REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON THE BILL TO ESTABLISH A DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION, FEBRUARY 26, 1867.
MR. PRESIDENT,--I am unwilling that this bill should be embarrassed
by any question of words. I am for the bill in substance, whatever
words may be employed. Call it a bureau, if you please, or call it a
department; I accept it under either designation. The Senator from
Connecticut [Mr. DIXON] has not too strongly depicted the necessity of
the case. We are to have universal suffrage, a natural consequence of
universal emancipation; but this will be a barren sceptre in the hands
of the people, unless we supply education also. From the beginning
of our troubles, I have foreseen this question. Through the agency
and under the influence of the National Government education must be
promoted in the Rebel States. To this end we need some central agency.
This, if I understand it, is supplied by the bill before us.
Call it a bureau or a department; but give us the bill, and do not
endanger it, at this moment, in this late hour of the session, by
unnecessary amendment. Sir, I would, if I could, give it the highest
designation. If there is any term in our dictionary that would impart
peculiar significance, I should prefer that. Indeed, I should not
hesitate, could I have my way, to place the head of the Department of
Education in the Cabinet of the United States,--following the practice
of one of the civilized governments of the world. I refer to France,
which for years has had in its Cabinet a Minister of Education. But no
such proposition is before us. The question is simply on a name; and I
hope we shall not take up time with regard to it.