illegal use of authority, and an
arbitrary act used for pernicious purposes.[2] Their republican
system, the minority believed, conferred civil equality and legal
rights upon every citizen, knew neither privileged nor degraded
classes, made no distinctions, and created no differences between rich
and poor, learned and ignorant, or white and black, but extended to
all alike its protection and benefits.[3] The minority considered it a
merit of the school system that it produced the fusion of all classes,
promoted the feeling of brotherhood, and the habits of equality. The
power of the School Committee, therefore, was limited and constrained
by the general spirit of the civil policy and by the letter and spirit
of the laws which regulated the system.[4] It was further maintained
that to debar the colored youth from these advantages, even if they
were assured the same external results, would be a sore injustice and
would serve as the surest means of perpetuating a prejudice which
should be deprecated and discountenanced by all intelligent and
Christian men.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 3.]

[Footnote 2: _Minority Report_, etc. pp. 4 and 5.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., pp. 3 _et. seq_.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 4.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., p. 5.]

To the sophistry of Chandler, Wendell Phillips also made a logical
reply. He asserted that as members of a legal body, the School
Committee should have eyes only for such distinctions among their
fellow-citizens as the law recognized and pointed out. Phillips
believed that they had precedents for the difference of age and sex,
for regulation of health, etc., but that when they opened their eyes
to the varied complexion, to difference of race, to diversity of
creed, to distinctions of caste, they would seek in vain through the
laws and institutions of Massachusetts for any recognition of their
prejudice. He deplored the fact that they had attempted to foist into
the legal arrangements of the land a principle utterly repugnant
to the State constitution, and that what the sovereignty of the
constitution dared not attempt a school committee accomplished. To
Phillips it seemed crassly inconsistent to say that races permitted to
intermarry should be debarred by Mr. Chandler's "sapient committee"
from educational contact.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 27.]

This agitation continued until 1855 when the opposition had grown too
strong to be longer resisted. The legislatu