interests of the people, but
according to their own individual and selfish interest, which may, and
most probably will, be contrary to that of the people at large." We can
not, then, avoid coming to the unwelcome and dread conclusion that there
is not at present in this country a sufficient degree of intelligence
and virtue for the wise, or even the safe administration of its affairs.
It remains to consider whether existing provisions for the education of
our country's youth are adequate to the wants of the American people.

EXISTING PROVISIONS FOR EDUCATION.--Of the seventeen millions of persons
in the United States, according to the last census, =3,726,080=--one in
five of the entire population--were free white children between the ages
of five and fifteen years. This is the lowest estimate I have ever known
made of the ages between which children should regularly attend school.
The ages usually stated between which children generally should attend
school at least ten months during the year, are from four to sixteen, or
from four to eighteen years, and sometimes from four to twenty or
twenty-one years.

But what is the actual attendance upon the primary and common schools of
the country? It is only =1,845,244=, or, to vary the expression and give
it more definiteness, the total number of children in attendance upon
all our schools, any part of the year, is twenty thousand less than one
half of the free-born white children in the United States between the
ages of five and fifteen years! And then it should be borne in mind that
the same general motives which would lead to an under-statement in
regard to the number of persons unable to read and write, would lead to
an over-statement in regard to the number of those attending school. The
educational statistics of some of the states, made out by competent and
faithful school officers, show that the whole number of scholars that
attended school any part of the time during the school year 1840-41--the
year the census was taken--was several thousand less than the number
according to the census.[60]

[60] In Massachusetts, according to a statement made by the Secretary of
the Board of Education, the whole number of scholars who were in all the
public schools any part of the school year 1840-41 was but 155,041, and
the average attendance was, in the winter, 116,398, and in the summer,
96,802; while the number given in the census is 158,351, which is
greater by 3