Excerpt from The Encouragement of Higher Education: An Address by Herbert B. Adams, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History in the Johns Hopkins University, on Commemoration Day of the University, February 22, 1889 Maryland began her educational history by paying a tobacco tax for the support of William and Mary College. This colonial generosity to another State has an historic parallel in the appropriation of a township of land by Vermont for the encouragement of Dartmouth College in the State of New Hampshire, and in the corn that was sent from New Haven to the support of young Harvard. In colonial days Maryland had her county schools, some of them classical, like King William's School at Annapolis. All were founded by authority of the Colonial Government and supported by aid from the public treasury. The principle of State aid to higher education runs throughout the entire history of both State and Colony. The development of Maryland Colleges began on the Eastern Shore. In the year 1782, representatives of Kent County presented a petition to the Legislature, saying that they had a flourishing school at Chestertown, their county seat, and wished to enlarge it into a college. The General Assembly not only authorized the establishment of Washington College, which still exists, but, in consideration of the fact that large sums of money had been subscribed for the institution by public spirited citizens of the Eastern Shore, resolved that such exertions for the public good merited the approbation of the legislature and ought to receive public encouragement and assistance. These are the very words of representatives of Maryland more than a century ago. Their deeds were even better than their words. They voted that a year should be paid from the public treasury for the support of Washington College. That vote was passed just after the conclusion of a long war with England, when the State and indeed the whole country lay impoverished. Towards raising this government sub sidy for higher education, the legislature granted all public receipts from marriage licenses, from liquor licenses, fines for breaking the Sabbath, and all similar fines and licenses that were likely to be constant sources of revenue. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.