MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE 
 
 Peabody Education Fund, 
 
 WITH 
 
 THE REPORT OF THEIR COMMITTEE ON THE SUBJECT 
 OF THE EDUCATION OF THE COLORED POPU¬ 
 LATION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 19 February, 1880. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON. 
 
 1880. 
 

 TRUSTEES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PEABODY EDUCATION FUND. 
 
 Oo 
 
 T 
 
 The Board as originally appointed by Mr. Peabody consisted 
 of the following members : — 
 
 Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. Hamilton Fish. New York. 
 
 *Right Rev. Charles P. McIlvaine . . Ohio. 
 
 General U. S. Grant. United States Army. 
 
 ^Admiral D. G. Farragut. United States Navy . 
 
 *Hon. William C. Rives. Virginia. 
 
 *Hon. John H. Clifford. Massachusetts. 
 
 Hon. William Aiken. South Carolina. 
 
 Hon. William M. Evarts. New York. 
 
 *Hon. William A. Graham. North Carolina. 
 
 ^Charles Macalester, Esq. Pennsylvania. 
 
 George W. Riggs, Esq. Washington. 
 
 Samuel Wetmore, Esq. New York. 
 
 *Edward A. Bradford, Esq. Louisiana. 
 
 *George N. Eaton, Esq. Maryland. 
 
 George Peabody Russell, Esq. . . . Massachusetts. 
 
 The vacancies created by the deaths of Hon. William C. 
 Rives, of Admiral Farragut, of Bishop McIlvaine, of 
 Charles Macalester, Esq., of George N. Eaton, Esq., of 
 Hon. William A. Graham, and of Hon. John H. Clifford, 
 and by the resignation of Edward A. Bradford, Esq., have 
 been filled by the election of 
 
 *Hon. Samuel Watson. Tennessee. 
 
 Hon. A. H. H. Stuart. Virginia. 
 
 ^General Richard Taylor. Louisiana. 
 
 Surgeon-General Joseph K. Barnes, U. S. A. . Washington. 
 
 Chief-Justice Morrison R. Waite. Washington. 
 
 Right Rev. H. B. Whipple. Minnesota. 
 
 Hon. Henry R. Jackson. Georgia. 
 
 Col. Theodore Lyman. Massachusetts. 
 
 The vacancies caused by the death of Hon. Samuel Watson and 
 General Richard Taylor have been filled by the election of 
 Rutherford B. Hayes .... President of the United States. 
 Hon. Thomas C. Manning. Louisiana. 
 
 GENERAL AGENT. 
 
 (To whom all communications should be addressed.) 
 
 Rev. Barnas Sears, D.D. Staunton , Virginia. 
 
MEMORIAL. 
 
 To the Honorable the Senate and House of Represe7itatives 
 
 of the United States in Congress assembled: — 
 
 The Trustees of The Peabody Education Fund 
 respectfully represent: — 
 
 That, in administering the great Trust committed 
 to them by the late George Peabody, their attention 
 has been turned to the vital necessity of National 
 Aid for the education of the colored population of 
 the Southern States, and especially of the great 
 masses of colored children who are growing up to ( 
 be voters under the Constitution of the Unitedj 
 States : — 
 
 That the subject of invoking such Aid was referred 
 for consideration, in October last, to a Special Com¬ 
 mittee of their Board, consisting of Alexander H. H. 
 Stuart, of Virginia, Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, and 
 William M. Evarts, of New York; and that the Re¬ 
 port of this Committee, after careful deliberation, has 
 now received the unanimous assent of the Trustees, 
 and of their General Agent, Dr. Sears. 
 
4 
 
 The Trustees ask leave to submit this Report to 
 the consideration of Congress, with an expression of 
 their earnest hope that it may receive an early and 
 favorable attention, and that seasonable provision 
 may be made for meeting an exigency which con¬ 
 cerns the best interests of the whole Union. 
 
 ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 
 
 Chairman . 
 
 George Peabody Russell, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 Washington, 
 
 February 20, 1880. 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE COLORED POPULATION OF THE 
 SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 At a Special Meeting of the Trustees of the 
 Peabody Education Fund, held at Washington, on 
 the 18th and 19th of February, 1880, the following 
 Report was unanimously accepted, and the Resolu¬ 
 tion at its close adopted : — 
 
 The Committee to whom such portions of the Chair¬ 
 man’s Address, and of Dr. Sears’s Report, as relate to the 
 special needs for Education in the South, were referred in 
 October last, have had the same under consideration, and 
 respectfully submit the following 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 The fundamental principle of every republican govern¬ 
 ment, is, as tersely expressed in the Bill of Rights of Vir¬ 
 ginia, “that all power is vested in, and consequently derived 
 from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and 
 servants, and, at all times, amenable to them.” The will of 
 the people, as expressed in the modes prescribed by the 
 organic law, is, therefore, the only legitimate governing 
 power. The constitution of a State is but the deliberate 
 and solemn embodiment of the will of the people, by which 
 
6 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 they ordain and establish a form of government, under 
 which they are content to live, and by which they distrib¬ 
 ute, among its various departments, the powers which they 
 deem necessary for the preservation of social order, and 
 the security of life, liberty, and property. The functions 
 of these departments respectively, and of the magistrates 
 chosen to administer them, are to give effect to the judg¬ 
 ment of the people, as ascertained in the modes and by 
 the agencies appointed by the constitution and by the laws 
 made in pursuance thereof. 
 
 The political system of the United States differs from 
 that of most countries, in this: that it recognizes two 
 distinct governments, viz., the government organized in 
 each State, and intended to regulate its local and domestic 
 affairs, and the Federal government, ordained to exercise 
 the powers confided to it, in relation to such subjects as 
 affect the welfare of all the States. It was the intention of 
 the founders of our system, that each of these governments 
 should exercise the powers conferred on them respectively, 
 and that neither should encroach on the rightful authority 
 of the other. 
 
 This brief statement of the dual and complex character 
 of our institutions must satisfy every reflecting mind that 
 both wisdom and virtue are necessary in their administra¬ 
 tion. Owing to the infirmity of human nature, there is a 
 constant tendency on the part of magistrates to usurp 
 powers not conferred on them, and to encroach on the 
 rights of others. Under our system, grave and intricate 
 questions often arise, which involve not merely the wisdom 
 of measures of public policy, but also the relative jurisdic¬ 
 tion or constitutional powers of the two governments. 
 
 As the people are the ultimate arbiters of all such dis¬ 
 putes, it is obviously necessary that they shall possess that 
 degree of education which will enable them to understand 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. . 7 
 
 clearly the matters in controversy, and to render an intelli¬ 
 gent judgment on them at the polls. It cannot be expected 
 that the stream will be purer than the fountain from which 
 it flows. If, then, the people., who are the source of all 
 power, be ignorant or corrupt, their government must soon 
 become tainted with the same vices. 
 
 Our Revolutionary fathers seem to have been deeply 
 impressed with this great truth. Their writings abound 
 with expressions of their sense of the importance of a gen¬ 
 eral diffusion of knowledge among the people. 
 
 They felt that the only hope of the permanency of free 
 institutions rested on the virtue and intelligence of those 
 clothed with the elective franchise. Their jealous appre¬ 
 hension on this subject is manifest from the fact that after the 
 thirteen colonies declared themselves free and independent 
 States, and undertook to form constitutions for their future 
 government, they were careful to provide every practicable 
 safeguard against the participation of ignorant voters in 
 the administration of public affairs. Knowing that they 
 were about to enter on an experiment, which had often been 
 made and as often failed, of the capacity of man for self- 
 government, they were careful to restrict the right of suf¬ 
 frage to those classes which were presumed to be most 
 intelligent. And as, at that early day, when common 
 schools were comparatively unknown, education was con¬ 
 fined mainly to property-holders, in most, if not all the 
 States, the right to vote was restricted, in some cases 
 to freeholders; in others, to the owners of a specified 
 amount of personal property; and in others, to those who 
 had been sufficiently educated to be able to read and write. 
 These restrictions were maintained, in most of the States, 
 for many years, and in one at least for half a century. 
 Gradually, however, as education became more general 
 and the people more intelligent, they were from time to 
 
8 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 time relaxed, until finally, in most of the States, they have 
 been entirely abolished, and “ manhood suffrage,” with ex¬ 
 ceptions for crime, or failure to discharge some public duty, 
 is now the rule. 
 
 It may not be unprofitable to refer to the recorded 
 opinions of some of the Fathers of the Republic on the 
 importance of a general diffusion of knowledge among the 
 people. 
 
 Washington, in his Farewell Address, condenses into two 
 short sentences an admonition which should never be for¬ 
 gotten by the American people. “ Promote, then,” says 
 he, “ as an object of primary importance, institutions for 
 the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the 
 structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it 
 is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” 
 
 The writings of John Adams are replete with expressions 
 of his estimate of the value of popular education, as the 
 best safeguard of free institutions. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, after his retirement from the presi¬ 
 dency, in 1809, dedicated the remainder of his life to the 
 cause of education in his native State. He digested with 
 great care a general system, which embraced, — “ 1st, ele¬ 
 mentary schools, for all children, rich and poor; 2d, colleges 
 for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the com¬ 
 mon purposes of life, and such as would be desirable for 
 ail who would be in easy circumstances; and 3d, an ulti¬ 
 mate grade (a university) for teaching the same generally, 
 and in their highest degree.” 
 
 His system was to some extent carried into effect in 
 Virginia, and, mainly by his exertions and influence, the 
 University of Virginia was established. Such was his esti¬ 
 mate of the importance of this institution, that when he 
 prepared the brief epitaph which he wished inscribed on 
 his tomb, as commemorative of the most signal services 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 9 
 
 which he had rendered to his country, he speaks of him¬ 
 self as, “Author of the Declaration of Independence, — of 
 the Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom, — and Father of 
 the University of Virginia.” In a letter to Mr. Yancey, 
 dated Jan. 6, 1816, Mr. Jefferson says: “If a nation ex¬ 
 pects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it 
 expects what never will be. The functionaries of every 
 government have propensities to command at will the liberty 
 and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit 
 for them but with the people themselves; nor can they 
 be safe with them without information. Where the press 
 is free, and every man able to -read, all is safe.” In another 
 letter, to Governor Nicholas, dated April 2, 1816, speaking 
 of his system of elementary education, he says: “ My 
 partiality for that division is not founded in view of edu¬ 
 cation solely, but infinitely more as a means of the better 
 administration of our government, and the eternal preser¬ 
 vation of its republican principles.” 
 
 Although it may be stepping aside from the immediate 
 purpose of this report, it may not be uninteresting, as a 
 matter connected with the personal history of that great 
 statesman, to say, that he was by no means a mere theorist 
 in regard to popular education. He labored long and as¬ 
 siduously to carry his theories into practical effect. He 
 not only originated and digested the elective system of 
 instruction, which still prevails in the University of Vir¬ 
 ginia, and has been so extensively copied in other institu¬ 
 tions, but he planned and personally superintended the 
 erection of all the buildings intended for its use. And 
 when the university was about to open its doors to students, 
 although he had attained the advanced age of eighty-one 
 years, he accepted the office of rector, and continued faith¬ 
 fully to discharge its duties until his death; and during all 
 that time the proceedings of the Board of Visitors were 
 recorded in his own handwriting. 
 
IO EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 Mr. Madison, who has been called the Father of our 
 Federal Constitution, and who certainly contributed as 
 much as any other man in framing its provisions, was 
 equally emphatic in the expression of his opinions of the 
 value of popular education. In a letter to Wm. T. Barry, 
 of Kentucky, dated Aug. 4, 1826, he says: “A popular 
 government without popular information, or the means of 
 acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy, or 
 perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, 
 and a people who mean to be their own governors must 
 arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” 
 In another letter, to Littleton D. Teakle, of Maryland, 
 Mr. Madison says: “ The best service that can be rendered 
 to a country, next to that of giving it liberty, is in diffus¬ 
 ing the mental improvement essential to the preservation 
 and enjoyment of the blessing.” 
 
 Quotations of a similar character, from the writings of 
 the statesmen and sages of the earlier days of the republic, 
 might be indefinitely multiplied, but your committee will 
 content themselves with adding a single extract from the 
 Inaugural Address of President Monroe, delivered on the 
 4th of March, 1817: — 
 
 “ Had the people of the United States been educated in differ¬ 
 ent principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent, or 
 less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the 
 same steady and consistent career, or been blest with the same 
 success? While, then, the constituent body retains its present 
 sound and healthful state, all will be safe. It is only when the 
 people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a 
 populace, that they become incapable of exercising sovereignty. 
 Usurpation is an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The 
 people themselves become the willing instruments of their own de¬ 
 basement and ruin. Let us look to the great cause, and endeavor 
 to preserve it in full force. Let us, by all wise and constitutional 
 measures, promote intelligence among the people, as the best 
 means of preserving our liberties.” 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 II 
 
 If these solemn admonitions of the importance of elevat¬ 
 ing the standard of popular intelligence, as indispensable 
 to the safety of our liberties, were deemed necessary at 
 that early day, when our population was small, and com¬ 
 paratively homogeneous, and when the elective franchise 
 was confined to the most intelligent classes, it will hardly 
 be contended that they have lost any of their force by the 
 progress of events since they were promulgated. Restric¬ 
 tions which then existed on the right to participate in the 
 administration of the government, through the right of 
 suffrage, and which were intended to exclude the ignorant, 
 have been removed. Many thousands of immigrants, of 
 all nations and tongues, who had been reared under mo¬ 
 narchical governments, and who were illiterate and unac¬ 
 quainted with the spirit and genius of our institutions, and 
 incapable even of reading the provisions of our Constitu¬ 
 tion, have been brought to our shores; and, within little 
 more than a decade, nearly five millions of people of Afri¬ 
 can descent have been emancipated and elevated to the 
 dignity of citizenship, and placed on the same level with 
 the white race in regard to the elective franchise. 
 
 The relation of this latter class, especially, of our fellow- 
 citizens, to the government and people of the United States 
 opens a wide field of inquiry as to the nature and extent 
 of the obligations and duties which grow out of it. 
 
 It would be foreign to the purposes of this Report to 
 enter into an extended discussion of the history of the 
 introduction of African slaves into our country, or of the 
 many questions connected with their presence among us. 
 But it can hardly be deemed out of place to state the 
 unquestionable fact that they were introduced into what is 
 now the territory of the United States by authority of 
 the British Government, more than one hundred years be¬ 
 fore the Declaration of Independence, and while we were 
 
12 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 British Colonies. Nor was it done with the sanction of the 
 Colonial Legislatures. On the contrary, there is abundant 
 evidence to prove that some, if not all, of the Colonies 
 earnestly remonstrated against it. 
 
 The preamble to the first constitution of Virginia, 
 adopted on the 12th of June, 1776, three weeks before the 
 Declaration of Independence, in reciting the causes of com¬ 
 plaint against the British Government which had impelled 
 that commonwealth to arms, assigns as one of the most 
 prominent, “ that the king, by the inhuman use of his 
 negative, refused permission to exclude by law the intro¬ 
 duction of negro slaves.” 
 
 It further appears, from the testimony of Mr. Jefferson, 
 that his original draft of the Declaration of Independence 
 contained the following impassioned paragraph: “ He (the 
 king) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, 
 violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the 
 persons of a distant people, who never offended him; cap¬ 
 tivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemi¬ 
 sphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation 
 thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of Infidel 
 Powers , is the warfare of the Christian King of Great 
 Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men 
 should be bought, he has prostituted his negative for 
 suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or re¬ 
 strain this execrable commerce.” — Writings of Jefferson , 
 Vol. I., p. 19. It is true that, from motives of prudence, 
 this harsh denunciation of the British king was stricken 
 out by the committee, but that circumstance does not in 
 any degree invalidate the truth of the charge. 
 
 The fact was recently distinctly admitted by John Bright, 
 the eminent British statesman, in a speech delivered by him 
 at Rochdale, on the 19th December, 1879. In that speech 
 he is reported to have said : “And I may tell you that slav- 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 13 
 
 ery in the United States was not the offspring of republi¬ 
 can institutions. It was there in colonial and monarchical 
 times; it was during the time of George III. that, when 
 the Colonies and the United States would have abolished 
 the slave-trade, the English Government forbade that abo¬ 
 lition, and continued the trade.” 
 
 Buckle, Vol. I., page 321, says: “ George III. looked 
 upon slavery as one of those good old customs which the 
 wisdom of his ancestors had consecrated.” And in a note 
 he adds: “ Such was the king’s zeal in favor of the slave- 
 trade, that in 1770 he issued an instruction under his own 
 hand, commanding the governor (of Virginia), upon pain 
 of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law by which 
 the importation of slaves should be in any respect pro¬ 
 hibited or obstructed.” — Bancroft's American Revolution, 
 Vol. III., p. 456. 
 
 Edmund Burke, in his great speech on conciliation with 
 America, delivered in the House of Commons, March 22, 
 1775, referring to a proposition to enfranchise the slaves in 
 the Colonies, said: “ Slaves as those unfortunate black 
 people are, and dull as all men are from slavery, must 
 they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from that 
 very nation which has sold them to their present masters, 
 — from that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel with 
 those masters is their refusal to deal any more in that 
 inhuman traffic?” 
 
 These facts abundantly prove that whatever responsibility 
 attaches to the introduction and continuance of slavery in 
 the Colonies rests with the Government of Great Britain. 
 It is due, however, to the truth of history to say, that, 
 when our fathers undertook to form the Constitution of the 
 United States, they found the institution of slavery so inter¬ 
 woven with our industrial and social systems that they were 
 obliged to leave it as they found it, trusting, doubtless, that 
 
14 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 a cure for it would be found in the future. Hence, neither 
 the word “ slave ” nor “ slavery ” is to be found in the 
 Constitution. 
 
 At the close of the Revolutionary War, slavery existed 
 in all the Colonies. But, under the influence of wise legis¬ 
 lation, it gradually receded from the Northern to the more 
 Southern States, where it lingered until the close of the 
 Civil War, when, happily, by an amendment to the Consti¬ 
 tution of the United States, this disturbing element in our 
 political affairs ceased to exist anywhere within the juris¬ 
 diction of our Government. 
 
 Every intelligent man must have foreseen that the grant 
 of civil and political rights to the colored race must, sooner 
 or later, be the logical sequence of emancipation. The only 
 question which admitted of debate was as to the time when 
 those rights should be bestowed. On this question there 
 was much diversity of opinion. Some of the wisest states¬ 
 men of the day maintained that, in their uneducated con¬ 
 dition, the colored race would be an unsafe depository of 
 political power. They therefore contended for a period 
 of probation, during which this race could be educated up 
 to the level of their political duties. 
 
 Other counsels, however, prevailed, and a race number¬ 
 ing five millions of souls was elevated from the degrada¬ 
 tion of slavery to the high position of citizenship of a 
 great republic, with all its precious rights and weighty 
 responsibilities. 
 
 Our worthy General Agent, whose duties during the last 
 twelve years have carried him into all portions of the 
 Southern States, and thrown him into personal communi¬ 
 cation with all classes of the colored race, and with intel¬ 
 ligent-and trustworthy persons most familiar with their 
 condition and capacity, states in his last Report that “ a 
 large portion of them are, confessedly, unqualified for a 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 15 
 
 judicious exercise of this power” (the right of suffrage). I 
 No unprejudiced and well-informed man can question the I 
 truth of this statement. 
 
 We are thus compelled to face the fact that more than 
 half a million of voters, scattered over half the Union, 
 from illiteracy are notoriously incompetent to the intel¬ 
 ligent discharge of the public duties intrusted to them. 
 This large class of uneducated voters, it must be remem¬ 
 bered, are not merely citizens and voters of the States in 
 which they respectively reside: they are also citizens of 
 the United States. The power which they wield and the 
 influence which they exert is not merely local: it is co-ex- 
 tensive with the Union. Their votes may decide the issues 
 of peace or war; they may control presidential elections 
 and give shape to the policy of the nation; they are enti¬ 
 tled to participate in the election of President and Vice- 
 President, of Members of the House of Representatives, 
 and of the State Legislatures which choose Senators of 
 the United States; they elect governors and legislators of 
 their respective States, and in many States, judges, clerks, 
 sheriffs, supervisors, magistrates, and almost every officer 
 intrusted with the administration of public affairs; they 
 are themselves eligible to all positions of honor, trust, and 
 emolument, and legally competent to act as judges or to sit 
 as jurors in cases involving the most sacred rights of life, 
 liberty, and property. 
 
 The evils likely to ensue from intrusting political power 
 to ignorant and incompetent hands have been so forcibly 
 and eloquently explained by the late Horace Mann, of 
 Massachusetts, that your Committee cannot forbear from 
 quoting a few sentences from his masterly address on this 
 subject as expressive of their own opinions. He says: — 
 
 “ The illustrious and noble band who framed the Constitution of 
 the Union, — Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison,— 
 
1 6 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 who adjusted all the principles which it contains by the line and the 
 plummet, and weighed the words which describe them in scales so 
 nice as to tremble beneath the dust of the balance, expended the 
 energies of their mighty minds to perfect an instrument which, 
 before half a century had passed away, was doomed to be adminis¬ 
 tered, controlled, expounded, by men unable to read and write. 
 The power of Congress over all the great social and economical 
 interests of this vast country; the orbits in which the States are to 
 move around the central body in the system ; the functions of the 
 Executive, who holds in his hand the army and the navy, manages 
 all diplomatic relations with foreign powers, and can involve the 
 country at any time in the horrors of war; and that grand poising 
 power, the Supreme Judiciary, appointed to be the presiding intel¬ 
 ligence over the system, to harmonize its motions and to hold its 
 attracting and diverging tendencies in equilibrium,—all this splendid 
 structure, the vastest and nicest ever devised by mortals, is under 
 the control of men who are incapable of reading one word of the 
 language which describes its framework and defines its objects and 
 its guards, incapable of reading one word of contemporaneous ex¬ 
 position, of antecedent history, or of subsequent development, and 
 therefore make it include anything or exclude anything, as their 
 blind passions may dictate. Phaeton was less a fool when he 
 mounted the chariot to drive the horses of the Sun, than ourselves, 
 if we expect to reach the zenith of prosperity and happiness under 
 such guidance.” 
 
 If Horace Mann felt justified in using language like this 
 more than twenty years ago, where would he find words 
 adequate to the expression of his thoughts if he were living 
 in the present day ! 
 
 Assuming, then, that the solemn warnings of Washington, 
 Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and other fathers of the Re¬ 
 public, and of Horace Mann, one of the most devoted 
 champions of freedom, at a later era, were not merely idle 
 words, idly spoken, but the deliberate expression of their 
 matured convictions, we are naturally led to inquire, How 
 can we best guard against the evils which they deemed so 
 dangerous? 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 17 
 
 Your Committee are persuaded that the best security 
 will be found in affording to ignorant voters such a degree 
 of education as will qualify them for the intelligent dis¬ 
 charge of their duties as citizens. 
 
 Here we may be met with the inquiry, Does your Com¬ 
 mittee intend to recommend that Congress shall assume 
 control over the whole subject of education in the United 
 States? They answer unhesitatingly in the negative. 
 Popular education is a duty, which, as a general rule, 
 belongs to the government and people of the respective 
 States. It is a matter of local and domestic policy, which 
 can be more appropriately and effectually managed by the 
 local governments. 
 
 But, in the opinion of your Committee, the colored race / 
 constitute an exceptional class of our population. Having/ 
 for generations been held in slavery, they had no opportu¬ 
 nity of obtaining education, of acquiring property, or of 
 qualifying themselves for the intelligent discharge of the 
 duties of citizenship. They are not responsible for their 
 ignorance. They have had no teachers to instruct them in 
 even the rudiments of knowledge, and their parents were 
 as ignorant as themselves. It cannot, therefore, be matter 
 of surprise that they should be, as they unquestionably are, 
 generally incompetent to form intelligent opinions on politi¬ 
 cal questions, or to exercise with discretion the elective fran¬ 
 chise. Justice would seem to demand that when a duty is 
 required of a class of citizens, the means should be afforded 
 to them to discharge it properly. The general sentiment 
 of mankind has condemned as tyrannical and oppressive 
 the conduct of the Egyptian task-masters, who required 
 the Israelites to make brick and yet refused to furnish the 
 straw that was necessary. 
 
 There is another aspect of this subject which addresses 
 itself strongly to the humanity and sympathy, as well as to 
 the sense of justice, of the American people. 
 
18 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 While the colored race were held in bondage they were 
 at least protected from want by the superintending care of 
 their masters, whose interest, as well as duty, prompted 
 them to provide for the physical welfare of their slaves. 
 Emancipation has broken this bond, and the illiterate race 
 is now brought into competition with the whites in the 
 struggle for subsistence. Knowledge is said to be power.* 
 With equal truth it may be affirmed that ignorance is 
 weakness. Your Committee have already quoted the preg-i 
 nant remark of Mr. Madison, that “ Knowledge will forever 
 govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own 
 governors must arm themselves with this power which 
 knowledge gives.” Can the people of the United States 
 feel that they have done their whole duty to the colored 
 race until they have given them that degree of education 
 which is essential to self-protection? 
 
 Passing to the consideration of the subject in its broader 
 and national aspects, can any reflecting man doubt that 
 the infusion of so large an element of ignorance into the 
 constituent body must be a source of weakness to our 
 system of government? Can any one fail to perceive that 
 | such a class of voters are constantly liable to become the 
 I dupes of artful demagogues, and give their support to 
 | measures dangerous alike to liberty and property? 
 m The Chairman of our Board, in his address at the open¬ 
 ing of the last meeting, gave us an admonition on this 
 subject which should never be forgotten. It was in these 
 words: “ Our free institutions rest upon intelligence and 
 virtue, and can survive almost anything except ignorance, 
 and the vice, corruption, and violence which are so gen¬ 
 erally the results of ignorance.” 
 
 Let us next inquire into the magnitude of the danger 
 which threatens us. The colored population of the United 
 States was ascertained by the census of 1870 to be, in 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES 
 
 19 
 
 round numbers, four and a half millions. At the present 
 date it probably exceeds five millions. If we assume that 
 of these one-seventh are voters, we have the fact that there 
 are more than seven hundred thousand colored men in the 
 United States, who are clothed with the right of suffrage, 
 and yet, in the mass, are incapable of discreetly exercis¬ 
 ing it. 
 
 We are now brought to the consideration of the ques¬ 
 tion, From what source are the means to be supplied which 
 are necessary to correct the evil? 
 
 By the operation of causes which have already been 
 adverted to, it so happens that this class of our population, 
 which at the date of our independence and for some years 
 afterwards was diffused over all the colonies, is now con¬ 
 fined mainly to the Southern States. These States have 
 not been insensible of the mischief to be apprehended from 
 the presence of so large a class of ignorant voters, and 
 they have manifested the most praiseworthy disposition to 
 aid, as far as their means would allow, in their education. 
 In most, if not all of them, systems of free schools have 
 been established ; but, in their impoverished condition, they 
 are unable adequately to meet the emergency. 
 
 Some idea of the extent of the impoverishment of these 
 States may be formed by reference to their assessments of 
 values, as reported in the census returns of i860 and 1870: 
 
 In i860 the aggregate of values, including slaves, 
 
 was.$5,426,041,724 
 
 In 1870 the aggregate was ....... 3,553,757,000 
 
 Showing a decrease during the decade of . . . $1,872,284,724 
 
 The population of these States in 1870 was : — 
 
 White 
 
 Colored 
 
 9 > 2 75 > 8 5 6 
 
 4,472.684 
 
20 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 It will thus be seen that in 1870 nearly one-third of the 
 population of those States consisted of recently liberated 
 slaves, owning but little or no property, and generally with 
 no means of acquiring any except by manual labor in grain 
 or cotton fields. If we add to these the number of whites 
 who were impoverished by the war, it will probably appear 
 that one-half of the entire population is incapable of bear¬ 
 ing taxation. Most of the Southern States which have 
 attempted a liberal system of free common-school educa¬ 
 tion have done so at the expense of their creditors, as they 
 were obliged to apply to the support of their schools the 
 money which had been pledged for the payment of their 
 State debts. Relief from this source is therefore impracti¬ 
 cable, and the only hope that remains of obtaining it is 
 from an appeal to the liberality and justice of Congress. 
 
 Seven hundred thousand illiterate voters constitute an 
 important factor in national politics. The influence which 
 they may exert in shaping the destiny of our country has 
 already been adverted to. But it must also be remembered 
 that, being citizens of the United States, they are entitled 
 to every right which belongs to citizens of each and every 
 State. They may migrate, at pleasure, to any State, and 
 there exercise all the rights, including the right of suffrage, 
 to which the citizens of that State are entitled. An exodus 
 from the Southern to some of the Western States has 
 already commenced, and the day may not be far distant 
 when the colored vote may be the controlling power in 
 those States. Each State, therefore, has a separate interest 
 in guarding against the evil from this source by giving aid 
 in the education of this class of voters. 
 
 But there are other considerations which address them¬ 
 selves with great force, not only to the patriotism, but to 
 the self-interest of the people of the North. 
 
 The appeal which was made in the late Civil War to the 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 21 
 
 terrible arbitrament of arms has settled, as we hop finally % 
 that the union of these States is to remain forever indissolu¬ 
 ble. Our country is, therefore, through all time, to remain 
 one and indivisible. This unity of government see^ms^ 
 necessarily to imply unity of interests. All the States being 
 members of one body, whatever affects injuriously any 
 member must be hurtful to all. It would be as unreasona¬ 
 ble to expect that an ulcer in one member of the humaiv 
 body would not affect the whole system, as to suppose 
 that the ignorance and vice which may afflict one of the 
 States would not extend their baneful influence to all. 
 
 History teaches us that in all communities where free¬ 
 dom of thought and speech is tolerated, earnest and 
 sometimes angry controversies, growing out of real or 
 supposed diversities of interest, are almost certain to arise. 
 Among the most fruitful sources of this kind of discorcT"^ 
 is the assumed antagonism between capital and labor, be¬ 
 tween the interests of the rich and the poor. Fallacious 
 as all such ideas may be regarded by educated men, they 
 are, and ever will be, captivating to the uneducated and 
 the destitute. Where large masses of population are 
 uninformed, and in need of the common necessaries of life, 
 nothing is more easy than for artful demagogues to inflame 
 their minds against their more fortunate countrymen, who, 
 by patient industry and thrift, have been able to surround 
 themselves and their families with all the appliances of 
 comfort and luxury. 
 
 What right have the people of the United States to 
 claim exemption from dangers of this kind, which have 
 proved so disastrous in other countries? It must be re^l 
 membered that probably four-fifths of all the bonds of the 
 United States, of the several States, of counties, cities, and 
 towns, and of railroad and canal companies; and even a 
 larger proportion of the stocks of all the banks, railroad and 
 
2 2 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 canal companies, factories, insurance companies, and other 
 moneyed corporations which are held by citizens of the 
 United States, are owned by capitalists of the Northern 
 and Eastern States. The people of the Southern and 
 Western States, and especially the colored people, own 
 very few of them, and have no further concern with them 
 than to bear, directly or indirectly, their share of the taxes 
 levied to pay the interest or dividends on them. What 
 security have the people of the United States that these 
 jarring interests of debtor and creditor, of numbers and 
 property, may not in the future give rise to serious con¬ 
 flicts? Very recently riotous commotions of this kind 
 assumed such formidable proportions as to render it nec¬ 
 essary to use military power to suppress them. If to 
 this turbulent element of the North there be added seven 
 hundred thousand untutored and non-property-holding 
 colored voters, whose interest is opposed to these kinds of 
 property because of the taxation which they entail upon 
 them, it requires no spirit of prophecy to foresee that the 
 danger will be greatly increased. Attempts have already 
 been made, and not without some success, to instil into 
 
 the minds of the colored voters the idea that they are 
 neither morally nor legally bound to pay any public debt 
 which was contracted before they were emancipated and 
 invested with the rights of citizenship. 
 
 Admonitions like these ought to teach the thoughtful 
 men of all parts of our country, those who desire to main¬ 
 tain the peace and order of society, that the time for vig¬ 
 orous action has come. Delays are dangerous. If the 
 corrective be not promptly applied, the evil may become 
 irresistible. That corrective is the diffusion of knowledge 
 among the people; and this can be accomplished only by 
 teaching every voter to read and write, so that he may be 
 able to have access to the best sources of information and 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 23 
 
 form an intelligent opinion on every question which may 
 arise. 
 
 The next point which your Committee have felt it to be 
 their duty to consider is, Does Congress possess the con¬ 
 stitutional power, not to control , but to contribute to, the 
 education of citizens of the States? 
 
 If doubts were entertained as to the existence of such 
 a power in an unqualified form, it might well be contended 
 that the case of the colored population is surrounded by 
 such peculiar circumstances as to take it out of the influ¬ 
 ence of any general rule. But fortunately, this question, 
 even in its general aspect, is not a new one, presented now 
 for the first time to be decided. It may be regarded as 
 res adjudicata. The laws of the United States present 
 innumerable precedents in which Congress has exercised 
 the power to contribute toward the general education of 
 citizens of the new States, and in no instance has its con¬ 
 stitutional right to do so been questioned. 
 
 As preliminary to the discussion of this branch of the 
 subject, it may be proper to state a few prominent facts in 
 connection with the public domain of the United States, 
 which constitutes the fruitful source from which congres¬ 
 sional aid to education has been supplied. 
 
 By the treaty of 1763 between Great Britain and France 
 it was agreed that the Mississippi River should be regarded 
 as the western boundary of the British American Colo¬ 
 nies. At the close of the Revolutionary War all the terri¬ 
 tory lying between the Atlantic on the east, the Mississippi 
 on the west, the Lakes on the north, and the 31st parallel 
 of latitude on the south, was either included in the limits 
 of the thirteen Colonies or was claimed by them. In the 
 year 1780, at a very critical period of the Revolutionary 
 struggle, the Continental Congress urged the States to cede 
 their respective claims to the “Northwestern Territory” 
 
24 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 to the general Government, as a measure essential to the 
 credit of the Government, and perhaps to the independence 
 of the Colonies. 
 
 After much negotiation with the Continental Congress, 
 Virginia agreed on the 20th of May, 1783, to make the 
 cession, with certain reservations and on conditions set 
 forth in the Act of her General Assembly of that date. 
 Among the conditions which she required to be incor¬ 
 porated into the deed of cession is the following: — 
 
 “ That the lands within the territory so ceded to the United 
 States, and not reserved for or appropriated to any of the before- 
 mentioned purposes, or disposed of in bounties to the officers and 
 soldiers of the American army, shall be considered as a common 
 fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have 
 become or shall become members of the Confederation, or Federal 
 Alliance, of the said States (Virginia inclusive), according to their 
 usual respective proportions of the general charge and expendi¬ 
 ture, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that 
 purpose and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.” — Act Dec. 
 20, 1783. 
 
 All the other States which claimed unsettled territory 
 within the limits above described, from time to time ceded 
 the same to the general Government, which thus became 
 possessed of the legal title to the whole. The purchase of 
 Louisiana in 1803, and of Florida in 1819, added vastly 
 to the area of the public domain of the United States, and 
 it was still further extended by acquisitions from Mexico, 
 by treaties with Indian tribes, and by the purchase of 
 Alaska. 
 
 In the first act passed by the Continental Congress, on 
 20th of May, 1785, for the disposition of the lands ceded 
 by Virginia and the other States (and which has constituted 
 the basis of the policy in regard to all the public lands), it 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 25 
 
 was enacted that they should be laid off into townships, 
 that section No. 16 in each township should be reserved 
 for the maintenance of public schools, and that two 
 townships in every State should be set apart for the sup¬ 
 port of a university. 
 
 In 1848 and 1849 a still more liberal policy in regard to 
 the provision for educational purposes in new States was 
 adopted. In the acts passed in those years respectively, 
 creating the Territories of Oregon and Minnesota, section 
 No. 36, in addition to section No. 16, in each township, was 
 set apart for school purposes; and to each new Territory 
 organized and State admitted since 1848 (except West 
 Virginia), the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of every 
 township, one-eighteenth of the entire area, have been 
 granted for common schools. Other States have received 
 grants greatly in excess of the 46,080 acres, which is the 
 quantity embraced within two townships. Ohio has re¬ 
 ceived 69,120 acres, Florida and Wisconsin 92,160 acres 
 each, and Minnesota 82,640 acres. 
 
 For information in regard to the extent of these grants 
 your Committee are indebted to the first report of Dr. 
 Barnard, late United States Commissioner of Education, 
 published in 1868. From this report it appears further 
 that under the acts of Congress passed in 1785 and 1786, 
 there had been distributed among twenty-six new States 
 and Territories 67,983,914 acres for the support of schools, 
 besides what was given for universities and deaf-mute asy¬ 
 lums. Of the pecuniary value of these grants, some esti¬ 
 mate may be formed by reference to the Report of Dr. 
 Barnard in regard to the lands granted to Minnesota. It 
 appears from that report, that from 1862 to 1866, embracing 
 a period of five years, Minnesota had sold 210,769 acres, 
 which yielded $1,324,779, the average price being $6.28 
 per acre. At that date she had unsold 2,795,898 acres, 
 
26 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 which, if sold at the same price, would yield nearly 
 $18,000,000 more ! In other words, the United States have 
 granted to the single State of Minnesota lands, for the pur¬ 
 poses of education, which have a money value of nearly 
 $20,000,000, while not a dollar’s worth has been granted to 
 any of the original thirteen States except their proportion 
 of the grant for the endowment of Agricultural and Me¬ 
 chanical Colleges, in which the new States as well as the 
 old participated ratably. 
 
 In view of this unbroken line of precedents, commencing 
 nearly a hundred years ago under the articles of Confed¬ 
 eration, before the Constitution of the United States was 
 adopted, and steadfastly continued under the Constitution 
 of the United States, to the present day, it would seem to 
 be idle now to raise a question as to the constitutional 
 power of Congress to make such grants. 
 
 It may not be amiss to say that in addition to the grant 
 of land made by the United States, out of the common 
 fund, for the purposes of education, it appears from the 
 report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
 that grants amounting in the aggregate to 189,219,886 acres 
 had been granted, prior to 1867, mainly for the benefit 
 of the new States, for the construction of canals and rail¬ 
 roads. What has been the extent of the grants since that 
 date your Committee have not had the means of ascer¬ 
 taining. 
 
 It has already been stated that the cession by Virginia 
 of her Northwestern Territory to the general Government, 
 which was among the earliest in the order of time, was 
 made and accepted on the condition expressed on the face 
 of the deed that this territory so ceded should be held and 
 considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of 
 all the States (Virginia included), and for no other use or 
 purpose whatsoever. Your Committee have not had access 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 27 
 
 to the deeds of cession made by the other States so as to 
 be able to state whether similar conditions and trusts were 
 expressed on the face of those deeds. Be that as it may, 
 your Committee have no hesitation in expressing the opin¬ 
 ion, that from the nature and purposes of the grants, and 
 the circumstances under which they were made, similar 
 trusts must necessarily be implied. And, as all the other 
 additions to our public domain were acquired either by 
 purchases which were paid for out of the common treasury 
 of all the States, or by conquest effected by the common 
 arms of all the States, a trust in regard to them necessarily 
 results for the common benefit of all the States. 
 
 The whole public domain may, therefore, justly be re¬ 
 garded as a trust subject, of which the Government of the 
 United States is trustee and the States the beneficiaries. 
 This, like every other trust, should be administered equi¬ 
 tably, and in such a manner as to give effect to the purposes 
 for which it was created. The principles of equity are im¬ 
 mutable. They are not affected by the character of the 
 parties in interest. They apply with equal force to natural 
 persons, to corporations, and to governments. Wherever 
 a trustee has, inadvertently and from the exigency of cir¬ 
 cumstances, departed from the terms and spirit of the trust, 
 and given to one or more beneficiaries a larger share of 
 the trust subject than he or they are entitled to receive, 
 justice demands that he shall so administer the residue as 
 to restore equality among all entitled to participate in the 
 fund. In cases where an individual or a corporation ame¬ 
 nable to process of law fails or refuses to administer his 
 trust upon this principle, a court of equity will intervene to 
 compel him to do justice among all the parties in interest. 
 The Government of the United States surely cannot ignore 
 these fundamental maxims of equitable jurisprudence, or 
 claim exemption from them. 
 
28 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 The above statement of facts is intended to show that 
 the Government has executed its trust in relation to the 
 public domain only partially. Its policy has been mainly 
 directed by the necessity of encouraging immigration to 
 new States struggling into existence in the western wilder¬ 
 ness, and whose people were unable to make adequate pro¬ 
 vision for the education of the young. This necessity was 
 greatly enhanced by the fact that many of the settlers in 
 the new States were foreigners, ignorant of our language 
 and of our institutions; and it was, therefore,, important to 
 enable even adults to acquire such education as was nec¬ 
 essary to fit them for the discharge of the duties of good 
 citizens. 
 
 This beneficent purpose has now been accomplished. 
 The acts of Congress have provided an ample educational 
 fund in every new State and Territory, and the reason for 
 departure from the line of the trust no longer exists. The 
 time has arrived when its fiduciary obligations should be 
 strictly complied with, by returning to the principle of 
 equality in the distribution of the fund. The intrinsic 
 equity of such an administration of the trust in the future 
 must commend itself to every fair and unprejudiced mind, 
 independently of all extraneous considerations. But it 
 derives new force from the fact that a large class, without 
 education and without the means of getting it, have, by the 
 act of the Government itself, been made voters in six of the 
 “ Original Thirteen,” and a larger number of the new States. 
 The just claim of this large class of voters can no longer 
 with propriety be resisted or evaded. It appeals, as has 
 been clearly shown, alike to the justice and humanity and 
 Christian sentiment, and we may add to the enlightened 
 self-interest of every part of our common country. 
 
 The national domain which still remains unappropriated 
 amounted, in 1867, to one billion, four hundred and four- 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 2 9 
 
 teen million, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, five 
 hundred and ninety-four acres (1,414,567,594). 
 
 This constitutes an ample fund, not only to educate the 
 Colored people of the Southern States, but to equalize the 
 account between the old and new States, and still leave an 
 almost inexhaustible supply for many generations to come. 
 It appears from the last Annual Report of our able and ac¬ 
 curate General Agent that there are at this time “ two mil¬ 
 lions of children in these [the Southern] States without the 
 means of instruction.” Of these doubtless more than one- 
 half are colored. Our General Agent presents the neces¬ 
 sity of action by Congress on this subject in the following 
 impressive words: “ The mere neglect of a great opportu¬ 
 nity may entail disaster upon them and their posterity by 
 suffering a horde of young barbarians to grow up to prey 
 upon the peace of society. The peril, if once overlooked 
 in the critical moment, cannot afterwards be remedied by 
 legal enactment and penal measures. If men fail to take 
 the necessary precaution by training the young to be use¬ 
 ful citizens, they must expect to reap a corresponding har¬ 
 vest, and to see around them a community distinguished 
 for ‘ dwarfish virtues and gigantic vices.’ ” 
 
 This is the language of a man who was born, reared, and 
 educated in the East. A native of Massachusetts and for 
 some years superintendent of public schools in that ancient 
 commonwealth, he has become practically acquainted with 
 the necessity of education. Twelve years ago he was called 
 from the presidency of Brown University in Rhode Island 
 to become the General Agent of the Peabody Board. 
 During that time he has faithfully fulfilled the duties of that 
 position, making annual visits to the Southern States, hav¬ 
 ing free intercourse with the people of all classes and colors, 
 and becoming familiar with their condition and wants. He 
 speaks, therefore, not from rumor but personal observation 
 and knowledge. 
 
30 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 The only remaining points which seem to demand a pass¬ 
 ing notice from your Committee are,— 1st, the mode of 
 administering the assistance; 2d, the extent to which it 
 should be carried; and 3d, the period for which it should 
 be continued. 
 
 The experience of this Board has demonstrated the pro¬ 
 priety of using the officers connected with the school sys¬ 
 tems of the respective States as agents in the application 
 of the funds of the Peabody Board to the purposes of the 
 trust. All the Southern States seem now to have awakened 
 to a sense of the importance of a general system of free 
 schools. Most of them have organized efficient systems of 
 instruction so far as their limited means will allow them to 
 go. Faithful and competent officers have, in most instances, 
 been put in charge of them. These agencies are too im¬ 
 portant to be overlooked. Their employment, as means by 
 which the bounty of Congress can be bestowed, is recom¬ 
 mended by considerations of economy; and their use would 
 tend, also, to avoid local jealousies and promote harmony 
 and unity of action. The Bureau of Education, already or¬ 
 ganized at Washington, could act as the central agency, and 
 have the general direction of the entire system, as the Gen¬ 
 eral Agent of the Peabody Board now has in the adminis¬ 
 tration of its funds. 
 
 2d, As to the extent of the relief to be afforded. This 
 will, of course, depend on the opinion which Congress may 
 form as to the importance and pressing nature of the sub¬ 
 ject. Your Committee will only suggest that it should be 
 liberal and proportioned to the great work to be done. 
 The first effort should be directed to the successful intro¬ 
 duction of a system of rudimentary education. Differences 
 of opinion may arise as to what branches of knowledge 
 should be taught in these schools. Thomas Jefferson, who 
 in the latter part of his life bestowed much labor and 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 31 
 
 thought upon the subject of popular education, in describ¬ 
 ing the proper subjects and limitations of primary educa¬ 
 tion, says: — 
 
 “ These objects would be — 
 
 “ To give to every citizen the information he needs for the trans¬ 
 action of his own business. 
 
 “To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and 
 preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts in writing. 
 
 “ To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties. 
 
 “ To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to 
 discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either. 
 
 “ To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those 
 he retains ; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he dele¬ 
 gates ; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, 
 and judgment. 
 
 “ And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness 
 all the social relations under which he shall be placed. 
 
 “ To instruct the mass of our fellow-citizens in these their rights, 
 interests, and duties as men and citizens, being then the objects of 
 education in the primary schools, whether private or public, in 
 them should be taught reading, writing, and numerical arithmetic, 
 the elements of mensuration (useful in so many callings), and the 
 outlines of geography and history.” 
 
 3d, As to the period of time for which this liberal pro¬ 
 vision for the primary education of the colored race should 
 be continued. Your Committee hope that if the system 
 which they propose shall be adopted, its benefits will be 
 so apparent that, by general consent, a permanent fund 
 will be set apart, as has been done in the new States, for its 
 continuance through all future time. But the most urgent 
 demand now is for a liberal provision to meet the exi¬ 
 gencies of the present time. The colored people of the 
 Southern States are now in great part ignorant and without 
 property. Few of the adults can read or write. They are 
 incapable, therefore, of giving any instruction to their 
 
32 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION 
 
 children at home. They are entirely dependent on the as¬ 
 sistance of the public schools. Aid should be given, not only 
 to the young, but also to adults where they are willing to 
 receive it. If such a system of instruction be pressed with 
 energy for fourteen or fifteen years, it is hoped that after 
 that time, in consequence of the advance which, it may rea¬ 
 sonably be expected, the race will have made in the attain¬ 
 ment of knowledge and the acquisition of property, the 
 amount contributed for their benefit may be gradually 
 diminished. 
 
 In view of all the facts and reasons above stated, your 
 Committee are of the opinion that the suggestions made in 
 the Address of the Chairman and the Report of the General 
 Agent were wise and well timed, and ought to receive the 
 sanction and support of the Board. 
 
 In conclusion, it may not be improper to offer a few words 
 explanatory of the reasons which seem to render it proper 
 that this Board should bring the matter of education in the 
 Southern States to the notice of Congress. 
 
 George Peabody, the enlightened and beneficent founder 
 of the trust which bears his honored name, was a native of 
 Massachusetts, but for many years a resident of London, 
 where he accumulated a large fortune. With characteristic 
 sagacity, he was among the first to foresee the evils which 
 would be entailed on the Southern States by the ravages of 
 the war, and the consequent inability of the people of those 
 States to extend to the rising generation the blessings of 
 education. Discarding every feeling of a sectional character 
 and acting with a magnanimity almost without a parallel 
 in history, he dedicated several millions of dollars of his 
 private fortune “to beheld by trustees [named by himself] 
 and their successors, and the income thereof used and ap¬ 
 plied, in their discretion, for the promotion and encourage¬ 
 ment of intellectual, moral, and industrial education among 
 
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 33 
 
 the young of the more destitute portions of the Southern 
 and Southwestern States of our Union, his purpose being 
 that the benefits intended should be distributed among the 
 entire population, and without other distinction than their 
 needs and the opportunities of usefulness to them.” 
 
 For twelve years the members of this Board have en¬ 
 deavored faithfully to discharge the duties of the trust 
 reposed in them. In the performance of this duty their 
 thoughts have been turned to the destitution of the South¬ 
 ern States, to the unlettered condition of a large portion of 
 their population, and to the necessity of extending liberal 
 assistance to the education of the new class of voters who 
 have been introduced into our system. The Board have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that with the limited means at 
 their disposal they have been able to accomplish much 
 good. But these means are entirely disproportionate to 
 the end. Where millions of citizens are growing up in the 
 grossest ignorance, it is obvious that neither individual 
 charity nor the resources of impoverished States will be 
 sufficient to meet the emergency. Nothing short of the 
 wealth and power of the Federal Government will suffice to 
 overcome the evil. 
 
 Your Committee are, therefore, of the opinion that, as 
 the official representatives of George Peabody and of the 
 patriotic purposes which he had in view in the establish¬ 
 ment of his trust, it is eminently proper, if not strictly in 
 the line of their duty, that this Board should present to the 
 notice of Congress the facts which have come to their 
 knowledge in the course of their administration of this 
 trust, and ask that Congress shall give such aid as may be 
 deemed proper in furtherance of education in the Southern 
 States. 
 
 Your Committee, therefore, recommend the adoption of 
 the following Resolution: — 
 
34 EDUCATION FOR THE COLORED POPULATION. 
 
 Resolved , That it is expedient that this Board should present a 
 memorial to Congress, praying that it may grant such aid as may be 
 required to secure to the colored population of the Southern States 
 the education which is necessary to fit them for the discharge of 
 their duties as citizens of the United States. 
 
 ALEX. H. H. STUART. 
 M. R. WAITE. 
 
 WM. M. EVARTS. 
 
 Washington, February 19, 1880. 
 

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