With equal pride we can point to our progress in all of the learned
professions.
As we are now about to enter upon our second centennial--commencing our
manhood as a nation--it is well to look back upon the past and study
what will be best to preserve and advance our future greatness. From the
fall of Adam for his transgression to the present day no nation has ever
been free from threatened danger to its prosperity and happiness. We
should look to the dangers threatening us, and remedy them so far as
lies in our power. We are a republic whereof one man is as good as
another before the law. Under such a form of government it is of the
greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and
intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of
its meaning. A large association of ignorant men can not for any
considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and
oppression from the educated few, but will inevitably sink into
acquiescence to the will of intelligence, whether directed by the
demagogue or by priestcraft. Hence the education of the masses becomes
of the first necessity for the preservation of our institutions. They
are worth preserving, because they have secured the greatest good to
the greatest proportion of the population of any form of government yet
devised.
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