The general government has, however, in various ways committed itself to the cause of education. In addition to setting apart the 16th and 36th sections of each township for educational purposes, appropriations of land in the newer states have been made for state universities. Fifty years ago a surplus fund of about thirty millions of dollars had accumulated in the national treasury. This surplus revenue was distributed, by an act of Congress, among the states then existing. Many of the states set apart their share of this fund for school purposes. The government has maintained at its own expense, a military academy at West Point, for the education of army officers; a naval academy at Annapolis, to educate officers for the navy; a college for deaf mutes at Washington; a school for instruction in the signal service at Fort Whipple, Va., near Washington; and Congress has from time to time during later years done much for the education of the Indians. It has, especially of late, made liberal appropriations for the excellent schools for the Indian youth now maintained at Hampton, Va.; Carlisle, Pa.; Salem, Ore.; Santa Fe, N. M.; and other places. It has maintained common schools at various military posts, and the President has lately established a system of education for the territory of Alaska. It has established and has for many years maintained with great profit to the nation, a Bureau of Education, which by the collection of statistics and the publication of useful circulars of information, has done much to elevate the general status of education.

The founders of the republic were strongly impressed with the necessity of a national university. Washington, in his last will and testament, made a liberal bequest "towards the endowment of a university to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia under the auspices of the general government," and he said that "the accomplishment of the object [will be] obtained, I have not the smallest doubt, before many years pass away." In making his bequest, Washington thus clearly and fully sets forth his views concerning a national university: "It has always been a source of serious regret with me to see the youth of these United States sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education, often before their minds were formed, or they had imbibed any adequate ideas of the happiness of their own; for these reasons it has been my ardent wish to see a plan devised, on a liberal scale, which would have a tendency to spread systematic ideas

through all parts of this rising empire, thereby to do away with local attachments and state prejudices, as far as the nature of things would, or indeed ought to admit, from our national councils. Looking anxiously forward to the accomplishment of so desirable an object as this is (in my estimation), my mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more likely to effect this measure, than the establishment of a university in a central part of the United States, to which the youths of fortune and talents from all parts thereof might be sent for the completion of their education in all the branches of polite literature, in the arts and sciences, in acquiring knowledge in the principles of politics and good government; and, as a matter of infinite importance in my judgment, by associating with each other, and forming friendships in juvenile years, be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from those local prejudices and habitual jealousies, which have just been mentioned, and which, when carried to excess, are never failing sources of disquiet to the public mind, and pregnant with mischievous consequences to this country."

The project has from time to time been entertained and plans proposed by many of our greatest writers, most profound thinkers, and wisest statesmen. It was discussed at length by this Association at Elmira and Detroit, in 1873 and '74. Several articles of great value have lately appeared in our magazines. Some of our most eminent educators, like Ex-President White of Cornell University, Dr. William T. Harris, and others, have discussed the subject with great ability. No valid objections against the general idea have yet been made. The great difficulty has been to devise a plan sufficiently well defined and free from objectionable features which would seem feasible, and especially a plan so formed as to insure its perpetuity, entirely freed from politics, political parties, jobbery and fluctuations, thereby ensuring a wise and steady and permanent management. I shall content myself in the remainder of this paper with the purpose without quoting from authorities, plainly and concisely, and I trust intelligently, to set forth a plan on which it has seemed to me possible for the government to establish a national university which should meet the wants of this great country, and elevate to a high degree good learning in every desirable direction with the wisest and happiest

results.

I. PERMANENT INVESTED FUNDS.

According to the census of 1880, the estimated true valuation

of the property in the United States was forty-three thousand six hundred and forty-two million dollars. The estimated true value in 1870 was thirty thousand sixty-eight million five hundred and eighteen thousand five hundred and seven dollars. These figures show an increase of forty-five per cent. in ten years. Doubtless the wealth of the country has increased during the present decade fully as much. This estimate would give for the entire true valuation of the property of the country in 1890, sixty-three thousand two hundred and eighty million dollars. If the government should set aside for the purpose of a national university two hundred millions, it would be equivalent to an assessment of less than onethird of one per cent. on the estimated true valuation of the property of the country. Please bear in mind that this is not to be an annual assessment, but this appropriation, once for all, of two hundred million dollars would be the permanent endowment of this great university. This endowment could be effected without any direct tax, by turning over to the trustees of the university that amount of government bonds. It is estimated that this sum would be ample for all purposes for a long period of years. The institution must be a growth. It must begin with a few students, and increase year by year in numbers and in the breadth of the instruction. Should the institution succeed in accomplishing what it is confidently believed it would accomplish, then fifty years hence, more or less, if a larger endowment was required it could be made with the greatest ease. At that time there would be, doubtless, no difficulty, should the amount be needed, in raising this endowment to five hundred, or even a thousand million dollars.

II. THE SCOPE OF THE UNIVERSITY.

I do not think there would be sufficient reasons for establishing by the government a national college of the ordinary type. The state universities and the large number of colleges established in the several states by private munificence are sufficient for the needs of the people. If the proposed national university were to be modeled after the plan of Harvard or Yale, Cornell or Ann Arbor, or even Johns Hopkins, it had better not be founded. The purpose and scope of such an institution should be for higher and broader work than can now be done in any existing institution. Its object should be largely for original investigation. It should, in many departments at least, aim primarily to reach out

to the unknown. Its standard should be higher than that of any institution in the world. It should have no undergraduate courses, but all of its work should be above and beyond the ordinary college curriculum. The institution should be closely connected with the Smithsonian Institution; the National Museum; the Bureau of Lighthouses; the Geological Survey; the Coast Survey; the Department of Agriculture; all scientific investigations of the department of the navy, such as deep sea soundings, ocean currents, tides and the like; the weather bureau; the congressional library, and all other departments of the government where the connection would be mutually advantageous. It should include the Bureau of Education, the work of which should be broadened and strengthened.

III. ITS COURSES OF STUDY.

The plan for such a university as here contemplated proceeds on the supposition that the funds at its disposal from year to year are amply sufficient to allow its members and fellows to pursue lines of study for any number of years, even through a lifetime.

(a.) In Natural Science. The lines of study to be pursued in this university in the department of natural science should include the higher realms of investigation in geography, physics, chemistry, meteorology, zoölogy and natural history, physiology, biology, botany, astronomy, - including especially the investigation of the laws and phenomena of the solar system and various lines of study in relation to the fixed stars, nebulæ, and theories of the universe; and special studies in whatever direction might seem, from time to time, wise to undertake. In mentioning the foregoing list, classification of the sciences is not intended, but only to call special attention to certain lines and topics which seem especially to need investigation.

(b.) The Mathematics. Here the effort should be to push this branch of study, like all other branches, to the farthest limit. The higher mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical geometry, the calculus, the mathematics of the earth, e. g., its quantity of matter, weight, size, diameter, circumference, absolute length of a degree of longitude at different latitudes, absolute length of a degree of latitude from the equator to the poles, systems of measurements, etc., astronomical mathematics with all its varied applications in different directions, and in short the study

and investigation of any and every department of mathematical enquiry which might seem wise, necessary or useful.

(c.) Language Study. Under this head should be included the greatest facilities for the study of every language, ancient or modern, that might seem desirable, and to such an extent as might seem desirable; the literature of all nations and of all times; all questions of profound inquiry into the Latin and the Greek languages and literatures, the investigation of intricate and disputed questions concerning modern or ancient languages, and all branches of the study of philology.

(d.) History. Here is a branch of learning which is even now but beginning to be developed and pursued scientifically. Instruction should be given in the philosophy of history, the laws of history, the history of nations and peoples, with special reference to the causes and accessories of their development, growth, strength, and decay; the characteristics of races; the influences of climate; the effects of institutions, and in fine the general laws and philosophy of the development of mankind. Special attention should be paid to the study of our own history and to the types of mind necessary for successful historians and the underlying laws and principles that should govern the writing of any history, bearing in mind the practical advantages which would accrue from the introduction of better and more scientific methods of studying and writing history.

(e.) The Metaphysics. In this department should be elaborated the best methods of study and of teaching the most profound philosophy of all metaphysical inquiry. An historical investigation should be early made into the various leading schools of philosophy in the past, their strength, their weaknesses, and their influence upon human thought. Farther analysis here is unneces

sary.

(f.) Social Science. Under this head might perhaps be included the study of economics, civics, labor and capital, penal and reformatory institutions, the state and education, and many other subjects which need not be specifically mentioned.

(g.) The School of Law. There should be connected with this institution a department for the study of law, which should include a more scientific and complete investigation of the underlying principles of this important line of human inquiry than has ever before been attempted. The department of international law