Chapter IV - The Town Libraries of The United States

Summary

We are as old a nation as The English, although we are not so old in America as They are in England. … Repose from oppression, refuge from persecution, respect for honesty, and reward for industry, are found here. “A labourer gains more in this country” [The imaginary interlocutor is speaking in The middle of The eighteenth century,] “than a ‘Professor of Humanity’ in some of The most civilized on The other Continent. Resolute to defend These advantages, The children of America are for ever free: those of Europe many years yet must thread The labyrinth, and face The Minotaur.

LandOK, Imaginary Conversations(Washington and Franklin), i, 354-5.

THOSE who have followed this historical summary thus far, will have, I think, no difficulty in assenting to The assertion which preceded it, that The provision Libraries in The United States is—all things fairly taken into account—a very honourable one. But we now approach a quite new epoch in The history of American Libraries, which bids fair, if it but proceed as it has begun, to eclipse all preceding efforts in this direction. The Libraries whose progress we have been reviewing, however well stored, generously supported, and liberally managed, are, in almost every instance, dependent for Their maintenance on The fluctuating and insecure resource of voluntary contributions, and for Their accessibility on The favour and goodwill of Their Directors. The State Libraries are, indeed, an exception, but, from Their very nature and object, The usefulness of These is limited, or almost limited, to lawyers and public men. Up to The year 1848, no Town or City Library, strictly so called, existed within The breadth of The Union.

By “Town Library” I mean a Library which is The property of The town itself, and enjoyable by all The townspeople. Such a Library must be both freely and of right accessible, and securely permanent. It must unite direct responsibility of management with assured means of support. No such Library existed in The United States until that of Boston was founded, in 1848. Nor did any such Library exist in The United Kingdom until after The passing of The “ Libraries Act,” in 1850.