The people's press, and Addison County Democrat. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1838-1841, 1841-05-18
COMMON SCHOOLS.

( COMMON SCHOOLS.
The experience of every passing year cor
roborates the oil and tried maxim, that intelli-
gence is the lie Of liberty. A people who
govern themselves must be enlightened to ena-
/ bic them TO couuteract the insidious acts of
demagogues ard despots, who in every free
state are continually endeavoring to undermine
their liberties.
The conception of system of education
which should carry light and knowledge
through all the ramifcations of society belongs
to the pilgrim fathers Cd New Eng land.
After the forest had been bowed bef3re the
axe of the settler, next to the temple Of the
Almighty appeared the school house and acad,
envy. At that period Scotland had not even
dreamed of the generous scheme of education
which has since diffused an equible light up
on the humbles:, as we'll as the most exalted of
her citizens. Prussia, which new boasts the
mist enlightened population on the continent,
was then ar embryo existence scarcely known
among nations. But the incalcuable benefits
of a general diffusion Of knowledge have not
heretofore been fully appreciated in a vast por-
ton even of our own country. At the present
moment however, every patriot mu st sincerely
rejoice in the rapid progress which has been
made upon this subject in several Of our sister
states. New York, after lingering for half a
century behind New England, has at length a.
dopted a system of CO mmon school education
which is believed TO be vast Improvement up
on any which has been hitherto devised. In
1889 out of 500, 900 children, $4,000 were
educating in common schools. Pennsylvania
has lately displayed liberal and enlightened
policy in this respect. Twenty years ago
there were not 10000 children in all
the free schools in the state. Now out of2s2-
900 pupils, there are $4,000 in her com
mon schools. Ohio, and many other states of
New England descent,are at length awakening
to the vast importance of a general diffusion of
knowledge among all classes Of community.
1t is TO be deeply regretted that the south
are so far behind every other section Of the
country in their estimation of the boundless
blessings Of institutions, which alone can ele
vate men up to the proper dignity Of their ma
lures. No where on the other side of the Pc.
tomac, do we find system of common schools
founded upon the broad basis of universal in
telligence. In Virginia. it appears there are
more than fifty thousand white persons over
twenty years of age, who can neither read nor
write. Slavery there nurtures proud aristo'
cratic spirit in those who control her destinies,
and crushes al that goes to the liberty, intell.
gence and prosperity of her population in the
obscure walks Of life. And muc III is it to be
feared that the South will never comprehend
those noble principles of equality which open
the heart, and cordially embraces the well being
of the humblest individual in community
Hence their imperfect advances in all the arts
of civilized life compared with the rapid i'm
provements of the north. Hence that lax state
of morals and INSTRUMENTATION 10 law which
leads to duelling, lynching riot and murder, the
certain results of an ignorant and uneniIght-
ened state of society. Southerners may de-
ride the working classes of New England, as
no better than their own slaves; but if there
is a body of men on earth more elevated than
any other in the scale of humanity, 1t is the
hardy and industrious population Of the north,
nurtured up under broad system Of education
which imparts moral and intellectual light in.
discriminatory 10 the proud mansion and the
humble log cabin. When the south can arrest
the desolation ard impovershment Of whole
sections of her interior by the improvements OF
agriculture, when she shall be able to partici'
pate in the triumphs of the present age in the
arts and sciences, when SIZE shall emulate the
trophies of New England genius in the fields
of literature, when her territory shall be dotted
over with splendid cities and villages, and in
tersected with canals and rail roads, she may
plume herself upon a superiority which her
empty chivalry can never confer.
The FAST. A large proportion of the popu-
lation ofthis village and vicinity was assembled
in the afternoon at the Congregational church to
unite in the obseryances Of this occasion. Party
predictions seem 10 have yielded to an enIarg
ed and generous sentiment of national bereave
ment. The clergyman ofeach denomination took .
a parl in the exercises of the day. The address
was delivered BY the Rev. Benjamin Labaree,
President of Middlebury College. 1t was lru-
" mastery performance, and has placed
the aurhor on an eminence alike no norable to