With a knowledge of these facts Mills made and published, in the winter of 1846, “An Address to the Legislature of Indiana,” and signed it “One of the People.” The motto of this, as of his five succeeding addresses, was, “Read, discuss, and circulate.” These were all written in a tone well calculated to interest and arouse. He handled his statistics skilfully, and made clear the alarming progress of illiteracy in the State. He was as ready with suggestions as with criticisms, and his several papers show him to have been thoroughly informed as to the educational conditions existing in every part of the country. He possessed great patience, and the series of pamphlets was marked throughout by good temper. He wrote in a deliberate manner, rarely showing haste or anxiety, as if confident of the impression that would be created by fair and judicial statement, and with faith in the ultimate triumph of his cause. In the year following the publication of his first address, a call was issued for a general meeting of educators to be held at Indianapolis. Among those interested in the movement were Ovid Butler, afterward the generous benefactor of Butler College, Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and John Coburn. A series of common school conventions followed, and was of great value in unifying sentiment. In the roll of those who were prominent in the first meeting appeared the names of Isaac Blackford, Oliver H. Smith, Calvin Fletcher, Jeremiah Sullivan, Richard W. Thompson, Solomon Meredith, and James Blake, who were of the saving remnant of their time. As a result of the agitation by Mills, the conventions of educators, and the ceaseless activity of many friends of education, the legislature of 1847-1848 authorized the people to express their sentiments for or against a tax for the support of free schools, at the election to be held in the fall of 1848. This was a presidential year, and the Mexican War issues were discussed bitterly in Indiana and in the border States, where slavery lifted its head ominously; but the advocates of free schools forced their issue and evoked from the enemy a variety of objections which strike the sense curiously in these later years. Should the industrious be taxed to support the indolent? Should the people be made benevolent by law? There was priestcraft in the scheme; free schools were merely a bait; the real object was the union of Church and State. Free schools would make education too common, said some; but the fiercest antagonism came from the class for whom the friends of free schools were laboring--the wretchedly poor and ignorant.[36] The vote on the school question was 13,000 less than the vote for president cast the same day, but free schools won, the affirmative vote being 78,523; the negative 61,887--a majority of 16,636 for free schools. The principal opposition to free schools was manifested in the counties lying south of a line drawn across the map