wish to speak of some of the innumerable advantages which the people of a hemisphere would realize by using a common coinage and enjoying with each other the freest trade imaginable, and how rich might be the constitutional provision made for the public instruction of youth destined to be citizens of America-indeed, for instruction which would greatly help to make the people of a continent homogeneous, and to imbue youth, in the best sense of the word, with American principles. One could wish to especially picture the happy working in all parts of a continent of a wonderfully well contrived-a sublimely beneficent-mechanism of self-government;-but suffice it to say, that the world will, when such a republic is established, see with admiration one of the grandest achievements of American statesmanship. It may again be asked, Is it possible for American citizens to elaborate a practicable plan by which the blessing of school instruction will be secured to the youth of every part of a vast empire? This is a question upon the solution of which, it is highly probable, depends the destiny of the dearest interests of civil liberty in the new world. Happily, it is believed that this question can be answered in the affirmative. Yes, the present generation of Americans can, as far as it is possible for mortals to ensure blessings to their posterity, secure the happiness and well-being of the unnumbered millions of people who are to live on the western hemisphere. Let a wisely worded provision be incorporated into the Constitution of the United States, making it the specific duty of the national government to duly cherish the interests of learning in all the States and Territories beneath the American flag. Let the people in all parts of America take an intelligent and patriotic interest in seeing to it that the national and State governments and the humblest school districts shall, in the years to come, co-operate in happy harmony in cherishing,-each in its respective sphere, the cause of true learning in the western hemisphere. In short, let all well-wishers of their country take something of the same praiseworthy interest in the education of youth as did Thomas Jefferson, and republican institutions may be expected to realize, even more than they do at the present day, a grand ideal of a noble destiny. THE END. A INDEX. Abolition, 217, 218, 224, 243, 266, Adams, C. F., 135; John, 12, 16, 24, 242 Africa, 366 Agriculture, study of, 195 Boulton, Matthew, 58 Books, forbidden, 14; on government, Botany, study of, 199 Breckenridge, Gen., 42, 124, 129 Alabama, illiteracy in, 302; slave law, Bureau of Education, 31 299 Burgoyne, 10 Chicago, 333 China, 313, 339, 366 Church and State, in Spain, 28, 29; Clarkson, 222 Clay, 5, 21 Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 293 Coles, 253, 260, 278, 294, 301, 311 Columbia College, 46, 173, 184 Columbus, 102, 366 Education, Bureau of, 31; secretary Commission of Inquiry, 5; on Site for Educational, advantages of American University, 40 Congress, 77, 80, 84, 92; library, 336 Constitutional provisions for educa- statesmen, 45; amendment to Con- Continental Congress, enactment on English Bible, 9 schools, 248 Convocation against heretics, 141 Copernicus, 154 Coray, 15 Cornell, Ezra, 82 Corporations, secular and religious, 85 Cortez, 31, 32 Cotten-gin, 96 Coxe, Tench, 290 Cuba, 220; annexation, 375, 376 Czatoryski, Adam, 29 English, language, 363; professors, Erasmus, 140 Europe, languages, in, 365 Geologists, 155 Georgia, slave law, 297; illiteracy in, Germany, emperor of, 19; indebted German language, 138 Gillespie, 274 Girls, reading a qualification for citizen- Gladstone, 132, 333 J Glasgow, 54 Graham, Mme., 17 Jacobins, 18 Grammar school in Albemarle Co., 37 Jefferson, on education and civil lib- Ideal university, 131 Illiteracy, Guizot on, 33; in Italy, 89; Illiterate nations, 35, 346 Index expurgatorius, Spanish, 14 Indians, and English language, 367; Inventions, 53, 68; money value of, Italian language, 130, 138 erty, 12; to A. von Humboldt, 3; |