rime which
are fast making the American name a synonyme for theft, for brazen
impudence and unblushing rascality.

In the life of a nation, as in that of an individual, there are periods
which are critical; and a restoration to health, or the certainty of
speedy death, depends on the way this malady is met. The crisis which
now menaces the life and health of the United States cannot be far
distant; for private virtue cannot long survive the death of public
honor and honesty, nor private morality fail to catch the contagion of
public profligacy. If the representative men of a country, those in whom
its high trusts are reposed, be corrupt and shameless, they will drag
down into the same mire the morals of the people they plunder and
misrepresent. Indeed we want no prophet, nor one raised from the dead,
to tell us the awfully fatal results. What can be done to stem the
fearful torrent of evils that flood the land? We all know that when, in
1765, the famous Stamp Act was passed in the British Parliament, on the
news reaching Boston the bells were muffled, and rang a funeral peal. In
New York the "Act" was carried through the streets with a death's head
bearing this inscription: "The Folly of England and the Ruin of
America." So great was the opposition to the "Act," that it was repealed
during the spring of 1766. This shows how quickly the evils of society
can be put down if people set to work in earnest.

Now we cannot expect the people to set to work in earnest about stemming
the torrent of the great evils of the land, unless they are well
enlightened as to the source from which they flow. This source is
principally that wrong system of education introduced into this country
about fifty years ago. At that time very few, perhaps, could foresee
what effects it was calculated to produce. After a long trial, we can
now pronounce on it with certainty by its results. The tree, no longer a
sapling, can be judged by its fruits. These fruits have been so bad that
it is high time to call the attention of the public to the tree.

Now in calling attention to this tree, I wish it to be once for all
distinctly understood, that whatever of a seemingly or even really harsh
nature I may say in this discussion on the Public Schools, is intended
and directed _solely against the system_. For those who manage or
officiate in them, as teachers or otherwise, I have, I trust, all the
courtesy, charity, and respect due from one citizen to anoth