University of Virginia Library

TO W. T. BARRY.

Dr Sir, I recd. some days ago your letter of
June 30, and the printed Circular to which it refers.

The liberal appropriations made by the Legislature
of Kentucky for a general system of Education
cannot be too much applauded. A popular Government,
without popular information, or the means
of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a
Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever
govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be
their own Governors, must arm themselves with
the power which knowledge gives.

I have always felt a more than ordinary interest
in the destinies of Kentucky. Among her earliest
settlers were some of my particular friends and

Neighbors. And I was myself among the foremost
advocates for submitting to the Will of the "District"
the question and the time of its becoming
a separate member of the American family. Its
rapid growth & signal prosperity in this character
have afforded me much pleasure; which is not a
little enhanced by the enlightened patriotism which
is now providing for the State a Plan of Education
embracing every class of Citizens, and every grade
& department of Knowledge. No error is more
certain than the one proceeding from a hasty &
superficial view of the subject: that the people at
large have no interest in the establishment of
Academies, Colleges, and Universities, where a few
only, and those not of the poorer classes can obtain
for their sons the advantages of superior education.
It is thought to be unjust that all should be taxed
for the benefit of a part, and that too the part least
needing it.

If provision were not made at the same time for
every part, the objection would be a natural one.
But, besides the consideration when the higher
Seminaries belong to a plan of general education,
that it is better for the poorer classes to have the aid
of the richer by a general tax on property, than that
every parent should provide at his own expence
for the education of his children, it is certain that
every Class is interested in establishments which
give to the human mind its highest improvements,
and to every Country its truest and most durable
celebrity.

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects
with every free people. They throw that light over
the public mind which is the best security against
crafty & dangerous encroachments on the public
liberty. They are the nurseries of skilful Teachers
for the schools distributed throughout the Community.
They are themselves schools for the particular
talents required for some of the Public
Trusts, on the able execution of which the welfare
of the people depends. They multiply the educated
individuals from among whom the people may
elect a due portion of their public Agents of every
description; more especially of those who are to
frame the laws; by the perspicuity, the consistency,
and the stability, as well as by the just & equal spirit
of which the great social purposes are to be answered.

Without such Institutions, the more costly of
which can scarcely be provided by individual means,
none but the few whose wealth enables them to
support their sons abroad can give them the fullest
education; and in proportion as this is done, the
influence is monopolized which superior information
every where possesses. At cheaper & nearer seats
of Learning parents with slender incomes may place
their sons in a course of education putting them
on a level with the sons of the Richest. Whilst
those who are without property, or with but little,
must be peculiarly interested in a System which
unites with the more Learned Institutions, a provision
for diffusing through the entire Society the
education needed for the common purposes of life.

A system comprizing the Learned Institutions may
be still further recommended to the more indigent
class of Citizens by such an arrangement as was
reported to the General Assembly of Virginia, in
the year 1779, by a Committee[36] appointed to revise
laws in order to adapt them to the genius of Republican
Government. It made part of a "Bill for the
more general diffusion of knowledge" that wherever
a youth was ascertained to possess talents meriting
an education which his parents could not afford,
he should be carried forward at the public expence,
from seminary to seminary, to the completion of his
studies at the highest.

But why should it be necessary in this case, to
distinguish the Society into classes according to
their property? When it is considered that the
establishment and endowment of Academies, Colleges,
and Universities are a provision, not merely
for the existing generation, but for succeeding ones
also; that in Governments like ours a constant
rotation of property results from the free scope to
industry, and from the laws of inheritance, and
when it is considered moreover, how much of the
exertions and privations of all are meant not for
themselves, but for their posterity, there can be
little ground for objections from any class, to plans
of which every class must have its turn of benefits.
The rich man, when contributing to a permanent
plan for the education of the poor, ought to reflect

that he is providing for that of his own descendants;
and the poor man who concurs in a provision for
those who are not poor that at no distant day it
may be enjoyed by descendants from himself. It
does not require a long life to witness these vicissitudes
of fortune.

It is among the happy peculiarities of our Union,
that the States composing it derive from their
relation to each other and to the whole, a salutary
emulation, without the enmity involved in competitions
among States alien to each other. This
emulation, we may perceive, is not without its
influence in several important respects; and in none
ought it to be more felt than in the merit of diffusing
the light and the advantages of Public Instruction.
In the example therefore which Kentucky is presenting,
she not only consults her own welfare, but
is giving an impulse to any of her sisters who may
be behind her in the noble career.

Throughout the Civilized World, nations are
courting the praise of fostering Science and the
useful Arts, and are opening their eyes to the principles
and the blessings of Representative Government.
The American people owe it to themselves,
and to the cause of free Government, to prove by
their establishments for the advancement and diffusion
of Knowledge, that their political Institutions,
which are attracting observation from every quarter,
and are respected as Models, by the new-born States
in our own Hemisphere, are as favorable to the
intellectual and moral improvement of Man as they

are conformable to his individual & social Rights.
What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable,
than that of Liberty & Learning, each leaning
on the other for their mutual & surest support?

The Committee, of which your name is the first,
have taken a very judicious course in endeavouring
to avail Kentucky of the experience of elder States,
in modifying her Schools. I enclose extracts from
the laws of Virginia on that subject; though I presume
they will give little aid; the less as they have
as yet been imperfectly carried into execution.
The States where such systems have been long in
operation will furnish much better answers to many
of the enquiries stated in your Circular. But after
all, such is the diversity of local circumstances,
more particularly as the population varies in density
& sparseness, that the details suited to some may
be little so to others. As the population however,
is becoming less & less sparse, and it will be well in
laying the foundation of a Good System, to have a
view to this progressive change, much attention
seems due to examples in the Eastern States, where
the people are most compact, & where there has
been the longest experience in plans of popular
education.

I know not that I can offer on the occasion any
suggestions not likely to occur to the Committee.
Were I to hazard one, it would be in favour of adding
to Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic, to which the
instruction of the poor, is commonly limited, some
knowledge of Geography; such as can easily be conveyed

by a Globe & Maps, and a concise Geographical
Grammar. And how easily & quickly might
a general idea even, be conveyed of the Solar System,
by the aid of a Planatarium of the Cheapest construction.
No information seems better calculated
to expand the mind and gratify curiosity than what
would thus be imparted. This is especially the case,
with what relates to the Globe we inhabit, the
Nations among which it is divided, and the characters
and customs which distinguish them. An
acquaintance with foreign Countries in this mode,
has a kindred effect with that of seeing them as
travellers, which never fails, in uncorrupted minds,
to weaken local prejudices, and enlarge the sphere
of benevolent feelings. A knowledge of the Globe
& its various inhabitants, however slight, might
moreover, create a taste for Books of Travels and
Voyages; out of which might grow a general taste
for History, an inexhaustible fund of entertainment
& instruction. Any reading not of a vicious species
must be a good substitute for the amusements too
apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

I feel myself much obliged Sir by your expressions
of personal kindness, and pray you to accept a
return of my good wishes, with assurances of my
great esteem & respect.

P. S. On reflection I omit the extracts from the
laws of Virga., which it is probable may be within
your reach at home. Should it be otherwise, and
you think them worth the transmission by the mail,
the omission shall be supplied.