WILLARD, EMMA (HART). 



tlio rights of legal voters, and preserving the 

 purity dt' elections, to which a fair reyistrution 

 law, properly executed, is most condu 

 ::n<l adds: " But, it' the one at present on our 

 lionks cannot ho so modified as to bo more 

 strii'tly enforced hereartor than was possihle 

 at the recent general election, the sooner it is 

 repealed altogether the better." 



In c. mil, Tii. in with the general election last 

 f:dl it niiiy he mentioned that the negroes of 

 Virginia then exorcised their privilege 

 of voting for the first time. 



WILLARD, Mrs. EMMA (HART), an eminent 

 educator and author, the pioneer in the higher 

 education of women in this country, born in 

 Worthington Parish, Berlin, Conn., February 

 28, 1787; died in Troy, K Y., April 15, 1870. 

 Emma Hart was the next to the youngest of a 

 family of seventeen children, and alternately 

 labored in her allotted place in the family ser- 

 vice, and engaged with assiduity in the studies 

 which successively presented themselves to 

 her. Astronomy was mastered in her four- 

 teenth year, the study being prosecuted by 

 moonlight, on the horseblock in front of the 

 door. Miss Hart attended the village acad- 

 emy two years, and then engaged as teacher 

 in the district schools. The improvements she 

 inaugurated proved to be of great advantage 

 to her pupils, and she soon became noted, 

 throughout the portion of Connecticut in 

 which she resided, for the thoroughness of 

 her method of instruction, and the practical 

 value of the knowledge she imparted. In Au- 

 gust, 1809, she married Dr. John Willard, and 

 abandoned for the time the calling of teacher. 

 Financial reverses, however, fortunately for 

 the general cause of education, induced her, in 

 1814, to open a boarding-school for girls in 

 Middlebury. For four years she experiment- 

 ed and improved her system of instruction, 

 and mastered by night the studies she pro- 

 posed to train her scholars in. The advanced 

 sciences were one by one introduced into the 

 school. As she progressed, the field widened 

 before her. Encouraged by her husband, she 

 determined to establish a female seminary 

 worthy of the name, and after much deliber- 

 ation it was decided to locate on the head- 

 waters of the Hudson. She laid her plans, 

 fully matured, in a " Treatise on the Educa- 

 tion of Woman," subsequently published, be- 

 fore Governor Clinton, who gav.e the move- 

 ment his warmest sympathies and heartiest 

 support. This was in 1818. Thus encouraged, 

 Mrs. Willard opened her school in Waterford 

 in the spring of 1819, and, in his message of 

 1820, Governor Clinton directed the special 

 attention of the Legislature to the success al- 

 ready achieved by this, the "only attempt 

 ever made in this country to promote the edu- 

 cation of the female sex by the patronage of 

 the government," stating that it had "already 

 attained great usefulness and prosperity." The 

 citizens of Troy, in 1820, tendered a building 

 to Mrs. Willard, if she would remove the semi- 



nary to their city, which offer she accepted, 

 opening the scho..l th.-r.- in May, 1821. Her 

 husband died in 1-s-j.",, thus throwing the entire 

 l>ii-iiu-s.H management of the institution upon 

 her. She was, however, equal t the task, and 

 continued its successful management in every 

 department, down to 1838, when her son and 

 his wife relieved her of further care. She 

 planned and carried out the establishment of a 

 school for women in Athens, devoting to that 

 purpose the proceeds (about $1,100) of a work 

 entitled " Journal and Letters," which she had 

 published soon after her return. After her 

 retirement from the Troy Seminary, Mrs. Wil- 

 lard became specially interested in the subject 

 of common schools. She attended many con- 

 ventions, and addressed teachers in various 

 States. In 1840 she made a journey of 8,000 

 miles through the Western and Southern 

 States, to all the principal cities, and was met 

 by her former pupils everywhere with warm 

 expressions of affection. In 1854 she attended 

 the World's Educational Convention in Lon- 

 don. Besides the two works mentioned above, 

 Mrs. Willard published the following: "The 

 Woodbridge and Willard Geographies and At- 

 lases," comprising a Universal Geography 

 and Atlas, a School Geography and Atlas, 

 an Ancient Geography and Atlas, Geogra- 

 phy for Beginners, and Atlas, 1823 ; " History 

 of the United States, or Republic of Amer- 

 ica," 530 pp. (1828), brought down to 1852, 

 with an Historical Atlas ; " Universal History 

 in Perspective," 526 pp., 1837; "Abridgment 

 of American History," 1843 ; "Temple of 

 Time, or Chronographer of Universal His- 

 tory," 1814; "A Chronographer of English 

 History," on a similar plan, 1845; "A Chro- 

 nographer of Ancient History," 1847; "His- 

 toric Guide," to accompany the "Temple of 

 Time" and other Charts; "A Treatise on the 

 Motive Powers which produce the Circulation 

 of the Blood," 1846; "Respiration and its Ef- 

 fects, particularly as respects Asiatic Cholera," 

 1849; "Last Leaves of American History," 

 containing a History of the Mexican War, and 

 of California," 1849; "Astronomy," 1853; 

 "Morals for the Young, or Good Principles 

 instilling Wisdom," 1857. She had also issued 

 three addresses on "Female Education in 

 Greece," 1832; an address read at Norwich 

 on the same subject, 1832 ; an address to the 

 " Willard Association for the Mutual Improve- 

 ment of Female Teachers," 1838; "Political 

 Position of Women," 1848 ; " Our Fathers; " 

 "Bride Stealing;" an appeal against "Wrong 

 and Injury," and a pamphlet and "An An- 

 swer" to Marion Wilson's "Reply;" Two 

 poems, road at the " Farmington Centennial," 

 1840; a poem contributed to the Statesman 

 in Albany; "Universal Peace to be intro- 

 duced by a Confederacy*of Nations meeting at 

 Jerusalem," 1820; "Will Scientific Education 

 make Woman lose her Sense of Dependence 

 on Man ? " answered in a contribution to the 

 Literary Magazine, New York, 1821; a meta- 



