Opinion ID: 852693
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Constitutional Convention

Text: Drafted in 1816, Indiana's first constitution provided the following provisions concerning education: Sect. 1st. Knowledge and learning generally diffused, through a community, being essential to the preservation of a free Government, and spreading the opportunities, and advantages of education through the various parts of the Country, being highly conducive to this end, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide, by law, for the improvement of such lands as are, or hereafter may be granted, by the [U]nited States to this state, for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such lands, or from any other quarters to the accomplishment of the grand object for which they are or may be intended. But no lands granted for the use of schools or seminaries of learning shall be sold by authority of this state, prior to the year eighteen hundred and twenty; and the monies which may be raised out of the sale of any such lands, or otherwise obtained for the purposes aforesaid, shall be and remain a fund for the exclusive purpose of promoting the interest of Literature, and the sciences, and for the support of seminaries and public schools. The General Assembly shall from, time to time, pass such laws as shall be calculated to encourage intellectual, Scientifical, and agricultural improvement, by allowing rewards and immunities for the promotion and improvement of arts, sciences, commerce, manufactures, and natural history; and to countenance and encourage the principles of humanity, honesty, industry, and morality. Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the General [A]ssembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide, by law, for a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation, from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all. Ind. Const. of 1816, art. 9, §§ 1-2, reprinted in 1 Charles Kettleborough, Constitution Making in Indiana: A Source Book of Constitutional Documents with Historical Introduction and Critical Notes 112-14 (1916) (emphasis added). The second constitutional convention consisted of 150 delegates. James H. Madison, The Indiana WayA State History 139 (1986). For purposes of considering, drafting, and submitting sections to be incorporated into the new constitution, the convention was divided into twenty-two standing committees. Kettleborough, supra, at 221. On October 14, 1850, a ten-person Committee on Education was formed. To that committee was referred, among other things, the educational provision of the 1816 Constitution. On December 11, 1850 the committee reported the results of its deliberations to the full convention, which included a recommendation that the following provision be adopted: Sec. 1. Knowledge and learning generally diffused through a community being essential to the preservation of a free government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement, and to provide by law for a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition, as soon as circumstances will permit, shall be gratis, and equally open to all. Journal of the Convention of the People of the State of Indiana to Amend the Constitution 407-08 (Indianapolis, A.H. Brown 1851) [hereinafter Journal ]. The proposed section was read a first time and passed to a second reading. Id. at 409. At the time of the second reading, on January 27, 1851, committee member James R.M. Bryant of Warren County noted a discrepancy between the proposed text and the intended proposal of the committee. Realizing that the proposed provision contained the clause as soon as circumstances will permit, delegate Bryant declared: I will say that this clause was inserted inadvertently by the committee. It was not intended to retain anything more of the first section of the present Constitution, than those parts of it that were applicable to our system. We certainly did not intend to insert anything that would have the effect of preventing or postponing the establishment of free schools. 2 Report of the Debates and Proceedings of the Convention for the Revision of the Constitution of the State of Indiana 1858 (Indianapolis, A.H. Brown 1851) [hereinafter Debates ]. See also Journal, supra, at 801. The delegates agreed with Bryant's motion to remove the clause from the provision, and the revised section was set for a third reading. Debates, supra, at 1858; Journal, supra, at 801. On January 28, 1851, Bryant reminded the convention delegates of recent developments in Indiana education and corresponding legislative responses. [7] Debates, supra, at 1888-91. Quoting from the 1850 census, Bryant argued that more than 73,299 Indiana citizens over the age of twenty-one were illiterate. Id. at 1890-91. He then highlighted the 1848 passage of the free public school question in the referendum and the decision of more than sixty Indiana counties to establish systems of free schools with a limited tax. Id. After a third and final reading on January 30, the provision passed without further discussion and was referred to the Committee on Revision, Arrangement, and Phraseology. Journal, supra, at 815. When the committee submitted its report on February 7, Article 8, Section 1 had been slightly modified from shall be gratis to shall be without charge, which apparently reflected a change from a Latin phrase to its English equivalent. The full text read as follows: Sec. 1. Knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide by law for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all. Id. at 945. Ultimately the delegates completed their work on February 10, 1851. After ratification by the voters, the Constitution took effect November 1, 1851. Kettleborough, supra, at 425.