portion of any deficiency that might result in connection with the educational journal. Mr. Collins said he made the remark the other day that Storey County, Nevada Territory, would be good for one hundred dollars if it should be necessary to carry on the journal. He had subscribed twelve dollars on his own account. They could take him for ten dollars, or the balance of the one hundred dollars, just as they pleased. [Laughter and applause.] The President announced that after the adjournment a five dollar subscription would be opened for the support of The California Teacher.* The President read a notice from the Teachers of San Francisco, extending a cordial invitation to those from the interior to visit them at their homes or Schools whenever they might find it convenient, or happened to be in the city. [Applause.] He also gave notice that the examination of pupils in the State Normal School would commence on Tuesday next, and be continued till Wednesday. Professor Swezey passed round the hat for further contributions for the relief of Ira Cole; Mr. Pelton stating that three fourths of the amount requisite was collected yesterday. The total sum realized was ninety dollars and sixty cents. A. H. Goodrich in the Chair. Mr. Swett said: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE :-I return my cordial thanks to you for the flattering resolution which you have just passed. This Institute has more than met my most sanguine expectations. It was stated to me by many that the programme we marked out was an impracticable one, and that the Teachers could not and would not stand it-working nine hours a day; and many, one hundred of them, subject to an examination of written questions involving two hours on each set, and embracing ten sets of questions. But it seems to me that the results of the labors of this Institute show that when the Teachers of California meet together in Convention, they meet for solid and substantial work. I felt, before I issued the Circular, that the men engaged in teaching in California, many of whom had stamped about the State in mining camps, roughed it over the mountains, or worked seven hours a day in the little School houses scattered through the State, would come here and cheerfully devote their whole time and their whole interest and attention to the work of this Institute. You have done it, and I think the results of your labors will be a life giving impulse all through this State, which shall electrify every School District this side of the Sierras; yes, and on the other side of the Sierras. [Applause.] I can but express the hope that this is only the forerunner of an annual State Teachers' Institute which shall outdo, each succeeding *The Secretary has heard the name of Mr. John A. Simons, of Sacramento, as heading the five dollar list, and regrets that he is unable to procure a full list of the names for publication with these proceedings. year, its predecessor in both interest and numbers. It is seldom in the older States of the Atlantic coast that an Institute assembles whose members exceed the number registered as attending this-over four hundred names-and I may state here for information, that one hundred have applied before the State Board of Examination for State certificates, thereby recognizing the demand, on the part of the Teachers of this State, for something more than a one year's certificate of fitness to teach in a Common School, a demand that they shall not be kept vibrating here and there, to be subjected to the annual insult of examination from those who often-not always, but often-are their inferiors in mental qualifications and in everything that relates to fitness and capacity for practical work in the School room. [Applause.] I believe that the Teachers who have assembled at this Institute will go back to their work and their homes feeling stronger and better for the labor which has been done, and vitalized by the spirit of enthusiasm which has been manifested. It was more than the most sanguine of the friends of the State Teachers' Journal could have expected. Even Mr. Smith himself did not expect that such an amount should be raised the very first day of attempting to start a subscription, and now it is a fixed fact; and when this Institute shall assemble a year hence, as I hope it will assemble, I have no doubt that the list of subscribers will be doubled. Ladies and Gentlemen: I regret that the pressing nature of the double duties I have had to perform, in connection with the Institute and State Board of Examination, have absolutely prevented me from becoming personally acquainted with many of you. I hope, as my duties shall call me to travel through the different portions of the State, that I shall yet have the pleasure of becoming acquainted with many of you, in your own School houses, where you are at your daily work. [Applause.] The hour of adjournment having arrived, the President now declares the California State Institute adjourned sine die. [Applause.] DUTIES OF THE STATE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE, At a time like the present, when the nation is one vast Camp of Instruction for armed men ; when argument has ended in the right of appeal to trial by battle; when the one absorbing topic of each successive day is the brief telegram, telling of victories won, or of hope deferred; when our eyes turn with longing gaze across the Sierras to catch the first breaking of the war clouds which fringe their summits-it might seem, at first thought, that a Convention like this, which waives all military and political considerations, and relates only to the peaceful and almost unseen workings of the Public Schools, would be inopportune, and out of harmony with the spirit of the times. But when we stop to ponder and consider the vital relations which Public Schools hold to our national life; when we consider the agency which they have had in supplying the intelligence and the patriotism of the Army; when we begin to feel, amid the terrible realities of war, that the Schools have been the nurseries of loyalty, and the lack of them, the right arm of treason; when we begin to fully realize that the trite truism, "the only safety of a Republican Government is in the virtue and intelligence of the people," is no abstraction-there is a deep significance in this meeting, and in all such Conventions, as concerning the future stability of the Government, and the integrity, power, glory, and unity of the nation. Constitutions and laws may be bequeathed by one generation to its successors; but patriotism, intelligence, and morality die with each generation, and involve the necessity of continual culture and education. Public opinion, the sum of the intelligence of the citizens of the nation, constructs and modifies all constitutions, and breathes vitality into all laws by which the people are governed. Let the public opinion of one generation become demoralized by ignorance, or by passion, resulting from ignorance, and any Constitution is like gossamer to restrain and bind it. It is an axiom in education that the great majority of the people can be well educated only by a system of Free Public Schools, supported by law, in which the property of the State is taxed to educate the children of the State. "The first object of a free people," says Daniel Webster, "is the preservation of their liberty." In a Government where the people are not only in theory the source of all powers, but in actual practice are called upon to administer the laws, it is evident that some degree of education is indispensably necessary to enable them to dis |