to the light! The destiny of how many children has been here influenced and directed! How these meetings have affected the educational policy of the State and the United States.

OTHER ASSOCIATIONS.

At the annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association in Troy, in August, 1856, the superintendents in the cities and villages, and the county commissioners, formed the State Association of Commissioners and Superintendents. The association has met regularly since. This organization has really come to be distinctively an association of county commissioners, as the superintendents have since associated themselves together in still another organization.

On the 4th day of August, 1863, the first meeting of officers and teachers in our colleges and academies, convened by the board of regents, and since called the "University Convocation," occurred, and a similar meeting has been annually held at the capital since.

In 1883, at Syracuse, the superintendents in cities and villages met and organized the "State Superintendents' Council," and have held annual meetings at different points since.

On the 29th of December, 1885, the secondary principals of the State met in the high-school building at Syracuse, and effected an organization, which has since met regularly, and has come to be known as the "Conference of Associated Academic Principals."

Each of these organizations is in vigorous life, with a good record and excellent prospects.

INFLUENCES OF THE ASSOCIATIONS.

The beneficial influences which all these voluntary associations have exerted, and continue to exert, in behalf of the school system is inestimable.

For a great many years a little company of gentlemen with scientific or literary tendencies, and known as the "Albany Institute," has met semimonthly in that city and discussed subjects of mutual interest. The meetings are so quiet and unobtrusive that they attract but little attention, and influence the social life of the capital but imperceptibly. Yet John Ericsson gained his idea of the revolving turret for armed war vessels from a volume of the transactions of the Albany Institute, and from a paper read and long since forgotten.

Who shall say that the deliberations of any association of thinkers go for naught? And who shall undertake to calculate the extent to which all these regular and continuous gatherings of teachers have promoted the general intelligence and the mental strength of the State? There is no standard for such a measurement. As I have read the records of their proceedings, I have been again and again struck with the fact that the leading reforms in the law governing the schools, as well as in the procedure of the schools themselves, have originated with and been accomplished through the operations of these associations. They have concentrated forces and they have distributed information. On the one hand they have removed misunderstandings, originated suggestions, carried the ripest experience and the best thought of each teacher into every city and every village and every district, and on the other hand they have combined educational effort, directed educational energy, and shaped the educational policy of the commonwealth. Each has become a power in itself, but the combined strength of all is invulnerable. Happily, fellowship between them is now so complete that no unusual movement is prosecuted without the concurrence of all, and with such cooperation the success of the undertaking is practically inevitable.

SMALL MATTERS.

I have now, in a way, covered the ground contemplated at the outset. How inadequately I have been able to do so, I am fully aware. Whether or not I have been able to interest you, I can truly say that such investigation as, at odd moments, I have been able to make into the circumstances which produced and the causes which have advanced the State public-school system has been a delight to me-such a delight as I know can not be transmitted through any ability of mine to tell the story. I would I had the time to tell you of some of the small but interesting and amusing matters I have come across in my reading-of the complaints of the regents and that first New York City association, because their lottery investments did not pay better dividends; of the tribulations in the State superintendent's office before Mr. Spencer proposed printed forms for trustees' reports in 1841; of General Dix's hurry and anxiety to get out his report "before the close of navigation;" of the poorer pay and “boarding around "experiences of the earlier teachers; of "summer schools" and "winter schools;" of the physical struggles to decide whether the teacher or the big boys should control the school; of David P. Page, the first normal principal, going about with horse and wagon to examine the candidates for admission and ordinarily determining that they were qualified; of Dr. E. A. Sheldon and Susan B. Anthony, noble man and noble woman that they were and are, sitting side by side in this association year after year, he with his resolutions for the consolidation and more effective organization of educational work, and she with her continual claim for equal rights and a fair show for her sex.

I would like to tell you also of Joseph Lancaster and the Lancastrian methods; of the philanthropy of James Wadsworth, who put The School and the Schoolmaster, a most excellent volume of 550 pages, in the hand of every officer and teacher in the State; of the reciprocal influences of the old academies upon the common schools and the schools upon the academies; of the stubborn contest with sectarianism; of the growth of high schools and night schools and technical schools; of a thousand things which have contributed to the development of the school system in its present form.

The field is a rich one, and it is to be hoped that some loyal son or daughter of the State, who is jealous of her glory and has an inclination and a gift for original research, will enter and cultivate it for the advantage and benefit of all her children.

NEW YORK LEADING THE NATION.

Looking back over the field we can not escape being impressed with the fact that New York has scarcely had full credit for the magnificent part she has borne in making the history of our common country. Few people, very few, have the leisure or the inclination for original research. The multitude are only too ready to take statements at second hand. It is commonly as helpful to the fame of a people to have had fervent poets, orators, and historians among their sons as to have performed the deeds which light the beacon fires of history.

The colony at New Amsterdam loved liberty as dearly and certainly had as true a conception of the public institutions and regulations which guarantee civil and religious freedom as the colony at Plymouth. New York has contributed as liberally as New England to the material as well as the intellectual development of the country.

If these observations are just in any sense, they are as related to the building up of a system of common schools. The first public school in America of which we have any knowledge was upon Manhattan Island. The principle that all the property should educate all the children of a people was first enforced there. The oldest school in America is now maintained at No. 248 West Seventy-fourth street

in the city of New York. It was in the colony of New York that teachers were first required to be certified or licensed. New York was the first State in the Union to levy a general tax for the encouragement of elementary schools, as she was also the first to establish a permanent State common-school fund. She was the first to establish State supervision of elementary schools. She was the first to specially provide for the education of teachers, and she is now doing more for the professional training of teachers than any other. The institute system was first established in New York. She was the first to provide school district libraries. She was the first to publish a journal exclusively devoted to the interests of common schools. The first local association of a permanent character in the country among school teachers was in New York City. The first State teachers' convention in the country was held at Utica, and the oldest permanent State teachers association in America is the one I now have the honor to address.

The first woman's college in America was established at Elmira, and the old Albany Female Academy is the first higher educational institution for women the world ever knew. New York is the only State to have established a special court to determine all school controversies, and provide that its decisions shall be final and conclusive. It is the only State to provide architects' drawings and estimate for schoolhouses, and to determine the character of the structures which localities must provide for school purposes. It is the first and only State to give statutory recognition to the work of the colleges and universities in educating teachers, and to give the same recognition to teachers of acquired position who may come to us from other States. We are doing more to build up a teaching profession, by exacting proper qualifications on the part of teachers and protecting their legal rights, than is being done anywhere else in the country. The great State is spending more money and exercising closer supervision over common schools than any other. The legislative power has been and is continually being exercised to consolidate and systematize her educational work upon an intelligent plan, with a definite purpose, to a greater extent than any commonwealth East or West. It is no thoughtless, self-conceited boast, it is a fact in the case, which her teachers ought to understand, that they may appreciate the responsibility under which they rest, that for what she has done and what she is doing and what she is trying to do her common-school work occupies the leading position among the States of the American Union.

CONCLUSION.

I must conclude upon the instant. Even the hasty and superficial examination of the rise and development of our State common-school system, which we have been able to make in a single evening, will be fruitful of suggestions, which your interest in the subject will easily enable you to discern. The one which comes to me with more force than any other is that history clearly and unmistakably reveals the fact that free schools have invariably been the accompaniment and the support of civil liberty and of government by the people. Wherever there has been self-government there have been common schools; wherever there have been common schools mental strength and manly independence have developed, and the Government has been a democracy, or the kingship has been only a name. We We can not doubt the stability and the permanence of our unique American system of free schools. It is warp and woof of our social fabric the staunchest pillar of our governmental temple. The most deserving and practical patriots are the men and women who do most to simplify and perfect its machinery, to make its work ennobling, and to keep its life pure. The most insidious, and therefore the most dangerous, foe of the Republic is the man whose politics or whose religion, whose ignorance or whose selfishness, leads him, deliberately or unwittingly, to thwart the best results of its high and holy mission.

SMALL MATTERS.

I have now, in a way, covered the ground contemplated at the outset. inadequately I have been able to do so. I am fully aware. Whether or Lo been able to interest you, I can truly say that such investigation a moments, I have been able to make into the circumstances which pro】 the causes which have advanced the State public-school system has been... to me-such a delight as I know can not be transmitted through any mine to tell the story. I would I had the time to tell you of some of the interesting and amusing matters I have come across in my reading plaints of the regents and that first New York City association, beer a tery investiments did not pay better dividends; of the tribulationsuperintendent's office before Mr. Spencer proposed printed forms reports in 1841; of General Dix's hurry and anxiety to get ou' n** r the close of navigation;" of the poorer pay and “boarding aroun the earlier teachers; of "summer schools" and "winter schoo× struggles to decide whether the teacher or the big boys shon de of David P. Fage, the first normal principal, going about with examine the candidates for adm ssion and ordinarily deteru qualified, of Dr. E. A. Sheldon and Susan B. Anthony, 1. woman that they were and are, sitting side by side in this year, he with his resolutions for the consolidation and more of educational work, and she with her continual claim f show for her sex.

I would like to tell you also of Joseph Lancaster and t of the philanthropy of James Wadsworth, who put I master, a most excellent volume of 350 pages, in th teacher in the State, of the reciprocal influences of • common schools and the schools upon the academie sectarianism, of the growth of high schools an 1 schoo.s, of a thousand things which have contr. school system in its present form.

The field is a rich one, and it is to be ho, el ↑ the State, who is jealous of her glory and has research, will enter and cultivate it for * children.