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[341] citizens. These two exceptions are the military and naval academies; the first at West Point in New York, the second at Annapolis in Maryland. These schools are small in size, and only touch the upper ranks of the public service. Training for the ordinary citizen is left by the republic to her several States, by each State to her several counties, and by each county, as a rule, to her several townships. Where a township has a city within her limits, she mostly leaves the training of that city to the citizens. So far from there being an American school system in America, it is not true to say there is a Pennsylvanian school system in Pennsylvania, or a New York school system in New York. There is an Excelsior system, and a Deadly Swamp system. On the Gulf of Mexico they have one system, in the Rocky Mountains a second system, in the New England region a third system. It is hardly an abuse of words to say there are as many school systems as there are townships in the United States.

In only five States out of thirty-nine is there a law in favour of compulsory attendance at school. These five States are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, and New.York; but even in

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