E. D. Neill to Richard Yates

L'etoile du Nord.

State of Minnesota,

Department of Public Instruction,

Saint Paul, March 1861.

Dear Sir,

The friends of education were quite surprised at a proposition made in the Legislature of our State last winter, to abolish the Department of Public Instruction as an unnecessary expense and assign its duties to the office of Secretary of State.

The argument used was that at an early day Pennsylvania, Ohio, and some of the older States did not find a Superintendent of Public Instruction necessary.

You are probably aware that this State has a Congressional grant of lands of 1280 acres for each township, and that ultimately we ought to be educationally a leading State in the valley of the Mississippi.

If you can at your earliest convenience drop me a brief note, commending the importance of maintaining an efficient central supervision of public instruction from the very infancy of a commonwealth, and the folly of adopting the usages that were in vogue twenty five or fifty years ago, you would confer a

favor, and do much to strengthen those who are endeavoring to lay a solid foundation for the State.

Respectfully,

E. D. Neill

State Sup. Pub. Ins: -

Governor of Illinois

Hon. Richd. Yates

I referred this to Mr. Bateman. he returned it & informed me he had replied to a verbatim copy which had been addressed to him from the same source - his reply being in Extenso

M. H. C.

E. D. Neill -

Sup Pub Instruction

St Paul,

Minn.

Answered by Mr Bateman

Educational