Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-12-11

able class of people whose emigration is but lit
tie dependent upon the policy of the State, an,
whom, therefore, we may not by any change il
that policy expect TO retain.
| But there is another and very numerous class
who are influenced by none of the considera ton.
suggested: Woodworking, provident and valu
| able class, who are attached to their homes, anc
| to all the usages, laws and associations which
surround them, but who are obliged, never,he
less, to abandon them all under the stern require
ments OF duty to themselves and their families
Without any adequate market near them, and
without any distant one to which they have a
cheap and suitable access, the whole products oil
their labor are SO absorbed i'm the expense of ex-
changing them, and the expense itself is ire.
ducible ny any ccohomy prudence of theirs,
that the only alternative left them is to toll on in
comparative poverty, or to 60 elsewhere, where
| their exertions can be turned to wiser and better
account. However natural and proper for ciii-
zens thus situated to do this, it is neither the one
nor the other for the State passvely to allow it,
She is the final sufferer of every loss which emf
grafton can involve, and she, too, is the final and
righttul party to prevent the loss, whenever it
arises from general obstruction to labor, which
private means are not adapted nor sufficient TO
remove. Let the distractions which have al
| ready operated so disastrously-which have pa
ralyzed the labor, disturbed the peace, prevented
the education, interdicted the intercourse, low
cred the moral and social advantages of so large
portion OF our people-let them but continue,
and the runous process of depopulaton and iu,-
poverlshment, now at work, will 60 on with ac-
cumulating force until the Commonwealth will be
rendered poweress for the vigorous measures
which her restoration will require. Unless Vir-
GINA, therefore, is ready to submit herself to the
unmltlgated evil of such result, and, forgetting
alike her security and her renown, is willing 10
drag on In downward career of angujshment
and decay, let her put forth her power and remove
at once The distractions which SO overwhem-
Ing to her people, and thus enable the great
mass OF them 10 find as eligible home within
their native borders as any where beyond them
She cannot, indeed, by any exertion or policy Of
hers, take from other States any advantages of
residence which are peculiar TO them, but she can
check the emigratng spirit and movement of her
people, by raising up kindred and equivalent ad-
van.ages of her own. To this end, and as one
OF the surest and most indispensable OF all the
means of obtaining it, let the Legislature revise,
amend and enlarge our systems Of
EDUCATION AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.
In relation to the first of these Subjects as
nothing need be said upon The general question
oil Its Importance, will submit, in addition to
what has been said in former communications,
a remark or two only upon some Of its other as
Pects: And, first, it is obviously important that
the Legislature should settle deiinitively upon the
ground on which this subject is to be treated
Ii, In It's judgment, it should be treated as
private business, which ought to be left, like The
requirement OF property, 10 every mans separate
eNerilons-those to receive much who have the
means 10 procure it with, and those nothing, who
are without the means-and it determines, i'm
consequence, TO add nothing to the provision al
ready allowed for its beneft--if this is its iudg-
ment, it is highly proper that it should be made
known, that the necessary steps might be taken
by the people themselves, either TO reverse it
or 10 carry 1t into effect. IT, ON the other hand,
the sounder judgment is entertained, that edu-
cation is public well as a private concern
that, unlike the requirement of property, which
can be pursued by each one for himself, without
dependence upon others, 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 youn-
tary arrangement; and further, that education is
too sacred an element in the wel-being and safe
ty OF State, governed like ours to be left TO the
hazards OF unorganzed, individual combination
II this is Its opinion, it follows, that the public
aid, which Ii recognizes a legitimate aid. in
the case, should be extended 10 every grade of
education, and every description of learner
The hrst rudments of the language, and the
highest attalnmeDts of the scholar, should be
provided for as the objects to be accomplished
The provision which is recognized as due to all,
S"OHiu ue SuillClent LOT all, and In the case OF
primary instruction at least, it should be free to
all. Nothing less than this will satisfy the
obligation assumed, nor the wants to be sup
piled, and nothing greater could be effected for
the honor, advancement and renovation of the
State. Once establish education upon this
basis of public iberality and justice, and watch
over and develope it afterwards i'm the fostering
and determined spirit which esteems nothing to be
done whilst any thing remains TO do, and Virgin.
la VIII throw from bpr coil tba I'd
the pain OF rearing upon it body of children out
numbering The revolutionary soldiers who gave
us TIE power TO rear them as we pleased, and TO
whom, from year to year, not moment of in
struction is afforded by the State, nor afforded
at all.
Ii the Legislature can agree upon the prelimin-
airy principle, that Education is State duty or
State trust, which ought to be provided for by
law, 1t can have no difficulty in determining upon
the point to which its hducary labors should be
chiefly directed. single glance at the statistics
oil THIS subject, will show, that the greatest want
which we suffer is that of common education and
the greatest sufferers are, of course, that very
mass OF our people upon whom the State depends
Tor Its support ard defence i'm every possible
event, and who are therefore especially entitled
to be spared from so undue share of public
misfortune. In the higher grades Of education
tnlS want is lar less seriously felt. The number
OF pupils at the University, Colleges, Academies,
classical and Grammar Schools, OF this State,
being something less than two per cent. on our
whole population, greater, nevertheless, than is
10 be found in any of the States, except those of
New England, and is less than it is there, only
by an Inconslderabe fraction; difference, which
is unquesllonaby owing to the greater facility
and cheapness with which education can be had
In the midst OF country and village population,
so much more crowded than our own. As an
evidence OF this, 1t is shown by the late census
that The eevent thousand and eighty-threo students
which belong to the Grammar Schools and Aca-