ect"), is indeed
a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from
the foundation of our free Government to the present day.

Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the
people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and
industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised
race to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to
make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored
heretofore by our laws I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of
advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly
believed that a republican government could not endure without
intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The
Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language:

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.

In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly
presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.

I repeat that the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the
Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the
most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.
The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed that is given to
the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were
important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more
important now, with a population of 40,000,000, and increasing in a
rapid ratio. I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means
within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage popular
education throughout the country, and upon the people everywhere to see
to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the
opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the
Government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the
benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.

U.S. GRANT.

HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

_To all to whom these presents may come, greeting:_

Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th
day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in the words
and fi