To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express & preserve his ideas, his contracts & accounts in writing. To improve by reading, his morals and faculties. To understand his duties to his neighbours, & country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.
This quotation talks about the importance of higher education in relation to one being as American as possible. By getting a higher education, you can adequately own and run your land and any other business you wish to indulge in. Education, according to this document was also a means of instilling in the youths moral values that would make them better people. However, with the emphases on "citizen", that makes me wonder whether people of color were ever going to be included at all? Considering the time this institution was founded, "citizen" was only applicable to the white male American that owned land and property.
-Rebecca Ndebee