impunity." *

"In all enlightened countries a national education has been considered one of the first concerns of the legislature and intimately connected with the prosperity of the State *** It would be a melancholy reflection, if a single youth of our country should from poverty be deprived of every ray of knowledge. And yet how many of the first geniuses of our land are condemned to grope out their days in a state of darkness."+ Would that the spirit of Washington would take up the exhortations of Jefferson, and speak as he spoke of old when he, with the noblest eloquence bade farewell to his countrymen-adding to what he had already with peculiar impressiveness twice spoken in annual messages, on the importance of the National Legislature's aiding the cause of learning throughout the republic-the counsel: "Promote *** as an object of primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." Would that to this visitation of departed statesmen the spirit of Abraham Lincoln were joined; and that once more he would speak as he often spoke, saying: "Universal education should go along with and accompany the universal ballot in America. The best, the firmest and most enduring basis of our Republic is the thorough, universal, education of the great American people. The intelligence of the mass of our people is the light and the life of the Republic." Lincoln's voice, however often raised with eloquence in behalf of free schools in Illinois, may never more be heard by mortals. One who was

* Report of Thomas Jefferson as Rector of the State University to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund of Virginia.

+ Report of the Directors of the Literary Fund-of whom Jefferson was one-to the Legislature of Virginia.

twenty-five years his law partner has stated to me in writing that he has again and again heard Lincoln speak in substance the words of his which have just been quoted. He has also kindly sent me an extract from an address which Lincoln wrote and published in the year 1832-but seven years after the opening of the University of Virginia, and distributed throughout one of the counties of Illinois, explaining it himself on the stump, and pledging himself to champion the causes which it represented, if elected a member of the Legislature of Illinois. In this address Lincoln said: "Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system regarding it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the scriptures and other works, both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves."

Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, signed what was known as the Freedman's Bureau Bill. He thus had the honor of helping in some degree to elevate, in the truest sense, to American citizenship a large number of colored people. By this Bureau about three millions of dollars was spent in providing school instruction for the colored people. Lincoln, however, was not permitted to live to see the grand policy which he had a part in inaugurating consummated. The noble work of securing to American youth of every color an education which will help to fit them to become worthy American citizens is laid upon other statesmen!

Once as I thoughtfully stood within the tomb in which Abraham Lincoln's remains await the resurrection call, I felt that by a mysterious providence Lincoln's career had been affected by Jefferson. I thought of Lincoln's labors in behalf of the colored race. Scenes of the past as a great panorama passed before me. I wondered whether Edward Coles would have acted the wise and heroic part he did had he not been encouraged by Jefferson to hate slavery; whether if Coles had not in Illinois fought one of the most momentous battles for freedom that was ever fought on the American continent Lincoln's heart would have been fired to espouse the cause of the oppressed; whether Jefferson's labors in helping to secure to the great Northwest Territory liberty and education, and his efforts, in a quiet way, to arouse in the hearts of certain youth in Virginia right feelings respecting man's enslaving his fellow-beings,—had not been links in the chain of great events which have redeemed a race from a cruel bondage. I thought how earnestly Jefferson and Lincoln would labor, could they return to this world, to induce the national government to do whatever wise statesmanship can do to aid in the great work of securing the blessing of intellectual culture to all the future citizens of the Republic of the United States.

V.

A JEFFERSONIAN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

JEFFERSON in a letter to Washington dated January 4th, 1786, thus wrote: "It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that, too, of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan." These words of Jefferson's may well raise the question whether statesmanship can elaborate a practicable plan by which the blessing of school instruction will be secured to the youth of every part of a vast republic.

The United States of America had, in the year 1880, an area of about 3,603,000 square miles. Should the United States flag-which is but the emblem of a great republic or democracy in which the people are sovereign, and the mechanism of whose government is contrived to give effect to the wishes and to promote the happiness, and wellbeing, of its citizens-be raised over all of North America, it would wave over an area of 8,000,000 square miles; should it be unfurled over Central and South America, and over the islands off the coast of the American continent, it would wave over an area of about 15,099,480 square miles. "How would it be possible," some one may ask, "to provide for the establishment and for the maintenance in adequate numbers of public schools and institutions of

312

learning of various kinds, in all parts of an empire which may become continental in its extent?" Such a question may well have a philosophic, a momentous, interest to American students of the science of government.

One who will turn his attention to the forms of government of civilized, and even of what may be called halfcivilized, nations, may well be interested as he observes that, as a rule, it is expedient, for administrative purposes, to divide and to subdivide the domains over which these governments have jurisdiction. As an army is divided into brigades, and into regiments, and into companies, each division having a certain degree of autonomy of its own, so statesmen have found it useful, for administrative purposes, to subdivide realms for which they legislate. One might point out with much interest the internal governmental arrangements of one nation after another when illustrating this truth. Even the Chinese Empire, which embraces an area of 3,937,000 square miles, an area larger than that covered by the United States at the present time, has her provinces and various subdivisions, which, to an important extent, govern themselves. How highly important it is to the best interests of nations that communities should, in an intelligent manner, within quite a wide sphere govern themselves, would be sadly illustrated by a panoramic view of certain dark periods in the histories of Italy, Spain, France, and of Austria and Germany,-of periods when the communities and subdivisions into which these lands were subdivided had but very little or no control of the management of their own local affairs.

It would be interesting to observe the mighty influence on the prosperity and the glory of Great Britain, an empire which covers an area of at least 9,050,032 square miles, or an area more than twice that covered by the