MARYLAND. 



451 



was during this period that he delivered his 

 famous address, " Putnam and the Wolf," of 

 which 150,000 copies were sold before it went 

 into the hands of the American Tract Society, 

 which has circulated many thousands more. 

 The statistics of the prevalence of intemperance 

 and the extent and evils of the liquor-traffic, 

 which he presented to the State Society in 1830, 

 were startling, and led to a still greater amount 

 of activity throughout the country. In 1831, 

 he was induced to leave his pastoral charge for 

 three months to labor in behalf of temperance 

 in Baltimore and Washington, where he met 

 with great success. In 1833 the American 

 Temperance Union invited him to accept a dis- 

 trict agency for their work in Philadelphia, 

 and resign his pastorate to devote himself to 

 this work. He complied with their request, 

 and, after three years of zealous labor there, 

 was called to Few York to become the secre- 

 tary of the American Temperance Union, and 

 the editor of its Journal. In that work he 

 continued for more than thirty years, devoting 

 to it his best energies with* the most untiring 

 zeal.- His discretion in the management of the 

 Washingtonian movement, and the direction 

 of the Temperance Union in other great crises 

 of its history, is worthy of all praise. 



In 1866 the veteran retired from his post, 

 with his laurels well earned. Soon after, he 

 published an interesting volume, entitled 

 u Temperance Recollections," which had a 

 large sale. Besides this work, which appeared 

 in 1866, Dr. Marsh (he received the degree of 

 D. D. from Jefferson College, Pa., in 1852) had 

 published numerous sermons, addresses, tracts, 

 and small books, mostly on the subject of tem- 

 perance, a " Compendium of Ecclesiastical His- 

 tory," in 1838, of which a new and revised 

 edition appeared in 1865, and a volume of Mr. 

 Beecher's Public Prayers, which he had caused 

 to be reported. After his eightieth birthday 

 he accepted an appointment as financial agent 

 of Yale Theological Seminary, and had entered 

 upon his work with gratifying success, when 

 he was suddenly called away. 



MARYLAND. The Legislature of Mary- 

 land meets on the first Wednesday in January, 

 and is restricted to a session of ninety days. 

 The new constitution, framed and adopted in 

 1867, expressly abolished the system of public 

 schools then in operation, and made it the duty 

 of the General Assembly at its first session to 

 devise a new system. Accordingly, soon after 

 the opening of the session of 1868, the impor- 

 tant task of preparing a bill for that purpose 

 was assigned to the Committee on Education 

 of the two branches of the Legislature, sitting 

 together as a joint committee. Prior to 1865, a 

 school system had been in operation which gave 

 the entire control of public education to coun- 

 ty commissioners and other local authorities. 

 Much complaint was made against this system, 

 on the ground of the inefficiency and the con- 

 flicting plans adopted in different parts of the 

 State. In some counties the whole subject was 



very much neglected, while the liberal manage- 

 ment in others attracted all the talent in the 

 market in the way of teachers ; and the whole 

 system was declared, by its opponents, to be in- 

 congruous and clumsy. In 1865 a new system 

 was adopted, giving the supervision of public 

 schools to a State superintendent, and the gen- 

 eral management of popular education to com- 

 missioners appointed for the whole State ; but 

 no provision was made for the instruction of 

 colored children, although the distribution of 

 the school fund was made according to the 

 whole population, thus giving the old slave 

 counties much more than their fair proportion 

 for the benefit of the white children. 



The subject of a new school law was intrust- 

 ed to the care of the joint committee already 

 alluded to, about the middle of January, and 

 two months later a bill was reported, which 

 gave the general supervision of the system to a 

 Board of Education, composed of the State 

 Commissioner, the president of the Board of 

 County Commissioners for each county, and a 

 delegation of three persons elected by the com- 

 missioners of the public schools for the city of 

 Baltimore. The clause requiring the distribu- 

 tion of funds according to the white popula- 

 tion was introduced from the old law, thus 

 leaving the children of the colored people still 

 unprovided for. After considerable discussion, 

 and the adoption of several amendments, this 

 bill passed the Lower House, but in the Senate 

 it encountered decided opposition. The result 

 was, that the whole subject was committed to 

 a select committee of twenty-five, one of whom 

 was chosen from each county in the State, one 

 from each legislative district in the city of Bal- 

 timore ; and near the close of the 'session a 

 new bill was reported, and soon after adopted 

 by both Houses. This gives the control of ed- 

 ucational matters in each county to a Board of 

 County Commissioners, composed of one com- 

 missioner from each election district, chosen by 

 a vote of the people for a term of two years. 

 Each school district is to have two trustees, 

 chosen by the voters of the district. The law 

 requires that one or more schools, according to 

 the population, shall be kept open in each 

 district ten months in the year, and be free to 

 all white youth over six and under eighteen 

 years of age. Schools of different grades are 

 to be established where there are over one hun- 

 dred pupils in attendance, and an assistant 

 teacher is allowed in every school where there 

 are more than sixty scholars. The studies to 

 be pursued are laid down in the following sec- 

 tion: 



In every district school there shall be taught or- 

 thography, reading, writing, English grammar, geog- 

 raphy, arithmetic, history of the United States, Con- 

 stitution of the United States and the constitution of 

 the State of Maryland, algebra, book-keeping, natu- 

 ral philosophy, vocal music, drawing, physiology: 

 the laws of health and of domestic economy shall 

 also be taught whenever the school district boards 

 shall deem it expedient. 



The school year is to be divided into four 



