August 21, 1846
The majority and minority reports of the Primary School Committee are included here. One comment is on the argument that, because the colored community asked for the separate schools, the schools should continue to be separate…… “It seems that the separate schools were originally established by the request of the colored men. And this fact is considered by the Committee as a conclusive argument why no change should be made in the present system. Because the men of the last generation asked, whether wisely or unwisely , for what seemed to them best in the then condition of the times and of public sentiment, are their children to be\foreclosed from asking for something else which the altered state of public feelings and of the times demands?
If it were competent for the colored men of the beginning of the nineteenth century to ask for separate schools for their children, is it not competent for those of the middle of the century to ask for their abolition? The argument seems to us just as broad as it is long. We do not think that our colored friends need be in the least apprehensive of disturbing the shades of ‘Primus Hall, of Cyrus Vassall and of Prince Saunders’, by making the demand they do – a demand, which we believe those worthy men would cordially concur in, were they among us in the flesh, at the present time.”
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