earlier days of reconstruction, while religious charities
have founded many special schools which have thus far cost
some ten millions more. The Peabody fund has distilled the
dews of heaven all over the South; but heavy rains are
needed; without them every green thing must wither away.

This work belongs to the Nation. It is a part of the war.
We have the Southern people as patriotic allies now. We are
one; so shall we be forever. But both North and South have a
fiercer and more doubtful fight with the forces of ignorance
than they waged with each other during the bloody years
which chastened the opening life of this generation.

The South lost in the destruction of property about two billion
dollars and in prosecuting the war two billion more. No people can
lose so much without seriously disarranging the entire mechanism of
their government. It is for this reason, therefore, that the measure
of "National Aid to Education" has so many and so persistent
advocates. I wish to place myself among them. If the safety of
republican government abides in the intelligence and virtue of the
people, it can very readily be seen how much safety there is in the
South at present. If it be true that an ulcer will vitiate the entire
body, and endanger the life of the patient, we can see very plainly to
what possible danger the spread of illiteracy may lead us.

Illiteracy in the South is one of the worst legacies which the
rebellion bequeathed to the nation. It has been the prime cause of
more misgovernment in the South than any other one cause, not even the
insatiable rapacity of the carpet-bag adventurers taking precedence of
it. It has not only served as a provocation to peculation and