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grounded in the hearts of the people is the conviction of
their necessity; firmly fixed the purpose to sustain them;
and the policy by which they were originated, and thus far
sustained, may be considered as irrevocably settled. But
vain were, all the labors of the past; illusive all hopes for the
future; futile all eflbrts to carry on successfully the noble
scheme devised by the wisdom and matured by the energy of
her most gifted sons, if funds be secured, and schools organ-
ized, and the whole legislative and fiscal machinery complete,
yet the motive power, the presiding and directing intelligence,
be wanting.
  A good teacher may create a good school, but no school
or schools, however wisely organized, or munificently endow-
ed, can supply for themselves efficient teachers. It soon be-
came apyarent, therefore, to all reflecting minds, that, in or-
ganizing a system of general education, one of its most es-
sential elements had been omitted; that the loudest demand
of the people, the most urgent necessity of the SNate, was
really for the right men-for a corps of trained and edu-
cated teachers, born upon the soil, nurtured amidst her insti-
tutions, imbued with her own spirit, indentified with her in-
terests and glory, and consecrated to her service. Hence,
from an early period, and through a series of years, success-
ive superintendents, with extraordinary unanimity and (ar-
nestness, have urged annually upon the Legislature, and up-
on the people, the indispensable necessity of establishing a
Normal School; a school which should train our own young
men for this service of their country, not only by more thor-
ough instruction in the ordinary branches of Common School
education, but by exhibiting, both in theory and in practice,
the true principles and best methods of communicating knowl-
edge. Thus the noble conception of a system for the gener-
al education of a whole people, spontaneously and irresisti-
bly expanded into that of a school for the education of the
teachers themselves, as an indispensable necessity, without