ous relic of the ancient ways remained--the district system. In
1840 Governor Morton had called the school districts of the State,
"Little Democracies." They were in fact little nurseries of
selfishness and intrigue. In the selection of teachers, in the
erection and repairs of school houses, and even in the business of
furnishing the firewood, there were little intrigues and arrangements
by which interested parties secured the appointment of a son or
daughter to the place of teacher, or a contract for wood or work. The
election of the committee not infrequently turned upon the interest
of some influential citizens.

The great evil was the inefficiency of the teachers. Even in cases
where the committeeman was left free to act, he was usually incapable
of forming a safe opinion as to the quality of teachers. To be sure
the examination and approval of candidates were left to the
superintending committee, but most frequently the examination was
deferred to a time only one or two days prior to the day when the
school was to be commenced and the committee would too often yield to
the temptation to keep the candidate even though the qualifications
were unsatisfactory. The contest with the district system fell upon
me, and during my administration the system was abolished. The end
was not accomplished without vigorous opposition.

The citizens of the town of Mansfield took the field and under a
memorial to the Legislature they appeared before the Committee on
Education. The hearings were public in the hall of the House of
Representatives. They made personal attacks upon me--among other
things alleging that my traveling expenses were greater than the law
allowed. This charge was met successfully by an opinion that had
been given by Attorney-General Clifford. I changed the defence to an
attack upon the promoters of the movement, and they retreated after a
contest of several days; one of the party admitting that they were
wrong in their views and wrong in their actions. For the most part,
they were well intentioned persons, but not informed, or rather they
were misinformed upon the subject of education. They were unimportant
in numbers, but for a time they strewed the State with handbills,
placards and newspaper articles. They illustrated one half of the
fable of the frog and the ox.

In my five years of service I made more than three hundred addresses
upon educational topics. In that service I visited most of t