long to a state which cannot be moved from its
extremities to its centre, and from its centre to its extremities, for
the maintenance of a system of public instruction, then, in that
respect, I disown that state; and if there be one state in this Union
whose people cannot be aroused to maintain a system of public
instruction, then they are false to the great leading idea of American
principles, and of civil, political, and religious liberty.

It is easy to enumerate the advantages of a system of public education,
and the evils--I say evils--of endowed academies, whether free or
charging payment for tuition. Endowed academies are not, in all
respects, under all circumstances, and everywhere, to be condemned. In
discussing this subject, it may be well for me to state the view that I
have of the proper position of endowed academies. They have a place in
the educational wants of this age. This is especially true of academies
of the highest rank, which furnish an elevated and extended course of
instruction. To such I make no objection, but I would honor and
encourage them. Yet I regard private schools, which do the work usually
done in public schools, as temporary, their necessity as ephemeral, and
I think that under a proper public sentiment they will soon pass away.
They cannot stand,--such has been the experience in Massachusetts,--they
cannot stand by the side of a good system of public education. Yet where
the population is sparse, where there is not property sufficient to
enable the people to establish a high school, then an endowed school may
properly come in to make up the deficiency, to supply the means of
education to which the public wealth, at the present moment, is unequal.
Endowed institutions very properly, also, give a professional education
to the people. At this moment we cannot look to the public to give that
education which is purely professional. But what we do look to the
public for is this: to furnish the means of education to the children of
the whole people, without any reference to social, pecuniary, political,
or religious distinctions, so that every person may have a preliminary
education sufficient for the ordinary business of life.

It is said that the means of education are better in an endowed
academy, or in an endowed free school, than they can be in a public
school. What is meant by _means_ of education? I understand that, first
and chiefly, as extraneous means of education, we must look to