responsibility, and trusting in Divine co-operation, what moral revolutions followed their self-sacrificing toil! Had these words of Jesus meant no more to them than they now mean to Christendom, such wonders would not have followed. But greater works and signs would now attend the efforts of Zion, were she as faithful and did she feel as pungently as the apostles. God had planned redemption; Jesus had executed that plan; and the Holy Ghost was now ready to go forth to the world-conquest with the truth and its ministers. Of all this the Saviour reminds his apostles, and then tells them all success depends upon the faithfulness of his Church. As it then was, so now is it. Let the idea of this text sink deep into the great heart of Christendom. Let that heart feel its oppressive responsibilities. Let it rejoice at its glorious mission to save a ruined world, and a quarter of a century would carry the minister, and the Bible, and the Holy Ghost, and the Son of God, into every neighborhood of the globe. A strong sense of personal responsibility is the lever that must raise the world up to the life of God. O for some missionary herald to go forth over the world, waking a sleeping Church with appeals strange, rousing, unforgetable as those wonderful strains that fell from the lips of Peter the Hermit, when he moved the millions to the crusades for the redemption of the holy place "from the abomination" of Saracen "desolation."

ART. III.-SAMUEL LEWIS.

Biography of Samuel Lewis, First Superintendent of Common Schools for the State of Ohio, by Wm. G. W. LEWIS. Cincinnati. 1857.

No part of our country has been a more favored nursery of great men than that we familiarly call the West. It is difficult to realize, as we journey along its fertile valleys, hurried by the locomotive, whose scream is everywhere heard, or upon its noble rivers, where floating palaces invite our presence, that a century ago it was almost an unexplored region, from which came direful stories of danger and of death. The redemption of so large a portion of the country from savage life, and the development of those resources whose magnitude has astonished the world, naturally brought into play the best qualities of manhood, and gave a vigor and energy to its early settlers that at once challenges wonder and emulation. If he whose reputation rests upon battles won and peoples conquered, whose pathway is strewed with corpses and bedabbled with blood, whose canopy is the smoke of burning towns, and the cries of

widows and orphans, the music accompanying his march, be called great, what term shall we apply to those who conquer nature in her forest home, and compel the wilderness to offer an area for the extension of freedom and happiness?

Samuel Lewis was born the 17th of March, 1799, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, at which place he spent his boyhood till the age of fourteen. Nothing particularly marked his early years except a rugged energy, which led him to master thoroughly anything he undertook. His father being a sea-faring man, he went on board his vessel as cabin-boy, and there learned those habits of diligence, as well as that true democracy that thinks no labor degrading, which characterized his whole life. In his tenth year, during one of those periodical religious excitements peculiar, for the most part, to our own country, he joined the Methodist Church, and professed a faith from which he never wavered. The war of 1812, striking as it did with especial force upon our small coasters, ruined his father's occupation, and the West offering advantages for the support of his large family, emigration was determined on, and in 1813 they bade farewell to the old home. The journey, now performed about two days, was then a long and tedious one of six weeks' duration; a wagon was provided for the mother and three daughters, in which the youngest boy was permitted to ride part of the way; but the father and five elder boys, of which the subject of the present sketch was one, walked the whole distance from Falmouth to Pittsburgh. Difficult as the task may seem, it was then the usual way of making the trip, and the sight was so common as to excite no surprise. Arriving at Pittsburgh, the mode of travel was changed to one but little less laborious; a flat-boat was purchased at small cost, and the family floated down on the bosom of the Ohio to Cincinnati. Captain Lewis having, in common with the majority of our New England seamen, combined agriculture with the service of Neptune, soon found himself at home in farm life, and settled comfortably near Cincinnati, where we leave him to follow his son Samuel.

The boy, now fifteen years of age, was employed to work for Mr. Williams, tilling the land and doing the drudgery of the farm, at seven dollars a month; but from his aptness and dispatch was promoted to the office of carrying the United States mail, for which his employer had the contract, extending eastward to Chillicothe, and south to Maysville, Kentucky. In the fulfillment of this duty his route led him along an unsettled part of the country, and across streams, oftentimes so swollen by the heavy rains as to be unfordable, rendering the swimming of his horse necessary; a thing far easier to read about than to do, and which at one time nearly cost

him his life. Partially disabled by this accident, and unable to undergo the labor, he returned to Cincinnati, and feeling the necessity of something to fall back upon, he was apprenticed to a carpenter in Kentucky, where, by his zeal and industry, he soon showed himself a superior workman. And here we notice a curious incident, strongly indicative of the times. Becoming dissatisfied with the narrow sphere to which his occupation confined him, he determined to study law. It would seem from the record that this was by no means pleasing to his parents, his father doubtless regarding all lawyers with that peculiar affection of seamen which leads them to give this respectable class the title of land-sharks; for "he did not take this step, till he had applied himself to his trade with sufficient industry and energy to be able to pay his father for the year that remained of his legal minority at the rate of fifty dollars a year."

His first step to gain the desired end was to obtain a situation in the clerk's office in Cincinnati, in which he received his board and thirty dollars a year, but made an arrangement by which he could board himself and receive one hundred and fifty dollars. This was done in no mercenary mood, for finding that his father needed his assistance, he gave him the bulk of his earnings, reserving only sufficient to purchase bread, his whole diet at this time being bread and water. The labors of the office occupying his whole time during the day, his hours of study extended far into the night; seated at his table, he read till sleep endeavored to enforce its demands, when, with the book in one hand and the candle in the other, he resolutely paced the floor till tired nature refused to suffer longer. Three years were passed in this way, when, in 1822, he passed his examination and was admitted to the bar. From this time it was evident he had passed the wicket-gate and was on the high road to fame and fortune. His friends, made so by no outside influence, but won by his evident talents and indomitable industry, boldly came to his aid. Judge Burnet, a name honored and venerable, gave him his advice and assistance, and on his admission to the legal profession, business was in readiness for his first circuit, which brought him fees to the amount of two thousand dollars-truly a dazzling change for the young student.

We have already referred to his connection with the Methodist Church, and in 1824 he was made a local preacher of that denomination, a position he occupied till his death. With the doctrines he taught and believed this paper has nothing to do; but it is a bright jewel in his reputation, that the influence his character and eloquence gave him among his fellow-members was never prosti

tuted to the cause of oppression, but always and everywhere used in behalf of freedom and of right.

So far we have seen him struggling with difficulties from which most men would shrink, and successfully conquering them; the West is full of such instances, and this would by no means be sufficient warrant for classing him with her great men; let us turn at once to that public life spent in her service, which truly entitles him to the distinction.

Nothing has contributed more to the position occupied by the states formed out of the Northwestern Territory than the early provision made for general education by means of free schools. Congress, in its first legislation for that vast tract of land, decreed that a portion should be reserved for this great object, and the ordinance of 1787 amply secured the liberty it gave to it, for a perpetual inheritance, by this one simple yet intelligent act. Nor were the people themselves careless or neglectful of this great interest; for, in 1802, when framing a constitution for the State of Ohio, we find this memorable sentence: "Schools, and the means of instruction, shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision." It was soon found, however, that no fund adequate to the necessities of general education could be obtained from the proceeds of the public lands alone, and steps were taken to put the whole system upon a firm and permanent basis by levying a tax on the citizens. That such a measure should meet with opposition is not to be wondered at. The rural districts saw, or fancied they saw in it only an aggrandizement of the cities, and no efforts were spared to defeat it; but such was the ability with which it was advocated, and the earnestness with which it was urged, that in 1825 the system which has since so abundantly proved its efficacy was adopted by the legislature, and at once went into operation.

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For many years it progressed but slowly; the nature of the labor, in a country yet to be redeemed for the most part from its native wildness, and made subservient to the wants of man, left but little time for serious reflection; but though slow it was sure. At each successive meeting of the legislature earnest men urged the necessity of carrying out not only the letter but the spirit of the law, and its success was owing not so much to eloquence or party favor as to the persevering efforts of those who were fully awake to its importance and dignity. Various were the plans proposed to gain the desired end, till in 1837 the office of superintendent of common schools was established, and Samuel Lewis invited to fill this laborious and responsible post. Hitherto he had been known only as a rising lawyer, whose acquirements were such as to render his opin

ion eagerly sought after, and whose eloquence brought him clients from all quarters. He now takes the position, never to be deserted, of a painstaking, conscientious watcher over the public welfare.

He was expected to report at the next session of the legislature, and at once set about the task. A weak man would have given up at once, for the difficulties seemed insurmountable. Firmly established as the common school system of Ohio now is, there was at one time danger that it would utterly fail from neglect. As the advantages of that noble state became known, immigration greatly increased, and of that class, too, who know no higher object than the accumulation of wealth. In nearly all cases the provisions of the law were entirely neglected, or but imperfectly carried out, and while the duties of the superintendent were to urge its execution and collect statistics of its progress, much depended on his success in enlisting the people themselves in the cause. Some idea may be formed of the amount of labor to be performed, when it is remembered that nearly every county in the state was to be visited; that the best methods of carrying out the law were to be given and explained; that assemblies were to be convened, and, what was perhaps more difficult than all, four or five hours a day spent in conver. sational lecturing. In short, the individual was merged in the public officer, and all comfort sacrificed to the business he had undertaken. That the mere physical labor was not trifling, few will doubt who consider the state of the country at that time. His journeyings led him over roads impassible to wheels, and compelled him to travel on horseback, so that it is not strange we find him writing: “I am almost worn down;" yet, in all his weariness the chief if not only complaint he found was in the apathy of the people. Charmed by his eloquence, his earnestness, and his manly appeals, thousands came to listen and applaud; but of these thousands very few were willing to put a shoulder to the wheel. When he met with opposition, nothing could withstand him; and in one instance, at a meeting called by his opponents, who came with resolutions not only condemnatory of the school system, but denunciatory of him, its chief advocate, he suddenly appeared among them, and so changed the current of popular feeling that other resolutions, directly opposite in character, were passed almost unanimously.

From these labors, so thoroughly performed, great results were to be looked for, and the report which formed the first full body of statistics fully justified the expectation. Clear and complete, it laid the whole subject open to the honest inquirer, and gave weight to the suggestions which accompanied it. Great stress was placed upon the building of suitable school-houses, the employment of