In the case of the other Southern commonwealths, which were admitted after the union had been formed, there was similarly a very gradual growth of sentiment for universal education. In every state there appeared an alliance between far-sighted statesmen and educators and the great middle class of citizens for the purpose of establishing common schools for all white children, and the old ecclesiastical and exclusive idea of education was beginning to fade. By the close of the first half century of national existence, a public system had not actually materialized in any of the states, but most of them had begun to create ‘literary funds,’ subsidize schooling for the poor, and enact ‘permissive’ laws for establishing public schools. Except in Virginia and South Carolina, provisions had been made for general administration in state, county, and district; and in North Carolina the organization of a complete common school system awaited only a first hint of the great educational awakening (1835-1860). Moreover, most of the larger cities--Baltimore, Charleston, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Mobile, New Orleans--had already organized a regular system of public schools, and all of the older commonwealths had made some attempt at supporting a state institution of higher learning, which was virtually the head of a public school system. The various denominations had begun to found colleges in some numbers, but even these institutions were not so strictly ecclesiastical as William and Mary started out to be, and assumed a wider function than merely training for the ministry, while the aristocratic and classical ‘grammar’ schools had largely given way to the ‘academies’ (Fig. 32), which were nonsectarian, democratic, and more comprehensive in their curriculum. [Sidenote: System under Board of Regents, but did not include elementary schools.] [Sidenote: Endowment of common schools.]