...new republican form of government. The instruction of the people, wrote John Adams, in the practice of "their political and civil duties, as members of...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 practised...

...to the lowest and the poorest" should be "educated and instructed in the principles of freedom" and "in every kind of knowledge that can be of use to them in the practice of their moral duties . . . and of their political and civic duties" (Adams 1778, 168, 197). Noah Webster, Samuel Knox, and...