Gazette Of The United States

EXTRACT.

YE Fathers, ye generous protectors of American liberty, you may form Constitutions and laws, that shall closely approximate even perfection itself; but unless you enable your people to see the beauty, the worth of them, all will be in vain! You may as well "cast pearl to swine."

Would you preserve to yourselves and your posterity the blessings and happiness of your dear bought republican government, or indeed your government itself, you must encourage a general education among all ranks of society! You must prescribe, adopt and bring into operation, a system of education, by which the minds of your people, in general, from generation to generation, may be so far enlightened as to discover and realize the true principles and excellence of civil liberty!

And I see not why this may not be done. The Americans, as a nation, are already the best instructed people under the sun. There are, perhaps, individuals in other countries, who have made greater advances in arts and sciences; but I presume there is not a nation on earth, where the people at large are so well informed. Why may they not be raised one degree higher in point of education? Were the people absolutely obliged to maintain regular schools, and in such number that all the children might be taught, would not the necessary knowledge soon be diffused throughout the continent?

O! why may we not flatter ourselves that it was reserved for America to convince the world that a republican government may exist in its utmost purity to the final close of human nature?