A Very Solemn Responsibility

". . . a cup of consolation, for the deaf and dumb who heretofore had been wandering in a moral desert, from the same fountain the Hindu, the African, and the savage are beginning to draw the water of eternal life."

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a Congregational minister, who described his life's work as hastening Christ's return to earth by spreading the gospel. Like many early teachers of deaf children in America, Gallaudet learned sign language for the same reason other missionaries learned Native American or African languages to bring the gospel to people seen living beyond its reach.

"No other object that the salvation of souls of the pupils can be named as of the highest moment; and to accomplish this object a very solemn responsibility is devolved upon all who are concerned in the affairs of the Asylum."

~ Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, 1817