Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-12-11

plSSS peOi)i6 0tQ uIst0 CllGtn
from their native land to some other, as a
necessary process Of national or personal relief,
| have scarcely even a conceivable existence or
ioperation here. We have no territory incapa-
| BE Of further settlement or subdivision,
population pressing on the limits of subsistence,
! no capital and business SO concentrated in a
few hands as to place the great body Of society
under their communicative have none of these
causes. of hardship, dependence or poverty for
which emigration offers, wherever they are
found, the common and effectual remedy. On
the contrary, it is known to all, that if our po-
pulation We're several times greater than it is,
| it could be maintained and employed, not only
without tie slightest burden upon our capaci-
ties, but with the most obvious and decided
benefit TO their development and activity. Sill
cur people abandon US. Some to Withdraw from
la slaveholding community some TO make a
more profitable application of their slave labor
! to the staple products of other States; some to
avoid Associations which time and changes have
rendered painful some to retrieve, uroa new
theatre their losses in business, and others that
| they may rush to the most stirring scenes and
| prosecute The purposes of life in the midst OF
excitement, enterprise and adventure. These
make up movable class of people whose emf
grafton Is but little dependant upon the policy
of the State, and whom, therefore, we may not
! by any change in that policy expect to retain.
/ But there is another and very numerous class,
who are Influenced BY none Of the considerations
suggested a hard working, provident and val
| liable class, who are attached to their homes,
and to all the Gsages, laws and associations that
! sorround them, but who are obliged, neve.the
! less. to abandon them ali under the stern re-
quirements of duty to themselves and their ia
miles. Without any adequate market near
( them, and without any distant one to which
| they have cheap and suitable access, the
Fwhee products of their labor are so absorbed in
the expense Of exchanging them, and the ex
rease itself is so irreducible by any economy or
prudence of theirs, that the only alternative
left them is 10 toll on in comparative poverty,
|; or TO go elsewhere, where their eXcrtions can
! be turned TO wiser account. However natural
and proportion cilizans thus situated to do this,
| it is neither the one nor the other for the
| State passiyely 10 allow it.. She is the final
sufferer Of every loss which emigration can in
| volve, and she, too, is the final and rightfui
party to prevent the loss, whenever it arises
from general distractions to labor, which prl
vate means are not adapted nor sufficient to re-
move. Let the distractions which have AREA
dy operated SO disastrousl (which have para
USED the labor, disturbed the peace. prevented
the education. interdicted the intercourse, low
cred the moral and social advantages Of so
large portion ofo people-let them but con
tinue. and the ruinous process OF depepulation
| and imp0vefstment, now at work, will 60 Oh
with accumulating force, until the Common
wealth viii be rendered powerless for the Wig
orous measures which her restoration will re-
qulre. Unless Virginia. therefore, is ready to
submit herself to the unmitigated evil of such a
| result. and, forgetting alike her security and
her renown, is willing to drag on a downward
career of laRgulshment and decay, let her put
forth her power and remove at once the OBJ
structions which are SO overwhelming TO her
people, and this enable them 10 find as eligible
a home within their native sorders as any
where beyond them. She cannot, indeed. hv
any exertion or policy of hers. take from other
States any advantages Of residence which are
peculiar to them. but she can check the emf
grating spirit and movement of her people, by
raising mp kindred and equivalent advantages
of her own. 10 this end, and as one of the
surest and most indispensable of all the means
/ of obtaining it, let the Legislature revise, a
mend and enlarge our system of
EDUCATION AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
In relation TO the first Of these subjects, as
nothing need be said upon the general question
of its importance. will submit. in addition tc
what has been said in former cJmmunications,a
remark two only upon some of lis aspects
And, first, it is obviously important that the
Legislature should settle definitely upon the
ground on which this subject is TO be treated
| whether as private affair or State affair. If,
in its Judgment, it should he treated as a pri-
vate business, which ought to be left, like the
requirement of property, to every mans separ-
ate exertions-those to receive much who have
! the means to procure it with, and those moth
ing, who are without the means-and itdeter-
mines, in consequence, to add nothing to the
provision already allowed for its benefit this
4 is its Judgment, it is highly proper that i,
should DE made known, that the necessary
steps might be taken by the people themselves.
either to reverse it or to carry it into effect
If. on the other hand, the sounder judgment il
entertained, that education is public as wei
as private concern that, unlike The acxqire
ment Of property, which can be pursued by each
one for himself, without dependence upon 9th
ers, its only permanent success depends upon
the effectiveness Of the cooperation with which
it is conducted that this cooperation can be
more fifty settled by public authority than by
casual and voluntary arrangement; and furth-
er that education is as sacred anelement in the
well-being and safety of State, governed like
ours, TO be left to the hazards Of unoTganised,
individual combination if this. is its opinion,
it follows. that the public aid, which it recog-
Misses as legitimate aid, in the case, should be
extended 10 every grade Of education. and every
description Of learner. The first rudiments Of
the language, and the highest attainments OF
the scholar, should be provided for as the OBJ
fleets to be accomplished. The provision which
is recognised as due to all should be sufficient
for all, and in the case of primary instruction
at least, it should be free to all. Nothing less
than this viii satisfy the obligation assumed,
nor the wants to be supplied, and nothing grea-
ter could be effected for the honor, advance
meat and renovation of the State. Once es.
tablish education upon this basis Of public lib
erality and justice. and watch over and devel-
4 ope il afterwards in the fostering ard determin-
i ed spirit which esieeins nothing to be done
whilst anything remains to do, and Virginia
will soon throw from her soil the reproach and
the pain of rearing upon it a body Of children
Outnumberinv the Revolutionary soldiers who