Nor have we accepted the institution so
readily from a knowledge of its results in other countries, as from its
manifest fitness to meet a want here. It is not, then, our fortune to
inaugurate a new idea, but only to clothe an old one again, so that it
may more efficiently advance popular liberty, intelligence and virtue.
And this is our duty to-day.
The proprieties of this occasion would have been better observed, had
his excellency, Governor Washburn, found it convenient to deliver the
address, which, at a late moment, has been assigned to me. But we are
all in some degree aware of the nature and extent of his public duties,
and can, therefore, appreciate the necessity which demands relief from
some of them.
Massachusetts has founded four Normal Schools, and at the close of the
present century she may not have established as many more, for she now
satisfies the just demands of every section of her territory, and
presents the benefits of this system of instruction to all her
inhabitants. The building we here set apart, and the school we now
inaugurate to the service of learning, are to be regarded as the
completion of the original plan of the state, and any future extension
will depend upon the success of the Normal system as it shall appear in
other years to other generations of men. But we have great faith that
the Normal system, in itself and in its connections, will realize the
cherished idea of our whole history; and if so, it will be extended
until every school is supplied with a Normal teacher.
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