d her school system. Under the
auspices of that distinguished and able friend of common schools, Henry
Barnard, she is preparing to take her place among the foremost of the
States." In 1856 he speaks of Mr. Barnard's work in Rhode Island "as the
greatest legacy he had left to American Educators; the best working
model of school agitation and legal organization for the schools of the
whole country which had yet been furnished."

Mr. Barnard returned to his old home in Connecticut. He was soon invited
to professorships in two colleges, and to the superintendence of public
schools in three different cities. But a more congenial work in his
own State awaited his restored health. In 1849 an act was passed to
establish a State Normal School, the principal of which should be the
superintendent of common schools. Mr. Barnard was elected to this
office, and accepted on condition that an assistant should be appointed
to take the immediate charge of the Normal School. He soon had the
satisfaction of seeing long-cherished hopes fulfilled. After many
struggles and efforts he saw his own State taking her appropriate place
among the foremost of the educating and educated States.

Our limited space will not allow even a glance at the particulars of his
doings while in office from 1850 till he resigned, at the close of the
year 1854, to give himself exclusively to labors of a more general and
national character. He had already accomplished as much perhaps as any
other individual for the promotion of education in every part of the
country. By repeated visits to the chief points of influence, by
extensive correspondence and numerous personal conferences with
the leading persons connected with the management of systems and
institutions of education, by addresses before popular assemblies,
literary associations, teachers, and legislative bodies throughout the
country, he had done more than any other man to shape the educational
policy of the nation. His publications had been numerous, important, and
widely disseminated. Besides the "Common School Journal" and reports
above alluded to, his work on "School Architecture" had been circulated
by tens of thousands, not only throughout America but in Europe,
creating a general revolution in public opinion on the subject. His work
on "Normal Schools" had been published several years, from which the
substance of nearly all documents on the subject since published have
been drawn. The vo