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Topic guide

The Blaine amendments and compulsory schooling

This guide is a reading path of 25 entries through the archive’s records of the Blaine amendments and compulsory schooling. Each entry names the printed page to read, links the item page (scan, text and citation) and opens the scan at that page.

The Blaine collection holds the 1875–76 Congressional votes on the Blaine amendment, the state conventions that wrote its language into state constitutions, the state laws that first made attendance compulsory, Oregon’s 1922 public-school law and the Supreme Court cases that followed.

Federal, 1875–76

  1. Congressional Record, vol. 4, pt. 1 (44th Cong., 1st sess.): President Grant's annual message

    vol. 4, pt. 1, p. 175 · scan p. 179

    Grant's annual message (Dec. 7, 1875) recommends a constitutional amendment "making it the duty of each of the several States to establish and forever maintain free public schools" and barring school funds for any "religious sect or denomination".

  2. Congressional Record, vol. 4, pt. 1: H. R. No. 1 (Blaine joint resolution)

    vol. 4, pt. 1, p. 205 · scan p. 209

    Records that "Mr. BLAINE introduced a joint resolution, H. R. No. 1", referred to the Judiciary Committee, with the text of a proposed Article XVI on religion and school funds.

  3. Congressional Record, vol. 4, pt. 6: House vote on the Blaine amendment

    vol. 4, pt. 6, p. 5191 · scan p. 185

    House roll call on the joint resolution: "yeas 180, nays 7, not voting 98".

  4. Congressional Record, vol. 4, pt. 6: Senate vote on the Blaine amendment

    vol. 4, pt. 6, p. 5595 · scan p. 589

    Senate vote of Aug. 14, 1876 ("yeas 28, nays 16"); "Two-thirds of the Senators present not having voted to agree to the resolution, the same is not passed."

State conventions

  1. Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of California, 1878-79, vol. 3

    vol. III, p. 1265 (Feb. 4, 1879) · scan p. 120

    In debate on state aid to orphan asylums, Mr. Filcher reads the education article's Sec. 8: "No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school"; Mr. Gregg and Mr. Beerstecher refer to compulsory schooling.

Commissioner of Education reports and the NEA, 1888–1895

  1. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1888-89, vol. 1

    vol. 1, ch. XVII, p. 429 · scan p. 505

    Chapter XVII, "Religious instruction in public schools", compiles replies from state and city school officers to a Bureau inquiry, with a section on England and Wales.

  2. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1888-89, vol. 1

    vol. 1, ch. XVIII, p. 470 (no running head; inferred from pp. 469/471) · scan p. 546

    Chapter XVIII opens: "Twenty-seven States and Territories of the Union have at the present time compulsory attendance laws in operation." (footnote marker after "time").

  3. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1888-89, vol. 1

    vol. 1, ch. XVIII, p. 471 · scan p. 547

    Table of the years states enacted compulsory-attendance laws (Massachusetts 1852 through Utah 1890).

  4. NEA Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, 1890 (vol. 29), r2 reading copy

    p. 26 (program) · scan p. 33

    Program lists Archbishop Ireland's "preliminary paper" under the topic "Compulsory Laws and their Enforcement", with discussants including Aaron Gove and E. B. McElroy.

  5. NEA Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, 1890 (vol. 29), r2 reading copy

    p. 179 · scan p. 186

    Archbishop John Ireland, "State Schools and Parish Schools—Is Union Between Them Impossible?"

  6. NEA Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, 1890 (vol. 29), r2 reading copy

    p. 186 · scan p. 193

    Oscar H. Cooper (Texas), "Compulsory Laws and Their Enforcement": "The American idea is a minimum of law, thoroughly enforced, with a maximum of freedom".

  7. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1892-93, vol. 2

    vol. 2, p. 1294 · scan p. 80

    Bureau summary: Grant's message "read December 7, 1875"; Blaine "introduced a resolution"; House passage "August 4, 1876, by a vote of 180 yeas to 7 nays"; Senate "28 yeas, 16 nays. As two-thirds did not vote in the affirmative, the resolution was lost." Followed by the Senate substitute text ("Article XVI").

  8. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1894-95, vol. 2

    vol. 2, ch. XL, p. 1617 · scan p. 479

    Opening of Chapter XL, "Parochial schools".

  9. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1894-95, vol. 2

    vol. 2, ch. XL, p. 1647 · scan p. 509

    Section "The so-called Bennett law": "The most striking incidents connected with recent popular attention to parochial schools occurred in Wisconsin."

  10. Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1894-95, vol. 2

    vol. 2, ch. XL, p. 1652 · scan p. 514

    Notes Samuel T. Spear (1876) citing the Blaine amendment approvingly and Grant's Dec. 7, 1875 message; quotes Grant: "Keep the church and the state forever separate."

Compulsory attendance laws and Oregon, 1914–1935

  1. Compulsory School Attendance (Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 2)

    p. 9 · scan p. 17

    W. S. Deffenbaugh: all states have compulsory laws "except Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas"; footnote cites the Commissioner's 1888-89 report.

  2. Oregon Voters' Pamphlet, general election Nov. 7, 1922: Compulsory Education Bill

    p. 21 · scan p. 21

    Ballot title and text of the initiative (nos. 314-315) requiring children over eight and under sixteen to attend public school from Sept. 1, 1926.

  3. Oregon Voters' Pamphlet, general election Nov. 7, 1922: Compulsory Education Bill

    pp. 23-32 · scan p. 23

    Affirmative argument (p. 23) followed by negative arguments from, among others, a Lutheran synod, Seventh Day Adventists and private-school principals (pp. 24-32).

  4. Laws Relating to Compulsory Education (Bureau of Education Bulletin 1928, No. 20), W. W. Keesecker

    p. 2 · scan p. 6

    "This was followed in 1852 by a compulsory school attendance act." (Massachusetts).

  5. Laws Relating to Compulsory Education (Bureau of Education Bulletin 1928, No. 20), W. W. Keesecker

    p. 4 · scan p. 8

    Table "Date of Enactment of First Compulsory Attendance Law in Each State" (Massachusetts 1852 through Mississippi 1918).

  6. Compulsory School Attendance Laws and Their Administration (Office of Education Bulletin 1935, No. 4)

    p. 8 · scan p. 13

    "By 1900, 32 States and the District of Columbia had enacted compulsory school attendance laws"; "by 1918 every State in the Union had an attendance law."

The Supreme Court

  1. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923)

    262 U.S. 390, 400 · scan p. 11

    Supreme Court strikes down a state ban on teaching foreign languages to young pupils.

  2. Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925)

    268 U.S. 510, 534 · scan p. 25

    Court holds the Oregon Act of 1922 "unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control."

  3. Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925)

    268 U.S. 510, 535 (page no. inferred; OCR head shows only "510") · scan p. 26

    "The child is not the mere creature of the State".

  4. Farrington v. Tokushige, 273 U.S. 284 (1927)

    273 U.S. 284, 298 · scan p. 15

    Court invalidates Hawaii's foreign-language-school regulations.

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The notes describe what each source says; they do not endorse it. Page numbers are the printed page; “scan p.” is the page of the PDF file. All topic guides.