Pitt, the celebrated English minister-one of the greatest statesmen of his age,-in a speech delivered in Parliament, among other remarks upon this distinguished Continental Congress, said: "I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and study, and it has been my favorite study: I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world,-that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia."* These words of the eloquent Pitt might well have led members of Parliament to ask themselves how it happened that the statesmen of America were of such a high order of men. To such a question it might have been answered that in the Anglo-Saxon branch of the human family in America that society had not only been embellished and elevated but had been made stable, and in some degree wise, by means of institutions of learning ;-by means of the people wisely cultivating the minds which God had given them. Whoever will review the lives of the members of the Congress of 1776-the Congress in which the Independence of the Colonies from the Crown of England was declared,—will see that a large number of these distinguished men had studied within walls of learning of a high grade. Any one who will review the history of these men will be deeply impressed as he observes the educational advantages which many of them had enjoyed. Of the fifty-five men who were charged with the highly momentous work of framing the Constitution of the United States, at least nine had studied in Princeton College, four in Yale, three in Harvard, two in Columbia, one in the University of Pennsylvania, and five, six, or

* Hanyard's "Parliamentary Hist.," vol. xviii., p. 151.

seven in the University of William and Mary. In that distinguished company Scotland had also a representative, who had studied in three of her universities. There was one member who had studied in Glasgow, another had been a student in Christ Church, Oxford, who with three other of the members had been students of law in the Temple-indeed, it is said that forty-five of the members of this Congress had received collegiate instruction. It would be highly instructive to note how some, if not indeed all, of the remaining number of these men had studied in grammar schools or had indirectly received benefits from institutions of the highest grades of learning. For instance, Benjamin Franklin had studied in a grammar school in which it is not perhaps too much to say that a higher course of secular instruction was given than is to be obtained even in some institutions called universities in Roman Catholic countries. He was a man whose fame as a philosopher and man of letters was established in America and in Europe. He had moreover studied in the library in Philadelphia which he had helped to found an institution which might be called a silent university. He had been the means of founding, about the year 1749, an academy in Pennsylvania which had become the university of that commonwealth. He had been an ardent scientific student. He had been made a Fellow of the Royal Society in England and had received the degree of Doctor from Oxford, Edinburgh and St. Andrews-some of the greatest of the universities of Great Britain:-not to speak of other honors which had been conferred upon him. In a letter to the first President of King's College-now Columbia,--Franklin had written: "I think, with you, that nothing is more important to the public weal than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are, in

my opinion, the strength of the State,-much more so than riches and arms, which, under the management of ignorance and wickedness, often draw on destruction instead of providing for the safety of the people; and though the culture bestowed on many should be successful with few, yet the influence of the few, and the service in their power may be very great." Franklin's labors in behalf of education had been one of his noblest undertakings. Also in the Convention in which the Constitution of the United States was framed there was Roger Sherman, who had never been enabled to go to college. He had nobly learned the trade of a tallow chandler, and also that of shoemaker. Left an orphan in his youth he had provided for his mother during her long life. He had with his earnings provided for his younger brothers the blessings of college instruction. He had managed to study law and to be duly admitted to the bar. For years he had furnished the astronomical calculations for an almanac published in New York. In the church which he attended he had been made a deacon. As treasurer of Yale College he showed his interest in its welfare. He had served his State in various high capacities and had for many years been the Mayor of New Haven. For many years he had been a member of the Upper House of the Legislature of Connecticut. He had been a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and for twenty-three years, a judge of the Superior Court. He had been a member of the Continental Congress in 1774 and in every other Continental Congress except when prevented going to Congress by a law of rotation then in force. He had signed the Declaration of Independence and also the first Constitution of the States. Next to Franklin he was the most aged member of the Convention. It would be interesting to here pause to contemplate the culture

As

which each member of the distinguished assembly had received through a wise policy which had been early adopted in the colonies of fostering letters. George Washington had only indirectly been helped in acquiring knowledge through institutions of a high grade of learning. He had, however, acquired in many respects a remarkably good education. Suffice it here to say that many years before he became a member of the convention he had had the title of LL.D. conferred upon him. I write I have before me a printed copy of the words with which the learned faculty of Harvard College conferred the degree upon him. It was declared that he was a man whose "knowledge and patriotic ardor are manifest to all," and that he "merits the highest honor, Doctor of Laws, the law of nature and nations, and the civil law." Washington did not approve of titles of nobility, which was perhaps one reason why he would not append to his name his title of LL.D. His life-long interest in the welfare of the University of William and Mary in Virginia and of his connection with it for years as its Chancellor need not here be dwelt upon. He was especially interested in the science of government and agricultural science. Before going to the Convention he had written, or copied from papers which it has been claimed were written by Madison, a description of the forms of government of many lands. The Constitution of the United States, formed though it was by a singularly gifted body of men, was, before being adopted by the "people,' examined by many assemblies, in which were a large number of representatives of the seats of learning of the new world.

In the highly valuable and quite lengthy Report which Jefferson when in his seventy-seventh year, as Chairman of a Commission to select a site for a State

University, with the concurrence of Madison and colleagues, wrote, or, finished, at an inn, on August 1st, 1818, and sent to the Legislature of Virginia, after, in a learned manner, dwelling on the very important objects which would be attained by founding elementary schools, he added: “And this brings us to the point at which are to commence the higher branches of education, of which the Legislature requires the development; those, for example, which are,

"To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend;

"To expound the principles and structure of government, the laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation, which, banishing all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on individual action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another;

"To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture, manufactures and commerce, and by well informed views of political economy to give a free scope to the public industry;

"To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of virtue and order;

"To enlighten them with mathematical and physical sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the subsistence, and comforts of human life;

"And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of happiness within themselves.

"These are the objects of that higher grade of education, the benefits and blessings of which the Legislature