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TRACTS 
 
 ON 
 
 * - - - . » 
 
 REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 OF AMERICA. 
 
 R. D. OWEN AND FRANCES WRIGHT. 
 
 " These are not the times in which it is safe for a nation to repose in ths 
 lap of ignorance .”—Robert Hall. 
 
 3£ontion: s 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR JAMES WATSON , 
 
 BY 
 
 HOLYOAKE AND CO., 147, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1857. 
 

 
 
 
 
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TRACTS 
 
 ON V 
 
 GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION. 
 
 * s a re P u blic in which the voice of the people is in theory 
 U' ou & ht to be in practice, the director of the people’s affairs’. 
 
 lhe voice of the people, that is to say, the majority of their 
 tS T°tes, ought to decide all great measures. With a few excep¬ 
 tions, trifling except in the state of Virginia, all free male 
 citizens of our country, above the age of twenty-one, have an 
 equal voice in electing those men whose opinions and votes in 
 the respective houses of representatives, afterwards determine 
 the state laws, decide the state taxes, and direct the adminis¬ 
 tration and appropriation of the same. 
 
 That is to say:. the mass of the people legislates, or rather 
 may legislate, indirectly . If those men whom they elect, do 
 vote, not according to their own private opinion, merely be¬ 
 cause it is their own, but according to the interests and wishes 
 of the majority of their constituents, then the people legislate 
 through their constituents. But if the men of their choice give 
 their votes contrary to the known interests, or to the expressed 
 wishes, of those who have elected them as their representatives, 
 then these men cease to be, in strictness, the representatives of 
 the people at all. They represent no one but themselves ; and, 
 m so far as they are concerned, the government is a pure 
 oligarchy. 
 
 I say not that this is an evil without a remedy—even perhaps 
 an easy one; nor do I say that, in some instances, the people’s 
 representatives are not what the name implies. But it is a 
 fact, than which scarcely any is more notorious, that many 
 members of our legislatures do not even profess to vote with 
 . the known wishes of their electors, when these are at variance 
 with their own ; and that many more, while professing so to act, 
 most flagrantly violate their profession. 
 
 I do not say that a man ought to be compelled or expected 
 to vote contrary to his conscientious conviction, even when 
 that conviction happens to be disapproved by his electors. A 
 < certain distinguished member from the west of Pennsylvania, 
 if I have been correctly informed, once voted in decided oppo¬ 
 sition to his received instructions; and when called to account 
 for his conduct, at the risk of being thrown out, he boldly said, 
 that he could only promise for the future as in the past, to 
 consider every question attentively and candidly, to weigh duly 
 the wishes of his constituents, but never to .vote in decided 
 opposition to his own opinions j adding, that his fellow-citizens 
 - • b 2 
 
4 
 
 ON GOVERNMENT 
 
 were perfectly right to transfer their voices to the man who 
 might more thoroughly agree with them in sentiment than he 
 had done. His electors received his declaration with applause. 
 As his political life had been consistent, they considered this 
 one instance of dissent as additional proof of his integrity, and 
 accordingly re-elected him. Now I condemn neither the 
 member nor his constituents. In his case, I should probably 
 have considered it my duty to follow my own private conviction 
 of what was best;—and in theirs, to re-elect the man who was 
 honest enough to do what he judged right, at the risk of his 
 popularity. 
 
 But our approval or disapproval of the Pennsylvanian’s 
 conduct under these peculiar circumstances, does not affect the 
 main question. He himself, in the given instance, might be 
 considered as a legislator, or a guardian, or it may be a disin¬ 
 terested friend of the people; their representative he was not. 
 He gave his opinion, not theirs ; followed his wishes, not theirs: 
 the power, which they had delegated to him, he employed to 
 oppose what they had desired to support. The people, there¬ 
 fore, in so far as his decision was concerned, were not repre¬ 
 sented at all. They virtually lost, for the time, their rights of 
 citizens, as completely as if they had been by force deprived of 
 the elective franchise. If that which happened in this particular 
 instance were to happen generally, the people would be as much 
 at the mercy of their governors as are the serfs of Russia or the 
 slaves of the Turkish dynasty. 
 
 Now, where is the remedy for evils, which, though trifling 
 perhaps in the case of honest disinterested men, yet involve, in 
 principle, the total loss of political liberty ? Shall we expect 
 from those whom we elect a sacrifice of their opinions to ours ? 
 The more honest and better portion of them may not choose to 
 make the sacrifice. Or shall we expect from our chosen repre¬ 
 sentatives a sacrifice of their interest to ours ? The less honest 
 and upright portion of them (and alas! how large the majority!) 
 will not deliberately sacrifice what they deem their own, to what 
 they deem the public good. 
 
 Where then is the remedy ? How shall the people be repre¬ 
 sented ? not lorded over and governed, but represented ? By 
 choosing those men only whose opinions on all great points are 
 in accordance with the opinions of their constituents; but, above 
 all, in choosing those only whose interests are the same as the 
 interest of the people. 
 
 Let us not “lead into temptation.” Let us pot elect men to a 
 situation where interest tells them one thing and duty another. 
 They ought not, indeed, to yield to the temptation; but that does 
 not mend the matter; they will yield to it, if not in all cases, at 
 least in the majority. An immoral situation produces, in the 
 mass of mankind, immorality ; and he whose duty and interest 
 point different ways is immorally situated. 
 
 The real interests of the working classes are not the same as 
 
AND EDUCATION. 
 
 5 
 
 the apparent and immediate interests of what are called the pri¬ 
 vileged classes. Yet, in five cases out of six, the representatives 
 of the people are chosen from among lawyers, bankers, large 
 landed proprietors, and rich merchants. In five cases out of six, 
 then, our representatives (as they are inaccurately called) are 
 tempted to do wrong; and if they do right, it is in spite of the 
 temptation. 
 
 The people ought to search for those whose personal interests 
 coincide W'ith their own; and ought, for that reason, to choose 
 representatives from among their own body, whenever they can 
 fihd among themselves men of plain good sense, of firmness, and 
 of practical experience. The working classes, in consequence of 
 the injustice which has meted inordinate labour for their portion, 
 have hitherto had but little time to improve their minds or form 
 their manners. In consequence there are few eloquent, and not 
 a great many fluent speakers among them. This is to be regret¬ 
 ted ; for eloquence is a giant power in a commonwealth like this. 
 But we must take things as we find them, and make the best of 
 them. The manner is indeed important, but it is much less im¬ 
 portant than the matter. An indifferent speaker is better than a 
 dishonest man. If, therefore, we cannot find eloquence and 
 honesty combined, let us take the honesty and leave the elo¬ 
 quence ; for, thus, if we have less brilliant debates, we shall have 
 more useful laws. 
 
 I said that it behoved the people to choose those men for their 
 representatives whose opinions were in accordance with their 
 own ; and I shall probably be told, that this is impossible ; first 
 because we cannot easily ascertain the general opinion of the 
 body of electors ; and then because, even if we could, it might 
 be difficult to find a man conscientiously holding all these, and 
 otherwise capable of fulfilling the duties of a legislator. 
 
 But if we cannot do all, let us at least do what we can. If we 
 cannot find representatives who will support every measure which 
 their electors desire to carry, let us take those who will support 
 the essentials. And, above all, let us not quarrel about the non- 
 essentials. 
 
 There are certain great measures which are indispensable to the 
 welfare of the people ; there are certain master-abuses that must 
 be remedied, ere common justice can accrue to the producing 
 classes. To carry these let the people first unite. Let them 
 elect men, not because they are of Jackson’s or of Adams’ or of 
 Clay’s party, or of any party whatever: but because they will sup¬ 
 port and vote for the great measures which can alone relieve the 
 country from its present distress. 
 
 And let the people seek until they find what these great mea¬ 
 sures are. Having found them, let them vote, not to carry men, 
 but to carry these measures ; not to serve the interests of any 
 political party, but to serve the great interests of themselves, the 
 people. 
 
 They have the power in their own hands. Let them seek the 
 
6 
 
 ON GOVERNMENT 
 
 knowledge and the union of purpose and of plan, which can alone 
 make that power effective. 
 
 In despotic countries, where it rests with the autocrat to com¬ 
 mand, and with his slaves to hear and to obey—in lands where 
 the power of one is supported and the obedience of the many 
 enforced, by lance or bayonet—it is not enough to open the 
 people’s eyes to their real situation; they must not only be en¬ 
 lightened, they must be armed also. For their will is but of small 
 weight against his who has an army of mercenaries in his pay 
 and at his beck. 
 
 Not so in this commonwealth. Whenever the eyes of the 
 people are opened; whenever they know what they desire to 
 effect, and know how to unite their efforts and make effective 
 their acknowledged power—they may carry what measures they 
 will. They have the power. They may be cheated into a 
 belief that they have it not; they may be urged on to jealousies 
 and internal dissensions and party feuds, that waste each other’s 
 strength and neutralize each other’s influence; and thus the 
 people may be shorn of their rights, without perceiving how they 
 lose them. But the power they have. They can dictate their 
 own laws, and carry their own measures; can legislate for them¬ 
 selves. And if they be oppressed, if riches and aristocracy legis¬ 
 late for them, and often legislate against them—it is the people’s 
 blindness, not their impotence, that gives their adversaries the 
 day. 
 
 It is not the servants oppressed by their masters; it is the 
 master deceived and tricked and governed by his servants. As 
 American citizens, in whom is vested the elective franchise, we 
 are our own masters. Our representatives are our servants, 
 whom we pay to do our business; not our slaves, but our con¬ 
 fidential hired servants. If they attend to their own business 
 instead of attending to ours, they presume on our ignorance, and 
 violate the duties of their situation. 
 
 Our situation, then, is good, so far as situation goes. It is right 
 and proper that freemen should be their own masters. But that 
 is not enough. Mere power, without knowledge, is but a useless 
 bauble; rights unexercised are no rights at all; and a master at 
 the mercy of his servants is no better than a slave. 
 
 So long as we cannot agree upon the instructions which we 
 will give to our delegates; so long as we do not see these instruc¬ 
 tions carried into effect; so long as we are careless and negligent, 
 instead of looking after our own affairs; so long are we masters 
 at the mercy of our servants; and so long are we likely to be 
 deceived and oppressed. 
 
 If we will change our situation, let us be up and doing. Let 
 v.s choose faithful servants; not smooth-spoken rogues, nor un- 
 1 rofitable doers of eye-service, but good grid faithful servants. 
 Let us retain them in our service so long as they remain faithful; 
 and let us dismiss them when they seek their own emolument, 
 instead of caring for our concerns. 
 
AND EDUCATION. 
 
 7 
 
 But, above all, let us determine what instruction we will give 
 them. If our instructions be contradictory and confused, we can¬ 
 not be obeyed; we shall spoil our servants; the best of them will 
 resign their situations, and the rest will cheat us if they can. Let 
 us, then, enquire what are the essentials, which the people, for 
 their own sake, ought, through their representatives, to obtain. 
 
 Here is the great difficulty. Here lies our weakness, and our 
 oppressors* strength. We know not what we would have. Some 
 of us are tariff, some anti-tariff men; some think the country 
 may be made a paradise by internal improvement; others that 
 our safety can only be insured by the demolition of the banking 
 system; some think the world would be regenerated by commu¬ 
 nities of common property; others, by labour for labour associa¬ 
 tions ; others, again, by an agrarian law: some think religion 
 only can save the country, others, that religious influence will 
 ruin it: one takes up one particular abuse, and one another. 
 And the worst of it is, each deems his own plan the only specific 
 for the national disease; and of course exerts all his energies to 
 bring it into notice in preference to every other. 
 
 Here is the secret of our political degradation. Here the 
 cause why the few can ride the many with impunity, and why 
 the many so tamely suffer themselves to be ridden by the few. 
 We are at variance among ourselves, and we waste in party dis¬ 
 putes and petty dissensions, the time and the means that ought 
 to be employed in the great work of national improvement. 
 
 If this must needs continue, our liberty was but a worthless 
 gift. 
 
 But must it continue ? Is there no point upon which we can 
 all unite ? Is there no great measure to which we can all sub¬ 
 scribe ? Is there none whose importance all will acknowledge, 
 and by whose adoption all would feel themselves benefited ? 
 
 I believe there is one. And if there be, how indispensable to 
 our posterity as a nation, that we should see it! and, seeing, that 
 we should unite to obtain it! 
 
 It is not a measure that, like the tariff question, will divide the 
 North and the South; nor a local proposal, like laying a rail¬ 
 road, or the cutting a canal. It is not a partial reform, like the 
 suppression of gambling among bankers; nor an untried remedy 
 like the establishment of social communities. Nor is it a startling 
 innovation like the equal division of property; nor even a subject 
 for which our early prejudices may have been enlisted, like that 
 of theology. It is a measure whose benefits all may see, from 
 Maine to Florida, of whatever state, of whatever party, of what¬ 
 ever religion. It is a national system of education. 
 
 I would that my voice could extend over our wide republic, 
 that I might repeat in the ears of every citizen, the advice: 
 “ Vote for those men only who will support a State Education. 
 Cast aside party feelings. Cast aside favourite schemes. Ask 
 not if your canditate be a mason or an anti-mason, a federalist 
 or a democrat, a friend to national improvement, or an enemy 
 
8 
 
 ON GOVERNMENT 
 
 to banking monopolies —until ye have first asked, ‘ Will he assist 
 us to obtain for our children that best of patrimonies, whose pos¬ 
 session would have saved us all of which we complain ?’ Let 
 this be your first question. He is your friend who will honestly 
 answer it in the affirmative; and he your enemy who will say 
 ‘No’ to it; or, saying ‘Yes,’ who will not hold to his word. Let 
 this be the test of your approbation, this the condition of you? 
 support, this the one thing needful that shall obtain your suffrage. 
 And you will soon see your children grow up to be freemen 
 indeed. You will see them obtain those advantages, which 
 no nation can obtain and remain oppressed—those advantages 
 which more than riches, more than good fortune, more than 
 situation, more than intrigue, have hitherto given the reigning few 
 power and privileges over the subjected many; and which, when 
 secured to your descendants, will give them their just rank among 
 the free citizens of the world.” 
 
 I proceed to give my reasons for proposing a system of equal 
 national education, as the first measure which the people 
 should unite to carry. 
 
 In the first place, it is a measure for which all honest republi¬ 
 cans, and all not unprincipled parents will unite. 
 
 It is essential that the people, if they are to effect any perma¬ 
 nent improvement in their condition, should not be divided in 
 opinion as to the practical objects after which they strive. I say 
 essential; because the people can not lose their power, except by 
 disunion. Whatever the people of this republic unite to carry, 
 they will carry—against riches, against patronage, against so¬ 
 phistry, against intrigue—against every power which sharp wits, 
 rendered yet sharper by the sense of personal interest, can bring 
 in array to oppose them. But let discord enter the popular for¬ 
 tress, and there is no longer either safety or power. One quarrel 
 within the walls is worse than a thousand enemies without. “ A 
 house divided against itself,” says an ancient writer, “ can not 
 stand.” And truly and wisely was it said. 
 
 This is no petty question of expediency. It is that which will 
 decide every thing. Tell me whether the people will succeed in 
 uniting their voices to carry any measure, and I will tell you 
 whether the effort will be successful. Inform me that their 
 crafty opponents will be able to sow dissension among the 
 people’s ranks; and, though no prophet, I will predict the people’s 
 discomfiture. 
 
 What possibility is there, that the mass of our citizens should 
 be divided on this question of national education ? Who, except 
 those who seek to make money and win places by educational 
 inequality, will feel their interest opposed? Who, among the 
 people, that has a child of his own, will not feel his personal in¬ 
 terest immediately promoted ? What parent is there so lost alike 
 to duty and affection, or so degraded by vitiating habits, that he 
 feels not the desire to see his children saved from the pit into 
 which he has fallen ? 
 
AND EDUCATION. 
 
 9 
 
 Powerful—very powerful is the parental feeling. Even in its 
 excess we may recognise its power. Even when it destroys the 
 tranquillity of the parent, and alas! the welfare of the child, we 
 may see how potent and engrossing its influence. And would it 
 not be beneficial as powerful, were it but wisely directed ? 
 
 This measure, then, is one which is calculated to unite the 
 zealous suffrages of all upright citizens, and all righteous parents, 
 whatever their sect, their party, or their profession. It contains, 
 then, in itself, the earnest of its own success. 
 
 But secondly, it is not only easily attainable, but omnipotent 
 when attained. 
 
 Look around upon our country, and estimate, if you can, the 
 extent of its vices, and its miseries. You will find them not of 
 one place, nor of one character, nor of partial influence, you will 
 find them everywhere. Ride along our highways, and every third 
 house you pass shall be a tavern or a gin-shop. Pass through our 
 streets, and in one you will see vanity of dress, pride of wealth, and 
 pompousness of luxury; in the next, half-naked wretchedness, 
 and brutalizing excesses. Enter our courts of law, and see the 
 hatred and hear the bickerings that support in affluence the judge 
 and the barrister. Visit our orthodox temples of religion, and 
 calculate the intolerance they contain and the hypocrisy they en¬ 
 gender. Watch the commercial speculations that pour thousands 
 into the already overflowing coffers of some rich merchant or 
 banker, and ruin his less fortunate or more scrupulous neighbour, 
 who drags along with him, perhaps in his bankruptcy, hundreds 
 of honest labourers, and hard working mechanics. Or, inquire 
 in the details of domestic life, and contemplate the jealous strug¬ 
 gle of the poor to emulate the rich, and the eager endeavour of 
 all to barter tranquil comfort for a little higher rank, and a little 
 more fashionable standing than the world is willing to accord 
 them. See one half of society, the slaves of etiquette, and the 
 other the victims of excessive labour. Observe how uniformly 
 the hardest labour is made the least productive; and how the re¬ 
 ward of an occupation increases almost in the same ratio with its 
 inutility. Mark how one class is doomed to toil for bread, and 
 another privileged to wanton in luxurious idleness. Observe 
 how poor and dependent are the producers, and how rich and 
 powerful the consumers of wealth. And ask yourselves, how 
 many men and women ye have found in the course of your lives 
 —among the rich or the poor, the oppressors or the oppressed— 
 truly honest, truly consistent, truly independent, or truly happy 
 in their generation. 
 
 How shall a mass of abuses like these be remedied by piece¬ 
 meal ? How shall they be remedied at all , if we reach not the 
 seat of the disease—the human heart ? What avails it that our 
 present monopolies are destroyed, if the ignorance remain that 
 first permitted and may again be cajoled to permit them ? 
 What would it profit us that all pecuniary inequality ceased in 
 a moment, if the ignorance remain that first produced, and 
 
10 
 
 ON GOVERNMENT 
 
 would soon reproduce it. How should we be advantaged by 
 razing to the ground our hanks, our law courts, and our gin-shops, 
 if the spirit of speculation, of quarrelling, and of drunkenness, 
 which at first erected, were still there to rebuild them ? In a 
 word, how shall the abuses that mar all the beauty of our na¬ 
 tional institutions, the vices that stain the fame of our national 
 character, and the miseries that depress or destroy our national 
 happiness—how shall these be removed, but only by an equal, 
 national, intellectual and practical education for all the young 
 citizens of our republic ? 
 
 We have had enough of declarations; let us have realities. 
 We have said we are free and equal; let us become so. It needs 
 not the chain or the manacle to constitute the slave. There is 
 a slavery beyond that of fetters and dungeons—the slavery that 
 bends not the body only, but the mind, to oppression; that puts 
 man’s reason in irons, and shuts out from his reach common 
 sense and practical knowledge. This is the oppression we must 
 destroy; and in the human mind, where it dwells and reigns, there 
 we must destroy it. 
 
 Had but equal education been spread over the nations of mo¬ 
 dern Europe, how altered should we read the annals of the dark 
 middle ages. Where did the feudal barons find their power to 
 enslave, if not in the cowed spirit and loyal ignorance of their 
 degraded vassals ? How did the catholic clergy, that proud 
 spiritual aristocracy, that set its sandaled feet on the necks of kings, 
 and in its robes of sackcloth, entered unushered the cabinets of 
 the masters of the world—how did these proud pretenders to holy 
 humility, obtain their despotic sway ? Was it not because science 
 had retreated to the cell of the monk, and opened her treasures 
 only within the walls of the monastery? Could feudal or spi¬ 
 ritual tyranny have lasted for one year beyond the time that all 
 serfs and all catholics had been taught to find in real knowledge 
 at once their safety, their freedom, and their happiness ? 
 
 Let us leave the branches then, and strike at the root. They 
 will wither and die of themselves, when the sources are cut off 
 whence they have derived their nourishment. My second reason, 
 therefore for proposing equal national education as the first mea¬ 
 sure of reform, is because it is a remedy, and the only remedy 
 commensurate with the abuses we purpose to remove. 
 
 There are other reasons, though of less weight than those I have 
 already adduced, w r hy we may regard a state education as the mea¬ 
 sure which it behoves the people, as they value their own happi¬ 
 ness and their children’s independence, first to unite to carry. 
 
 However omnipotent that measure may be, in revolutionizing 
 the character and remodelling all the institutions of society, it is 
 less startling and obnoxious, even to the most orthodox defenders 
 of the things and the powers that be, than are many other far less 
 effective measures. Propose to abolish all banking charters; and, 
 though this could produce but a trifling benefit compared to those 
 resulting from national education, yet while effecting much less, 
 
AND EDUCATION. 
 
 11 
 
 
 1 
 
 it would irritate much more. Propose an immediate equalization 
 of property; and though you could have no security that in a 
 single year from the date of that equalization, there would not be 
 rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed, as at present, yet this 
 partial and ineffective reform would create a hundred enemies 
 and opposers, for one that is created against a universal reform by 
 means of education. So, in medicine, are the gentlest remedies 
 often the most efficacious, and come to us doubly recommended, 
 at once by their immediate and by their ultimate effects. 
 
 I shall perhaps be told, that the relief afforded to suffering in¬ 
 dustry by means of instruction to the coming generation, is but 
 prospective and afar off; and that, while promising much in the 
 future, it affords no alleviation for the present. But this objection 
 is surely invalid. If a system of National Education be esta¬ 
 blished, providing at once for the instruction and maintenance of 
 all the children of the republic, and the expenses be defrayed by 
 means of a property tax, and in addition, perhaps, as suggested 
 by my co-editor, in her lecture on Existing Evils, by a light tax 
 on each parent—if, I say, such a system of education and support 
 were carried for the children of all , how would the miseries and 
 difficulties of poor families be instantly lightened or removed! 
 When is the sting of poverty the sharpest, if it be not when a 
 father or a mother looks on the sufferings of their offspring—when 
 they see them neglected in body and mind, without power of re¬ 
 medy—and bitterly anticipate for them future hardships and 
 future degradation ? Let those poor and hard worked widows of 
 Philadelphia, whom an iniquitous system of trade has doomed to 
 exist and support their helpless children on sixteen dollars a year, 
 or to brave infamy and punishment for a small additional pittance 
 —•let them reply. 
 
 How would it lighten not the expenses only, but the cares and 
 the sorrows of indigent parents, to know that, whatever they 
 themselves might endure, their children, safe under the parental 
 guardianship of the nation, were secure from the privations of 
 poverty, and participating in the same advantages, mental, moral, 
 and physical, as the wealthiest children in the land! 
 
 Where is, at this moment, the great difficulty to the working 
 classes in obtaining just laws, such as shall defend their rights 
 and advance their interest? Their difficulty may be traced to 
 the fact that they can hardly find suitable representatives. And 
 why not find them ? Because men in other ranks of life have 
 interests opposed to those of the working man, and men in his 
 own rank have not the educational advantages that enable them 
 easily to compete with the sophistry of the learned student, or 
 the eloquence of the classic scholar. And will not this difficulty 
 remain, until a National Education remove it? Had equal in¬ 
 struction been accorded in the last generation to the child of the 
 mechanic as of the president, how could there now exist the 
 slightest difficulty in selecting from among the producers of all 
 wealth intelligent representatives of their own class—men who, 
 taken from among the people, would legislate for the people; and 
 
12 
 
 ON GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION. 
 
 •who, uniting common sense to literary acquirements, and practical 
 knowledge to theoretical refinement, would act with the plain 
 dealing of an honest republican, think with the enlarged and 
 liberal views of a disciple of science, and speak with the eloquent 
 perspicuity of a man of letters. Thus are our immediate diffi¬ 
 culties, equally with all the thousand evils which ignorance has 
 ever produced, to be traced to the carelessness of mankind in 
 neglecting to train up children when young, in the way they 
 should go, that, when they are old, they may not depart from it. 
 
 Lastly, National Education is a measure involving no danger¬ 
 ous revolution to rouse the passions, and perhaps to blind the 
 judgment, of mankind. It presupposes no violent change in the 
 structure of society. It is like the silent flowing of the rising 
 tide, not like the impetuous whirl of the ingulfing storm. Even 
 if, by mismanagement in its details, it might fail at first to effect 
 all the good we anticipate, experience would soon correct these 
 minor errors: so that with much and increasing good in prospect, 
 there is neither danger to be encountered, nor loss to be incurred. 
 
 “ Lycurgus,” says Plutarch, “ resolved the whole business of 
 legislation into the bringing up of youth.” When our legislators 
 shall have learned wisdom from the Spartan, they will acquire, as 
 he acquired, the power of remoulding the national character. 
 At present they do not possess it. They can punish, but they 
 have yet to learn how to prevent. They have jails and peni¬ 
 tentiaries, handcuffs and treadmills, lawyers and constables, 
 solemn oaths and penal codes; they have yet to learn that these 
 form not men to virtue, though they often make them hypocrites 
 in vice. They have yet to learn the impotence of fear, and the 
 omnipotence of reason. 
 
 Let our representatives learn all this, or let us change our re¬ 
 presentatives. He who knows not the reforming power of 
 National Education, is unqualified to sit in the councils of a 
 nation; and he who knows its power, yet seeks to withhold its 
 benefits from the humblest of his fellow-citizens, still less 
 deserves their confidence or their suffrages. 
 
 I have stated the reasons that induce me to regard a State 
 Education as the first object to obtain which the people should 
 combine their exertions and unite their votes. If these reasons 
 be good, let the people awake to action. As they value the noble 
 institutions of America, as they would save their country from 
 the convulsions of a bloody revolution, as they would reform the 
 crying abuses of inequality, as they would check the frightful 
 enormities of vice, as they would build up virtue in the human 
 heart, cherish kindness in the human bosom, and cultivate intel¬ 
 ligence in the human mind—in a word, as they value their own 
 and their children’s enduring welfare, let them awake to action. 
 Let them unite for action. The struggle is for no paltry prize; it 
 is for the reality of those blessings which were declared ours half 
 a century ago. This is the time and this the country for such a 
 struggle. Soon may it commence, and speedily as happily may it 
 terminate! R. D. Owe*. 
 
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 13 
 
 PLAN OF 
 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 The industrious classes have been called the bone and marrow of 
 the nation ; but they are in fact the nation itself. The fruits of 
 their industry are the nation’s wealth; their moral integrity and 
 physical health is the nation’s strength; their ease and inde¬ 
 pendence is the nation’s prosperity; their intellectual intelligence 
 is the nation’s hope. Where the producing labourer and useful 
 artisan eat well, sleep well, live comfortably, think correctly, 
 speak fearlessly, and act uprightly, the nation is happy, free, and 
 wise. Has such a nation ever been ? No. Can such a nation 
 ever be ? Answer, men of industry of the United States! If 
 such can be, it is here. If such is to be, it must be your work. 
 
 Here the people govern ; and you are the people. 
 
 And you are becoming apprized of this. You are learning your 
 power. In New-York, in Philadelphia, in Boston, in Baltimore, 
 you have looked round and distinguished that all is not well. In 
 Philadelphia you have tried your strength; in New-York you 
 have proved it. In New-York, six thousand votes have appeared 
 at once in the ballot box, on which you had written reform. 
 
 This has been, indeed, a show of strength, and a sign of deter¬ 
 mination. As such it has been hailed far and wide, by every 
 friend of human improvement. Through the counties of this 
 powerful state, every mind looks to the metropolis. There they 
 have touched the lever who alone can move it. The people have 
 aroused themselves where they are the strongest—in the cities. 
 There at length they have said, “We have the power, and we 
 will use it.” Yes, men of industry! you have the power; and it 
 is now with you wisely to steer the vessel of the state into safe 
 harbour, or rashly to peril it in the deeps and shallows of anarchy 
 and stormy contention. 
 
 Much, I will not say all, depends on your first move. I will 
 not say all, because I believe that, even in spite of errors and 
 blunders, the national institutions, and the good sense which they, 
 in spite of all countervailing influences, have sufficed to generate, 
 would lead you right at last. But much depends upon your first 
 move. The honour of the cause depends upon it; the honour of 
 the nation in the eyes of the world depends upon it; the honour 
 of the nation, and your own honour in your own eyes depend 
 upon it. Move then warily. Take one step at a time, and let 
 that step be always such as you can keep. He who draws back 
 is always weakened; and he who hurries forward with blind 
 speed, must always draw back or stumble. Touch skilfully as 
 many minor abuses as circumstances and your own knowledge 
 may permit. Check the banks; limit or repeal charters; tax 
 church property; investigate the nature of its tenure; secure the 
 more immediate interests of the working classes, by procuring 
 
14 
 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION, 
 
 the legal acknowledgment of their claims where now they IT** 
 unheard;—all this will be important, and well, and of immediate 
 utility, if done wisely. But as respects great measures (and all 
 such as above enumerated, are but trifling; are but the lopping 
 off of branches, not the severing of the root)—as respects great 
 measures, attempt but one at a time; speak of but one at a time; 
 if possible, think of but one at a time. Let one, and one great 
 measure alone, engross for a long season your thoughts and unite 
 your efforts. Recal your own youth, and you will understand 
 what that measure ought to be. Look at your children, and you 
 can never forget it. Examine yourselves—weigh your own defi¬ 
 ciencies, and you will appreciate all its importance, and itd 
 omnipotence. 
 
 Pledge yourselves, then, men of industry ! pledge yourselves, 
 minds, hearts, and votes, to that one measure—that saving, that 
 regenerating, that omnipotent measure. That one measure, by 
 which alone childhood may find sure protection; by which alone 
 youth may be made wise, industrious, moral, and happy; by 
 which alone the citizens of this land may be made, in very deed, 
 free and equal. That measure—you know it. It is national, 
 
 RATIONAL, REPUBLICAN EDUCATION ; FREE FOR ALL AT THE EXPENSE 
 OF ALL; CONDUCTED UNDER THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE, 
 AT THE EXPENSE OF THE STATE, AND FOR THE HONOUR, THE HAP¬ 
 PINESS, THE VIRTUE, THE SALVATION OF THE STATE. 
 
 Until equality be planted in the mind, in the habits, in the 
 manners, in the feelings, think not it can ever be in the condition. 
 Equalize fortunes at this hour, and knavery in one year would 
 have beggared honesty; improvidence would have dissipated its 
 possessions ; credulous simplicity would have yielded all to the 
 crafty hypocrite; error would still deceive ignorance, and a ready 
 tongue and a forward spirit, would still banish modest worth to 
 the shade. 
 
 But it is not enough to forbear from rash and futile measures; 
 they should not be talked about. Hot heads and hasty spirits 
 will indeed urge to false movements, seek to outstrip time and cir¬ 
 cumstance, and strain to make effects precede their preparing 
 causes. But a self-respecting people will check the zeal of im¬ 
 prudence, and the intemperate haste of unreasoning or false-reck¬ 
 oning inexperience. They will begin well, that they may end 
 well ; they will move slowly and firmly, that they may move 
 unitedly and surely; they will begin with what touches the in¬ 
 terests, and may convince the understandings of the great body of 
 the nation, that opposition may be weak and co-operation strong. 
 They will unite on that measure without which every other must 
 be ineffectual, and which must be preparatory to every reform. 
 They will unite on that measure, which, in principle, is so righte¬ 
 ous, that the hypocrite dare not openly slander it; so constitu¬ 
 tional, that the crooked politician dare not openly oppose it; so 
 universally beneficial, that not one honest man can lift his voice 
 against it. 
 
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 15 
 
 Volte, then, men of industry! on this measure, and you dis¬ 
 arm your enemies ; unite on this measure, and all the sound part 
 of the population are your friends. The vote of every righteous 
 parent and every honest man will drop into your ballot box: and 
 your ticket shall carry at the first general struggle, not in your 
 city only, but throughout your state. 
 
 Take now then betimes your stand, men of industry! Orga¬ 
 nize yourselves, prepare your minds, strengthen your numbers, 
 turn a deaf ear to the clamour of enemies; defeat by order, and 
 union, and steady perseverance, the tricks of roguery. Fix your 
 eyes upon the great object— the salvation and regeneration of hu¬ 
 man kind, by means of the rational education and protection of 
 youth. Study this great object in all its bearings, follow it out in 
 all its consequences and effects; digest the means by which it 
 maybe secured; let it engage your thoughts and supply your con¬ 
 versations ; speak of it at home and abroad; win to it the atten¬ 
 tion of your wives and of your children themselves; interest all 
 you love, and all you know, and, if possible, all with whom you 
 come in contact, in weighing its advantages, and advancing its 
 execution! 
 
 Bear in mind, men of industry! that you are the people; and 
 that here, by acknowledged right and acknowledged law, the 
 people govern. Govern then for yourselves and your children, 
 and for the nation of which you now form the hands, and the feet, 
 and the trunk, and of which you must form the head before the head 
 can be in union with the body it regulates. Govern as fathers 
 as well as citizens, as citizens as well as fathers. Bear in mind 
 that the stay and prop of liberty is knowledge; that the basis of 
 just government is rational education, and, that the life of a re¬ 
 public is equal education. Lay then the true foundation of prac¬ 
 tical republicanism. Bind all your efforts to the one great mea¬ 
 sure of a uniform plan of education for all the children and youth 
 of your several states; and let that plan be in perfect unison with 
 the nature of man, the nature of things, and with the declaration 
 of your country— all men are free and equal. 
 
 The measure I am about to suggest, whenever adopted, will, in 
 the outset, alleviate those popular distresses whose poignancy and 
 rapid increase weigh on the heart of philanthropy, and crush the 
 best hopes of enlightened patriotism. It must further, when car¬ 
 ried into full effect, work the radical cure of every disease which 
 now afflicts the body politic, and build up for this nation a sound 
 constitution, embracing at once, public prosperity, individual in¬ 
 tegrity, and universal happiness. 
 
 This measure, my friends, has been long present to my mind as 
 befitting the adoption of the American people; as alone calcu¬ 
 lated to form an enlightened, a virtuous, and a happy community; 
 as alone capable of supplying a remedy to the evils under which 
 we groan; as alone commensurate with the interests of the hu- 
 
16 
 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 man family, and consistent with the political institutions of this 
 great confederated republic. 
 
 I had occasion formerly to observe, in allusion to the efforts 
 already made, and yet making, in the cause of popular instruc¬ 
 tion, more or less throughout the Union, that as yet the true 
 principle has not been hit, and that until it be hit, all reform 
 must be slow and inefficient. 
 
 The noble example of New-England has been imitated by 
 other states, until all not possessed of common schools blush for 
 the popular remissness. But, after all, how can common schools , 
 under their best form, and in fullest supply, effect even the pur¬ 
 pose which they have in view. 
 
 The object proposed by common schools (if I rightly under¬ 
 stand it) is to impart to the whole population those means for the 
 acquirement of knowledge which are in common use; reading and 
 writing. To these are added arithmetic, and, occasionally, per¬ 
 haps, some imperfect lessons in the simpler sciences. But, 1 
 would ask, supposing these institutions should even be made to 
 embrace all the branches of intellectual knowledge, and thus, 
 science offered gratis to all the children of the land, how are the 
 children of the very class, for whom we suppose the schools in¬ 
 stituted, to be supplied with food and raiment, or instructed in the 
 trade necessary to their future subsistence, while they are follow¬ 
 ing these studies ? How are they, I ask, to be fed and clothed, 
 when, as all facts show, the labour of the parents is often insuffi¬ 
 cient for their own sustenance, and, almost universally, inadequate 
 to the provision of the family without the united efforts of all its 
 members? In your manufacturing districts you have children 
 worked for twelve hours a day; and, in the rapid and certain 
 progress of the existing system, you will soon have them, as in 
 England, worked to death , and yet unable, through the period of 
 their miserable existence, to earn a pittance sufficient to satisfy the 
 cravings of hunger. At this present time, what leisure or what 
 spirit, think you, have the children of the miserable widows of 
 Philadelphia, realizing, according to the most favourable estimate 
 of your city and county committee, sixteen dollars per annum, 
 for food and clothing ? What leisure or what spirit may their 
 children find for visiting a school, although the same should be 
 open to them from sunrise to sunset? Or what leisure have 
 usually the children of your most thriving mechanics, after their 
 strength is sufficiently developed to spin, sew, weave, or wield a 
 tool ? It seems to me, my friends, that to build school houses 
 now-a-days is something like building churches. When you have 
 them, you need some measure to ensure their being occupied. 
 
 I hasten to the rapid development of the system of instruction 
 and protection which has occurred to me as capable, and alone 
 capable, of opening the door to universal reform. 
 
 In lieu of common schools, high schools, colleges, seminaries, 
 houses of refuge, or any other juvenile institution, instructional or 
 protective, let the state legislatures be directed (after laying off 
 
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 17 
 
 the whole in townships or hundreds) to organize, at suitable dis¬ 
 tances, and in convenient and healthy situations, establishments 
 for the general reception of all the children resident within the 
 said school district. These establishments to be devoted, se¬ 
 verally, to children between a certain age. Say, the first to in¬ 
 fants between two and four, or two and six, according to the 
 density of the population, and such other local circumstances as 
 might render a greater or less number of establishments necessary 
 or practicable. The next to receive children from four to eight, 
 or six to twelve years. The next from twelve to sixteen, or to 
 an older age if found desirable. Each establishment to be fur¬ 
 nished with instructors in every branch of knowledge, intellectual 
 and operative, with all the apparatus, land, and conveniences ne¬ 
 cessary for the best development of all knowledge; the same, 
 whether operative or intellectual, being always calculated to the 
 age and strength of the pupils. 
 
 To obviate, in the commencement, every evil result possible 
 from the first mixture of a young population, so variously raised 
 in error or neglect, a due separation should be made in each 
 establishment; by which means those entering with bad habits 
 would be kept apart from the others until corrected. How ra¬ 
 pidly reform may be effected on the plastic disposition of child¬ 
 hood, has been sufficiently proved in your houses of refuge, more 
 especially when such establishments have been under liberal su¬ 
 perintendence, as was formerly the case in New York. Under 
 their orthodox directors, those asylums of youth have been con¬ 
 verted into jails. 
 
 It will be understood, that, in the proposed establishments, the 
 children would pass from one to the other in regular succession, 
 and that the parents, who would necessarily be resident in their 
 close neighbourhood, could visit the children at suitable hours, 
 but, in no case, interfere with or interrupt the rules of the in¬ 
 stitution. 
 
 In the older establishments, the w.ell directed and well pro¬ 
 tected labour of the pupil would, in time, suffice for, and then 
 exceed, their own support; when the surplus might be devoted 
 to the maintenance of the infant establishments. 
 
 In the beginning, and until all debt was cleared off, and so 
 long as the same should be found favourable to the promotion of 
 these best palladiums of a nation’s happiness, a double tax might 
 be at once expedient and politic. 
 
 First, a moderate tax per head for every child, to be laid upon 
 its parents conjointly, or divided between them, due attention 
 being always paid to the varying strength of the two sexes, and 
 to the undue depreciation which now rests on female labour. 
 The more effectually to correct the latter injustice, as well as 1o 
 consult the convenience of the industrious classes generally, this 
 parental tax might be rendered payable either in money, or in 
 labour, produce, or domestic manufactures, and should be con¬ 
 tinued for each child until the age when juvenile labour should 
 
 o 
 
18 
 
 EDUCATION IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 be found, on the average, equivalent to the educational expenses, 
 which, I have reason to believe, would be at twelve years. 
 
 The first tax on parents to embrace equally the whole popula¬ 
 tion; as, however moderate, it would inculcate a certain fore¬ 
 thought in all the human family; more especially where it is 
 most wanted—in young persons, who before they assumed the 
 responsibility of parents, would estimate their fitness to meet it. 
 
 The second tax to be on property, increasing in per centage 
 with the wealth of the individual. In this manner I conceive 
 the rich would contribute, according to their riches, to the relief 
 of the poor, and to the support of the state, by raising up its best 
 bulwark—an enlightened and united generation. 
 
 Preparatory to, or connected with, such measures, a registry 
 should be opened by the state, with offices through all the town¬ 
 ships, where on the birth of every child, or within a certain time 
 appointed, the same should be entered, together with the names 
 of its parents. When two years old, the parental tax should be 
 payable, and the juvenile institution open for the child’s recep¬ 
 tion ; from which time forward it would be under the protective 
 care and guardianship of the state, while it need never be re¬ 
 moved from the daily, weekly, or frequent inspection of the 
 parents. 
 
 Orphans, of course, would find here an open asylum. If pos¬ 
 sessed of property, a contribution would be paid from its revenue 
 to the common educational fund; if unprovided, they would be 
 sustained out of the same. 
 
 In these nurseries of a free nation, no inequality must be 
 allowed to enter. Fed at a common board; clothed in a common 
 garb, uniting neatness with simplicity and convenience; raised 
 in the exercise of common duties, in the acquirement of the same 
 knowledge, and practice of the same industry, varied only accord¬ 
 ing to individual taste and capabilities; in the exercise of the 
 same virtues, in the enjoyment of the same pleasures; in the 
 study of the same nature; in pursuit of the same object— 
 their own and each other’s happiness—say! would not such a 
 race, when arrived at manhood and womanhood, work out the 
 reform of society—perfect the free institutions of America ? 
 
 Frances Wright. 
 
 EDUCATION IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR TICKNOR, OF BOSTON. 
 
 The system of universal education has now, therefore, become, 
 to a remarkable degree, the basis of the popular character which 
 marks the two millions of people in New England. The laws, 
 indeed, differ in the six states, and have been altered in each, 
 from time to time, since their first enactment; but all the states 
 
EDUCATION IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 19 
 
 have laws on the subject; the leading principles are the same in 
 ah of them; and the modes of applying them, and the results 
 obtained, are not materially different. Indeed, in almost every 
 part of these six states, whatever may be the injunctions of the 
 law, the popular demand for education is so much greater, that 
 the legal requisitions are generally or constantly exceeded. The 
 most striking instance of this is, perhaps, to be found in the city 
 of Boston, where the requisitions of the law could be fulfilled by 
 an expenditure of three thousand dollars annually, but where 
 from sixty to seventy thousand are every year applied to the 
 purpose. And yet multitudes of the poor and small towns in the 
 interior show no less zeal on the subject, and, in proportion to 
 their means, make no less exertion. The mode in which this 
 system of popular education is carried into effect is perfectly 
 simple, and is one principal cause of its practical efficiency. The 
 New England states are all divided into territorial communities 
 called towns, which have corporate privileges and duties, and 
 whose affairs are managed by a sort of committee annually chosen 
 by the inhabitants called selectmen. These towns are of unequal 
 size; but in the agricultural portions of the country, which 
 contain four-fifths of the people, they are generally five or six 
 square miles; and upon them, in their corporate capacity, rests 
 the duty of making provision for the support of free schools. 
 This duty is fulfilled by them, in the first place, by voting, at a 
 meeting of all the taxable male inhabitants over twenty-one years 
 old, a tax on property of all kinds to support schools for the cur¬ 
 rent year, always as large as the law requires, and often larger ; 
 or, if this is neglected by any town, it is so surely complained of 
 to the grand jury by those dissatisfied inhabitants, who want 
 education for their children, that instances of such neglect are 
 almost unknown. The next thing is to spend wisely and effec¬ 
 tually the money thus raised. In all but the smallest towns, one 
 school, at least, is kept through the whole year, in which Latin, 
 Greek, the lower branches of mathematics, and whatever goes to 
 constitute a common English education in reading, writing, geo¬ 
 graphy, history, &c., are taught under the immediate superinten¬ 
 dence of the selectmen, or of a special committee appointed for 
 the purpose. This, however, would not be carrying education 
 near enough to the doors of the people, in agricultural districts, 
 to enable them fully to avail themselves of it, especially the poorer 
 classes and the younger children. To meet this difficulty, all 
 the towns are divided into districts, varying in number, in each 
 town, from four to twelve, or even more, according to its neces¬ 
 sities and convenience. Each district has its district school 
 committee, and receives a part of the tax imposed for education; 
 sometimes in proportion to the population of the district, but 
 oftener to the number of children to be educated. The Com¬ 
 mittee of the district determine where the school shall be kept, 
 select its teacher, choose the books that shall be used, or delegate 
 that power to the instructor, and, in short, are responsible in all 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 EDUCATION IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 particulars, for the faithful fultilment of the trust committed to 
 them; the general system being that a school is kept in each 
 district during the long winter months, when the children of the 
 farmers are unoccupied, by a male teacher, capable of instructing 
 in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, and 
 history ; while in the same school-house, during the summer 
 months, schools are kept by women, to instruct the smaller child¬ 
 ren in knowledge even more elementary. In this way, for the 
 population of New England, consisting of two millions of souls, 
 not less than from ten to twelve thousand free schools are open 
 every year, or, on an average, one school to every two hundred 
 souls—a proportion undoubtedly quite sufficient, and larger than 
 would be necesssary, if the population were not in many parts 
 very much dispersed.* 
 
 * On this point no one has spoken with more power than Mr. Webster, 
 ■who, alluding-, in public debate, to the free schools, where he himself re¬ 
 ceived his earliest training, said,—“ In this particular, New England may 
 be allowed to claim, I think, a merit of a peculiar character. She early 
 adopted, and has constantly maintained the principle, that it is the un¬ 
 doubted right, and the bounden duty of government, to provide for the in¬ 
 struction of all youth. That which is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity, 
 we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man 
 subject to taxation in proportion to his property; and we look not to the 
 question whether he himself have, or have not, children to be benefitted by 
 the education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and liberal system 
 of police, by which property, and life, and the peace of society, are secured. 
 We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by 
 inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue and of knowledge 
 in an early age. We hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and a sense 
 of character, by enlarging the capacity, and increasing the sphere of intel¬ 
 lectual enjoyment. By general instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to 
 purify the whole moral atmosphere, to keep good sentiments uppermost, and 
 to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion, as well as the censures of 
 the law, and the denunciations of religion, against immorality and crime. 
 We hope for a security, beyond the law, and above the law, in the prevalence 
 of enlightened and well-principled moral sentiment. We hope to continue 
 and prolong the time, when, in the villages and farm houses of New Eng¬ 
 land, there may be undisturbed sleep within unbarred doors. And, knowing 
 that our government , rests directly on the public will, that we may preserve 
 it, we endeavour to give a safe and proper direction to that public will. We 
 do not, indeed, expect all men to be philosophers or statesmen ; but we con¬ 
 fidently trust, and our expectation of the duration of government rests on 
 that trust, that by the diffusion of general knowlege and good and virtuous 
 sentiments, the political fabric may be secure, as well against open violence 
 and overthrow, as against the slow but sure undermining of licentiousness.” 
 C Journal of Debates in the Convention to revise the Constitution of Massa¬ 
 chusetts, 1821, page 245.) 
 
 finis. 
 
 Johnston, Printer, Barthlomew Close.