452 A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



There was an almost unanimous concurrence in the recommendation 

 of some sort of general supervision, either in the person of one official, 

 or of several, with liberal salaries. Tliis same measure had been in- 

 sisted upon l^y leading statesmen and educators time and again ; but it 

 was never adopted. 



NO DEFINITE RESULTS 



came from the prv33cntation of this report. In 1846, at the request of 

 the State Agricultural Society, Hon. R. F. W. AUston prepared an elabo- 

 rate report, in which he dwelt upon the necessit}^ of supplementing the 

 State appropriation by local taxation of an; equal amount. Though 

 thoroughly imbued with a desire for better schools. Governor Allston, 

 sulxsequently, when President of the Senate, opposed a larger State ap- 

 propriation, on the ground that, without local taxation, it would accom- 

 plish nothing. Mr. Henry Summer made a report to the Legislature in 

 1847, insisting upon better free schools, as supplementary to the college, 

 urging the establishment of a normal school, and a more equitable ap- 

 portionment of the public funds. 



In 1852, the Legislature, b\^ a close vote, passed an Act doubling the 

 appropriation for free schools ; and after that time $74,400 were annually 

 set apart for their maintenance. Attendance in 1853 was over 17,000, 

 and in 1854, over 16,000, exclusive of Charleston. While in some districts 

 free schools were established, in others contracts for tuition of indigent 

 pupils were made with teachers of private schools. The report for 1880 

 ■shows an aggi-egate of 1,270 schools, and 18,915 pupils. The appropria- 

 tion was $74,400, the expenditures $127,530 41, an excess of $62,367.80, 

 of which $49,344.38 were in Charleston City, and wore probably met by 

 a city tax. Excess in the 'other districts and parishes may be explained 

 partly by overdrafts and partly by unexpended balances of former years. 



In 1863, there were 823 schools, 815 teachers, and 10,811 pupils. 



It may reasonably be asked why this system of instruction 



BORE SO LITTLE FRUIT, 



in the face of so much interest and so many admirable attempts to culti- 

 vate it. Dr. Cuny attributes the cause to the existence of slavery. 

 "Slavery sparsified our population, created a kind of aristocracy, among 

 wliom, as Burke said, ' Freedom was to them not only an enjoyment, but 

 a kind of rank and privilege.' Slave owners held borrowed estates, 

 were surrounded by a host of menial dependents, lived luxuriously, dis- 

 ])ensed a cordial and magnificent hos])itality, 'combined with the spirit 

 of freedom the haughtiness of domination,' and free schools became un- 



