ELIOT A Complete System of Education LB 41 E42 COMPLETE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. A LECTUEE DELIVERED BEFORE THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, JANUARY 19, 1853. BY SAMUEL A. ELIOT. BOSTON: 1853. E ASTBTJRN'S PRES S COMPLETE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION., A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, JANUARY 19, 1853. BY SAMUEL A. ELIOT. n BOSTON: 1853. EASTBURN'S PRESS. LECTURE. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, In the lectures of the course which is now drawing to a close you have had valuable illustrations of the effects which may follow from the combination of education with original ability. The lectures themselves have furnished the evidence of the beneficial results of that great agency which I have se- lected as my subject ; and I should not have dared to have joined the series of eminent persons who have preceded me, had I not believed that there are some important truths con- nected with the topic of education not generally recognized, but which it requires neither genius to discover, nor elo- quence to develop ; truths the effect of which depends upon their intrinsic importance, and not on the rhetoric by which they may be embellished. It may be said, too, that he who stands on the outside of a temple can see its propor- tions and its beauty, which he who has already entered its penetralia can only remember. We have had illustrations of ancient literature, modern poetry, art, science, and their connexions and contrasts, and the dependence of all upon the intellect which is the com- mon property and agent of art, science and poetry. But the practical subject of the means by which the intellect, the mother of all the three, may be cultivated, and enriched, has been, as yet, scarcely touched ; and it will be my object to show by what agency this may be best effected, and to point out the duty of society in relation to that cultivation, as well as some of the advantages which may be derived from it. A feeling very nearly akin to indignant surprise might very naturally be expected to arise in a Massachusetts audi- ence, and more especially in a Boston audience, who should be addressed upon the deficiencies of our system of public education. " What !" they might exclaim, " was not Massa- chusetts the very first to establish, and the most earnest to maintain a plan of absolutely universal education ? Was it not made compulsory upon every town to sustain its schools ? Have we not provision, too, for the training of teachers, established by the State ? Have we not Academies without end, and Colleges more numerous, in proportion to our popu- lation, than any other State ? What would you have more ?" If my audience will pardon me for the heresy, I would have a great deal more, both of instruction and of system ; and the whole should be so extended as to be adapted to all the edu- cational wants of the population. There should be not only some education for all, but every needed kind of education, from which all may make their choice. There should be not only provision for the dissemination of mental food, but the means of gathering and storing the harvest, of increasing the growth of future years, and of varying the culture with the changing tastes and wants of successive generations. In this country the government is the combined power, in- telligence, and wealth of the entire people. At least it acts for, represents the whole people for purposes which cannot be attained so well by individual action ; and for education among the chief and foremost. With regard to all elemen- tary education this has been long acknowledged. Nobody has doubted that it was the duty of the State, as such, to provide, in some way or other, for that portion of education in which all must participate equally, or at least in which all desire to participate equally ; but the moment there is any proposition to go beyond this, it is met by the argument that such education is not equally for the benefit of all, but for that of the few. It is special legislation for particular class- es ; and not only it is not the duty of government to provide for such education, but it is anti-republican in its nature, and therefore government ought resolutely to refuse to do any such thing. If there is truth and justice in this argu- ment, it must be admitted to be conclusive. If free govern- ments cannot foster education in all its forms and degrees, let us look for other means ; but if there be any fallacy here, it is important to discover it and set it aside ; for of all agencies in promoting improvement, of whatever sort, that of the gov- ernment, wielding substantially the entire resources of the people, is the most effective. If the wealth of the people cannot properly be used by their agents, except for the equal, direct, benefit of all, it becomes us to know it ; and if this doctrine be established I must stop here. Let us inquire a 5 little into this matter, as preliminary to any full discussion of the subject. I do not know that it is characteristic of republics in gen- eral to legislate much, to be always regulating every thing, and to change the regulations of one year by those of the next ; but, most unquestionably, it is a marked distinction of American legislatures to be very busy in doing and undoing ; and it will be a most surprising and unlooked for result if all this legislation, backward and forward, enacting and repeal- ing, considering and reconsidering, making experiments of every imaginable variety, should turn out invariably, or even generally, to be directly for the equal benefit of all classes. So far is this from the truth, that there is scarcely a law, how- ever general in its terms, excepting perhaps those for the protection of the person, in which all have, or can have, an equal interest. Laws for the protection of property affect differently those who have different amounts of property to be protected ; and those for the protection of particular kinds of property affect only, or at least principally, those who pos- sess it. What direct interest have you, or I, in the law which protects the alewive fishery in Agawam river ? Or what has the farmer, or the sailor, to do with the especial protection of shops from larceny ? There was a law passed last winter in our legislature, in the most general terms pos- sible ; very remarkable for its comprehensiveness, as well as its brevity, but which scarcely affects one person in a hun- dred thousand at all, directly or indirectly ; and yet it was a very proper, and reasonable law, one which ought to pass, and which will never be counted among the misdeeds of the legis- lature. It consisted of the following nine words, " Aliens may take, hold, convey and transmit real estate." Nothing can be more general in its form, yet it is for the direct bene- fit of but a small class of inhabitants in this State, and they not citizens ; nothing can be more equitable, and yet scarcely one in ten thousand citizens will ever derive any benefit from it, or perhaps, even, ever hear of it. Such laws, viz., those which are sometimes invidiously designated as special legislation, are necessarily passed, every year, by every legislature in America, by common consent ; and if all such were erased from the statute book we should find we had taken a long step backward in the path of civili- zation. The true limitation in this particular is, not that a law should benefit all equally, for that, as a general rule, is im- possible, but that it should do no wrong to any, that it should injure no one without compensation. It should benefit some- body, but to require it to benefit every body alike, is to re- quire an impossibility. Laws for the promotion of education will undoubtedly, if wisely made, be of great, of incalculable benefit to the whole community, through their direct action, and of still greater advantage through that which is indirect ; and I now propose to suggest what it seems to me, would be a true and com- plete system of education for the benefit, and by the means and resources of the Commonwealth, and to urge some argu- ments to show the importance of the object, and the duty which devolves on the government of the Commonwealth to carry into execution such scheme of general education as shall appear to it most comprehensive and useful. The present educational plans of Massachusetts embrace nothing more than the Common school for children, and the Normal school for the teachers. Nothing is taught, under the auspices of the Commonwealth, but the absolute neces- sities of intellectual life ; those elements which may ena- ble the child of a poor man, if endowed with an ardent genius, to educate himself imperfectly in after life, or the son of a rich man to move on more rapidly, under the guidance of such instructors as may be procured for him by a liberal expenditure. The acquisition of knowledge, the discipline of the mind which is the best result of the best education, is not a task so soon or so easily finished. The road is steep, difficult, abounding with obstacles, interminable. And shall the State, the common mother, content herself with standing at its very entrance, just holding the gate open, and saying " En- ter, my children, this is the road to eminence ; climb up these first hills, and you will have a splendid view of moun- tains upon mountains beyond, which you may ascend if you like, and which you must climb if you mean to reach a really lofty position?" It was a great thing, two centuries ago, that New England should have done so much more, in the days of her poverty, and anxiety, and weakness, than the rest of the world, to promote the general education by public authority ; but it is nothing to boast of that she should have made no progress since, in the same way, and that the Common School has become now the sole object of her care. In Massachusetts provision was made, more than two centuries ago, for a more extended course of education, to be sustained by all the re- sources of the colony, and if we had retained the noble am- bition of our fathers and founders, such a purpose would never have slipped out of view, or have become unpopular. A College was talked of, and an appropriation was made for it, by the Colonial authority, within a year after grammar schools were established ; and our ancestors were right in thinking the one altogether inadequate, as the means of pub- lic instruction, without the other. The Common School is the cradle, and the intellectual food furnished there is fit for the infant occupant ; but to claim that the State has done its whole duty in providing those only for its children, is estab- lishing a very limited sphere of duty indeed. It would be as wise to contend that the parent was absolved from all re- sponsibility for the child, as soon as it was able to stand alone, and that thenceforward the poor thing should provide for itself. No. If it be the duty of the parent to provide at all for his child, it is his duty to do so till the child is able to provide for himself; and if it be the duty of the State, or if it be wise for it to provide any education for the community, it is its duty, and it is wise for it to furnish as much as is needed for the preparation of that community for all the duties and occupations of life. The true limit is the benefit to be de- rived to the whole of society by providing means of improve- ment which cannot be so well obtained otherwise. The re- sources of the State are so much more vast than those of individuals, that what is impossible for the latter would scarce produce a perceptible financial effect on the former. It has long been the practice here, and a very wise one too, to leave individuals to provide for themselves, without aid from the State, so long as they can do it ; but it has also been the practice for the State to patronize the projects of individuals, and give them countenance and material aid when it is needed, and when those projects tend to promote the general welfare. One branch of this policy has been as wise as the other, and our most valuable physical improve- ments have been effected in this way. Sometimes a charter, with temporary privileges, has been granted, like the patents of the general government ; and sometimes the State itself has become copartner in its own corporations, and has reaped, directly and indirectly too, a rich harvest of gain on the speculation. In the great business of education the " let alone " policy has been, in my judgment, pursued to far too great an extent. Since the establishment of our present constitution, in 1780, very little has been done by the Commonwealth in aid of any establishment for education, excepting the Common Schools. The College's owe very nearly all the resources pro- vided since 1780, to individual contributions, while the 8 academies and professional schools derive from the same source every dollar they possess. The consequence is that there is, in every institution of the sort, a great display of in- dividual preferences for this or that branch of education professorships established, not as a part of a general plan, but merely because some well-disposed gentleman thought it desirable ; collections containing, not the books, the instru- ments, the specimens which were exactly needed in the Col- lege course, but such as happened to be in the possession of the donors ; and when all is brought together there is seen many a yawning gap, many a "hiatus valde deflendus" which, to the eye of the well-informed observer, really con- stitutes the most striking peculiarity of our academic institu- tions. Nothing is complete, nothing systematic ; and it requires the greatest ingenuity and effort on the part of those who have the management of these institutions, to draw together the various fragments of the miscellaneous dona- tions, in order to make even a decent show of preparation for the true purpose of a College ; and frequent and wearisome appeals to the generosity of individuals, to supply the want which happens to press most severely at the moment, though it may, in fact, be no more important than any of the others, and though the temporary supply which may be obtained will not prevent the recurrence of the same necessity within a brief period. Let me not be understood as uttering a syllable of re- proach against the noble benefactors of our Colleges. It is not their fault that the institutions are imperfectly ar- ranged, and imperfectly supplied with the means of instruc- tion. It is their great glory that our Colleges have accom- plished so much, that so valuable an education can be ob- tained in them as is actually given ; and the gratitude of all future generations of Americans will be forever due to those generous men who have labored so successfully to pre- vent the decline and fall of the republic of letters among us. It was not their privilege, nor their duty, to found complete and well-organized Colleges. They had no power and no opportunity to do so ; and of all men it would least become me to say a word in disparagement of those whom the rich- est and noblest of the world might well emulate, and whom all must honor. But my experience, both as a pupil and an officer of a College, has led me to see and to deplore the ex- istence of imperfections so great and manifold as to be quite beyond the probable reach of the means which have been heretofore applied to remove them, but which yet may be easily and effectually remedied, if the public mind can be brought to take what seems to me the right view of the case. The great question is, what is the duty of the State in re- gard to this matter. There exists no doubt, in the mind of any one, as to what the State Government ought to do in relation to all other interests. It ought to develop all its re- sources, and increase its attractions; to do all in its power to induce the active and intelligent to seek it for their residence, and to promote in every way the comfort, health, security and happiness^ of its population. These are its unquestioned du- ties, and these are the professed objects of the laws, and of the administration of them. Now in what way can those pur- poses be effected so thoroughly and advantageously as by increasing knowledge, and the means of education ? Look at the effect of the small amount of education which has thus far been given, by public authority and by private con- tribution, in New England. What else has given us the not undeserved reputation for ingenuity and sagacity which dis- tinguishes us among the States of this Union ? Is there any doubt that it is education which has contributed largely to that development of mind which we may justly claim to be at least one of our characteristics ? And is there not a difference discernible in the progress even of the several New England States, in favor of those where the education has been the best, and the most extended? I think it may be doubted if, without its aid, so large a population as now enjoys the insti- tutions of Massachusetts could exist upon its soil. Certainly they could not have found the material or the intellectual enjoyments they possess, without the cultivation of their minds. If such are the results of a meagre and insufficient, unsystematic and incomplete education, what beneficent con- sequences might not be expected to flow from a full, free, fertilizing stream of knowledge, which, like the overflow of the Nile, should reach every sequestered, thirsty spot in the whole land ! We have, ourselves, set the noble example to the world, of the universal diffusion of some knowledge among all classes. It has been followed by other States; and we are no longer the only nation whose whole population is taught something. Nay, there are many countries which we are accustomed to regard as very benighted, where much more is taught, and well taught too, than in our schools. But if they have sur- passed us in our own department, if those old despotic gov- ernments have learnt that knowledge is power, in nations as well as individuals, it is time we gave them something else 10 to imitate ; it is time that we looked after our own sources of power in comparison with theirs ; and, that we should not suffer ourselves to be outstripped by them in the career of improvement. We must follow our own example, or rather the example of our forefathers ; and perfect, in proportion to our means and opportunities, what they began in spite of want, embarrassment, and adversity. How shall we do this ? In answer to this question I say, that we must provide suffi- cient means for educating the entire people in every variety of way in which they desire to be educated, in conformity with the wants of the age, and the peculiar circumstances in which they are placed. The time has gone by when reading and writing were considered accomplishments, and great mysteries, or in Indian language, great "medicines." They are necessities to every body ; and in the progress of events, much more is wanted by thousands among us, who can by no means obtain that which they seek. In every profession and every department of human employment, new knowledge has been gained, of which every new laborer in each depart- ment must be possessed, or he can make no advance. And not merely so, if be is not possessed of the most recent dis- coveries he falls behind his class, and is deprived of the satis- factions, of various kinds, which he sees some of his com- panions enjoying. The government of the Commonwealth is bound to see this state of things ; and seeing it, is bound to strive to meet the circumstances of the times. It has the resources, and no one else has what is requisite. It has the power of adapting itself to the wants of all, arid supplying the wants of all. Let it see to it, then, that the duty which has fallen upon it be discharged, that the means of progress and improvement in its hands be not wasted, nor suffered to lie unemployed. The intellect of its people is the richest field it can till, the richest mine it can explore. Let it no longer be satisfied with furnishing the most elementary of all elementary education ; but let it believe that its children can profitably use something more than the alphabet and the numeration table. It is enough to make the most sanguine person despond of the progress of education among us, to consider the immense wants of our Colleges, the irregularity and want of system in the means which are furnished for the cultivation of the young, and the small portion of the community to whom any appeal can be made to relieve their constantly pressing wants. In looking over the donations which have been made by sub- scription for a vast variety of purposes, including education, 11 within the period of this generation, one finds the same names of a limited number of persons recurring on almost every paper, so that one is painfully impressed with the in- equality with which the burdens incident to the promotion of the public good are borne. The only way to remedy this injustice is, to provide by law for the maintenance of all those establishments which the public good really requires. It seems to be commonly imagined that a College educa- tion is something very magnificent, arid much beyond the wants of the people ; and they have been unwisely taught to be very jealous of it, as of something very aristocratic in its tendency, and deserving of any thing rather than encourage- ment. But what is it, after all? I desire to speak with the most entire respect of the education given in our Colleges, and of those who give it. It is indispensable, both as a dis- cipline of the mind, and as the means of furnishing a certain amount of positive and necessary knowledge. But still it is only preparatory to something else. It is a stepping stone, and not a resting point. Pray do not let us imagine that a young man who has merely gone through College, must therefore know a great deal. I can affirm, both from experi- ence and observation, that his knowledge amounts to but very little. But that little some of us must have, or we can have no learned professions among us ; and I cannot believe it would be profitable for a State to have no well instructed clergy, physicians, or jurists. Of course the entire population does not require a College education; but the State requires some men educated in that particular manner, a certain pro- portion which will necessarily be an increasing number with the growth of the State ; and for its own sake, as a matter of public advantage, and the general welfare, it ought to pro- vide the means of giving such education to all who need it. It would be easy to prevent those to whom it was not suit- able from wasting their time in trying to obtain it, by keep- ing the standard of attainment so high, that none but those who could profit by it should remain in such institutions. If the door were thus opened to all who wished to enter, the number would be somewhat larger, no doubt, than hereto- fore ; but all those whom it is desirable to remove would leave their places for more promising pupils, and thus the actual addition would not probably be excessive. By providing for Collegiate education throughout the State, I mean that the government should furnish not merely the supervision of Colleges, which it has heretofore so carefully preserved, but that it should actually provide all necessary 12 means and appliances, such as buildings, books, instruments, salaries, scholarships, collections, and all the thousand etcetera of College studies, so that it might really have something of its own to look after, instead of seizing upon what has been established by private bounty, and calling it a State institu- tion, merely because it is designed, or adapted, to benefit the whole Commonwealth. Doubtless politicians of all parties, as at present advised, will look with great contempt and indignation at a proposi- tion involving such a vast expense as the proper endowment of the three existing Colleges in Massachusetts ; and so they would have done at the act not a mere proposition but the positive action of their fathers, if they had been alive in 1636. " Whaf ! " they would have said, " appropriate 400 sterling for a College, when we have but little more than that amount of money in the whole colony ! A College, too, in the woods, where there is nobody but Indians, and when there are not fifty white boys to be found within fifty miles. The thing is preposterous. We want all our means and hands to meet our physical wants, and it will be time enough to talk about book-learning when we have established our- selves with a little more strength and security." Not so thought, not so acted our fathers. And now that we can look upon the results of their policy, even as it regards phy- sical prosperity, we can see that they could have done nothing wiser, or more kind to their posterity, than the founding of schools and Colleges, cultivating the mental powers, and giv- ing to their children that activity and energy which have converted the wilderness into a garden, and the land of granite and ice into the abode of freedom, comfort, and abundance. Their fine example was followed in the other New England Colonies, and more or less in the remainder ; and it is in large part, if not entirely, to the intellectual and moral progress imparted by schools and Colleges, that we owe our advance in outward prosperity, our reputation, and even our independence as a nation ; for it is not likely that an un- educated people could have begun, much less could have suc- cessfully concluded, the war of our revolution. If we owe all this to the wisdom of our fathers, are we not bound to imi- tate them ? The time has now come, surely, when we have strength, security, and means enough to do as we choose, without pinching ourselves, or scarcely feeling the pressure of the necessary taxation. The people who have $200,000,000 and more of annual revenue, ought to have something to spare for the education of their children, even if it were with 13 no other object than to increase their income. There is no way in which even this humble object can be secured so effectually as by appropriate and well directed education. But there is no need of appealing to any such inferior mo- tives. The results of extended education are too well under- stood and appreciated to be looked at with indifference by the people, if their attention can be drawn to the facts of the case, and the duties which have fallen upon them. No man ob- jects now to taxation for the support or improvement of Common Schools. No man will object, when the subject is equally well understood, to taxation for the support and im- provement of Colleges, or any institution for necessary instruc- tion. It is not Colleges alone in which the State, as a State, has an interest. The school and the College both are only pre- paratory, as I have said, to something else. A people, a community, cannot prosper certainly, in these days, without the learned professions ; nor can it prosper without mechani- cal skill, without proficiency in the arts of agriculture and navigation, nor without the knowledge of those principles of industry, and international commerce, on the due apportion- ment of which national and individual progress and success so greatly depend. All these things, therefore, and whatso- ever is subsidiary to the attainment of valuable knowledge in each of them, should be under the charge and patronage of the government. The State should supply the schools and the teachers, the implements, and the means of every de- scription which are necessary to the prosecution of studies in all these departments of human knowledge. If it be asked why it should be regarded as the duty of the government to provide for all this, when experience proves that individuals will do it, if not interfered with, the answer is, that experience proves that individuals will do no such thing ; that they do not, and cannot, establish schools, upon a gene- ral and harmonious plan ; but that they usually do such things for particular purposes, either for private ends of personal ad- vantage, or to gratify their particular taste in the cultivation of this or that branch of learning ; and further, that even such schools as are established by single or by associated individ- uals, are generally lamentably deficient in resources as well as in system. If a machine shop is established by an indi- vidual, it is for the manufacture of a certain class of machin- ery only, and for his especial profit. If a school is founded, it is limited alike in its object and its means. If it is for a purpose which the public demands, it is altogether inadequate 14 to supply the want ; and at all events, it is certain that no individual, and scarcely associated wealth, can supply the means necessary for the proper instruction of the whole youth of the Commonwealth in any one, much less in all of the de- partments in which instruction is needed. These things must be done by the government, for the same reason that the national defence is conducted by it. All people have an in- stinct for self-defence, as well as for self-cultivation, and it might be as safely argued that they should be left to defend themselves from foreign aggression as to protect themselves from ignorance. In both cases the outlay is necessarily too great for individual resources, and in both, the want of system destroys a great part of the value of whatever is appro- priated ; so that ultimately the general plan which may be, and should be, pursued by government, is by far the most economical, as well as the most effective. Harvard College is the largest institution for education in the State, and has been, through its whole history, principally dependent upon private bounty and the taxation of the students, for its means of existence ; and when we recollect the mode in which it has grown to its present size, the patch work additions by which instruction has been furnished in various departments, not according to any plan, not always according to the visible and acknowledged wants of the public, but to the fancies of individuals, when we see the very great deficiencies in all sorts of apparatus for the pur- poses professed, we cannot fail to be surprised that the edu- cation obtained there is so respectable as it is, and must attribute to the ingenuity and devotedness of its officers that which certainly is not due to the wisdom or liberality of the Commonwealth. Harvard College is not materially different, in plan of organization or instruction, from the other Colleges in the State. It may give a little more instruction, and be a little better provided than they are with some of the neces- sary subsidiary appliances for education ; but what is true of one is true of all ; that there are great deficiencies yet to be supplied, great expenses to be diminished, and necessary re- sources to be furnished. The complaints are universal of the cost and the imperfection of our collegiate education, and the question is, what is the remedy. It would seem from the general direction of complaint, that the public opinion must be that the Colleges themselves, or rather their officers and managers, are the blameworthy parties. But when the gene- ral allegation is sifted, even by excited partisans, by those who have been loudest in their complaints, it is found that 15 no money has been lost or misused, and that no body of men are more laborious and faithful than the instructors. It has been shown, over and over again, by the severest scrutiny, that the fault is not in that quarter ; and it unavoidably follows that there is a call by the public for a quality and extent of education for which it has not as yet furnished the means ; and if that public intends to have such facilities of instruction, it must pay what they will cost. There are some points in which the expenses of instruction may be expected to diminish with the progress of time. Thus books, and perhaps instruments, may become cheaper ; but there are others, and those very essential, in which it is almost certain that they will not be reduced. With the pro- gress of wealth in the community the cost of living, to instructors as well as pupils, is not likely to fall ; and the value of suitable teachers, as indicated by their salaries, is quite sure to rise. There is no good reason why an eminent scholar, and a competent instructor, should be paid no more than a mechanic can earn ; or a president of a College be considered as compensated, for a less sum than the superin- tendent of a machine shop, or a cotton factory ; and it is a thing to be noted by the public, and by those who represent the public in the halls of legislation, that if the course of events and of sympathies continue much longer in its present direction, if industrial pursuits are to supersede, in the respect of men, those of a more intellectual character, to the extent that seems quite probable, if no proportionate regard is shown for those attainments which do not lead directly to the creation or accumulation of material wealth, the time is not tar distant when men of intellect will desert a sphere of action in which they do not find adequate support or honor ; the standard of character and attainments in professors and instructors will be lowered, and the quality of the instruction given be consequently degraded below its present high and improving tone ; and the effect of all this will be made mani- fest, not only in the Colleges, but every where throughout the State, in every county Lyceum, and every parish church, and ultimately in every school house and workshop. The interests of civilized life are so intermingled and woven together, that no one of them can be neglected with- out injury to all the rest ; and it is for this reason, among others, that it is so important for the State to have the effec- tive control of every department, and to furnish the means of supplying, in due proportion, the educational wants of every class of the community. To this end it should maintain its 16 Colleges in thorough and complete efficiency, as an indispen- sable means for the subsequent professional education. It should establish professional schools, too, in each department but Theology: and in that it might advantageously lend its aid to every denomination in the Commonwealth that desired an institution for education, in proportion to its numbers. There should then be established and maintained as many Farm Schools as would be necessary to give some appropriate instruction to the children of all the farmers in the State ; as many machine shops as would suffice to instruct all her me- chanics and machinists in the theoretic principles of their art ; as many scientific schools as would train up an adequate number of engineers, chemists, architects, naturalists, geolo- gists, and astronomers ; as many schools of navigation as would be competent to prepare the future shipmasters and skippers that shall ever hereafter be born, from Newburyport all along shore to Provincetown, in the mysteries of their noble and indispensable occupation. I mean that the State should furnish all the pecuniary resources necessary to sustain all these institutions, and not leave any one of them to the individual benevolence, or public spirit, that may chance to be excited here or there. Still less should it leave their man- agement to the skill and knowledge of individuals. The entire combination should be systematized by the wisest heads, and organized and conducted by the most adroit and competent administrators ; the necessary apparatus should, in each case, be furnished at the public expense, and such means supplied as would aid in the support of those pupils too indi- gent to support themselves. And now I imagine the prudent members of our House of Representatives looking aghast at the horrid phantom of the accumulated and aggravated expenses I have raised. But let them not be alarmed in vain. The expense would not, for many years, exceed what might very well and profitably be saved out of their own excessive numbers and prolonged sessions. We have the authority of His Excellency the Gov- ernor for the statement that the expenses of legislation in 1851 and 1852 exceeded those of 1841 and 1842 by the sum of $144,000, and I suppose nobody will doubt that there was legislation enough ten years ago. Let the people have, for purposes of education, merely what might be saved by judi- ciously curtailing the annual session of the Legislature, and the number of its members, and we might have the greater part, if not the whole, of all I have enumerated, without a dollar of additional taxation. And if it be true, as I think 17 there can be no doubt it is, that the people of Massachusetts grudge no judicious expenditure for general education, then all that is necessary is to show them that the plan proposed would be for the good of all ; that it is not a scheme to assist one class, and leave another to its fate, but that it compre- hends all as equally as the nature of things will permit. Let them be satisfied that such a scheme offers the best invest- ment of their superfluity, and let them realize the advantages which would accrue to the entire population, and the renown which such an all embracing scheme would confer upon our glorious old Commonwealth over all the world, and I will venture to predict there will be no complaint of the amount of taxation necessary to carry it into full effect. The people of Boston are a pretty fair sample of the New Englander. They are gathered from every part of Yankee- dom, from every section of this and the adjoining States. Now it is well known that one quarter of the entire tax of the city has been, for many years, spent upon the schools, making a sum of from $200,000 to $300,000, according to the growth and consequent wants of the population, and an average of more than $2 a head for every man, woman and child within its limits. Yet who hears the first word of complaint about the amount expended ? There may be occa- sional fault found with the manner in which it is used, as injudicious or extravagant, but never with the appropriation of such a proportion of the .tax bill. The member of the Legislature who first discovers, and acts upon the discovery, that the spirit of the people of the entire Commonwealth is the same as that of the city of Boston, in this respect, is destined to a greater renown than has been acquired by any one of them for several years. $300,000 per annum, about the sum raised in Boston for the purpose of school education, would accomplish all, and more than all, that has been men- tioned. Half of that amount, perhaps a quarter of it, wisely used, would accomplish it in a few years ; and half of that amount would be an addition, not of $2 apiece, but of less than one shilling a head to the population of the entire State. Who shall say that this is impossible ? Let it be considered, too, that if these foundations were once made by the Commonwealth, the private benevolence which has already done so much towards these very objects would still continue to delight in giving its aid, as it has al- ready done to several of the State institutions, and thus the burden on the treasury would gradually be materially relieved. But why talk of a burden on the treasury, when all experience 18 shows that for every dollar spent in this way by the State, five are speedily returned : and our credit, now higher than that of any other State in the Union, would, by such a course, be made to rise higher yet. It is the school and the College which now create a large part of the wealth of the State, and support a large share of her credit abroad. Let the sys- tem of education be extended and perfected, and we will have such a Commonwealth as the world has not yet seen. The party of education is the true party of progress, of a sure movement onwards and upwards. The extension of the area of freedom, which means only overrunning our neigh- bors, seizing their territory, and making them free, whether they will or no, may be productive of benefit, if God over- rule to such an end the human passions which may bring it about ; but the probability is, that doing such enormous evil, that good may come of it, would be productive of more mis- chief than even our former sins of the same kind, burdening our institutions with the dangerous support of those who do not and cannot understand them, and inflaming to ten-fold heat the sectional jealousies which are always hot enough. And what are the advantages that can flow from the acquisi- tion even of Cuba, compared with those which will not fail to result from the appropriate education of the whole youth- ful population ? People who can sell with profit the rough stones in their hills, and the spring water in their ponds, have no occasion to envy the growers of sugar and coffee, or to covet the possession of their lands ; while the position of Massachusetts, as a cultivated, intellectual, and prosperous Commonwealth, may well be, aye, it is a subject of envy to many who have more physical wealth, but less of the pro- ducts of mind. Whatever is satisfactory, or honorable, in our past history, and our present condition, may be traced very directly to the intelligence and cultivation of the mind of the people ; and whatever has happened, or now exists, which is unsatisfactory, or discreditable, may in like manner, be undoubtingly as- scribed to the want of knowledge and discretion which might and probably would have been prevented by a more extended and better system of education. If these things are so, there will be but few of the million of inhabitants of this Commonwealth, who will grudge the cost of a plan by which it will be raised to the highest pinnacle of the glory suited to the present age the glory of intelligence, knowl- edge, improvement in every department of society ; and there will be equally few who will not look with distrust upon 19 politicians who will do nothing to promote the kind of pro- gress which is of more importance than all other public measures, and which alone can enable the little Common- wealth of Massachusetts to maintain a station of eminence among the States of the earth. Every successive legislature should be held to a strict accountability by their constituents, till they shall have found out that the advantage of the Com- monwealth is something different from the obtaining of offices for themselves and their political friends, and of more importance, too, and which the people are determined to cause them to attend to, in preference to their own emolu- ment or station. Something to promote this greatest of all public objects should be done each year, and every year, till the end is certainly and securely obtained. Then, and not till then, shall we have done our duty to the fathers, who knew so well " what constitutes a State," and who be- queathed to us such great opportunities of improvement, and our duty to posterity, who will have a right to the best that we can do for them, and who must not accuse us of having neglected or misused the privileges we are bound to transmit to them, not merely unimpaired, but increased. THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482