"The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare ... as a comet or an earthquake. It has been observed that we are all of us lawyers, divines, politicians, and philosophers. And I have good authorities to say that all candid foreigners who have passed through this country and conversed freely with all sorts of people here will allow that they have never seen so much knowledge and civility among the common people in any part of the world.... Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.... They have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge -- I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers." 239
Importance of Good Local School Boards
The success of this educational effort was due largely to the careful selection of highly conscientious people to serve on the school committees in each community and supervise the public schools. Historian John Fiske says these school committees were bodies of "great importance." Then he adds:
"The term of service of the members is three years, one third being chosen annually. The number of members must therefore be some multiple of three. The slow change in the membership of the board insures that a large proportion of the members shall always be familiar with the duties of the place. The school committee must visit all the public schools at least once a month, and make a report to the town every year. It is for them to decide what textbooks are to be used. They examine candidates for the position of teacher and issue certificates to those whom they select." 240
European and American Literacy Compared
The unique and remarkable qualities of this program are better appreciated when it is realized that this was an age when illiteracy was the common lot of most people in Europe. John Adams, who spent many years in France, commented on the fact that of the 24 million inhabitants of France, only 500,000 could read and write. 241
In the American colonies the intention was to have all children taught the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic, so that they could go on to become well informed citizens through their own diligent self-study. No doubt this explains why all of the American Founders were so well read, and usually from the same books, even though a number of them had received a very limited formal education. The fundamentals were sufficient to get them started, and thereafter they became remarkably well informed in a variety of areas through self-learning. This was the pattern followed by both Franklin and Washington.
De Tocqueville Comments on American Education in 1831
Gradually, the zeal for universal education spread from New England to all of the other colonies. By 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville of France visited the United States, he was amazed by the fruits of this effort. He wrote:
"The observer who is desirous of forming an opinion on the state of instruction among the Anglo Americans must consider the same object from two different points of view. If he singles out only the learned, he will be astonished to find how few they are; but if he counts the ignorant, the American people will appear to be the most enlightened in the world....
"In New England every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution. In the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon." 242
Excursions in the Wilderness
De Tocqueville pointed out that as the visitor advanced toward the West or the South, "the instruction of the people diminishes." Nevertheless, he said, "there is not a single district in the United States sunk in complete ignorance...." 243 De Tocqueville made extensive excursions along the frontier and commented on his observations as follows:
"At the extreme borders of the confederated states, upon the confines of society and wilderness, a population of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce the solitudes of the American woods.... As soon as the pioneer reaches the place which is to serve him for a retreat, he fells a few trees and builds a log house. Nothing can offer a more miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings.... Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him. Everything about him is primitive and wild, but he is himself the result of the labor and experience of eighteen centuries. He wears the dress and speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present; he is, in short, a highly civilized being, who consents for a time to inhabit the backwoods, and who penetrates into the wilds of the New World with the Bible, an axe, and some newspapers. It is difficult to imagine the incredible rapidity with which thought circulates in the midst of these deserts [wilderness]. I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France." 244
Education Includes Morality and Politics
He then went on to comment concerning the close relationship between the program of universal education and the preservation of freedom:
"It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case, I believe, where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.... An American should never be led to speak of Europe, for he will then probably display much presumption and very foolish pride.... But if you question him respecting his own country, the cloud that dimmed his intelligence will immediately disperse; his language will become as clear and precise as his thoughts. He will inform you what his rights are and by what means he exercises them; he will be able to point out the customs which obtain in the political world. You will find that he is well acquainted with the rules of the administration, and that he is familiar with the mechanism of the laws.... The American learns to know the laws by participating in the act of legislation; and he takes a lesson in the forms of government from governing. The great work of society is ever going on before his eyes and, as it were, under his hands.
"In the United States, politics are the end and aim of education.... 245
Even Young Children Trained in the Constitution
To appreciate the literal reality of the emphasis on politics in early American education, one need only examine the popular textbook on political instruction for children. It was called a "Catechism on the Constitution," and it contained both questions and answers concerning the principles of the American political system. It was written by Arthur J. Stansbury and published in 1828.
Early Americans knew they were in possession of a unique and valuable invention of political science, and they were determined to promote it on all levels of education.
Early Americans Educated to Speak with Eloquence
In 1843, Daniel Webster made a statement which might surprise Americans of our own day:
"And whatever may be said to the contrary, a correct use of the English language is, at this day [1843], more general throughout the United States than it is throughout England herself." 246
It was commonplace for the many people on the frontier, as well as on the Atlantic seaboard, to speak with a genuine flavor of eloquence. Sermons and orations by men of limited formal education reflected a flourish and style of expression which few Americans could duplicate today. Many of these attributed their abilities to extensive reading of the Bible. Such was the case with Abraham Lincoln. Certainly the classical beauty of the Gettysburg Address and his many other famous expressions cannot be attributed to college training, for he had none.
Cultural Influence of Extensive Bible Reading
Not only did the Bible contribute to the linguistic habits of the people, but it provided root strength to their moral standards and behavioral patterns. As Daniel Webster stated, wherever Americans went,
"the Bible came with them." Then he added:
"It is not to be doubted, that to the free and universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were much indebted for right views of civil liberty. The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial revelation from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow-man." 247
In our own day the public schools have been secularized to the point where no Bible reading is permitted. The Founding Fathers would have counted this a serious mistake.
Twenty-Fourth Principle: A free people will not survive
unless they stay strong.
A free people in a civilized society always tend toward prosperity. In the case of the United States, the trend has been toward a super-abundant prosperity. Only as the federal government has usurped authority and intermeddled with the free-market economy has this surge of prosperity and high production of goods and services been inhibited.
But prosperity in the midst of thriving industry, fruitful farms, beautiful cities, and flourishing commerce always attracts the greedy aspirations of predatory nations. Singly, these covetous predators may not pose a threat, but federated together they may present a spectre of total desolation to a free, prosperous people. Before the nation's inhabitants are aware, their apocalypse of destruction is upon them.
It was the philosophy of the Founders that the kind hand of Providence had been everywhere present in allowing the United States to come forth as the first free people in modern times. They further felt that they would forever be blessed with freedom and prosperity if they remained a virtuous and adequately armed nation.
Franklin's Philosophy of Defense
Franklin Disgusted with Popular Apathy
The Thoughts of George Washington
Washington's Fifth Annual Address to Congress
A Duty to the Creator to Preserve Freedom and Unalienable Rights
The American Inheritance
Franklin's Philosophy of Defense
Clear back in 1747, Benjamin Franklin vividly comprehended the task ahead. Said he:
"Were this Union formed, were we once united, thoroughly armed and disciplined, were everything in our power done for our security, as far as human means and foresight could provide, we might then, with more propriety, humbly ask the assistance of Heaven and a blessing on our lawful endeavors." 248
Peace was the goal, but strength was the means. Franklin envisioned the day when a prudent policy of national defense would provide the American people with the protection which their rise to greatness would require. He wrote:
"The very fame of our strength and readiness would be a means of discouraging our enemies; for 'tis a wise and true saying, that "One sword often keeps another in the scabbard." The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent." 249
Franklin further saw that those in authority have the inherent responsibility to initiate the means by which adequate defenses can be provided. He declared:
"Protection is as truly due from the government to the people, as obedience from the people [is due] to the government." 250
In later life he held to the same solid philosophy of peace through strength as an assurance of survival in the future:
"Our security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; that creates an increasing ability of assisting this nation in its wars, which will make us more respectable, our friendship more valued, and our enmity feared; thence it will soon be thought proper to treat us not with justice only, but with kindness, and thence we may expect in a few years a total change of measures with regard to us; unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit, and our western people become as tame as those in the eastern dominions of Britain [India], when we may expect the same oppressions; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, "Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you." 251
Franklin Disgusted with Popular Apathy
Franklin had a low opinion of people who waved the flag of liberty but would do little or nothing to provide the means for defending it. His mind-set called for action to back up the words. Writing from England, he declared:
"Our people certainly ought to do more for themselves. It is absurd, the pretending to be lovers of liberty while they grudge paying for the defense of it. It is said here, that an impost of five percent on all goods imported, though a most reasonable proposition, had not been agreed to by all the States, and was therefore frustrated; and that your newspapers acquaint the world with this, with the non-payment of taxes by the people, and with the non-payment of interest to the creditors of the public. The knowledge of these things will hurt our credit." 252
The Thoughts of George Washington
George Washington is often described as "First in peace, first in war, first in the hearts of his countrymen."
No American occupied a more substantive position, either then or now, to proclaim what he considered to be a necessary posture for the preservation of the nation. He had literally risked "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" for the cause of freedom and performed that task under circumstances which would have smothered the endurance of men with lesser stamina and courage. He fought the Revolutionary War with no navy of any consequence, no trained professional army of either size or stability, and no outpouring of genuine support from the very states he was striving to save. He could have retired in bitterness after Valley Forge and Morristown, but that was not his character. He did not relish the anguish of it all, but he endured it. To George Washington, it was all part of "structuring a new nation."
Washington's position on national defense was in terms of grim realities experienced on the field of battle. No man wanted peace more than he. And no man was willing to risk more in life and property to achieve it. In nearly the same words as Franklin he declared:
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." 253
Washington also saw the fallacy of waiting until an attack had occurred before marshalling available resources. He wrote:
"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite." 254
Washington also saw the fallacy of a policy of interdependence with other nations which made the United States vulnerable in time of war. In his first annual address to Congress, he spoke of the people's general welfare, then stated:
"And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essentials, particularly military supplies." 255
Washington felt that neither politics nor world circumstances should lure the American people into a posture of complacency. He felt that vigilance was indeed the price of freedom, and unless it was promoted with firmness and consistency the future of the United States would be in jeopardy. In another speech he said:
"The safety of the United States, under Divine protection, ought to rest on the basis of systematic and solid arrangements, exposed as little as possible to the hazards of fortuitous circumstances." 256
Washington's Fifth Annual Address to Congress
As President, Washington perceived the tendency of Congress to avoid its responsibility to provide adequate defenses. Because the President was personally responsible for the nation's foreign relations, he was well aware that the new born United States had a long way to go to insure decent respect and deference from the arrogant European powers. In his fifth annual address to Congress, he said:
"I cannot recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world, without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense, and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us."
257
Washington could already see the predatory monarchs of Europe planning to slice up the United States and divide it among them unless the people alerted themselves to the exigencies of the day. The British still had their troops stationed along the northern border of U.S. territory. The Spanish had definite aspirations to make a thrust into the Mississippi heartland. From Washington's point of view, all was not well in America's happy valley. Therefore he told the Congress:
"There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." 258
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