Chapter II.
THE BEGINNING OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1864–1869.
For the purposes of this study the question of education prior to the time of the organization of Arizona into a separate Territory need not be further considered. This organization was effected under an act passed February 24, 1863, “to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Arizona, and for other purposes.” But that was a time of Civil War in the East and of Indian war in the West; and it was not till December 27, 1863, that John N. Goodwin, of Maine, who had been appointed governor, together with the other appointive officers, entered the Territory and formally inaugurated the government at Navajo Springs, 40 miles west of Zuñi, on December 29, 1863.[1] The capital was fixed temporarily at Prescott, and the first session of the Territorial legislature met on September 26, 1964.
The new government was not long in proclaiming its adhesion to the great American ideal. Gov. Goodwin uttered the first formal official expression on the subject of public education in his first message to the first session of the first legislature of the Territory when he said:
One of the most interesting and important subjects that will engage your attention is the establishment of a system of common schools.
Self-government and universal education are inseparable. The one can be exercised only as the other is enjoyed. The common school, the high school, and the university should all be established and are worthy of your fostering care. The first duty of the legislators of a free State is to make, as far as lies in their power, education as free to all its citizens as the air they breathe. A system of common schools is the grand foundation upon which the whole superstructure should rest. If that be broad and firm, a symmetrical and elegant temple of learning will be erected. I earnestly recommend that a portion of the funds raised by taxation be appropriated for these purposes and that a beginning, though small, be made.
The act organizing the Territory of New Mexico provides that, when the lands in this Territory shall be surveyed, * * * sections numbered 16 and 36 in each township are reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools. * * * It does not seem to me that any portion of this donation can be made immediately available.
- ↑ Jour. First Legislative Assembly, Arizona, 1864, p. 13. Navajo Springs is about 40 miles east of the present town of Holbrook, on the Santa Fé Railroad.
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