Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (December 14, 1739-August 7, 1817) was a French-born American economist and politician. Along with his son, Eleuthere Irenee, he founded the E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, 1802, near Wilmington, Delaware. They began to produce a higher quality gun- powder which caused their company, especially after the War of 1812, to grow rapidly, eventually becoming the industrial giant of DuPont Industries.
Thomas Jefferson had commissioned DuPont de Nemours to survey and report on the status of American education in the early 1800's. He reported:
<Most young Americans...can read, write and cipher. Not more than four in a thousand are unable to write legibly....
The Bible is read; it is considered a duty to read it to the children; and in that form of religion the sermons and liturgies in the language of the people tend to increase and formulate ideas of responsibility....
In America, a great number of people read the Bible, and all the people read a newspaper. The fathers read aloud to their children while breakfast is being prepared-a task which occupies the mothers for three-quarters of an hour every morning....
It is because of this kind of education that the Americans of the United States...have the advantage of having a larger proportion of moderately well-informed men.> 1739DP001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1739DP001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, 1802, in a report to President Thomas Jefferson. DuPont de Nemours, National Education in the United States of America (Newark, DE: The University of Delaware Press, 1923), pp. 3-5. R.J. Rushdoony, The Messianic Character of American Education, (Nutley, N.J.: Prague Press, 1963), pp. 329-330. John Eidsmoe, God & Caesar-Christian Faith & Political Action (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, a Division of Good News Publishers, 1984), p. 144. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), pp. 22-23. Benjamin Hart, Faith & Freedom-The Christian Roots of American Liberty (Dallas, TX: Lewis and Stanley, 1988), pp. 360-361.