Biography may be studied by tracing the attitude of some public man on a great question throughout his life, as Madison's opinion on the tariff, or Webster's on slavery.

Throughout, the wise teacher will try to connect the topics with what may be presumed to be the interest of a particular pupil, — his local history, his family or his birthplace: a Delaware student on Swedish colonization; a Dickinson on John Dickinson; a Winslow on Plymouth.

§ 69. Composition in Historical Subjects.

Written work is not only a training in history, it may be so used as to build up a good English style. Teachers are often hard put to it to find suitable subjects for compositions on fresh topics, in fields where there is material available for something more than a rude statement of fleeting ideas. From many of the groups of subjects suggested for topical work (§ 68) may be chosen excellent composition subjects; and a requirement that the returns shall be made in good English, and shall be criticised for the style, will make the same paper serve the double purpose of historical training and training in English.

Biography lends itself readily to such treatment, provided the pupil understands that they are not to give simply a bald statement of the events of a man's life, that they must suggest what there was about him which made him unlike other men of whom they know something, or at least what he did that was memorable.

On the striking events of history it is always possible to write something pointed. Such an episode as the expulsion of Roger Williams, or the settlement of Georgia, or the Stamp Act Congress, or the establishment of the Southern Confederacy in 1861, may be worked up even by young pupils, if they have some variety of materials; and it will furnish an agreeable relief from the ordinary hackneyed subjects. Here is also an opportunity to consider the ethical side of history, human motive and effect, Cotton Mather's relation with the witchcraft delusion; the American loyalists; or Webster's Seventh of March speech. One cannot expect long discussions on such topics, or elaborate character analysis;

§ 70.]

Composition.

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but even children may apply to historical characters the same standards as those which they habitually apply to people whom they know.

In setting questions, care should always be taken not to put them too high for children to reach, always to direct them to some point, and to be satisfied with moderate evidence of a power to rearrange the results and to state them in an original form. In many schools the teacher of history is also the teacher of composition, and can make the two subjects run parallel.

§ 70. The "Special Report" System.

Some account of topical work, drawn from experience, may be useful to other teachers. In the course on United States History at Harvard University each student works out four topics (if the set is not satisfactory, also a fifth). These are assigned about six weeks before they are due, on a blank of which the following is the heading.

U. S. HISTORY (13): — SPECIAL REPORT No..... ;

Class

1894-95. Record No.

Mr.

SUBJECT:

The uniform blanks are a convenient means of giving out the subjects in written and unmistakable form; the more important books may be indicated on the slips, if the teacher so choose ; they serve also as a record of the progress of each student, inasmuch as he is obliged to present himself to the person in charge of the work at least three times, and to explain what he is doing ; and they make it easier to handle and record the results. Furthermore, it is of great importance to teach pupils to state their results systematically, to arrange them well, and to make returns in a form prescribed by other people. It is the process of the drawer of briefs or abstracts of title or official reports. Another vital lesson which may best be taught in topical work is that specific references must accompany every important statement: author, brief title (from inspection of the titlepage), volume, and page or

section.

The material for these "reports" is arranged in select libraries, containing secondary books and treatises; in sets of Colonial records; and in a set of United States Documents, Statutes, and Supreme Court Decisions, Congressional Records and the like. Students are expected to work for themselves, referring to the person in charge of the work when they can get no further, or to assure themselves that they are on the right track.

The attempt is made to connect each man's subject with his own family or local history and interests: to a student from New Orleans, studies of Louisiana history or of some phase of slavery; to the son of a railroad president, investigations into the Interstate Commerce Act, or the history of the first railroad. In order to get at the data for such assignment, on entering the class each student is called upon to fill out one of the descriptive blanks of which a reduced copy appears below:

TO BE FILLED OUT BY THE STUDENT.

1. Name in full:

2. Birthplace:

3. Home address:

4. Father's profession:

Class:

§ 70.]

The "Special Report" System.

5. College address:.

213

6. Name and address of your adviser (if you are a Freshman or Special Student):

7. Where prepared for college:

8. Colleges in which you studied before entering Harvard:

9. Degrees held, if any:

10. For what profession or business are you preparing:

11. Languages (besides English) which you can read without serious difficulty:.....

12. Do you expect to count this course towards a degree?

13. Are you a candidate for honors, second year or final?..

14. Mention any persons, places, or subjects relating to the History of the United States, upon which you would like to have special reports assigned.

(a) Persons (especially public men connected with your own family, neighborhood, or state).

(b) States, towns, or cities.

(c) Acts of Congress or lines of legislation.

(d) Constitutional questions.

(e) Slavery questions.

15. Enumerate all historical and other courses taken in college, including those of the present year:

The first report called for in United States History is the bibliography of a public man eminent in colonial or later history. Here is the Pennsylvania list, from which selections are first made for Pennsylvania students, and afterwards for any other students not otherwise assigned.

PENNSYLVANIA. James Buchanan, Simon Cameron, Andrew G. Curtin, Alexander J. Dallas, George M. Dallas, William G. Duane, Robert Fulton, Albert Gallatin, Stephen Girard, Andrew Gregg, David McM. Gregg, Robert C. Grier, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas McKean, George G. Meade, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, Henry A. Muhlenberg, John P. G. Muhlenberg, David D. Porter, David R. Porter, James M. Porter, Samuel J. Randall, Benjamin Rush, John Sergeant, Arthur St. Clair, Edwin M. Stanton, Thaddeus Stevens, David Wilmot, James Wilson, William Wilkins.

The second report is a history of an Act of Congress, drawn from the records, with a brief summary of the arguments on each

side and of the provisions of the statute. the subjects:

Here is one group of

IMMIGRATION ACTS. Contract labor act, 1867; Chinese indemnity act, 1867; alien labor act, 1891; Chinese immigration act, 1884; contract labor act, 1887; Chinese indemnity act, 1887; Chinese exclusion act, 1888; Chinese registration act, 1891; Chinese immigration act, 1892.

The third report calls for a careful study of some very limited constitutional subject, making use of the treatises and special works on the subject, of the decisions of the Supreme Court, and of the practice of the government. A group of such subjects relating to the judiciary is given below:

May Congress create a judgeship with a limited term?

May Congress constitutionally abolish a judgeship without pensioning the incumbent ?

May a President be impeached for incompetency?

Can Senators of the United States be impeached?

Does resignation remove an official from liability to impeachment? Is impeachment a judicial process?

May an executive official be required by a court to perform an act forbidden by the President?

Is a decision of the Supreme Court binding on Congress?

Is a decision of the Supreme Court binding on the President?

Is there a remedy for an unconstitutional decision of the Supreme Court?

Is there any limitation on the President's power of pardon?
May Congress by law relieve from penalties already incurred?

The fourth report is upon some phase of the slavery question, such as abolition societies, meetings and mobs, slave life, fugitive cases, sale of slaves, and the like. Here is one set of examples:

SALE. Slaves buying their own freedom; slaves purchased to set free; sale of slaves; advertisements, private sale; sales at auction; separation of families; usual market value; very high prices.

The fifth report is statistical, and requires the use of the Congressional Documents and other official publications. The kind of subjects is indicated by the annexed extract: