II.

PRAYER.

REV. WILLIAM H. FISH, JR.

O THOU, who hast been our dwelling place in all generations, as we meet to commemorate the labors, the sacrifices, the wise counsels of those who established our schools, we would remember that Thou art the true and ultimate source of all our blessings; that our fathers sought Thine inspiration and trusted in Thy guidance, and that to Thee, first of all, our gratitude and praise are due. May grateful feelings animate our hearts this evening, and may the exercises in which we here engage help to deepen our sense of responsibility to Thee for the right use and further improvement of those institutions, our precious heritage from the past, on which our liberties and our future welfare as a people so largely depend. Amen.

III.

ADDRESS.

HON. FREDERICK D. ELY,

CHAIRMAN OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,-It is my first duty as presiding officer of this meeting, and I am sure it is the first impulse of my heart, to extend in the name of all the citizens of our town, and especially in the name of the children of the public schools, to our neighbor, Mr. Warren, the representative of the National Government, to His Excellency the Governor of this Commonwealth, to His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, and to the honorable and respected Secretary of the State Board of Education, a hearty and royal welcome and greeting [applause]. We

appreciate the honor of their presence on this occasion. We shall treasure the words of wisdom and good cheer which they will speak to us.

I have much, my friends, in my heart that I wish to say to you on this occasion, not only concerning the schools of two hundred and fifty years ago, but concerning the schools of to-day in the town of Dedham; but I know how anxious we all are to listen to those who will follow me, and my words shall be brief.

We are met here to commemorate a great event. Two hundred and fifty years ago this very day, the inhabitants of this town by vote in town meeting assembled established a free public school and made an appropriation for its support. The proprieties of this occasion forbid the contention that this was the first school of the kind in Massachusetts. But, if our ancestors were not the first in the breach, they were "not slack at least to follow those who might be so."

But whereon the site of the first free public school supported by general taxation may have been, or whatever obscurity may surround that question, it is clear that, in the cause of education, the towns were in advance of the State. The establishment of free public schools by the towns did not follow but preceded and led to the celebrated Colonial Act of 1647. This law, passed three years after free schools were established in Dedham, made education in Massachusetts universal and free. For the first time in the history of the world, the people were compelled by law to maintain schools for the education of all the children. Massachusetts, therefore, has the majestic distinction of originating the free public school.

It was, indeed a great event. Referring to this law and the institution of Harvard College, the great historian, George Bancroft, says:

In these measures, especially in the laws establishing common schools, lies the secret of the success and character of New England. Every child, as it was born into the world, was lifted from the earth by the genius of the country, and in the statutes of the land, received, as its birth-right, a pledge of the public care for its morals and its mind.

But these benefits have not been confined to New England, Out of the little clearings of Eastern Massachusetts this system. of free schools has spread over the broad domain of the American Union. According to the latest statistics, 13,484,572 pupils are enrolled in the public schools, and the total expenditures of these schools amount to $163,568,444. annually.

The joyous shouts of the children of the common schools, ringing over the hills and through the valleys of the land, span the continent from ocean to ocean, and proclaim to the world the assured perpetuity of the Republic. New states vie with the old and those most recently admitted to the Union hold no second place in the excellence of their public schools. At the recent Columbian Exposition, I was struck with wonder at the quality of the school work exhibited by the distant State of Washington. It would have done no discredit to the best schools of the city of Boston. These schools thickly dotting the entire country, and affording educational facilities for a population of 70,000,000, retain the same fundamental character and purpose, are controlled by the same authority and are supported in the same manner of the little school established in this town 250 years ago today. The methods of teaching have improved. The instrumentalities of discipline are not what they once were. The branches taught have wonderfully increased in number. But the essential qualities of the school remain the same.

The distinguishing feature of these schools is that they are controlled by the people and supported by general taxation. This brings them into harmony with our American form of government. They are Democratic. They are Republican. In them the pupils breathe the pure, cheering air of the Declaration of Independence. "All men are created equal" floats gently through every schoolroom like the sweet refrain of some angelic song. A child attends such a school not by privilege or by favor, but by right. He is there by the right of American citizenship, the strongest and proudest, title on the face of the

earth. Above him is the flag of his country. Around him is the protecting arm of the constitution. He may be poor, his jacket may be coarse, his shoes may be broken, but in the public. school he has no superior, though his neighbor may be arrayed like Solomon in all his glory.

Herein lies the grandeur, the dignity, the power and the beneficence of our common schools. Herein lies their superiority to all private schools, however richly such schools may be endowed, or however learnedly they may be conducted. Today these free schools are a blessing beyond price to all the people, and a tower of strength beyond estimation to our American representative government.

The riches of the commonwealth,

Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health;
And more to her than gold or grain,

The cunning hand and cultured brain.

For well she keeps her ancient stock,
The stubborn strength of Pilgrim Rock;
And still maintains, with milder laws,
And clearer light, the Good Old Cause!

Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands,

While near her school the church-spire stands ;
Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,

While near her church-spire stands the school.

THE CHAIRMAN,-Ladies and Gentlemen; our High School was established in 1851. The first teacher was our respected fellow citizen, Mr. Charles J. Capen; but at the end of a year he was called to a more responsible post in the Boston Latin School, where he has been to the present time, respected and honored and revered by thousands of men who are now leaders of society and in business in Massachusetts. His successor, Mr. Slafter, took up the work in our High School and carried it on with remarkable success for a period of forty years. To him has been assigned the duty to-night of making the historical address, and I am sure it could not fall into hands more worthy of it. I now have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. CARLOS SLAFTER.

IV.

ADDRESS.

BY THE REV. CARLOS SLAFTER.

THE observance of an anniversary is a pleasant, and sometimes a most profitable, way of expressing our interest in past events; and, as the centuries roll on, we learn what events are sufficiently important, or have so promoted human welfare, as to call for such recognition. That we have good reason for celebrating to-day the anniversary of a Dedham Town Meeting, will, we trust, become apparent as we examine the work which was there accomplished.

On the first day of January, the eleventh month of the year 1644, as time was then reckoned, two hundred and fifty years ago to-day, the freemen of Dedham assembled in their small,