ADDRESS
ox. The
STATE OF THE PUBLIC MIND,
AND THE
MEASURES WHICH IT CALLS FOR.
As DELIVERED IN
NEw-York AND PHILADELPHIA
IN THE AUTUMN OF 1829.
BY FRANCEs wrººt-
NEW-YORK :
published AT THE or Fice of the Fºº Exquinºn, HALL or science,
Baoc-strº-ET-
1829.
J. FRANCIS RUGGLES,
Yeele L10POLOEXPERTO
BRON so N, M 1C H., U. S. A.









southern District of New-York, ss.
Berr Remembered, That on the 22d day of October, A. D. 1829, in
the fifty-fourth year of the Inde ndence of the United States of America,
Fººgeswºrt, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the
title of a book, the right whereof she claims as author, in the words fol-
lowing, to wit:-
“Address on the state of the * mind, and the measures which it
calls for. As delivered in New-York and Philadelphia, in the autumn of
1829. By Frances Wright.”
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, “An
Act for the encouragement of Learning, by º the copies of Maps,
charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during
the time thereinmentioned.” And alsº to an act, entitled, “An Act, sup-
º to an Act, entitled, an Act for the encouragement of Hearning
y securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors º
proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and ex-
tº: the benefits thereºf to the arts of designing, engraving, and *
ing historical and other prints.”
FRED. J. BETTS,
º clerk of the Southern District of New-York.


ON THE STATE OF THE PUBLIC MIND,
AND THE MEASURES. WILLCH IT CALLS FOR-
THE present is an era of unparalleled interest to the
moral observer, i.e. to him who considers all occurrences
with a view to their influence on human society.
The principle of change is in all nature, but the princi-
ple of improvement is only (so far as observation has en-
abled us to ascertain) in the nature of man.
The scientific eye traces the convulsions of our earth's
solid sphere back, through millions of untold generations,
to eras lost in time, when animals of other form from
those which now move on its surface, ranged from pole to
pole, and (apparently in the absence of man, whose orga-
nic remains seem of more recent origin) fed on another
vegetable kingdom, or preyed on each other as we now
see their successors. Or let us observe what is passing
around us in the field of existing nature: Each season
brings its vicissitudes, each passing instant its changes—
in the herb, in the flower, in the forest, in the mountain,
in the jewel of the secret mine; in the vast bed of the
ocean—dividing continents, engulfing or revealing islands,
approaching or receding from its wonted boundaries, until
the land-marks of other days are no more guides to the
traveller or the mariner of these; in all the forms of mat-
ter, whether gaseous, fluid, or solid, whether animate, or, to
our perception, inanimate; in every particle and unitatom
that fills its place, and exercises its agency, through the


4. STATE of PUBLIC MIND.
endless succession of existence and duration of time. All,
an is in motion, perpetual and eternal—in earth, in
water, and in air; in the elements of our own bodies, and
in the thoughts of our own minds. I said in the thoughts
of our own minds; and here is that which converts the
world of difform and rugged nature into one of enlight-
ened culture. Here is that which can impart new order
and method to the phenomena of matter, and convert
change without design, into progressive improvement.
Let us mark the primeval forest, where man's footsteps
have never strayed. Tangled and impervious to all but
the panther and beast of prey, the jungle, the brake, and
the stagnant swamp load the rich earth with rank vege.
tation, and the air with vapor pestilential to the higher
grades of animal life. Then first comes the humanhunter,
and opensa passage with venturouscourage; clears. in the
season of drought, the cumbered earth with fire, reducing
to stubble the undergrowth thicket, and thus calling into
being the more delicate herbage, and preparing the spring
pasture, and the open glade, for the deer and the peaceful
herd. Next comes the husbandman, to break the rich
glebe, and throw the first seeds of a more plentiful and
peaceful industry.
I have seen the father of waters—the deep, and rapid,
and unbordered Mississippi, sweeping down the wreck of
mountains, plains, forests, and acres of fruitful soil; and, as
Ihave traced its career of destruction, I have seen the art
of man suddenly arresting its violence, raising a barrier to
its accumulated waters, and bordering its now mastered
and innocuous deluge with the richest productions of hu-
man cultivation. And what we may trace in progress in
our own western regions, we perceive to have taken place
throughout the habited globe. It is man alone, of all the
beings we behold, that hath faculties to distinguish the
STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 5
alterable phenomena of nature, and power to attempt re-
form where he distinguishes defect.
You will remark, that I have here preferred no com-
ment on the moral depravity which, up to this hour, has
mingled with his intellectual ingenuity, and made of his
work such a tangled web of good and ill, that we are
alternately tempted to bless and to curse those powers
which, in developing the treasures of earth, have so often
perverted their uses, and, while ornamenting its bosom,
have stained those very ornaments with blood.
Before adverting to the errors of man, I wished to ob-
serve with you his powers. I was desirous that we should
distinguish how, to his agency, all physical improvement
is attributable. He finds earth a wilderness; he makes it
a garden. He finds it peopled with tigers, bears, pan-
thers, wolves, and poisonous reptiles; and, through his in-
fluence, these give place to milder tribes, until we find the
sheep and the tamed cattle browzing under his protection
in velvet lawns, and birds of song gathering their food
amidfields of nutritive grain planted by his industry. We
perceive, through his means, a similar melioration to take
place in the earth's atmosphere and climates. Where his
care and judicious cultivation extend, winter recedes, and
its rigors diminish; fogs and miasmata disappear, and
the drained morass, now a smiling champaign, yields its
rich produce, under a pure sky, to tribes of intelligent
beings. We see, too, races of animals improving in beauty
and in instinct: the dog appear with quicker scent and
livelier sagacity; the horse with finer proportions, nobler
stature, and redoubled speed. We see the fruits of earth
change under his hand. The golden grain swell in size,
and increase in weight and nutriment; the apple, the
peach, the grape, supercede the crudeberries of the forest;
and all the vegetable kingdom—tree and plant, and fruit
A 2


6 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND.
and flower, glow with new beauties, of hue, and fragrance,
and luscious juices.
We see, then, man introduce order and design, beauty
and utility, where before simple phenomena were discover-
able only. Wherever he appears we see intelligence pre-
side over matter, and the changes and occurrences of na-
ture, guided in their course, move in order, as on a plan
of progressive improvement.
Mighty, indeed, are the powers of the human animal.
Through earth, through air, through ocean, his influence
extends. The stamp of his genius is impressed on the
whole surface of the globe. Land and sea, vale and
mountain, the howling wilderness of earth's civilized from-
tier, the scorched desert of simoom-swept Africa, the storm-
besieged coast and boundless fields of ocean's restless wa-
ters, the glaciers of the poles, the iced peaks of Alps and
towering Andes—all nature's deep recesses, most stupen-
dous features, and hidden phenomena, bear witness to his
restless activity, to his dauntless daring, to his aspiring
curiosity—to his conquering perseverance.
We may be bold to say, that wherever man hath
pierced, and whatever he hath essayed, (not absolutely in
contradiction with those unvarying phenomena of matter
to which he has given, albeit inaccurately, the name of
laws)—wherever he hath been, and whatever he hath
essayed with steady purpose, there, and in that, he has
been conqueror. He hath been conqueror—Isay, for good
or for evil. Wherever he hathclosely observed, accurately
calculated, boldly designed, and obstinately persevered, he
hath triumphed—triumphed over every obstacle, executed
every project, attained every ambition.
I speak now with reference to the human race in the
aggregate, and of their united, as well as calculated ex-
ertions; albeit, even with individuals, steadiness of pur-

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 7
pose will usually vanquish difficulties, and he who strains
perseveringly at any object, may anticipate, with probable
certainty, its attainment. But, wherever nations, or bodies
of men, have applied their united and sustained energies,
observation, and calculation, to any undertaking, good or
evil, scarcely with an exception, we shall find them to
have succeeded. Have they sought military conquest,
and bent all their institutions to form a race of warriors?
They have carried their ambition. Have they applied to
the ornamental arts? Look to the architecture and sculp-
ture of Athens, the paintingsofmodern Italy,andall the bril-
liant, though, ofttimes, useless magnificence of ancient and
modern empires. Have they addressed themselves to
science? to commerce? to manufactures? Mark the
rapid discoveries in every branch of knowledge; the fleets
which cover the ocean, the wonderful inventions in me-
chanics, and applications of machinery. Have they sought
spiritual dominion? Note the rise of the priesthood of
every nation, from the Bramin, Hierophant, and Levite, of
India, Egypt, and Judea, to the apostles, fathers, bishops,
popes, jesuits, and many colored priests of christendom.
These last, in monarchies, have proved stronger than
kings; in aristocracies, than knights and nobles; in re-
publics, than the people. And to what has been, or yet
is, attributable this ascendancy, but to that perseverance
and undeviating steadiness of purpose which supports, to
this hour, and even in this land, a power and an influence
at war with the spirit of the age, and the genius of the
nation?
True it is, as all histories and observation attest, that a
strong moral purpose, whether conceived for evil or for
good, will, for the most part, prove superior to mere physi-
cal odds, and omnipotent over mere physical opposition.
In this, the little band at Thermopylae, whose watchword

8 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND.
was their country, withstood the hosts of the Persian. In
this, the children of Romulus, and robbers of the Pala-
time, overwhelmed from their little mountain the tribes of
Etruria, and, persevering in the spirit of their founder,
conquered the world. In this, the peasantry of Switzer-
land humbled the power of Austria and the pride of Bur-
gundy. In this, the feeble provinces of Holland, having
chosen for their emblem a ship unfurnished and unequip-
ped yet struggling with the waves, braved the supremacy
of Spain, the legions of Duke Alva, and the united pow-
ers of catholic Europe. And, in the same fixed purpose
of the mind, the thirteen weak and infant colonies of
these now magnified and multiplied independent states,
threw down the gauntlet to the parliament of Britain, and,
planting in their soil the simple banner of the rights of
man, vanquished the armies of tyranny, and brake the
sceptre of kings.
If thus, then, the empire of man be co-extensive with
this globe and with time—if his influence can effect even
nature's phenomena; if his volitions may be calculated so
as to ensure their object, and thus, for evil or for good, his
fixed resolve can prove omnipotent, how urgent that such
resolve should be for good—always for good—always for
the advantage of his race—for the promotion of his vital
interests, for the improvement of the world he occupies,
and for the just cultivation of all those faculties of his own
compound being, in whose wise or unwise exercise is in-
volved all virtue or all vice, all happiness or all misery
Seeing, then, how great the powers of man, and seeing
what those powers have effected, we may all conceive how
immense must have been his progress had he applied them
with uniform wisdom. To say this in regret of the past
would be idle, but to reflect upon it with a view to the
future, must be all important. If the powers of man have

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 9
been perverted to evil, or wasted upon trifles, this has been
the necessary result of imperfect knowledge and insuffi-
cient experience.
Know we cannot, and it were idle to imagine, the train
of circumstances which, by first starting the human mind
upon wrong principles, led it to fabricate that compli-
cated system of errors which falsely passes among us by
the name of civilized society. It matters not, I say, to
imagine how this came to pass; we see that it is. Yes!
we do now begin to suspect that we are in a wrong road;
that we have followed out the false principles started by
our ancestors, in ages of savage ignorance, until we can
pursue them no farther with any hope of good result.
The suspicion is now afloat that fear and violence, in all
the forms we have applied them—by the sword, by the
rack, by the ascendancy of brute force, by spiritual tribu-
mals, and all the phantasmagoria of superstition; by the
nets and traps, tricks and quibbles, false pretences, artful
circumventions, absurd contradictions, demoralizing oaths,
debasing penalties, and solemn cruelties of law—the sus-
picion is afloat, I say, that all these inventions upon which
man has expended his ingenuity, neither have effected,
nor can ever effect, the purpose we must suppose to have
been intended.
The suspicion is afloat, that religion, as publicly taught
in this land, at a cost exceeding twenty millions per an-
num, is a chimera; that the clerical hierarchy, and cleri-
cal craft, which have been elevated upon this chimera, are
the two deadliest evils which ever cursed society; that our
system of law is powerless for the object it ostensibly has
in view, the just regulation of the conduct of men one
towards the other, and rather omnipotent to effect the re-
verse of that intent, namely, to effect the perversion of the
human understanding, the corruption of the moral feel-
2

10 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND.
ings, and the utter destruction of all the social relations of
the great human family; and, finally, that government, as
executed to this hour, is inadequate to secure what it pro-
poses, the happy evistence of the governed. I say, that
the suspicion is afloat, that something is wrong in the
whole fabric of civil polity, and that hourly this suspicion
is strengthening into conviction.
All, more or less, can read the signs of the times;
though some may read them with hope, and some with
fear. The most dull can perceive that a moral excite-
ment, new in its nature, and rapid in its progress, pervades
the world. In either hemisphere old superstitions and
old pretensions sound the alarm. The priest trembles for
his craft, the rich man for his hoard, the politician for his
influence. Among the great of the earth the cry is up of
“sedition rebellion! danger to the state" From the
sanctuary the shouts are heard of “heresy' infidelity
danger to the church and its treasury?” From the people
—ay! from the people, arise the hum and stir of awaken-
ing intelligence, enquiry, and preparation.
Every passing event announces the dawn of a new era
—proclaims a new epoch in the history of man, foretels
for all the civilized world, and first for this nation, as first
in the ranks of civil liberty—foretels a REvolution.
Yes! a revolution. Does any ear startle at the sound?
Some there are, some unhappily there must be. But not
the righteous patriot shall it affright; not the friend of
man; not they, who, in the inner mind, have wed their
country’s noble “declaration,” and whose hearts yearn
after the tenure and the exercise of those equal rights their
fathers first boldly claimed for man.
I have used, my friends, a word of mighty import, and
one that, in every land save this, would be of threatening
import. In hapless Europe revolution is still destined to

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 11
wear the scarlet robes of blood. The people, in that he-
misphere, have yet to win what you possess—political
freedom. The sword is there in the hand of oppression,
and they who would correct abuses have first a royal army
to vanquish, and a royal exchequer to drain.
Not so with America. The field here is won; the bat-
tle fought—unless, indeed, the spirit of her youth is de-
parted, and she should tamely yield in her prime the van-
tage ground she seized in her infancy.
In the crisis now in preparation for this country, three
terminations present themselves as possible; and, between
these, the people may now choose. A short period hence,
and the selection may be no more theirs. The change to
which I point, and which every reflecting observer must
perceive to be impending, will not be the simple effect of
a progress in opinion; were it so we might consider it with
interest wholly divested of anxiety; but it must also be
impelled by the force of circumstances. What these
circumstances are we shall pass rapidly in review.
First; the novel and excessive impetus given to com-
mercial and manufactural enterprise by the improvements
in machinery, in navigation, roads, canals, &c., and, yet
more, by the principle of competition carried out until it re-
sults in the ruin of all small capitalists, and in the oppres-
sion of the whole laboring class of the community.
Secondly: the banking system, an evil which I re-
joice to see is now beginning to attract the popular attention.
Let the people pursue the clue they have seized, and it
may lead them farther than they suspect. It may lead
them to their legislative halls, and ofttimesexplain the mea-
sures there carried; to their election polls, and explain the
influence there exercised; to their canals, railroads, and
all the scheme of internal improvement, as now conduct-
ed to the advantage of speculators and capitalists, real or

12 STATE or public MIND.
pretended, and to the ruin of the honest laborer, and far-
ther depression of the wages of industry. It will lead
them from their eastern to their western borders, to new
towns without inhabitants, new houses without tenants,
new ships without cargoes new stores without customers,
new churches without congregations, and new jails, bride-
wells, poorhouses, and hospitals, full of paupers, debtors,
swindlers, felons, dying wretches, and outcasts. Yes! it
will lead them through the whole labyrinth of speculation,
false calculation, overtrading, false trust, and deceiving
credit, where more families have found ruin, and more ho-
nesty hath made shipwreckin these United States, than in
all the countries of the earth, perhaps, taken together.
Let the people, then, follow out the whole system of bank
chartering, paper money, as now in use, and stock-jobbing
of all descriptions, and they may soon detect one of the
deepest sources of industrial oppression and national de-
moralization.
Next, but closely connected with the evils already enu-
merated, comes your professional aristocracy, compounded
of priests, lawyers, and college-graduated aspirants to the
trade of law making, charter signing, license granting,
sabbath protecting, and I know not what interferences
with the rights and interests of the many, for the vain
exalting, and false advantaging of the few.
And, lastly, as the root of all these many abuses, we find
a false system of education stolen from aristocratic Eu-
rope, and which, under favor of the popular ignorance on
the one hand, and the craft of false learning on the other,
places the public mind under the dominion of priests, the
legislatures at the mercy of lawyers, the industrious classes
at the mercy of speculators, and, generally, all homestmen
and simple women at the mercy of rogues.
Such are some of the many circumstances which com-

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 13
bine to hasten a crisis that every reflecting observer may
perceive to be impending; and which, if left to work out
their own consequences, must bring about a change in
public affairs by the worst means.
I observed, that the revolution now in preparation for
this country, may assume one of three possible forms.
First: things may be allowed to follow on in the course
they have taken up to this hour, and to move uninterrupt-
ed and unimpeded in the accelerated ratio which events, like
falling bodies, acquire in progress, and which the circum-
stances we have enumerated, and many others, combine
to urge forward with additional velocity. I say, things
may be allowed to move forward as they are moving, with
no resistance presented on the part of the people, and
every momentum applied by the privileged classes.
Under this supposition, the crisis must be consummated
by the destruction of American liberty, and, with Ameri-
can liberty, that of the world.
Then must we witness the final degradation of indus-
try, the extinction of all moral principle, the enslavement
of the mass of the population, (even as is now the case
in Great Britain,) and in lieu of a nation of self-respecting,
self-governing freemen, we shall see a crafty priesthood,
and a monied aristocracy, ruling a herd of obsequious de-
pendants, trembling fanatics, and sorrow-stricken paupers.
This fearful termination, however, I hold to be highly
improbable, I will say all but impossible. How great
soever may have been the popular supineness, we may ob-
serve, at this time, symptoms of a general awakening;
and even, were it possible, which it is not, to close again
the eyes which have once caught a ray of the light of
truth, still is there such saving power in the institutions of
the land, that, in the last extremity, they alone would suf-
B

14 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND.
fice to rouse the children of the men of '76, and save from
capture this last strong hold of human liberty.
No! let Presbyterian ambition ring her peal; it shall
be answered by the larum of freedom | Let superstition
spread her mists, and thick clouds of darkness; they shall
be dispersed by the sun of knowledge | Let false preten-
sion and false wealth, spring their mine under the citadel
of the state; the people, though they slumber, yet shall
they awake, detect the ambush, and defeat the treacheryl
Let priestcraft devise his nets, multiply his emissaries, pour
his wily lesson into female ears—let him “eat the fat,
and drink the sweet,” and make heavy the strong box of
his treasury—ſet him bribe, and threaten, and flatter, and
slander, and persecute, all in the name of the Lord; and,
under the false colors of truth, where there is only error;
humility, where there is only pride; and peace, where there
is deadliest war—let priestcraft so strive, with poisoned
arrow, and dagger aimed in darkness, against the true in-
terests of man, the true dignity of woman, and the weal
of the human race—let priestcraft, I say, so strive; un-
armed truth shall baffle his wiles, and break his sword of
flesh with the sword of the mind!
No! my fears picture not the worst of all catastrophes,
the final triumph of spiritual oppression and monied cor-
ruption, in this last haven of liberty and hope of the world.
No! the cause of the people must triumph. But how !
Here is the only question; and here is the only anxiety
which ever clouds my hopes, or alarms my confidence.
The second form which the approaching revolution may
wear, even in this land, is more than possible; and no-
thing, indeed, but timely measures, planned with wisdom,
and carried with perseverance, can avert it. This second
mode supposes some farther supineness on the part of the
people, while existing evils and abuses increase and accu-

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 15
mulate, until, the cup of popular calamity being filled, the
last drop shall make it flow over. The American popula-
tion, then, not coerced as in Europe by standing armies,
and all the convenient machinery of despotism, shall sud-
denly take their wrongs into their own hands, and rush,
without deliberation, and without knowledge, to their re-
medy.
Alas for the unsullied robe of American liberty, should
this be so! Alas for that unspotted shrine which the
hands of sages reared, and which the foot of wisdom
should alone approach Oh, not thus—not thus be the
victory won! May the means be pure as the end 1 May
the cause which brings ushere this night, be secured with-
out one act to raise a blush, one step to wish retracted,
one deed to wish undone!
The third mode of revolution, then, be ours; that mode
which is alone worthy of a people who have assumed
equal liberty for their motto, and declared their expressed
will the law of the land. Let the industrious classes,
and all honest men of all classes, unite for a gradual, but
radical reform, in all the objects, and all the measures of
government; and let this be done through, and by the
means supplied in their constitutional code: namely-
through their legislatures.
But, will it be said, this is sooner recommended than
effected? Yes; and better that it should be so. Were
the people to carry the citadel while unprepared to use
wisely the advantage, better that it were not in their hands.
Power without knowledge is like an unbroke horse, it runs
fast, indeed, but misses the goal.
First, then, the people must bear in mind, that to be
successful they must be united; to be united they must be
of one mind; to be of one mind they must distinguish the
first best measure to be carried; and, having distinguished

16 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND.
that best measure, must set hand to hand, heart to heart,
and vote to vote, for its adoption and execution.
I have already delivered it as my opinion, that this mea-
sure will be found in a plan of equal, universal, and re-
publican education, and explained how and why I consi-
der it as alone commensurate with the two great objects
we have in view—the relief of the present generation, and
the improvement of the next.
First: the relief of the present generation. So long as
the industrious classes remain burdened with the charge of
their families—with their food, clothing, education, and
fitting out in life, it is impossible for them to be relieved of
their burdens. And, so long as virtuous parents of any
and all classes, shall see for their children no surer protec-
tion than that supplied by their own uncertain existence,
it is impossible for all, or any, to know peace of mind.
Second: the improvement of the next generation. It
will be my object hereafter to show in developing the
principles of law and government, (to which I pledged
myself at the close of my discourse on the nature of mo-
ral science,) it will be my object, I say, hereafter to show,
that, with a few exceptions, the whole of government, pri-
vate and public, national and domestic, will be found, when
properly understood, to resolve itself into education. At
present I shall only reiterate a remark often presented to
my hearers, that a rational education is the only road to
knowledge, virtue, and happiness; a republican education
the only road to equality; and a national education, (by
which I understand an education conducted at the ex-
pense, and under the protection of the people, acting
through their fairly chosen and properly instructed repre-
sentatives,)the only safeguard of youth, and the only bul-
wark of a free constitution.
Some fears have been expressed lest the measure now

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 17
proposed should be perverted by the restless spirit of ortho-
doxy, and the all-meddling ambition of priestcraft, to a
source of evil instead of good; lest, in fine, it should
be associated with the Sunday School Union, Bible Society,
and Tract House. A little consideration will, I think,
expose the groundlessness of these apprehensions. In
the first place, it will be observed, that the measure will be
national, and not sectarian; political, and not religious;
proposed by the people's voice for the people's good; can-
vassed in broad daylight, carried in broad daylight, and
paid for in broad daylight. Priests' have never worked
save in the dark; priestcraft can only thrive by means of
secret associations. Orthodoxy owes all its strength to
the disunion of the people, and to the habit of silent and
sectarian congregationing in churches, in lieu of popular
assembling in popular halls. The organization of popu-
lar assemblies must form a necessary part of the reform
now contemplated. Before the measure of republican
state schools can be carried, the popular union must be
cemented by means of popular meetings. A people uni-
ting for any purpose are no longer sectarian; and, when
no longer sectarian, they can, in this country, be no longer
priest-ridden. Let the fate of the sabbath mail petitions
foreshow the issue of all priestly or sectarian interference
with a question really popular. Let such a measure as
that in contemplation be broughtforward by the people, and
let orthodoxy intermeddle if it dare.
But the safety of the measure will appear more clearly
when we shall have developed the modein which, as Icon-
ceive, it can alone be carried; and the model of which we
must seekin the opening page of your national history.
When the American people, galled with the yoke of
British servitude, resolved to pass the circumstances of
their condition in review, they convened a general as-
B2 3
18 STATE or PUBLIC MIND.
sembly of delegates from all the then colonies; and thus
unity of design was effected throughout a population fee-
ble, scattered, and, up to that hour, unaccustomed to consi-
der each other as fellow citizens. Now, without calcula-
ting upon a spirit of enthusiasm approaching to that of
1774, which existing circumstances suffice not to engen-
der, I believe it more easy now than it was then to fixlast-
ingly the attention of the people upon some measure of
general utility.
This nation is fairly tired out with religious quarrelling
and religious taxation, andfavorably disposed to receive any
better substitute. It is also warmly attached to its politi-
cal institutions, and prone to estimate justly any measure
calculated to fix them deeper in the heart, and to enhance
their practical excellence. I may remark, in evidence of
this, that it has not happened to me once to touch upon
the subject of popular union as attainable, and attainable
only, through the means of a uniform plan of education,
without eliciting a spontaneous sentiment of approval.
I have now made the experiment from Missouri to
Massachusetts, along the line of our eastern cities, and in
the towns of the interior. I have addressed, not small as-
semblages, but masses of the population, and I have inva-
riably found the popular sentiment on the side of know-
ledge versus faith, and union versus sectarian divisions.
I think, then, the public mind ripe for the measure, or ra-
ther for the discussion of the measure, which is all that,
in the first place, should be proposed.
To facilitate, then, first its discussion, and then its exe-
cution, I would suggest the propriety of organizing in each
city, town, and district of influence, popular associations,
for the simple object of discovering and promoting the true
interests of the American people, distinct from all class, all
sect, all party, and all speculative opinions. That, the bet-


STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 19
ter to impart energy and unity of plan to the whole, a
central point be chosen, say Philadelphia, that city ap-
pearing the best prepared to take the lead; and that, by
means of standing committees, a correspondence between
that centre and all parts of the country be opened.
In this manner the attention of the American nation
may rapidly be awakened, the spirit of popular union fos-
tered, useful enquiry set afloat, the plots of orthodoxy and
priestcraft exposed and defeated, pledges interchanged for
carrying, at the elections, friends to human liberty, or,
rather, men pledged to the support of upright mea-
sures; and, first and chief, to the carrying the one great
measure of a system of equal universal republican educa-
tion.
I would not propose, however, that this great measure
should be entrusted to any man, or set of men, without
the revisal and distinct approval of the people. Let indi-
viduals be appointed to draft, or to cause to be drafted, a
bill setting forth the plan in all necessary detail, and let
the same be submitted to the people through their com-
mittees of correspondence. After due consideration, and
general publication throughout the country, let that be
made the turning point of the elections—until, in one
legislature, no matter which, it be presented, and presented
again and again, until, being carried, the first stone of
that temple be laid in which we may find hope, and the
rising generation prosperity. -
In presenting this sketch of the plan of procedure,
which, after deep and earnest reflection, presents itself to
my mind as best calculated to ensure purity and unity of
measures in the great national reform so greatly requisite,
and, by all good minds, so ardently desired, I would not
be understood as counselling hasty measures. Though
all reform be possible in a country blessed with a govern-

20 STATE OF PUBLIC MIND,
ment purely representative in principle, the progress of re-
form must always keep pace with the public mind. Faster
it cannot advance, and faster wisdom would not desire it.
Revolutions that are effected in a day are ever deceptive.
They involve a change of men rather than of measures;
of names and forms rather than of principles. The revo-
lution we have to effect is mental and moral, and must be
reached through the means of instructional improvement.
But, as I had occasion to observe on a former occasion,
to remould the national character through the rising gene-
ration, we must begin by informing ourselves as to the
best means for effecting the alteration. We must enquire;
we must examine; we must deliberate; and we must en-
quire, examine, and deliberate together. While split into
sects, and parties, and classes, the strength of the Ameri-
can people must continue paralyzed, and their noble insti-
tutions next to useless. Without union there is no strength,
without union there is no progress, without union there
can be no republic.
To unite, then, but to unite on true principles, be our
motto; to move steadily in the right direction, not to move
fast, be our object. Doubt we what are true principles?
The pen of the immortal Jefferson hath proclaimed them.
In this noble instrument, (unrolling the declaration of
independence,) signed with a nation's sanction, sealed
with a nation's blood, shall we find them.
The equal rights of all, as set forth in this instrument,
the common interests of all, as discoverable by enquiry,
be it the law of our hearts to respect, the labor of our lives
to establish.
In applying ourselves to this good work of honest citi-
zenship, letus question no man's faith; let us wound, if
possible, no man's prejudices; let us ask the sacrifice of no
man's honest opinion. But, neither, on the other hand,

STATE OF PUBLIC MIND. 21
let us gainsay a truth in order to conciliate folly, nor im-
molate a principle with a view to expediency. Let us not
court the rich man, humor the fanatic, nor favor or disfa-
vor the sceptic. Let us win the battle, if slowly, yet
surely, under the shield of unarmed truth, in the strength
of a righteous cause. Thus let us associate; not as
Jews, not as Christians, not as Deists, not as believers, not
as sceptics, not as poor, not as rich, not as artizans, not as
merchants, not as lawyers, but as human beings, as fellow
creatures, as American citizens, pledged to protect each
other's rights—to advance each other's happiness.
Not to buildup a sect, then, let us associate, but to lead
all sects to this altar of union (holding up the declara-
tion of independence) which they have forsaken—this
shrine of human liberty—this law of a common country
which they have forgotten.
So let us unite, my fellow citizens! and, strong in the
same principle which achieved this nation's independence,
shall we heal the wounds of the land, remedy its evils,
stifle its dissentions, until we gather, as one family, into
the courts of knowledge, of virtue, of happiness, and of
equality.




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