nizing whomsoever he pleases, are the elements which really control the course of business in the House. A minority of the committee were in favor of reporting the bill for consideration, but the majority steadfastly refused not only to report that bill, but to report for the consideration of the House any of the great measures that had been referred to it in the same way, fearing, as they expressed it, that if a report was made some of the friends of the school bill would move to amend that report by proposing the school bill for consideration, and if it got out of the committee it would go through the House, so that there was no other way but to prevent its report, and so it failed. But, although the bill failed, its strength before the country was developed, and also that it had more than a two-thirds vote in the House of Rep resentatives. Any one who has observed the discussion on this bill must have seen its strength.

The matter now stands in this way: The public necessity almost universally demands it, the Senate in two Congresses has developed more than a three-fourths majority for the bill, the House more than a two-thirds majority, which would insure its passage, even if it had to incur the opposition of a veto, which I do not believe it will, if it reaches the Executive of the country, and we have every reason to hope that in the Fiftieth Congress we shall achieve success. We will know the nature of the opposition we must meet, and the friends of the bill will see that it is considered during the Fiftieth Congress, and being introduced early, and supported as I know it will be by the same influences which have hitherto carried it along, until it has grown stronger and stronger, I believe we shall be certain of success in the Fiftieth Congress.

Remember the necessity for the bill. It will educate two generations of the children of the country in the common school. Your great work will be to aid in the passage of this bill. To have passed this bill with all its beneficent influences and results will be a sublime work for at least one generation. If we accomplish it we may pass from the State and feel sure that the republican form of government and all that it means will be perpetuated forever.

Dr. M. A. NEWELL, Baltimore, Md.: Ladies and Gentlemen: I am in the position of a man whose thunder has all been stolen. Senator Blair has left me absolutely nothing to say. I have watched the progress of these various gatherings for the last eight years and have always been charmed and encouraged by the Senator. Now I owe him an everlasting debt of gratitude for having relieved me from the necessity of making a speech. I rise merely to make an apology for not speaking. There is just one point, however, that may possibly be brought up in connection with this subject, taking as the theme the words of our subject, "The relation of the public school to the Government." What relation have the schools to the Government? In the first place, the schools must teach the nature of the Government; they must make the pupils familiar, not only with local administration and municipal administration and county

administration and State administration, but also with national administration. Among the things the schoolmaster will have to teach to the children before very long, perhaps during the very next session, is this: That the time is coming, perhaps the time has come, when it will not be in the power of any one man or of any clique of men, any small knot of representatives, any corporation, to thwart the will of the vast majority of the people of the United States. There is a part of the relation the public schools will have to the Government. Our children must understand that we are a free people, that we are the Government, and that we will not have our hands tied behind our backs when we are coming forward in the great cause of liberty and education for all. Our hands have been tièd; we have been prevented from doing not only what is just and right, but what a large majority of the people of the country, North and South, East and West, desired to do; and we say, "Children, you must see that this shall not be done again." Whenever changes are necessary in the administration of the Government-this should be embraced in them-that no small knot of men, however high their position may be, whether Speaker of the House or chairman of a committee, shall be able to make of no avail the expressed will of the great majority of the people of these United States. Rights and duties are reciprocal, and our schools have a right to claim something of the Government. We talk about the Government supporting the schools. Why, it is the schools that support the Government, for the Government is the people, and what is it that keeps us as a people but our intelligence, and what creates that intelligence but the schools? Let the Government support the school; let the township support it; let the State support it; let the nation support it. I am not an advocate of patronage; I do not believe that the Government should be asked to do anything that we are able to do ourselves, but here is a thing which we cannot do for ourselves at the present time, and we have a right to call upon the Government we support to support us in that which is right. I thank you for your attention.

The PRESIDENT: I have the honor to introduce Senator Stewart, of Nevada.

Senator STEWART: Ladies and Gentlemen: I came here as a spectator, with no intention of making any remarks; but your subject is one in regard to which every intelligent American must have some views. I believe the subject under consideration is "The relation between our common school system and the Government of the country." There can be no question about their intimate and important relation. Our Government is projected upon the theory that man is capable of self-government; that he can govern himself. We have extended to all men, without regard to race or color, the right to participate in the Government. If the Government fails at any time it will be from ignorance. Nothing else can destroy a government of the people but ignorance. Intelligence prompts every citizen to desire good government, and if the people

know how to obtain it they will have it. It is not alone the case with this Government, but it is the case with all governments that have failed on account of ignorance. It has been the foe that has stood in the way of the progress of man and the government of men. It is the foe of our free institutions. Nothing else can destroy us but ignorance. We have ample resources; we have a country which in fertility of soil, extent of country, and natural resources of every kind surpasses any other country on the globe, and it is now occupied by the most intelligent people on the globe, 60,000,000 of them; they are better fed, better clothed and educated than any 60,000,000 ever were before. Still, we are not free from the enemy of all good government-ignorance. Why is it that in our crowded cities we have fraud and corruption and bad government? Is it because the mass of the people desire bad government, because they have not learned how to remedy it? Four-fifths of the people of every great city where fraud and corruption exist desire good government. They must study how to obtain it. It is so throughout the country. We have presented to this country in the progress of civilization new questions, involving new information, new studies; the labor question, the tariff question, and the money question; great and complicated questions which are coming up, are being developed, and they require additional information. What would enable the people of this country to govern themselves fifty years ago would be inadequate now. Where there is little wealth the Government is simple, and it has been said that republics could only exist where there were no cities. The promoters of our Constitution declared that it was possible to have free government in America because there was no probability of there being great cities, and that there would be no difficult problems of gov ernment presented. But these problems are now being presented with a rapidity of development never before conceived of. Every new invention, the railroad, the telegraph, and every other, demands new intelligence. The question of the power of this Government to meet the foe, ignorance, and to provide means to advance against that common enemy of good government is unquestioned. We have many precedents for it. Whatever seems necessary for the public defence and the public good has been deemed within the power of the General Government. It has always exercised this power. It was thought, in the early part of the Government, necessary to have an army to fight the battles of the country, and we established West Point; we wanted a navy, and we established Annapolis. These are schools, schools maintained by the General Government because it was necessary to provide these means for our common defence. Now, again, I do not think wisely, but we have been having schools for Indians for the last forty years. They have accomplished very little, and have been failures. All the educating of savages will fail. Our Indian schools have been failures because they did not teach the Indians to work; but it illustrates the power of the Government in favor of any legislation that may be deemed necessary.

I am in favor-and I believe I have suggested it before in the course of debate on this question-I am in favor of the establishment in Washington of a normal school for the education of teachers. I believe the educators of this country should understand the problems of government with which the mass of the people are called to contend; that they should know all that is known of the labor question; all about the tariff question, about some of the elements of the money question; they should study the question of political economy, and, above all, the business of teaching should be made honorable; the teacher should be ele vated in his own estimation. His badge, his diploma, should be a clear passport to the best society. If you will send a few thousand of edu cated teachers who understand home industries, home economy, who understand some of the fundamental principles of society-I do not care whether they are skilled in foreign languages or not-but if they understand the science of American government, of free government, of equal rights-I say if you will send a few thousand of these teachers as missionaries throughout the country you will elevate the standard and you will produce a revolution in our school system. This Government can afford it. Why, if we spend $20,000,000 a year in educating teachers, in building up the system of free schools, of common schools, which would enable them to grapple with the complications of the Government as they arise, so that they would not be led away, so that they will have a safe anchor in an enlightened public sentiment, so that anarchists and fanatics cannot sway the people, it would not be too much. I believe a normal school, liberally endowed by the Government, would do more to sustain this Government than all the money spent on your navies and armies. I do not think the danger of our fall comes from without; I think it comes, and must come, from ignorance. Talk about the power of the Government! A bill was passed at the present Congress involving an exercise of power on the part of the Government the like of which has never before existed. You talk about the proposition that has already been illustrated by numerous examples, but the lazy House of Representatives took up another subject-widespread, immense-the subject of interstate commerce, the subject of the common carrier, the subject of trade, involving every section of our Republic, placing under the charge of the General Government the vast systems of railroads and common carriers generally, to undertake to regulate it for the benefit of the country; and what was more strange to me, the most rabid States' rights men of the South and of the North, and those who have been talking about a strict construction of the Constitution, when I find them going into all the States and taking charge of the commerce of the country, let no man say hereafter that we may not on the subject of education exercise the power that has been repeatedly exercised for like purposes, especially when now, as we know, the machinery of Gov ernment becomes more complicated, and we need a higher class of education, and while higher educators may go forth to enlighten the