CONVEITTION FOR COMMON SCHOOLS, TRENTON. 
 An address. 
 1838. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 BUREAU or EDUCATION 
 
t>Oar»g.^ drear qt:. Wq^ I OQTj^- t ; ^ 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW JERSEY, 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 ^^°^'<7=T?V 
 

 X 
 
 Ci^rll"^^ 
 
.:::_ an address 
 
 ^ TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW JERSEY, ON THE SUBJECT 
 
 4- OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 ^7 
 
 Fellow citizens, 
 
 We were appointed by the Convention of 
 your own delegates, whi@k^oo ei iiii ' l9k'd w n'< )ii iiBar i OM i to]a| ii< iiii 
 tkm w li Q^w m ' l^iM i Q , to address you, on the subject of Com- 
 ' MON Schools. We approach you with solicitude, as 
 deeply sensible of the great importance of the interest 
 entrusted to us ; yet, as freemen speaking to freemen, 
 with prevailing confidence. 
 
 The points which we propose for your attention, 
 and, if we might, would press into every heart, are few, 
 simple, and practical ; the necessary consequences, 
 it seems to us, from principles which all admit. We 
 say that knowledge is the universal right of man: and 
 we need bring no clearer demonstration than that in- 
 fcllectual nature, capable of it, thirsting for it, expand- 
 ing and aspiring with it, which is God's own argu- 
 ment in every living soul. We say that the assertion 
 for himself of this inherent right, to the full measure 
 of his abilities and opportunities, is the universal duty 
 of man : and that whoever fails of it, thwarts the de- 
 sign of his Creator; and. in proportion as he neglects 
 the gift of God, dwarfs and enslaves and brutifies the 
 high capacity for truth and liberty which he inherits. 
 And all experience, and every page of history confirm 
 the assertion, in the close kindred, which has every 
 
 1 
 
where been proved, of ignorance and vice with wretch- 
 edness and slavery. And we say farther, that the 
 security of this inherent right to every individual, 
 and its extension, in the fullest measure, to the great- 
 est number, is the universali?iterest of man; so that 
 they who deny or abridge it to their fellows, or who 
 encourage, or, from want of proper influence, permit, 
 them to neglect it, are undermining the foundations 
 of government, weakening the hold of society, and 
 p];gff^pLng; J:b|£t jAaay.fQr, thatiiunsettling and dissolving 
 of all human institutions, which must res,uU<i.n«i«iiar£li^» 
 and ruin, and in which they who have the greatest 
 stake must be the greatest sufferers. A lesson, clear- 
 ly taught by that divine philosophy, in which the 
 Maker of mankind becomes their Teacher , reveals 
 the world as but one neighbourhood, and men as 
 brethren of one family ; and writes upon all social in- 
 stitutions these golden truths, the fundam.entals and 
 essentials of the true political economy, which neither 
 individuals nor nations have ever disregarded with 
 impunity,— " all things whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them"-/ 
 " none of us liveth to himself"—" whether one mem- 
 ber suff"er, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member be honoured, aU the members rejoice with 
 it "— " bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the 
 law of Christ." 
 
 If the truth of these position be established, their 
 application is self-evident. And there never was a 
 nation, since the world was made, in which their ob- 
 ligation was so clear, or its application so important. 
 In the theory of our Constitution, the people are the 
 
governors. In practice, they ought to be. And is 
 ignorance the qualification for good government? 
 Would you select a man to make your laws who can- 
 not read ? Or one who cannot write.to execute them ? 
 Yet the authority which they exercise, and the abuses 
 of which they are capable, are nothing, in compari- 
 son with theirs from whom all power proceeds, and 
 without whose permission no wrong can be done. 
 Fellow citizens, we are republicans. Our country is 
 our common wealth. We have all an equal share in 
 her. Her laws are alike for the protection of all. 
 Her institutions are alike for the advantage of all. 
 Her blessings are our common privilege. Her glory 
 is our common pride. But common privileges im- 
 pose a common responsibility. And equal rights can 
 never be disjoined from equal duties. The Constitu- 
 tion which, under God, secures our liberties, is in the 
 keeping of us all. It is a sacred trust which no man 
 can delegate. He holds it for himself, not only, but 
 for his children, for posterity, and for the w^orld. 
 And he who cannot read it, who does not understand 
 its provisions, who could not, on a just occasion, as- 
 sert its principles, no more sustains the character of 
 an American citizen, than the man who would not 
 seal it with his blood. 
 
 It is in vain to say that education is a private 
 matter, and that it is the duty of every parent to pro- 
 vide for the instruction of his own children. In 
 theory, it is so. But there are some who cannot, 
 and there are more who will not, make provision. 
 And the question then is, shall the State suffer from in- 
 dividual inability, or from individual neglect? When 
 
the child, who has not been trained up in the way 
 in which he ought to go, commits a crime against 
 the State, the law, with iron hand, comes in between 
 the parent and his offspring, and takes charge of the 
 offender. And shall there be provision to punish^ 
 only, and none to prevent ? Shall the only offices 
 in which the State is known be those of jailer and 
 of executioner ? Shall she content herself with the 
 stern attribute of justice, and discard the gentler 
 ministries of mercy ? It was said of Draco's laws, 
 that they were writ with blood. Is it less true of 
 any state which makes provision for the w^hipping 
 post, the penitentiary, the scaffold, and leaves the 
 education of her children to individual effort or pre- 
 carious charity ? It was well said by the distinguished 
 head of our Judiciary,* even more distinguished as 
 the President of the late Convention for Common 
 Schools, " the State has an interest in every child 
 within her limits." May not still more than this, 
 with equal truth, be said, — the welfare, nay, the 
 being of the State, is bound up in the character 
 of every child? Think of the blessings which 
 Washinorton and Franklin and Fulton and Marshall 
 have brought down upon our land ! Think of the 
 scorn and execration which the name of Arnold brings 
 with it, the single name in our whole history, at 
 which the nation needs to blush ! 
 
 If the positions be maintained, that the education 
 of the people is indispensable to the preservation of free 
 
 • Chief Justice Hornblowcr, by his deportment as the presiding officer of the 
 Convention, added new dignity to his office, and to himself. 
 
institutions, and that it is therefore the duty of every \ 
 free state to provide for the education of her children ; \ 
 we are prepared, fellow citizens, for the inquiry, how I 
 far has provision been made for the discharge of this \ 
 duty, in the state, rvith rvhich we are most intimately I 
 connected, the State of New Jersey ? That the duty j 
 of making some provision for this end has long been 
 recognized, the twenty one years which have elapsed 
 since the passage of the first act, "to create a fund for 
 the support of free schools," sufficiently attest. That 
 what has been done is insufficient, you have your- 
 selves borne witness, in the general impulse which, 
 in December and January last, originated so many of 
 those primary assemblies — in our republic, the true 
 sources of power and influence — for the consideration 
 of this subject; and in that large, intelligent, and 
 most respectable Convention, composed of delegates, 
 chosen by yourselves, to express your own views on 
 the provisions for the public instruction, by which it 
 was resolved, with singular unanimity, that "the gen- 
 eral laws of this state on the subject of Common 
 Schools, are essentially defective, and ought to be re- 
 pealed." Into the question, what shall be substituted 
 for the present law, the Convention did not enter. It 
 was for them to declare the wishes of the people for 
 a more effective system of instruction. The plan and 
 its provisions, they left, with perfect confidence, to the 
 wisdom of the Legislature. The course which the 
 Convention pursued is even more becoming for us. 
 The rather, as the matter is at this very moment in 
 the course of legislative action. And after all, fellow 
 citizens, the question, what the law is, is by no 
 
means so important as the question, what is public 
 sentiment ? If the people are but right, the Legisla- 
 ture never will be greatly wrong. Or, if they should, 
 the remedy is easy, and the cure infallible. ]' 
 
 Omitting all considerations, then, of what has been, 
 or of what may be legislative enactments on the sub- 
 ject, we address you, as the Sovereign People, and we 
 say, that it is your duty, and your highest interest, to 
 provide and to maifitain, within the reach of every 
 child, the meajis of such an educatio7i as rvill qualify 
 him to discharge the duties of a citizen of the Republic; 
 and will enable him, by subsequent exertion, in the 
 free exercise of the unconquerable will, to attain the 
 highest eminence in knowledge and in power which 
 God may place within his reach. We utterly repu- 
 diate, as unworthy, not of freemen only, but of men, 
 the narrow notion, that there is to be an education for 
 the poor, as such. Has God provided for the poor a 
 coarser earth, a thinner air, a paler sky 1 Does not 
 the glorious Sun pour down his golden flood as 
 cheerily upon the poor man's hovel as upon the rich 
 man's palace ? Have not the cotter's children as 
 keen a sense of all the freshness, verdure, fragrance, 
 melody and beauty of luxuriant nature, as the pale 
 sons of kings? Or is it on the mind, that God has 
 stamped the imprint of a baser birth, so that the poor 
 man's child knows, with an inborn certainty, that his 
 lot is to crawl, not climb ? It is not so. God has not 
 done it. Man cannot do it. Mind is immortal. Mind 
 is imperial. It bears no mark of high or low, of rich 
 or poor. It heeds no bound of time or place, of rank 
 or circumstance. It asks but freedom. It requires 
 
but light. It is heaven-born, and it aspires to hea- 
 ven. Weakness does not enfeeble it. Poverty can- 
 not repress it. Difficulties do but stimulate its vig- 
 our. And the poor tallow chandler's son, that sits 
 up all the night, to read the book vv^hich an appren- 
 tice lends him, lest the master's eye should miss it in 
 the morning, shall stand and treat with kings, shall 
 add new provinces to the domain of science, shall 
 bind the lightning with a hempen cord, and. bring it 
 harmless from the skie^* The Common School is 
 common, not as inferior, not as the school for poor 
 men's children, but as the light and air are common. 
 It ought to be the best school, because it is the first 
 school ; and in all good works the beginning is one 
 half. Who does not know the value to a community 
 of a plentiful supply of the pure element of water ? 
 Arid infinitely more than this is the instruction of the 
 Common School ; for it is the fountain at which the 
 mind drinks, and is refreshed and strengthened for 
 its career of usefulness and glory. 
 
 Fellow citizens, it is the wise ordinance of God that 
 man shall work for what he values. In all the deal- 
 ings of your ordinary life, you act upon the principle. 
 You plough your fields. You urge your spindles. 
 You ply your fisheries. You tend your shops. With 
 sweat of brow, or sweat of brain, each precious thing 
 that man possesses must be gained and kept. At no 
 less price, can liberty and its attendant blessings be 
 enjoyed. " That which makes a good constitution," 
 said wise and prudent William Penn,-f "must also 
 keep it, men of wisdom and of virtue : . qualities, 
 
 * See Franklin's Life. f Preface to the Frame of Government, 1682. 
 
which, because they descend not with inheritance, 
 must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education 
 of youth." Ask not, then, when we enjoin on you 
 the duty of providing for the public instruction, where 
 the cost shall come from ''^ Were your house beset 
 with robbers, would yo" 'Stop to ask the cost of its 
 defence ? If an invading army were to land to-mor- 
 row on our shores, must we stop, to count the cost, 
 before we march to meet, and to repel them ? The 
 Common Schools are in the place to us of arms and 
 troops and fleets. They are our nurseries of men. 
 They are indeed "the cheap defence of nations." 
 
 What constitutes a State ! 
 Not high-raised battlements or laboured mound, 
 
 Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
 Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, 
 
 Not bays and broad-armed ports. 
 Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 
 
 Not starred and spangled courts. 
 Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
 
 No — Men, high-minded Men. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Men who their duties know, 
 But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain; 
 
 Prevent the long-aimed blow, 
 And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain : 
 
 These constitute a State.* 
 
 Fellow citizens, it is for you to say what shall be 
 the present character, what shall be the future desti- 
 ny of New Jersey. We have indeed a goodly herit- 
 age. But it has been long and shamefully neglected. 
 We have undervalued our privileges. We have 
 overlooked our duties. We have been content to be 
 a pendent merely, when we are and ought to be an 
 independent state. There is now, thank God, the 
 
 * Sir William Jones, in imitation of Alcaeus. 
 
sound as of a trumpet, in the land, that stirs the old 
 heroic blood. We feel the remnant sparks of the for- 
 gotten fire which warmed our fathers' hearts. The 
 spirit of the elder day is breathing on us, with its 
 quickening and invigorating power. Let us accept 
 the omen. Let us obey t ^ noble impulse. Let us 
 arise to duty and to glory. Men of New Jersey, it is 
 you that are to rise. You are the State. You create 
 and you control the Legislature. You enact and you 
 sustain the laws. Yours are the means. Yours is 
 the influence. Yours is the work. You make, 'i/ou 
 are the State. Go on, as you have now begun. The 
 system of Common Schools, which shall be adopted 
 by the present Legislature, take into your own hands. 
 If it is not what it should be, see that the next Legis- 
 lature make it such. Act together. Act with sys- 
 tem. Act like men. The organization for the pur- 
 pose is complete. The General Committee, the Com- 
 mittees of correspondence for the counties, the Com- 
 mittees of the townships — there is not an inch of 
 ground that is not reached, there is not a citizen of 
 New Jersey whose heart may not be roused, by 
 this electric chain. Lay to your hands, then, and 
 employ it well. The work is great, and great must 
 be the eifort, and great the confidence. You must 
 trust yourselves. You must trust your fellow citizens. 
 You must trust the Legislature. A system of public 
 instruction is a great and arduous enterprize. You 
 must repose such confidence in those who are to frame 
 it, as shall enable them to do it well. When it is 
 framed, you will do wisely to commit its oversight, 
 subject to legislative supervision, to a judicious 
 
10 
 
 Board,* selected carefully from your most tried and 
 faithful men, with wisdom to direct, and with devo- 
 tion to exert its powers. Above all, give the direc- 
 tion of the engine, with a large and liberal discre- 
 tion, to a skilful Engineer. And when it is made, 
 and manned, and set in operation, you must still sup- 
 port it, you must watch over it, you must be your- 
 selves a part of it. The School-fund is not equal to 
 the work. And if it were, it would not be so well for 
 you. Tax yourselves for the support of Common 
 Schools, and you will never be in danger of taxation 
 from a foreign power — you will need less taxation for 
 the support of pauperism, and the punishment of 
 crime. Look to your school houses. See that they 
 are convenient of access, that they are comfortable, 
 that they are neat and tasteful. Look to the teachers. 
 See that they are taught themselves, and apt to 
 teach ; men that fear God, and love their country. 
 See that they are well accommodated, well treated, 
 well remunerated. Respect them, and they will re- 
 spect themselves, and your children will respect 
 them. Look to the scholars. Have them much in 
 your eye, and always in your heart. Remember, 
 you are to grow old among them. Remember, you 
 are to die, and leave your country in their hands. 
 
 * It is said that there aie prejudices against a Board of Education, and a Su- 
 / perintendent. We can hardly think that they are general. If so, our appeal is to 
 \ the good, sterling, common sense of the people of New Jersey. Is there a turn- 
 pike road, or a steamboat, or a Bank, or a cotton factory, whose affairs are not 
 entrusted to a Board of Managers 1 Is there a mill in all the State without a 
 miller, or a locomotive in the land without an Engineer 1 Is the education of the 
 people less important than all these ? Or is the system of public education to be 
 the only case of a machine that goes alone? 
 
11 
 
 " Good Common Schools," says Governor Everett, 
 of Massachusetts, " are the basis of every wise sys- 
 tem of popular education." This is precisely what 
 they are, the basis of a system ; but the basis only. 
 Let us now lay their broad foundations, deep and 
 strong — foundations, that will stand themselves, and 
 bear the noble structure which our children and our 
 children's children, as we trust, will rear upon them. 
 We are the citizens of a small state. We cannot, 
 by our votes, control the electoral college. We can- 
 not, by our political influence, aspire to be the empire 
 state of the confederacy. But there is a nobler em- 
 pire, whose dominion does not come by numbers, or 
 by physical power. We may aspire, if we are just 
 to ourselves and to our opportunities, to wield the 
 suffrages of mind. The men of Athens were but 
 few, their territory small, their soil indifferent. Yet 
 did Athenian arms prevail against the myriads of the 
 East ; and to Athenian letters and Athenian arts, ad- 
 miring nations still award the palm. In the same 
 noble lists, let us engage ; and make the mastery of 
 intellect the prize of our ambition. Let us devote 
 ourselves, and consecrate the State, to the great work 
 of education. Let us lay hold in earnest of the re- 
 markable advantages which we possess, in this re- 
 spect, in our accessible position, our temperate cli- 
 mate, our freedom from absorbing interests, the mo- 
 derate habits, and the simple manners of our people. 
 Let us sustain our present seats of learning, and 
 let kindred institutions, in every varied form, be mul- 
 tiplied about LIS. Let us collect the children of the 
 land : and on their minds make the mark which 
 
12 
 
 shall go down to latest generations. Let other states 
 excel in commerce, or in agriculture, or in manufac- 
 turies. But let the staple of our state be mind ; the \ 
 products of our soil, with God to bless the culture, / 
 knowledge and patriotism and virtue; our highest 
 object and our noblest aim, to be the state of Com- 
 mon Schools, Academies and Colleges, the educating J 
 state, the nursery of freemen. 
 
 George W. Doane, Chairman, 
 
 Lucius Q. C. Elmer, 
 
 Morgan J. Rhees, 
 
 Theodore Frelinghuysen, 
 
 James S. Green, 
 
 Daniel B. Ryall, 
 
 Albert B. Dod, 
 
 A. Atwood, 
 
 Samuel R. Gummere. 
 
 Trenton, February 27, 1838. 
 
SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS 
 OF THE CONVENTION FOR COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 A large number of delegates, from the different counties of New 
 Jersey, composing a Convention for the purpose of considering the 
 subject of public instruction, assembled in Trenton, on the 16jh of 
 January, and continued in session two days, Chief Justice Horn- 
 blower presiding. Besides transacting other business, the Conven- 
 tion adopted the following Resolutions: 
 
 1. Resolved, That this Convention recognize the principle, that it is the 
 duty of every government, and especially of every republican state, to provide 
 for the education of the children of its citizens. 
 
 2. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, the general laws of 
 this State on the subject of Common Schools, are essentially defective, and ought 
 to be repealed. 
 
 3. Resolved, That the want of full and definite infoimation respecting the 
 destitution of our State, and of the peculiar difficulties to bo overcome in the 
 establishment of a complete and satisfactory system, renders it highly important 
 that some efficient measures should be adopted to supply this deficiency, and 
 bring before the people, in all parts of the State, this important subject. 
 
 4. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, one of the most effi- 
 cient measures that can be adopted for tlie promotion of Common School educa- 
 tion, would be the appointment, by the State, of a Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, wifh a sufficient salary to enable him to devote his whole time and 
 attention to the subject. 
 
 5. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare and publish, in such 
 manner as they may think proper, an Address to the people of this State, on 
 the subject of Common Schools ; and to take such other measures to promote 
 the objects of this Convention as they shall think proper. 
 
 6. Resolved, That a Committee of Correspondence be appointed for each 
 county of the state, whose duty it shall be to collect information, and co-operate 
 with the General Committee, in promoting the objects of this Convention ; and 
 that said Committee be authorized to fill any vacancies that may happen in their 
 number, and to appoint additional members of their respective Committees, if 
 they shall deem it proper. 
 
 7. i2e«ofoeJ, That the people of New Jersey cannot, injustice to themselves, 
 longer neglect a Common School system, especially when they reflect that nearly 
 all the other states in the Union are giving praiseworthy attention to the subject. 
 
 8. Resolved, That the education of the people is indispensable to the preser- 
 vation of our free institutions. 
 
 9. Resolved, That the Committees of Correspondence in the several counties 
 be requested to take immediate measures to induce the inhabitants of the several 
 townships in their respective counties to consider the subject of Common School 
 education, and to appoint in each of said townships a Committee of three or 
 more persons, who are requested forthwith to organize themselves by appoint- 
 ing a Chairman, and then proceed to collect all necessary and useful statistical 
 information in relation to Common Schools, within their township ; and the said 
 Township Committees to make report thereof as soon as practicable to the Com- 
 
14 
 
 mittee of Correspondencs of the counly, and render all other aid in their power 
 to promote the cause of education. 
 
 10. Resolved, That there be an annual Convention of the friends of educa- 
 tion in New .Jersey, to be held in the city of Trenton, on the Tuesday preceding 
 the third Wednesday in January. 
 
 The General Committee appointed under the fifth resolution con- 
 sists of the following persons, — The Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane, Lucius 
 Q. C.^Elmer, Rev. Morgan J. Rhees, Hon, Theodore Frelinghuysen, 
 James S. Green, Daniel B. Ryall, Rev. Frof. Dod, Samuel R. Gum- 
 mere, and the Rev. A. Atwood. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 The General Committee appointed by the Convention for Com- 
 mon Schools, " to prepare and publish, in such manner as they may 
 think proper, an Address to the people of this State, on the subject of 
 Common Schools, and to take such other measures to promote the 
 objects of the Convention as they may think proper," met, by appoint- 
 ment, at Trenton, on Tuesday, February 27, the Rt. Rev. Geo, VV. 
 Doane, Chairman, and Samuel R. Gummere, Secretary. 
 / The Chairman, in accordance with previous arrangements, pre- 
 ^ senled the draft of an Address to the people of New Jersey on the 
 ' subject of Common Schools, which was read and approved, and one 
 thousand copies ordered to be printed for distribution under the direc- 
 tion of the Committee, 
 
 The Secretary was instructed to take charge of the printing of the 
 Address, and to cause such number of copies as he might think pro 
 per to be forwarded to the Chairman of the Committee of Corres- 
 pondence in each county, with the request that, so far as possible, 
 meetings of the people in the several townships might be held, at 
 which the Address should be read. He was also instructed to ask 
 insertion for the Address in the several newspapers printed in the 
 State. 
 
 The new county of Mercer having been created since the sitting of 
 the Convention, the following persons were appointed the Committee 
 of Correspondence, Richard S. Field, Rev, Eli F. Cooley, Timothy 
 Abbott, Jun., Richard J. Bond, and Dr. J. B. Coleman. 
 
 The Chairman and Secretary were authorised to address a special 
 Circular to the Committees of Correspondence for the several coun- 
 ties, stating the result of Legislative action on the subject of Com- 
 mon Schools, and urging upon them the necessity of arousing public 
 attention to the importance of the subject, with a view to fuller and 
 more satisfactory results. It was also ordered that such interroga- 
 tories on the subject of public education as may produce the " full 
 and definite information" alluded to in the third resolution, bead- 
 dressed to the County Committees, and their attention in procuring 
 and forwarding replies be respectfully solicited. 
 
 The Chairman was authorised to call the Committee together, 
 whenever he shall deem it necessary. 
 
CIRCULAR 
 
 TO THE COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 You have seen in the Summary of Procceedings of the General Commit- 
 tee appointed by the Convention for Common Schools, that we are authorised 
 to address you on the subject of our important trust. Our first duty is to in- 
 form you as to the position in which the matter was left by the Legislature, 
 which has recently adjourned. Our second, to invite your co-operation, in 
 arousing public attention to the importance of the cause, and thus procuring, at 
 the hands of another Legislature, a more satisfactory result. 
 
 It was unfortunate for the cause of public education that the popular move- 
 ment on the subject did not occur at an earlier period. Had the members of 
 the Legislature enjoyed the opportunity which was afforded to us who remained 
 at home of thus learning the wishes of the people, they would have been better 
 prepared to meet them. As it was, a Bill was reported to the house of Assem- 
 bly, which, though not all that was desired, contained many excellent features, 
 and was well calculated, especially in its provision of a Superintendent of Com- 
 moif Schools, to secure a good beginning of the work. It passed the House by 
 a vote of full two thirds, but was lost, as to its main provisions, in the Council. 
 The present result, is that instead of $20,000 as before, $30,000 are to be distri- 
 buted among the townships for the support of Common Schools ; and, inasmuch 
 as the whole subject is left, as before, without system, without immediate super- 
 vision, and with but little accountability, to be distributed, we fear, with about 
 the same results. 
 
 Such is not the state of things contemplated by the Convention, or by their 
 constituents. The subject must go back then to the highest authority in the 
 State, the Sovereign People. It is for them to say what they desire, and what 
 they are resolved to have. The Legislature which shall be elected with a know- 
 ledge of their will, may be relied on for its full accomplishment. It is upon you, 
 Gentlemen, as the Committees of Correspondence for the counties, that the Con- 
 vention relies, for awakening their attention to the subject, and for securing such 
 an expression of their wishes as must be understood and shall be felt. 
 
 The best means for attaining this result is indicated in the ninth resolution 
 of the Convention — the appointment of a Committee in every township. To 
 
16 
 
 this important measure we respectfully solicit your immediate attention. It is 
 thus that the link is to be formed by which the electric chain will be completed that 
 shall unite the Convention with every citizen of New Jersey, and bring up from 
 every citizen, to the seat of government, and to the Legislature of the State in a 
 way that cannot be mistaken, the expression of his will. 
 
 When the Township Committees shall be organized, the charge of collecting 
 the popular will in their respective sphere may safely be reposed in them ; and it 
 is the recommendation of the General Committee that as soon as possible after 
 their appointment, they invite the people, in their primary assemblies, to hear the 
 Address, to consider the subject, and to take such measures as to them may 
 seem expedient. To the copies of the Address directed to the several town- 
 ships in your respective counties, you are respectfully requested to give such 
 direction as will most speedily and most effectually secure the desired result. 
 
 It is not necessary to suggest to you the various ways in which the duty as- 
 signed by the Cor.vention to you, "to operate with the General Committee," may 
 best be discharged. The importance of the interest involved calls for the exer- 
 tion by every lover of his country of all the influence which he possesses. By 
 public meetings, through the press, in your occasional and daily intercourse with 
 your fellow citizens, you will find constant Opportunity ; and the State can ask 
 no better pledge than your well known intelligence and patriotism, that you will 
 faithfully improve it. 
 
 To aid you in the discharge of the other duty assigned to you by the sixth 
 resolution, " to collect information," and to secure a general uniformity in the 
 results, we send with the Circular several interrogatories, to whieh we respect- 
 fully request returns, as full as can be had, to be forwarded to the Secretary, at 
 Burlington, before the third Tuesday in September next. On the completeness 
 of these returns, the excellence of the system to be devised will much depend. 
 
 With a full confidence in the goodness of the cause we have in hand, we 
 leave it, with you ; well assured that there needs no better motive to your exer- 
 tion than the recorded sentiment of the Convention, the noble blazon of its radi- 
 ant and triumphant banner — the education of the people is indispensable to free 
 institutions ! 
 
 George W. Doane, Chairman. 
 Samuel R. Gummere, Secretanj. 
 
 J. L. Powell, Missionary Press, 
 
 Burliupton, New Jersey. 
 
OFFICERS OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 President — Chief Justice Josj;i'h C. Hohsblowkb; 
 
 Vice Presidents — L. Q. C. Elmki!, Amhaiiam WESTEUVhLT, William T. 
 RoGF.Ks, Daniel B. Ryali,. P. B. Kennedy, L. W. R. Philips, E. 
 Maksh, Jakes S. Giieen, Dn J. S. Mulfoui)", John Ghiscom ; 
 
 Secretaries — Samuel R. Gummeue, Thomas A. Alexanmeh ; 
 
 General Committee — Geouge W. Loane, Chairman ; Lucms Q. C Elmer, 
 Morgan J. Rhees, Theoboiie Frelinghotsen, James S. Green, 
 Daniel B. Rtall, Albert B. Doj), A. Atwood; Samuel R. Gum- 
 .11EKE, Sccretorv. 
 
 COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Beugkn — E. R. V, Wrighv, lloboken ; Garret Sip, Dudley Gregory, Abraham 
 Westervelt, A. O. Zahriskie. 
 
 Essex — Willam Halse)', Aewar/c ,- A. H. Henderson, John P. Jackson, John 
 Dow, David Magic. 
 
 Passatc — Andrew PAXi\nriS; Puterson ; Peter M. Ryerson, Eiias J. Marsh, 
 John D. Keiley, E. B. D. Ogden, 
 
 MouRis — Riciiaid Stiles, JMorrisi r.vn ; Lewis Condit, Jr., J. J. Johnsoa, J. 
 L. Day, S. Galloway. 
 
 StrssKx — Job S. Halsted, A''ewtou i Whitfield S.Johnson, Francis Moran, 
 Daniel Haines, Thomas Teasdale. .* . \ 
 
 Warui.x — I. N. Candce, Belvidere ; Pclcr B. Shaffer, Isaac N. Winnei, R. 
 Byingion. J. M. Sherrcrd. 
 
 Somerset — Wiiliani T. Rodgers, S'jinervH'e ; Charles Whitehead, E. L. B. 
 Baldwin, Abraham Messier, Thomai A. Harlwell. 
 
 Middlesex — E. C. Wines, Princeton ; James Zabriskie, Jacob Edmunds, 
 Geo.F. Webb. 
 
 Mercer— R. S. Field, Princeton , E. E. Cooley,-T. Abbott, Richard I. Bond, 
 Dr. Coleman. 
 
 Hlnteudox — Peter I.Clark, Flen-.iitfton ; Charles Bartolett, Charles George, 
 Alexander Wurtz. 
 
 Monmouth — D. V. McLean, Freehold ; William Little, James Lawrence, 
 Andrew Simpson, I. K. Lippincott. 
 
 Burlington — Samuel Aaron, Bn.iington ; Thomas Milnor, Wm. R. Allen, 
 George Y. Morehouse, George Gaskill. 
 
 Gloucester — Isaac S. Mulford, Camden; Josiah Tatum, John Gill, Jr., J. Ji. 
 Woart, Abraham Browning. 
 
 Salem — E. G. Pre^cott, Salem ,• Alexander Heberton, Calvin Belden, Jacob 
 W. Mulford, Josiah M. Reeve. -* 
 
 Cumberland — Daniel Elmer, Bridgeton ; William B. Ewing, William S. 
 Bowen, Isaac Townsend, Jr., Isaac A. Sheppard. ' 
 
 Atlantic — Joseph Leeds, Letch' Point ; Powden Ryon, S. B, Westcott. 
 
 Cape Mat — Moses Williaiiison, Cold Spring; Israel Townsend, Josiah 
 Swain, Jr.