promises of which I speak are the various propositions, which
proceed upon the idea that the election by the people of a President
of the Republic, in constitutional ways and by constitutional means
only, shall not be consummated by his peaceful inauguration, unless the
character of the government is fundamentally changed previously, or
pledges given that such changes shall be permitted. I see no great
evidence that these demands are to be acceded to; but I see that the
demands themselves attack the fundamental principles of republican
liberty. If disappointed men, be they few or many, be they
conspirators and traitors, or misguided zealots merely, can interpret
their will, and arrest or divert or contravene the public judgment,
constitutionally expressed, then our government is no longer one of
laws, but a government of men."

XXII
AS SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION

In the early autumn of 1855 the Board of Education elected me to the
office of secretary of the board. The position was offered to Mr.
George B. Emerson, who declined to accept it for the reason that he
was unwilling to perform the necessary labor. My predecessor was
Barnas Sears, who resigned to accept the presidency of Brown
University. I made no effort to secure the appointment; indeed, I was
doubtful as to the wisdom of accepting it. I had been a member of the
board for several years, and I had had a limited acquaintance with Mr.
Mann during his term of office. Mr. Mann had had a brilliant career.
He entered upon his duties at a time when the public schools of
Massachusetts were in a low condition, and under his administration
there had been a revival of interest, whose force is felt, I imagine,
to this day. He attacked the customs and ridiculed the prejudices of
the people, made war upon the practice of corporal punishment, engaged
in a controversy with the Boston schoolmasters, and in the end he
either achieved a victory whenever a stand was made against him, or
he laid the foundation of ultimate success.

Dr. Sears was a man of peace. He was a carefully educated scholar and
progressive in his ideas, but he relied upon quiet labor and carefully
prepared arguments. He was at the head of the school system for the
long period of thirteen years, and in that time great progress was
made. He supplemented Mr. Mann by a steady and sturdy effort to
establish permanently the reforms which Mr. Mann had inaugurated. One
obnoxi