.MTUzNQ.MTY1MjE

269

[1825]

[Governor’s Message]

who feel interested in the good order of society, and in the future as well as the present condition of our community, exert their influence in aid of those laws and those institutions which form and guard the habits and the morals of the people; and may the time never arrive when our posterity shall become insensible of the advantages resulting from the district school, social library and the parish church. Under our system of free schools the opportunity is afforded to every individual of acquiring such education, as will enable him not only to transact the ordinary affairs of his occupation without danger of imposition, but to perform the higher municipal and political duties which may devolve upon him. In some of the States annual returns are made of the situation of the free schools. If the organization of their system be like ours, the returns might be made annually to the office of the Secretary of State, by the Selectmen of the several towns, without inconvenience or expense; and the aggregate would show the number of children instructed in the State, and the amount annually expended in such instruction. Such a return, if sufficiently explicit, would effectually secure the execution of the existing law and prevent any delinquincy [delinquency] on the part of towns, should a disposition ever prevail to avoid a compliance with its provisions. It would also form a useful and interesting document, which, in some measure, would indicate the improvement of the age. The subject may be considered of sufficient importance to merit the attention of the Legislature. Our two principal Literary Institutions are diffusing a beneficial influence throughout the state, and are entitled to the favorable consideration of an