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A Yankee Patriot: John Swett, the Horace Mann of the Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Extract

At the 25th Anniversary of Western Colleges held at Pomona College in Claremont, California, on March 25, 1949, Dr. Robert Glass Cleland asked Ernest Moore who he thought were the leading educators in California's past. Moore replied that he would not hesitate to head the list with “John Swett, the maker of the California School System….”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1964, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

1. Carroll Moore, Ernest, “California's Educators,” The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, XXXI (September, 1949), 169. Curti, Merle wrote: “Thanks to the heroic labors of John Swett, a New Hampshire schoolmaster … a public school system was well under way.” Merle Curti, The Growth of American Thought (New York, 1943), 504; and Bashford, Herbert, Stories of the Western Pioneers (San Francisco, 1928), 150, and Gilbert, Benjamin F., Pioneers for One Hundred Years, San Jose State College, 1857–1957 (San Jose, Cal., 1957) 98, both authors called Swett the “Horace Mann of the Pacific Coast.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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5. Swett, John, “A Rough Sketch Prepared as a Curiosity,” Swett Family Papers, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, California, 1913, in possession of Frank Tracy Swett, John Swett's son. This information is found on page seven; however, the sketch is incomplete and it seems that John Swett abandoned the project.Google Scholar

6. Gudde, Erwin G., ed., “Edward Visher's First Visit to California,” The California Historical Society Quarterly, XIX, No. 3 (September 1940), 13. On Swett's health see Swett, John, Public Education in California (New York, 1911), 85.Google Scholar

7. Memorandum for 1853, Swett Family Papers, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, California; and see Cluff, Will S. Jr., “John Swett's Diary, January 25 to November 16, 1853,” The California Historical Society Quarterly, XXXIII, No. 4 (December 1954), 299308.Google Scholar

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22. Sacramento Daily Union, op. cit., Swett was not alone in support of the Union. “This state is eminently for Union … A ‘Republic of the Pacific’ is the sheerest nonsense.” Farquhar, Francis P., ed., Up and Down California in 1860–1864: The Journal of William H. Brewer (New Haven, 1930), 88.Google Scholar

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24. Shasta Courier, Aug. 23, 1862.Google Scholar

25. See the Sacramento Union, Aug. 9, 1862 and Aug. 20, 1862 for Swett's answer to the charge made by Henry, B. Janes that Swett admitted Negroes to the Rincon School.Google Scholar

26. California, Proceedings of the Union State Convention, op. cit., 16.Google Scholar

27. Almack, John C., “John Swett,” Dictionary of American History and Biography, XVIII (New York, 1936), 244–45; see also Polos, Nicholas C., John Swett: The Horace Mann of California, (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1962), Chapter I.Google Scholar

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35. Eighth Annual Report, 1859, California, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 14.Google Scholar

36. First Biennial Report, 1864–65, California, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 57.Google Scholar

37. Swett, John, “Editorial,” The Pacific School Journal, X (August 1886), 143.Google Scholar

38. Ming v. Horgan (1958), 3 Cal. 693; and Swett's Second Biennial Report, 1866–67, California, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 141.Google Scholar

39. Swett, John, “Educational Matters in the Southern Counties,” The California Teacher, II (May 1865), 271.Google Scholar

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41. Francisco, San Times, Oct. 8, 1867.Google Scholar

42. Francisco, San Daily Evening Bulletin, Sept. 24, 1867. See also Oakland Daily News, Sept. 28, 1867; and the Chico Courant, Oct. 11, 1867. “John Swett is a modern educator, not a modern Socrates,” said the Red Bluff Independent, Sept. 25, 1867.Google Scholar

43. Second Biennial Report, op. cit., 135–44.Google Scholar

44. Curti, Merle, The Social Ideas of American Educators (New Jersey, 1935), 196; and Swett, John, “Evolution of the American System of Public Schools,” Proceedings of the California Teachers Association, December, 1898 (San Francisco, 1899), 28.Google Scholar

45. Seventh Annual Report, 1858, op. cit., 9–14. Moulder was a Southerner, and he had in mind a military institution like that in Virginia and South Carolina. See California, Appendix to the Journal of the Assembly (1857), 9.Google Scholar

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49. Report Relative to Establishing a State University Made in Accordance with a Concurrent Resolution Passed at the Fourteenth Session of the Legislature, 1864 (San Francisco, 1864), 129.Google Scholar

50. Ibid., 9.Google Scholar

51. Ferrier, William W., op. cit., 48.Google Scholar

52. Two important factors led to the chartering of the University of California in 1868: the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, and the University's absorption of an existing institution, the College of California. On the Morrill Land-Grant Act see Earle Ross, Democracy's College (Ames, Iowa, 1942), 4650.Google Scholar

53. Thirteenth Annual Report, 1863, California, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 74.Google Scholar

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55. First Biennial Report, op. cit., 81–82; and Swett's Second Biennial Report, op. cit., 122.Google Scholar

56. Allen, Harry Overstreet, The University of California (San Francisco: California-Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, 1904), 9.Google Scholar

57. Francisco, San Post, July 29, 1889; Léon Donnat, L'État de Californie (Paris: Librairie Ch. Delagrave, 1878), 101–103.Google Scholar

58. Swett, John, “Educational Power,” Pacific School and Home Journal, IV (August 1880), 301.Google Scholar

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60. Ibid., 367.Google Scholar

61. Quoted in Swett, John, Public Education in California, op. cit., 180.Google Scholar

62. Murray Butler, Nicholas, Columbia University, New York City, N. Y., to Swett, John, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, California, November 29, 1899, A.L.S., 1 p., Swett Collection, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, Cal.Google Scholar

63. Silliman, Benjamin, “Oration Delivered at the Commencement, College of Oakland, 1867” (San Francisco, 1867), 12.Google Scholar

64. Ide Wheeler, Benjamin, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., to Swett, John, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, Cal., Nov. 30, 1905, A.L.S., 1 p., Swett Collection, Hill Girt Farm, Martinez, Cal.Google Scholar

65. Parker, Charles A., Henry George (New York, 1955), 255.Google Scholar

66. Emerson, E. White reminded educators, in 1899, that Swett, John, whom the Boston newspapers as early as 1872, considered the “Horace Mann of the Pacific Coast,” was responsible for the growth of the California educational system. Los Angeles, Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1899, 59.Google Scholar