In the electoral colleges which choose the President, in both Houses of Congress, in all the departments of the national government, ignorance at the South is as efficient for evil—as mischievous and dangerous—as if it was in New England or New York, or here in the Western Reserve. It was settled by the war for the Union beyond recall that the United States constitute one people and have one national life, one interest and one destiny. Recognizing this to be one of the legitimate results of the war, the people of the Nation by constitutional amendments entered into every State and defined and regulated those vital elements of free government—citizenship and suffrage. In pursuance of these amendments the lately-emancipated slaves by the most solemn expression of the national will became citizens and voters. In the presence of these facts, how can a statesman say that under this Constitution there is no duty and no power to give national aid to fit by education these freedmen for the responsible positions in which the Nation has placed them? Under the Constitution as it was before these vital amendments were made, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and other great men of the early days of the Republic, whom we are accustomed to call the “Fathers,” by significant and solemn enactments and recommendations fully affirmed the principle that the general government could and ought to give encouragement and aid to the education of the people. They placed in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, as the corner stone of the institutions they wished to build, this article: “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, _schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged_.” Under every administration from the origin of the government to the present time, appropriations of money or land for education in the States and Territories have been made by the general government, and it is now too late to question the constitutional power of Congress to make such grants.