/tMce* c£ 
 
 6z 
 
 L&\W MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 tymtitxSmtmwA MtbtvAim 
 
 OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS IN AMERICA, 
 
 Held at Framingham, 
 
 JULY 1, 1864. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PRINTED BY C. C. P. MOODY 
 1866. 
 
*\ v 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 (fuavtw-Ccntenwal tiMration 
 
 OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS IN AMERICA, 
 
 Held at Framingha/m,, 
 
 JULY 1, IS 64. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ■HINTED BY C. C. P. MOODY 
 1866. 
 
 /1/yV) 
 

 2 
 
 
The following Circular was issued to announce the proposed 
 Celebration : — 
 
 The first Normal School in America was established, a quarter of a century ago, 
 in Lexington, Mass., for the purpose of giving those who design to become teachers, a 
 more thorough preparation for their vocation . The influence of its establishment 
 has been of inestimable value, not only to this Commonwealth, but to other States 
 in the Union ; and therefore the Board of Education, the graduates of Normal 
 Schools, and other friends of learning, propose, in honor of the introduction of these 
 schools into this country, and to commemorate this important event in our system 
 of education, to hold a 
 
 Quarter-Centennial Normal School Celebration, 
 
 AT FRAMINGHAM, ON FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1864. 
 
 The teachers, graduates, and members of these schools, and all others interested 
 in education, are earnestly invited to be present, and participate in the exercises. 
 Everything will be done, that can be, to render the occasion one of great interest, and 
 to induce a large gathering of graduates and friends. 
 
 Rev. Samuel J. Mat, of Syracuse, N. Y., will be the Orator of the day, and Rev. 
 Eben S. Stearns, of Albany, the Historian. Other literary- exercises are expected 
 from graduates . 
 
 His Excellency Governor Andrew will preside at the Collation furnished by the 
 citizens of Framingham, unless public duties, which cannot be foreseen or postponed. 
 prevent. 
 
 Provision will be made, as far as possible, by the inhabitants of the town, for 
 those who desire to remain over night, and attend the Levee, which will be held in 
 the Hall of the Normal School Building, on the evening of the Celebration. 
 
 The public exercises will commence at 10>£ o'clock, in the First Baptist Church. 
 
 It is desirable that those intending to be present, should send an early reply to 
 the Principal of the School at Framingham. 
 
 GEO. N. BIGELOW. Prin. Nor. School, Framingham, 
 
 LUCRETIA CROCKER, Boston, 
 
 ALPHEUS CROSBY, Prin. Normal School, Salem, 
 
 BIRDSEY G. NORTHROP, Agt. B'd Ed., Saxonville, 
 
 MARY F. PEIRCE, Cambridgeport, 
 
 Mrs. GEORGE A. WALTON, Lawrence, 
 
 Committee of Arrangements. 
 
©xkx of ffimtim at % &\vxt\. 
 
 YOLUNTARY 
 
 I 3 RA YER 
 
 SOiSTG- OF WELCOME. 
 
 Hail to the noble band, 
 Gathered from all the land, 
 North, west, and eastern strand ! 
 Welcome, we sing. 
 
 Welcome ! glad voices cry ; 
 Welcome ! warm hearts reply : 
 Loud through the summer sky 
 The anthem ring. 
 
 Welcome to brows of care, 
 Where Time hath written fair 
 Labors and conquests rare, 
 
 Since Truth's bright spring. 
 Welcome ! glad voices cry ; etc. 
 
 Welcome, ye younger bauds, 
 True hearts and helpful hands, 
 Worthy, this best of lands, 
 
 Welcome, we sing. 
 Welcome ! glad voices cry ; etc . 
 
 Greeting as kind and true 
 Be to ihe strangers, too ; 
 Welcome and honor due, 
 Gladly we bring. 
 
 Welcome ! glad voices cry ; 
 Welcome ! warm hearts reply .; 
 Loud through the summer sky 
 The anthem ring. 
 
 OR ATI O ~N" 
 BY REV. SAMUEL J. MAY, OF SYRACUSE, N. Y- 
 
 H Y M! IN" . 
 
 Selected. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NORMAL SCHOOLS, 
 
 BY RET. EBEN S. STEARNS, OF ALBANY. 
 VOLUNTAEY BY THE CHOIR. 
 
 IB E NE DICTION*. 
 
A Collation was provided by the citizens of the town, in 
 Agricultural Hall, at which Hon. Josiah Quincy presided. 
 Addresses were made by the President of the Day, Members 
 of the Board of Education, and other gentlemen interested in 
 the past and present history of Normal Schools, 
 
 At the close of the opening remarks of the President, this 
 sentiment was given : — " A cordial greeting to all our friends, 
 and a true welcome home to all the children of our Alma 
 Mater." 
 
 Mrs. Electa N. Walton of Lawrence, formerly a teacher 
 in the " First State Normal School," responded by reading the 
 following 
 
 WELCOME ADDPvESS. 
 
 In a little book called "The Stars and the Earth," the author 
 mathematically demonstrates, that by the laws of light and mo- 
 tion, no action is ever lost, but that, when a good or an ill work 
 is done, pictures of that work are indelibly fixed upon space, 
 multiplying, distancing the scene of action with the rapidity of 
 light. It only wants a more subtle visual organization, and 
 powers of swifter motion, such as, may be, angels delight in, to 
 trace those delicate outlines. This gathering of to-day is 
 making a record which can never be effaced, — a record upon 
 which we ourselves may gaze in coming years. 
 
And so now, could we recede, with disenthralled spirits, far 
 away, millions of miles among the stars, turning to earth, we 
 might see actually going on, the formation of The First Normal 
 School in America. 
 
 We might see its tirst Principal, dear Father Peirce, as he 
 left his island home for he knew not what arduous duties nor 
 what fiery trials, but with a unity of purpose and an iron will, 
 ready to grapple with any difficulty that might beset his way, 
 saying even then to his wife as he neared our shore, " I would 
 rather die than fail" Yes, sainted one, your wish was ful- 
 ft'iled, — your success was triumphant, — but your life was 
 the freely given price. 
 
 We might follow that leader to the quiet village of Lexing- 
 ton, enter with him the humble building dedicated to the then 
 Normal experiment, where, on the third of July, 1839, some 
 few friends of educational progress, with only three pioneer 
 pupils, took the initiatory steps for the establishment of a Nor- 
 mal School, made the small beginning which has wrought un- 
 told effects ; for the mustard seed has become a tree, the acorn 
 a mighty oak. 
 
 Having looked upon that apparently unimportant picture, and 
 traced its deep significance, winging our way to earth, twenty- 
 live times ten thousand times faster than light ; we might trace 
 in succession all the changes of the last twenty-five years ; 
 changes in location, in teachers, in pupils, in methods of in- 
 struction, in everything but its life principle of highest truth. 
 
 Lexington ! hallowed scene of the first uprising of a would- 
 be-free people from the yoke of oppression ! ground watered 
 by the blood of heroes ! fit soil to receive and germinate seeds 
 of this new growth — seeds sown by hands so true, so tenderly 
 watered and cared for until the land is covered with a rich har- 
 vest, whose golden fruits are seen on hill side and in vale 
 from Passamaquoddy Bay to San Francisco, — from Lake 
 
Superior to — I had almost said the Gulf; but the genius of 
 Education can only fold her wings and weep where the demons 
 of Oppression, Pride and Sin are holding their high orgies. 
 
 Transplanted to Newton, scene of sacred Eliot's sacrifices, 
 and again to this peaceful spot, it is here we are called upon 
 to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its existence. 
 
 From a child whose life was so precarious that it would 
 seem a breath might blow it away, and whose existence was 
 looked upon by those who were ignorant of its true value, as 
 an evil, not a blessing, it has become an Alma Mater, — our 
 Alma Mater. 
 
 And to-day she has made a feast, and called her children 
 home. Her wide-spread arms would fain embrace all who 
 have ever shared her life, or who have faithfully stood by her, 
 and cheered and aided her. She bids you welcome ! welcome 
 to this crowning joy, linked with the hallowed associations of 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 She bids a welcome to you, her children, who, in the midst 
 of your little groups are daily, earnestly, prayerfully striving 
 to educate, as you have been educated here. You have closed 
 your schools for the day, a day well earned by years of hearty 
 devotion to your work. It will be a day upon which you will 
 look as one of the golden days of your life. In these blessed 
 reunions, who can tell what sparks of sacred fire may be kin- 
 dled ; or what great and glorious ends this friendly intercourse 
 may advance. 
 
 Welcome all who have ever sat at our Alma Mater's feet 
 and learned of her, whether your labors are in the school- 
 room or in more private spheres. You are, you must be 
 teaching still, for there is no one on God's fair earth whose in- 
 fluence is not felt somewhere and somehow. God grant that 
 your influence, as far as it is influence for right, may be ex- 
 tended and strengthened, and that the social sunshine of to-day, 
 in its direct and reflected rays, may be felt for years. 
 
8 
 
 Welcome members of the old first class, — pioneers in the 
 good work, worthy followers of a worthy leader. Our hearts 
 burn within us as we thus meet you and greet you on our life- 
 way to-day. Though heart answers to heart all through the 
 Normal ranks, it is with a reverential, almost sacred feeling that 
 we extend to you our friendly salutation. Bound to each other 
 by a peculiar tie, you have ever stood side by side, supporting 
 each other in your peculiar trials, rejoicing with each other in 
 your peculiar joys ; ever by your zeal, your steadfastness, and 
 your hearty good will, rendering lasting aid to the cause of 
 Normal Schools. 
 
 Welcome, past and present members of other Normal 
 Schools who have gratified us by your presence. The word 
 " Normal" is an "open sesame" to all our hearts to-day, and 
 our welcome to you is most earnest and true. Tt is fitting that 
 those who are engaged in the same great work should occa- 
 sionally meet otherwise than on the great highway of their 
 labors ; that, in the shady groves and quiet retreats by the way- 
 side, individual sympathies may be extended and deepened, and 
 each may feel the inspiration of a brother's or a sister's hearty 
 good will. 
 
 Welcome past and present teachers in the various Normal 
 Schools, — you who have so earnestly, so faithfully, so untir- 
 ingly, through good report and through evil report, labored 
 on and waited on. It has been by your unceasing, self-sacrifi- 
 cing labors, your patience, your belief in the necessity of your 
 undertaking, and your trust in its ultimate success, that that 
 success has been attained. You shielded the scattered seed, 
 that the birds of envy and ill-will might not devour it, — you 
 watered the tiny acorn, — you guided the footsteps of the help- 
 less one ; and the supporting branches of the fruitful tree, the 
 firmly-knit limbs of the mighty oak, the extended influence of 
 our fostering mother will repay you. 
 
9 
 
 The little country school, nestled almost unseen among our 
 hills, and the more stylish village seminary, alike bear witness 
 to your good works ; while the throbbing hearts of this collec- 
 tion before you, and of the many more who cannot be here to- 
 day, tell of love and gratitude for all your sacrifices. 
 
 Welcome, members of the Board of Education and other 
 friends, steadfast and true. You who shared our anxiety in 
 the early days when Normal Schools were an experiment, and 
 who, by your encouragement, upheld the weary hands till the 
 right prevailed. Gladly we bid you welcome. 
 
 And, oh, may I not say — " Welcome, bright host of sympa- 
 thizing spirits, who, clothed upon by immortality, are with us 
 here to-day ?" I feel, I know, that if ever spirits- of the de- 
 parted are permitted to revisit loved scenes, we have with us 
 a heavenly throng : — Horace Mann, whose heart enfolded 
 every child in the land, — Father Peirce, prematurely old 
 through his Herculean labors for the success of his last, his 
 crowning work,* — Caroline Tied en, another glorious sac- 
 rifice, — Nicholas Tillinghast, Prof. Newman, David 
 Page, Edmund Dwight, Dana P. Colburn, and the many, 
 many more, who, 
 
 "Laboring well and suffering well, 
 Have reached their promised rest.'' ] 
 
 Brothers, sisters, let us open wide the portals of our souls to 
 receive the blessed influence of these immortal spirits. Oh ! 
 for a portion of the fearlessness of that great reformer, Horace 
 Mann, — of the patient, self-sacrilicing, truth-loving spirit of 
 
 Father Peirce, — of the brilliancy of Caroline Tilden, 
 
 of the accuracy of Nicholas Tillinghast, — the benevo- 
 lence of Edmund Dwight, — the perseverance of David 
 Page, — the enthusiasm of Dana P. Colburn, and the 
 Christian spirit of them all. 
 
 With a consciousness of hallowed presence here, let us hear- 
 
10 
 
 tily enter into the festivities of the day, and closer, closer draw 
 our bond of union, We are living in troubled times : we 
 must prepare ourselves to fulfil more faithfully than ever our 
 heaven-appointed mission. Side by side must we stand, shoul- 
 der to shoulder must we press on to meet those potent ene- 
 mies, Ignorance and Sin. United, with God's help, with His 
 weapons only in our hands, and His spirit in our hearts, we 
 may help to plant by the side of our glorious country's flag, 
 which shall yet float, a flag of Liberty over all the land, — the 
 ensign of Peace and Love, of Justice and Humanity. 
 
 Feeling that this, above all else, is now our great mission? 
 and that the exercises we have already enjoyed and those in 
 which we are yet to participate, will help to gird each one of 
 us more truly for the work again, in the name of our beloved 
 Alma Mater, I bid vou welcome, thrice welcome ! 
 
 In response to the sentiment : " West Newton Normal 
 School Days — the days of happy memories," Mrs. Louisa P. 
 Hopkins, of New Bedford, read the Poem which follows : — 
 
 A winning, waving meadow, with scarf of blue and green — 
 
 "Twas the sedgy grass and water, with Forget-me-nots between — 
 
 We were wading over ankles ?nd the sun was shining hot, 
 
 But we school-girls at West Newton loved the blue Forget-me-not. 
 
 Other meadows stretched alluring, where placid streams flowed through, 
 
 And the Gentian with its fringes, and the River Flag gleamed blue, 
 
 But the plashy, mocking mosses, with their clumps of starry eyes, 
 
 The slender-stemmed Forget-me-nots were, more bewitching prize. 
 
 And when the July sun looks down on each successive year, 
 
 And the happy gi een and blossoms, and the birds are settled here, 
 
 I find within my memory a sunny, Summer spot, 
 
 'Tisthe old school at West Newton wreathed with wild Forget-me-not. 
 
 retracing that bright picture, it is easy to begin 
 With the fog-cloud in the morning that shut the Village in. 
 We were up in time to see it, ere it, lifting, thinned away, 
 For we rose to read our lessons in the violet bloom of day. 
 
11 
 
 Anon the schcol was opening, and the instant found u- there- 
 Still how fresh the inspiration from the choral hymn and prayer. 
 Sowing seed by other waters, it has strengthened us and biest, 
 When our hands were almos; fa .ling, and our hearts we; e sorely pr« st. 
 Soon blackboards teem with mystic curve and cabalist c sign, 
 And a gentle lady stands there, with a mind so crystalline, 
 She guides the swift brain-c< ursers, and from her magic hand 
 Runs thril ing to each eager steed th' unseen, electric band. 
 And oft I have remembered when my soul was dull and spent, 
 How a queenly one looked upon us— her color came and went, 
 While her glowing words swept over us as healthful wii ds sweep by, 
 And forever she enriched us with her dark and fervent eye. 
 Enthusiasm — holy power ! best alchemist art thou, 
 Kindled from soul to soul, and sped from radiant brow to brow, 
 Changing to joy all duty, and on transfiguring heights 
 Showing us all the shades of earth fair with celestial lights. 
 Not least in this clear vision I remembor, if I may, 
 Running cross the fields at twilight by a narrow, trodden way, — 
 And she, at whose magnetic call, we every breadth c< uld span, 
 Shone like a rare crown-jewel in the home of Horace Mann. 
 
 Education has its heroes, they lay not their armor down 
 Till they meet death in the combat, and receive the victor's crown. 
 And the Pioneer, who, East and West, held firm th' advancing van, 
 Was one of lordly heart and mien— our own great Horace Mann. 
 
 At last the happy seasons of that rich school year were fled, 
 
 They had lavished all their largess, and we gathered round our Head. 
 
 As a crescent of white lilies waits for some reviving dew, 
 
 We, pale, with parting, waited for his benediction true. 
 
 And when, with our commissions in his hand, he stood and prayed, 
 
 We felt like tie Apostles, strong in God, in self afraid ; 
 
 And an earnest, full assurance was given then and there, 
 
 That God Himself would answer that deep, availing prayer. 
 
 So, young and full of courage, we !ook< d the future through, 
 
 And thought — There's naught upon the earth we will not dare to do. 
 
 All holy work is Woman's Avork, unworthy she who scans 
 
 Each feebly-set partition that divides her work from Man's. 
 
 Ah! wreaths of blue Forget-me-not! bloom new and fresh alway. 
 Immortalize in us the faith and spirit of that day; 
 And when, al! met in Paradise, the long roll-call is made, 
 Each with her work before the Lord, — we will not be afivid. 
 
12 
 
 Rev. Eben S. Stearns read, by request, the following 
 lines, written by a graduate of the " First State Normal 
 School :'' 
 
 While we recall with grateful words to-day, 
 The friends whose counsel blessed our early way, 
 (i^ad we renumber one whose long-tried skill, 
 VV atches the interests of the good cause still. 
 Whose large experience, and whose liberal thought, 
 To us unmeasured wealth so freely brought. 
 Who showed in breadth ot culture, learning true, 
 The teacher now must be the scholar too. 
 Who loved our studies, understood their end, 
 The unsparing critic and the constant friend. 
 No smiling sham, beneath his keen dark e}'e. 
 But feared to meet its quiet scrutiny. 
 Kone knew so well as he the work well done, 
 Or gave so cordial praise where praise was won. 
 And when on festal days in grand array, 
 The term-time work before our elders lay, 
 No eye like his followed the twisted line 
 Of abstract proof through tangent and cosine. 
 Yet when we decked the hall to charm the eye, 
 With all the blooming wealth of rich July, 
 The rarest tints arranged with choicest care, 
 We knew would find a warm admirer there. 
 
 Well we remember the bright summer day, 
 When, following him, we took our happj' way, 
 Where, 'neath the shade of arching trees, he stood, 
 And showed the wonders of the waiting wood, 
 A troop of happy girls, eager to learn, 
 We gathered r« und, knee deep amid the fern, 
 To scan the various foims of leaf and fruit,. 
 Of graven bark, and earth-imprisom d root. 
 The listening oak its acorns downward flung, 
 And high o'erhead the wondering robin sung : 
 While thus we learned to read below, above, 
 Written in lines of beauty, thoughts of love. 
 
13 
 
 Years have gone by— and eager children now 
 Ask us the mysteries of each leafy bough. 
 Where has the humming bird his place of rest? 
 Why does the robin leave his last year's nest? 
 And glad young voices call for us to show 
 Where the sweet hazel nuts and acorns grow. 
 Which is the bowing hemlock, which the pine, 
 Where hang the purple clusters of the vine. 
 Thus, wandering thoughtful through the quiet groves, 
 We talk of him and of the trees he loves ; 
 Of him who, in his days of well-earned ease, 
 Cares for small children and for stately trees. 
 
 Rich may the harvest of his autumn be — 
 Rich in the garnered wealth of memory ; 
 And young hearts, grateful for the good he sent, 
 Make glad his Indian summer of content. 
 
 In conclusion Mr. Stearns read this sentiment : — " The 
 devoted Teacher, just Critic, and generous Friend — -we wait 
 for the Lesson of the Hour," — to which Mr. George B. Em- 
 erson was called upon to respond. 
 
 Mr. Emerson rose to thank the associated teachers for the 
 kindness with which he had been received, and some unknown 
 friend for the flattering manner in which the interest in the 
 school which he had always felt and constantly expressed, had 
 been acknowledged. He recalled a visit to the one Normal 
 School at Lexington, when there were only three pupils, and 
 contrasted that condition with the present, when there were 
 four large and flourishing schools supported by the State, all 
 admirably managed ; and he spoke of the good already done 
 and which would go on to be better done by more and more 
 highly educated teachers. He called to memory some of the 
 faithful and able teachers in this school, now gone to their 
 reward, particularly Father Pierce and Caroline Tilden, 
 and was going on to mention others, and to reiterate the lessons 
 he had formerly so often given, as to the motives by which the 
 teacher should be himself influenced, and the motives to which 
 he should appeal, when the ten minutes allowed to each speaker 
 expired, and he took his seat. 
 
 B 
 
14 
 
 A few days after the celebration, Mr. Emerson addressed 
 a letter to the Secretary of the Convention, which the gradu- 
 ates will recognize as the lesson intended for the hour, and 
 which is therefore inserted in this Memorial : 
 
 Boston, July 11, 1864 
 My Dear Miss Crocker : — I was never more agreeably sur- 
 prised and touched than I was at the reading by Mr. Stearns, 
 of the beautiful lines so full of allusions to myself, at the re- 
 cent celebration at Framingham. In my agitation I failed to 
 say what I had intended to say, and said what might as well 
 have been omitted. I wanted to repeat the lessons I had so 
 often given, such as — Aim only at the highest ends : Appeal 
 to only the purest and highest motives : Fill your souls with 
 the noblest aspirations, your hearts with the warmest affec- 
 tions, your minds with the richest thoughts, and consecrate all 
 to the great work in which you are engaged, — the best and 
 noblest work to be done on earth : Aim always at perfection ; 
 Cv Be ye therefore perfect," — as no lower aim is adequate to 
 the immortal destiny of man : Appeal always to conscience, 
 so as to exercise it constantly from the beginning ; asking, in 
 every event, what is right and good, and what is evil and 
 wrong, and faithfully listening to its dictates and following 
 them : Inculcate the great truth that all pleasure, all enjoy- 
 ment, must come from the exercise of one or more of our fac- 
 ulties of body or mind, and that labor of body or mind is thus 
 the great blessing of humanity : Prepare for the leisure of life 
 and for old age : Inculcate accountability to one's self as an 
 immortal being, destined to bear the consequences of neglect 
 and enjoy the fruits of faithfulness : Accountability to God 
 as His child, for every power and opportunity to do good to 
 his other children : The imitation of good and great men, the 
 benefactors of the race : The imitation of Christ. 
 
 Never appeal to brute force except when it is absolutely 
 demanded ; remembering, however, that corporal punishment 
 may sometimes be necessary, but that he must be a poor 
 teacher who often has recourse to it. Never appeal to emu- 
 lation, but insist on the divine lesson, "in honor preferring one 
 another :" Remember the injunction of the holy Paul, "Be not 
 overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," and that the 
 only absolutely irresistible power is ever-enduring, wholly un- 
 selfish love. 
 
15 
 
 The teacher must he armed with this principle. She must 
 love children ; and she ought to remember that all of them are 
 or have lately been of that number of whom the Divine Mas- 
 ter said, " Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 Remember that the art of teaching, which should be the 
 oldest, is really the newest of arts ; that, in most schools, in 
 all departments, much time is wasted in teaching what is of 
 little value, while many things, most important for the child 
 to learn, are not taught at all. In short, what should be the 
 great and leading object in every school, — preparation for the 
 duties and labors of life, — is, in many ways, in schools of all 
 grades, almost entirely neglected. 
 
 Some of this I was preparing to say, when the inexorable 
 bell told me my time was gone. Of course, Mr. Stearns and 
 you, and perhaps others, were disappointed, and waited in 
 vain for "the lesson of the hour." 
 
 I write to thank you, and, through you, the author of the 
 poem, for remembering so kindly and so graciously calling to 
 my mind little things that I had thought forgotten — that 1 
 had almost forgotten myself. 
 
 I am, with great regard and affection, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 GEO. B. EMERSON. 
 Miss Lucretia Crocker. 
 
 IMPROMPTU, 
 
 Read by Mrs. Lois T. C. Howison of Salem. 
 
 But twenty-five summers ago, my good friends, 
 * Only twenty -five summers and odd, 
 They tell us there wasn't a Normal School 
 
 On all Massachusetts sod. 
 And twenty-five summers ago, my dear friends, 
 
 Though it's harder to understand, 
 There wasn't a Normal School, we are told, 
 
 In the whole of this blessed land. 
 
16 
 
 My knowledge of dates is but vague, it is true, 
 
 But I thought — not to be too exact — 
 The Dark Ages were matters of history, 
 
 But I find they are matters of fact. 
 How very benighted the land must have been, 
 
 How vainly instruction was sought, 
 How many slack ropes must have been in the ship, 
 
 When not even the masters were taut ! 
 
 Just think of the sighings and groanings and tears, 
 
 When the children for wisdom made search, 
 And found that "internal improvements" were made 
 
 By external appliance of birch. 
 No "object-lessons" were thought of then, 
 
 There was no royal road to knowledge, 
 There weren't any "ponies" in those stern, old times, 
 
 How did the poor boys get through college 1 
 
 Just think how the national legs must have ached, 
 
 The bodies how sadly unplastic, 
 When people could stand only right side up, 
 
 And nobody knew a Gymnastic ! 
 They hadn't found out, in those primitive days, 
 
 What much of the Universe means, 
 Hadn't guessed the true function of various things, 
 
 Eor instance, they didn't "know beans." 
 
 The wondrous discovery of "muted tones" 
 
 Hadn't got, then, through any one's noddle, 
 And in short I'm afraid, very sorely afraid, 
 
 There wasn't a school that was "model." 
 So it's easy to see our advance has been great, 
 
 And I think we may safely expect 
 To import for our teachers, in Eighty-Nine, 
 
 Professional angels, direct. 
 
 The sentiment, "A voice from the West," was followed by 
 a Poem from Miss Anna C. Brackett, Principal of the 
 Normal School, St. Louis, Mo. : 
 
 We bring you our greeting, oh schoolmates, oh sisters ! 
 
 From where the great river flows, — rushing along 
 Past city and village, past mountain and prairie, 
 
 Unresting, with current swift, steady, and strong ; 
 
17 
 
 And bears on its waters, unshackled anew, 
 
 No flag but the beautiful "red, white and blue." 
 
 We bring you our greeting from loyal Missouri, 
 That turns her scarred face to the front and the foe, 
 
 And, though weary with struggle, though shot-torn and bleeding, 
 Still guards with strong hand the dear colors we know. 
 
 Warm greeting we bring you, oh home by the sea ! 
 
 From loyal Missouri that soon shall be free. 
 
 And back to the free air of old Massachusetts 
 We turn, with our hearts full of love and of pride ; 
 
 Once more her rough rocks and her clear waters greet us ; 
 Once more, beloved comrades, we stand by your side, 
 
 And memory calls up all the past that was here, 
 
 And brightens the scenes we shall always hold dear. 
 
 And rushing and wild, like the broad Mississippi, 
 The thick-crowding memories thronging must come, 
 
 As back to this rightly-named ""home of the stranger," 
 Once more from our wanderings, our eager feet roam. 
 
 What bring we, oh friends, from our differing ways ? 
 
 What bring we from all of these swift-fleeting days ? 
 
 The rolling years have brought their tears 
 And smiles in turn before us ; 
 
 But hearts are young as when we sung 
 Our last and parting chorus. 
 
 Still hold we true, through all the new 
 And strange the years have brought us, 
 
 The earnest will, that follows stilly 
 The paths that here were taught us. 
 
 'Tis not from play we come to-day ; 
 
 No idle hands are ours ; 
 Just for a while, in summer's smile, 
 
 They pause to gather flowers. 
 
 And all the bloom and rare perfume 
 
 We '11 carry when we sever,; 
 And from them twine for "auld lang syne" 
 
 A wreath to cheer forever. 
 
18 
 
 No untouched dust, no gathered rust 
 We bring you from our places ; 
 
 Our tools are bright, and shines the light 
 From earnest, eager faces. 
 
 From differing way, we bring to-day 
 Hands that are growing stronger ; 
 
 And hearts that ask no better task 
 Than that of working longer. 
 
 Yet not alone in sunshine stand 
 
 Our memories of the past ; 
 The shadows from the "silent land" 
 
 Their softening o'er them cast. 
 
 Our hearts remember those who lie 
 
 Safe under summer flowers, 
 Who never, as in days gone by, 
 
 May lay their hands in ours. 
 
 No gentler hands, no stronger hearts, 
 
 E'er knew we at our side ; 
 We do not hide the tear that starts, 
 
 For comrades true and tried. 
 
 The blessing of their earnest strife 
 
 Upon our strivings fell ; 
 We hold them always in our life, 
 
 We do not say, — farewell. 
 
 So take our glad greeting, oh schoolmates, oh sisters ! 
 
 And give us a welcome from far in the West. 
 We work hand in hand, and we work for our country, 
 
 Let us find in our labor our long sought for rest. 
 East and West, they are one, and we strike hands together 
 
 Across the broad prairies, o'er river and State. 
 No fainting, no flagging, but forward forever ! 
 
 The harvest is white, and the field, it is great. 
 
The exercises of the Collation were closed by singing these 
 lines, written for the occasion, to the tune of 
 
 AULD LANG SYNE. 
 
 A moment from the beaten track, ■ — 
 
 The dusty path of life, — 
 We've turned to pause beneath the shade, 
 
 And rest us from the strife. 
 A moment clasped each other's hands, 
 
 A moment, — 'twould not last ; 
 And now we sadly say, " Good-by," 
 
 And add it to the past. 
 To auld lang syne, my friends, — 
 
 To auld lang syne, — 
 We'll add one golden memory more 
 
 To auld lang syne. 
 
 Good-by ; we go where care and joy 
 
 Are mingled in our way . 
 Strong be our hearts, and swift our hands, 
 
 For all we've heard to-day. 
 And, wheresoe'er our wanderings be, 
 
 In shadow or in shine, 
 We'll keep one pleasant memory still 
 
 Of auld lang syne. 
 Of auld lang syne, my friends.,— 
 
 Of auld lang syne, — 
 We'll keep a blessed memory yet 
 
 Of auld lang syne. 
 
 The Levee in the evening, at the School Hall, was enjoyed 
 by a large number of graduates and friends. 
 
21 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BY REV. SAMUEL J. MAY, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Patrons, Teachers, Graduates, of Normal Schools : — 
 With heartfelt thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, I greet 
 you on this auspicious day. Surely the Twenty-fifth Anniver- 
 sary of the institution of Normal Schools is a period at which 
 we may confidently assume the question to be settled, that all, 
 who would he teachers of children, ought to be especially pre- 
 pared and trained for their fundamentally important work ; 
 and that henceforth the schools for the instruction of teachers 
 will he considered an essential part of a complete system of 
 Popular Education. But, as I look over this assembly of the 
 graduates and friends of Normal Schools, and of the profess- 
 ors, amateurs and patrons of the Art of Teaching, my delight 
 is not a little overshadowed by the spectres of those revered 
 and loved ones, either of whom would be called to address you 
 to-day, rather than myself, if he were living in the flesh, and 
 either of whom would discourse of this grand occasion so much 
 more worthily than I can. 
 
 How do all our hearts now thrill with regret, that Horace 
 Mann, one of the fathers of this Institution, who did all that 
 a mortal man could do for the improvements of the Common 
 Schools of the State and the Nation, — how do we all lament 
 that he is not here to speak as he only could on this Anniver- 
 sary. His opulent vocabulary and fervid rhetoric would be put 
 in utmost requisition to give utterance to his generous aspira- 
 tions for the highest welfare of his country and of the human 
 race. His expressive countenance would glow — his significant 
 words would burn with gratitude to the Giver of all good for 
 
22 
 
 the great success which has crowned this part of his plan for 
 the elevation of the standard of popular education. 
 
 " Father Pierce," if he were here, would speak to his chil- 
 dren, and his children's children, not only with a wisdom al- 
 most inspired, but with a depth of feeling, and a loftiness of 
 eloquence, which would take wholly by surprise those, who 
 had only seen his usual demure looks, had never heard him 
 when his tender heart and large soul were deeply moved. 
 The education of the young had engaged his most earnest 
 thought, had occupied almost the whole of his life. It inclu- 
 ded, in his estimation, the moral and religious more even than 
 the mental culture of the children of men. Those words, so 
 often on his lips — "live to the truth" — would come from 
 them to-day with such unaffected earnestness, that they would 
 seem to those, who had heard them most frequently, to have 
 a deeper meaning than ever before, and be impressed as the 
 crowning lesson of his life. 
 
 Prof. S. P. Newman, first Principal of the Normal School 
 now at Westfield, — well may we sorrow, that h£ is not living 
 to do the duty I am attempting to discharge. Although his 
 services in this department were cut short by death, yet his 
 high attainments as a scholar ; his just appreciation of the im- 
 portance of this institution, evinced by the promptness with 
 which he resigned in its favor the presidency of one of the 
 most respectable colleges in the country; and the reputa- 
 tion of the instructions which he gave during the too short 
 time that he conducted the Normal School at Barre, — all 
 would warrant us in expecting from him to-day an address of 
 surpassing excellence and beauty. 
 
 And Col. Tillinghast of Bridgewater, although his ex- 
 treme modesty might still make him very reluctant to address 
 a large audience, could not have withheld himself from this 
 occasion, if he had been within reach of your Committee's 
 call ; for his sense of duty held in perfect subjection every 
 
'J. 6 
 
 personal consideration, every private feeling. With him it 
 was always a duty to attempt whatever his position in society, 
 or his relations to others recommended him to do. To-day. 
 were he addressing this audience, you who had seen him but 
 seldom, or only heard of him, would get sufficient insight into 
 his deep-toned character, to enable you to account for the sin- 
 gular power he acquired over his pupils — a sort of fascination, 
 which, to those only slightly acquainted with him, seemed 
 mysterious. 
 
 These admirable men were in every way before me, in the 
 grand enterprise we have come here to celebrate ; and they 
 have gone before me beyond the reach of earthly demands. 
 In the judgment of your Committee of Arrangements, there- 
 fore, the duty which any one of them would have performed 
 so much better, and the honor, to which he would have had a 
 much higher title, is devolved upon me. 
 
 But it will not be my duty to engross much of your time. 
 So many are present, from whom you are expecting words 
 of wisdom or of wit ; grateful reminiscences or cheering 
 anticipations ; that I intend my address shall be but the 
 preface or, at most, the introduction to the richer treat that is 
 before you — the instructive chapters, the choice paragraphs, 
 the pregnant sentences, the apt quotations, the impressive 
 prose, the spirit-stirring poetry, that lie between the covers of 
 this auspicious day. 
 
 No one can enter fully into our joy, for no one can fully 
 appreciate the importance of Normal Schools and Teachers' 
 Institutes, who does not clearly discern their relation to our 
 System of Popular Education ; and who does not see, that the 
 thoroughly good moral and mental culture of the whole people 
 is indispensable to the health, if not to the life, of our Body 
 Politic. 
 
 In the course of events, and, as I believe, in the good Prov- 
 idence of God, the people of these United States were called 
 
24 
 
 to try the grandest political experiment ever attempted on so 
 large a scale — that of self-government — the government of 
 the whole people, by the whole people, for the good of the 
 whole people, instead of the aggrandizement of a favored few. 
 Such was the glorious programme. But the Founders of our 
 Republic put their hands to the work without guarding, as 
 bitter experience has taught us they should have done, against 
 several fundamental inconsistencies. 
 
 No truths are more obviously self-evident than that " all 
 men are created equal ; that they are endowed by the Creator 
 with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, lib- 
 erty and the pursuit of happiness." But, to say nothing now 
 of the tremendous, heaven-defying inconsistency of starting 
 upon our democratic experiment, with such a declaration of 
 human equality on our national lips, and more than three hun- 
 dred thousand human beings under our national feet ; with 
 the virtual consent that several of the States of this Union 
 mio-ht continue to be governed by a most haughty and ruthless 
 aristocracv, — to say nothing on this most painful subject, see- 
 in^ that, in this day of righteous retribution, we are throwing 
 off the inconsistency by the awful processes of civil war ; and 
 passing over another equally glaring, though not yet so mis- 
 chievous inconsistency, — that of coolly denying to the "better 
 half of the people all participation in the government of the 
 States or the Nation, without so much as the courtesy of say- 
 in «• to our mothers, wives, sisters, "with your leave, ladies", — 
 passing over this, because it is too large a theme to be treated 
 incidentally, let me come to the other grand mistake made 
 in the organization of* our Republic, because the evils arising 
 from this can be remedied only by thoroughly good education 
 of all the people. I allude to what is called universal suffrage. 
 Believing, as I do, with my whole heart, the primal truth of 
 our Declaration of Independence, of course I do not deny that 
 all men have a right to participate in the institution of the 
 
25 
 
 Government under which they are to live, and in the election 
 of the officers by whom that government shall be adminis- 
 tered. But I do deny that any rights are unconditional. The 
 right of one person cannot conflict with the rights of other per- 
 sons. No one can have a right through his ignorance, any 
 more than by his evil intention, to inflict injury upon the com- 
 munity. No man, therefore, can have a right to do what he 
 does not know how to do. Every man unquestionably has 
 a right to be a physician, a surgeon, a ship captain, or an 
 engineer. But no man can have a right to administer a medi- 
 cine, if he knows nothing of its nature, and of the disease for 
 which he would give it. No man has the right to amputate 
 a limb, if he is unacquainted with the art of surgery. Nor 
 can a man have the right to undertake to guide a ship across 
 the Atlantic, if he knows nothing of navigation ; nor to man- 
 age a locomotive, if he does not understand the steam engine. 
 All these propositions are self-evident, indisputably true. Yet 
 are they any more obvious, than that no man can have a right 
 to take part in enacting or administering the laws, or even in 
 the choice of others to enact or administer the laws, if he 
 knows nothing of the nature, structure, or spirit of the gov- 
 ernment under which he lives ? Is it not self-evidently true 
 that no man should exercise the right to legislate, or vote for 
 a legislator or executive officer, who is utterly ignorant of the 
 Constitutions of our State and Federal Governments ? Does 
 not common sense, at a glance, perceive that no one should be 
 allowed to exercise the prerogative of a citizen, who does not 
 know what it means to be a citizen — the responsibilities 
 which citizenship imposes, the duties which it requires ? At 
 least, ought not every one, who would be admitted to the elec- 
 tive franchise, to give evidence to his fellow-citizens that he 
 has read, and that he understands the essential provisions of 
 the Constitution, under which he is to vote ? 
 
 The answer which these questions imply, is the only one, it 
 c 
 
26 
 
 seems to me, which a sane man would give. If so, then did 
 the framers of our political fabric commit a grave, it may be a 
 fatal, mistake. The doctrine of universal suffrage is true ; 
 but admitting men to the exercise of that prerogative who 
 know nothing about it, is allowing them to put their hands to 
 the Ark of our political existence, without knowing how it is 
 to be upheld, or whither it should be borne. And yet hun- 
 dreds of thousands, in our country, are allowed so to do. And 
 should this civil war issue, as we trust in God it will, in the 
 overthrow of the Southern Aristocracy, and the entire eman- 
 cipation of their millions of slaves, then will there be hundreds 
 of thousands more of ignorant men who must, in all consisten- 
 cy, be admitted to citizenship with its highest privilege. 
 
 Friends of Education ! Teachers of the children of men ! 
 the salvation of our nation is to depend, under God, upon the 
 faithful appliance of the best means and methods for the moral 
 and intellectual improvement of the whole people. Tremble 
 we well may before the aspect of danger, which universal suf- 
 frage puts upon our Republic. But let a second thought rouse 
 us to meet the threatening evils generously, courageously, — 
 the thought that the wise providence of the impartial God 
 probably permitted us to be brought into this predicament, 
 through the mistake of our Fathers, in order that we may 
 fully realize how dependent our civil welfare, if not existence, 
 is upon the lowliest members of our body politic scarcely less 
 than upon the loftiest. The humblest may not be despised 
 or neglected with impunity ; for the public well-being may 
 be seriously affected for good or for ill by the ignorance 
 or intelligence, the virtue or the vice of the least of the 
 brethren. In our democratic States, every man, however ob- 
 scure may be his relative position, is a significant figure. He 
 is a constituent of the Body Politic ; and his vote counts as 
 much — may do as much good or ill — as the vote of the most 
 exalted. Some of the momentous measures of our state and 
 
27 
 
 national governments have been decided by the votes of one 
 or two individuals. The adoption of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, that disastrous measure which enlarged the borders 
 and prolonged the curse of slavery in our land, was effected by 
 only two votes. It is also, I believe, susceptible of proof that 
 the war with England in 1812 would not have been waged, 
 but for a ballot thrown in a passion by an ignorant individual 
 in Rhode Island. That one vote effected the election of a 
 member of the United States Senate, to whose single vote 
 again, at the important crisis, may be ascribed the subsequent 
 decision of the Senate to plunge our nation into the horrors 
 and vast expenditure of that useless conflict. And it may not 
 be impertinent to remind you that in 1837, a single vote in 
 Massachusetts prevented the reelection of a very distinguished 
 and, until then, very popular chief magistrate, because he had 
 advised an alarming encroachment upon the liberty of speech 
 and of the press. 
 
 In our democracies, the lowliest citizen is, as much as the 
 loftiest, the source of the powers which the governments wield. 
 Nay, there is no one so lowly that he may not be raised to the 
 highest office in the State or the Republic, be called not only 
 to confer but to administer the power of the nation. Under 
 our form of government, it is then nothing less than indispen- 
 sable that all the people should be well educated, diligently 
 trained to respect the power, by which they are governed, 
 (although that power emanates from themselves) because it 
 can have no vital force in the body politic, if it have none in 
 the constituency of that body. No members of a self-govern- 
 ing State do or can contribute aught to the strength of the 
 government, except so far as they have the ability and dispo- 
 sition to govern themselves. Consequently a far higher degree 
 of moral as well as intellectual culture is needed in all the 
 people of a democracy, than in the subjects of a monarch or 
 of an aristocracy. The awful civil war, which is now desola- 
 
28 
 
 ting some of the fairest portions of our country, sending mes- 
 sengers of bereavement, sorrow and alarm throughout its bor- 
 ders, and to the utmost trying the strength of our civil fabric, — 
 this war originated in those States where the masses of the 
 people have had no education, and where the dominant classes 
 have adopted the falsest principles of political, social and per- 
 sonal morality. 
 
 Nothing has inspired me with so much confidence in our 
 own loyal States, and in the competency of the people to govern 
 themselves, as the self-control, the respect for law, the defer- 
 ence to rulers, which our people have shown through all the 
 excitements and irritations of the last three years. This is a 
 stronger evidence of our stability, than the lavish expenditure 
 of money to which they have consented, and the generous spirit 
 of self-sacrifice they have manifested. The patience with 
 which our immense armies, and the people generally, endured 
 the vexatious delays, that our early commanders deemed 
 necessary, and have borne the sad disasters, the awful waste 
 of lives and of materials, which were incurred by the misman- 
 agement of traitors, cowards, or incompetent men in the high- 
 est military posts ; more than all, the quietness with which the 
 people acquiesced in the release of those arch rebels,; emissa- 
 ries of the satanic confederacy, Messrs. Mason and Sli- 
 dell, because their capture by Com. Wilkes was not con- 
 ducted exactly in accordance with the law of nations, as our 
 Government has expounded it, — these and other signal evi- 
 dences of self-control given by so large a majority of the peo- 
 ple of our loyal States, have confirmed my faith in the true 
 doctrine of democracy, that the people have the right, be- 
 cause they have the ability, to govern themselves, and to do it 
 better than an hereditary monarch or lordly aristocracy would 
 do it for them. 
 
 Now this power, which emanates to the State from the peo- 
 ple as individuals, must be developed in the individuals and 
 
29 
 
 trained to use by the processes called education. This should 
 be began, and to a certain extent can be best done by the nat- 
 ural guardians of children, their parents, in that most sacred 
 of all institutions, the family. 
 
 But even if parents generally were what all should qualify 
 themselves to be, before they dare to assume the most impor- 
 tant office a human being can fill ; if indeed all fathers and 
 mothers were able, and conscientiously careful, to do what they 
 especially ought to do for the right education of their offspring ; 
 still, as children are born to sustain other and more extended 
 relations than those of the family, they require a larger range 
 and greater variety of information and moral culture than could 
 be given them by the best qualified parents, in the most ample 
 and well-appointed houses. Children need to receive a moral 
 and mental training, which can only be given them in company 
 with their peers in age, whose conditions in life may vary from 
 their own in every particular ; so that they may be, as early as 
 possible, taught to respect the rights and feelings, as also to 
 emulate the excellencies and avoid the faults, of one another. 
 An education, wholly domestic and private, has ever been 
 found insufficient and otherwise defective, however well it has 
 been devised and administered. 
 
 Public schools, therefore, which are indispensable to the 
 education of nine-tenths of the children, even in the free States 
 of our country, may be made a great additional advantage to 
 the other tenth, who are more highly favored in having par- 
 ents well qualified to be their literary teachers and moral 
 guides. Even the children of such parents cannot receive 
 alone, at home, — nor even in the best private schools, where 
 they will be associated only with those of their own social 
 condition, can they receive all the discipline, nor be made so 
 readily to see the uses of all the knowledge they will need for 
 the duties and trials of life. It is important that the most for- 
 tunate children should be put where they will early learn that 
 
30 
 
 the Heavenly Father has not been gracious to them only ; but 
 that in some respects the children even of the poorest in the 
 community have been gifted with better talents, and higher or 
 more lovely traits of character, than themselves. I believe it 
 has been an essential benefit to me through life, that, when a 
 little child, I attended a school with boys and girls, who came 
 thither from homes much less sightly than my own, clad in 
 garments of a coarser texture and less fashionable style than 
 I wore. Nor am I sure that my early espousal of the cause 
 of that most injured "class of Americans called Africans" was 
 not in some measure attributable to the fact that I sat upon 
 the same bench and recited in the same class with a boy, whose 
 skin was as dark as a starless night, but whose spirit was as 
 joyous as a cloudless noonday ; who was certainly more witty, 
 and not less wise, than any of his fellows, and was the favorite 
 
 of us all. 
 
 But in Massachusetts, and in this presence, I need not urge 
 the importance of schools, nor argue that in a democratic 
 State it is best that the children of all classes should be edu- 
 cated together, and equally well, so far as it may be practica- 
 ble. It only remains for us to consider what may be done to 
 make the Common Schools, which are the National University, 
 as effective as possible for the great purposes for which they 
 were instituted. 
 
 We have come here to-day, to celebrate the great success of 
 the experiment, begun twenty-five years ago, to improve the 
 qualifications and elevate the professional as well as personal 
 characters of the educators of youth. Schools are the most 
 important of all our social institutions, if we except only the 
 churches. And when the plan of Normal Schools shall be 
 fully developed, faithfully applied, and brought into general 
 operation, it will be seen and felt that they are fountains from 
 which life, light, and purity shall be infused more and more 
 into our system of popular education. 
 
31 
 
 Common, Free Schools are the only device by which all 
 the children in our country can be reached, and helped to re- 
 ceive the instruction and moral training, which it is indispen 
 sable to the well-being of our democracy they should have. 
 The especial purpose of Normal Schools is to make Common 
 Schools as efficient as possible by preparing for them Teach- 
 ers, who thoroughly understand the work it is given them to 
 do, who justly appreciate its importance, and who will consci- 
 entiously do it well. Surely teachers need such particular 
 preparation for the School, not less than ministers for the 
 Pulpit, lawyers for the Bar, or physicians for the practice of 
 the Medical Art. 
 
 The State, the Republic, have a right, and for their own 
 welfare are bound to compel all parents, who are not provi- 
 ding for their children good instruction elsewhere, to keep 
 them in regular attendance at the public schools, until they 
 shall have acquired the rudiments of a good education. If 
 so, the parents have a corresponding right to demand such pro- 
 visions as will ensure to their children a sufficient education, 
 at an age as early as it is practicable, because a large number 
 of parents need the avails of their children's labor as soon as 
 they are able to work to advantage. Therefore the teachers 
 in our Common Schools ought to be adepts in the arts of men- 
 tal instruction and moral culture, so that they may do quickly 
 what should also be done well. Teachers need to be expert 
 not less than faithful. 
 
 A very large proportion of children, especially the boys, 
 are withdrawn from our schools by or before the age of fifteen. 
 Their poor parents claim their services ; or insist that it is time 
 they should be put to learning some trade or handicraft, by 
 which to support themselves. This demand cannot be justly, 
 and in many communities might not be safely, denied. 
 
 In the city where I reside, we have an arrangement for pub- 
 lic instruction, of which no city of equal size in New England 
 
32 
 
 would need to be ashamed. We can take children, if their 
 parents will permit us, from the nursery to the college, through 
 a series of well graded schools. But not one in thirty of our 
 children is left long enough under instruction to ascend into 
 our High School. Not more than one in twenty-five is per- 
 mitted to reach even the grade next below that department. 
 I presume that elsewhere generally, throughout our loyal 
 States, the facts of the case are similar. If so, the vast pro- 
 portion of children are to receive all the schooling they will 
 ever have before they have attained the age of fifteen. Should 
 it not, then, be the purpose and endeavor of Normal Schools 
 so to prepare teachers that they will be able to give, and 
 feel the necessity of giving, the greatest possible amount of 
 elementary, fundamental instruction in the too short time that 
 will probably be allowed them to operate upon a very large 
 majority of the children in any community ? What is needed, 
 then, is not a course of instruction that is symmetrical and 
 complete in itself, so much as that kind of instruction and moral 
 discipline, which will most certainly give to the children of all 
 classes the ability to acquire, in after life, all the knowledge 
 they may need or desire ; and fix in their hearts the philan- 
 thropic purpose to consecrate their knowledge, their talents 
 and opportunities, to the service of mankind, rather than to 
 their personal aggrandizement. 
 
 The great value of each one of the branches of learning, 
 usually proposed to be taught in our Common Schools, cannot 
 be denied. Provisions for them all ought surely to be made. 
 It may only be questioned whether, within the time that most 
 children attend school, it is practicable to^ do much more than 
 teach them thoroughly well the three essential branches — 
 Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic ; and whether these branches 
 are not too often neglected, for the sake of giving children a 
 mere smattering of half a dozen other branches. Certainly no 
 children, if they can possibly be retained long enough, should 
 
33 
 
 be permitted to leave school until they can read well, write 
 will, and cipher well. They, who are fully possessed of these 
 arts, may learn all things else, that they need or desire to 
 know. Therefore should the course of instruction in our 
 schools be so ordered as to insure to the greatest number of 
 the young, in the first place, the highest moral culture that can 
 be given them ; and secondly, the greatest proficiency in Read- 
 ing, Writing and Arithmetic. 
 
 Reading, especially, is of more importance than all other 
 branches of learning. He who can read easily and intelli- 
 gently, has the key by which he may, if he will, open all the 
 treasures of knowledge. He may hold intimate communion 
 with the saints and sages of past time, and be the constant 
 companion of the masters of thought in the present age. All 
 books of history, biography, travels, science and imagination 
 lie open to him. The immortal works of Shakspeare — that 
 intellectual cosmos — may be made his own ; and, more than 
 all, the Bible, book of books, most "profitable for doctrine, for 
 reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness," may 
 disclose to him the counsels of God, the divinest wisdom. 
 
 By deferring the formal study of Grammar, Geography, 
 Algebra, Geometry, Physiology and other things to the up- 
 per departments — those next below the High and Classical 
 Schools — a great deal of time might be saved, which teachers 
 should devote to Reading. And this they might do without 
 wholly neglecting the studies just alluded to. For a well- 
 trained and skilful teacher may easily lead his pupils to learn 
 the elements of those sciences without text books. Fre- 
 quently, at the close of a lesson in Reading, he may call their 
 attention to the obvious characters and relations of the differ- 
 ent words in a sentence, which will in due time reveal to them 
 the principles of Grammar. In the same connection, there 
 may often be occasions for him to teach prominent facts in 
 Geography, which he can make at once intelligible to his 
 
34 
 
 pupils by general instructions on maps and the globe. In the 
 same way, the first principles of Geometry may readily be 
 made plain to children by calling their attention to the lines, 
 angles, and geometrical figures, that are to be seen every- 
 where about them ; and by requiring them to spend some time 
 in the practice of Drawing. And as to Physiology, its most 
 important truths should be taught daily in all school rooms by 
 the strict attention paid to the ventilation of the rooms, to the 
 postures of the bodies of pupils in sitting and in standing; and 
 by giving to them the reasons for such particularity ; and by 
 pictorial illustrations of the human system, when in health 
 and when diseased; and practically by well-chosen exercises in 
 gymnastics. 
 
 Children under twelve years of age learn incomparably more 
 from well-conducted recitations, than they do by what is called 
 studying their lessons. I do not undervalue studying. In due 
 time great pains should be taken with children to lead them 
 to form habits of real study. But in all our schools of the 
 lower grades, there should be teachers, assistants, and assist- 
 ing pupils enough to keep the children engaged in Reading, 
 in Arithmetical Exercises, in Writing, in Geometrical or 
 other drawings upon the Black Board or their slates, or in 
 listening to carefully prepared oral lessons, pretty much all the 
 while they are under tuition. And teachers ought to be so 
 well informed, that they can promptly impart every kind of 
 useful knowledge that may be suggested by any lessons their 
 pupils may be reading or reciting, or by any interesting occur- 
 rences that may happen in their schools. Never is knowledge 
 so readily received, nor so firmly fixed in the mind as when it 
 is imparted just at the moment the inquiry for it is naturally 
 raised. Lessons in Readino; should not be confined to the or- 
 dinary text-books ; but valuable volumes of biography, history, 
 science, poetry adapted to the young, or interesting articles 
 from newspapers, should sometimes be read by the teacher or 
 
35 
 
 one of the pupils ; the rest of the class being required to listen, 
 and afterward to report what they have learnt by hearing. 
 
 I must omit much more that I would say on this and kindred 
 topics, for want of time. I have seized this great educational 
 occasion to give the prominence it deserves to the subject of 
 Reading, because I am persuaded this primary art is alto- 
 gether too much neglected, or very shabbily taught in most of 
 our schools. I hope such a response to what I have said about 
 it may be given here or elsewhere, by all who now hear me, 
 as shall fix the*attention of teachers everywhere upon the pri- 
 mal importance of Reading ; and excite those throughout our 
 country, who have the supervision of our Common Schools, to 
 be especially careful that all the children of the people shall 
 be taught to read well, if no more. 
 
 Nothing is so important to a human being in this world, as 
 the ability to read well, excepting only Godliness and Good 
 Health. 
 
 Only to those last named, most needful things, should greater 
 attention be paid, in all our schools and families, than to Read- 
 ing. Bodily, mental and moral health demand the first and the 
 last care of all, to whom is committed the education of the 
 young. It is the extreme of cruelty to permit children to 
 grow up in wilful or in unconscious violation of those princi- 
 ples on which their highest welfare depends in this life and in 
 the life to come. Every thing else in schools should give place 
 to the moral discipline and culture of the pupils ; and teachers 
 should be especially prepared and trained to do their duties 
 well in this respect. For, in the first place, many of the chil- 
 dren entrusted to their care, receive no moral culture, and are 
 subjected to no proper discipline elsewhere. And, secondly, 
 in school they are brought into new and enlarged relations 
 to their fellows, and are subjected to novel and often severe 
 temptation. But time forbids me to dwell, as I meant to do, 
 on this, the most important of all our topics. I may only 
 leave with you a few seminal thoughts. 
 
36 
 
 The misdeeds and faults of children, even more than of 
 adults, should be always so treated as to make it obvious to 
 their fellows, that it will be far better for them to have their 
 sins found out, than that they should remain concealed. Noth- 
 ing is so fatal to the moral discipline of a school as a continual 
 strife between the teachers, on the one side, to detect, and the 
 pupils, on the other side, to hide, their own and each other's 
 delinquencies. Pains should be taken to show the reasona- 
 bleness, the necessity, of all the rules and regulations appointed 
 for their governance — that they are not merely arbitrary en- 
 actments. In this way a public sentiment may be awakened 
 in schools, hostile to all transgressions of wholesome laws ; and 
 the pupils may be brought to feel that they have been wronged 
 and insulted, not less than their teachers, by every deed of 
 violence, disobedient act, or instance of lying, profaneness or 
 obscenity. Not the fear of punishment, but the dread of all 
 wrono- alone can purify and elevate the characters of children 
 or of men. 
 
 Especial pains should be taken to seek and to save the lost ; 
 and the sympathy and assistance of the well-behaved and vir- 
 tuous should be invoked in their behalf, rather than the indig- 
 nation and abhorrence of the good directed against offenders. 
 
 All distinctions in a school should be avoided, excepting 
 those of obvious and acknowledged superiority in moral char- 
 acter and scholarship. Let such appear as they may, and 
 brino- all the praise and joy they will to those who have earned 
 them. Emulation, stimulated by the offer of artificial rewards, 
 may enkindle the worst passions — envy, jealousy, hatred and 
 revenue. Let no prizes, therefore, be offered in schools, ex- 
 cepting that one prize which every child may gain if Le will — 
 the consciousness of having endeavored to do his best. Teach- 
 ers should ever be mindful, that the unsuccessful may some- 
 times be the most meritorious ; that the desire to excel is by 
 no means identical with the love of excellence ; and that the 
 fear of censure is not the same as the dread of doing wrong. 
 
37 * 
 
 Bear with me a moment longer. All children, who are not 
 under proper moral discipline at home, and who withstand the 
 good influences that may be brought to bear upon them in 
 school, should be placed in institutions especially intended for 
 the reformation of juvenile delinquents. When we shall have 
 in all our cities, and at convenient intervals throughout our 
 rural districts, institutions conducted upon the principles, and 
 in the spirit of the admirable State Reform Schools at West- 
 boro' and Lancaster, then, and not until then, will our sys- 
 tem of Popular Education be complete. To make that system 
 more perfect than it now is — to make it more truly Christian— 
 it must be so extended and ordered, that it shall embrace and 
 save the lost. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, who cannot or will not train up their 
 children in the way they should go, forfeit their parental right 
 to them. They should not be allowed to keep them in igno- 
 rance and sin for the sake of the pittance they may derive 
 from their begging or their labor ; nor because of the mortifi- 
 cation they might feel at having their sons or their daughters 
 arrested and disposed of as delinquents. It is the duty which 
 the State owes to its youthful members, as well as to its body 
 politic, to take such children under its especial protection, from 
 the families of the poor or the vile, and give to them the moral 
 discipline and the literary instruction which they need, but 
 which they fail to get at home. 
 
 Then only shall the peace of our Republic be true and per- 
 manent, when all the people are taught of the Lord ; when 
 their minds are stored with necessary knowledge, and their 
 hearts are filled with virtuous principles. None, not even the 
 least of the brethren, may be neglected with impunity. As 
 " God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- 
 ham," so may there arise, from amongst the lowliest in our 
 land, the men and the women, who shall be the Saviors or the 
 Satans of our Great Republic. 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. EBEN S. STEARNS. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 In entering on the duty assigned me, I must, at the outset,, 
 not only cast myself upon your kind indulgence, hut hespeak 
 your patience. The subject is not only too large, but too im- 
 portant to be hastily treated, and yet I must confess to great 
 embarrassment in the preparation, from a consciousness that 
 brevity would be the soul of wit on this occasion ; and from an 
 ever-present desire to gratify those who wish my words to be 
 few. I beg leave to assure such, that I have remorselessly 
 sacrificed everything not seeming to be absolutely essential to 
 a respectable performance of my task. The particular history 
 of this school — this earliest and most widely known of its 
 c l ass — necessarily involves a passing allusion to all those cir- 
 cumstances that gave it birth. 
 
 The Massachusetts Common School System, so called — that 
 shrewd device of our Puritan fathers, by which they hoped to 
 outwit the Prince of Evil and protect their posterity from the 
 "wiles of the old Deludef, Satan," — had for many years, through 
 storm and shine, been the faithful nurse of elementary learn- 
 ing, good citizenship and pure morals, — or rather, that alma 
 parens whose bountiful gifts had advanced the State, strength- 
 ened the church, and upheld the very pillars of social life. 
 But when her offspring had become numerous, and occupied 
 
39 
 
 with the labors and duties of life, or vexed with the cares of 
 church and state, the mother seems to have been in a measure 
 neglected, or looked upon as a good old lady in blue check and 
 mob cap, with well-thumbed Bible on her knee, to be visited, 
 and perhaps petted once a year or so, but not much thought of 
 the rest of the time. She saw how she was regarded, felt 
 how she was neglected, and knew how vain it was for her to 
 plead with those who appreciated her so little ; and so with 
 woman's tact and woman's patience, she folded her hands in 
 seeming resignation, saying, li They will yet learn their true 
 source of life and strength. I bide my time." And so it 
 turned Out. 
 
 Between the years A. D. 1820 and 1825, there appeared 
 upon the stage a small class of intelligent, cultivated, self- 
 sacrificing men, with all the vigor and freshness of early man- 
 hood, who saw, as it were at a glance, how matters stood ; 
 deplored the educational decline ; and began earnestly, and, in 
 general wisely, to apply the remedy. An " Educational Re- 
 vival," as our brother, the Orator, has aptly termed it, took 
 place. The people began to see that a right education, widely 
 diffused, would prove the glory of the State — nay more, was 
 for her the only source of influence, power, and lasting great- 
 ness. 
 
 Time and present circumstances forbid us to speak in fitting 
 terms of these Educational Revivalists, to portray their char- 
 acters, and to recount the noble deeds which each performed. 
 Indeed, thank God ! many of them yet live ; yet enjoy the 
 rich fruits of their early labors ; are yet able and ready to 
 lend a helping hand to every good work. 
 
 Foremost, perhaps, among these pioneers was James G. 
 Carter, genial as a friend, accomplished as a teacher, ardent 
 as a politician, who fought most manfully, and for a time 
 nearly alone ; and to whom, it is believed, belongs the honor not 
 only of starting the great reform, but of perceiving how essen- 
 
40 
 
 tial to its completeness and permanent utility, would be the 
 thorough, professional education of teachers under public su- 
 pervision and at the public charge. His newspaper articles 
 on popular education, from A. D. 1821 to '24, — his letters to 
 Hon. William Prescott, L. L. D., on the Free Schools of 
 New England, with Remarks on the Principles of Instruc- 
 tion, — his "Essays upon Popular Education, containing a par- 
 ticular examination of the schools of Massachusetts, and an 
 outline for an Institution for the Education of Teachers," — 
 his Memorial to the State Legislature in 1827, praying for aid 
 to establish a Seminary for the Education of Teachers, with a 
 Model School attached, — his efforts in Lancaster, his native 
 town, to carry out the School as a private enterprise, — his 
 activity and influence in founding the "American Institute of 
 Instruction" in 1829-30, that noble society which for thirty 
 years has been a source of life to the educational interests of 
 the country, — his unremitted labors as a politician in behalf 
 of Popular Education, — his successful introduction of a bill 
 establishing the Board of Education, — the detraction, perse- 
 cution and financial disasters he encountered in the advocacy 
 of his schemes, — all these entitle James G. Carter to a 
 most honorable mention. 
 
 There were William C. Woodbridge, a teacher and the 
 son of a teacher, distinguished as a geographer and editor of 
 the Annals of Education and other works, — and Samuel R. 
 Hall, for many years a teacher of teachers, and in 1839 the 
 founder, at Andover, of a Seminary for Teachers — the first 
 regular seminary in this country designed for such an object — 
 a genuine Normal School — though not of State patronage or 
 adoption, — and Gardner B. Perry, of Bradford, a modest 
 country clergyman, in early life teacher of a distinguished lit- 
 erary institution, who through a long and able life labored as 
 he found opportunity to promote popular education. 
 
 There, too, were Thomas P. Gallaudet, the skilful, devo- 
 
41 
 
 ted instructor of the deaf and dumb, who made the dull ear to 
 hear of the wonders of the creation, and the tongue of the 
 dumb to sing the praises of God, — and William A. Alcott, 
 the eccentric physician and educator and author of many good 
 books. 
 
 Horace Mann, the first Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, came late into the work, but brought with him all the 
 powerful energies of his mature life ; all the learning, culture 
 and acumen which had distinguished him at the bar ; all the 
 knowledge of human nature and skill in management which 
 made him successful as a politician ; and all the influence which 
 he had acquired among the people. Withdrawing himself 
 from less laborious and far more lucrative occupations, he gave 
 himself, soul and body, to the great enterprise. Of his ear- 
 nest, self-sacrificing devotion, of his indomitable persever- 
 ance amid opposition and reproach, of his enormous personal 
 labors, we cannot here speak. The prime agent in estab- 
 lishing the Board of Education, its soul as well as its Secre- 
 tary, he was the establisher of this school, and its most earnest 
 and constant friend, so long as it continued within his reach ; 
 and but for him it would have died for want of that mere pit- 
 tance on which so much of its life has been supported, and 
 which, again and again, he secured. 
 
 Prominent among these was Edmund Dwight, the mer- 
 chant prince, as unostentatious as munificent, whose open 
 purse enabled the Secretary to live, which State patronage 
 alone never could have done ; and whose timely gift of $10,000 
 to the State of Massachusetts, presented March 10, 1838, se- 
 cured from its Legislature a corresponding grant ; and was, as 
 Mr. Mann has expressed it, "the origin, the source, the jmnc- 
 tum saliens of the Normal Schools of Massachusetts." 
 
 But time fails me to speak of Samuel Lewis, Walter 
 Johnson, Josiah Holbrook, John A. Shaw, and a host of 
 others. These and many more rest from their labors and their 
 works do follow them. 
 
42 
 
 We have yet with us, thank God ! William Russell, 
 the educational journalist and associate of Woodbridge, 
 whose native grace and charming elocution were as attractive 
 as his pen was persuasive, and whose whole life has been spent 
 in urging forward the work of popular education : 
 
 Samuel J. May, the accomplished orator of this occasion, 
 and the second Principal of this Institution ; the record of 
 whose life is self-sacrifice, and earnest, unremitting endeavor in 
 every good word and work designed to benefit mankind : 
 
 Charles Brooks, whose labors in the years 1835-6-7, 
 were second to those of no man — one might almost say to no 
 number of men — to whom we owe the particular foim which 
 Normal Schools took, and who did very much toward prepar- 
 ing the public mind to look with favor upon the new system ; 
 who, beginning with his own parish in Hingham, for the 
 space of three years, without compensation or payment of ex- 
 penses, travelled over New England, lecturing upon the Prus- 
 sian system of Elementary Education, with especial reference 
 to Normal Schools. From his friend, Victor Cousin, the 
 first scholar of France, he obtained reports and documents, 
 and encouraging words, which were to him the pabulum vitas ; 
 for in this phase of the enterprise he stood almost if not quite 
 alone ; yet planting his feet literally on "Plymouth Rock," he 
 was conscious of strength. In behalf of a convention of teachers, 
 called by him in Plymouth, he memorialized the Legislature 
 in 1836, and was twice called before that body to speak upon 
 his favorite subject. For many years Mr. Brooks has with- 
 drawn, in a measure, from the bustle of the busy world, and 
 nothing but his undying interest in these schools could, we are 
 persuaded, have drawn him forth to engage in this commemo- 
 ration : 
 
 Henry Barnard, as much as any man in this country, en- 
 titled to be called the Educator^ whose fruitful labors are in 
 their prime, and are destined to produce results greater and 
 
43 
 
 still greater as time progresses, and of whom this is not the 
 place to speak at length. 
 
 Time and your patience fail me to speak of others who de- 
 serve the most honorable mention, and a large place io the 
 affections of the hosts whom they have benefitted. One more 
 only shall be spoken of. Let Horace Mann introduce him 
 in the words used at Bridge water at the dedication of the first 
 building erected for a Normal School in this country, August 
 19, 1846: 
 
 "I see before me a gentleman who, though occupying a sta- 
 tion in the educational world far above any of the calamities 
 or the vicissitudes that can befall Common Schools ; though, 
 pecuniarily considered, it is a matter of entire indifference to 
 him whether the Common Schools flourish or decline; yet 
 from the beginning, and especially in the crisis to which I 
 have just adverted, came to our rescue, and gave all his influ- 
 ence as a citizen and as a teacher, to the promotion of our 
 cause ; and whom those who may resort hither, from year to 
 year, so long as this building shall stand, will have occasion to 
 remember, not only with warm emotions of the heart, but, dur- 
 ing the wintry season of the year, with warm sensations of the 
 body also. I refer to Mr. Geo. B. Emerson." Thus far 
 Mr. Mann. 
 
 Mr. Emerson's whole life has been given to educational 
 labors. The son of a distinguished physician, full of interest 
 in popular education, and of labors to promote it, he has by in- 
 heritance the qualities which, under his own careful training and 
 culture, have made him eminent in his profession, and distin- 
 guished him as the friend of Common Schools. In A.D. 1821, 
 he was selected to fill the responsible office of Principal of the 
 English High School in Boston, then just established. The 
 work of organization, the plans and course of study, the nature 
 of the discipline to be used, the means and motives to be em- 
 ployed, the moral and religious principles to be urged, all 
 
44 
 
 were left to his wisdom, skill and goodness. How well he did 
 his work, let that noble institution, from that hour to the pres- 
 ent the just pride of the city, tell. To him Warren Col- 
 burn, his friend, submitted the manuscript of that best of 
 works on the science of numbers, " First Lessons in Arith- 
 metic," that, lesson by lesson, he might practically test the 
 work in his school ; and the deserved popularity of this hook 
 was owing to Mr. Emerson's warm recommendations. In 
 1827, Mr. Emerson withdrew from the High School to 
 open a Private School for Young Ladies, which he conducted 
 with the most eminent success for more than a generation ; 
 retiring from it in 1855, at a moment when, if possible, its 
 popularity was greater than it had ever been before. 
 
 Mr. Emerson, in 1827, was instrumental in forming the 
 Mechanics Institute, was its first Secretary, gave the opening 
 address, and delivered the first course of Lectures. In 1830 
 he was one of the foremost in forming the American Insti- 
 tute of Instruction, was its first Secretary, and for many 
 years its President. In 1836, he was Chairman of a Com- 
 mittee to memorialize the Legislature on the subject of the 
 improvement of Common Schools, especially by revising the 
 qualifications of the teachers, and drew up the memorial. 
 No particular action being taken by the Legislature, in 1837 
 a new memorial, also drawn up by Mr. Emerson, was pre- 
 sented, and seems to have culminated the powerful efforts 
 which were made upon the Legislature. In 1843 he wrote 
 the second part of the School and School-Master, one of the 
 wisest and best works of the kind ever given to the public. 
 In 1830 he was active in the formation of the Boston Society 
 of Natural History, of which he was for many years Presi- 
 dent, and he was also for many years Corresponding Secretary 
 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1837, 
 having been appointed by Gov. Everett Chairman of a Com- 
 mission to conduct a Botanical and Zoological Survey of the 
 
45 
 
 the State, he gave to the public his admirable and exhaustive 
 report on the " Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts." 
 
 From the very first, almost of course, Mr. Emerson was 
 deeply interested in the Normal Schools, and labored assidu- 
 ously to promote their interests. In 1847 and 8, he was a 
 member of the Boston School Committee, and the latter year 
 was chosen a member of the Board of Education, and during 
 the eight years of his service was most active and influential. 
 He has been for several years, since his return from Europe 
 in 1856, the Treasurer of the Board. 
 
 The writer of this sketch, whose period of service as Prin- 
 cipal of this Institution is entirely covered by Mr. Emerson's 
 connection with the Board ; and who was often in a situation 
 not only to test his love for the Schools but also his goodness 
 of heart and catholicity of spirit, found in him an elder broth- 
 er, wise in council, fruitful in suggestion ; always, in season 
 and out of season, ready to assist ; sympathizing in every 
 trial ; full of encouragement and rejoicing in every success. 
 His efforts for this school have been constant and wise ; his 
 gifts to it many ; and there are, doubtless, in this assembly, 
 or laboring earnestly in far-off schools, or, it may be, gracing 
 some New England home, not a few who owe to his unosten- 
 tatious charity, their Normal School education; Long may his 
 happiness and usefulness continue ! 
 
 The bill establishing the Board of Education was approved 
 by Edward Everett, then Governor of the State, on the 
 20th of April, 1837. Horace Mann was then President of 
 the Senate. At the first meeting of the Board, June 29th, 
 1837, Mr. Mann was chosen its Secretary. 
 
 The Constitution of the new Board made the ultimate intro- 
 duction of Normal Schools a certainty. Indeed, any scheme 
 undertaken by such men as Edward Everett, Horace 
 Mann, James G. Carter, Edmund D wight, George 
 Putnam, E. A. Newton, Robert Rantoel, Jr. and Jared 
 
46 
 
 Sparks, was a success the moment they grappled with it. 
 The first two Reports of the Board were written by Mr. Ev- 
 erett, and his addresses at Lexington and Barre, with his 
 great personal influence, did much to prepare the public mind 
 to welcome the new measures. 
 
 In 1838, on the 19th of April, that day so memorable and 
 glorious, the Legislature by a joint resolve accepted the muni- 
 ficence of Mr. Dwtght, and appropriated an equal sum to the 
 founding of Normal Schools. 
 
 Let us pass over the discussions in the Board of Education 
 respecting the disposition of the $20,000 now in their hands, 
 and hasten to say, that, ail things being ready — a teacher ap- 
 pointed, a location selected, public sentiment, as was supposed, 
 well aroused on the subject, and invitations to come and enjoy 
 the priceless boon of a Normal School sent out, — expectation, 
 regarding the incipient seminary, ran high. Why should it not ? 
 
 The first examination of pupils for admission was to be held 
 at the school-house in Lexington, on Wednesday, July 3d, 
 1839. The morning came. The old historic town was agape 
 with wonder. The new teacher was anxious, but strong in 
 hope. The Board of Education sent out, to oversee and aid 
 in the labor of the day, a formidable delegation ; and doubt- 
 less Horace Mann, Jared Sparks and Robert Rantoul, 
 Jr., as they gazed upon the limited capacity of the school 
 building, and thought of the numbers they expected to. exam- 
 ine that day, and the greater numbers expected to throng those 
 halls on succeeding days, formed many a wise plan to enlarge 
 their borders. The time for examining arrived — all was 
 ready for action. The doors were thrown open to admit the 
 eager crowd of candidates. Alas ! alas ! three modest, shrink- 
 ing girls only were seen. Poor things ! no wonder if they 
 were frightened. In numbers their examiners surpassed them, 
 and were a presence in which the ripest scholarship might 
 tremble. Poor things ? Nay, illustrious ones ! to your last- 
 
47 
 
 ing honor you were first to perceive and appropriate the bless- 
 ings in store, and forever first you will stand on the lists of 
 Normal School pupils. It was a disappointment, cruel, in- 
 deed. To feeble minds, the mortification would have been in- 
 tense, and the seeming failure crushing ; but, small as it was, 
 this was a beginning, and they knew it, and were content. 
 
 Nothing daunted, the Board, on the first Wednesday of 
 September, 1839, opened a second school at Barre, under the 
 direction of the late Prof. Newman ; and on the second 
 Wednesday of September, 1840, a third in Bridgewater, under 
 the direction of the late Col. Tillinghast. 
 
 It should be here understood that these schools were not at 
 first State schools, but the schools of private munificence, 
 aided by the State — the State being responsible neither for 
 success nor failure. Consequently, and indeed as a measure 
 of policy also, private aid was solicited and private coopera- 
 tion secured. To the school in Lexington, a building, used 
 as an academy years before, was given, free of rent, for three 
 years ; and some contributions were made by well-wishing citi 
 zens for repairs, apparatus, &c. A similar arrangement was 
 effected for each of the other schools. The citizens of all 
 these towns seem, however, perhaps naturally enough, not to 
 have sufficiently appreciated the value of these schools to their 
 respective towns, nor to have anticipated what they were in 
 time to become. Accordingly two of the schools, those at 
 Lexington and at Barre, were compelled to find new homes, 
 after their first term of three years had expired ; while that at 
 Bridgewater is understood to have actually suffered for a time. 
 
 The gentleman selected by the Board of Education to com- 
 mence the experiment at Lexington was Rev. Cyrus Peirce, 
 a native of Waltham, Mass., born Aug. 15, 1790, and gradu- 
 ated at Harvard College in 1810, where he left behind him a 
 reputation for pure morals, upright demeanor, and thorough- 
 ness in scholarship. In his sophomore year he taught the vil- 
 
48 
 
 lage school in West Newton, where he was destined nearly 
 fifty years after to close his long and successful educational 
 career. Soon after leaving College, in 1810, he took the 
 charge of a private school on the island of Nantucket; whence, 
 after two years of acceptable labor, he returned to Cambridge, 
 and completed a course of study preparatory to the Christian 
 ministry. After spending three years in preparation for what 
 he looked forward to as his great life-work, he was urgently 
 solicited to return to Nantucket and resume the work of in- 
 struction. Here he labored with his accustomed zeal and 
 success until 1818, when he relinquished his place, and en- 
 tered upon the work of the ministry. During his residence in 
 Nantucket Mr. Peirce was united in marriage with Miss 
 Harriet Coffin of that place, to whose wisdom in counsel, 
 readiness and constancy of sympathy, promptness and energy 
 in action, combined with cheerfulness and hopefulness of dis- 
 position, and rich and varied culture, he doubtless owed much 
 of his success in the different positions he afterwards filled. 
 No sketch of this school, at least, could be complete which did 
 not recognize the modest and uncompensated labor of Mrs. 
 Peirce. May she long live to enjoy the gratitude of her own 
 as well as her husband's pupils, and the benign smiles of our 
 Heavenly Father ! Mr. Peirce was settled as a minister in 
 North Reading in A. D. 1819, and continued ably and suc- 
 cessfully to perform the duties of his office for eight years, 
 when he resigned and again resumed the work of instruction,' 
 subsequently returned again to Nantucket, where he became 
 a recognized authority in all school matters, and was first and 
 foremost in every good word and work. His influence on the 
 Common Schools of the island was great, and served to make 
 them among the very best in the country. While in charge 
 there of the new public High School, Mr. Mann accidentally 
 met him, visited his school, became charmed with the man and 
 delighted with his work. Hence he was invited, in 1839, as 
 
49 
 
 has been stated before, to take charge of the new, difficult and 
 doubtful experiment at Lexington. No one can comprehend 
 the situation of affairs at the time, — the grandeur of the enter- 
 prise, if successful, — the disastrous consequences, if it failed, 
 without cheerfully considering that this appointment was the 
 highest honor that could be conferred on any educator in the 
 country ; without understanding something of his feelings when 
 he exclaimed to his wife, "Harriet, I would rather die than fail 
 in this experiment." To his reputation as an instructor a fail- 
 ure would have been a death from which there would have 
 been for him no resurrection. No wonder that, when he re- 
 turned home from the disappointment of that first day, he said 
 to Mrs. Peirce, "The Board have made a mistake in electing 
 me ; beyond Nantucket I am not known as a teacher, and the 
 public have no confidence in me." The despondency was but 
 a passing cloud, — cheerfulness and hopefulness returned. 
 
 The little school, with some additions in the next few 
 days, was organized, and commenced its noble career, unfalter- 
 ingly. Numbers slowly increased ; a Model School was organ- 
 ized in October, its first teacher being Miss Swift, now Mrs. 
 Lamson, who is with us to-day ; and thus, on a small scale, the 
 system was complete. Many persons will remember how 
 apathetic were the people in general, at this time, in regard to 
 these schools ; while some, ignorant of their true character, mis- 
 apprehended and misunderstood their design, so that envy and 
 jealousy were soon added to the obstacles to be encountered. In 
 the winter of 1840, a storm of opposition arose, and but for the 
 most skilful management and vigorous battle, the destruction 
 of the Normal School, and a dishonorable return of his money 
 to Mr. Dwight, would have been the consequence. God be 
 praised, the Old Bay State, which none love more tenderly 
 than those who no longer dwell among her enlightened peo- 
 ple, was saved this burning shame ! The victory over politi- 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 cal and theological opposition, over naiTow-minded jealousy 
 and rivalry, gave rise to a better understanding and an unex- 
 pected degree of popularity. So God everywhere "makes the 
 wrath of man to praise Him." Opposition did not cease' at 
 once, but it never again gained strength enough to be very for- 
 midable. The school, once started and safely through its first 
 winter, continued slowly but steadily to increase until 1842, 
 when the Principal, exhausted by the labors and anxieties at- 
 tendant upon it, was compelled to resign and recruit his wasted 
 powers. Thus far he had labored alone ; and, that he might 
 not give an argument to the most penurious, and in order to 
 make the limited funds hold out as long as possible, had not 
 only managed and taught the school, but had performed some 
 of its most menial offices. 
 
 Both Mr. Peirce and Mr. Mann at once fixed upon Rev. 
 Samuel J. Mat as a most worthy successor, and, by their so- 
 licitations, Mr. Mat gave up his parish in South Scituate, and 
 accepted the appointment, September 1, 1842. Mr. Mat, a 
 native of Boston, was graduated at Harvard University in 
 1817. During his college life he taught school in the winter, 
 first in Concord and then in Beverly. Having completed his 
 studies, preparatory to the ministry, at Cambridge, he com- 
 menced preaching in December, 1820, "the very Sunday after 
 Daniel Webster's solemn charge to the occupants of the 
 pulpit to be faithful to the cause of the enslaved." In 1822 
 he was settled as a pastor in Brooklyn, Ct., where he remained 
 fourteen years ; being, during the whole of that fime, a member 
 of the School Committee of the town, and devoting much time 
 and thought to education. It was at his instance, that in 1826 
 the first popular convention on the subject of education and 
 the improvement of schools was called. In the years 1832-3- 
 4 and 5, he devoted much time to the anti-slavery cause, in 
 connection with Mr. Garrison, George Thompson, and the 
 
51 
 
 abolitionists. From 1836 to 1812 he was minister of the 
 church of South Scituate, Mass., and, in the spring of 1845, 
 was settled as minister of the First Unitarian Church in Syra- 
 cuse, N. Y. where he at present resides. During Mr. May's 
 connection with this Institution its numbers greatly increased, 
 and he was compelled to summon to his aid assistants. 
 
 The fortunate selection of Miss Caroline E. Tild en, doubt- 
 less added still further to the popularity of the school. Miss 
 Tilben, a former parishioner of his, was educated at the Bridge- 
 watei School, and by her peculiar genius and talents, high cul- 
 ture and zeal, was well-fitted for the post. Her heart was full 
 of kindness, her manners attractive, and her eye was an almost 
 irresistible charm. Her career was short ; she "preferred to 
 wear out rather than to rust out," and soon passed away. Her 
 associate, Miss Electa N. Lincoln, was a pupil of Mr. 
 Peirce, a pupil and then an assistant of Mr. May, again 
 an assistant and chief support to Mr. Peirce, and most ably 
 conducted the affairs of the institution during the interval 
 between the close of the administration of Mr. Peirce and the 
 beginning of that of Mr. Stearns ; and with the latter she 
 labored with untiring zeal and faithfulness, assisting him to 
 carry the school through a most difficult and critical period, as 
 no other could have done, encouraging him by her example 
 and cheerful spirit, until her marriage in 1850 to Mr. Geo. 
 N. Walton, of Lawrence. 
 
 It may be well to state here, once for all, that it is impos- 
 sible even to allude to the many highly cultivated, noble- 
 spirited, self-sacrificing ladies who have from time to time 
 labored in this school. May God bless them all, as they have 
 blessed others! 
 
 The school having now quite outgrown its accommodations, 
 Mr. May urged upon the citizens of Lexington the necessity 
 of providing more ample ones, if they would retain it. But 
 
52 
 
 a spirit of apathy had fallen upon the people, or possibly they 
 felt too sure of retaining the school without exertion on their 
 part, and nothing was done. Finding that there was no hope 
 at Lexington, Mr. Mat visited several other towns in the 
 vicinity, and succeeded in finding, in the then greatly secluded 
 village of West Newton, a suitable building and grounds, and 
 a manifest desire for the school on the part of the citizens. 
 The premises had cost originally $3000, but were greatly out 
 of repair, and were now offered at $1500. But how to raise 
 this sum was a question. The Board of Education had no 
 funds which could be appropriated for such a purpose, — the 
 munificence of private persons was apparently exhausted, — 
 the prosperous school bade fair to die of poverty. In this 
 etrait, Mr. Mann, to whom this school was dear as the apple 
 of his eye, had recourse to an old, well-tried, personal friend, 
 as well as a friend of popular education, who- had stood by 
 his side in defence of Normal Schools "when they were a 
 novelty on this side of the water, and ignorance, bigotry, 
 economy and ridicule were arrayed against them." For five 
 years they had progressed steadily in usefulness and populari- 
 ty, but their permanent establishment was not considered to be 
 certain. The school at Lexington was the most popular, and 
 the scholars more than the building could accommodate. 
 Should it die for the want ot $1500 ? Should all the anxie- 
 ties, labors, and triumphant successes be lost for the want of 
 .so small a sum ? On the other hand, let a building be pur- 
 chased, and the school would have a home at once ; it would 
 be immediately placed above contingencies ; it would have sta- 
 bility and strength. No wonder that Mr. Mann, in his anxi- 
 ety to seize the golden opportunity, and in full view of the 
 glories of success and the sad consequences of failure, in the 
 figurative language which he was, perhaps, more likely to use 
 than approve, exclaimed, as he rushed into the office of the 
 
53 
 
 Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr. of Boston, " Quincy, do you know 
 of any one who wants the highest seat in the kingdom of 
 Heaven? for it is to be bought for $1500?" Mr. Quincy 
 asked what he meant. An explanation followed. Mr. Quincy, 
 with noble generosity, at once drew his check for the amount, 
 directing Mr. Mann to buy the building, "take a deed in his 
 own name, and, in case the Normal School system should be 
 ' abandoned, to devote the proceeds that might arise from a sale 
 of the building to the advancement, in any way he pleased, of 
 common school education." The building was out of repair, 
 and Mr. Mann sold his library and stocks, and expended 
 $1500 of his own money upon it. The citizens of West New- 
 ton gave $600 more, the State added something ; the broad 
 seal of permanency was affixed, and success was written over 
 against experiment. 
 
 Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., an illustrious son of illustrious 
 parents and ancestry, to whose noble and timely generosity 
 reference has been made, is tco well known in this community 
 to make any sketch of his life and services proper here. We 
 may add, however, that the education and employment of 
 female teachers in schools has ever been a favorite measure 
 with him. 
 
 While things were thus progressing with reference to a 
 removal from Lexington, Mr. May, finding that his predeces 
 sor, Mr. Peirce, had recovered his health, with characteristic 
 modesty and distrust of his own success, at once stepped aside 
 and, by his resignation, August 31, 1844, made way for the 
 re-appointment of Mr. Peirce, which took place September 1, 
 1844. 
 
 Mr. Peirce brought to his work renewed health and vigor, 
 and, if possible, more comprehensive views of its nature and 
 importance. The experiment was now regarded by the public 
 generally as successful, and people began to seek to enjoy its 
 
54 
 
 benefits rather than to destroy it. A new Model Department 
 was created and .placed in charge of Mr. Geo. N. Walton. 
 
 On the 20th of March, 1845, the Legislature resolved, 
 " That the schools heretofore known as Normal Schools, shall 
 be hereafter known as State Normal Schools," — thus formally 
 adopting them into the school system of the State, and, by 
 implication, becoming responsible for their generous support 
 and conduct. That must have been a proud day for Mr. 
 Peirce. His favorite school had succeeded. The little one 
 had become a thousand ; the mustard seed a mighty tree, and 
 its leaves were for the healing of nations. After three years 
 more of unremitting labor, the health of Mr. Peirce again 
 broke down, and he was compelled to resign in April, 1849, 
 worn out and grown old before his time ; his physical condi- 
 tion bearing witness to the nature and extent of the labor he 
 had performed, and the responsibilities he had borne. On 
 leaving the institution, his pupils and friends, by a public meet- 
 ing and presentation of $500, to defray in part his expenses 
 to Europe, testified their appreciation of his services, and love 
 for him as a well-tried, devoted friend. Mr. Peirce went to 
 Europe shortly after this, and, on his return, with his health 
 greatly improved, he once more engaged in teaching. He 
 now became associated with Mr. N. T. Allen, previously the 
 director of the Model Department, in establishing a Private 
 Seminary in the Normal School Building at West Newton. 
 But Mr. Peirce's recovery was temporary ; he soon failed 
 again, and finally closed his protracted labors on the 5th of 
 April, 1860. 
 
 We have no time to give an analysis of Mr. Peirce's char- 
 acter, or of his method of instruction, This must be left to 
 other persons and a fitter occasion. 
 
 Mr. Peirce's successor was Eben S. Stearns, a native 
 of Bedford. He was appointed in May, 1849, but did not 
 
55 
 
 enter upon his labor until the following September, spending 
 most of the intervening time in visiting schools in this and 
 other States, preparing himself for the work. Mr. Stearns 
 graduated at Harvard University in 1841, and was immedi- 
 ately engaged in teaching ; first in charge of the Ipswich High 
 School ; then of the Free Street Female Seminary in Portland, 
 Maine, whence he removed to Newburyport, organizing and 
 teaching in the Female High School as its first Principal. 
 During this time he observed carefully the nature and work- 
 ings of our Common School system ; and, being required to 
 establish and conduct a teacher's class in his school at New- 
 buryport, he not only had opportunity to acquaint himself with 
 the Normal Schools, but also to gain considerable experience 
 in the preparation of teachers. 
 
 The position in which this new Principal found himself 
 was trying in many respects. He was a younger man than his 
 predecessors had been, less experienced and less known. He 
 was to enter into the labors of one most firmly seated in the 
 affections of his pupils, and identified with the school. Beside, 
 he was. supposed by many to represent a new class of persons 
 and interests. If there was, at first, some distrust on the part 
 of the school and its friends on the one hand, and disappoint- 
 ment on the part of those who looked for a tangible revolution 
 on the other, it is not surprising. However, the latter smoth- 
 ered their disappoint -nent, for it had no basis ; while the former 
 were soon divested of prejudice by the cordiality of Mr. 
 Mann, in whose family, by the invitation of his accomplished 
 lady, he, for a long time, resided ; and by the ready support 
 given him by his assistants, Miss Lincoln and Miss Pen- 
 nell, and by Mr. Allkn of the Model School ; as well as by the 
 general countenance and approbation of the most prominent 
 members of the Board of Education. 
 
 The school now became very large. The Model School was 
 
56 
 
 moved across the street to excellent accommodations fitted for 
 it by the town of Newton, and now became, under Mr. Allen, 
 one of the most useful and popular of schools. The room 
 vacated by the Model Department was speedily appropriated 
 to the growing; wants of the Normal School. Even this was 
 not enough, and the question of a new building and larger ac- 
 commodations began to be agitated. 
 
 The increase of numbers made possible some changes, which, 
 with a smaller attendance, might have seemed of doubtful ex- 
 pediency. The requirements for admission were more rigidly 
 exacted. Pupils falling short of the required age, but a few 
 days often, were rejected. "A severe and binding pledge 
 was given in writing by every candidate, thai she would be 
 faithful as a member of the institution, and devote herself to 
 teaching, if qualified, in the schools of this State, and every 
 one unwilling to give this pledge was excluded. The exami- 
 nations for admission were made as severe as they well could 
 be, and were conducted by members of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, assisted by the teachers. None were allowed to stay in 
 the school who did not give promise of aptness to teach, and 
 ability to manage schools, however faithful in study or agree- 
 able in behavior. The course of study was extended half a 
 year, and made as thorough as possible ; and an additional 
 three years' course was introduced for such as sought a still 
 higher culture. The carefulness and severity practised in 
 admitting pupils, the strictly professional character of the 
 school, and the sifting and re-sifting, which the the pupils had 
 to undergo, had an obvious tendency to keep down numbers, 
 as well as to raise the standard of acquisition. In 1850, and 
 ao-ain in 1851, the Board of Education took measures to bring 
 before the Legislature true increasing wants of the school, and 
 on "May 13, 1852, the sum of $6000 was placed at the dis- 
 posal of the Board of Education to defray the expenses of pro- 
 
57 
 
 viding a more commodious site and building, and the necessary 
 appurtenances and apparatus for the accommodation of the 
 State Normal School at West Newton ;" and the Board were 
 directed to receive propositions from towns and individuals 
 in aid of these objects, and afterwards to make such selection 
 as would, in their opinion, best subserve the interests and ac- 
 commodate the wants of said school. The time for receiving 
 such propositions was limited to six months. 
 
 Propositions soon began to come in. Lexington, seeing 
 here an opportunity to recover the ground so carelessly lost, 
 made most praiseworthy and liberal offers, and urged her 
 claims strenuously. Salem, with that large-hearted generosity 
 for which her citizens are so conspicuous, offered to provide 
 such a building as the Board would direct, and meet the 
 expense. Many other places made offers. West Newton 
 was, perhaps, on the whole, the least liberal. The people had 
 believed the school to be permanently located on the side of 
 their pleasant hills ; "they didn't like the idea of other towns 
 trying to buy it away ;" "they did not believe the opulent and 
 liberal State of Massachusetts really wanted their money or 
 cared for more than a testimonial of good-will ;'' they did not 
 realize, that, under Providence, the Normal School and the 
 influences brought with it, and attendant upon it, had raised 
 their village from comparative obscurity to notoriety, and added 
 to it a large and cultivated population and considerable wealth. 
 The landholders did not seem inclined to part with a suitable 
 site for any reasonable sum ; and, in short, the effort of West 
 Newton to retain the school was too feeble to carry with it 
 much weight. The final determination of the Board was to 
 transfer this school to Framingham Centre, and to reward the 
 generous impulses of Salem by creating a new State Normal 
 School which should be located in that city. The Salem 
 school was accordingly soon organized, and from that time to 
 the present has been in a most flourishing condition 
 
58 
 
 A site for the new school building having been selected in 
 Framingham, the work of erection was soon commenced, and 
 the school removed and established in its new and appropriate 
 quarters on December 15, 1853, on which day the house was 
 dedicated by appropriate services, His Excellency Governor 
 Clifford presiding, and Mr. Geo. B. Emerson, making the 
 dedicatory address. 
 
 It is not strange that for a time some misunderstandings of 
 each other took place between the town and the school, but 
 these were finally and happily adjusted, and the school moved 
 on in the even tenor of its way. 
 
 The building now occupied by the State Normal School, 
 with preparation of the grounds and the furniture, cost nearly 
 or quite $20,000. Individuals presented for a site five 
 and three-quarter acres of land eligibly situated, and the town 
 appropriated two thousand five hundred dollars in aid of the 
 erection of the building. The Boston and Worcester Rail- 
 road Company, from whose energetic Superintendent, now 
 its most able President, Hon. Ginery Twitchell, the 
 author never asked a favor for this school in vain, appro- 
 priated $2000, thus handsomely recognizing the influence of 
 these educational institutions upon commercial prosperity. 
 
 On the 22d of September, 1855, Mr. Stearns, who had 
 been appointed Principal of the Female Academy at Albany, 
 N. Y., resigned his place ; and Mr. George N. Bigelow, the 
 present incumbent, immediately succeeded him. Of the last 
 two administrations we cannot give an extended account, since 
 the historian cannot impartially represent -the former of these, 
 and the latter, however prosperous, is still in progress. 
 
 In closing this protracted sketch the author mast again say 
 that he has found the task of reducing the important facts of 
 history to the limits prescribed exceedingly arduous, and if 
 
59 
 
 much seems dry, or imperfectly stated, or if any fact of im- 
 portance has been overlooked, he hopes that his desire, ever 
 constant, but unattained, to be very brief, will be the apology. 
 He must, also, be allowed to recognize the great assistance 
 afforded him in the preparation of this sketch by gentlemen 
 interested in this occasion, and especially by Hon. Henry 
 Barnard, from whose excellent journal many facts have been 
 drawn. And his thanks are due to Mrs. Horace Mann, for 
 the polite and generous offer, for his perusal, of the journal of 
 her late distinguished husband, of which it was impossible to 
 avail himself, on account of the distance at which the sketch 
 was written, and the limited time at the writer's command. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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U!* ARY 0F CONGRESS 
 
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