A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH (JAROLINA. 451 



followed to put it into successful operation. Legislative committees made 

 annual reports, showing greater or less progress. Leading men interested 

 themselves in free education. 



GOVERNORS, IN THEIR ANNUAL MESSAGES, 



evinced an earnest desire for a more general diffusion of knowledge. 

 Among these were Governor Middleton, in 1812; Governor Williams, in 

 1815 and 1816 ; Governor Pickens, in 1817 ; Governor Bennett, in 1822 ; 

 Governor AVilson, in 1823 ; Governor Manning, in 1826 ; Governor I\Iil- 

 ler, in 1829 ; Governor Hamilton, in 1831 and 1832 ; Governor Hayne, in 

 1833; Governor McDuffie, in 1835 and 1836; Governor Butler, in 1837 

 and 1838 ; Governor Noble, in 1839, and Governor Henegan in the fol- 

 lowing year. Governor Hammond, in both his messages (1842 and 1843), 

 urged the endowment of an academy in each district. Other governors 

 have touched upon the subject with more or less earnestness. 



An amendatory Act, introduced hj Judge Frost, and passed in 1835, 

 provided penalties for non-performance of duty by the commissioners, 

 but gave no pay ; and failed to designate any one whose business it 

 should be to enforce the law. While such thickly inhabited localities as 

 Charleston had derived benefits from these schools, sparsely settled com- 

 munities had accomplished little, and the general result was unsatisfac- 

 tory. Instead, however, of abandoning the attempt, 



INCREASED EFFORTS WERE MADE 



to ensure success. A committee, consisting of Rev. Stephen Elliott and 

 Rev. James H. .Thornwell, was appointed in* 1838, to confer with the 

 various school commissioners, and suggest improvements. Their report, 

 presented in 1839, is full of interest; containing, among other contribu- 

 tions, a most elaborate paper by the Hon. Edmund Bellinger, of Barn- 

 well, which showed that in twenty-seven years, the average attendance 

 for the State was 6,018 pupils, and the average annual expenditure, 

 $35,000, that during the whole time regular reports were made in only 

 five years, that the exj^enditure for each year bore no proportion to the 

 scholars, that several parishes and districts received no regular sum, that 

 the expenditure for each district bore no proportion to the scholars edu- 

 cated or to the population, that out of the attendance not more than one- 

 sixth was believed to be composed of necessitous pupils. The greatest 

 number of scholars in any one year was 10,718, in 1833 ; and the largest 

 expenditure was $48,951, in 1819, during which year the attendance was 

 but 3,002. Since 1815 the annual appropriation had been $37,000. 



