Annotated and Abridged Artifact

Abridged Text

Finally, as the result of a careful investigation, your Committee would express their firm conviction of the practicability of imparting to the blind the benefits of a mechanical, intellectual and moral education, by means of an Institution, like the one whose petition has been referred to their consideration, provided they are furnished with the necessary apparatus, and supplied with the pecuniary means of obtaining competent instructors. It becomes then, in their opinion, the imperative duty of the Legislature, acting in their paternal character, to ameliorate the condition of this unfortunate and hitherto neglected class of the community. [1 »]

The State of Massachusetts has ever distinguished herself by her efforts to place within the reach of all her children the means of education; acting upon the only sound and reciprocal principle, that if the duties of a good citizen are to be required of the man, a good education should be first given to the child. Not less than half a million is raised in this Commonwealth annually, by taxation, for the education of her youth. [2 »] In this bountiful appropriation neither the Blind nor the Deaf and Dumb can at all participate. The latter class, however, have been most liberally provided for. There is, at the present time, a standing appropriation of $6,500, to be expended out of the State for the purpose of their education. They have been thus provided with the means of supplying, in some degree, the deprivation of their senses. It is now ascertained that there is another class of our fellow beings, equally unfortunate, and it is believed equally numerous, who are as capable of being taught, and who have still stronger claims upon the humane regards of the Commonwealth. Your Committee repeat, that in their opinion the claims of the Blind are stronger than those of the Deaf and Dumb, because the latter can learn a trade with more facility, and obtain a livelihood without any peculiar method of instruction, or any Institution established for that express purpose; while the Blind, if abandoned to their fate, must inevitably become a burden to their friends or to the community.

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Your Committee would not be understood to question for a moment, the propriety of all former appropriations for the education of the Deaf and Dumb. On the contrary, they would refer to the liberal allowances made in their behalf, as among the beneficent acts, which every generous friend must strive to imitate, and which even her enemies cannot but applaud. [3 »]

As a further consideration, pertaining to this subject, your Committee would state, that the Blind are generally the children of poor parents, because the poor are more exposed than the rich to the accidents occasioning the loss of sight, and because they are more likely to postpone such medical advice, as can be useful only in the early stages of diseases of the eye. Blindness, too, being often hereditary, tends to reduce to poverty, the family upon which it is entailed. The same causes may perhaps be adduced to explain the fact of the greater prevalence of blindness in the country than in the city. In Boston there are but two blind persons of a suitable age for education, while in many towns in the State, containing a population of not more than two or three thousand inhabitants, there are three, four, or five young blind persons.

Were the subject to be regarded, then, only in an economical point of view, it becomes a matter of State policy to educate the blind, since nine out of ten of this class of persons, if left to themselves, would, in some way, burden the community with their support; while every one who is educated and thereby enabled to provide for himself, is a citizen rescued from the almshouse and made a happy and useful member of society. [4 »]

Considering then, the peculiar wants of this infant Institution; that they are in need of a printing press of a construction totally different from those in common use; that they require some musical instruments to instruct the Blind in an art in which they usually excel; and that they are in want of many other implements and means of acquiring knowledge altogether unlike those used in common schools; and considering further the ability which this Institution seems to possess for the extensive diffusion of usefulness, and comfort and happiness, your Committee recommend an adoption by the Legislature of the accompany Resolve.

All which is respectfully submitted,
SAMUEL P. LOUD, chairman.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Three.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, That there be paid out of the Treasury of the Commonwealth to the Trustees of New England Asylum for the Blind the sum of six thousand dollars annually, in quarterly payments, the first payment to be made on the first day of April next, and the subsequent payments upon the first day of each successive quarter; and the whole to continue during the pleasure of the Legislature and no longer. Provided, that in consideration of said sum of six thousand dollars the said New England Asylum shall receive, board, lodge and educate twenty poor persons belonging to the State, to be placed there under the direction of the Governor and Council; and to be dismissed from the Asylum by the same authority; and provided further, that no individual under the age of six years nor over the age of twenty four years shall be placed in said Asylum by said authority, nor any person who shall be excluded by the standing by-laws of the Asylum. [5 »]