V * o z: o L^ Author Title Imprint 16—47372-3 GPO National Colleges. \^^. % SPEECH ' ,.^' HON. JUSTIN S. MOERILL; IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 5, 1872. The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, pro- ceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 693) to provide for the further endowment and support of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and the liberal and practical education of the in- dustrial classes in the several pursuits and profes- sions in life, as established under an act of Congress approved July 2, 1862. Mr, MORRILL, of Vermont, said : Mr. President : The present bill is intended to be so guq,rded that it shall injure no State, while it aims to confer positive benefits upon all. The land States, so called, have been and are properly jealous about having large tracts of land "gobbled up," so to say, by specula- tors, and withheld indefinitely from settlement. This bill is framed, as now modified, so as to avoid any such result, though, to obviate this really valid objection, the friends of the meas- ure will be compelled to sacrifice something of promptitude as well as of eflSciency. The power under the original law, to which this bill comes in as a supplement, to sell scrip and locate the same in large bodies, was perhaps created, and in a few instances may have been injuriously exercised; but the whole amount issued up to 1871, under the college land act, was only 7,636,588 acres; and 1,461,157 acres of this was located by ten of the States within their own boundaries, and if they hold on for dear prices, no other parties can be blamed; while the grants for military services, open to the same objections, have been eight or nine times larger, or to the extent of 62,115,202 acres. In point of fact, the evils so much dreaded have been, if not exaggerated, in good part mistakenly imputed to the college land grant, when really charge- able, if any have existed, to the unprecedented but justifiable issue of military land warrants. Under the present amendment, it will be seen there can be no possibility of such an evil. The general land system of the United States is in no manner to be disturbed. ' .' ''■* ' The measure as now offered aVoia^ also any interference with the homestead 'Mw,'Tt§£^ chief benefits of which it may be refrtetlfea are not likely hereafter to accrue to ''c7iir riwn citizens,) and shuns all danger as to^'alij-^bor-^" tion of the lands being bought antr^^-y^ large masses by speculators. To in. therefore, the lands are to be held iii'vcui* Si a nair million acresvioj; a alio by the United States until actually polS^* lo' the extent of a half million acres ^F( national college in each State and TerritoW. and when sold the amount, deducting expenses, is to be invested in United States five per cent, bonds, to be held by the Treasurer of the Uni- ted States for the benefit of each of the col- leges, and the interest paid thereon semi- annually. This will not be inconvenient to the Govern- ' ment, and will at the same time give the highest security to the colleges. Beyond this, the United States will obtain and retain a lien upon the funds practically enforceable to compel a substantial and satisfactory compliance with the conditions and limitations of the original land grant, as well as of those of the present amend- ment. The funds can never be squandered nor misapplied. It may be some years — much longer than I could wish — before the full amount of this grant will be realized, but in the end it will give an annual income to each institution of not less than $30,000, which, if not large, will be enough to place them on a solid foundation of assured success, giving to ^-*;^: .hem a prestige of stability and the deeper roots of institutions aided by the energy of the national Government. ADVANTAGES PROMISED. •The next consideration is whether the dona- tion proposed will be of so much advantage to the several States as to be commensurate with the cost. The success which has already attended even the very limited endowments under the original act, to which this is sup- plementary, gives a most encouraging answer ; not that success has been entirely constant and everywhere beyond all cavil ; the outfit was too restricted for so much to be expected ; but there is abundant proof that success in most of the States has been uniform and satis- factory, and among nearly thirty institutions which have just now got into working order, there are at least six or seven which already stand forth preeminent in character and use- fulness. More will follow when they have the means, and some are struggling to get under way wi);k^8uch means as they can now com- mand. Ib Michigan, Iowa, Kentucky, Illinois, Ma^saghy setts, New York, and Connecticut tney liaye got under way and are already doing educati4)nal work of priceless value. It is harfe'.ioa much to say that any one of the ii^stitutiaijs established in these States — and Syngas and Missouri are not far behind — will ultimately be worth singly more to our country tlhafi ine._^iBntire cost of the original grant to all oTtae States. The seed fell upon good ground aVM^has brought forth many fold. Legisla- tive liberality and private munificence joined hands, and have already given to national colleges for the industrial classes the strong- est and liveliest hopes of a triumphant career. They have started upon a new field of labor, where the demand vastly exceeds the supply, and have already won public confidence. The boys educated here are called upon to do duty as men earlier and more rapidly than they can be trained and turned out. They do not have to seek for places — places seek them. As they come forth they do not lean upon stinted charity and loath patronage for support all the days of early manhood, but they are at once summoned to the front and take their share of the world's business upon their shoul- ders. As men, armed and equipped to promote the public welfare, they are wanted everywhere, and everywhere command remunerative wages. Engineers, chemists, geologists, miners, sur- veyors, bridge-builders, draughtsmen, over- seers, superintendents, in all of our broad and busy country, are greatly needed, and practical science — technical education — leads the waj and finds cordial appreciation. All branches of industry, now so wondrously diversified, compete for skilled workmen. As yet evei the demand for educators of the stamp anc capacity urgently called for cannot be sup plied ; and this demand, so extensive now, is daily growing larger, especially in the South For a long time to come, do all we may, the; will be wholly inadequate in numbers anc quality, but through the national colleges W( may count upon an annual reenforcement, an( obtain ere long a regular army of volunteei educators. Many of those here trained will b( fired by the ambition to make the professioi of teaching a life pursuit, as one of the highes and most honorable among men.* Thirty seven of these institutions will not add toe many scientific teachers to those we now have for forty million people, and with good anc fit teachers the great problem of good schooli will be at once more than half solved, ant cannot otherwise be solved. THE SYSTEM PROPOSED. To show there is room for additional, no rival, institutions of learning, it seems to b< necessary to discuss some of the phases ol higher education to some extent, whethei mental training should be mainly literary oi mainly scientific, and, though my own gives me no authority to speak, I offer frankly, but with some diffidence, the opinions of one among the great mass who has laboriouslj experienced the want of more and better Cul- ture. I can only plead that I have given the subject earnest thought, and that I am thor- oughly sincere. Even should my argument appear ill-founded, I entreat that it may not prejudice a good measure, the measure I am trying to support, and those at least who could have furnished a better, surely may rest on their own. It is not proposed to change the system of education established by the act of 1862, "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life;" and in that, while other scientific and classical studies were not to be excluded, the leading object as set forth was, "to teach such branches of learning as * One hundred teachers have already gone out from the college in Kansas. are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." These terms are perhaps broad enough to include the curriculum of even a modern university, but it was clearly intended that these national colleges should place scientific or practical studies foremost as the leading object, and whatever else might be added, that these were in no case to lag in the rear. The basis of instruction here indicated has met with nearly universal acceptance, and for the greater part of mankind it is confidently com- mended, notwithstanding many accomplished men are unbelievers in the doctrine of edu- cational utility, or in any course of discipline save the classic. But any other basis than that which has been already so cordially greeted would have defeated the great purposes of the measure, which were and are to benefit the largest numbers rather than a select few. The design is not to lower even the highest rank of scholarship, but to raise up more scholars ; not to depress the altitude of mountain peaks, but to elevate the great plains. NOT TIME ENOUGH FOR OLD CLASSICS AND THE NEW, Modern education does not now assume to give to any one person all the learning of the world. For that life, since its post-diluvian reduction to three-score years and ten, is too short. What is recorded and what comes down by tradition of all the ages past, with current original discoveries of human wis- dom, covers too much space and consumes too much time to be gathered up in the brief point of a single human life. Usefulness, to say nothing of eminence, can only be se- cured by attempting a narrower field, or by limiting labor to some special branch of study, of science, or of professional knowledge. According to the old Latin proverb, "he who follows two hares is sure to catch neither." It absorbs the labor of a whole life time to become an expert in any single pursuit. If that labor is diffused over too wide an extent, or clambers around too many objects, it van- ishes before the blaze of day like morning mist which faintly hugs the hill-tops, but rises only to disappear. Not that a man may not love art and politics, literature and science, and diverse human interests, often with profit, but that the highest individual perfection and supremacy is rarely reached save when the main effort is made in one direction. " One science only will one genius fit, So vast is art, so narrow human wit." To accomplish anything noteworthy the scholar and the man must dig in one place, dig so deep that from his stand-point the stars shall remain forever visible, or until some spring shall burst forth and mount high above the surface level. Knowledge not for use may do for useless philosophers, of whom the United States has, perhaps, too little appreciation, and postpones to a more convenient season. But here edu- cation, embracing the largest numbei's, must have such scope as to practically fit the owner for his destined vocation. Its backbone must be made up with what will be most needed. A practical education is more than ever required for all classes — one almost as much as another — and certainly required for the industrial classes of the American people, in order to give them the sovereignty of their natural faculties, to make them happy and independent personally, to bring out their highest moral and productive value to the country, to rescue them from littleness in their intercourse with the present world, and to make even immortality more desirable in the world to come. Their rare energy, inventiveness, and progressive aptitudes merit special and the highest and most effective training. The processes of development should be equal to the excellence of the raw materials. We seek to have among us not only some of those who comprehend all that was known among the ancients, but more who are able to surpass them. The Romans lost very little time in studying any language but their own — the Greeks lost none at all — and we do not seek to have all of our people exhaust their youth in the vain attempt to rival defunct nationalities in their obsolete tongues, but to have them achieve something in our own mother tongue — in our own language — a lan- guage now spoken by more than one hundred million people in the highest rank of civiliza- tion, though the latest born among modern lan- guages, or hardly known four or five hundred years ago, and not yet mastered when written or spoken by even all collegians, nor by all members of Congress, such as myself. Only since Henry VII (A. D. 1489) have the statutes of England been printed in the Eng- lish tongue, and were the woi'ks of Shaks- peare now printed as originally written they would not be read with any patience nor fully understood. The education of our British ancestors started slowly, and at the start was necessarily of a limited and clumsy sort, and the best at that time anywhere to be found was only such as was prescribed by priests. Geography was not mugMirexplored beyond the Pillars of Her- cules, and astronomy, it has been said, was conten»with a calculation of Easter and with multiplying by two a guess at half the distance of the sun from the earth. Water rose in pumps only, as philosophers declared, because Nature abhorred a vacuum. Books on geom- etry were destroyed, as infected with magic. Geology was censured by the Sorbonne, and chemistry was still striving to transmute metals into gold, and to find the universal solvent. Music was mainly confined to the dull monot- ony of chanting; sweet sounds were onlyborQ after the Reformation, and then music was more indebted to the Catholics and Metho- dists than to the Puritans, who plugged their >;' irs against even the sound of a pitch-pipe. Many of the peers of "Merry England" were unable to read and write. Bacon and Newton, as well as La Place, had HOt yet appeared. Schools were chiefly confined to cathedrals and monasteries, and of course the laity could have little hope and no opportunity. Some modern nations were ashamed of their uncouth dialects and borrowed the Latin. The Eng- lish borrowed both Latin and French. The universities of England were the outgrowth of such an age. Yet a coarse of studies* emerg- ing from some of these earlier days — though we turn away our noses from the morality then in vogue — was long held as too hoary- headed and sacred for reform at Oxford ; and American colleges, humbly venerating their English models, until recently offered years of nearly similar culture to all alike, regardless of differences of age, means, aptitudes, or intended pursuits. The old English system did not look beyond the luminaries of Church and State, and for them looked most earnestly after gentlemanly deportment and scientific profundity in cricket ; but will such a system do for the bulk of the young men of America? For two centuries almost we have imitated our English grand- mother, and that is quite long enough. It is true that within a few years some of our most richly endowed institutions have pre- sented a less stinted bill of fare and a wider * It is remarkable that Oxford, now the sturdiest upholder of Greek literature, resisted at first the establishment of a Greek professorship as an un- warranted innovation. range of elective studies, but many are still unable to enlarge their staff of professors and are forced to continue steadfastly in their ancient ways, to the neglect of modern lan- guages, modern sciences, and modern thought. For those seeking a purely professional educa- tion, where the old Greek philosophy, poetry, and eloquence may become more appropriate discipline, this old routine is open to less criti- cism, or may be less likely to be rudely jostled by actual contact with the world, and subse- quent special training may supply deficiencies ; but there is a much larger number now who need and seek culture and training of a more liberal and progressive character. A knowl- edge of the dead languages, unused, soon dwindles to a smattering, then to more slender reminiscences, and is never an equivalent for the mastery of some of the living, always in use. Greek sophisms are doubtless very fine, but a western Yankee might prize more highly Mc- Cormack reapers. Intellectual gymnastics are splendid , but an engineer would rather solve the mysteries of the steam-engine. Things, and not words, are appreciated by the multitude, and the multitude must be fed, but not on husks. Sub- stance and utility are demanded. Rare reams of learning kept for show are no longer " legal tenders," and are to be brushed aside for actual ''clinkers" in the pocket ready for use . There is certainly a beauty in learning, lovable for its own sake, regardless of the uses to which it may be turned : but the majority of mankind need learning, as they do clothing and tools of trade, for daily use and profit, rather than as an object of sentimental value and esthetic rarity. The judgment of jEsop's cock, which preferred the barleycorn to the gem, is irreversible. There is no more dignity in ancient lan- guages than in modern ; ancient history is not a whit superior to that of later times, or to that which we ourselves have made ; nor can heathen mythology outrank Christianity. Greek and Roman literature, it is true, was once all the world had, and it is still of great and wonderful value, as those of us who read only in translations freely concede, but I hope to be pardoned by my more classical friends for saying that its relative value no longer entitles it to a place actually in front. To keep it there only dwarfs the present age and prevents a home growth. Its greatest bulk, it must be allowed, is made up of the graces of oratory and works of imagination — unfading o flowers, indeed, of language and sentiment — but which oflfer little aid to a matter-of-fact age that rides upon locomotives and sends messages by the electric telegaph. Old ideas in sonorous periods or glittering sentences are not so much wanted as something new and of our own invention. It might not be creditable to a lawyer or a physician to be ignorant of Latin, and cer- tainly it would be a greater discredit to a clergyman to be wholly ignorant of the lan- guage in which Paul addressed Athenians; but to exhaust eight of the ten years of student life in order to excel in Latin or Greek prize verses, to an average American, about to em. bark in the activities of American life, is only an elegant frivolity which he can easily be persuaded to swap for something more solid and masculine, or at least for something with greater promises of being useful. As well might we exchange the major mode of music, or the oratorios of Handel for the sing-song minor of the Greeks and Romans, as to exalt their literature above that of all later ages. Ancient literature, with all of its enticing fas- cinations and fabulous processions of lecher- ous deities, had its origin among those who were not only neglectful of trade and com- merce, but who were wholly ignorant of all the great inventions of mankind, with the single exception of letters ; and these inven- tions, and the discoveries in physical and natural sciences, within the last one hundred and, fifty years, have certainly greatly increased the knowledge and power of the race. They have made even miracles possible. Divine honors would anciently have been paid to their authors. Can it be that modern literature is to remain forever in a secondary position, the slave of the past, and derive no impulse from the amplitude of the new forces now every- where so ready to lend the vigor and splendor of their assistance? Are we never to create anything, and so remain forever hopelessly in debt to ancient ages? PHYSICAL SYSTEM ALSO INADEQUATE. (^ An exclusively classic discipline is, however, no more inappropriate than an exclusively physical discipline. If one is too fine, the other is too coarse. Alone or together they are in the rear of modern civilization. Some of the so-called "great" among our English ances- tors would be dwindles if measured by modern standards. Many of them were dazzling enough in tournaments, but, when they could read, often made dull work at writing. The world was slow in parting with the chivalric idea that arms was the noblest occupation of mankind, and the patrons of solid learning ^^^ fev;. Even the court of Henry VIII^^^^ its highest luster upon athletic sports. J^^png exercised himself daily in wrestling, sh^Kng, dancing, leaping moats with a pole, and cast- ing the iron bar. Such was his pride in these Olympian contests, historians declare, that on the Field of Cloth of Gold he publicly seized Francis I in his arms to throw him, ''as a sailor or bricklayer would try a new comrade." Where such brawny victories bore off all the honors mental training could hardly be ex- pected to flourish. Elizabeth, who I suppose may be called, in spite of her daily treachery, daily piety, and daily profanity, England's proudest and most profitable monarch, cared more for questionable personal charms, and for hoarding the three thousand dresses she had at her decease, than for her scholarship in Latin and Greek, what- ever that might be. Able, undoubtedly, to swear in very good Latin, she could also beat her maids of honor, spit upon the coat of a knight, box the ears of Essex, coquette with kings-, princes, dukes, and earls ; though vexed when her suitors married, and resolved to die, if not to live, a maiden queen. But in the days of Queen Bess and her father, as in those long after of Cromwell, an English education had more to do with the power of muscle than with brain power, or the humanities, and, by the prize-ring, fox-hant- ing, and horse-racing, supplemented by punch and gin, it was forced in that direction which would best enable each person physically to support and defend himself and his sovereign. The Government legislated to that end, and remorselessly against idleness, or so as to give work to all and secure the best work — not by schools — but by guilds, by long apprenticeships, and by making all the coarser arts hereditary, or by making every son the journeyman of his father: "once a cobbler always a cobbler. " But this athletic system of merely physical training, pushed as the national glory, and applied to the masses — teaching the hand but not the head — has sadly failed, and produced in England, at length, some athletes of the prize-ring, indeed, but also a most unexampled crop of pauperism, ignorance, and discontent. Health and beauty of body, if thus obtained, though greatly to be desired, cannot alone be 6 «>» relied upon to keep at bay the dangers of un- satisfied human aspirations, and the highest of the human form is barren even inless animated by intellect. Labor- ^there now seek relief and find none ?s, find none in chartism or commun- they cannot be hoaxed or coaxed to enTTst among British volunteers even to repel invaders at any probable or improbable " Bat- tle of Dorking." John Bulls no longer, they emigrate. HIGHER GENEKAL EDUCATION A NECESSITY. A great change has taken place, certainly in America, in the absolute emancipation of ^bor from all legal restraints — all save the Holeful eight-hour strait-jacket ; and there Ire mSTre freedom in the choice of those studies ■jmich master and control the highways of life. inSiead of being the distinction of a few, edu- cation is becoming the right of all, and the dis- tinction of the many. We live not only in a new world, but in a new era. Learning steadily advances, and old errors are tram- pled under foot without a murmur and with- out fear of a papal bull. The State, as well as the individual, has its ambition, and takes an interest in multiplying and holding edu- cated men. They are its excutive, legislative, and judicial supports. They figure in the lofti- est pages of history. They turn to use and enjoyment every idle and leisure scrap of time. They adorn the press, the bar, and the pulpit. They settle national differences by other modes than war ; on, if war they must, the power of an army of educated men, guided by educated men, is sure to transcend by far that of any equal number of uneducated. » The education of the plodding, stout-willed German people has been compulsory, while that of the nimble, light-hearted French nation has been neglected, and their recent bloody and decisive conflict shows that victory would not be wooed nor won by illiterate soldiers. Wherever pitted in the combat, the schooled men conquered. The treachery to be lamented by Frenchmen was not so much that of the Empire at Sedan as that of the empire of ignorance among the people. In our own country unquestionably the northern common-school was an uncomputed force in the late war which the South could not equally match. Equal in courage, there was an evident disparity as to the recuperative power of the personal resources in reserve. In one army there were only soldiers ; in the other. soldiers and always something more. The former were only strong while they won ; the latter strongest when they lost and had refitted. Though led with skill, the rebel armies did not stop to think, while the bayonets they met were the representatives of the deepest thought and the utmost force of universal education, and always of a book in the knapsack. Peace has returned to the nation, and now that edu- cation will leaven the whole liimp. The best husbandry goes North for its seed corn, and the South, alive with good planters, will plant the seed most likely to promote its greatest prosperity and happiness. Schools must and will ere long have place and equal fame in all parts of a common country. The domination of the aristocracies of Europe for so long a period in Feudal Ages may be ascribed to their martial and physical training, and in later times, the domination of legisla- tive bodies representing no constituents may be ascribed to the exceptional and superior educational advantages of the governing class, not less than to the dense ignorance of the masses governed. The ascendancy of the statesmen of Virginia — " the mother of States and of Presidents" — for so many years in our own land may in some degree be honorably credited to the love of learning of their leading men, and to the spirit which founded the Uni- versity of Virginia, of which Jefferson was so proud to be known as the father. Though Washington and Monroe could hardly be classed as eminent scholars, our first genera- tion of leading statesmen were undeniably largely composed of men of liberal culture, as well as of liberal principles. Of these Prince- ton furnished a brilliant host,* though they were not all sons of New Jersey. The place of Massachusetts in American history might have been less conspicuous but for the early prominence of Harvard College. Even the civil service, with all of our soli- citude, can only be permanently elevated by universal and thorough education — as univer- sal as eligibility to office and as thorough as the seeking after it. Men so educated are too well trained to be awkward with afi'airs ; they have too much pride to sacrifice honor to interest, and respect Christianity too sincerely to seek reputation on any other basis than doing right. Learned judges are incorruptible, or, if * Such as Philip Freneau, Aaron Burr, Joseph Reed, Riehard Rusb, Richard Stockton, Oliver Ellsworth. Luther Martin, and Edward Livingston. Bacon be cited as an exception, it must be noted that no judicial decision of that distinguished man has ever been reversed, notwithstanding Pope's terrible epigram which immortalizes "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." Education guides men by principle, by justice, by facts and logic, not by solemn cant, jolly fictions, and baseless prejudices. It has no fellowship with trickery or fraud, and never resorts to " breech-loading ballot-boxes," nor to brutish violence. It is only a truism to assert that education is essential to our form of government. The best government must have the best men as citizens. A republic could not stand a cycle of the moon among Hottentots, and often reels, totters, and falls even among races claiming to be enlightened. Democracy must fail when only upheld by ignorance and vice, and can only succeed by a general diffusion of both knowledge and virtue. ' In other lands and under other forms of gov- ernment education maybe optional ; with us it is indispensable. Untaught and unprincipled men may be governed, but they cannot govern; they cannot be trusted. The intellectual and moral progress of man is the great force which cripples and binds absolute and illegitimate power. This force is needed as a check in popular governments quite as much as in those more arbitrary. Here majorities rule, and majorities have a fixed standard of intelligence and integrity, which may be on the high plane of a Washington, or low down on that of a Boss Tweed. There is a possibility for us to be better than the average of mankind, but there is also plenty of freedom to be worse. A DENSE POPULATION TO BE PROVIDED FOR. The United States is destined to become one of the most populous nations of the world. One hundred million people are expected to be represented in the national capital in less than thirty years, and a hundred and fifty million in less than fifty years. A dense population is, however, almost inseparable from some debasement. Scarcely can we hope to increase in virtues as we increase in numbers. Therefore we should take wise precautions, a bond of fate, for the future con- duct of our posterity. They are to be taught a double duty ; first in their character as men, and, second, their responsibility as citizens of the great Republic. As we make the mold so will be the shape of our destiny. At present the habits of our rural popula- tion are pure and simple. A dense population increasing wealth, voluptuous living, and a materialistic philosophy, toward which the world is said to be tending, may change all this. Let the American Congress, then, not hold back any measure that tends to relieve future peril, or that will lift up the intellectual and moral standard of the young and indus- trial classes of our country, and these em- brace the most part of that unknown throng which only awaits our exit to crowd forward on to the stage where they are to be the pilots of State and wield the political and civil, as well as the moral and religious forces of the New World. ■//Our popular form of government, however \ peacefully disposed, does not challenge the hearty sympathy of other less popular Govern- ments. Peace may not forever be possible; and we must remember that in war victory follows neither the greatest nor the most guns, but follows the party which can make and knows how to use the best — does not follow absolutely the largest army, but the best handled and the most sagacious. All of these national colleges are to give some military instruction, and this, so widely difi'used and multiplied, in any great future war, will be of vastly more service than even our present Naval and Military Academies, how- ever admirably they may be conducted. In time of peace, and without annual appropria- tions, we shall have made our best prepara- tion for war. A EEOADEE STSTEM REQUIRED. But we want a system of broader education for the American people in the arts of peace. It is perhaps unnecessary at present to multi- ply institutions for the training of professional men, as those we have are equal to the task of furnishing all that are needed, and some "professional supernumeraries" not so much needed. The great want is a system by which each one among the masse* may become more valuable to himself and to society, and more honored and esteemed. Agriculture and the mechanic arts always lack recruits, and most lack recruits that have been drilled. Willing hands can here always find room for boundless enterprise. Our own artisans, however, like too many other Americans, most esteem the dignity of pecuniary profits and are generally supposed to be more proud of swift work than of the skillful and dexterous. They ,wear out and leave too few honored names to gild their 8 memories and stamp their workmanship. Let them be taught better. Agriculture also should have such a base of scientific instruction as will enable every farmer to obtain more valu- able crops without an annual and permanent depletion of the soil. In Great Britain they have certainly studied agricultural economy by scientific methods longer and more pro- foundly than we have ever been prompted to do in America, and yet they had in 1871 four million fewer sheep than in 1868, and in 1871 ihe number of cattle was fewer by seventy thou- sand than in 1870. In 1872 the general out- cry there as to the increased cost of butcher's meat has been fearful. Our condition as to sheep and cattle is not wholly dissimilar, and was temporarily rather worse, when the slaughter-pens of the recent war made such notable havoc of American stock, and from which we are but slowly recovering.* A diminishing stock, from which must be fed an increasing population, is a calamity to be avoided by any nation, for the shrinkage in stock will be followed by an equal shrinkage of crops. This is a point that should be looked after, and before we have squandered all the natural fertility of our soil. Architecture, sculpture, and painting reached a position in or before the fifteenth and six- teenth century beyond which they have not since advanced, although science, philosophy, and literature have been making some of their grandest strides. (The world is again giving more attention to tVe fine arts, and, more com- mendable still, it is endeavoring, by more highly trained labor, to educate and elevate the whole race of man. Among the evidences of this is the opportunity which is being offered to arti- sans and to all ambitious young men for special education. No doubt some of this is of a cheap sort, hut it is a move in the right direc- tion. Decide what you are fit for and go about it, appears to be the order of the day. OTHEE NATIONS MOVING. Italy within ten years past has established eighty-nine civil and military institutions for technical instruction. Of these, eleven are intended exclusively for officers and non- com- missioned officers of the army and navy, and the whole number are rapidly rising into * The number of our cattle in 1860 was 28,967,028, and fell off in 1870 to 28,07-4,582, or, while our popula- tion increased twenty-two and a half per cent., our cattle decreased about three and a halt'^)er cent. importance. The number of teachers to each averages above eleven. Even Great Britain is moving in this direc- tion, and moreover has been driven step by step, as limitations on suffrage have been removed, to pay some regard to universal edu- cation, as the grant for educational. purposes, which was only £30,000 (or $150,000) in 1840, and raised to £1,196,251 (or- $5,981,255) in 1871, sufficiently shows. From the diplomatic report, made to the British Parliament in 1871, we find that the republic of Switzerland devotes thirteen and one fourth per cent, of its total revenue from all sources to education. The Federal Gov- ernment there takes the initiative, but the task of putting measures into practice devolves chiefly on the communes. This report cor tains the following pregnant words : " With that practical genius of which such striki ■ g illustrations are given by the Swiss people in the management both of their private and public affairs, they have long since arrived at the conviction that the education of the masses is the only sound basis of a State with free institutions, and the most effect- ive lever to raise the moral as well as the material condition of a nation." Even in Greece they are at last awaking to the necessity of a more earnest and practical education. A literary university, though at- tended by twelve hundred and forty-four stu- dents — one half of whom being law students, or not a disproportionate number for a country ten times larger — brings forth neither a Per- icles nor a Phidias. They have, however, some vanity touching " the vision and faculty divine " of their ancestors, and have recently established at Athens a polytechnic school, but thus far it has only offered instruction in painting, sculpture, wood- engraving, casting in plaster, and architectural and mechanical arts. With this rather meager modern ex- hibit of classic Greece, the proud " mother of arts and eloquence," we may pardon the im- patience of their minister of public instruc tion when he says : " Better that the university itself should becomi an agency to impart intelligence to agricultural an( manufacturing industry, than to add to the existinj number of professional idlers." It may be remembered that Cowper ha said: "An idler is a watch that wants both hands, As useless if it goes as when it stands." Since 1847 they have instituted .in Belgiui "workmen's decorations," or gold or silv( badges of distinction, worn externally, like star of an order of knighthoodj as a specis 9 mode of rewarding skillful and meritorious artisans " of recognized ability and irreproach- able conduct." These are limited in number, and those who obtain the distinction are enti- tled to wear the decoration, attached by a ribbon, on the left breast. It is accompanied by a diploma, artistically engraved, setting forth the name and qualifications of the recip- ient, which is usually framed and hung in a conspicuous place in the artisan's dwelling. This is an order of merit fit to be recognized by agricultural and mechanical societies under a republican form of government. European nations have long struggled, and at immense cost, to maintain a balance of mil- itary power, and even now an increase of the army and navy by one Government pushes on an equal increase among others as a matter of self-protection. How much greater the neces- sity for our protection is it that we should main- tain a balance of educational forces and keep pace with the progress of intellectual develop- ment which is visibly and daily so surely add- ing largely to the power and vitality of nations ! This is a kind of rivalry to be welcomed, and such as drives no nation to bankruptcy. WK ARE NOT WHOLLY IDLE. But we are doing something. The chusetts Institute of Technology (in addition to an agricultural college that has come to be regarded as a model) was to some extent a recipient of the fund derived from the land grant, and, though not bearing the name of a college, there are few institutions doing more useful and thorough work for the instruction of the industrial classes ; and here, also, they work, as may be seen by their catalogue, not only for the State of Massachusetts, but for not less than thirteen other States which are represented among their students. Like the scientific department so cordially attached to Yale College, it is already national in its char- acter and in its efi'ects. It has "provoked good works" elsewhere. The national power, however, here, as ia other States, only tenders initial and directing aid, while the State has the sole charge and consummation of the work to be done. The president of the Wisconsin University writes that, " but for the stimulus of the land grant the institution would hardly be in exist- ence ; that the agricultural and military de- partments are thoroughly organized, the fund safe, and that the prospects are good, but that they reed a million." From Delaware we are told that the funda- mental expenses in a small Statt are as much as in a large State, and to succeed they must have more aid. The president of Dartmouth Agricultural College states that "the students are gen- erally young men of limited means ; that the land grant has induced private liberality to establish a large number of scholarships, was the chief means of establishing a board of agriculture in the State, and has done much in calling attention especially to the importance of more science among farmers." In Tennessee the president writes from Knoxville that "a good college education within reach, at the small annual expense of $125, including board, lodging, fuel, &c., can- not be otherwise than extensive and import- ant" in its results. In Kentucky three hundred students selected by the State are admitted free, while the tuition and room-fee for others is only twenty- five dollars, and board about $1 60 per week. I have given these mutilated extracts merely as specimens of the tenor of letters received from these institutions. They are all brimful of faith, hope, and courage. But, while there is much of encouragement, there is much more required. For instance, Philadelphia, with six hundred thousand in- habitants, and more largely engaged in indus- trial employments than any other city on the continent, has no system of technical, indus- trial, or art education which reaches more than forty pupils. Many States, as well as cities, are no better cared for. The grave importance of the subject must be my apology for using so much of my time in the discussion of educational systems, and of the general educational requirements of our people as a nation. The remaining points to which I shall ask attention will be touched with more commendable brevity. EQUALITY OF ENDOWMENTS. The former act of Congress made a distri- bution of lands on the basis of the number of presidential electors for each State, or the number of Representatives and Senators of each State. This was an approximation to the ratio of population, made at the earliest time possible after the taking of the census, but still only an approximation, and destitute of abso* lute accuracy. The present bill proposes an equal State dis» 10 tribution, or to complete the endowment of one college in each State. If Senators, at the first glance, should question the propriety of such a basisof distribution, I ask their respect- ful attention to some of the reasons which may be offered in its suppert. In the first place this course is necessary in order to escape the extremes of either giving too much to seme States or too little to others. Any rule accord- ing to population within the boundary lines of States would plant colleges in more than half of the States of such puny strength and with such inferior equipments that they could never take root, and a general failure would be inev- itable. The smaller States have smaller wealth, and but few men of large fortunes upon whom to rely for auxilliary aid. In the larger States not only legislators, but many individuals with ample resources, are found ready and eager to make munificent contributions to the support of such institutions, in some instances even in excess of the national bounty, as in the case of the Cornell University in New York, where the large-hearted and large-handed Mr. Cornell has given of his own private fortune $1,342,000, and which with the 990,000 acres of land received is still insufificient, according to Mr. Cornell, to fully develop and support the insti- tution even in its opening career of usefulness. Kindred liberality, public and private, in Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut has also been pro- ductive of noble results. Substantial addi- tional appropriations to the national fund — in Illinois of $265,000, in California $245,000 in coin, and in Nebraska of $150,000 — evince the pride and interest taken by the people in all parts of the country in these institutions. In States less fortunate than those named the great drawback is a lamentable want of means. There are too many vacant professorships ; and laboratories, cabinets, museums, libraries, and philosophical instruments, are seen only afar off. These facts are made only too con- spicuous by our recent experience, and the nation alone is able to furnish adequate relief. If population were fixed upon as the basis of any aid to be given, even that is subject to constant fluctuations, and though it might be mathematically correct at the time of the pas- sage of the act, it would never be even mathe- matically correct afterward. Contemplating the future growth of the country, it is not im- possible that geographical extent would prove as equitable a basis upon which to found dis- crimination as would population, if discrim- ination were to be tolerated. In that case Texas should receive five times as much as Pennsylvania, and Maine three fourths as much as New York. {But these institutions will be as much for the protection of the nation as are any of our military fortifications J and what would be thought of a refusal to build anything but a small fort, for instance, on the Delaware because the salient point happened to be in a small State? Ample protection should be given to all alike — not most to the oldest and richest, nor least to the youngest and weakest of the sisterhood. /"Thermopylse was lost, not through the millions of foes in front, but through the unguarded pass of the mountains. Our remotest mountain passes must all be efiBciently guarded. \ There is no jealousy in the Republic of Let- ters which can be aroused among the friendg of purely literary or classical colleges. They know that to make a sound education of any kind available to larger numbers, they must at once enlarge their own field of operations and lift their own standard higher. The greater the number educated, the greater will be the education required. The beneficiaries under the original grant, also, all recognize and cordially indorse the propriety of the present bill, framed as it is, to found a college in each State on the basis of entire State equality. Those colleges which heretofore started with most feel the absolute necessity for more, and better appreciate the greater necessities of those which started with least. Wherever located, it is certain that they are all at work for the common good, with one common interest. What matters it to New York that the light-house at Sandy Hook is on the soil of New Jersey? It speeds on its way the commerce of New York and the world no less. The agricultural convention which met here last winter, from all parts of the Union, gave this measure their undivided support, and to them should be credited the idea of an equal donation to all the States regardless of the amount of population. They fully under- stood that knowledge cannot be hemmed in by State lines, and that wherever accumulated, i will ultimately all be distributed and, like sum- mer rain, refresh the world. Agriculture has generous instincts and seeks no exclusive ben- efits. It builds up itself on the prosperity of others. It is apparent that as large a fund is re- quired to properly "equip and man" a col- 11 lege in one State as in another. In small States this fund cannot be raised, neither by taxation nor through gifts. This fact must be recognized. And yet such States cannot forego equal advantages for their people, and they may have incomparable sites — places for educational forts — which for health, economy, and other obvious reasons, are often to be pre- ferred to, or at least may be entitled to, equal consideration with those of larger States. An abundance of air may be preferred to an abun- dance of population, and certainly a town in a college should be preferred to a college in a town. t The paramount object is to place higher and more appropriate education within reach of all, the poor as well as the rich, without regard to ancestry or race, and of that sort which will engender a perpetual appetite for more. For this purpose, if we rely only upon the few col- leges, ever so well established as private cor- porations, they will be too much crowded, or fail to excite general sympathy, or be ham- pered by an antiquated course of studies, or designed solely for professional advancement, and the cost will be made to many an unbear- able burden ; but let them be well founded in every State by national aid, and then local pride will be aroused to nurse and guard their prosperity, and the expense of a liberal edu- cation will be made so moderate that no one will be excluded who has strength of natural parts, and sufficient ambition to go and knock at the doors. \ COLLEGE STUDENTS OBLITERATE STATE LINKS. An examination of the catalogues of all well established institutions of learning will show their cosmopolitan character, and justify the argument for equal favor in behalf of the national colleges. At Harvard University the number of undergraduates in 1871-72 was 619, and 211 of these hail from twenty-three other I States. More than halfof the 134 law students, or 71, came from twenty-two other States. In the Kentucky University, nearly half, or 266 out of 579 students came from twenty-four States and two Territories. At Yale College, in 1871-72, the catalogue shows that out of 527 academical students, 371 came from twenty- four other States, or over 70 per cent., including 9 from beyond the sea — leaving only 147 with their homes at present in Connecticut. Of 69 theological students, only 17 are from Con- necticut, while 52 are accounted for elsewhere. , At Dartmouth, in 1870-71, there were 437 students, and only 165 of these came from New Hampshire, and all the rest were from nineteen other States and foreign countries. The tuition at these institutions generally is comparatively high, yet it is much less than one fourth of the first cost, if the interest upon their endowments were to be computed and charged ; board bills and other expenses are also so large that none but really wealthy men can afford to send their sons there ; but the advantages from a numerous staff of distin- guished professors and of large libraries is widely known and appreciated ; and a change of climate, of society, and of text-books exerts a potential influence all over the country in the choice of colleges for the education of young men. All of our foremost colleges, like those of Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey, and many others, are almost as national in practical usefulness as in reputation. Those to be aided by the present bill will tend more strongly in the same direction of national usefulness. They will be cemented together by the common bond of one parentage with many kindred features of relationship, all emulous of distinction, and the excellencies of one will be known and soon copied by all. The facts already given show that American colleges obliterate State lines. Students flock to favorite seats of learning from all quarters of the country, and, after four years of study and discipline, they go out to be more widely distributed than ever. They have the world before them where to choose, and as soon as the last notes of their parting hymn have been heard they fold their tents and are away to all and the remotest parts of a common country, never, perhaps, to revisit their ^ZmaTlfaier until after a score or two of years they return bear- ing names known and honored in distant States. It is the highest function of States to raise and educate young men and young women, and the noble lot of some is to do this, not wholly for themselves, but for other States. COLLEGE BENEFITS NEVER CONFINED TO ONE STATE, Our whole people are adventurous and migratory. Almost nomadic in character, each one is at least a hardy pioneer for himself. There is no legal impediment to the transfer of estates. Nothing is owned which refuses at any price a change of ownership. A house, made even with rarest art, is often held as 12 ready for sale as to live in. The accident of birthplace does not fix Americans to the soil of their fathers. If there is a better soil they believe the Lord intended it for them, and they forthwith mean to have it. They spread out. Nothing less than the whole country is their home. Citizens of one State to-day may be citizens of another to-morrow; and, never drones, they are entitled to be welcomed and treated with hospitality wherever they choose to fix their abiding places. They drink to the words of Goethe: "To give space for wandering is it That the world was made so wide." The last census report shows these facts in a striking manner. Sedentary life is anti- American. At my request the late v?orthy Superintendent of the Census (General Walker) has furnished me with a table (A) showing how many persons born in any State now remain there, how many have gone to other States, and how many in the State were born in other States. From this it will be seen that the State of Vermont, with a population of 330,551, has sent out 177,164 to other States, or more than half as many as are now living in the State, and has received from other States only 34,582 of its inhabitants. New York has a population of 4,382,754 persons, but of these only 2,487,776 were born in New York, while 1,073,542 persona born in New York now reside in other States. Of those born in Pennsylvania, 674,544 live in other States. Kentucky, with a population of TABLE A. States and Territories. Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia., Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana..... Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota. Mississippi Missouri Montana , Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia "West Virginia Washington Wisconsin Wyoming Aggregate population. Born ia the State, now lining in the United States. 996,992 973,700 9,658 1,640 484.471 287,832 560,247 181.835 39,864 7,579 537,454 487,128 14,181 2,458 125,015 133,419 131,700 67,547 187,748 124,148 1,184,109 1.208,104 14,999 1,499 2,539,891 1.479,410 1,680,637 1.369,411 1,194,020 517,831 364,399 74,090 1,321,011 1,484,207 726,915 564,997 626.915 699,834 780,894 805,548 1,457,351 1,147,177 1,184,059 572.988 439,706 139,031 827,922 702,684 1.721,295 1,045,268 20,595 2,197 122,993 23,234 42,491 4,888 318,300 367.346 906,096 724,075 91,874 92,^6 4,382,759 4,061,348 1,071,361 1,336,040 2,665,260 2,649,296 90,923 43,380' 3.521,951 3,401,2-56 217,353 170,640 705,606 924,774 1,258,520 1.431,349 818,579 414,100 86,786 45,100 330,551 420,978 1,225,1631 442,014/ 2,129,213 23,955 7,974 1,054,670 547,223 9,118 535 Born in the State, now living in the State. Born in other States, now living in the State. 744,146 1,240 232,882 169,904 6,344 350,498 2,088 94,754 52,340 109,554 1.033.962 946 1.189,503 1.048,575 428,620 63,321 1,081.081 501,864 550,629 629,882 903,297 507,268 126.491 564,142 874.006 1,693 18,530 3,356 242,374 575,245 83,175 2,987,776 1.028,678 1.842,313 37,155 2,726,712 125,269 678,708 1.027,653 388,510 41,426 , 243,814 n,162,822 I 381,297 6.932 450,272 293 Born in the State, now living in other States. 242,884 2,609 246,563 180.512 26,921 73,317 7,278 21,125 63,106 73,227 139,020 6,168 835,190 490,588 560,708 252,686 176,532 163,224 27,405 67,600 200,735 408,781 152,518 252,589 625,022 10,923 73,715 20,334 46,315 141,908 3.079 256,630 39,654 450,454 42,168 249,930 36,688 18,824 211,551 367,658 14,658 39,582 48,5871 43,626 i 11,999 239,899 5,312 229,554 400 54,930 11,931 1,235 136,630 370 38,665 15,207 14,594 174,142 553 289,907 320,836 89,211 10,769 403,126 63.133 119,205 175,666 243,880 65,720 12,540 138,542 171,242 504 4,704 1,532 124,972 148,830 9,111 1.073,572 307,362 806,983 6,225 674,544 45,371 256,066 403,696 25.590 3,674 177,164 585,094 1,042 96,951 242 13 1,321,011, has sent out to other States 403,126 persons. Of these 92,607 went to Missouri and 63,297 to Illinois. Of the 1,194,020 per- sons in Iowa only 517,831 were born there. These facts, displaying the grand movements by which American States are built up, may be further illustrated by pointing out where some of those born in a single State finally alight. From New York there will be found in — California 33.426 Connecticut 28,728 Illinois 133,290 Michigan 231,062 Minnesota 39,845 Missouri 31,736 New Jersey , 73,568 Ohio 67,374 Pennsylvania ^ 87,700 Wisconsin „ 135,495 Vermont 11.235 After looking at this overflow from a large State, let me give an example of a flood not so large, but equally swift, from a small State, namely, Vermont. Fi'om this State there will be found in — Illinois 18,501 Iowa 12,195 Massachusetts 22,110 Michigan 14,434 New Hampshire 12,823 New York 36,077 Ohio 9,034 Wisconsin „ „16,416 Can there be any facts more conclusively proving that the benefits of these national col- leges must accrue, not to the States where the young men, at much cost, may have been edu- cated, but to the States so fortunate as to attract them as permanent settlers ? ■ EVERY STATE AMERICAN. The same series of facts disclose the rapidity and constancy with which we are being blended as one people. If, notwithstanding difl"erences in government, religion, and language, there is a marked uniformity in the civilization of Europe, an equal uniformity will in due time become more striking in American States, where there are no such diflierences. The Roman and Celt, the Saxon and Norman, commingle in Englishmen, and if theyare now thoroughly fused and homogenious, will not time v/ork out a similar result on this side of the Atlantic? The only obstacle that ever existed to the welding together of all parts of our common country was slavery, and that having been removed, we shall soon develop our character as a nation. Any incoherency cannot be per- manent. Grouped as we have been, and as we shall be, our future destiny is. assimilation of the leading features which give tone and character to the several States. The records show that the blood of one State is no stranger in any other. War itself has brought us nearer J together, pounded us into cohesion, and com. pellcd a better acquaintance. War is in some sense magnetic, and when the struggle is over it no longer repels, but attracts. Some virtues as well as vices must be and are reciprocally admitted. All the States are locked arm in arm. One cannot be benefited without con- ferring benefits upon all. Nor can one be injured without giving pain to all. The nation is equally interested in the advancement of all of its children. Their good name is the com- mon property of all. Under these circum- stances it is of great importance that the col- leges aided and to be aided by the Govern- ment shall be of equal capacity and of equal scope and character. Vigor and health and equal favor must be secured to all. The men turned out from these institutions, having all acquired some peculiar value, will spread out and enrich the whole land, and finally will belong not so much to the States where educated as to the States honored by their subsequent residence and career. Had Kentucky any less affection for Clay because he was raised in Virginia? Was the elo- quence and wit of Corwin diminished by being transplanted from Kentucky to Ohio? Was Illinois ever less proud of Douglas because of his Vermont origin? Did New York ever twit Silas Wright with being born in Massa- chusetts or of being educated in Vermont? When did Massachusetts underrate her great "carpet-bagger," Webster, because he was born and educated in the Granite State? Were the names of Hamilton and Gallatin ever bedimmed on account of their foreign birth ? These questions are all answered by an emphatic negative. Birth-places are acci- dents, but homes are the result of design and free will. A citizen of any State is now a citizen of the United States. Already an American has an unmistakable stamp upon him which makes him recognizable at home and abroad. Doubtless this is largely due to the general independent ownership and occupation of land and houses, and to other prominent and peculiar virtues, but who shall Bay lack of culture, also, may not furnish some share of the ear-marks ? We are not yet finished in the great workshop of Provi- dence, and can afford to lose something and acquire more, but whatever we are, we shall be wholly American. Though all the world 14 contributes to our materials, we alone shall give them form and national symmetry. Shall not each State, then, have the power to give equal culture to its people? And here I close this branch of the argu- ment — not because it is exhausted, but because I think enough has been presented — in behalf of equal favor to all the States, as proposed in the present bill. Let the sister States find equal paternal love, however unequal they may be in numbers, proportion, or power. THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. No nation ever held so rich and vast an estate in lands as has been and now is held by the United States, and nowhere have been found lands of equal fertility, with such a diversity of soil and climate, to be disposed of so cheaply, selling in the morning of our history at merely a nominal price ; at noon doubled in value by divisions, half and-half, with railroads ; at evening made free to all actual settlers, and at all times ungrudgingly set apart for the endowment of schools and for soldiers' bounties. The policy pursued, though sometimes pushed rather impetuously, on the , whole has largely contributed to the advance- ment of the country, and is fairly entitled to be set down as enlightened statesmanship. But the public domain has been clipped of its magnificent proportions ; it is no longer illimit- able; its grand and beneficent influences in the coming age will be brought to an end, and, as its bulk diminishes, its value, like the remainder of the sibylline books, is to be far more highly prized. When those who come after us shall review the disposition [ which shall have been made of what may be '. called the continental resources of the better half of the New World, I am persuaded that no part of our policy will show better fruits or secure a more grateful approval than that j which has sought and still seeks to elevate our ) whole people by the proper and liberal endow- ment of schools and colleges. The time may come when "Peace on earth and good will to man" maybe triumphant, and martial boun- ties be no longer required ; the time may come when population will have outrun cheap bread, and then we shall no longer teaze the world for its spare children, as we shall have enough of our own ; the time may come when some invention more marvelous than that of Fulton or Stephenson will supersede and eclipse steam locomotion; but the time will never come when Americans will cease to prize the advantages of human learning. Schools and colleges give to the soul its mas- tery over the imbecilities of the body, furnish young Samsons with implements to slay "the Philistines of ignorance and barbarism," and so far as such schools and colleges have been established by the aid of even a comparatively small portion of the public domain, they will stand as monuments more enduring than the pyramids, attesting the wisdom of American legislation. On this line of public policy, however, we only travel in the footsteps of our fathers. The importance to a free government of a system of general education was realized even before the adoption of our present Constitution, and thus in the Ordinance of 1785 a provision for a subsidy was inserted by which the central sec- tion of land in every township was granted for the support of common schools. Subsequently the amount of such grants was doubled ; and, including what has been given to colleges and universities, would now have a superficial area larger than the whole of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The whole amount of public lands sold from the foundation of the Government to June 30, 1871, was 161,766,426 acres, but the amount granted for railroad subsidies, certified and yet to be certified, was 216,074,990 acres, which exceeds all the lands actually sold by over 50,000,000 of acres, and here the country now very properly demands a halt. We have donated swamp lands to the several States where they were supposed to lie to the amount of 48,775,990 acres, and have even made additional grants to make up deficiencies of measure or of title to lands thus given away I Beyond all this we have granted for military services 62,115,202 acres. Notwithstanding all these imperial dona- tions, and notwithstanding 20,500,216 acres which have been already entered as free home- steads by actual settlers, we still own, in com- parison with other nations, a domain of unex- ampled extent and of inestimable value. Of lands unsold and unappropriated we still hold 1,376,529,562 acres. While it is our duty to husband this vast and yet unexpended patri- mony, bearing in mind that at least a moiety, made up of Alaska and the great American desert, may be counted at zero, and while it may be our duty to reject the hungry demands of too selfish commercial enterprises, can there be a safer, more serviceable and desirable disposition of a few million acres of the re- mainder of the public lands — not amounting to four per cent, of what we have left — than to devote that much to the purposes of the bill now under consideration? This will hardly be more than we have donated to single States, not so much as to single corporations, and yet how much broader will be the diffusion of profits, not perhaps directly in dollars and cents, but in raising the standard of scientific culture in every State of the Union of those who are willing to work with their hands, of those who will be willing to give their lives whenever their country calls ! CONCLUSION. The facts presented show that we still have abundant lands at our disposal, and, whether we look at the interest of the dwellers thereon or that of the Government, that they are not likely to be disposed of more usefully or upon sounder principles of national economy. May it not also be claimed that the wisdom of founding these institutions no longer needs vindication? Though hardly out of their swaddling clothes they speak for themselves, and furnish a cloud of unimpeachable wit- nesses testifying to the value of the work be- ing done, as well as of the greater work yet to be done. If the whole system will tend to increase the productions or the profits of agriculture, or to enlarge the skill and power of American mechanics, or to improve minds now lying fallow, or to raise our whole people to a higher plane of moral and scientific value, increasing both employments and remuneration — and all this I have no doubt will be realized — then the measure should excite the warmest solicitude and have our broadest and heartiest support. The curious maps published with our last census report show conclusively that wealth is uniformly distributed in an inverse ratio to illiteracy. It is a national work, embracing our whole country, costing hardly more than has been proposed for a ten years subsidy to lines of commerce, and less than has been, perhaps, profitably given to a single railroad, but how immeasurably higher in its scope and how much grander in its far-reaching results 1 By so much as the brain is superior to the pocket does this measure challenge favor. We seek for Americans that knowledge and virtue which shall give to them the foremost rank among men. Such a rank is the chief luster of nations, and is created, not by one man sparkling amid benighted thousands, but by the masses polished and resplendent in the^ aggregate. No one, however humble, should be without some ambition to improve himself, but a citizen of the United States is, also, bound to improve and carry onward the good name of his whole country. The character of a nation is determined by its antecedents. To-day is the father of to- morrow. We make the present, and are there- fore responsible for the future. Here we plant the acorns assured that oaks will grow. Here we modestly lay the foundation upon which a superstructure will rise to the glory of future generations. Let us show that Colum- bus did not discover a world too large for a free people. A great part of legislative work accomplishes its utmost purpose and is obso- lete at the end of the year, but here is work that we may fondly hope will endure for ages. There will be no immediate splendor, but a spark will be lighted which may illumine the whole land and lift a cloud from the path- way of the sons of toil, regardless of ancestry or race, that will open to them higher spheres of service and honor, give to republican in- stitutions a more enlightened and enduring support, and make a nation which shall not only deserve to live, but deserve to be im- mortal. Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. fiRRARY OF CONGRESS liiiiii