VIEWS ON EDUCATION. 21 chusetts can be mistaken or misinterpreted. The record of her declared opinions is resplendent with instruction, and even with prophecy; but she was treated for years as the Cassandra of the States, disliked because of her fidelity to the ancient faith, and avoided because of her warnings and her testimony. And now, when the Divine Providence is leading all the people in ways they had not imagined, I will not dare attempt to run before, and possibly imperil, the truth itself. Let him lead to whom the people have assigned the authority and the power. One great duty of absorbing, royal patriotism, which is the public duty of the occasion, demands us all to follow. Placed in no situation where it becomes me to discuss his policy, I do not stop even to consider it. The only question which I can entertain is what to do, and, when that question is answered, the other is what next to do, in the sphere of activity where it is given me to stand; for by deeds, and not by words, is this people to accomplish their salvation. Let ours be the duty in this great emergency to furnish, in unstinted measure, the men and the money required of us for the common defence. Let Massachusetts ideas and Massachusetts principles go forth, with the industrious, sturdy sons of the Commonwealth, to propagate and intensify, in every camp and upon every battle-field, that love of equal liberty, and those rights of universal humanity, which are the basis of our institutions; but let none of us who remain at home presume to direct the pilot or to seize the helm. To the civil head of the National State, to the military head of the National Army, our fidelity, our confidence, our constant, devoted, unwavering support, rendered in the spirit of intelligent freemen, of largeminded citizens, conscious of the difficulties of government, the responsibilities of power, the perils of distrust and division, are due without measure and without reservation. The Great Rebellion must be put down, and its promoters crushed beneath the ruins of their own ambition. The greatest crime of history must receive a doom so swift and sure, that the enemies of popular government shall stand in awe while they contemplate the elastic energy and concentrative power of democratic institutions and a free people. Inspired by trust in God, and an immortal hate of wrong, let us consecrate to-day every personal aspiration and every private hope in one united apostrophe to our country and her cause: Where thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." While we naturally glance first at the military features of Gov. Andrew's administration, it should be borne in mind that he looked after the interests of the State, in all directions, with his characteristic energy and ability. We point with pride to his message of January, 1863, in which he treats of the educational interests of the Commonwealth with a clearness of insight, and breadth of view, rarely equalled. President Hill, of Harvard Col lege, who probably is better acquainted than any other man with Gov. Andrew's views on the subject of education, remarks, in a private letter, Gov. Andrew has, during his official career, shown a great interest in the cause of education, and an understanding of its needs far above that of statesmen in general. I know of no man whose general views are wider in their grasp, or wiser in their details. His message to the Legislature, Jan. 10, 1863, has been quoted with high approbation in France and in Germany; and, had the General Court that winter shown any thing of the same lofty spirit, Massachusetts would have placed herself, under his administration, in the same high rank in the work of education that she took in the work of upholding the Federal Government. But he was in advance of his State, and the great opportunity failed. Yet how nobly he bore it! and with what wis dom set himself about accomplishing, in the best manner, the inferior ends to which the Legislature determined to apply the fund! Perhaps, as a purely literary production, his address before the New-England Agricultural Society, in September, 1864, is especially creditable. It closed with this passage: In behalf of such a Union and such a Government, a people like those of New England will continue in the future as they have done in the past, by the methods of peace and in the shock of arms, to struggle against every foe, unconscious of dismay, and despising temptation. For the preservation of our nationality, they have, like their brethren in other sections, accepted the dread appeal to arms. For the sake of maintaining government and order and public liberty, the loyal men of the Union have not shunned the arbitrament of war. Lovers of peace, and haters of discord, we of New England are slow to draw the blade; but we are slower still to yield to the infamy which must blast a coward's name, or to that infirmity of purpose which grows tired of a grand and momentous duty because it tasks our manhood or our faith. To protect the printing-press, the plough, the anchor, the loom, the cradle, the fireside, and the altar, the rights of labor, the earnings of industry, the security and the peace of home, if it must be, we can wield the sword, nor return it hastily to its wonted scabbard; for the brand of war becomes then the sacred emblem of every duty and every hope. THE MILITIA. Or on some sterile plain, and stern,- Or 'mid fierce crags and bursting rills, 23 The Governor's last words upon the militia of the State were spoken Jan. 3, 1866. He gave very clearly his views of its condition and wants; saying, in regard to the latter, I had hoped, during nearly five years, to have the satisfaction, on my relinquishing office, of leaving a strong body of active militia, well organized, well disciplined, thoroughly armed, uniformed, and equipped. With careful pains, the material needed for the purposes of such a body, ample in numbers, has been accumulated; and had it been in my power to district the Commonwealth, and draft soldiers up to the number of men of different arms limited by the act of 1865, with the right also to receive volunteers and substitutes instead of drafted men, and also to cause the uniforms to be served out both understandingly and with safety to the public property, it would have been easy at this moment to present rolls and rosters of a body of citizen-soldiers never surpassed. The proportion of active militia would have been about one-fifteenth of the whole body of men enrolled for duty. And, at a reasonable compensation for each day's training, it would be easy to keep on foot such a proportion. Militia service, like service on the juries or other public duties, would be regarded as alike important and honorable. If the term for each man was limited to three years, no young man would deem it onerous; and, with all our recent experiences fresh in mind, the people of Massachusetts could not be contented with the wasteful economy of leaving the State undefended, and unready for any defence. We have now in commission many officers, and on our rolls many soldiers, of the highest merit. It was my utmost pride to be completely identified with their final and successful organization; but it was not fit for me, by anticipating events or acting in advance of needful legislation, to risk the great interests of the future strength and fame of the militia. Calling renewed attention to the reports referred to, I leave the subject to the wisdom of the Legislature. Gov. Andrew's Message to the Legislature, April 17, 1865, on the death of Mr. Lincoln, was perhaps, for a brief document, one of his best efforts. We can quote no more than the opening and closing paragraphs, passing over his clear and accurate analysis of the President's character, which we have not seen equalled by any published estimates of his qualities of mind and heart: Since the last adjournment of the General Court of Massachusetts, the people of the United States have been overtaken by a great and enduring sorrow. In the midst of the exultations of recent and repeated victory, in the midst of the highest hopes, of the most auspicious omens, in the hour of universal joy, the nation passed at once, by an inscrutable and mysterious Providence, into the valley of the shadow of death. Assembled while the cloud is yet thick upon our eyes, and the hearts of men are oppressed by the sense of a strange dismay, it has become my mournful duty to record, by formal and official announcement to the legislative department of the Commonwealth, this calamitous and distressing event. But there now remains to us yet another and perhaps a greater labor. On the ruins of that social despotism, over the fallen altars of that barbarism, in whose despairing death-throe was planned and executed this dastardly assassination, by the side of the bleeding form of all that was mortal in that magnanimous father of his people, let us pronounce the vows of a new obedience. "Powers depart, Possessions vanish, and opinions change, And passions hold a fluctuating seat; Order, law, freedom, and true civilization, must rise into life all over the territory blasted by despotism, barbarism, and treason. The schemes of sentimental politicians, who neither learn nor forget, whose ideas of constructive statesmanship are only imitative as are the mechanical ideas of the bee or the beaver; the plans of men who would rebuild on the sand, for the sake of adhering to a precedent, must be utterly, promptly, and forever rejected. Let the Government and the people resolve to be brave, faithful, impartial, and just. With the blessing of God, let us determine to have a country the home of liberty and civilization. Let us deserve success, and we shall surmount every obstacle, we shall survive delays, we shall conquer defeat, we shall win a peaceful victory for the great ages of the future, and, for the cause of mankind, we shall requite these years of toil and war. The blood of all this noble army of the martyrs, from the soldiers of Massachusetts who fell in Baltimore, to Abraham Lincoln the President, who has mingled his own with theirs, -the blood of this noble army of martyrs shall be, as of old, the seed of the Church. Gov. Andrew's proclamations, especially those for Thanksgiv ings, were remarkable productions, marked with religious fervor, full of Bible language, quoted with singular aptness, and reminding us of the days of the Puritans. They were celebrated and read all over the loyal States, and will ever remain as brilliant, MR. QUINT'S TRIBUTE. 25 and at the same time patriotic and Christian documents of remarkable beauty and power. We have neither space nor inclination to discuss questions of policy or personal appreciation which arose, and were sometimes attended with deep feeling, in the administration of civil and military power. It would not be strange if mistakes were made, unjust and injurious prejudices formed, and merit overlooked. The views of Gov. Andrew upon the subject of capital punishment, his dissent from popular opinions in other matters, and his personal estimate of particular officers, will be criticised, and by many condemned; but none can question his sincerity of devotion to the great interests of the people and to the rights of humanity. The testimony of Rev. A. H. Quint, for three years the popular chaplain of the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, in his Election Sermon, January, 1866, is very just and emphatic; and we give it at length: Well was it for Massachusetts, that, when the clouds were lowering, she called to the chair of the Executive a man who could say, I know not what record of sin may await me in another world; but this I know: I was never mean enough to despise any man because he was ignorant, nor because he was poor, nor because he was black." Massachusetts needed such a man in such a crisis. She wanted one who believed in man, yet not the less believed in God; one in whose nature was inborn her hereditary love of freedom, yet no more inflexible in his faith than determined in its development; one to be not only the exponent, but the fearless leader, of her sentiment; one to steady the heart of his State, and yet to stimulate the central Government in the path of justice. She wanted a man of experience in statesmanship; one whose ability to grasp the various interests of the public good should be equalled only by an energy which could accomplish the enormous work thrown upon him; one who, in any exigency, would dare take responsibility, yet with reverence for the rights of the people; one who would bear in his heart her constant interests of agricultural and other industry, her great system of education, and her reformatory or penal or charitable institutions; one who could carry her finances through an unprecedented strain; and, added thereto, one who could, with firmness, energy, and delicacy, conduct those military measures which were to raise, equip, organize, and officer a force ten times as large as the then army of the United States. We ap We recognize the hand of Providence in giving us such a man. preciate the able coadjutors in council and in the departments of the staff. We are grateful for the vast work done, and so well done. To have been the Governor of Massachusetts for five such years called by the spon |