1310.] 
eated for their station, as members of 
the great community. ‘They must receive 
a» *public an education; be taught the 
dues and the rights of fr reemmen; that is, 
of American freemen, not the ‘freemen 
that are so by starts, by frenzy, and im 
mobs, who would fill the forum at the 
nod of Clodius, or the prytaneum at that 
of Cleon; nor the freemen of one day in 
seven years, who would rush together for 
sale at the hustings of Brentford, and 
clamor and bludgeon for a man whose 
principles and person were to chem alike 
unknown and unregarded. 
Each American freeman is an integral 
member of the sovereignty; be is a co- 
estate of the empire, carrying on ifs g0- 
vernment by _ his delegates, The 
right he possesses, after that of breathing 
the vital air, is the right of being taueht 
the management of tlie power to which 
he is born, It is a serious duty of the 
suciety towards him, an unquestionable 
rigit of the individual from the society. 
“In a monarchy the education of the 
prince is Justly deemed a concern of the 
nation. It} BROS at theirexpense; and 
why is it so? it is because they are 
deeply interested in his being well, edu- 
cated, that he may be able to adusnister 
erst 
by Joel Barlow. 
the government well, to conduct the cov- 
<erhs of the nation wisely, on their own 
constitutional principles, My fr ‘ is 
ut even more important that our 
princes, our millions of princes, sh« sald be 
educated for theirstation. than the single 
prince ofa monarchy? If asingle prince 
goes wrong, obstinately and incurably 
rot 
wrong, he may be set aside for another, 
without overturning the state. But if 
our sovereigns in their muititadinous ex- 
ercise of power, should becume obstinate 
aud incurable m wrong, vou cannot set 
them aside. ‘But they wil set you aside 3 
they will set themselves aside; they w. all 
¢! vush the st tate, and convulse the nation, 
The resultis military @espotisin, dismem- 
verment of the great republic, and, after 
a suthcient course of devastation by civil 
‘wars, the settlement of a few ferocious 
monarchies, prepared to act over again 
the same degrading scenes of niutual en- 
croachment and viadicuve war, which 
disgrace modern Europe; and from which 
_ many writers have told us, that maukiad 
ave never to be free. ft 
Our habits of thinking, and even of 
reasoning, it must be confessed, are stil! 
borrowed from feudal principles and wnp- 
narchical establishments. Asa nation 
we are not up to our circumstances. Qur , 
Principles in the abstract, as wrought tuto 
4 x 
‘give them what he Cail: 
Ject. 
31 
our state and’federal constitutions, are in 
genet ral worthy of the highest praise; the 
dor honor.to the human intellect.» But 
the practical tone and tension of our 
minds do not well correspond with those 
principles. We ave hkea person cons 
versing in a fereign language, whose idiom 
is not “yet familiar to him. Mic thinks in 
lis own native language, and is obliged 
to translate as be ie which gives ‘a 
stifiess to his discourse, and betrays a 
certain embarrassment which nothing cai 
remove but frequent exercise and “long 
practice. Weare accustomed to spedk 
and reason relative to the people’s edu- 
cation, precisely like the aristocratical, 
subjects of a European monarchy, Some 
say the people have no need of instruce 
tion; they already know too much; they 
cannot all be legislators and judves and 
generals; the great mass must work fora 
living, alld they need no other knowledge 
than what is sufficient for that purpose. 
Gthers will tell you tt is very well for the 
peaple to get as much education as they 
can; but. it is their own concern, tHe 
state has nothing to do Nias It; every 
parent, out of reg ard to his offgpri ing, will 
aiid that will be 
enough. 
L will not Say how far this manner of 
treating the subject is proper even ita 
Murope, whence we borrowed it. Butt i 
will say that nothing is more preposterous 
in Ainerica. It is directly contrary to 
the vital principies of our constitutions: 
and its inevitaole tendency is to dostrdy 
them, A universal system of education 
is so far from being a matter of indiffer- 
ence to the public, under our social cont 
pact, that it is inc contestanl y one , of the 
first duties of the yovernment, one of the. 
highest interests of the nation, one of the 
most sacred rights of the individual, the 
vital Auid of organized liberty, the pies 
clous aliment, without which your repub- 
lic cannot be supported. : 
I do. not mean that our [evetatths 
should turn pedagor mues; er send their 
commissioners forth to discipline every 
chit fel inthis nation, —Neither do T mean 
to betray so much temre: ity as to speak 
of HF best mode of eombining & system 
of public instruction. But IL feel ituy 
dupes this occasion, to use the freedom 
to which [ am accustomed, and sugeest 
the p prapricty of bringing one ard sone 
system that shall’be adequate to the ob- 
I'am clearly of opinion, that it ts: 
already within the power of our legista- 
tive bodies, both federal aud provincial ; 
but if it isnot, the people ought to place 
at 
