Murphey; Triune Prophet
lie was the father off three important eom-
preliensivc plans for the public welfare.
The only thing that can be said against him
is that he was too far ahead of his time.
IT is known to practically every
school-child in Carolina that
Judge Archibald D. Murphey
was the father of the public school
system in our State, but it is not
so generally known that he was
also the father of two other im¬
portant comprenhensive plans for
the public welfare: A plan for in¬
ternal improvements; and a plan
for constitutional reform. Here is
a trinity of great causes, justifying
my title of triune prophet.
Murphey declared that in 1794
there were but three schools in
Carolina in which even the rudi¬
ments of a classical education
could be secured, and as late as
1826 the Governor declared that it
was then even more difficult to se¬
cure a primary education than it
had been fifty years before that.
The reason lay in the fact that re¬
liance was placed upon the acad¬
emy system instead of upon a
public school system. Elementary
education was left to chance; and
thousands of Carolina youth grew
up in ignorance.
Legislative Indifference
The fault lay primarily with the
legislative branch of the govern¬
ment. From 1790 for twelve years
not a single act was even intro¬
duced in the legislature relating
to education. In 1802 a plan for a
military school was rejected; in
1803 two bills for public academies
were killed. From 1803 to 1814
the subject of education was not
even considered. In 1816 Murphey
as chairman of the Senate Com¬
mittee on Education submitted a
report, but the only action taken
was to appoint a second committee
to “digest a system of education."
This committee never met.
In 1817 Murphey submitted his
now famous plan for a public
school system, but it was not se¬
riously considered. Between 1817
and 1825 other bills were offered
but were received with outright
hostility, or ignored with indiffer¬
ence.
While a member of the Senate
from 1812 to 1818 Murphey con¬
ceived the three great plans in his
brain and wrote his able reports
By R. C. LAWRENCE
on the subjects of public educa¬
tion, internal improvements and
constitutional reform, each of
which inaugurated a new era in
the public policy of the State. Mur¬
phey was our first statesman to
grasp the democratic theory of
education. Prior to him no one
had even suggested that the State
do more than educate poor chil¬
dren. Murphey was the first advo¬
cate of a comprehensive system
embracing children of all classes,
rich or poor. His system was essen¬
tially a graded one, extending
from the rudiments to the higher
branches of the several sciences.
He submitted his report on educa¬
tion in November. 1817, writing
Chief Justice Ruffin: "I bequeath
this report to the State as the
richest legacy that I shall ever be
able to give it."
Constant Opposition
He also introduced a bill de¬
signed to put his plan into prac¬
tical elTect. It provided a complete
system of public education, includ¬
ing primary schools, high schools,
the State University, even schools
for the deaf. The primary and the
high schools were to be supported
partly by local taxation, partly at
the expense of the State. Certain
funds were to be set aside as a
school fund, administered by a
board, which was empowered to
elect teachers, fix salaries, etc. The
legislature courteously ordered the
report printed, but killed the bill
to put the Murphey Plan into ef¬
fect.
His work began to bear fruit,
however, even if not then enacted
into law. The following year the
Governor directed public atten¬
tion to the work of Murphey. desig¬
nating them as “luminous and im¬
pressive appeals," and said it was
the imperative duty of the legisla¬
ture to heed them. Yet between
1818 and 1825, the legislature
turned down every proposition to
establish even the beginnings of a
public school system.
In 1825 the school people won
their first small victory, when an
act drawn by Bartlett Yancey (a
pupil of Murphey ’s) was passed to
“create a fund for the establish¬
ment of the common schools." It
provided for a Literary Fund to
consist of dividends from certain
bank stocks owned by the State
and other revenue, and designated
the Literary Board to invest the
fund and distribute the amount to
the several counties. Before Mur¬
phey died he saw the seeds of his
public school system sprout into
life. It was a pale and sickly life,
but it was life, and it finally
fruited into the present yield of
thirty millions each year from the
State to the schools.
Internal Improvements
He was also the father of the
plan for internal improvements.
In 1815 he offered a resolution in
the Senate to provide for the im¬
provement of the inland naviga¬
tion of the State. As the roads
were but few and in miserable con¬
dition, the rivers were looked upon
to carry the commerce of the State.
Made chairman of such a commit¬
tee, he wrote a series of reports
culminating in his masterly “Me¬
moir on Internal Improvements”
of 1819. The chief features of his
plan were: to improve the means
of transportation; to build up mar¬
kets by the development of mar¬
ket towns at strategic points; to
drain the swamp lands of the East,
rendering the inland rivers navi¬
gable. At his instance, legislation
was passed authorizing surveys,
the beginning of State aid to such
internal improvements as canal
companies. In 1817 a commission
dominated by Murphey sought to
make a survey, but were unable to
secure a competent engineer nearer
than England. His salary was such
that he was soon attacked by the
politicians, but he remained in
Carolina six years and filed a se¬
ries of valuable and illuminating
reports. They led to the formation
of a permanent fund intended to
be devoted to public improve¬
ments, and the organization of a
( Continued on page 21)
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