along the southern boundary of Marion County, in which Indianapolis is situated. The northern counties gave a majority of 18,270 for free schools; while the southern division, deriving its population chiefly from the South, gave a majority of 1634 against the proposition. Professor Boone has pointed out that “notwithstanding the denser population having the older settlements, the established industries, and all of the colleges but one, the most insistent opposition to free schools came from the southern half of the State. The influence of local seminaries and colleges seems to have gone for nothing in the movement for free elementary schools.” Mills returned imperturbably to the attack in a third message carefully scrutinizing this vote, and showing that of the thirty-one counties voting negatively, twenty were below the general average of intelligence. The same measure and tolerance that characterized all his addresses show finely in this paper, in which he said: “Let the record of the affirmative vote stand as a proof of the existence in our State of the spirit of ’76. I rejoice that we have such indubitable evidence of it. I rejoice that we have been furnished with such proof that we are not the degenerate sons of noble fathers, but that we possess the spirit to rebuke selfishness wherever found, and however disguised--a kindred spirit to that which pledged life and fortune and sacred honor to the cause of national independence.” A new school law was framed by the legislature in 1848-1849, which legalized public taxation for schools and changed the existing system of school administration; but the respective counties were to be free to adopt or reject the law as they might see fit, and it was only a _via media_, beyond which lay still much ground for the friends of education to conquer. At an election held in August, 1849, the counties exercised their privilege to pass on the new law. Friends and foes of free schools again conducted a heated campaign, both sides amplifying the arguments advanced in the former contest. The result was a majority in favor of the law of 15,767, a decrease from the majority given in the preceding election, though the two results may not fairly be compared, owing to local issues and animosities. Fifty-nine counties voted for the law and thirty-one against it, and of those that rejected it twenty were in the southern half of the State. But the battle was more nearly won than the friends of education imagined. The constitutional convention that met in 1850 prescribed in the organic law of Indiana a foundation which subsequent legislatures have built upon until a comprehensive system of schools, intelligently administered and adequately supported, is now the pride of the State.[37] The friends of education were to meet with further trials and discouragements; but the pioneer work in Indiana education closed when the new constitution had been ratified by the people. It