No. 149.] 317 



the farm. The petition was unsuccessful. The funds of the 

 State were inadequate to such a purpose, but sufficient only to 

 continue, by their concert of action, tlie annual bounties to the 

 several Colleges. Mr. T. said it was understood that the above 

 farm had since mostly been sold at $1,000 per acre, and the re- 

 mainder was selling at the same rate. The benefits of individual 

 patronage and objects of sectarian influence have sustained this 

 unequal control and monopoly of the appropriations for public 

 education. Painful, I repeat, that with an expenditure of $254- 

 800 in this State, the last twelve years only, for colleges, not a 

 single institution has been established for education in agricul- 

 ture and the mechanic arts. The terms of admission and con- 

 tinuance into most of these Colleges require the students to bring 

 an acquaintance witli, and continue in the study of the classics 

 and dead languages. Tliis has hitherto precluded ihe admission 

 of mechanics and agriculturists, and those who design to follow 

 the pursuits of civil engineering, and other occupations of prac- 

 tical life. To abolish privileges, give equal rights, foster edu- 

 cation, and promote industry, will but advance the public 

 interest. 



With a sound, practical education, a boy in this country is 

 armed with the means af commanding success in life — he stands 

 on the same platform as the sons of his rich neighbors — starts 

 with them on an equal footing in the race of enterprise — and 

 the self-reliance, which is the peculiar property of the poor boy, 

 is more than an equivalent for the dollars of the rich one. The 

 intelligence of the community is the wealth of the State — the 

 foundation and keystone of republican institutions — the guaran- 

 tee of law and good order. Require a boy from the common 

 school to learn the classics as the rule of his admission to an 

 higher seminary, to get an education for his industrial pursuits, 

 you blight the benefits conferred, and leave him to error, or 

 drive him to despair. Give a boy money, and you may see him 

 spend it in profligacy, or lose it by misfortune. Give him an ed- 

 ucation for industrial pursuits, you fit him for life, and you give 

 him that which no misadventure can take away — no creditor 

 seize — no calamity destroy. 



