The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-04-22


refining cultiyating elevaung; worth all the musty
manuscripts Of Oxford, ten times told' How are
we to escape the imputaton that cur rude land can
show no such triumphs Of art as thesei Are We TO
| follow Bonaparte,s plan, Arc we TO carry war
into the land of the olive and the yne; and enrich
this city, as the French emperor dld his capital,
with the srtistical spoils OF the world Unless we
adopt some such plan, must not hufoPes taunts ro-
main unans wered sulR
| And let them so remain | share not the feelings
of the learned and eloquent senator TO whose re-
marks have taken liberty TO reply, when he says;
81 confess 10 psng envy and grief that there should
be drop morse more oil s bread or water Of
life tasted by the European than BY the Amer
can mind Why should not the soul Of this country
good food and much Of H. as the soul Of EuroPep
Il grieyes me not that the fantastic taste Of some
epcure in learning may chance to md, on the book
shelves of Paris literary morsei Of choice and an
Gent flavor such as our metropolis supplies not
feel no envy, if we republicans are outdone by lux
| urious Europe in some high-seasoned delicaey of
| the pampered soul Enough have we TO console
ourselves! objects of national ambition, how much
higher how infinitely nobler than these! objects of
national pride before which these petty antiquarian
trumphs dwarf down into utter insignihcancy!
Look abroad over our far-spreading land, then
glance across TO the monarchles oil the Old World,
| and say, If speak not truth!
have soiourned among the laborers Of England.
have visited amid their vineyards, the peasantry
of France. have dwelt for years In the midst Of
| the hardy mountaineers Of Switzerland. have
SEEM and conyersed, and sat down In their cottages
with them all. | have found Often among them
simple goodness; ignorance, oppression, cannot
| trample out that. have Witnessed patience under
hopeless toll resignation beneath griesoas wrongs;
| have met with eiyility, kindness cheerful smile,
and ready welcome. But the ypirit Of the man was
not there.--the spirit that can f up in brow win
noble confidence and feel, that while it il man .
- slave w than
| and the favored Of eapricious fortune, one felt
they fsIt-that there was great gulf fixed; broad, i'm
passable.
Far other is it, even in the lowliest cabin of our
frontier West. 1t is an equal ysu meet there; an
equal in political rights, one TO whom honors and
office, the highest, are as open as to yourself
| You feel that il is an equal. The tone in which
hospitality is rendered to you humble though means
and forms may be, reminds you Of II. The con-
yersation, running over the great subjects OF the
day, branching of, perhaps, 10 questions Of eonsu-
tutional right, or international law, assures you
| Of it,
have heard, in many a baekwoods cabin, light
ed but by the blazing log heap, arguments on gov
eminent, views Of national policy, judgments Of
men and things, that for sound and practical
wisdom, would not disgrace any legislative body
upon earth.
And shall we grudge to Europe her Antiquarian
| lore, her cumbrous folos, her illuminated manu-
scripts, the chaf of learned duness that cumbers
| her old library shelyesi A "pang of envy and
gref' shall we feel Out upon il Men have we
people; free people; selfrespecting selfgovern-
| ing; that which gold cannot buy; that which kings
cannot make Grief Envy! Theirs let il be, who look
upon this young land, in her fresh Tess, in her
strength Let them feel il who behold, from afar
our people bravely battling their onward way;
reading with liberty at their side, the path of pro-
gressiye improvement; each step upward and on
ward; onward to the great goal of public virtue and
| social equality.
| Equality | spoke OF our citizens as equals
| equals in the sense Of the Declaration of In
dependence; equals in political privilege; in the
legal right to the pursuit of happiness. Equals, In
| a restricted sense Of the term men never can be
The power OF intellect will command, while the
world endures; the influence OF cultivation will be
felt while continue to live upon earth; and felt the
more, the longer the world improves the better men
become. Unequal, then, in their influence over
their fellows; unequal in the space they I'LL in the
| worlds thoughts; unequal, in the power with which
they draw after them the hearts Of many-thus un-
equal, to some extent, men must ever be.
But here arises great question; practical ques
ton; inquiry especially pertinent TO the subject
before u.s. The natural inequality Of man is a thou
sand times increased by artificial influences through
out society. Is that welR Or ifnot well, can il b
avoided Or il not avoided, can it be lessened
feel assured that 1t can be much lessened / am no
sanguine enough to hslieve that l-perhaps not my
children, even-shall see the day, when equality o
education shall prevail, in this republican land
But hold it to be republican obligation to do al
that we properly and constitutonally may, in erde
gradually to reach at least to approach, that pc
rod Ihod it to be a democratic duty to elevate, t.
the utmost Of ability, the character of our
MON SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. hold this to be ia
higher and holier duty than give additional deptt
to learned studies, or supply curious authorities Il
antiquarian research.
Guided by such considerations, incorporated il
the bill before you, one Of its principal features
La NORMAL BRANCH. This, and the clause providin.
for original researches in natural science, tn
only important additions that have been made in i
to Senator Tappan's bill Of last session.
fl Normal schools-that is, schools to teach teach
ers to instruct in the science Of instruction-are
improvement Of comparatively modern date. TIL
first ever attempted seems to have been in Prussia
established about the year l704 by FRANKIE the eel
ebrated founder of the Orphan House of Halle
They have gradually increased in number and ia
vor from that day to this, in all the civiize
nations of Europe; and Mrs. Austin, in her prefac
to Cousins "Public Instruction in Prussia" re
marks that the progress of primary instruction il
Europe may be measured BY The provision made for tn
education Of teachers.
A detailed account Of the Normal Schools of Eu
rope is given in the ninth chapter of Professo
I Bache's "Report on Education in Europe" mad
to the Trustees Of the Girard College. Mr.. Bach
visited Europe under instructions from the commit
tee of the Institutions and his excellent report full
of practical details and accurate statistics is re
deemng point in the management Of that trust.
Two States only Of our Union have yet estab
! lshed State Normal schools: Massachusetts an
New York. Massachusetts, has three, educating il
all about two hundred pupils; and New York ha
one, containing about the same number Of students
the sole object of both being, to educate teachers
common schools The experiment has been signal
' successful. The report for 1874 Of the Massa
chusetts board of education, says, of one Of thei
schools, (that at Lexington)
such is the reputation Of this school that application
have been made to it from of sister states 70
teachers"
:, And Mr., Horace Mann, secretary of the Massa
chusets board of education, writes to me:
when first opened in Massachusetts, Normal school
were experiment in this country. Like all new idea
they have had to encounter serious Obstacles but the
have triumphed every species of opposition hav
commended themselves more and every year to tn
good sense of our people, and have the pleasure
not only OF seeing them firmly Established here, but
knowing that their has given birth to similar
stnton in the State Of New York. and promises long
to do the in other StatesD
The Normal branch of the Smithsonian Instu
ton is intended not by any means to take the plac
lnfS h,,tn in air pf n