LANCASTER COUNTr. 443 



tares and to read the Fathers in the original.* To do so effectu- 

 ally, they devoted themselves to the study not only of the dead 

 but also of the living languages; so necessary was this know- 

 ledge considered, that with but few exceptions, none but rare 

 and ripe scholars were found in her pulpits. Hence, the deep 

 and intense interest manifested for the education of the youth, 

 in such of the Lord's vineyards as were planted by their hands. 



We have already shewnf that about the year 1752, the Gov- 

 ernor of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Allen-, Mr. Peters, Secre- 

 tary of the Land Office, Messrs. Turner, Benjamin Franklin 

 and Conrad Weiser, were appointed trustees and managers of 

 "the public schools, which it was intended to establish in the 

 province. Previous to this time however, a large number of 

 schools were in successful operation in several counties, and in 

 the town of Lancaster particularly, through the active exer- 

 tions of the Rev. Michael Schlatter. He was a German Re- 

 formed minister, and came out at the expense of the Reformed 

 Synod of Amsterdam, A. D. 1T46, for this single purpose. It 

 is more than probable, that the schools which it is alleged these 

 trustees established at Lancaster and elsewhere, were only 

 branches of those already in operation under his auspices, and 

 the enterprise of the Lutheran and German Reformed con- 

 gregations, for it is a well known fact, that the plan of the trus- 

 tees named, did not succeed, and the schools soon fell back 

 under their original charge. 



"The Germans are a patient, modest and unassuming peo- 

 ple. Their character is either imperfectly understood or wil- 

 fully misrepresented. For their attachment to learning and 

 their untiring efforts in the cause of education, they receive but 

 little credit, even from those whose acquaintance with the 

 facts — independent of their German origin — should prompt 

 them upon all occasions, to become their readiest defenders. — 

 How many valuable hints have we — whose mother tongue is 

 Uie English — not received "from this too-lightly estimated peo- 

 ple I How many schemes for the dissemination of knowledge 

 among men," have they not successfully devised, and other 

 nations as well as ourselves, as successfully put into operation, 



*They not unfrequently conversed in Latni and ail their correspondence 

 was conducted chiefly in that tongue. Vide also page 225 antea. 

 •J-Page 259 antea. 



