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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
education of the rising generation, being essential as we all acknowledge, to the perpetuity of our free institutions, it should wnstitute one of the primary objects of Government; and it is upon tht! ground of its ad- mitted importance, that I respectfully urge upon Congress the policy of placing the school endowments together with the institutions fount.led upon them under the management, and direction of a competent JIead in the same manner as other national objects are assigned to their appropriate Departments. There is another view of this subject which greatly enhances its im- portance. It is the National complexion which Education assumes when under the guidance of the Government. I would by no means limit individual enterprise, but on the contrary would second and sust:1in all its efforts in a cause so laudable as that of mental improvement. But it is not the diversified and ever-varying systems of private instruc- tion that are to establish the moral and political character of a people. This must be the work of those higher and more permanent institutions which shall be founded by the nation and directed by public-wisdom.- Individual labors may accomplish much in the dissimination of classical and scientific lore; but this will be insufficient of itself to give vigor or longevity to a free government. It is true that Liberty cannot exist among a people unblessed with the rudiments of learning; but it is equally true, as both ancient and contemporary history attests, that the greatest tyranny may prevail in a land where science and literature and all the arts are carried to the highest perfection. The reason of this is obvious. It results from the mode of education. The institutions fostered and controlled by despotic Governments, are so organized and conducted as to send forth their floods of light on all subjects, except the ones upon which the liberties of the people are mainly dependant. These are consigned to undisturbed repose. Darkness and thick clouds rest upon .them. Thus may a people become profound in all the sciences, save the essential science of free Government. in relation to which they may remain as ignorant of its principles as ,if no ray of learning had ever fallen upon their minds. They have ·academic attainments, hut no useful intelligence; they can call the stars by their names, but know nothing of their own political rights, nor the practical mode of securing them. And if despotic Governments can perpetuate their illegitimate power by a system of National Education, shall not a representative Republic avail itself of the same advantage to preserve the sacred prin- ciples of its free institutions? I would answer- yes. I would say to the Government, throw wide the doors of knowledge; but keep the key to the temple. Her great Universities continually pursuing the same course of discipline towards each successive generation, will make the people homogeneous and united; and by blending moral and political knowledge with classical instruction, the public mind will become so moulded to the institutions of the country, that upon all the great land leading principles of free Government, the nation will hav~ but one heart and but one ;:;entiment. But Yerv different will be the results, if in opposition to this policy, we shall neglect to provide for the educa- tion of the rising generation, and fprc:e the youths of our country to seek abroad those advantages which are not afforded them at home. They would become exposed to all the influemes which could lre brought to bear upon the young mind, to prejudice it against some of our most
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