THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN A REPUBLIC.*

MR. PRESIDENT,-I rise, at the particular request of the Secretary of the Board, and in compliance with the wishes of other respected friends of Education, to express to you the thoughts which occur to me, on the great subject now under our consideration, and more especially, on the Resolution which has just been read. I do not come prepared to discuss the proposition which it contains, in a maturely-digested discourse. My object, only, is to offer to you, and this large and respected audience, the thoughts, somewhat desultory, which present themselves to my mind, on the principle advanced in the Resolution; and if I can do no more, I shall be well contented with having offered to the Convention this public testimony of the interest I take in the cause.

I will observe, in the first place, that, without designing any thing like adulation of our native State, we may claim for it the credit of having made provision for education, from the earliest period of its settlement. The small New-England republics, and especially Massachusetts, have been, in point of time, far in advance of the older governments of the world, in systematic provision for the education of the people, at the public expense. In setting this example, we have certainly paid back to Europe no small part of the debt of civilization. I regard this hereditary care for education as a precious portion of our moral birthright, and I trust we shall transmit it, unimpaired, to afterages.

I would gladly believe, nay, I do firmly believe, that *The following Remarks, in substance, were made at a County Common School Convention, held in Taunton, Massachusetts, on the 10th October, 1838, when a Resolution was under consideration, which asserted the connexion between public intelligence and a republican form of government.

this attention, which, in this Country, has never been withheld from education, and which, of late, I am rejoiced to say, has greatly increased, does not manifest itself in an accidental, far less, uncongenial, association, with that general interest in political affairs, which also characterizes our communities, and springs from popular institutions. On the contrary, in the view I take of the subject, a country, possessed of such institutions, is precisely that where education is most important; where alone it is absolutely necessary, for carrying on the system of government, and keeping up its natural healthy action. It is, of course, in such a country, that we should most expect, from the people, an enlightened and vigilant care of education.

There are two simple plans of government; on which, either pure and without qualification, or with some admixture of the two principles, all constitutions are constructed. One of them asserts, that the people are the rightful source of power, both ultimate and direct; the other denies this proposition. When Charles the First stood upon the scaffold, and a moment before he laid his head upon the block, so firm was his faith in the last-named principle, that he declared, with his dying breath, that "the people's right was only to have their life and their goods their own, a share in the government being nothing pertaining to them." The other plan is announced, in clear terms, in the Constitution of Massachusetts: "The people of this Commonwealth have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign, and independent, State."

Now, it might be thought, that, even on the theory of government which Charles sealed with his blood, education would be deemed a great popular interest, as teaching the methods, and furnishing some of the means, of preserving life and acquiring property, which he admitted to be within the right of the people. It does not appear, however, that, at that time, nor till long after, is right was understood as imposing any correla

tive duty on the prince; consequently, such a thing, as a scheme of popular education, at that time, was unthought of. It is not, certainly, my intention to intimate, that there was no education in England, before the Revolution of 1688, but such as was compatible with the spirit and policy of a purely arbitrary government. There was always a temperament of popular institutions in the British monarchy, inviting and forcing the minds of men, in various ways, to improvement and progress. The administration of affairs had never, in practice, for any long period of time, been brought down to the platform of Oriental despotism, to which the theory of Charles the First reduced it.

There were always parliaments, courts of justice, and juries, in the worst of times. The universities were seats of scholastic learning, and the practice of dispensing religious instruction, from the pulpit, forced upon the Church a certain kind of popular education; but I suppose it was obtained at schools, provided by pious and charitable individuals. Nothing resulted from the theory of the government, but that the Prince, and those associated with him, required the advantages of education, to fit them for the administration of affairs. Accordingly, we find, that, with the popular reforms which have been made in the government of England, in modern times, and especially in our own day, attention has been given, for the first time, to National education. The best efforts of the Broughams and Wyses have been strenuously made in this cause; and I learn, with satisfaction, from a distinguished gentleman from that Country, who is now present with us, (Mr. George Combe, of Edinburgh,) that a greatly-increased interest in the subject has marked the progress of the political reforms of a recent date, in the land of our fathers. In like manner, in France, every thing that has been done for popular education, by the enlightened zeal and labors of M. Cousin and its other distinguished friends in that Country, dates from the period of the political reforms of the government of the Country. It

reflects lasting credit on the Prussian monarchy, that, without admitting the people to an efficient share in the government, it has had the wisdom and the courage to bestow upon them an admirable system of public education.

But, on the plan of government established in the United States, where the people are not only in theory the source of power, but in practice are actually called upon, constantly, to take an efficient part in constituting and administering the government, it is plain, that education is universally and indispensably necessary, to enable them to exercise their rights and perform their duties. This will be put beyond question, by considering a few particulars.

I. The first duty, in a popular government, is that which is attached to the elective franchise; though I fear it is too little regarded in this light. It is not merely the right, but it is the duty, of the citizen, by the exercise of the right of suffrage, to take a part, at periods recurring after short intervals, in organizing the government. This duty cannot be discharged with rectitude, unless it be discharged with intelligence; and it becomes the duty of the citizen to make up his own mind, on all the great questions which arise in administering the government. How numerous and important these questions are, I need not say. Since you and I, Mr. President, have been of years to observe the march of affairs, the people of the United States have been called to make up a practical judgement on the following, among other great questions:-the protective policy, that is, on the legislation necessary to introduce and establish an infant branch of manufactures; a question, however easily disposed of by theorists, on both sides, of infinite practical difficulty; on internal improvement, that is, the construction of public works of communication, between the various parts of the Country, at the expense of the general government; on the circulating medium, and how far the currency, which is the representative of value, must have intrin

sic value, itself; on the different families of the human race, existing in the Country, and the rights and duties which result from their relation to each other; on the relations of the Country with foreign powers, in reference to colonial trade, disputed boundaries, and indemnification for wrongs and spoliations; on the disposal of the public domain, and its bearings on the progress of population and of republican government, in the mighty West; on the nature of our political system, as consisting in the harmonious adjustment of the Federal and State governments. I have named only a part of the questions, which, within the last twenty years, have been, some of them constantly, before the community,—the turning points of Municipal, State, and National, elections. The good citizen, who is not willing to be the slave of a party because he is a member of it, must make up his mind for himself, on all those great questions, or he cannot exercise the right of suffrage with intelligence and independence. As the majority of the people are well or ill informed on these subjects, the public policy of the Country will be guided by wisdom and truth, or the reverse.

I do not mean, that it is necessary that every citizen should receive an education which would enable him to argue all these questions, at length, in a deliberative or popular assembly; but, while it is his right and his duty to give effect to his judgement, at the polls, and while the constitution necessarily gives as much weight to the vote of the uninformed and ignorant as to that of the well-instructed and intelligent citizen, it is plain, that the avenues to information should be as wide and numerous as possible; and that the utmost practicable extension should be given to a system of education, which will confer on every citizen the capacity of deriving knowledge, with readiness and accuracy, from books and documents. The whole energy of the State should be directed to multiply the numbers of those capable of forming an independent and rational judgement of their own, and to diminish, as much as possible, the