---
title: 'A Discourse on Popular Education; Delivered in the Church at Princeton, … the Annual Commencement of the College of New Jersey, September 26, 1826'
type: pdf
hasMedia: true
requiresPurchase: false
authors:
- 'Charles Fenton Mercer'
date: 1826-01-01
collection: 'Archives'
subcollection: '19th century'
topics:
- 'Education'
- 'Citizenship and Government'
scriptures:
- 'Deuteronomy 6'
- 'Proverbs 4'
url: https://confessional.org/archives/19th-century/mercer-1826-a-discourse-on-popular-education-delivered-in-the-church-at-princeton-the-annual-commencement-of-the-college-of-new-jersey-september-26-1826
---

# A Discourse on Popular Education; Delivered in the Church at Princeton, … the Annual Commencement of the College of New Jersey, September 26, 1826

Mercer (1826) argues popular education—schools, colleges, libraries, the press, and internal improvements—is essential to national prosperity and virtue. Knowledge restrains vice and sustains liberty.

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