, submitted to the Senate
June 1868 and the House, with additions, June 17, 1870-1871. Some
valuable facts were also obtained from former pupils of Miss Myrtilla
Miner now residing in the District of Columbia and from public
spirited citizens who cooperated with her.

[2] O'Connor, _Memoir of Myrtilla Miner, Letter of Frederick
Douglass_, p. 23.

[3] _Special Report of Commissioner of Education_, Washington, D.C.,
Henry Barnard, 1868, p. 207.

[4] She had some friends, however, as the following shows:

"There are in the United States 500,000 free people of color.
They are generally, although subject to taxation, excluded by law
or prejudice from schools of every grade. Their case becomes at
once an object of charity which rises infinitely above all party
or sectional lines. This charity we are gratified in being able
to state has already been inaugurated, through the devoted labors
of an excellent young lady from Western New York by the name of
Miss Myrtilla Miner who has established and maintained for the
past four years in the city of Washington a school for the
education of free colored youth. This school is placed there
because it is national ground, and the nation is responsible for
the well-being of its population; because there are there 11,000
of this suffering people excluded by law from schools and
destitute of instruction; because there are in the adjoining
States of Maryland and Virginia 130,000 equally destitute, who
can be reached in no other way; and because it is hoped through
this means to reach a class of girls of peculiar interest, often
the most beautiful and intelligent, and yet the most hopelessly
wretched, and who are often objects of strong paternal affection.
The slaveholder would gladly educate and save these children, but
domestic peace drives them from his hearth; he cannot emancipate
them to be victims of violence or lust; he cannot send them to
Northern schools, where prejudice would brand them, and it is
proposed to open an asylum near them, where they may be brought,
emancipated, educated and taught housewifery as well as science,
and thus be prepared to become teachers among their own mixed
race.

"In its present condition this school embraces boarding, domestic
economy, normal teachers and primary departments, and is placed
under th