Year: 1867

(
hereafter be furnished with higher educa-
tionaI facilities than they have heretofore
enjoyed; the proper use of which cannot
fail to make them useful members of society,
and worthy successors of worthy parents.
This commodious and tasteful edifce is
the best testimonial you can furnish of
| proper appreciation of the benefits of the
| liberal institutions of our free Repub'ic-of
your love of rational, civil, and religious
liberty, and Of good order and morals in
society, and of your desire for the perpet-
uatlon ofthose virtues In your posterity; and
you could present no greater attraction to
strangers to come and make their homes
among you than the erection of this beauti-
ful school house.


The educational facilities above referred
to as hereafter to be furnished to those
who may seek their benefits, it is believed
will embrace every thing that is to be found
in any school of this class in any city or
village of the west. In this respect you,
citizens of Two Rivers, will never be found
tagging behind any of your neighbors, but
will maintain this school as one in the first
rank Of schools in the state.


When you shall have these rooms fur
nished with all the educational parapherna-
liza necessary for successful teaching, and
the library well stocked with books, judi
ciously selected, do not forget that these
must from time to time be renewed and re-
plenished; and above all things dom forget
that the amount and value of the benefits
to be derived by the attending scholars will
| depend mnch upon the character and quail
| fcations of the teachers employed; and you
should employ those who have not only the
requisite amount Of brains in their heads,
IL, = how
| boSoms


Be steadfast and persevering in the pros
ecution of this noble work Of educating the
minds and hearts of the rising generation -
the important results of which for good to
this community and to mankind no finite
! scales can measure; and your consciousness
of having in your own day and generation
discharged well your duties viii be ever full
| freighted with ample rewards.


| Children Of Tuo Rirers -


| The dedication of this beautiful structure
to your own use in the pursuit OF education
al advantages, by, through, and from which
are to come your greatest rational pleasures,
and highest honor and happiness, 10 the
life before you, must be to your youthful
minds an occasion of interest.


This day and occasion will be one Of the
/
tories for as you shall use and improve, or
neglect and disregard, these advantages
provided for you by liberal hands, your
course will he onward and upward to use
tulness, prosperity, and happiness, or on
ward and downward to groveiilng Ignorance,
| vice, and wretchedness and as you shall be
hurried along through hf2 TO its final close,
each OF you will look back to this day and
occasion with pleasure or re'oorse, aud
! either bless those who furnished the means
| through the proper use of which you made
| your life success, or curse your own folly
for that criminal neglect of duty which made
your life a sad and miserable failure.


would most earnestly heseech all and
each Of you, as you would become worthy,
respected and honored citizens of the State;
as you would lead lives of virtue, prosperi-
! ty, and happiness, to be constant in your
attendance here during the hours of school,
/ and give such devotion of your minds to
your daily studies as will enable you to
seize, master and appropriate to your own
individual uses, all the useful knowledge
that shall hc taught within these walls.
/ Then you Will have laid up for life an eudur-
ing capital, and for eternity those inestma-
bic treasures that neither moth nor rust can
corrupt, nor thieves break through and
steal.


Again, I would most feeliugly urge you,
! III view Of the true aim and end Of the life
! which is before you, that you never forget


the respect and obedience due to your pa.
rcuts--that you neglect not to pay at all
times willing heed to the orders, rules and
instructions Of your teachers-that you dc


not forget that every day spent out of school
and in idleness can never be recalled and
its advantages forever lost and forget not
that as you shall remember and ever faith,
fully act ia accordance with these precepts,
you will become better children, make bet,


ter husbands and wives, better fathers and


mothers, and better citizens and will meet
your highest rewards In the honor and love


of your children, and the respect and conf


dence of the community in which you may
live. Do not forget that many of you are


soon to become full fedged citizens and to


form a constituent part Of the governing
power in the State, and that upon an intel


hgent, virtuous and patriotic exercise OF
that power depends the permanency OF oul


free institutions and that through the pro-


per use Of the educational privileges secured


to you at home by the fostering hand of oul


government and the liberality of your par


ents, you can become fitted to faithful and


wise discharge of all those higher duties


and responsibilities that will soon be de-


vOlved upon you.


Remember that you live in free coun


try, whose government is based upon the
principles of liberty and equality, and


whose Constitution and Laws make no in
vidious distinction among citizens-that the


divisions Of the people into classes are bu,
the results of the actions and conduct of in
dividuals themselves, which assign them the


places you see them occupying in society,"


that labor is honorable, and men may engage


in the pursuits of agriculture, of commerce


of manufactures, of merchandising, of the


mechanic arts, of science, or of any of the


learned professions; but neither of these


determine the true status of the individua


in society-for all are equally honorable. :


The man of intelligence, Of honesty and in


tegrity of character, of an enterprising anc


liberal spirit, assumes his true position o


the highest place among his fellow men


while the man of the opposite character Ii


justly assigned to the lower class in society


Such is the rule established in the minds O
men whose opinions are entitled to th'


highest regard, and its justice is acknow


lodged by the consciences Of all. The ex
ceptions which are seen floating on the sur