of New England
culture. We stand by the side of those of you who believe in compulsory
education. We desire, in looking to the future, that the determination
shall be made here by us, as it has been in England, that every child
born on American soil shall learn to read and write. [Applause.]

But there is a great deal more to be taught than that. There is a great
deal which the common school does not teach and cannot teach, when it
teaches men to read. We not only want to teach them to read, but we want
to teach them what is worth reading. And we want to instil the
principles by which the nation lives. We have got to create in those who
came from the other side of the water the same loyalty to the whole of
American principles that each man feels to his native country.

What is this Constitution for which we have been fighting, and which
must be preserved? It is a most delicate mutual adjustment of the powers
and rights of a nation, among and because of the powers and rights of
thirty or forty States. It exists because they exist. That it may stand,
you need all their mutual rivalries, you need every sentiment of local
pride, you need every symbol and laurel of their old victories and
honors. You need just this homestead feeling which to-night we are
cherishing.

But that balance is lost, that whole system is thrown out of gear, if
the seven million people of foreign parentage here are indifferent to
the record of New York as they are to that of Illinois, to that of
Illinois as to that of Louisiana, to that of Louisiana as to that of
Maine; if they have no local pride; if to them the names of Montgomery,
of John Hancock, of Samuel Adams, have no meaning, no association with
the past. [Applause.] Unless they also acquire this local feeling,
unless they share the pride and reverence of the native American for the
State in which he is born, for the history which is his glory, all these
delicate balances and combinations are worthless, all your revolving
planets fall into your sun! It is the national education in the
patriotism of the Fathers, an education addressing itself to every man,
woman, and child from Katahdin to the Golden Gate--it is this, and only
this, which will insure the perpetuity of your republic. [Applause.]

Now, gentlemen, if you would like to try an experiment in this matter,
go into one of your public schools, next week, and ask what Saratoga
was, and you will be told it is a great watering-place whe