tutions of government, is to be deceived by schoolboy analogies. From the first settlement of New England, one of the most prominent traits of the character of our population has been, to provide and to diffuse the means of education. The village schoolhouse and the village church are the monuments of our republicanism; to read, to write, and to discuss grave affairs, in their primary assemblies, are the licentious practices of our democracy.

But, in this acknowledged result of our system of government, another objection is taken to its influence, as far as literary progress is concerned. It is urged, that, though it may be the effect of our institutions, to excite the mind of the people, they excite it too much in a political direction; that the division and subdivision of the Country into states and districts, and the equal diffusion of political privileges and powers among the whole population, and the constant recurrence of elections, however favorable to civil liberty, are unfriendly to learning; that they kindle only a political ambition ; and particularly, that they seduce the aspiring youth, from the patient and laborious vigils of the student, to plunge prematurely into the conflicts of the forum.

I am inclined to think, that, as far as the supposed facts exist, they are the necessary result of the present stage of our national progress, and not an injurious effect of representative government. Our system is certainly an economical one, both as to the number of persons employed, and the compensation of public service. It cannot, therefore, draw more individuals from other pursuits into public life, than would be employed under any other form or system of government; nor hold out stronger inducements, or brighter rewards. It is obvious, that the administration of the government of a country, whether it be liberal, or absolute, or mixed, is the first thing to be provided for. Some persons must be employed in making and administering the laws, before any other human interest can be attended to. The Fathers of Plymouth formed themselves into a

convention, to organize a compact of government, before they left the Mayflower. This was natural, wise. Had they, while yet on ship-board, talked of founding learned societies, or engaged in the discussion of philosophical problems, it would have been insipid pedantry. As the organization and administration of the government are, in the order of time, the first of mere human concerns, they must ever retain a paramount importance. Every thing else must come in by opportunity; this, of necessity, must be provided for: otherwise, life is not safe, property is not secure, and there is no permanence in the social institutions. The first efforts, therefore, of men, in building up a new state, are, of necessity, political. But where else in the world, did the foundation of the college ever follow, so closely, on that of the republic, as in Massachusetts ? In the early stages of society, when there is a scanty population, its entire force is required for administration and defence. We are receding from this stage, but have not yet reached that, in which a crowded population produces a large amount of cultivated talent, not needed for the service of the state.

As far, then, as the talent and activity of the Country are at present called forth, in a political direction, it is fairly to be ascribed, not to any supposed incompatibility of popular institutions with the cultivation of letters, but to the precise point, in its social progress, which the Country has reached. A change of government would produce no change, in this respect. Can any man suppose, other things remaining the same, that the introduction of an hereditary sovereign, an order of nobility, a national church, a standing army, and a military police, would tend to a more general and more fruitful developement of mental energy, or greater leisure, on the part of educated men, to engage in literary pursuits? It is obviously as impossible, that any such effect should be produced, as that the supposed producing cause should be put in action, in this Country. By the terms of the supposition, if such a

change were made, the leading class of the community, the nobles, would be politicians, by birth; as much talent would be required to administer the state; as much physical activity, to defend it. If there were a class, as there probably would be, in the horizontal division of society, which exists under such governments, not taking an interest in politics, it would be that, which, under the name of the peasantry, supplies, in most other countries, the place of, perhaps, the most substantial, uncorrupted, and intelligent, population on earth,—the American Yeomanry. We are not left to theory, on this point. There are portions of the American Continent, earlier settled than the United States, governed, from the first, by absolute power, and possessing all the advantages, which can flow from what is called a strong government. It may be safely left to the impartial judgement of mankind, to compare the progress, either of general intelligence, or of higher literature, in those portions of the Continent, and in the United States.

Again, it cannot be thought a matter of little moment, that, under a free government, the cultivation of letters always has been, and unquestionably always will be, deemed as honorable a pursuit, as any, to which the attention can be devoted. Under other forms of government, a different standard of respectability exists. Hereditary rank, of necessity, takes precedence; and all the institutions of society are made to regard the accidents of birth as more important than personal merit. The choicest spirits of Europe, for ten generations, have been trained up to the feeling, that government and war are the only callings, worthy of noble blood. In those foreign countries, where the political institutions have been most improved, and the iron yoke of feudalism most effectually broken, that is, in other words, where the people have been restored to their rights, we behold, as the invariable consequence, a proportionate intellectual progress. What could be more preposterous, than to attribute this progress to the remnants of the

feudal system, which still remain, rather than to the free principles and popular institutions which have succeeded it; and to deny to such institutions, in their perfect organization, in this Country, a tendency to produce the same happy effects, which their partial introduction has every where else produced?

It cannot but be, that the permanent operation of a free system of constitutional and representative government, should be favorable to the culture of mind, because it is itself in conformity with that law of Nature, by which mind is distributed. The mental energy of a people, which you propose to call out, the intellectual capacity, which is to be cultivated and improved, has been equally diffused, throughout the land, by a sterner leveller, than ever marched in the van of a revolution, -the impartial providence of God. He has planted the germs of intellect, alike in the city and the country; by the beaten way-side, and in the secluded valley, and solitary hamlet. Sterling native character, strength and quickness of mind, the capacity for brilliant attainment, are not among the distinctions, which Nature has given, exclusively, to the higher circles of life. Too often, in quiet times, they perish, in the obscurity, to which a false organization of society consigns them. And the reason why, in dangerous, convulsed, and trying, times, there generally happens an extraordinary developement of talent, unquestionably is, that, in such times, whatever be the nominal form of the government, necessity, for the moment, proclaims the Republic.

What happens in a crisis of national fortune, under all governments, is, in this respect, the steady and natural operation of our political institutions. Their foundation, at last, is in dear Nature. They do not consign the greater part of the social system to torpidity and mortification. They send out a vital nerve, to every member of the community, however remote, by which it is brought into living conjunction and strong sympathy with the kindred intellect of the

nation. They encourage Nature to perfect her work, on the broadest scale. By providing systems of universal and cheap education, they multiply, indefinitely, the numbers of those to whom the path is opened, for further progress; and thus bring up remote, shrinking, unpatronized talent, into the cheerful field of competition. The practical operation of popular institutions of government provides, in innumerable ways, a demand for every species of intellectual effort, not merely within the circle of a capital, but throughout the land. In short, wherever man has been placed by Providence, endowed with rational capacities of improvement, there the genius of the republic visits him, with a voice of encouragement and hope. Every day, he receives, from the working of the social system, some new assurance, that he is not forgotten, in the multitude of the people. He is called to do some act, to assert some right, and to enjoy some privilege; and he is elevated, by this consciousness of his social importance, from the condition of the serf or the peasant, to that of the freeman and the citizen.

In thus maintaining, that the tendency of our popular institutions, at the present stage of our national progress, to excite a diffusive interest in politics, is in no degree unfriendly to the permanent intellectual improvement of the Country, it is not intended to assert, that the peculiar and original character of these institutions will produce no corresponding modification of our literature. The reverse is, unquestionably, the fact. It may safely be supposed, that, with the growth of the Country, in wealth and population, as the various occasions of a large, enterprising, and prosperous community, placed on the widest theatre of action ever opened to man, call into strong action, and vigorous competition, the cultivated talent of the Country, some peculiar tone, form, and proportion, will be given to its literature, by the nature of its political institutions, and the social habits founded on them. Literature, is but a more perfect communication of man with man, and