When the Puritans first came they were narrow. They did not understand
what liberty meant--what religious liberty, what political liberty, was;
but they found out in a few years. There was one feeling among them that
rises to their eternal honor like a white shaft to the clouds--they were
in favor of universal education. Wherever they went they built school
houses, introduced books, and ideas of literature. They believed that
every man should know how to read and how to write, and should find out
all that his capacity allowed him to comprehend. That is the glory of
the Puritan fathers.