In spite of all discouragements, Superintendent Wiley held on until deposed by the provisional governor in 1865.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the schools of this State were better in 1860 than they were in 1880.
During the Reconstruction period a system of schools was established in every one of the seceding States.

On paper these schemes were often admirable.

Usually they were modeled after the system in the State from which some influential carpetbagger came, and under normal conditions, if honestly and judiciously administered, they would have answered their ostensible purposes and would have done much to raise the intellectual level of the population.

Conditions, however, were not normal.