliation to theological colleges, whereby their
students can have the benefits of its classes and degrees, and it has
already four such colleges, representing four of the leading Protestant
denominations. * * * Its buildings are pleasantly situated in grounds
laid out in walks and ornamented with trees at the foot of the Montreal
Mountain, and, though most of them are unpretending in exterior, they
are substantially built of stone and are well adapted for the purposes
of education. It has an excellent philosophical apparatus and
collections of models in mining and engineering, and also good chemical
and physiological laboratories. It has a library of 25,000 volumes, in
addition to its medical library, and, though these libraries are not
large, they include an unusually choice and valuable selection of books.
Though the university has existed since 1821, and its endowment since
1813, its actual history as an important educational institution dates
from the amendment of its charter and the reorganization. of its general
body in 1852. It is thus a comparatively new institution, and is,
perhaps, to be judged rather by indications of vitality and growth which
it presents rather than by its past results. It has, however, already
more than 1,200 graduates, many of them occupying important public
positions in Canada and elsewhere."
Among the colleges
affiliated with McGill University are Morrin College, of which mention
has already been made, and the Presbyterian College of Montreal. This
latter institution was founded in 1865 for the training of ministers and
missionaries in connection with the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Its
origin was very humble, but in 1893 its endowment was valued at $16,000,
it owned property worth $225,000, and its annual income was $12,600.
"The college," according to Mr. Dawson, has found many generous
benefactors. Among them are Mrs. Redpath, who endowed one of the chairs
with $20,000, and the late Mr. Edward Mackay, who gave $40,000 to the
endowment in his lifetime. The sum of $10,000 was bequeathed by Mr.
Joseph Mackay for the same purpose."
It is impossible to
estimate the amount of good, not merely in the education of young men,
but in the cause of patriotism of the purest sort, that year after year
is accomplished by, the single agency begun by the thoughtful bequest of
James McGill. Such institutions stand for much more in a community than
merely advanced schools or degree-conferring establishments. They foster
a national spirit much more potent and far-reaching than a standing army
and they develop a sentiment of pride in the present progress toward
nationality and hope for its perfect realization in the near future.
Without such institutions as McGill University, Toronto University, Knox
College, and the other institutions of higher education with which
Canada is so plentifully supplied, it would still be in the colonial
stage. With them it is a nation in all but in name, and that name will
undoubtedly be willingly given to it as soon as its races become a
little more blended together, if the sentiment of the nation does not
induce it to remain, as now, an integral and honored factor in the
British Empire. No one who knows Canada believes it will ever consent to
be obliterated by annexation.
While we are across the
border and dealing with colleges founded there by Scotch benefactors, it
may not be out of place to mention a few representatives of the
thousands of teachers which Scotland has given to the Dominion. There is
not a college or university in Canada where at least one "son of the
heather" is not to be found in some capacity, and the entire educational
system of the country, from primary school to university, is more
indebted to the Scottish section of the community than to any other. It
is the Scotch element, in fact, that has made education become the prime
factor in Canadian public life, so important an office in the general
and provincial Governments, it is to-day.
Daniel Wilkie was born
near Hamilton in 1777. He was the youngest of twelve children and was
left an orphan in early life. His education was undertaken at the
expense of his elder brothers, who designed him for the ministry, and
with this object in view he went to Glasgow University, after passing
through the grammar school of Hamilton. In 1797 he entered the Divinity
Hall and won the first prize, a medal for an essay on the Socinian
controversy—a controversy that then and for more than half a century
afterward seriously troubled the Kirk and which still bobs up now and
again. In 1807 Wilkie crossed over to Canada, and in the same year was
licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Montreal. He was sound and
orthodox in his pulpit ministrations and might have passed his life in
the work of the ministry, or he might have confined himself to
literature, for as editor during three years of a Quebec newspaper he
won many high encomiums for his work. But teaching was his real mission,
his hobby. For over forty years he was engaged in teaching in Quebec,
and in that respect was one of the most successful in Canada. Hundreds
of pupils passed through his hands each year, and toward the close of
his career he could point to his "old boys" occupying positions of
distinction or prominence in every walk of life throughout Canada.
Probably the happiest day of his life was that on which the High School
of Quebec was opened, and thus was realized a dream he had long
cherished. This was in 1843, and as rector he hoped to enter upon a new
and extended lease of usefulness, but ill-health compelled his
retirement within a year and the remainder of his days were spent in
privacy, sometimes in gloom, for toward the end his mind gave way. As
the night was falling lie forgot everything save the words of Divine
truth. When he had forgotten all about the classics he could still read
and quote Scripture, and as the end drew nearer every feature of his
once varied and aggressive character seemed to disappear excepting that
of love. Dr. Wilkie was buried in Mount Hermon Cemetery, Quebec, and his
grave was marked by a handsome monument erected by a number of his old
pupils.
The funeral discourse
that was delivered over the body of the dead teacher was one of the most
beautiful of its kind ever heard in Canada. Its speaker was the Rev. Dr.
John Cook of Quebec, himself a teacher of note, as well as one of the
most influential divines of his time in Canada. He was a native of
Dumfries-shire, and had studied at Edinburgh under the great Dr.
Chalmers, settling in Canada in 1836. In the divisions which entered the
Church in Canada consequent upon the Disruption in Scotland, Dr. Cook
took a prominent part, not only counselling adherence on the part of the
Canadian Presbyterians to the old Church, but after the schism did take
place striving hard to effect a reunion. In the foundation of Queens
College, Kingston, he took a deep interest. He was one of the delegation
that went to Great Britain to obtain its charter, and afterward became
one of its trustees. Urged in 1857 to act as Principal of the college,
he agreed to fill the office until the faculty could secure the services
of some one else, and he continued as Principal for two years, during
which time he taught the divinity class. Then he was succeeded by the
Rev. William Leitch, a native of Rothesay, and who was minister of
Monimail when he was summoned to Kingston, (where he died in 1864.) If
was through Dr. Cook's influence that the Quebec High School was founded
in 1843. For years he was the backbone of the institution, and to him
more than to any one else was it indebted for triumphing over, its many
early difficulties and developing into one of the foremost institutions
of its class in Canada. In connection with Morrin College, Dr. Cook's
name was also conspicuous.
Another name which stands
out prominently in the history of education in Canada is that of the
Rev. Dr. Michael Willis, Principal of Knox College. He was born in
Greenock, where his father (afterward of Stirling) was for many years a
minister. For twenty-five years after leaving college Dr. Willis held
pastoral charges in Scotland, in the old Secession Church, and threw in
his lot with the Free Church when that denomination sprang into
existence. It was by a vote of the Colonial Board of that Church that he
was selected to the Chair of Divinity in Knox College, and though the
change was stoutly opposed by his congregation in Renfield Street,
Glasgow, he felt that duty and conscience called him "over the sea." His
long connection with Knox College, as teacher and Principal, was a very
valuable one to the Church in Canada, and he not only aided greatly in
giving to the students the thorough teaching which made a Knox College
graduate so acceptable to the ranks of the ministry, but he infused into
every one of his pupils a catholicity of taste and a non-sectarian
spirit which led them to place the simple truths of Christ's teaching
above all creeds or denominational barriers. He was a determined
opponent of any union between Church and State and spoke and wrote
against it on all occasions, but so honest were his utterances and so
lovable was his character, that his outspokenness raised him no enemies
even among those who were as zealous in the opposite direction.
Treating of Knox College
recalls a flood of Scotch professors, among whom we will mention only
one, Dr. Robert Burns, who from 1856 till 1864 occupied its Chair of
Church History and Apologetics. Dr. Burns was born at Bo'ness in 1798
and for some thirty years preached in Paisley, from the same pulpit that
had once been occupied by Dr. Witherspoon. At the Disruption he "came
out " and, crossing to Canada, became minister of Knox Church, Toronto.
and remained there until he entered the faculty of the college. He was a
man of great learning and culture and an amiable and thoroughgoing
preacher. Outside of the ministry he took a special interest in poor-law
matters, and wrote much on that and other subjects. Dr. Burns will,
however, be best remembered by his carefully edited edition of
'`Woodrow's History of the Sufferings."
Many other names crowd
upon us, such as that of Vice Principal Leach of McGill College,
Montreal, a native of Berwick on Tweed; Dr. Inglis of Charlottetown, a
native of Montrose; Principal McVicar of McGill College, and his
brother, Prof. Malcolm McVicar of Toronto. But we must cross the St.
Lawrence again, or the rush of Canadian teachers demanding notice would
swamp this chapter.
One of the most
industrious and painstaking of scientific students of whom we have
record was Granville Sharp Pattison, who was for many years teacher of
anatomy in the University of the City of New York and was engaged in
that capacity at the time of his death, in 1851. He was born near
Glasgow in 1791, and was for a time lecturer on anatomy in the
Andersonian College, in that city. After settling in America he became
Professor of Anatomy in the Medical College at Baltimore. After many
years' residence in the Monumental City he enjoyed a short vacation in
Europe, and then took the Chair of Anatomy in Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia. He was recognized there as one of the ablest men in his
profession, a particularly painstaking demonstrator, and won the
confidence and respect of the students who attended his lectures. His
contributions to medical literature in the shape of pamphlets and papers
in transactions were highly praised in their time, but they have long
since served their day and generation and been relegated to the
honorable condition of scientific curiosities like most medical works
after a very brief season of popularity or usefulness.
In the annals of
education in the United States no name stands out more boldly not only
for his knowledge of the science of pedagogy, but for the manner in
which he advocated its highest interests and directed public opinion in
its advancement than that of William Russell, who, besides understanding
the theory of teaching, was himself a practical and successful
instructor. Born in Glasgow in 1798, he settled in Savannah, Ga., in
1819 and took charge of Chatham Academy there. After a few years'
experience in Savannah, he removed to New Haven, and taught in the new
Township Academy and the Hopkins Grammar School, the latter one of the
schools founded by Edward Hopkins, an English trader, who died at London
in 1657, and whose gifts to the cause of education in America have done
more to keep his memory alive than the important position he held in New
England for many years.
All this time, while
teaching, Mr. Russell had been studying the entire science of pedagogy,
and the fruits of this were seen in the masterly manner in which for
some four years, 1826-29, he conducted the "American Journal of
Education." Removing in 1830 to Philadelphia he took charge of a ladies'
seminary. In 1838 he returned to New England and devoted himself to the
teaching of elocution in Boston and Andover, lecturing at frequent
intervals to teachers through New England and in New York. In 1849 he
organized a teachers' institute in New Haven and removed its
headquarters to Lancaster, Mass., where he remained until his death, in
1873. For the last ten years of his life he lectured frequently before
teachers' institutes throughout Massachusetts and was recognized as one
of the leading and most successful instructors of the day in his own
specialty, that of elocution. He was the author of many popular and
highly practical schoolbooks, including "The Grammar of Composition,"
"American Elocutionist," and a dozen others.
One of the best-known
educators in New York for many years was Charles Murray Nairne, who from
1857 to 1881 was Professor of -Moral Philosophy in Columbia College. He
was born at Perth in i8o8, graduated from St. Andrews in 1832, and
afterward extended his studies at Edinburgh University. For a short time
he was associated at Glasgow with Dr. Chalmers, but in 1847 he left
Scotland, and soon after reaching the United States found a position as
teacher at College Hill, Poughkeepsie. Then he opened a private school
in New York City, and continued to conduct it with every success that
can attend a teacher until he became connected with Columbia. He retired
into private life with the dignity and title of an emeritus professor of
Columbia in. 1881 and died a year later at Warrenton, Va.
Another noted New York
teacher was David Burnet Scott, who (lied in 1894. "He had been
connected," said one of the newspapers which recorded his death, "with
the public school system of New York City from its beginning, and as a
teacher, a successful schoolbook writer, and a public speaker
prominently identified with the great political movements of his day, he
was a well-known and highly respected man." Prof. Scott was born at
Edinburgh in 1822 and educated at the High School with the view of being
sent to St. Andrews University. Circumstances, however, compelled his
father to emigrate, and the family settled near Hartford, Conn., where
young Scott worked for a time with his father as a tailor. He kept up
his studies, however, while working "on the board," and in time obtained
a position as instructor of classics in Hartford High School. In 1845 he
settled in New York, and for many years was connected, as teacher and
Principal, with the public schools. In 1870 he became Principal of the
introductory department of the College of the City of New York and
afterward was transferred to the Chair of English Literature, which he
filled till his death. He was the author of three school histories of
the United States and other works which enjoyed a wide circulation and
were, and still are, eminently useful.
Prominent as he was in
connection with his duties as a teacher, Prof. Scott became more widely
and popularly known by the force he exerted in public affairs, by the
boldness and originality of his views on social economy and by the
brilliant manner in which he gave expression to them. He was an ardent
and uncompromising Abolitionist and aided in the formation of the
Republican Party. Afterward, when he thought that party had fulfilled
its mission, he desired to see another movement come into operation, and
lie found what he wanted in the single-tax theories of Henry George. In
1886 he threw himself heartily into Mr. George's candidature for the
Mayoralty of New York. This movement started in a very half-hearted
manner, speedily assumed great proportions, and ended in a magnificent
run on the part of Mr. George. That gentleman was defeated, but his
large vote surprised even his friends and demonstrated that there was a
very large body of citizens who cared little for either of the two
predominating parties. To this end, Prof. Scott signally contributed by
his voice, his pen, and his example, and thereby earned the thanks of
all interested in improving the system of municipal government not only
in New York, but throughout the United States.
A friend recently sent us
the following cutting from an American paper, which is interesting at
least for the many brilliant names it contains, apart from the record it
gives us of a Scot who devoted the best years of his life to the cause
of education in America:
"The Rev. Dr. R. A.
Paterson, late President of Binghamton College and founder of the first
women's training college in America, has returned (1894) to Edinburgh,
Scotland, his native city, to resume the pastorate after forty years'
absence in this country. He and Baron Playfair, Prof. P. G. Tait, the
first scientist in Edinburgh, and the late Prof. James Clark Maxwell,
the foremost scientist and Professor of Experimental Physics in
Cambridge, were all boys in Edinburgh together in the forties, and
Paterson, Tait, and Maxwell were university classmates under James
Forbes, Christopher North, and Sir William Hamilton. Dr. Paterson came
to this country in 1852, to be the tutor of the Hon. Charles Ellis and
the Hon. Edward Ellis, now proprietors of the Schenectady Locomotive
Works."
We have reserved, as a
fitting name to close this chapter, the name of William Wood, not only
because of his grand services to education, but because his services
were in reality typical of the devotion to that cause of thousands of
Scotsmen who have no connection with teaching as a profession and devote
themselves to promoting it because its advancement is one of the
intuitive duties of their race, and because by spreading broadcast the
blessings of education they are thereby advancing the best interests of
their adopted country. Thousands of Scotsmen in America have served upon
boards of education or as regents or trustees of universities or
colleges, and thereby performed one of the highest services which
patriotism can inspire.
Pre-eminent among such
public benefactors must linger the memory of William Wood. He was born
in Glasgow in 1808 and belonged to that Dennistoun family which has
given its name to one of the sections of the Western Metropolis of
Scotland. He was educated at the Universities of Glasgow and St.
Andrews, and at the latter place had for one of his teachers Dr. Thomas
Chalmers, a fact of which he was very proud and never tired of recalling
in his public addresses.
Throughout his long life
he remained a diligent student. President Hunter, of the New York Normal
College, said of him: "In 1870 he got out of the Board of Education to
study up on his Greek because he felt he was a little rusty. his memory
for poetry was marvelous, and I have heard him repeat verses by the
hour. His favorites were Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey."
Mr. Wood came to America
in 1828 and begun his commercial career. After several years' American
experience he returned to Scotland, remaining there till 1844, when he
once more settled in New York as a partner in the firm of Dennistoun,
Wood & Co. This partnership continued till 1868, when Mr. Wood retired
from business. The first year Mr. Wood saw New York he joined the St.
Andrew's Society, believing that to be a duty, and he served it in many
capacities—two years as President—and for some time prior to his death
was its oldest member. He was a regular attendant at the St. Andrew's
Day celebrations, and very frequently responded to toasts, the last
occasion being in 1893, some ten months before his death, when, visibly
failing, he made a reminiscent speech in response to "The day and a' wha
honor it." He spoke of the many similar meetings he had attended, and
then, as if conscious that that was to be the last, lie closed by
quoting Tennyson's famous "Crossing the Bar":
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me,
And may there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea.
* * * * *
For tho' from out our
bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar."
With these words the old
man left the banqueting room and virtually closed his public
appearances. These had been many, for Mr. Wood was a magnificent
speaker, and a popular man, and when in the hey-day of his strength his
services were often in demand at gatherings of all sorts. Possibly the
most noted of these occasions was in Central Park, at the unveiling of
the Scott statue, on Aug. 15, 1871, when lie delivered an oration which
was regarded as the best example of Scotch eloquence ever heard in
America. His public career may be said to have commenced in 1869, then
he was appointed a Commissioner of Public Instruction. He continued for
the rest of his life to have a potent influence on the education board
in the city, even in the intervals when lie was not connected with it as
its President or as a member. He also served for a time as one of the
Dock Commissioners of the city. In 1888 he retired from official life,
and was publicly thanked for his services to New York by the then Mayor,
A. S. Hewitt. From that time until his death, in 1894, Mr. Wood spent
his days in pleasant retirement, taking a keen interest in passing
affairs, holding fast to old friends, but seldom going beyond the limits
of his own immediate circle. |
