Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1841-12-11
FOR TIE ENQUIRER.

In my last communication, / promised, should cir
cnmstances permit, 10 resume the subject of District
Schools. This would have heen done earlier, but for
ihe fact, that your paper containing my article, with the
oJlising offer of your columns to me, was miscarried,
and did not sect till very recently-consequently,
did not know whether my article had been or would be
published. That article has elected a reply from "E.
which It is proper that | should notice.
Ideprecate an angry controversy, sir, respecting the
best means of advancing the cause of education IN Vir-
gina, for am satisfied that no good would result from
such a controversy. / am sorry that DIS structures
on my article savours so much of this. impugn not
his motives.-They are doubtless patriotic.
In his first article, "E.' gave to the present system oil
Education, If carried out, q decided preference TO any
of the other systems which have been suggested and
believing, as | conscientiously did, that such q system
interests of Vir~ginia,-that it would not arrest the tide
CT ignorance which is flooding the land, | felt it TO be
Ty 6cty as a citizen-not as q "small politician,
nursing father" or " guardian of the poor to oppose
1he adoption Of it and ! hope ] shnll escape the
.'frowns : of the Convention for having done so. l
Iejoice to find, however, Mr.. Editor, that "E.' is not
80 much welded to this system - in his last article as
he was in his first. "As to the district schools, y says
lie, 81 by no means wish TO be understood to be in
opposition to them May we not indulge the hope,
SIR, Of soon finding in him an able advocate of that
good cause-a cause which received the appreciation
OF MIR. Jefferson, and which he believed was the only
means of preventing Virginia from becoming "the Bar.
larry of the Union?'f Yes, Sir, the sapostle Of liberty
was a warm advocate of the District School system,
and he uueriy repudiated the present system of primary
schools. HIS plan is embodied in IN act which was
passed in l796, and may be found on the first page Of
Inc llth volume OF llening's Statutes at Large, also in
sell, but Judging from an abstract of it, furnished by a
Trend, in whose sound judgment | have great conf
eehce, and who represents it as containing athe body OF
system that must and ought to be adopted, If we wish
10 realize the blessings of an enlightened and a christian
people, ! doubt not that it merits the favorable consr-
deration OF the Convention. Spelling, reading, 1oriting
ana arAhmetic, taught gratis TO all, constitute one fea-
,,re OF the plan. If my plan be "aristocratic," so was
WI ueiierson's, for it is similar to his.
". says that l r%epudiate colleges and,academies
altogether, or refuse to encourage the founding or sup
porting of such institutions. | certainly did not intend
10 make any such impression, nor do | see how any
such inference can be drawn from my remarks. | sup.
ported the District School System as "the most effectual
means ofpromoting the prosperity ofcolleges and acade-
mes, and advancing the cause Of liberal education. y
For the present, at least, | believe that these institutions
may be safely left to individual enterprise for they are
generally in a fourishing condition, and not tanguiShing
u aytag as e appears to fancy. Let us unite IN
establishing a good system Of common schools, and
Ehen this IS accomplished, we will attend to the wants
Of colleges and academies. In the name OF charity,
lei us not take any Of the small fund which has
oeen ptedged-consecrated to the use OF the poor,
anu Destow 1t on institutions which can do without
y. My chief reason for opposing the legislative en-
aowment OF Colleges and Academies at this time,
that the State has not q dollar at its disposal for
mat object. | am for using the fund for the benefit of
ALTO aid in establishing primary schools by which the
interest of all would be promoted; for The sons of many
are now attending Colleges and Academies, for want of
these, who ought to be at the told field school," end
many Of them are leaving these institutions, with edu-
cations with which the old field ~schoolmasters of my
oay' would have been ashamed to turn out a boy.
IN relation to the University, after eulogizing it as
Z" has done, and showing how it will "cheupen l,be-
education, and bring it to every mans door," sure
y ne ough, not to blame me for thinking ~favorably Of
saat institution. Let him not taunt me with being the
.nend OF an institution whose benefits are received by
oa'y one in four thousand, 10 the exclusion Of every
s'0e' !nstitU'ion. | believe that the annuity 10 the