In these days, when political ignorance seems often to be regarded as a political virtue, Americans would do well to look back to the founders of their Republic. Its wisest and most learned men found their way to high office, believing, as John Adams put it in his 1779 Constitutional proposal for Massachusetts, that:

"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences......"

Henry Milner
Canadian Political Scientist and Visiting Professor in Sweden