Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/262

Rh Lathrop finally comes, in his speech, to the duties which the government of the young state of Wisconsin has to fulfil, in order that it may accomplish its great vocation as a home for various nations,—Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Germans, Scandinavians, all directing its being by new elements of life.

“Free schools and public education have everywhere in the United States, shown themselves to be the great principle of the popular elevation and development. The American mind has caught the idea, and will not lose sight of it, that the whole of the States' property, public or private, is holden subject to the sacred trust of providing the means of education for every child in the State.

“Unless we adopt this system, that political equality of which we boast is only a dream, a pleasing illusion. Knowledge is the true equaliser; it is the true democracy; it equalises by elevating, not by bringing down.”

The speaker, in recommending the class of education which the University ought to afford, observed, that the character and position of the teacher must be elevated; that the want of efficient teachers was a subject of universal complaint; and that, therefore, a normal school should be established for the preparation of efficient teachers for the University.

And that the aim of the library should be to contain every work which is worthy of being possessed, in every language and of every age; the whole amount of human thought, and of the experience of society.

“Wisconsin, the youngest state of the Union, established under the most favourable circumstances, able to avail itself of the experience of the older sister-states, rich in a new population composed of various races; rich in its fertile soil, and its advantageous position between the great lakes and the great river,—the arteries of the world's commerce;—Wisconsin must, Minerva-like, advance in