The efficiency of our public schools has been felt in every department of our social organization. They have been a strong bulwark against the influences of a raw and uninstructed foreign population, who, like a tidal wave, have flooded our shores. Some of these have not only been ignorant and infidel, but filled with monarchical ideas and un-American sentiment. The public schools have brought their children into accord with our American institutions, and developed intelligent patriotism. They have taught the youth common rights and privileges, and helped to generate a union of sympathy and sentiment which leads to the consolidation of our society into a homogeneous body. The colleges, working through the public school teachers, have likewise helped to educate the millions of the manumitted and enfranchised colored people, and to break up sectionalism, allay party strife, and make for the peace, prosperity, and unity of the nation. Our political safety has called for a wise and vigorous effort to educate the masses and to assimilate the heterogeneous elements into our body politic. The public schools and colleges, with their interdependence, have in a great measure met the demand, and given us a legacy of peace, prosperity, and intelligence enjoyed by all the people. Likewise, the colleges have contributed largely to the general prosperity and material progress of society. They are the real centers of power of this enterprising and progressive age. "The revival of learning and the epoch of discovery ushered in the epoch of natural science, which has made possible the epoch of useful inventions."