ADDRESS OF THE MAYOR. At a meeting of the School Board, held December 29, 1863, near the close of the municipal year, a vote of thanks to his Honor the Mayor, Frederick W. Lincoln, Jr. for the courteous and pleasant manner in which he had performed the duties of Chairman of the Committee during the past year, was passed unanimously. To which the Mayor responded as follows. GENTLEMEN OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE: It is the custom of most deliberative assemblies, at their final meeting, when their labors have been completed, to honor their presiding officer with such a compliment as you have just passed, and which will be entered upon the records of your body. It does not follow that it is always well deserved, but it is a token of the good feeling which graces the closing hour; it spreads a charitable mantle over official faults of administration, and soothes the spirit of the recipient, who is painfully aware of his own deficiencies and shortcomings. Under the organization of your body, you have no voice in the selection of your President, but necessarily he is placed over you because he holds a certain position in another branch of the Government. This peculiar feature of the City Charter seems to imply that one person, at least, representing the whole people, and elected by the suffrages of citizens from all parts of the city, should be of your number. Were it otherwise, perhaps it might have been considered that the Chairman, if chosen by a Ward, might be tempted to consult only local interests, and his action would not be conformed to the general good of the whole. This arrangement also connects, in one person, the two great interests for which a city government is founded, recognizes the claims of the great cause of education upon the highest official servant of the people, and is often of material advantage to the members of both departments of the public service. Whether this provision is wise or not, I must confess in your presence that I have sometimes felt that I was in a delicate position, for I am conscious that if you had possessed the privilege of a choice it would have fallen upon some one of your own number, who would have more ably discharged the requirements of the office. I do not speak of this because I have witnessed any impatience, or a desire on your part to have it otherwise, but simply to express my gratitude for your forbearance under these circumstances, and to tender you my sincere thanks for the great courtesy and kindness which I have always experienced at your hands. It is natural, I suppose, for the individuals of every class or profession into which mankind are divided, to magnify, and perhaps to attach too much importance to the merits of their respective classes; but under a republican form of government, which must depend for its prosperity upon the virtue of the great mass of the people, the cause of public schools, to which you are devoted, must ever hold a high rank. I verily believe that the present unholy rebellion which is now disturbing our country, could not have sprung into existence had not its leaders had a horde of ignorant and uneducated men for their dupes and followers. It was among such combustible material that they sought "to fire the Southern heart." Had the great body of Southern men in their youth been pupils of public schools, the treason would never have been so formidable in respect to numbers and would not have required the force of armed men to |