That a National University in this country is a thing to be desired has always been my decided opinion, and the appropriation of ground and funds for it in the Federal city have long been contemplated and talked of, but how far matured, or how far the transplanting of an entire seminary of foreigners, who may not understand our language, can be assimilated therein is more than I am prepared to give an opinion upon-or, indeed, how far funds in either case are attainable.-To John Adams, Nov. 15, 1794. Writings, XII, p. 490. Ford ed. New York and London, 1891. (On the proposition of transplanting the members, entire, of the University of Geneva to America.)

JOHN ADAMS.

(1735-1826. Statesman; second President of the United States.)

The instruction of the people in every kind of knowledge that can be of use to them in the practice of their moral duties as men, citizens, and Christians, and of their political and civil duties as members of society and freemen, ought to be the care of the public, and of all who have any share in the conduct of its affairs, in a manner that never yet has been practiced in any age or nation. The education here intended is not merely that of the children of the rich and noble, but of every rank and class of people, down to the lowest and poorest. It is not too much to say that schools for the education of all should be placed at convenient distances and maintained at the public expense. The revenues of the State would be applied infinitely better, more charitably, wisely, usefully, and therefore politically in this way than even in maintaining the poor. This would be the best way of preventing the existence of the poor.-Works, VI, p. 168. Charles Francis Adams ed. Boston, 1851.

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.-Thoughts on Government. Works, IV, Works, IV, p. 199.

Adams ed.

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns, etc.-Ibid., IV, p. 259.

It grieves me to hear that your people have a prejudice against liberal education. There is a spice of this everywhere. But liberty has no enemy more dangerous than such a prejudice.-Letter to J. D. Sergeant. Philadelphia, July 21, 1776. Works, IV, p. 425. Adams ed.

Education is more indispensable, and must be more general, under a free government than any other. In a monarchy, the few who are likely to govern must have some education, but the common people must be kept in ignorance; in an aristocracy, the nobles should be educated, but here it is even more necessary that the common people should be ignorant; but in a free government knowledge must be general, and ought to be universal.-Works, VI, p. 198. Adams ed. Wise and judicious modes of education, patronized and supported by communities, will draw together the sons of the rich and the poor, among whom it makes no distinction; it will cultivate the natural genius, elevate the soul, excite laudable emulation to excel in knowledge, piety, and benevolence; and, finally, it will reward its patrons and benefactors by shedding its benign influence on the public mind.—Ibid, p. 425.

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower S classes of the people, are so extremely wise that to a humane and generous man no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.-Ibid., IV, p. 199.

[John Adams has the fame of being the first American statesman to incorporate in a State constitution a provision for public education.]

The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and must be willing to bear the expense of it. There should not be a district of one mile square without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the expense of the people themselves.-Letter to John Jebb. London, Sept. 10, 1785. Works, IV, p. 540. Adams ed.

JAMES WILSON.

(1742-1798. Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1798.)

Among the ancients, those who studied and practiced the sciences of jurisprudence and government with the greatest success were convinced, and by their conduct showed their conviction, that the fate of States depends on the education of youth.

History, experience, and philosophy combine in declaring that the best and most happy of countries is that country which is the most enlightened.—Works, II, p. 102. Andrews ed. Chicago, 1896.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

(1743-1826. Third President of the United States. Drafted the Declaration of Independence, 1776.)

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization it expects what never was and never will be. The functions of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information.-Letter to Col. Yancey. Monticello, Jan. 6, 1816. Writings, p. 517. Washington ed.

I have, indeed, two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: (1) That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom; (2) to divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it.-Letter to Gov. Tyler. Monticello, May 26, 1810. Ibid., V, p. 523-24.

I do most anxiously wish to see the highest degrees of education given to the higher degrees of genius, and to all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to read and understand what is going on in the world, and to keep their part of it going on right; for nothing can keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence.-Letter to Mann Page. Monticello, Aug. 30, 1795. Ibid., VII, p. 24. Ford ed.

Above all things, I hope the education of the common people will be attended to; convinced that on this good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.-Letter to James Madison. Paris, Dec. 20, 1787. Ibid., IV, P. 480.

A system of general instruction which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest. Nor am I tenacious of the form in which it shall be introduced. Be that what it may, our descendants will be as wise as we are, and will know how to amend, and amend it until it shall suit their circumstances. Give it to us, then, in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon the thanks of the young and the blessings of the old, who are past all other services but prayers for the prosperity of their country and blessings for those who promote it.-Letter to Joseph C. Cabell. Monticello, Jan. 14, 1818. Ibid., X, pp. 101–102.

I am now entirely absorbed in endeavors to effect the establishment of a general system of education in my native State, on the triple basis-(1) of elementary schools which shall give to the children of every citizen, gratis, competent instruction in reading, writing, common arithmetic, and general geography; (2) collegiate institutions for ancient and modern languages, for higher instruction in arithmetic, geography, and history, placing for these purposes a college within a day's ride of every inhabitant of the State, and adding a provision for the full education at the public expense of select subjects from among the children of the poor, who shall have exhibited at the elementary schools the most prominent indications of aptness of judgment and correct disposition; (3) a university in which all the branches of science deemed useful at this day shall be taught in their highest degree.-Letter to George Ticknor. Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg, Nov. 25, 1817. Writings, X, pp. 95-96. Ford ed.

In the constitution of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortes, there was a principle entirely new to me, and not noticed in yours, that no person, born after that day, should ever acquire the rights of citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those which have been thought of for securing fidelity in the administration of the Government, constant reliance to the principles of the constitution, and progressive amendments with the progressive advances of the human mind, or changes in human affairs, it is the most effectual. Enlighten the people generally and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Although I do not, with some enthusiasts, believe that the human condition will ever advance to such a state of perfection as that there shall no longer be pain or vice in the world, yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, and most of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is to be effected.-Letter to P. S. Dupont de Nemours. Poplar Forest, Apr. 24, 1816. Writings, X, p. 25. Ford ed.

I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. If anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send them here. It is the best school in the universe to cure them of that folly. They will see here with their own eyes that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy against the happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipotence

of their effect can not be better proved than in this country, particularly where notwithstanding the finest soil upon earth, the finest climate under heaven, and a people of the most benevolent, the most gay, and amiable character of which the human form is susceptible, where such a people I say, surrounded by so many blessings from nature, are yet loaded with misery by kings, nobles, and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people.— To George Wythe. Paris, August 13, 1786. Writings, IV, pp. 268– 269. Ford ed. New York and London, 1894.

When sobered by experience, I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of education. I mean of education on the broad scale and not that of the petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin and sometimes Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They commit their pupils to the theater of the world with just taste enough of learning to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not enough to do service in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions, indeed. I presented one to you lately, and we have some others. But the terms I use are general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be seen of establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch of science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I mean to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in human affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many professors only as might bring them within the views of a just but enlightened economy.-Letter to John Adams. Monticello, July 5, 1814. Writings, VI, p. 356. Washington ed.

JOHN JAY.

(1745-1829. Statesman and jurist; first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1795.)

I consider knowledge to be the soul of a republic, and as the weak and the wicked are generally in alliance, as much care should be taken to diminish the number of the former as of the latter. Education is the way to do this, and nothing should be left undone to afford all ranks of people the means of obtaining a proper degree of it at a cheap and easy rate.-To Dr. Benj. Rush. Correspondence and Public Papers, III, p. 139. H. P. Johnston ed. London [1891].

New York and