superintendent of public instruction for each Territory-were created, the appointment to be made by the President, and payment provided for as in the case of other territorial officers, who should devote himself exclusively to the work of disseminating ideas upon educational subjects, the instruction of teachers, and aiding in the establishment of schools under such laws as the Territories may adopt, and who should be required to make an annual report of his work and the condition of education to the governor of the Territory and to the General Government. Nor can it be doubted that to extend pecuniary aid, in justifiable circumstances, would be a wise measure of statesmanship. Such adequate attention to the establishment and management of schools in the Territories would afford additional means and assurance of success in the education of the Indians within their limits.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. *

The citizens of this District frequently call attention to the fact that they have never received the aid to public education which has been granted by the General Government to the citizens of the respective States. In their recent endeavors to establish a free-school system they have been greatly embarrassed by circumstances resulting from the war. It has been for them very much like beginning anew. Besides the special demand for the provisions of education for the colored children in the District, a very large population of those formerly slaves has centered here from the surrounding States, who have added to the necessity for an increased number of schools, although furnishing little capital upon which a tax can be levied for their support. It will be noticed that out of sixteen cities in the United States the city of Washington has a much larger percentage of pupils taught in rented buildings than any other, and that of twelve cities reported it pays the highest tax on the dollar for school purposes. These facts, taken in connection with the aid extended to education, particularly in the new States, by Congress, evidently justify the strong conviction entertained among the residents of the District that strict justice on the part of the General Government in meting out favors to all citizens of the country alike, warrants them in asking for a special grant of aid in support of their schools.

We are indebted to Charles King, esq., for aid in collecting facts in regard to the schools for colored children, and to J. Ormond Wilson, esq., the efficient superintendent of the schools for white children, for information in reference to them, as well as for statistics which he has to some extent grouped together concerning the entire District. The ease with which this could be done in a volume under the present form of government, and the value of such a report to the officers of the District and to Congress, are apparent. The lack of system and unification in the educational work in the District of Columbia, to which attention was called in my last report, is more and more recognized by thoughtful educators, and there is a growing disposition manifested to put the school work on a better basis. This would, undoubtedly, by largely increasing the attendance, facilitate the development of a high school, and the establishment of special schools, which are so greatly needed. The Seaton school-house, a commodious building with many improvements in respect to internal arrangement, has been dedicated during the year with interesting ceremonies.

*During the year ending September 30, 1871, 11,462 persons were arrested in this District; of this number 4,427 could neither read or write.

Special efforts have been made to dispense with corporal punishment in the schools of Washington, as far as this could be done without impairing discipline. The superintendent, Mr. Wilson, says this resulted in a reduction of the number of cases per month more than 100 per cent. for four months, when the publication of a bill which had been introduced in the board of aldermen, declaring it to be unlawful to inflict punishment upon the person of any pupil, was followed by exhibitions of disobedience and defiance of authority to such an extent as to increase the number of cases of corporal punishment from 32 to 97 per month. The bill was defeated and the number was again reduced.

The same effect was produced by the publication of this proposed law upon the colored schools. The superintendent, Mr. Newton, says that a spirit of insubordination and defiance broke forth, indicating the disaster that would have followed the enactment of the law.

T. C. Grey, esq., has furnished me very full statistics in regard to private schools in this District. He gives a record of 122 schools, having 5,477 pupils, reporting an average attendance of 5,287. The attendance in 73 schools is reported as increasing, and in 20 schools as decreasing, while 27 remain stationary.

EDUCATION OF THE INDIANS.

The extent to which the statements in regard to Indian education in the last report were demanded and used, has prompted me to continue the collection and dissemination of facts with regard to the subject. Among the accompanying papers will be found a resumé of progress in Indian education.

The increase in the number of Indian schools for the year is about 150, and the increase of attendance amounts to several thousand.

After a careful examination of the reports by Indian officers, teachers, agents, and others at work in their interest, it appears that their testimony for twenty years is unanimous as to the desire of the Indians for education, and of the men for instruction in the various industries.

The suggestions in the last report might be fitly renewed. Men are manifestly needed for this work, not only of uprightness of character, but of the highest degree of qualifications as teachers. Much of the failure from the efforts made in the past may be undoubtedly assigned to mistakes in theory and methods.

The education that attempts to do this work for the child, fully occupied as he is with the activities of sense, by the presentation of subjects in a purely abstract form, fails of its end, because it fails to secure the attention of the child. To obviate this difficulty the methods of nature have been observed and "object lessons" invented. The first essential step in teaching is to secure the attention of the learner, this holds good as well in the case of the adult as of the child. Mentally, in all that relates to the teaching of civilization, the Indian is but a child, and if taught at all, it must be by the same processes which are found successful with children.

The methods of education must come to the Indian where he is, and be adapted to him as he is, and take him by natural steps through the courses of instruction that he is capable of receiving. He is thoroughly sensuous; abstraction is obnoxious to him. He is accustomed to roaming; confinement he dislikes. The Indian school, whether for young or old, should begin by appeals to the mind through the senses. It is gratifying to observe that, here and there, as in the case of Agent

Clarke among the Chippewas, and of Superintendent Meacham in Oregon, this idea has been caught and partially carried out in the preparation of charts and other objects to represent to the eye the subjects to be taught. The great interest involved in this direction would suggest considerate and ample appropriation for the supply of proper aids of instruction in the Indian schools, under the auspices of the Government, such as charts, maps, and apparatus of suitable kinds. A unique "panoramic apparatus" furnished this office deserves special mention on account of its adaptation for such a use.

Persons engaged in this work are generally inclined to recommend a separation of the children from their parents. This, in cases where the parents are utterly degraded and resist the salutary influences of instruction upon the children, may have its advantages. There are undoubtedly instances in which it is altogether best that the children should be entirely removed from all the home influences of savage life; but, on the other hand, where the instructions communicated to the ehildren, and other associated influences, can produce some corresponding elevation on the part of parents, the children, on closing their school attendance, may be considered less likely to retrograde. Indeed, the more all the natural associations of the child-paternal, filial, and social-are favorable, the more sure are his attainments. The boys cannot be made virtuous and intelligent while the girls are neglected, and vice versa.

The demand for secondary and superior instruction among the Indians has been chiefly met by a transfer to the schools of the States. There have been illustrious cases of success in these efforts; but are they, or can they be, adequate to the demand? Manifestly a successful elevation of the Indian requires that a larger proportion should receive higher instruction and training. This can only be done within their own limits. There, too, it could be better adapted to the characteristics of the tribes which are to be instructed. True, the number coming forward for this higher training will be few in any one locality; but could there not be, in a comprehensive view of the whole field of Indian education, a place selected and a sufficient number of interests grouped to warrant the establishing of such a training school? Suggestions of this character have already been made in connection with the Indian Territory, and could, with the aid of the Government, be readily carried out. Evidently it should embrace not simply instruction in letters, but in the industries; not only teachers of schools could be taught, but instruction should be given in farming, stock-raising, forestry, gardening, harness-making, house-building, tailoring, dress-making, &c.; and in a few years the Indian men and women thus taught would be scattered abroad and would disseminate the benefit of their instruction, not only doing the good which must be the result from their work directly, but illustrating before their tribes what the red man is able to do for himself, thus arousing and definitely directing by their example the aspiration of others.

The success which has attended the various efforts to locate the Indian population upon reservations presents gratifying results. The facts, in spite of exceptional cases, are calculated to convince the most skeptical of the soundness of the policy of peace and honesty. Those who have observed the progress of races from barbarism to civilization, easily mark some of the distinctive steps. These, of course, may be modified by the climate, soil, and peculiarities of their location. The more southern sections occupied by our Indians have not a few resemblances to the region which was the early home of the human race.

Farming, after the style of our Middle and New England States, is hardly possible there. Stock-raising and the culture of the orange and the vine are easy and more profitable. It is not difficult to picture the Indian in those regions passing through the same steps as oriental nations to a higher civilization. He leaves war, hunting, fishing, and takes on the habits of pastoral and agricultural life only by degrees, until, divested of the tastes, ideas, and associations of the war-path and nomadic life, he comes to live his own life in his own well-kept house with his own children, caring for his own stock on his own well-tilled farm.

Facts in the history of the Indians in Western New York and among the Chippewas and Stockbridges, as well as the Cherokees,* Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, the Nez Percés, and the Indians at the Fort Simcoe reservation abundantly warrant these expectations. The dissemination of facts of this character is especially demanded to correct the sentiment so hostile to the Indians by the whites in their immediate vicinity. The sooner and the more completely the sentiment of those living in the neighborhood of the Indians shall become friendly and directed to their elevation instead of their degradation, the sooner will the present wise policy of the Government toward the Indians be successful. The school systems of the States in which there is a considerable population of Indians, as Oregon, California, Nevada, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, could be instrumental in solving this difficult problem, by including and enforcing the education of Indian children.

NATIONAL SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE.

The recent grant of land by Congress in aid of superior instruction, intended to be specially promotive of science in its application to agriculture and the mechanic arts, the great industries of the country, yet not excluding classical learning, has given a new and important impulse to education, resulting in the establishment of what may be termed national schools of science, either on an independent basis or associated with older colleges and universities.

The field is new to Americans, and the methods adopted here must be measurably experimental and tentative in the absence of the experience of the Old World. The gentlemen responsible for their management seek the most accurate and full information in regard to the objects aimed at and methods adopted by their fellow-laborers.

Hon. S. S. Stephens, superintendent of public schools, says that for more than twenty-five years the nation has been laboring to establish a system that shall give its children a good mental culture, but that the character of the education is yet superficial, and fails to teach a large portion of the children. For this condition of the schools the United States Government is considered censurable, it being the public right and duty to fit their children to become good citizens.

The superintendent urges the council to amend the school law so as to compel parents to send their children to school; to establish a system of graded schools, or at least three-one at Tahlequah, one at Gibson, and one at Weber's Falls; one to be employed for the higher, and the others for the primary department; to pass an act estab lishing the number of scholars to the teachers; to establish a normal school for teach ers; to establish an orphan school.

A teachers' institute held in July was well attended and of great advantage to the teachers. The superintendent desires the passage of a law providing for a teachers' institute at the close of each school term.

It is the opinion of the superintendent that, unless speedy and effective action is taken, the present generation will be thrown on the world utterly unfit for the proper discharge of their duties as citizens. The number of schools was 60, viz, 57 Indian and 3 colored. The number of pupils enrolled was 2,249, viz, 1,132 males and 1,117 females with an average attendence of 1,297.

In view of the interests involved, I have, with your approval, committed the inquiries in regard to these establishments, and the statement of their experience, as bearing upon education, to a gentleman fitted in an eminent degree, by his acquaintance with scientific education both in Europe and America and by his position as professor in the Sheffield Scientific School at New Haven, to secure the hearty co-operation of his colleagues and to bring out the most satisfactory results for the benefit of the public. Attention is particularly invited to his able report. From the table of national schools of applied science the following appears as the summary of statistics up to date:

Institutions of a similar character not receiving Government aid.

These are divided into

The Ninth Census, under the classification of "Unfortunates" in the United States, gives a grand total of 98,434. blind, 20,320; of whom 17,043 are native, and 3,277 foreign. Deaf and dumb, 16,205; native, 14,869; foreign, 1,336. Insane, 37,382; native, 26,161; foreign, 11,221. Idiotic, 24,527; native, 22,882; foreign, 1,645.

EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.

The treatment of this subject was intrusted to Dr. Samuel G. Howe, the eminent director of the Perkins Institute and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, Boston, Massachusetts, to whom the Commissioner is under special obligations for his kind supervision of the preparation of the valuable facts which relate to this unfortunate class, contained in the accompanying papers. The following is the summary of the statistics on the subject:

The census of 1870 gives the number of the blind in the United States as 20, 320. Among these none are counted who ought not to be, while many partially blind are not included.

Of the 500 cases at the Perkins Institute the causes of blindness were as follows: congenital, 37.75 per cent.; disease, 47.09 per cent.; accidents, 15.16 per cent.

Of 1,102 persons admitted to this institution, 878 survive; whereas the life table of Massachusetts calls for 964, and that of England for about 979 survivors, showing that the power of the blind to resist destructive influences is 8.9 per cent. less than that of the population of Massachusetts.

The first public systematic efforts in the United States to secure to