It is the object of what follows, to enable every woman, who wishes to do something for the cause of education and her country, to act immediately, before the interest awakened is absorbed by other pursuits.

The thing to be aimed at is, the employment of female talent and benevolence in educating ignorant and neglected American children.

In order to give an idea of what needs to be done, and of what can be done, some facts will be stated of which the writer of this volume has personal knowledge. There are, in all parts of this country, women of education and benevolence, and some of them possessing wealth, who are longing for something to do, which is more worthy of their cultivated energies than the ordinary pursuits of women of leisure. There is a still greater multitude of women of good sense and benevolence, who, if educated, would make admirable teachers, but who now have no resource but the needle and the manufactory. It is melancholy to see, in all mechanical trades where woman’s labour is available, how many thousands are following pursuits, many of them injurious to health and to morals, and none of them qualifying a woman, in any respect, for future domestic duties.

In the schoolroom, or at domestic service, a woman is learning to train children, and to perform domestic duties properly, but in the workshop and manufactory, she follows a monotonous toil, useful neither to body nor mind, often injurious to both, and forming habits and tastes disqualifying her for future domestic duties.[3]

On the other hand, in all parts of our country, especially at the West, there are multitudes of flourishing towns and villages willing and anxious to have good schools, and able and ready to support them, but unwilling to do anything to sustain the miserable apology for teachers within their reach. And still broader regions are to be found, in every direction, not only without good teachers, but in many cases without any desire for schools of any kind. Our two million destitute children are an appalling proof of this destitution and apathy.

Now, there are hundreds and thousands of enterprising, benevolent, and, many of them, well educated women, who would rejoice to go forth as missionary teachers to these destitute children. Such women, by their influence, not only in their schools, but in the village around them, could do almost as much as a missionary, and at far less expense. For a woman needs support only for herself, a man requires support for himself and a family. And there are multitudes of such women, sighing over our destitute country and wishing to be sent forth on such a service, and yet they know of no way to secure the object of their wishes.

In the Catholic Church, a wisdom is shown on this subject, which Protestants as yet have not exhibited. In that Church, if a lady of wealth and family is led to devote herself to benevolent enterprises, a post is immediately found for her as Lady Abbess, or Lady Patroness, or Lady Superior, where she secures the power, consideration, and rank, which even ambition might covet. There is now a Catholic institution in one of our principal western cities, known to the writer, which is superintended by a lady of rank and family from Belgium, and which is only a branch of a still larger institution in Belgium, over which another titled lady presides. And there are several other ladies of family and fortune from Europe, who are spending their time and wealth in gathering American children into the Catholic Church. Meantime, all women of humbler station have places provided, as Nuns or Sisters of Charity, where they can spend their benevolent energies in honoured activity. The clergy, having no families to occupy their time, devote their whole attention to the extension of their faith by schools as well as by planting churches. To these instrumentalities are added the Jesuit establishment in this country, expressly devoted to the interests of education, with the head Jesuit for the West stationed in Cincinnati, to supervise and promote all plans for education. He is a man of winning manners, great policy, untiring industry, and, so far as human eye can see, honestly and sincerely devoted to the cause he has espoused. Under his watchful eye, no energy, or benevolence, or skill is ever lost, but all is husbanded and skilfully directed.

But among Protestants there is no system or organization instituted, thus to secure and employ the benevolent energies of the female sex in the cause of education. If a woman finds it in her heart to turn missionary and go away from her country to instruct the heathen, in most cases, every facility is provided, and public sentiment urges and encourages her efforts, and she knows to whom to apply for support and encouragement. But let a woman become interested in her own country, and earnestly desire to labour for destitute American children, and no such means, or facilities exist as make it suitable, or practicable to undertake. Among Catholics, let a woman of family and fortune talk of going to the West to teach, and she instantly is lauded as a saint; bishops, priests, and Jesuits are at her side to encourage and aid, and honour in life and canonization at death are her sure reward. But let a Protestant woman of wealth and high standing express a wish and intention to go to the West to teach, and it would be regarded by most of her friends and associates as a mark of oddity—a deficiency of good sense. Family friends would oppose, acquaintances would sneer, a few would faintly approve, no individual and no body of men could be found, whose appropriate business it is to aid, and so many obstacles would oppose, that, in most cases, it would really be Quixotic to encounter them. And women in humbler circumstances find almost as insurmountable obstacles; they know of no place where they can go, it is the business of no one to aid them, they know of no one to whom to apply for assistance, and thus it is that hundreds and hundreds of women, abundantly competent to act as missionary teachers, are pining in secret over wasted energies, which they are longing to spend in the most appropriate duty of women, the training of young minds for usefulness and for Heaven. It may be replied, that in the Catholic Church women take vows of celibacy, which alone can enable them thus to act for the cause of education, and that no such efficient action for education can be anticipated from Protestant women, whose religious faith opposes rather than encourages this sequestration from domestic alliances. A few facts will serve to show the fallacy of this impression. A lady of New-England, who for a number of years conducted a large female institution, furnishes this as the result of her experience. During nine years, four hundred teachers went out from this institution. Of these, eighty-eight went to the West and South. At the end of these nine years, of the eighty-eight who went to the West and South, sixty-four (which is more than three fourths) continued as teachers. Twelve of these continued teachers after marriage. During three years of this time, a society connected with this institution was in operation to aid young women in educating themselves to be teachers. This assistance was in the form of a loan, which at no time was to exceed two hundred dollars to any one individual, and this loan was to be returned whenever it was practicable. The society remitted the debt in cases where it was not. Means were also provided for the appropriate protection and location of these teachers. The number who in three years received aid was forty-three, and the sum of $4340,00 was loaned for this purpose. Twenty-four of these, in the space of eight years from the first loans, refunded from their own earnings all that was loaned. Eight refunded in part. The remainder did not refund within the eight years, but all who were not sick or dead were expecting and aiming so to do.

A clergyman, who for a number of years was a travelling agent for one of our benevolent institutions, and who felt an interest in discovering the results of the above effort, stated it as his conviction, that no college in our country had, in the same period, done more for the cause of education and religion in our land than this institution had done by sending forth its female teachers. Many other similar facts could be stated, showing that there is even a greater chance of permanent results in employing a given sum for the education of female teachers, than for the education of young men for the ministry.

The lady who conducted this institution, and furnished these facts, also stated, that at all times the number of those desirous of qualifying themselves for teachers, and who would gladly have obtained loans for this end, was far beyond the means the society could command, while the demands sent on to this institution for teachers, from the South and West, was altogether more than could be supplied; thus showing that there were places demanding teachers, and teachers seeking for places, and no adequate instrumentality in existence for meeting these reciprocal demands. In the Eastern States, it is the testimony of school committees, and others employed in selecting teachers, that crowds of female applicants are constantly turned aside, not because they are not qualified, but because the number of applicants greatly exceeds that of the vacancies.

Another lady, who had conducted a large female institution in New-England, made an attempt to aid women of education and benevolence, who were anxious to act as teachers, and wished for aid in finding a proper location. The failure of health interrupted her efforts, yet, with a very limited inquiry, more than a hundred women of appropriate spirit and qualifications were immediately found, anxious to avail themselves of such aid; while the rumour of such an effort, for two or three years, brought letters to her from all parts of the country, asking assistance, some of them in the most moving terms.

By the census, it appears that the excess of female population in New-England over that of the other sex is more than 14,000. From extensive inquiries and consultation, the writer believes that one fourth of these women would gladly engage as teachers; that a large part are already qualified, and that the others could be fitted for these duties at an average expense of two hundred dollars each.

Another fact will be mentioned to show the waste of female talent and benevolence for want of some organized agency which secures men whose business it is to attend to the interests of education.

A lady, who had conducted a large female institution in New-England, removed to one of the largest western cities, and, in connexion with several other ladies of experience and reputation, established an institution, which they designed, eventually, should become an institution for the preparation and location of female teachers, with a school connected with it, supported by the citizens, which should serve as a model school. It was hoped that, when the teachers had gained public confidence at the West, as they had done at the East, funds would be furnished, both at the East and West, which would enable these ladies to say to hundreds of their countrywomen interested in the effort, “Here is a resort for you, where you may qualify yourselves to be first-rate teachers, and be aided in finding a location in the many flourishing but destitute towns and villages of the West.”

The school was abundantly patronised, and successfully conducted. The ladies then applied for a fund of some $30,000, given for purposes of education, by a gentleman of that city; and not specifically devoted to any particular object. The trustees of this fund voted to devote it to this enterprise, if the citizens would raise $15,000 for a building. The citizens manifested all appropriate interest, so far as kind words and liberal offers were concerned. Two gentlemen subscribed a thousand dollars each, and several five hundred each, and nothing was needed but a person properly qualified, who should devote himself to the enterprise. The ladies conducting the school, with failing health and many cares, could not carry forward such an effort, and no man could be found to devote himself to it. The result was, that the Catholic bishop bought the building occupied by this school for a Catholic female institution. No other suitable building could be hired. The hard times came on, and funds could not be raised to build one; and thus, with tears of bitter disappointment, the school was given up, and the whole enterprise failed, and simply because it was the business of no person to attend to the general interests of education. Had these ladies turned Catholics, bishops, priests, Jesuits, and all their subordinates, would have been devoted to their cause, and rich funds from foreign lands would have been laid at their feet. As it was, in a wealthy and most liberal Protestant city, where four of the largest establishments in its bounds have been purchased for Catholic institutions of education, and two of them for females, a Protestant institution, conducted by four female teachers of established reputation, passed away for want of suitable accommodations. Meantime, in that same city, the agents of various benevolent societies took up liberal contributions for the heathen, for slaves, for drunkards, for sailors, for convicts, for colleges (both in and out of the city), for the education of young men, for the distribution of Bibles and tracts, and for many other objects; because men are supported, by voluntary contribution, to give their whole time to these objects.

There is no just foundation for the remark not unfrequently made, that the Catholic Church contains more self-denying benevolence than other communions, while sisters of charity and nuns are pointed out as illustrations. There are hundreds and thousands of women in this Protestant land, who, without the mistaken principles, possess all the self-denying benevolence which, in Catholic communities, leads to cloistered vows. The writer, after extensive inquiries in almost all the free states, believes it would be far within the bounds of moderation to assert that, if any responsible persons would pledge the pecuniary means and appropriate protection, five hundred benevolent women could be found in less than one month, with all appropriate qualifications for missionary teachers. Some of these are possessed of wealth, and still more command a pleasant home, with all the comforts of competence and the best society; yet they would joyfully encounter the privations of missionary life in efforts to save their country, could any appropriate method be devised.

These allusions to the aid and encouragement offered to benevolent women in the Catholic Church are not designed to be invidious. Whatever class of religionists conscientiously hold, that there is no safety from eternal ruin but in their church, not only Christian benevolence, but common humanity should impel them to all possible efforts, to gather every human being into their communion. And it is feared that Protestants do not always make sufficient allowance for this consideration.

The wrong lamented is, not that Catholics act consistently with their faith, but that Protestants do not offer the same aid and encouragement to benevolent Protestant women, who are so earnest in their desires to devote time and talents, and, in some cases, wealth, to the salvation of the children of our country.

In view of these facts, it is now proposed to attempt to raise means for educating destitute American children, by the agency of women of education and benevolence, who wish to engage in the work; and for supporting at least one gentleman of suitable character and influence, whose time shall be wholly devoted to this enterprise.

The first thing which will be attempted will be to select, from those who are desirous to engage in such a service, a certain number of those who are best qualified by education, energy, discretion, and self-denying benevolence, and who are willing to be stationed, under the protection of some adjacent clergyman, in places where there are neither churches or schools, assured of nothing more than is allowed to home and foreign missionaries, namely, a proper mode of conveyance and location, and a simple support, secured by some responsible persons.

A small beginning will be made, under the supervision of a committee of six gentlemen, one from each of six different Protestant denominations. The following gentlemen have consented to act as such a committee until more permanent arrangements can be made.

• Rev. Dr. Elliot, Cincinnati.
• Rev. Dr. Lynd, ditto.
• Rev. James H. Perkins, ditto.
• Rev. Dr. M’Guffey, ditto.
• Rev. Dr. Stowe, ditto.
• Rev. Bishop Smith, Louisville, Kentucky.

As soon as means are raised sufficient to support a gentleman who shall devote himself to this object, the above committee will endeavour to organize a Board of Managers, consisting of an equal number of gentlemen from each of the principal Protestant denominations, who are resident in different sections of the country, and possess general confidence. This board will then appoint an Executive Committee, Treasurer, and Secretary, to superintend and perform all the business connected with this enterprise, who shall be located either in New-York or Cincinnati.

In order to aid in raising funds for this object, a method is proposed, which will enable every woman who feels an interest in the effort, to contribute, at least a small sum, to promote it.

Two works are now issued by the largest publishing house in the country, which, it is believed, will prove useful and interesting to every American woman. An account of these works and the terms of the contract will be found at the close of this volume.[4] It will be seen that these terms are very favourable, and involve no hazard of loss. These works will be put into the market and be sold at ordinary prices. Half the profits (after paying a moderate compensation to the author for the time and labour of preparing them, the amount to be decided by the above gentlemen) will be devoted to this object, and as the works are of a kind that will always be useful, a large sale would secure both a present and future income.

Any woman, then, who is desirous to aid in promoting this enterprise, can do so by requesting some bookseller in her vicinity to send for these works, and then purchasing them herself and using her influence to induce her friends to do the same. Still more will be effected by securing notices of these works in newspapers and other periodicals.

Should means be obtained sufficient, to secure the services of a suitable gentleman, the following measures are suggested as what might be attempted.

In the first place, an effort could be made to secure committees of ladies, of each denomination, in all our principal cities, who shall agree to act simultaneously, on some uniform plan, and, if need be, keep up a correspondence in order to secure this result. Such committees might exert themselves in one, or all of the following ways:

They could, firstly, aim to secure the aid and co-operation of the conductors of the periodical press, literary, political, and religious. The gentleman who engages in this enterprise, could write, or cause others to write, articles calculated to arouse the public mind in regard to popular education. These articles could be transmitted to all the affiliated committees in every part of our land, and by their influence, be inserted in most of the newspapers, or other periodicals within their reach. Thus a steady and most powerful influence would be brought to bear on the public mind. The people would be aroused, and through the people, the legislatures might be led to energetic and appropriate action. And then, as fast as schools are formed, female teachers will be in demand.

These committees, if it is deemed proper, might also address private letters to clergymen of their several denominations, asking aid and advice. Next to the press, the pulpit is the most effective engine of moral power, and, happily, the clergy of this nation have ever been among the most ardent and active friends of education, and the warm supporters of almost every benevolent enterprise. An appeal to them for aid must secure happy results.

Another method, which such committees could adopt, would be, to make personal appeals, both to ladies of large means and to those, also, of smaller ability, for subscriptions to aid in educating and locating female missionary teachers. Such subscriptions, however, cannot be successfully sought until some body is organized, consisting of gentlemen of various denominations, who possess public confidence, and who shall be properly authorized to receive and appropriate subscriptions.

Another and most important measure could be prosecuted by these committees. At the East, where there is a superabundance of teachers, and of women who could speedily be qualified to teach, such committees could act in selecting the most suitable women of their own denomination to receive the aid provided; and the number might be regulated by the relative amount of subscriptions in each denomination.

At the West, such committees could aid in providing schools for those sent out, a suitable escort, a proper home, and the advice, sympathy, and aid that would be needed by a stranger in a strange land.

Were such committees known to be in existence at the East, they speedily would be addressed by multitudes of intelligent and benevolent women, seeking aid in their efforts to gain opportunities to impart knowledge and salvation to the perishing heathen children in our own land.

Were such committees in existence at the West, and their eyes directed to the desolate regions of ignorance around them, they would soon find their warmest energies enlisted in gathering outcast lambs into the fold of safety, to be trained and guided to heaven.

To impart a more vivid idea of the wants which are to be met, and of one of the first objects to be aimed at, in the efforts proposed, some incidents in the experience of the writer will be narrated.

In a small village, less than thirty miles from one of the largest cities of the West, the writer once stopped to dine. Several children were playing about, when the following conversation took place:

“Is there any school in this place!”

“No, madam; it is a good while since we have had one. Miss L. came and taught here nearly a year; but she went home, and we have had no school since.”

“How many children are there here who would go to a school if there were one?”

“I should think there are as many as forty or fifty.”

“Do you suppose the parents would like to have a school, and would pay the teacher well?”

“Oh, yes! If we could get a good teacher, she would be well paid for her trouble; but none of us know where to get one, and the men folks are too busy to go and look for one.”

“Have you any clergyman in the place?”

“No, madam.”

“Do the people here ever go to any church?”

“Yes, madam; they sometimes go off a good piece to W., where there is preaching sometimes.”

It was in another village of the West, and one as destitute as this, that a young lady from New-England, who came out under the care of a clergyman, stationed herself to rear up a school. She agreed to teach for a small sum, and to board around with the parents of her pupils.

Most of these parents were from the South, where they were unaccustomed to the notions of comfort and thrift which the young lady possessed.

She not only taught the children at school, but, in each family where she boarded, taught the housekeeper how to make good yeast and good bread. She also taught the young women how to cut dresses and how to braid straw for bonnets.

Her instructions in the day-school and in the Sunday-school, and her influence in the families, were unbounded, and almost transforming. No minister, however well qualified, could have wrought such favourable changes in so short a time.

In another case, known to the writer, a young lady went into such a destitute village. There was no church, and no minister of any sect. She taught the children through the week, and also instituted a Sunday-school. In this she conducted religious worship herself. Gradually the mothers came to attend, then the fathers, until, at last, she found herself in the office both of teacher and clergyman. The last portion of her duties she resigned to a minister, who, by her instrumentality, was settled there.

The writer might mention several other similar cases which have come to her knowledge.

There are hundreds of such destitute places in our land, where a prudent, self-denying, and energetic woman might be instrumental in leading a whole community “out of darkness into marvellous light,” and there are hundreds of such women wishing to go to them.

The writer, when returning to the East, has often been met by young friends with such representations as these: “I have nothing to employ my time which satisfies my conscience. I have education, leisure, and means; can you find me a sphere of usefulness which I can reach with propriety? I cannot go off alone; for, even if I thought it proper, my friends would not consent.”

Again, another friend says, “Why cannot you find something for Miss G. to do? She is well educated, rich, benevolent, and really is suffering for want of something to do. She has thought of going on a foreign mission, but surely there is enough for her to do in her own country.”

Yes, surely, there is enough to do in our own country. When will the wise, and the influential, and the benevolent awake to this subject, and devise the proper mode of meeting such wants?

Those who are interested in the project presented in this work by no means assume that this is the best way. They only feel that something ought to be attempted; and that, if this effort does no other good, it may put in train influences that will develop a better way.

The writer of this volume also presents this enterprise, not as the plan of an individual, but as a project devised, by consultation, among many ladies of influence and benevolence, who are interested in securing its success. And if it is effected, it is hoped that it will be by such simultaneous interest and efforts, that no one will be conspicuous, either as originator or leader in the enterprise.

The views presented in this work are those held in common by a large number of intelligent ladies in all parts of our land; and, though one has been selected and requested to write this work, it should be regarded, not as the opinions of an individual, but as a wreath of benevolence, woven, indeed, by one hand, but gathered from many noble and benevolent minds.

The following extracts from letters received from gentlemen of high standing in various parts of our nation, will serve to corroborate the views expressed in the preceding pages:

From the Hon. Thomas Burrowes, late Secretary of State in Pennsylvania.

I have long been of opinion that the great deficiency of our age and country, in reference to the sound instruction of the coming generation, is the want of teachers.

I am now fully convinced that this want must be supplied before any other step can be safely or usefully taken. Nay, I believe that, until this indispensable preliminary measure is accomplished, money, and effort, and legislation will be, as they have been, money, and effort, and legislation nearly thrown away. Since 1834, this state has expended more than five millions for the support of her common schools, and, at the end of ten years, I see but little improvement.

In this immense expenditure, not a dollar has been spent to secure this great prerequisite—good teachers; and hence the system has not only failed to obtain general favour, but is in danger of becoming more and more unacceptable the longer it is tried. It is sad to think that we have thus wasted five millions of dollars, and ten years of time, to say nothing of the labour expended and obloquy encountered, and must now re-commence from the foundation; but so it is.

I know of no cause which so much needs a general movement as this. Let not its friends shrink from the undertaking because they may not be able to operate in all, or even in many of the states. Let it be remembered that if a commencement is made in one state, and a report of results sent forth, it will serve to start the good work in all the rest.

The necessities, the crying necessities of this cause, are far and away before those of the Temperance Reform, or of Colleges, or of Foreign Missions. He who, being fit, should devote himself to this cause, would confer a greater benefit on his fellow-man than he could possibly do by any other use of his time and talents.

The missionary to a heathen land opens the Book of Life to his fellow-man; the missionary in this cause opens the mind of his fellow-citizens, not only to the Book of Life, but to a knowledge of all those rights and duties, without which our free institutions cannot stand to encourage and reform the world.

If my gifts and domestic relations permitted, I should devote myself to a mission in this and other states for the purpose of impressing on Legislatures, philanthropists, and teachers, the necessity of Teachers’ Seminaries.

A gentleman, supported to operate in this cause, might be employed in this way. He could visit different states one after another, and address the citizens of each county in the county town, after long and full notice. Besides addressing the people publicly, he could appeal to leading individuals privately, and engage them to act with him for this object. Meantime, he could be obtaining educational statistics for future use, and ere long he could make such a report as would set the people to work in earnest, and for their own sakes.

While thus proceeding, he could also obtain the promise of one or more intelligent persons in each county, to write on the subject every week in each of the county newspapers. Articles thus addressed to the reason, the patriotism, and the economy of the people, would have a powerful effect, and cost nothing.

If funds could be provided from private benevolence to establish proper Teachers’ Institutions in two or three states, they would set the matter far ahead in a few years. They would serve as models and inducements to the public, and would not long continue to need the support of private philanthropy. They would really be normal, or pattern establishments.

Beyond a doubt, the plan ought to embrace institutions for the preparation of female teachers. The gentleness, self-devotion, and untiring humanity of women eminently qualify them to be the instructers of the more youthful pupils of both sexes, and of their own of all ages. There is not a show of any reason why male teachers only should be provided for at the public charge, when female teachers are as necessary, as useful, and as much confided in by the public.

From the Rev. Mr. Sturtevant, President of Illinois College.

“In regard to some voluntary organization to secure popular education, if it were worked with a truly liberal and Christian spirit, it could, and would, do us great good in this state: first, by collecting statistics of our wants, and calling attention (by the press, and by public lectures all over the state) to these wants, and to what has been accomplished in other states and countries.

2. By supporting, at least in part, model schools in different parts of the state, to show, by example, what good schools are.

3. By bringing public sentiment to bear on the Legislature, especially in reference to our school fund. It is now nearly two millions, and is yearly increasing. Now, its whole management is left to the unregulated action of the Legislature, without a single mind devoted to acquiring and disseminating knowledge as to the proper mode of using it. Whether, any one year, there shall be even one intelligent friend of education in our Legislature, is a matter of chance. If some plan be not devised for leading the Legislature to wise views, the object of this fund will be lost. It will a little diminish the expense for each child, but add nothing towards getting better schools.”

President Sturtevant’s account of the deplorable state of their schools, and of the public apathy on the subject, is mournful.

From the Rev. Henry Beecher, of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Much can be done in Indiana, much ought to be done, and speedily; for,

1. It will be a more densely-populated state than Ohio or Illinois, because its land is uniformly good.

2. It has been grievously neglected. Its settlers were originally from Kentucky, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Such do better for flocks and farms than for mental and moral improvement.

3. We have a good system of common school education, which, for purposes of Church and State ambition, some sectarians are disposed to break down; and they are of the dominant sect in the state. Those sects that foster education are in the minority, and struggling up through many embarrassments.

4. We have a school fund of more than two millions, which is in such neglect as threatens its entire loss.

An agent should be supported to lecture through the state, in every county town, to secure workers to defend our school system, to protect our school fund from depredators, to secure an annual Education Convention, and otherwise exert influence. The right man for such an agent I know. It is a Dr. Cornett, of Versailles, Ripley Co., Ia. He is a member of our Senate, and chairman of their Committee on Education: a man prudent, cool, sagacious, interested in the cause, and of great weight in the community.

The following is extracted from a letter from the Dr. Cornett spoken of above.

Strange it is, that while the benevolent among our people are exerting themselves so much at home and abroad, that the thousands and millions in our own country who cannot so much as read one word in the Book of Life, should be overlooked, and no organization effected in their behalf. It is absurd to think of a Republic being long sustained without the people generally being educated. To talk of their maintaining their rights when denied the means of knowing what their rights are, is to talk nonsense. If our whole people could be educated by the right sort of teachers, there would be little need of temperance societies, and temperance newspapers, and lectures, and other means now so properly employed for moral reformation. Our children would enter on the practical duties of life with pure minds, well fortified against vice in all shapes. In Indiana we are in deplorable want of good teachers for our common schools. Why cannot some plan be devised for educating intelligent boys and girls for these duties, and then finding them situations?

In reference to the school fund, he says,

Many of our state legislators seem more disposed to favour the borrowing of school money than to promote education. If competent lecturers were sent among the people, urging the value of education, both in a pecuniary and political view, these same demagogues would find it for their interest to become clamorous for the cause. I have been at the head of the Senate’s Committee on Education, and have had great difficulty in sustaining the integrity of our school fund. The term of my services has expired, and I cannot resume them. From what I know of our Legislature, I believe there is great need of a stir being made among the people in reference to this matter and the cause in general. My isolated condition, laborious profession, and poor health forbid my following my feelings in going forth as a voluntary lecturer; but let some organization be effected, and numerous and efficient lecturers would rise up to do gratuitous work.

The following is from Judge Lane, of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

I believe our Legislature, if left to itself, would permit the Common Schools to sink and perish in their hands. That body possesses at all times individuals of great worth, but the larger part have very little intelligence, and their motives of action are entirely different from those which would subserve this cause. I believe that an association of gentlemen in this state is the only mode of leading the Legislature into the necessary measures, and that, through them, this might be accomplished by the press and by public lectures (if the right man and measures are employed). I believe that a change of public opinion on this subject cannot be secured, indirectly, through the elevation of the minds of a few, nor by the dissemination of good principles by the circulation of Bibles and tracts, or the settlement of ministers, or the cultivation of young men in colleges, or in any other speedy mode except that of an association acting on a specific plan, and pursuing it with perseverance, and by expedient means. I deem the employment of some agent indispensable to give form and intensity to such an association; and a man for this work would require a rare combination of qualities.

The following is from one of the leading Lawyers of Ohio.

The more I think of this subject of national education, the more I feel anxious to be up and doing. I do not think that any other field of labour now presents itself in which so much good can be done, and it is not the least important consideration, certainly, that while thus engaged in doing good to others, we shall be, in the highest sense, educating ourselves. All that I can do, I feel anxious to do in this great work; and as soon as any plan is definitely arranged, I will go to work, and if I can get time in no other way, will diminish my business for the purpose.

The following is from E. C. Delavan, Esq., who has devoted so much of his time for several years to the cause of Temperance.

The importance of the question of national education cannot be overrated. In a selfish point of view, the old states could well afford to be taxed a million a year to enlighten the new, but they will not see it or feel it, I fear, until it is too late; yet much can be done. When leading minds are suitably impressed, the mass will be. Under God, the press is the great instrument that must be used, and a long time before the mass will move. It appears to me that the first step to be taken is to interest men in all parts of the Union to feed the political and religious press. Then, when the public mind is aroused, talents and means will be found to take hold practically.

The following is from a Lawyer in Cincinnati.

Our city and vicinity would furnish room for a dozen labourers in this cause instead of one; and one of the most effectual modes of operation would be to enlist a dozen others in the cause. A man devoted to this cause would be welcomed among us as an angel of light by all classes and all sects, and would be sure to enjoy the good wishes of all, the positive aid of many, and the useful counsel of not a few. The spirit of education is largely abroad among us, and only wants an efficient leader to enable it to breathe a new existence into the whole moral, social, political, and religious being of our community here, and, by necessary consequence, into the whole valley of the West. We have the best tools to work with, the best materials to work upon, and we only want, and this we sadly want, some person to influence us to use the one and act upon the other, by commencing an example.

I should hail the commencement of such an enterprise as the dawning of a new light upon the West, and would not only give what little aid I might, but would use all my little influence to make it work effectually in its onward progress.

These extracts will suffice to show the vast field of labour open to a man of talents, supported for the object aimed at.

The following extract from an address of Prof. Stowe, delivered at Portland in 1844, corroborates the views expressed by the author on the subject of moral training.

But in this country, in consequence of our unbounded religious freedom, the subdivisions of sect are almost innumerable; it is impossible, in a system of public instruction, to provide separately for them all; and, unless religious instruction can be given without sectarianism, it must be abandoned.

“In this country the rights of all sects are the same, and any denomination that would have its own rights respected must respect the rights of others.

“The time which can be devoted to religious instruction in schools is necessarily very limited; and if there be an honest and sincere desire to do right, the whole of this time certainly can be occupied, with efficiency and profit, without encroaching on the conscience of any sect which really has a conscience.

“Facts show plainly that, notwithstanding the diversity of sects, there is common ground on which the sincerely pious of all sects substantially agree. For example, the most acceptable books of practical piety, which are oftenest read by Christians of all denominations, have proceeded from about all the different sects into which Christendom is divided, and are read by all with scarcely a recognition of the difference of sect. Such are the writings of Thomas À Kempis and Fenelon, who were Roman Catholics; of Jeremy Taylor and Bishop Hall, who were Churchmen; of Baxter, Watts, and Doddridge, who were Presbyterians or Congregationalists; of Bunyan and Andrew Fuller, who were Baptists; of Fletcher and Charles Wesley, who were Methodists. This fact alone shows that there is common ground, and enough of it too, to employ all the time which can properly be devoted to religious instruction in our public institutions.

“All Christian sects, without exception, recognise the Bible as the text-book of their religion. They all acknowledge it to be a book given of God, and replete with the most excellent sentiments, moral and religious. None will admit that it is unfavourable to their peculiar views, but, on the contrary, all claim that it promotes them. To the use of the Bible, then, as the text-book of religious instruction in our schools, there can be no serious objection on the part of Christians of any sect; and even unbelievers very generally admit it to be a very good and useful book.

“But shall it be the whole Bible? or only the New Testament? or selections made from one or both?

“A book of mere selection would be very apt to awaken jealousy; and the exclusion of any part of the Scriptures would, to my mind, be painful. Let every scholar, then, have a whole Bible. The book can now be obtained so cheap, that the expense can be no objection.

“But how can the teacher instruct in the Bible without coming on to sectarian ground? He can teach a great deal in regard to its geography and antiquities, and can largely illustrate its narrations, and its moral, and even religious, beauties. An honest, intelligent teacher can find, in this way, abundant employment for all his time, if he be himself a lover and student of the Bible, without ever passing into sectarian peculiarities, or giving any reasonable ground of offence.

“But, apart from all this, the chief business of instruction in this department may be the committing to memory of portions of the Divine Word. The most rigidly orthodox will not object to this, for they believe every portion of the Bible to be the word of God which liveth and abideth forever, and that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness; and the liberal, though they may not sympathize in the high orthodox view of the divine excellence of the Word, yet regard it as, on the whole, the best of books, and the more of it their children have treasured up in their minds, the better it must be for them. If the parent chooses, he can always himself select the portions to be committed by his child, or he may leave it to the discretion of the teacher, or he may give general directions, as selections from the Gospels, the Proverbs, the Psalms, &c. It is not at all essential that all the children of the same school, or even of the same class, should recite the same passages. Each child may be called upon, in turn, to recite what each one has committed, and the recitation may or may not be accompanied by remarks from the teacher, as circumstances may seem to justify or require.

“But there is another difficulty. The Roman Catholics, it is said, do not desire that their children should be instructed in the Scriptures; they receive the apocryphal book as a part of Scripture, and contend that we have not the whole Bible unless we include the Apocrypha; and they object to our common English translation.

“In reply to this, I remark, in the first place, there are many parts of our land where there are no Roman Catholics, and, of course, the difficulty will not occur in those places.

“Secondly, if Roman Catholics choose to exclude their children from a knowledge of the Bible, they have a perfectly legal right to do so, and we have no legal right to prevent it; nor should we desire any such legal right, for the moment we desire any such legal right, we abandon the Protestant principle and adopt the Papal. Catholic parents are perfectly competent to demand that their children should be excused from the Bible recitation, and this demand, if made, should be complied with; but they have no right to demand that the Bible should be withheld from the schools because they do not like it, nor do their objections render it necessary or excusable for Protestants to discard the Bible from schools.

“Again, if Roman Catholics desire that their children take their Bibles into the schools, and recite from them, by all means let them do so; and so of Jews, let them recite from the Old Testament, if they choose, to the exclusion of the New. We allow to others equal rights with ourselves; but we claim for ourselves, and shall insist upon having, equal rights with all. I am perfectly willing to give to the Roman Catholics all they can justly claim, but I am not willing to encroach on any one’s rights, or the rights of any Protestant denomination, for the sake of accommodating the Roman Catholics. Nor do I suppose that the Romanists have a claim to any special accommodation, for they have never yet manifested any particular disposition to accommodate others. Let them have the same privileges that our Protestant sects have—that is enough; and they have no right to demand, our legislators have no right to grant, any more; and we Protestants will be perfectly satisfied when Protestants can enjoy as great privileges in Italy as Roman Catholics now enjoy in the United States. In judicious practice, I am persuaded there will seldom be any great difficulty, especially if there be excited generally in the community anything like a whole-hearted honesty and enlightened sincerity in the cause of public instruction.

“It is all right for people to suit their own taste and convictions in respect to sect; and by fair means and at proper times, to teach their children and those under their influence to prefer the denominations which they prefer; but farther than this no one has any right to go. It is all wrong to hazard the well-being of the soul, to jeopardize great public interests for the sake of advancing the interests of a sect. People must learn to practise some self-denial, on Christian principles, in respect to their denominational preferences, as well as in respect to other things, before pure religion can ever gain a complete victory over every form of human selfishness.

“Happily, there are places where religious instruction that is purely denominational can be freely given, so that there is no need whatever of introducing it into our public schools. The family and the Sunday school are the appropriate places for such instruction; and there let each denomination train its own children in its own peculiar way, with none to molest or to find fault. It is their right, it is their duty.

“As to the objection, that the use of the Bible in schools makes it too common, and subjects it to contempt, as well might it be objected that the sun becomes contemptible because he shines every day and illumines the beggar’s hovel as well as the bishop’s palace. Where is the Bible most respected, in Scotland and New-England, or in Italy and Austria? The works of man, the robed monarch, may make themselves contemptible by being too often seen; but never the works of God. The children may, and ought to be, taught to treat the book with all possible reverence, and to preserve it as nice and unsullied as the Catholic preserves his crucifix; and in this way, I am sure, on all the principles of human nature with which I am acquainted, that the Bible will be no more likely to suffer from the habit of daily familiarity than the crucifix.

“Let no one say that the religious instruction here proposed for schools is jejune and unprofitable. I do not so view the words of God. In any view, if the child faithfully commit to memory so much as the single Gospel of Matthew, or the first twenty-five Psalms, or the first ten chapters of Proverbs, or portions of the book of Genesis, those divine sentences will be in his mind forever after, ready to be called up to check him when any temptation assails his heart, to cheer him when any sorrow oppresses his soul, to be a lamp to his feet and a light to his path; to be in all respects of more real and permanent value to him than any creed, or catechism, or system of theology, or rules of ethics, of merely human origin, ever can be.

“Why should we prevent so great a good by claiming what we have no right to claim? Are we not willing to trust the Word of God to cut its own way? Or can we claim to be Christians at all, while we consent to have the Word of God and all Christian teaching banished from our institutions of public instruction? Let not infidel coldness, jesuitical intolerance, or sectarian jealousy, rob our schools of their greatest ornament and most precious treasure, the Bible of our fathers. Let not denominational feeling so far prevail as to lead us to destroy the greatest good while attempting to secure the less, as has so often been done in the Christian world heretofore. We are willing to give up much for the sake of peace and united effort; but the Bible, the word of God, the palladium of our freedom, the foundation of all our most precious hopes, we never can, we never will give up. Let all who love the Bible unite to defend it, to hold on upon it forever.”