148 FISHBEMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



cilious devotion of sinister and false-hearted hangers-on, nor yet his principles a thing to be deter- 

 mined by the fortuitous chances and mutations of events. Eefinement exists, without its sicken- 

 ing afifectations and diseased sensibilities ; and intelligence, without attempt at the display of the 

 transcendental, unreal, or impracticable. Common sense — we use the term in its good old import — 

 has not so far become obsolete that it is is no longer destined to dwell among the denizens of the 

 Cape, a fixed trait. Do we utter extravagances? Does our delineation of the character of the mass 

 of the people seem to partake of a vain boast? Let the verdict of the whole world in regard to the 

 sons and daughters of Cape Cod be the decision of the issue. 



" The diffusion of education among all classes is proverbial. One native-born who cannot read 

 and write as soon as seven years of age, would here be regarded as a phenomenon. And here we 

 are forcibly reminded of that peculiar trait in the early settlers of the colony forever worthy of 

 commemoration — their appreciation of the general blessing of early education, and their untiring 

 efforts to secure it for posterity. The education of all was regarded by them as of primary impor- 

 tance to the well-being of the rising generations, the best good of the state, and the greatest hap- 

 piness of the human race ; and to the furtherance of this end their best energies were directed. It 

 was truly fortunate for New England that so large a proportion of its first settlers were people of 

 intelligence and education ; and it may well be a subject of devout gratitude to God at the present 

 day, as it is of admiration, that in circumstances so unpropitious to the support of schools, the 

 settlers just beginning to plant themselves in a wilderness in the midst of many privations ; 

 obliged to fell the forests and erect for their protection against the rigors of the climate such hab- 

 itations as they might j compelled to cultivate the lands for their daily subsistence, and oft to de- 

 fend themselves against apprehended dangers from the aboriginal race — should, with so slender 

 means, have given so much thought to the subject of education, and especially that their thoughts 

 should have been so directed to the education of the masses. It was- not enough that they made it 

 a religious duty to instruct their offspring in the family, to enable them to read the Bible ; they 

 must have other and greater facilities — an educated ministry, educated officers of state, and 

 teachers thoroughly educated ; and we hazard nothing in saying sacrifices were endured and pains 

 taken to accomplish the noble end which are a monument of distinction to the praise of our fore- 

 fathers, enduring as eternity. 



"Never has there been a time in the history of this or any other country when ministers of the 

 gospel were generally — perhaps without exception — better qualified by education and sound learn- 

 ing to give impulse to such a movement, and never were a set of men more influential than the 

 early settlers ; nor was it the ministry alone. However much deference was paid to that class of 

 men, the laity, which embraced very many highly educated and a full proportion besides of those 

 who had a large share of (that to which we have already adverted, too generally at the present 

 day most uncommon kind of sense, called by a singular misnomer) common sense, had minds of 

 large views and well disciplined, nor did they fail to employ their efforts — ^happily in concert with 

 their religious teachers — ^in effecting what they conceived to lie at the foundation of good morals, 

 good government, and the public weal. 



"Private schools were, indeed, necessarily the first resort; but the subject of public schools 

 was agitated from the very first. In 1663 the colony court ' proposed to the several townships 

 within its jurisdiction, as a thing which ought to be taken into serious consideration, that some 

 course be taken in every town that there be a schoolmaster set up to train children to reading and 

 writing'; and in 1670 that which may be regarded as the very germ of our present truly noble 

 and beneficent system of free schools was enacted : A law freely granting ' all such profits as 

 may or shall accrue annually to the colony from fishing with nets or seines at Cape Cod for 



