As to the situation in the old slave states, where the colored population is proportionately large, it is not difficult to understand it. We can appreciate the dread on the part of the whites of an “uprising,” as it is termed, of the colored people. But the words of Jefferson[E]—possibly prophetic unless averted by the exercise of wisdom and fairness—have in them a depth of meaning that none but those whites can fully realize when, speaking of the slaves, he says: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice can not sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a _revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among the possible events_; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest.” Aside from the overawing influence of a large standing army there is but one thing that can prevent a race-conflict, the very possibility of which we dread to contemplate, and that is the benign and liberalizing influence of education, resulting in a free and untrammeled exercise of the elective franchise. Give the former and you will unquestionably secure the latter. That the local as well as sectional inequality in education can be overcome by no other means than by national aid, will be further demonstrated. Nor is it just that we should expect or ask it to be otherwise. No matter now what may have caused this inequality, the fact that it exists is that which now momentously concerns us. We know it can not be removed by recurring to the cause; and it will become more and more evident as we examine the subject that only by speedy and efficient congressional action can we now insure that future educational equilibrium, not only between the races and between the sections, but also between the people in each state, which will have so important a bearing upon the destinies of this nation, and is so essential to the continued peace, prosperity and contentment of its people. Another fact of great importance, as bearing upon the necessity for national aid to education, is revealed by the census returns. It is a curious as well as an important revelation, because it shows that the ratio of children or persons under twenty-one years of age to the adults, is considerably larger in some states than in others, and correspondingly increases the educational burden.