[2] Payne received a master of arts and a legum doctor from the University of Michigan.

[2] Payne was appointed as the first professor of the Science and Art of Teaching at the University of Michigan by the Board of Regents in 1879.

[2] Replacing the late Eben S. Stearns, Payne served as the second chancellor of the University of Nashville and the president of Peabody College from 1887 to 1901.

[2] He was critical in working with the Peabody Education Fund to shape the future of the college.

[3] When he stepped down, he was succeeded by former Governor James D. Porter,[1] who moved the Peabody College campus across the street from Vanderbilt University.

[2][4] He "consistently supported compulsory education, financed and supervised by the state.

[5] Payne translated Emile, or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and The History of Pedagogy by Gabriel Compayré from French into English.