of view, as will presently be seen, have sadly often made a fatal mistake in the way which they have adopted to secure the inestimably valuable blessing for which they have longed. They have failed to realize the intimate connection that must ever exist between civil liberty and at least a certain degree of intellectual culture. It may well be interesting to a thoughtful student of the science of government to notice the convictions of such a statesman as was Thomas Jefferson respecting the possibility of illiterate nations enjoying the blessing of self-government, and of the way in which friends of civil liberty-especially the way in which the government of a Republic-should look upon public schools.

Among Jefferson's correspondents was the learned and very celebrated Baron Alexander von Humboldt, whose brother Karl Wilhelm Humboldt was the first Minister of Public Instruction of Prussia after the disastrous battle of Jena—a battle which one might have supposed would prove the utter ruin of Germany. Karl Humboldt was called by Frederick William III. to help in regenerating almost ruined Prussia by establishing a good school system. The system which he adopted is still to a large extent in use in Germany. There is reason to infer that he adopted his educational system in part from ideas which he received from Jefferson. Jefferson in a book which he published, entitled "Notes on Virginia," dwelt upon an educational bill which he had himself presented in the Legislature of Virginia in the year 1778. This book was published in France. Karl Wilhelm Humboldt who resided in Paris probably there met with the book. Jefferson, as will presently be seen, presented a copy of the work to Karl Humboldt's celebrated brother who at one time was himself requested by the king of Prussia to act as Minister of Public Instruction. Baron Alexander

von Humboldt was Jefferson's guest for three weeks when he visited the United States.

It may readily be supposed that Jefferson's views respecting public education would be highly interesting to the Humboldts. Whoever will read the conclusions of Jefferson on public education as expressed in his "Notes on Virginia," and compare the public-school system which he suggested in his justly celebrated "Bill for the Better Diffusion of Knowledge," and will compare them with the educational system which one of the Humboldts especially helped to give to Prussia, may well feel that American statesmanship has exerted a vastly weightier influence on Germany's history than is generally known.

Two days after retiring from the Presidency of the United States, Jefferson wrote a letter to Alexander von Humboldt, a part of which reads thus: "You have wisely located yourself in the focus of the science of Europe. I am held by the cords of love to my family and country, or I should certainly join you. Within a few days I shall now bury myself in the groves of Monticello, and become a mere spectator of the passing events. On politics I will say nothing, because I would not implicate you by addressing to you the republican ideas of America, deemed horrible heresies in Europe."

In another letter to Baron Humboldt, under date of April 14th, 1811, Jefferson wrote: "The interruption of our intercourse with France for some time past, has prevented my writing to you. A conveyance now occurs by Mr. Barlow or Mr. Worden, both of them going in a public capacity. It is the first safe opportunity offered of acknowledging your favor of September 23rd, and the receipt at different times of the IIIrd part of your valuable work 2d, 3rd, and 5th, livraisons and the IVth part of 2d, 3d, and 4th, livraisons, with the Tableaux de la

Nature, and an interesting map of New Spain. For these magnificent and much esteemed favors, accept my sincere thanks. They give us a knowledge of that country more accurate than I believe we possess of Europe, the seat of a science of a thousand years. It comes out, too, at a moment when those countries are beginning to be interesting to the whole world. They are now becoming the scenes of political revolution, to take their stations as integral members of the great family of nations. All are now in insurrection. In several the Independents are already triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so in all. What kind of government will they establish? Are their chiefs sufficiently enlightened to form a well guarded government, and their people to watch their chiefs? Have they mind enough to place their domesticated Indians on a footing with the whites? All these questions you can answer better than any other. I imagine they will copy our outlines of confederation and elective government, abolish distinction of ranks, bow the neck to their priests, and persevere in intolerantism. * * But unless instruction can be spread among them more rapidly than experience promises, despotism may come upon. them before they are qualified to save the ground they will have gained. Could Napoleon obtain, at the close of the present war, the independence of all the West India. Islands, and their establishment in a separate confederacy, our quarter of the globe would exhibit an enrapturing prospect into futurity. You will live to see much of this. I shall follow, however, cheerfully my fellow laborers, contented with having borne a part in beginning this beatific reformation. * * * In sending you a copy of my 'Notes on Virginia,' I do but obey the desire you have expressed. They must appear chétif enough to the author of the great work on South America. But from

*

the widow her mite was welcome, and you will add this indulgence-the acceptance of my sincere assurances of constant friendship and respect."

It was natural that Jefferson should observe with interest the efforts of the people of South America to free themselves from the withering sway of the monarchs of Spain. One may well doubt whether in the history of the world a people can be named who have suffered at the hands of despots as terribly as had South America from the government of Spain. James Monroe, some time before announcing what is known as the Monroe doctrine, sent a secret Commission of Inquiry to South America to report to the United States Government the condition and political prospects of the Spanish Provinces. Whoever will look over the State papers presented to the United States. government by this important Commission will see that the accounts which they give of cruelty and of tyranny on the part of the Crown of Spain are indeed dreadful. Itois surprising how little is generally known by citizens of the United States, of the history of the war of Independence in South America-a war in which it has been estimated that a million of lives were lost.* It would not perhaps be too much to say that in Jefferson's day the population south of the United States was four or five times as large as was the population in the English-speaking division of America. Henry Clay, on March 24th, 1818, delivered in Congress a speech in which he urged that the United States should, in addition to what it had already done, recognize the independence of a Spanish State and send to it a Minister. The speech was very eloquent and forcible. It is said to have "burst on Spain herself, and

* See account of the struggle for liberty of the Spanish American States in Encyclopedia Britannica, also Memoirs of Gen. Miller in the Service of Peru, by John Miller (London, 1829).

on all Europe, as a clap of thunder from the skies." In his speech Clay sketched the vastness and natural grandeur of the immense territory known as South America, and reviewed the history of the persecution which the people for three hundred years had been made to suffer at the hands of Spain :-how they had had to submit to a debasing course of education,-how useful books had been kept from them;-and then he characterized the awfulness of the atrocities of the Spanish forces in South America in a deeply impressive manner. This celebrated speech was borne to South America and the governments of the Spanish States voted thanks to Henry Clay. Songs were sung in his honor and monuments were erected to his memory. The South American General Bolivar, who has often been called "The Washington "The Liberator" -of South America commanded the speech of Henry Clay to be read to his army.

Let a single instance here suffice to give an idea of the horrors which too often characterized the war for independence in South America. At the capture of the city of Guanaxuato, the Spanish officer, Don Felix Maria Galleja is said to have ordered the prisoners who had been taken in battle, as well as the defenceless citizens of the town,-men, women and children-to be driven into the great square, and several thousand of them-it has even been said that the number was fourteen thousandwere butchered by having their throats cut. Such a wofully tragic scene is one not to be dwelt upon, nor are the dreadful retaliatory measures adopted by Bolivar a subject which it is fit to here present in all its horrid details. The Spanish officer defended his course, which however he is said in official communications to the Spanish Crown to have exulted over, on the ground that he could not afford to spare powder and bullets in putting to death