POLITICAL NECESSITY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.
In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public
opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be
enlightened.--WASHINGTON.
I do not hesitate to affirm not only that a knowledge of the true
principles of government is important and useful to Americans, but
that it is absolutely indispensable to carry on the government of
their choice, and to transmit it to their posterity.--JUDGE STORY.
Every succeeding section of the last chapter went to show more and more
clearly that, in proportion as the benign influences of a correct
education are diffused among and enjoyed by the members of any
community, will existing evils of every kind be diminished, and
blessings be increased in number and degree. The subject of popular
education, then, claims, and should receive, the sympathy and active
support of every philanthropist and Christian, without regard to country
or clime. We come now to consider a topic in which every patriot, and
especially every true American, as such, must feel a lively interest.
Every citizen of our wide-spread country should be fully persuaded that
the education of the people is the only permanent basis of national
_prosperity_ not only, but of national SAFETY. This, in theory, is now
conceded, and the importance of education is very generally admitted
among men, especially in our own country. It is evident, however, that
the conviction of its importance is not so deeply inwrought into the
mind of society as it ought to be, for it does not manifest itself with
all the power of earnest feeling in behalf of education which the
subject, in view of its acknowledged weightiness, justly demands.
The objects and advantages of education heretofore considered apply
equally to men of every nation and clime, under whatever form of
government they may chance to dwell. It is otherwise in regard to the
political necessity of popular education. Here a particular training is
required to fit men for the government under which they are to live. In
despotic governments, the object of popular education is to make good
_subjects_, while upon us devolves the higher responsibility of so
educating the people that they may become not only good _subjects_, but
good SOVEREIGNS--all power originating in and returning to the
_sovereign people_.
Only seventy-four years ago, our fathers of the ever-memorable
Revolution pledged "fortune, life, and sacred honor" to establish the
independence of these United States. Under the fostering care of
republican institutions, the tide of population rolled rapidly inland,
crossing the Alleganies, sweeping over the vast Valley of the
Mississippi, nor resting in its onward course until it settled on the
waters of the Columbia and the shores of the Pacific. Previous to the
Revolutionary war, the English settlements were confined to the Atlantic
coast; now the tide of immigration seems to be to the shores of the
Pacific, where states are multiplying and cities springing up as by
magic. In a little more than half a century, the states of the Union
have increased in number from thirteen to thirty, and in population in
a ratio hitherto unprecedented, from three millions to twenty-five
millions of souls.
We stand in the same relation to posterity that our ancestors do to us.
Each generation has duties of its own to perform; and our duties, though
widely different from those of our forefathers, are not less important
in their character or less binding in their obligations. It was their
duty to found or establish our institutions, and nobly did they perform
it. It is our especial and appropriate duty to perfect and perpetuate
the institutions we have received at their hands. The boon they would
bequeath to the latest posterity can never reach and bless them except
through our instrumentality. Upon each present generation rest the duty
and the obligation of educating and qualifying for usefulness that which
immediately succeeds, upon which, in turn, will devolve a like
responsibility. Each succeeding generation will, in the main, be what
the preceding has made it. From this responsible agency there is, there
can be, no escape.
Trusts, responsibilities, and interests, vaster in amount and more
sacred in character than have ever, in the providence of God, been
committed to any people, are now intrusted to us. The great experiment
of the capacity of man for self-government is being tried anew--an
experiment which, wherever it has been tried, has failed, through an
incapacity in the people to enjoy liberty without abusing it. We are, I
doubt not, now educating the very generation during whose lifetime this
great question will be decided. The present generation will, to a great
extent, be responsible for the result, whatever it may be. We are,
therefore, called upon, as American citizens and Christian
philanthropists, to do all that in us lies to secure to this experiment
a successful issue; to make _this_ the leading nation of the earth, and
a model worthy of imitation by all others. Never before this has a
nation been planted with so hopeful an opportunity for becoming the
universal benefactor of the race.
If for the next fifty years the population of these American States
shall continue to increase as during the last fifty, we shall exceed a
hundred millions; and in a century, allowing the same ratio of increase,
the population will equal that of the Old World. Here, then, is a
continent to be filled with innumerable millions of human beings, who
may be happy through our wisdom, but who must be miserable through our
folly. We may disregard such considerations, but we can not escape the
tremendous responsibilities rolling in upon us in view of the relations
we sustain to the past and the future. We delight to honor, in _words_,
those heroes and martyrs from whom we have received the rich boon of
civil and religious liberty. Let us then, in _deeds_, imitate the
examples we profess to admire, and contribute our full quota, as
individuals and as a generation, toward perfecting and perpetuating the
institutions we have received, that they may be enjoyed by those
countless millions who are to succeed us in this broad empire.
"In this exigency," to adopt the language of an enlightened practical
educator and eminent statesman, "we need far more of wisdom and
rectitude than we possess. Preparations for our present condition have
been so long neglected, that we now have a double duty to perform. We
have not only to propitiate to our aid a host of good spirits, but we
have to exorcise a host of evil ones. Every aspect of our affairs,
public and private, demonstrates that we need, for their successful
management, a vast accession to the common stock of intelligence and
virtue. But intelligence and virtue are the product of cultivation and
training. They do not spring up spontaneously. We need, therefore,
unexampled alacrity and energy in the application of all those
influences and means which promise the surest and readiest returns of
wisdom and probity, both public and private.
"When the Declaration of Independence was carried into effect, and the
Constitution of the United States was adopted, the civil and political
relations of the generation then living, and of all succeeding ones,
were changed. Men were no longer the same men, but were clothed with new
rights and responsibilities. Up to that period, so far as government was
concerned, they might have been ignorant; indeed, it has generally been
held that where a man's only duty is obedience, it is better that he
should be ignorant; for why should a beast of burden be endowed with the
sensibilities of a man! Up to that period, so far as government was
concerned, a man might have been unprincipled and flagitious. He had no
access to the statute-book to alter or repeal its provisions, so as to
screen his own violations of the moral law from punishment, or to
legalize the impoverishment and ruin of his fellow-beings. But with the
new institutions, there came new relations, and an immense accession of
powers. New trusts of inappreciable value were devolved upon the old
agents and upon their successors, irrevocably.
"With the change in the organic structure of our government, there
should have been corresponding changes in all public measures and
institutions. For every dollar given by the wealthy or by the state to
colleges to cultivate the higher branches of knowledge, a hundred should
have been given for primary education. For every acre of land bestowed
upon an academy, a province should have been granted to common schools.
Select schools for select children should have been discarded, and
_universal education_ should have joined hands with _universal
suffrage_."[56]
[56] From "an Oration delivered before the Authorities of the City of
Boston, July 4th, 1842, by Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts
Board of Education."
In the simplest form of civil government, there must exist a
legislative, a judicial, and an executive department. But no expression
of the national will in a system of laws can be sufficiently definite to
supersede the necessity of a perpetual succession of Legislatures to
supply defects, and to meet emergencies as they arise. However
well-informed men may be, and however pure the motives by which they are
actuated, all experience hath shown that subjects will come up for
consideration that will strike different minds in a variety of forms.
This, in a popular government, gives rise to opposing parties. Every
man, then, in casting his vote for members of the Legislature, needs to
understand what important questions will be likely to come before that
branch of the government for settlement, to have examined them in their
various bearings, and to have deliberately made up his opinion in
relation to the interests involved, in order to vote understandingly;
otherwise he will be as likely to oppose as to promote, not only the
welfare of the state, but his own most cherished interests.
The same remark that has been made in relation to the legislative
department will apply to both the judicial and executive, and to the
general government as well as to the several state governments. When the
appointed day arrives for deciding the various questions of state and
national policy which divide men into opposing parties, there can be no
delay. These various and conflicting questions must be decided, whether
much or little preparation has been made, or none at all. And, what is
most extraordinary, each voter helps to decide every question which
agitates the community as much by not voting as by voting. If the
question is so vast or so complicated that any one has not time to
examine and make up his mind in relation to it, or if any one is too
conscientious to act from conjecture in cases of magnitude, and
therefore stays from the polls, another, who has no scruples about
acting ignorantly, or from caprice, or malevolence, votes, and, in the
absence of the former, decides the question against the right.
However simple our government may be in theory, it has proved, in
practice, the most complex government on earth. More questions for
legislative interposition, and for judicial exposition and construction,
have already arisen under it, ten to one, than have arisen during the
same length of time under any other form of government in Christendom.
We are a Union of thirty states; a great nation composed of thirty
separate nations; and even beyond these, the confederacy is responsible
for the fate of vast territories, with their increasing population, and
of numerous Indian tribes. Among the component states, there is the
greatest variety of customs, institutions, and religions. Then we have
the deeper inbred differences of language and ancestry among us, our
population being made up of the lineage of all nations. Our industrial
pursuits, also, are various; and, with a great natural diversity of soil
and climate, they must always continue to be so. Moreover, across the
very center of our territory a line is drawn, on one side of which all
labor is voluntary, while on the opposite side a system of involuntary
servitude prevails.
If, then, general intelligence and popular virtue are necessary for the
successful administration of even the simplest forms of government, and
if these qualities are required in a higher and still higher degree in
proportion to the complexity of a government, then are both intelligence
and virtue necessary in this government to an extent indefinitely beyond
what has ever been required in any other. And especially is this true
when we consider that our government is representative as it regards the
people, and federative as it regards the states; and that, in this
respect, it has no precedent on the file of nations. We hence require a
double portion of general intelligence and practical wisdom. But men are
not born in the possession of these requisites to self-government,
neither are they necessarily developed in the growth from infancy to
manhood. They are the product of cultivation and training, and can be
secured only through good schools opened to and enjoyed by all our
youth. The stability of this government requires that universal
education should precede universal suffrage.
Under a free government, the intelligence of the people, coupled with
their virtue, will be found to be a sure index to a nation's prosperity,
and to the individual and social well-being of all who enjoy its
protection. God is a being of infinite wisdom and goodness, and no part
of his government can be successfully administered except upon the
principles of knowledge and virtue. The success that attends a nation of
freemen will depend upon the extent to which these are cultivated, and
the universality of their dissemination in the body politic. While the
cultivation of these will increase the safety of the government, their
neglect will hasten its downfall.
Judge Story, in a lecture upon the importance of the science of
government as a branch of popular education, has well remarked, that
"it is not to rulers and statesman alone that the science of government
is important and useful. It is equally indispensable for every American
citizen, to enable him to exercise his own rights, to protect his own
interests, and to secure the public liberties and the just operations of
public authority. A republic, by the very constitution of its
government, requires, on the part of the people, more vigilance and
constant exertion than any other form of government. The American
Republic, above all others, demands from every citizen unceasing
vigilance and exertion, since we have deliberately dispensed with every
guard against danger or ruin except the intelligence and virtue of the
people themselves. It is founded on the basis that the people have
wisdom enough to frame their own system of government, and public spirit
enough to preserve it; that they can not be cheated out of their
liberties, and they will not submit to have them taken from them by
force. We have silently assumed the fundamental truth that, as it never
can be the interest of the majority of the people to prostrate their own
political equality and happiness, so they never can be seduced by
flattery or corruption, by the intrigues of faction or the arts of
ambition, to adopt any measures which shall subvert them. _If this
confidence in ourselves is justified_--and who among Americans does not
feel a pride in endeavoring to maintain it?--_let us never forget that
it can be justified only by a watchfulness and zeal in proportion to our
confidence_. Let us never forget that we must prove ourselves wiser,
better, and purer than any other nation ever has yet been, if we are to
count upon success. Every other republic has fallen by the discords and
treachery of its own citizens. It has been said by one of our own
departed statesmen, himself a devout admirer of popular government,
that power is perpetually stealing from the many to the few."
The institutions of a republic are endangered by the ignorance of the
masses on the one hand, and by intelligent, but unprincipled and vicious
aspirants to office and places of emolument on the other. Where these
two classes coexist to any considerable extent, the safety of the
republic is jeoparded; for they have a strong sympathy with each other,
and it is the constant policy of the latter to increase the number of
the former. They arouse their passions and stimulate their appetites,
and then lead them in a way they know not. A barrel of whisky, or even
of hard cider, with a "hurrah!" will control ten to one more of this
class of voters than will the soundest arguments of enlightened and
honorable statesmen. And yet one of these votes thus procured, when
deposited in the ballot-box, counts the same as the vote of a Washington
or a Franklin!
There is one remedy, and but one, for this alarming state of things,
which prevails to a less or greater extent in almost every community.
That remedy is simple. It consists in the establishment of schools for
the education of the whole people. These schools, however, should be of
a more perfect character than the majority of those which have hitherto
existed. In them the principles of morality should be copiously
intermingled with the principles of science. Cases of conscience should
alternate with lessons in the rudiments. The rule requiring us to do to
others as we would that they should do unto us, should be made as
familiar as the multiplication table, and our youth should become as
familiar with the practical application of the one as of the other. The
lives of great and good men should be held up for admiration and
example, and especially the life and character of Jesus Christ, as the
sublimest pattern of benevolence, of purity, and of self-sacrifice ever
exhibited to mortals. In every course of studies, all the practical and
preceptive parts of the Gospel should be sacredly inculcated, and all
dogmatical theology and sectarianism sacredly excluded. In no school
should the Bible be opened to reveal the sword of the polemic, but to
unloose the dove of peace.
In connection with the preceding, and in addition to the branches now
commonly taught in our schools, the study of _politics_, which has been
beautifully defined as _the art of making a people happy_, should be
generally introduced. "I am not aware," says an eminent jurist,[57]
"that there are any solid objections which can be urged against
introducing the science of government into our common schools as a
branch of popular education. If it should be said that it will have a
tendency to introduce party creeds and party dogmas into our schools,
the true answer is, that the principles of government should be there
taught, and not the creeds or dogmas of any party. The principles of the
Constitution under which we live; the principles upon which republics
generally are founded, by which they are sustained, and through which
they must be saved; the principles of public policy, by which national
prosperity is secured, and national ruin averted--these certainly are
not party creeds or party dogmas, but are fit to be taught at all times
and on all occasions, if any thing which belongs to human life and our
own condition is fit to be taught. If we wait until we can guard
ourselves against every possible chance of abuse before we introduce any
system of instruction, we shall wait until the current of time has
flowed into the ocean of eternity. There is nothing which ever has been
or ever can be taught without some chance of abuse; nay, without some
absolute abuse. Even religion itself, our truest and our only lasting
hope and consolation, has not escaped the common infirmity of our
nature. If it never had been taught until it could be taught with the
purity, simplicity, and energy of the apostolic age, we ourselves,
instead of being blessed with the bright and balmy influences of
Christianity, should now have been groping our way in the darkness of
heathenism, or left to perish in the cold and cheerless labyrinths of
skepticism."
[57] Joseph Story, before the American Institute of Instruction.
Lord Brougham, one of the most powerful advocates of popular education
in our day, has made the following remarks, which can not be more fitly
addressed to any people than to the citizens of the American States. "A
sound system of government," says this transatlantic writer, "requires
the people to read and inform themselves upon political subjects; else
they are the prey of every quack, every impostor, and every agitator who
may practice his trade in the country. If they do not read; if they do
not learn; if they do not digest by discussion and reflection what they
have read and learned; if they do not qualify themselves to form
opinions for themselves, other men will form opinions for them, not
according to the truth and the interests of the people, but according to
their own individual and selfish interest, which may, and most probably
will, be contrary to that of the people at large."
Two very important inquiries here naturally suggest themselves to us:
they are, first, whether there is at present in this country a degree of
intelligence sufficient for the wise administration of its affairs; and
secondly, whether existing provisions for the education of our country's
youth are adequate to the wants of a great and free people, who are
endeavoring to demonstrate to the world that great problem of
nations--the capability of man for self-government. We judge of the
literary attainments of the citizens of a state or of a nation, _as a
whole_, by comparing all the individual members thereof with a given
standard, and of their arrangements for educating the rising generation
by the character of their schools, and the proportion of the population
that receive instruction in them. Let us test the existing standard of
education in various states of this Union in both of these respects.
DEGREE OF POPULAR INTELLIGENCE.--According to the census of 1840,[58]
the total population of the United States was, in round numbers,
seventeen millions. Of this number, five hundred and fifty thousand were
whites over twenty years of age, who could not read and write. The
proportion varies in different states, from one in five hundred and
eighty-nine in Connecticut, to one in eleven in North Carolina.
[58] The census for 1850 is now being taken. Whether its results will
tell more favorably upon the general interests of education in the
United States than those of the last census, remains to be seen. Some of
the states during the last ten years have done nobly; others have
evidently retrograded. We have also a tide of foreign immigration
pouring in upon us hitherto unprecedented, averaging a thousand a day
for the past year, all of whom need to be Americanized.
If we exclude, in the estimate, all colored persons, and whites under
twenty years of age, the proportion will stand thus: in the United
States, one to every twelve is unable to read and write. The proportion
varies in the different states, from one in two hundred and ninety-four
in Connecticut, which stands the highest, to one in three in North
Carolina, which stands the lowest. In Tennessee the proportion is one in
four. In Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arkansas,
each, one in five. In Delaware and Alabama, each, one in six. In
Indiana, one in seven. In Illinois and Wisconsin, each, one in eight.
On the brighter end of the scale, next to Connecticut, in which the
proportion is one in two hundred and ninety-four, is New Hampshire, in
which the proportion is one in one hundred and fifty-nine. In
Massachusetts it is one in ninety. In Maine, one in seventy-two. In
Vermont, one in sixty-three. Next in order comes Michigan, in which the
proportion is one in thirty-nine.[59]
[59] According to the last census, there were twenty states below
Michigan, and only five above her. But even this estimate, favorable as
it is in the scale of states, does not allow Michigan an opportunity to
appear in her true light, for it is well known that a great proportion
of the illiterate population of this state is confined to a few
counties. In Mackinaw and Chippewa counties there is one white person
over twenty years of age to every five of the entire population that is
unable to read and write. In Ottawa, one in fourteen; in Cass, one in
twenty-two; in Wayne and Saginaw, each, one in thirty-six. On the other
hand, there were eight organized counties in the state in which,
according to the census referred to, there was not a single white
inhabitant over twenty years of age that was unable to read and write.
It is an interesting fact, at least to persons residing in the
Northwest, that in Ohio also (on the Western Reserve) there were seven
such counties, making fifteen in these two states, while in all New
England there were but two--Franklin in Massachusetts, and Essex in
Vermont.
But these statements in relation to the number of persons in the United
States who are unable to read and write, although they give the fearful
aggregate of _five hundred and fifty thousand_ over twenty years of age
who are destitute of these qualifications, it is believed, fail to
discover much of gross ignorance that is cherished in various portions
of the country; for there is no state in the Union, nor any section of a
single state, where men do not wish to be accounted able to read and
write. The deputy marshals who took the census received their
compensation by the head, and not by the day, for the work done. They
therefore traveled from house to house, making the shortest practicable
stay at each. More was required of them than could be thoroughly and
accurately performed in the time allowed. Their informants were
subjected to no test. In the absence of the heads of families, whose
information would have been more reliable, the bare word of persons over
sixteen years of age was accredited. It is, moreover, well known, that
no inconsiderable number of persons gave false information when inquired
of by the deputies. From these and other reasons, it is believed that
numerous and important errors exist in the census; and this opinion is
corroborated by a mass of unquestionable testimony, of which I will
introduce a specimen.
The annual message of Governor Campbell, of Virginia, to the Legislature
of that state, the year immediately preceding that in which the census
was taken, clearly shows that the capacity to read and write in persons
over twenty years of age was greatly over-estimated in that state.
Governor Campbell, after stating that the importance of an efficient
system of education, embracing in its comprehensive and benevolent
design the whole people, can not be too frequently recurred to, goes on
to remark as follows:
"The statements furnished by the clerks of five city and borough courts,
and ninety-three of the county courts, in reply to the inquiries
addressed to them, ascertain that, of all those who applied for marriage
licenses, a large number were unable to write their names. The years
selected for this inquiry were those of =1817=, =1827=, and =1837=. The
statements show that the applicants for marriage licenses for =1817=
amounted to =4682=, of whom =1127= were unable to write; =5048= in
=1827=, of whom the number unable to write was =1166=; and in =1837= the
applicants were =4614=, and of these the number of =1047= were unable to
write their names. From which it appears there still exists a
deplorable extent of ignorance, and that, in truth, it is hardly less
than it was twenty years ago, when the school fund was created. The
statements, it will be remembered, are partial, not embracing quite all
the counties, and are, moreover, confined to one sex. The education of
females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect.
"There are now in the state two hundred thousand children between the
ages of five and fifteen. Forty thousand of them are reported to be poor
children, and of them only one half to be attending schools. It may be
safely assumed that, of those possessing property adequate to the
expenses of a plain education, a large number are growing up in
ignorance, for want of schools within convenient distances. Of those at
school, many derive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity of
the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence and inattention.
Thus the number likely to remain uneducated, and to grow up without just
perceptions of their duties, religious, social, and political, is really
of appalling magnitude, and such as to appeal with affecting earnestness
to a parental Legislature."
If there shall appear any want of agreement between these statements and
the returns made by the deputy marshals, no one need be in doubt in
relation to which has the strongest claims for credence. These
statements were communicated by the governor of a proud state to the
Legislature in his annual message. Unlike the statistics collected by
the marshals, each case was subjected to an infallible test; for no man
who could make a scrawl in the similitude of his name would submit to
the mortification of making his mark, and leaving it on record in a
written application for a marriage license. The requisition was made
upon the officers of the courts, and the evidence, which was of a
documentary or judicial character, is the highest known to the law. The
result was, that almost one fourth of all the men applying for marriage
licenses--more than thirty-three hundred in three years--were unable to
write their names! And Governor Campbell clearly intimates an opinion
that "the education of females is in a condition of much greater
neglect!"
In round numbers, the free white population of Virginia over twenty
years of age is three hundred and thirty thousand. One fourth of this
number is eighty-two and a half thousand, which, according to the
evidence presented by Governor Campbell, is the lowest possible limit at
which the minimum of adults unable to read and write can be stated. But
the census number is less than fifty-nine thousand, making a difference
of nearly twenty-four thousand, or more than forty per cent.
There are several states of about the same rank as Virginia in the
educational scale. Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina sink even
below her. The last-named state, with a free white population over
twenty years of age of less than 210,000, has the appalling number, even
according to the census, of 56,609 who are unable to read and write. In
other words, forty-two hundred more than one fourth of the whole free
population over twenty years of age are, in the educational scale,
absolutely _below zero_.
Now if to the five hundred and fifty thousand free white population in
the United States over the age of twenty years who are unable to read
and write, as shown by the census, we add forty per cent. for its
under-estimates, as facts require us to do in the case of Virginia, it
would increase the total to seven hundred and seventy thousand. Suppose
one fourth of these only are voters--that is, deduct one half for
females, and allow that one half of the male moiety is made up of
persons either between twenty and twenty-one years of age, or of those
who are unnaturalized, which is a most liberal allowance when we
consider where the great mass of ignorance belongs, and that the number
of ignorant immigrants is much less at the South than at the North--and
we have =192,500= voters in the United States who are unable to read and
write.
Now, at the presidential election for the same year that the census was
taken, when, to use the graphic language of another, "every voter not
absolutely in his winding sheet was carried to the polls, when the
harvest field was so thoroughly swept that neither stubble nor tares
were left for the gleaner," the majority for the successful candidate
was =146,081=, more than =46,000= less than the estimated number of
legal voters at that time in the United States unable to read and write.
At this election a larger majority of the electoral votes was given for
the successful candidate than was ever given to any other President of
the United States, with the exception of Mr. Monroe in =1820=, against
whom there was but one vote. General Harrison's popular majority, also,
was undoubtedly the largest by which any President of the United States
has ever been elected, with the exception above mentioned of Mr. Monroe,
and perhaps that of General Washington at his second election. And yet
this majority, large as it was, was more than 46,000 less than the
estimated number of our legal voters who, in the educational scale, are
absolutely below zero.
And then it should be borne in mind that hundreds of thousands who are
barely able to read and write may never have acquired "a knowledge of
the true principles of government," which, in the language of Judge
Story, at the head of this chapter, "is not only important and useful
to Americans, but is absolutely indispensable to carry on the government
of their choice, and to transmit it to posterity." It should also be
borne in mind that popular virtue is not less essential to the stability
of a free government than is general intelligence. Nay, more; if the
liberties of this republic are more endangered by any one class of
people than by all others, that class consists of intelligent but
unprincipled political aspirants. The connection between ignorance and
vice has already been referred to, and is well known among intelligent
men; but by none so well, it may be, as by the unprincipled aspirant,
who, by pandering to the vicious appetites of the ignorant and the vile,
and then by base flattery pronouncing them "highly intelligent,
enlightened, and civilized," take advantage of their very want of
qualification "to manufacture political capital." These are they to whom
Lord Brougham refers when he says, "other men will form opinions for
them, not according to truth and the interests of the people, but
according to their own individual and selfish interest, which may, and
most probably will, be contrary to that of the people at large." We can
not, then, avoid coming to the unwelcome and dread conclusion that there
is not at present in this country a sufficient degree of intelligence
and virtue for the wise, or even the safe administration of its affairs.
It remains to consider whether existing provisions for the education of
our country's youth are adequate to the wants of the American people.
EXISTING PROVISIONS FOR EDUCATION.--Of the seventeen millions of persons
in the United States, according to the last census, =3,726,080=--one in
five of the entire population--were free white children between the ages
of five and fifteen years. This is the lowest estimate I have ever known
made of the ages between which children should regularly attend school.
The ages usually stated between which children generally should attend
school at least ten months during the year, are from four to sixteen, or
from four to eighteen years, and sometimes from four to twenty or
twenty-one years.
But what is the actual attendance upon the primary and common schools of
the country? It is only =1,845,244=, or, to vary the expression and give
it more definiteness, the total number of children in attendance upon
all our schools, any part of the year, is twenty thousand less than one
half of the free-born white children in the United States between the
ages of five and fifteen years! And then it should be borne in mind that
the same general motives which would lead to an under-statement in
regard to the number of persons unable to read and write, would lead to
an over-statement in regard to the number of those attending school. The
educational statistics of some of the states, made out by competent and
faithful school officers, show that the whole number of scholars that
attended school any part of the time during the school year 1840-41--the
year the census was taken--was several thousand less than the number
according to the census.[60]
[60] In Massachusetts, according to a statement made by the Secretary of
the Board of Education, the whole number of scholars who were in all the
public schools any part of the school year 1840-41 was but 155,041, and
the average attendance was, in the winter, 116,398, and in the summer,
96,802; while the number given in the census is 158,351, which is
greater by 3310 than the entire number that attended school _any part of
the year_, according to the returns, and 55,751 more than the average
attendance for half of the year.
If we were to embrace in the estimate the whole number of students in
attendance at the universities, colleges, academies, and seminaries of
learning of every grade, it would not materially vary the result, for
all these taken together are less than one tenth part of the number in
attendance upon the common schools. That the number of children
attending schools of any grade is less than might be inferred from the
foregoing statements, will be apparent when we consider the following
facts.
In the United States, taken together as a whole, only one person in ten
of the population attends any school whatever any part of the year. Now
it is well known that a large number of children under five years of age
attend school in many parts of the country, and a much greater number
that are over fifteen years of age. I have already said that the entire
number of children in attendance upon all our schools is twenty thousand
less than one half of the entire number of free-born white children in
the United States between the ages of five and fifteen years. This
leaves two millions of children uninstructed. We shall have a more just
view of the scantiness of our provisions for adequate national education
if to this number, appalling as it is, we add the total number of those
attending under five and over fifteen in various portions of the
country.
Again: no one supposes that in any part of the Union adequate provisions
are made for the education of the rising generation, even in a single
state. But in the New England states, and in New York and Michigan, one
fourth part of the entire population attend school some part of the
year. This is twice and a half the general average throughout the Union,
and more than five times the average attendance in the majority of the
remaining states.
In round numbers, the proportion of the entire population that attend
school in the different states of the Union is, according to the census,
in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, each, one in three. In
Michigan,[61] Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, the proportion
is one in four. In Rhode Island, it is one in five. In Ohio and New
Jersey, each, one in six. In Pennsylvania, one in eight. In no other
state is the proportion more than one in ten, while in ten states it is
less than one in twenty-five.
[61] In determining the proportion for this state, the census for 1845
and the school returns for that year were the data used. In the other
states I have been obliged to use the census returns of 1840.
In fixing this proportion, the nearest whole number has been used. In no
state is the proportion in attendance upon the schools as high as one in
three. Michigan heads the states in which the proportion is one in four.
In this state the proportion is somewhat greater than one in four; it
is, however, nearer this than one in three. In the other states the
proportion is less than one in four. The states are all arranged
according to the size of the fraction, there being less difference in
the attendance in Vermont and Michigan than in the latter state and New
York.
At the time the last census was taken, Michigan had recently been
admitted into the Union, and the state government being but just
organized, the school system had only gone partially into operation.
According to the census of =1840=, the proportion in attendance upon the
schools of this state was only one in seven. During the interval from
=1840= to =1845=, at which time the census of this state was again
taken, the population had increased from two hundred and twelve thousand
to upward of three hundred thousand, showing an increase of about fifty
per cent.; the number of primary schools had increased from less than
ten thousand to more than twenty thousand, making an increase of more
than one hundred per cent.; and the attendance upon these schools had
advanced from thirty thousand to seventy-six thousand, giving the very
remarkable increase of one hundred and fifty per cent. in five years,
when, as already stated, the proportion in attendance upon the common
schools was more than one in four of the entire population. And during
the next two years the number of children in attendance upon the schools
increased from seventy-six thousand to one hundred and eight thousand,
showing an advance of more than forty per cent. from 1845 to 1847.
It is gratifying to know that this important interest, which underlies
all others, is receiving increased attention in various portions of the
United States. Among the most striking illustrations that I have noticed
of these indications of national improvement, I will instance two.[62]
The following interesting items of fact are gleaned from an address by
the superintendent before the public schools of New Orleans, February
22d, 1850--a most befitting day for a school celebration. These
statistics strike us more forcibly when we consider that they relate to
the metropolis of the South, and to the capital of a state in which,
according to the last census, only one person in one hundred received
instruction in the primary and common schools of the state. The public
schools of the second municipality of New Orleans were established in
1842, comprising at that time less than three hundred pupils. Now the
constant attendance is upward of three thousand--ten times what it was
eight years ago. But even this increase, large as it may seem, is not
sufficient to constitute the proportion in attendance upon the schools
of the state even one in fifty of the entire population.
[62] My information is derived from the "Southern Journal of Education"
for May, 1850--a monthly for the promotion of popular intelligence,
published from Knoxville, Tenn.--Samuel A. Jewett, Editor and Publisher.
This journal is ably conducted, and has now reached its third volume.
This certainly is a very encouraging omen, especially when we consider
that it has so long survived in a state where, according to the last
census, only one in thirty-three of the entire population attended
school. May it long continue to do good service in this important cause.
Kentucky furnishes the other indication of improvement which I propose
to notice. In this state, according to the last census, only one in
thirty-three of the entire population attended the common schools during
any part of the year. The number of children at the present time in that
commonwealth, as reported by the second auditor, between the ages of
five and sixteen, leaving out the colored children, is one hundred and
ninety-three thousand. The number provided with schools, as reported in
1847, was twenty-one thousand; in 1848, thirty-three thousand; and in
1849, eighty-seven thousand; showing a clear advance in two years of
sixty-six thousand.[63] But, with all this improvement, one hundred and
five thousand children do not derive any personal benefit from the
public school system. In other words, eighteen thousand more children in
this state are still growing up without instruction than as yet attend
the schools. And the utter inadequacy of the common school privileges of
even these will be apparent when it is understood that in the great
majority of the districts more than nine tenths of the schools are
taught but three months during the year.
[63] This improvement well illustrates the advantages resulting to the
state from the able and faithful supervision of her public schools. A
correspondent of the Baltimore American speaks of the Annual Report of
DR. ROBERT BRECKENRIDGE, Superintendent of Public Instruction, to the
General Assembly of Kentucky, as follows: "It is the most important
document which has been submitted to that body during the present
session, and reflects great credit upon the energy, fidelity, and
comprehensive aims of the superintendent in the discharge of his high
duties. It is now but two years since Dr. Breckenridge was appointed to
the office, and the great service he has rendered to the cause of
popular education in the state is strikingly exhibited in the contrast
between the present condition of the common schools, and that in which
he found them when he received his appointment from the Board of
Education."
We have as yet only considered the great destitution of schools of _any
kind_, in which the moiety of the children that attend school at all
receive instruction, and the fact that very many of these are kept open
but three months during the year.[64] The inadequacy of existing
provisions for the proper education of the rising generation will be
more strikingly apparent when we consider the incompetency of, I may
perhaps safely say, the majority of persons who are put in charge of the
public schools of the country. It is readily conceded that, in those
states where education has received most attention, there are many
teachers who are thoroughly furnished unto all good works. But it is far
otherwise with the majority of teachers even in the more favored states.
The testimony of Governor Campbell already quoted, will apply to the
teachers of many other states. After speaking of the large number of
children in Virginia that "are growing up in ignorance for want of
schools within convenient distances," he remarks, that "of those at
school, many derive little or no instruction, owing to the incapacity of
the teachers, as well as to their culpable negligence and inattention."
[64] Even in Massachusetts the average length of time the schools of the
state continue is less than eight months, and the average continuance in
several of the counties is only five months. The average attendance upon
the schools for the time they are kept open is sixty-two per cent. of
the number between the ages of four and sixteen years; but in some
instances only twenty-six per cent. of the children in a town--about one
fourth of the number within the school ages--attend school.
President Caldwell, of the University of North Carolina, in a series of
letters on popular education, addressed to the people of that state a
few years ago, proposes a plan for the improvement of common education.
The first and greatest existing evil which he specifies is the want of
qualified teachers. Any one who "knows how to read, and write, and
cipher," it is said, is regarded as fit to be a "schoolmaster."
"Is a man," remarks President Caldwell, "constitutionally and habitually
indolent, a burden upon all from whom he can extract a support? Then
there is one way of shaking him off; let us make him a schoolmaster! To
teach a school is, in the opinion of many, little else than sitting
still and doing nothing. Has any man wasted all his property, or ended
in debt by indiscretion and misconduct? The business of school-keeping
stands wide open for his reception; and here he sinks to the bottom, for
want of capacity to support himself. Has any one ruined himself, and
done all he could to corrupt others by dissipation, drinking, seduction,
and a course of irregularities? Nay, has he returned from a prison,
after an ignominious atonement for some violation of the laws? He is
destitute of character, and can not be _trusted_; but presently he opens
a school, and the children are seen flocking to it; for, if he is
_willing_ to act in that capacity--we shall all admit that he can read,
write, and cipher to the square root--he will make an excellent
schoolmaster. In short, it is no matter what the man is, or what his
manners or principles; if he has escaped with his life from the penal
code, we have the satisfaction to think that he can still have credit as
a schoolmaster."
The Georgia convention of teachers, in a published address, after
speaking of the importance of giving a more extended education to our
youth _as citizens_, and giving an outline of a liberal system of
popular education, go on to remark as follows: "Alas! how far should we
be elevated above our present level if all of them were thus
enlightened! But how many sons and daughters of free-born Americans are
unable to read their native language! How many go to the polls who are
unable to read the very charter of their liberties! How many, by their
votes, elect men to legislate upon their dearest interests, while they
themselves are unable to read even the proceedings of those legislators
whom they have empowered to act for them!"
In accounting for this lamentable state of things, the committee of the
Convention say, "We seem to forget that first principles are, in
education, all-important principles; that primary schools are the places
where these principles are to be established, and where such direction
will, in all probability, be given to the minds of our children as will
decide their future character in life. Hence the idle, and the profane,
and the drunken, and the ignorant are employed to impart to our children
the first elements of knowledge--are set before them as examples of what
literature and science can accomplish! And hence the profession of
schoolmaster, which should be the most honorable, is but too often a
term of reproach."
That other most unwelcome and dread conclusion, _that existing
provisions for popular education in the United Slates are inadequate to
the requirements of a free people_, is, then, in view of all these
facts, unavoidably forced upon us.
In the name of Christian philanthropy, in the name of patriotism, then,
I inquire whether there is any ground for hope that our free
institutions may be transmitted unimpaired to posterity. "With the
heroes, and sages, and martyrs of the Revolution," to adopt the language
of another, "I believe in the capability of man for self-government, my
whole soul thereto most joyously assenting. Nay, if there be any heresy
among men, or blasphemy against God, at which the philosopher might be
allowed to forget his equanimity, and the Christian his charity, it is
the heresy and the blasphemy of believing and avowing that the
infinitely good and all-wise Author of the universe persists in creating
and sustaining a race of beings who, by a law of their nature, are
forever doomed to suffer all the atrocities and agonies of
misgovernment, either from the hands of others or from their own. The
doctrine of the inherent and necessary disability of mankind for
self-government should be regarded not simply with denial, but with
abhorrence; not with disproof only, but with execration. To sweep so
foul a creed from the precincts of truth, and utterly to consume it,
rhetoric should become a whirlwind, and logic fire. Indeed, I have never
known a man who desired the establishment of monarchical and
aristocratical institutions among us, who had not a mental reservation
that, in such case, he and his family should belong to the privileged
orders.
"Still, if asked the broad question whether man is capable of
self-government, I must answer it conditionally. If by man, in the
inquiry, is meant the Fejee Islanders; or the convicts at Botany Bay; or
the people of Mexico and of some of the South American Republics, so
called; or those as a class, in our own country, who can neither read
nor write; or those who can read and write, and who possess talents and
an education by force of which they get treasury, or post-office, or
bank appointments, and then abscond with all the money they can steal, I
answer unhesitatingly that _man_, or rather _such men_, are not fit for
self-government.
"But if, on the other hand, the inquiry be whether mankind are not
endowed with those germs of intelligence and those susceptibilities of
goodness by which, under a perfectly practicable system of cultivation
and training, they are able to avoid the evils of despotism and anarchy,
and also of those frequent changes in national policy which are but one
remove from anarchy, and to hold steadfastly on their way in an endless
career of improvement, then, in the full rapture of that joy and triumph
which springs from a belief in the goodness of God and the progressive
happiness of man, I answer, THEY ARE ABLE."
* * * * *
PRACTICABILITY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.
The first duty of government, and the surest evidence of good
government, is the encouragement of education. A general diffusion
of knowledge is the precursor and protector of republican
institutions; and in it we must confide, as the conservative power
that will watch our liberties, and guard against fraud, intrigue,
corruption, and violence.--DE WITT CLINTON's _Message to the New
York Legislature_, 1826.
If good is to be done, we must bring our minds, as soon as possible,
to the confession of the truth, that the education of the people, to
be effectual, must here, as elsewhere, to a great extent, be the
work of the state; and that an expense, of which all should feel the
necessity, and all will share the benefit, must, in a just
proportion, be borne by all.--JOHN DUER.
The _desirableness_ of national or universal education is now generally
admitted in all enlightened communities; but there are some who,
honestly no doubt, question its _practicability_. If they provide for
the education of their own children, they claim that they have done all
that duty or interest requires them to do. They even aver that there is
absolute injustice in compelling them to contribute toward the education
of the children of others. Now these very persons, when called upon
annually by the tax-gatherer to contribute their proportion for the
support of paupers--made so by idleness, intemperance, and other vices,
which, as we have already seen, result from ignorance--do so cheerfully
and ungrudgingly, and without complaining that they support themselves
and their families, and that neither duty nor interest requires them to
aid in the maintenance of indigent persons in the community.
_The Poor Laws of our country_, in the case of adults who are unable to
support themselves, require merely their maintenance. But with reference
to their _children_, more, from the very nature of the case, is needed.
Their situation imperatively demands not only a sustenance, but an
education that shall enable them in future years to provide for
themselves. The same humane reasons which lead civilized communities to
provide for the maintenance of indigent adults by legal enactments, bear
even more strongly in the case of their children. These require
sustenance in common with their parents. But their wants, their
necessities, stop not here; neither does the well-being of society with
reference to them. Both alike require that such children, in common with
all others, be so trained as to be enabled not only to provide for
themselves when they arrive at mature years, but as shall be necessary
to qualify them for the discharge of the duties of citizenship. Then,
instead of taxing society for a support, as their parents now do, they
will contribute to the elevation of all around, even more largely than
society has contributed to their elevation.
Let the necessary provision be made for the education of the children of
the poor, in common with all others, and successive generations of the
sons of men will steadily progress in knowledge and virtue, and in all
that has a tendency to elevate and ennoble human kind. But let their
education be neglected, and their rank in society will of necessity be
lower, when compared with the better educated and more favored classes,
than it would have been only two or three centuries ago, even since the
invention of the art of printing in 1440. The reasons are evident. Until
after the invention of printing and the multiplication of books, all
ranks were, in relation to education, nearly upon a level. But, in the
language of the adage, "Knowledge is power;" and, since "knowledge has
been increased," those who possess it are elevated, relatively and
absolutely, while those who remain in the ignorance of former
generations, although their absolute condition in the scale of being is
unchanged, occupy, nevertheless, relatively, a lower place in society
than they would have done had they lived in the midst of the Dark Ages.
Wherever improved free schools have been maintained, not only are the
_children_ of the poor in attendance upon them elevated in the scale of
intellectual, social, and moral being, but, through their irresistible
influence, their degraded and besotted _parents_ have been reformed and
become law-abiding subjects, when all other means had failed to reach
and influence them. Of the truth of this statement I am well persuaded
from my own observation. I have also in my possession an abundance of
unquestionable testimony to this effect, gathered in cities, towns, and
villages which have become celebrated for the maintenance of a high
order of public schools. The public, then, on many accounts, are more
interested in the right education of poor children than in the
preservation of their lives! The latter is carefully provided for. But
if this only is done; if their bodies are fed and clothed, without
providing for the sustenance of their minds; if we provide for their
wants as helpless young animals merely, but neglect to provide for their
necessities as spiritual and immortal beings, the probabilities are that
such children will become a pest to society, while, in providing for
their proper education, we are sure of making them good citizens, of
constituting them a blessing to the world that now is, and of
brightening their prospects for a blessed immortality in that which is
to come.
Bishop Butler, in a sermon preached in Christ Church, London, on charity
schools, May 9th, 1745, recognizes the principle that the property of
the state should educate the children of the state. "Formerly," says he,
"not only the _education_ of poor children, but also their
_maintenance_, with that of the other poor, were left to voluntary
charities. But great changes of different sorts happening over the
nation, and charity becoming more cold, or the poor more numerous, it
was found necessary to make some legal provision for them. This might,
much more properly than charity schools, be called a new scheme;[65]
for, without question, the education of poor children was all along
taken care of by voluntary charities, more or less, but obliging us by
law to maintain the poor was new in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Yet,
because a change of circumstances made it necessary, its novelty was no
reason against it. Now, in that legal provision for the maintenance of
the poor, poor children must doubtless have had a part in common with
grown people. But this could never be sufficient for children, because
their case always requires more than mere maintenance; it requires that
they be educated in some proper manner. Wherever there are poor who want
to be maintained by charity, there must be poor children, who, besides
this, want to be educated by charity; and whenever there began to be
need of _legal_ provision for the _maintenance_ of the poor, there must
immediately have been need also of some _particular_ legal provision in
behalf of poor children for their _education_, this not being included
in what we call their maintenance."
[65] Bishop Butler is here answering the objections of some "people who
speak of charity schools as a new-invented scheme, and therefore to be
looked upon with suspicion; whereas it is no otherwise new than as the
occasion for it is so."
Not only is it the duty of society to provide _food_ for the _minds_ as
well as sustenance for the bodies of poor children, but their pecuniary
interests equally require it; for, as Butler remarks, "if they are not
trained up in the way they should go, they will certainly be trained up
in the way they should not go, and in all probability will persevere in
it, and become miserable themselves and mischievous to society, which,
in event, is worse, upon account of both, than if they had been exposed
to perish in their infancy."
I have already shown, by unquestionable testimony, that persons who
possess the greatest share in the stock of worldly goods are deeply
interested in the subject of popular education, as one of _mere
insurance_; "that the most effectual way of making insurance upon their
property would be to contribute from it enough to sustain an efficient
system of common school education, thereby educating the whole mass of
mind, and constituting it a police more effective than peace officers or
prisons." I might elucidate this subject by illustrations.
It has been estimated that a quarter of a million of dollars has been
expended in the county of Philadelphia since 1836 for the suppression of
riots occurring within its limits, and in damages occasioned by their
outrages and violence, to say nothing of personal injuries and deaths
arising from the same cause. Now it will be readily conceded by most
persons that half of this sum judiciously expended in organizing and
supporting a sufficient police, and in giving the leaders and gangs
engaged in those riots an early and suitable education, whereby they
would have been taught to think, and feel, and act as rational, moral,
and accountable beings, would have prevented the commission of such
crimes, together with the sufferings and losses resulting therefrom, and
the reproach thus brought upon public and individual character.
Again: The whole number of paupers relieved or supported by public
charity in the single state of New York, in the year 1849, according to
an authentic statement now before me, was, in round numbers, one hundred
thousand, and the entire expense of their support during the year was
eight hundred and seven thousand dollars, a sum exceeding by three
hundred and forty thousand dollars the amount paid on rate-bills for
teacher's wages for educating the seven hundred thousand children of
that great state! Of fifty thousand of these paupers, the _causes_ of
whose destitution have been ascertained, nearly _twenty thousand_ are
attributable, directly or indirectly, to intemperance, profligacy,
licentiousness, and crime! Had even half the amount that is now expended
from year to year in their support been judiciously bestowed upon their
early mental and moral culture, who can question that, instead of now
being a tax upon the communities in which they reside, and a burden to
themselves and a grief to their friends, they would not only have
provided for their own maintenance, but would have contributed their due
proportion to increase the general prosperity of the state.
Great as is her poor-tax, New York contributes annually an immensely
greater sum for the support of her criminal police; for the erection of
court-houses, and jails, and penitentiaries, and houses of correction;
for the arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment of criminals, and for
their support in prison and at the various landing-places on their way
to the gallows and to a premature and ignominious death. Now, had one
half of the money which this state has expended in these two ways been
judiciously bestowed in the early education of these unfortunate
persons, who can question that the poor and criminal taxes of that state
would have been reduced to less than one tenth of what they now are, to
say nothing of the fountains of tears that would be thus dried up, and
of the untold happiness that would be enjoyed by persons who, in every
generation, lead cheerless lives and die ignoble deaths.
Lest some persons may labor under an erroneous impression in relation to
this subject, I will give the statistics of education and crime in New
York, as derived from official reports, for the last few years. Of 1122
persons--the whole number reported by the sheriffs of the different
counties of the state as under conviction and punishment for crime
during the year 1847--22 only had a common education, 10 only had a
tolerably good education, and only 6 were _well_ educated. Of the 1345
criminals so returned in the several counties of the state for the year
1848, 23 only had a common school education, 13 only had a tolerably
good education, and only 10 were considered well educated! The returns
for other years give like results. Had the whole eleven or thirteen
hundred of these convicts been _well educated_ instead of only _six_ or
_ten_--and the moral and religious education of even these was
defective--how many of them would society be called upon to support in
prisons and penitentiaries? In all probability, as we shall hereafter, I
hope, be able to show, NOT ONE. And what is true of the city and county
of Philadelphia and of the State of New York, will apply to other
cities, counties, and states of this Union.
Once more, and finally: Education, as we have already seen, enables men
to subdue their passions, and to improve themselves in the exercise of
all the social virtues. Especially have we seen that the educated
portions of community, whose moral culture has been duly attended to,
are _habitually temperate_, while the appetite of the uncultivated for
intoxicating drinks is stronger, and their power of resistance less. Cut
off from the sources of enjoyment which are ever open to those whose
minds and hearts are cultivated, no wonder they seek for happiness in
the gratification of appetite! No wonder that forty thousand of the
citizens of the United States annually die drunkards, when we consider
that this is only one in twenty of the number who are unable to read and
write!
The Hon. Edward Everett has expressed the opinion that the expenses of
the manufacture and traffic of intoxicating drinks in the United States
exceed annually _one hundred and fifty millions of dollars_. General
Cary, in alluding to this statement, says, "This, it is believed, is but
an approximation to the cost of these trades to the people. This
estimate does not include the money paid by consumers, which is worse
than thrown away. An English writer, well versed in statistics, and
having access to the most reliable sources of information, says that
'the strong drinks consumed in England alone cost nearly _four hundred
millions of dollars annually_.' The expenditure for these sources of all
evil in the United States must be equal, at least, to that of
England."[66] Now _one half of this sum would maintain a system of
common schools in every state of this Union equal in expense and
efficiency to that of Massachusetts or New York_.
[66] See Tract on "The Liquor Manufacture and Traffic," prepared by
request of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance, by S. F.
Cary, Most Worthy Patriarch.
But I need not extend these observations. Enough, I trust, has been said
to show that every thing connected with the good of man and the welfare
of the race depends upon the attention we bestow in perfecting our
systems of public instruction and rendering their blessings universal. I
will therefore close what I have to say upon this topic with a summary
of the conclusions we have arrived at in the progress of the last two
chapters.
We have seen that a good system of common school education--one that is
sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all our country's youth in its
benevolent design--would free us as a people from a host of evils
growing out of popular ignorance; that it would increase the
productiveness of labor, as the schools advance in excellence,
indefinitely; that it would save to society, in diminishing the number
of paupers and criminals, a vast amount of means absorbed in the support
of the former, and in bringing the latter to justice, a tax which upon
every present generation is more than sufficient for the education of
the next succeeding one; that it would prevent the great majority of
fatal accidents that are now depopulating communities wherever ignorance
prevails; that, by imparting a knowledge of the organic laws, the
observance of which is essential to health and happiness, it would save
the lives of a hundred thousand children in the United States every
year, and that by promoting longevity, in connection with the advantages
already enumerated, it would tend more than all other means of state
policy to increase at once the wealth and the population of our country;
that its legitimate tendency would be to diminish, from generation to
generation, not only drunkenness and sensuality in all its Protean
forms, but idiocy and insanity, which result from a violation of the
laws of our being, which are the laws of God; that it would, in
innumerable ways, tend to diminish the sufferings and mitigate the woes
incident to human life, while it would acquaint man with the will of the
benevolent Creator, and lead him to cherish an habitual desire to yield
obedience thereto; and that it is the only possible means of perfecting
and perpetuating the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty to
the latest generations, and thus securing to the race the maximum of
human happiness. Yes, a system of popular education adequate to the
requirements of the states of this Union will do all this. None, then,
it would seem, can fail to see that true state policy requires the
maintenance of improved free schools, good enough for the best, and
cheap enough for the poorest, which are a necessary means of universal
education.