the open Bible and public school--will
bring the needed blessings of intelligence, happiness and prosperity to
the people of the United States of Mexico, of Central and South America,
when they are accorded a fair chance.

XLVII

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL

AN OUTGROWTH OF THE REFORMATION.--PORTO RICO.--MISSION
SCHOOLS.--COLONIAL SCHOOLS.--MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT.--NEW YORK
AND PENNSYLVANIA.--THE BIBLE, THE STANDARD OF MORALITY.--RISE AND FALL
OF INTOLERANCE.--DANIEL WEBSTER.--THE BIBLE, THE FREEDMAN'S BEST
BOOK.--THE CHURCH, SUNDAY SCHOOL, PUBLIC SCHOOL.--ENCOURAGING MOVEMENTS.

"Education is the cheap defense of a Nation."--Garfield.

"Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."--Solomon.

The public school is the general and permanent agency for the education
and uplift of the colored people. Religious and independent schools may
do a splendid work in their several localities, but the public school is
intended to be state-wide. It alone reaches the masses of colored
children, and it should receive its due share of the public funds. The
fact that they have not received any thing like a fair share of the
public funds, for their equipment and support, has already been stated.
This, to a great extent, is an act of injustice. Conditions however are
gradually improving. They are made better as a good use is made of
present educational facilities, and earnest appeal is made for more and
better ones. A vast amount of self-sacrificing work, on the part of
teachers and parents, is needed to bring the schools of the Freedmen up
to their proper standard, and to secure them, where they are still
needed both in city and rural district.

The Freedman alone cannot do all that is needed, to provide adequate
educational facilities for all his people; but there is so much that may
be done, in the way of awakening local interest, supplying local
deficiencies, and appealing for more and better equipment, as to enlist
the united and persistent co-operation of all intelligent, public
spirited Freedmen.

AN OUTGROWTH OF THE REFORMATION

The public school system, in the United States, is an outgrowth, or
by-product of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century in
Europe. Harvard college was established at Cambridge, near Boston, in
1639, less than twenty years after the first arrival of the Pilgrim
Fathers. Its object was to provide a supply