Book Description

Excerpt from The Michigan Book By an act of Congress passed in 1804 one township of land in the prospective Territory of Michigan was set apart for the support of a seminary of learning. Twenty-two years later Congress enlarged the grant to two townships. In the year 1817 the Governor and Judges of the Territory enacted a marvellous bill drawn by Augustus P. Woodward, Presiding Judge, whereby was established the "Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania." This statute decreed that the University should be composed of thirteen professorships, each called a didaxia, the didactors or professors to be appointed by the Governor. Two "didactors" at salaries of $12.50 each were appointed, and a primary school and a classical academy were established in Detroit; but in 1821 the act of 1817 was repealed, and a new act was passed for the establishment at Detroit of the University of Michigan, to be managed by twenty-one trustees. This board was legislated out of office by the Michigan statute of March 18, 1837, entitled "An act to provide for the organization and government of the University of Michigan," and passed only two months after the admission of the State into the Union by Congress. To the Rev. John D. Pierce, a graduate of Brown University and of Princeton Theological Seminary, who in the summer of 1836 had been appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction, is due the framing of this law under which the final organization of our Alma Mater was effected. As closely as possible the German idea of an university was followed, instead of imitating Yale and Harvard, themselves copies of English institutions. Michigan's University was to crown the educational system of the commonwealth, and to "provide the inhabitants of the State with the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of literature, science, and the arts." The business affairs of the University were to be managed by a Board of Regents appointed by the Governor of the State and approved by the Senate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.