REMARKS UPON MR. CARTER'S OUTLINE. MR. CARTER shows uncommon interest in the important subject of these essays; he has long devoted himself to it, and made it the object of deep study and extensive research. His "Letters to the Hon. William Prescott," published two or three years since, on the free schools of New England, show him to be, not only well acquainted with their origin, their history, the important bearings they may have upon our national character, the defects, or rather the injurious plans of instruction, which every where prevail in them, but also that he has carefully investigated the science of education generally, and knows well the principles by which it must be directed, in order to act beneficially and with effect. Nor is Mr. Carter a visionary, inexperienced theorist, engaged merely in ingenious speculations on this subject. We understand, that he is well acquainted with it practically, that he has taught in our academies, examined many of the free schools of our country towns, and that he has been much employed as private instructer to young gentlemen of distinguished and wealthy families; so that he gathers his knowledge from facts, and has had every opportunity of trying the accuracy of his principles by actual observation and experiment. For all these reasons, his opinions are certainly entitled to great respect and attention. It is astonishing how little public inquiry has been hitherto devoted in our own country, to the means of extending popular education. Abroad, in Great Britain particularly, it has long excited every where the most intense interest. Their public prints have been full of it; parliament comes not often together without having some bill to settle, or report to hear, relating to it. It has formed, we may say, without exception perhaps, the most frequent article of discussion in the highest of their literary journals. Separate independent pamphlets, on inquiries connected with it, are continually issuing from the press; and in this truly useful employment, of aiding in the general diffusion of knowledge all over the community, bringing it home to the minds of the poor and humble, encouraging every improvement in the art of popular instruction, their greatest statesmen, as well as their finest and most intelligent writers, are warmly engaged, devoting to it much of their inestimable time, and all their splendid acquisitions. How different is it here! We believe that Congress has never been called upon to act, in any way, on on the subject. Our politicians have been busy about every thing else. Our scholars and men of letters are engaged in other departments, which, though more showy and alluring, are, we venture to say, of infinitely less importance. Able inquiries into it are seldom any where seen among us; and such a pamphlet, as the one now under our consideration, is a rare phenomenon indeed. This is the reason, probably, why the public in generál do not see clearly, or are not sufficiently alive to the great national importance of popular instruction. We are not kept sufficiently on the alert to observe what is depending upon it. We all know how much education has to do in forming the character of an individual. We are seldom apt to think, that the whole community receive their impressions, and are made good or bad, virtuous or vicious, intelligent, enterprising, and peaceful, or inefficient, weak, and factious, in precisely the same way. Mr. Carter estimates, that nineteen twentieths of our population are obliged to get all their instruction from our country free schools. How important an influence, then, must they have in the formation of our national character, and how necessary is it for our legislature. to take them under its close protection; supply their defects; look well to their judicious and efficient management; raise their standing in public estimation, and qualify them better for the high rank which their extensive influence ought to give them. In our frame of government, we are trying a grand political experiment, which, in the hands of other mighty and opulent nations, has totally failed. It has not only failed, but led on to a state of disorder more terrific and appalling, than any despotism that can be imagined. On what, then, rest our hopes of safety? How are we to be exempt from the common fate of republics? What is to rescue or save us from popular outrage, corruption, anarchy, faction, and misrule, which hurry a people on to ruin more surely and with more inevitable speed, than any regularly established tyranny, however arbitrary it may be, or even if it be of a severe military character? We answer, it is to be done only by the universal diffusion of intelligence. Let government place this within the reach, and, as far as possible, force it upon the attention of every class of youth in the community. We speak not now of the general happiness which it is almost sure to carry with it; but it is the only thing which can prepare men for the enjoyment of liberty, and secure to them the possession of it. An ignorant people can never govern themselves. It requires no small share of intelligence to know what true political liberty is, how far it may be extended, and where it must stop. An ignorant people can never be a free people. It has been every where found, that, when unrestrained by absolute authority, they naturally press on to licentiousness, a state more degrading than servitude, until, weary of the fruitless exercise of their own destructive powers, they are glad to lay them down at the feet of some favorite usurper, who has won them by the easy arts of popular intrigue ; and the yoke, which such a people tend voluntarily to assume, is incomparably more oppressive and galling than any which mere despotic sovereignty could possibly impose upon them. Much has been written about the checks and balances in our frame of government working miracles in its support, and securing us forever against its decline. But how is this? We now believe the only good effect of them is to retard the progress of legislation, so as to let light and intelligence come in. Surely there can be no conflicting interests necessarily interwoven in these several branches of authority. They are all agents for, and representatives of the great mass of the community who choose them. The senate of Massachusetts, it is true, is said to be founded on wealth, in order to protect it from violence and unjust appropriation; yet who does not perceive this to be in a great measure nominal? It ought not to have, and we hope it may never have a constant influence in regulating the measures of legislation, or in giving a tone to the laws. If there be any such influence springing from it, we believe it to be often directly the opposite of what was originally intended. The senate may become at some day the representative of the laboring classes purely; for wherever riches are accumulating, the population of the poorer classes is increasing and crowding together in still greater proportion, and the wealthy, who are not the only voters, may be far out-numbered. So that, when competition for superiority shall actually arise between these rival classes, we may depend upon it, that the commons, who can very easily rally to act in concert in such places, will send their own tribunes to the capitol to represent them; and we have some slight experience to show us, how possible and indeed practicable all this is. We have not much to hope, then, from our checks and balances alone. It is an intelligent and enlightened community, knowing their own rights and respecting the rights of others, which must make those effectual, and to which we are to look for the protection and durability of our political institutions. It was not our intention to go into an argument in favor of free schools as the instruments of popular education, because we believe their importance is generally every where acknowledged, although they have ceased to awaken that lively interest which they most truly deserve, and which is indispensably necessary in order to make them as extensively useful as they may and ought to be. But there is one point touched upon by Mr. Carter, which we must bring fully before our readers, for it cannot be too often repeated; and that is, the exact coincidence of these institutions with all our purest and best republican feelings. Nothing can more entirely harmonize with them. Those feelings may, and ought to be implanted early in the mind of childhood. They will then be fixed at a time, when impressions are the most deep and durable. If our free schools were raised in public estimation, as we shall soon see may be done very easily and with little additional expense, the children of the affluent, of those in easy circumstances, and of the poor and humble, will be brought together, and taught to associate, and mingle intimately with each other on the most perfect level of equality, where merit alone forms the title to rank. This will be sure to make them true Prin to their political institutions. We are all republicans by nature; our education from infancy may be made to keep us so. ciples thus early imbibed are not speedily to be unsettled. Our national condition may change, our form of government may change, our political character may also in some respects change, but we shall be a republic still, essentially and for ever. With all their defects, the schools of which we speak, have in fact drawn forth talents from the humblest stations, and given them the first impulse, which ultimately carried them to the highest and most elevated. They tend to make the proud and wealthy willing that |