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ed lo raise the standard of education and elevate the charac- 

 ter and condition of the people. As there will be 10,000 

 schools to be supplied, there will be four millions to be raised 

 for teachers' wages, instead of $700,000: and no less than 

 $3,700,000 is to be supplied, on the present plan, from tuition 

 fees. That is to say, each town will pay in fees an average 

 sum of $4,353, each school district $363, and each scholar $6 . 

 84. And this, be it remembered, will be in addition to the ex- 

 penses incurred in the erection and furnishing of school-houses, 

 in the purchase of school books, and in the taxations, both co- 

 ercive and voluntary, to which the property of the town must 

 be subjected for teachers' wages. I am sure I need not add to 

 this statement one word to demonstrate that the instruction of 

 teachers is to avail us nothing, if the State cannot be persua- 

 ded to put forth its energies in the reconstruction of the entire 



The attitude which I have here assumed, places me under 

 an indispensable obligation not to leave this subject without 

 some suggestion, however crude it may be, and however little 

 weight or authority it may carry with it, of what ought to be 

 done in the premises. I shall not presume to offer any thing 

 like a detailed plan; my purpose is only to indicate a course of 

 action in the most general terms, and to insist on certain great 

 leading principles which should govern all conduct in the mat- 

 ter, and which, once adopted and firmly adhered to, cannot 

 fail, I am persuaded, to suggest the best methods and lead to 

 the best and the grandest results. 



In the first place, then, as a thing to be insisted on most of 

 all, the government must lead the people in this business, and 

 not wait to be led by them. This principle is found, certain- 

 ly, in our common school foundation, as it stands, but let me 

 have leave freely to say, that it is not acted on with as much 

 boldness as it should be. I respect, as much as any man, that 

 feeling of caution which makes legislation afraid lest it should 

 chance to commit unnecessary and improper encroachments. 

 But there is a difference between caution and cowardice; and 

 there are some matters which cannot be treated judiciously 

 without being touched with a bold hand. Such an one, in 



