ledge, it is certainly time that the current should be formed. Yes, even before the community begins to suffer for want of knowledge.
The interest manifested in education by this country is an indication of our high appreciation of the necessity and benefits of schools. The schools are a power for good. Whatever a citizen can do to aid popular education, aids the development of the community in which he lives; aids it materially as well as spiritually.
I would beg leave to state that the moral and intellectual welfare, that the material welfare of this mighty nation is in the hands of the school teachers—is dependent upon the education of its citizens.
The safety of our republican and democratic form of government will be found in universal education. It is not enough to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, but philosophy, literature, aesthetics and higher culture in all the branches of human knowledge. The foundation of our educational establishment was laid on a rock near the Atlantic—additions to the original have been built until now it reaches the far-off Pacific. May the structure rise and rise until it reaches Heaven.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
(Extract from address delivered upon the 100th anniversary of Washington's inauguration as
