Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1847-09-10


subject cannot well be obtained Five wears
ago, it was estimated that, in the whole coun-
try, there were not less than two millions of
pupils. who attended common schools but
better idea of their extent and influence NAV
be gathered from the statistics of a single
State. In New York, there are nearly eleven
thousand public schools; not less than half a
million OF pupils; and district libraries for the
use alike OF children and adults, comprising in
the aggregate more than million of volumes
In that State, am aware, the school system
mas been the work OF many years; but even the
system OF Ohio, one of the youngest States in
the Union, may we'll attract our establishment
and respect. Here, if any where in the land,
her late existence and marvellous
growth, we might have looked to see the cul-
tvation OF mind fatally postponed, if not
wholly overwhelmed, by the thronging de-
mands Of enterprise, and the pressing employ
ments of active life. Yet her constitution de-
clares, IN the genuine spirit of the Republic,
" that knowledge is essential to good govern
ment and human happiness" and that schools
and means Of instruction should be encouraged
IN such way as is consistent with freedom Of
conscience" Acting on the admirable sent-
ment of this provision, she had established, as
long ago as 1910, eighteen colleges, and nearly
six thousand schools, which were attended by
two hundred and twenty five thousand scho-
lars.
These illustrations evince, at single glance,
the extended interest of our people in the diff
fusion of knowledge, and the magnificent re-
suits which that patriotic interest has achiev-
ed. If some States have done less than Ohio
for the cause of instruction, there are others
which have done-more-and all of them, be-
licve, without exception, have recognized It's
Importance by wise constitutional or legal
provisions The public funds set apart for
this purpose in the whole Union, including
the generous grants of land by the Fedora!
Government, to promote the sales of its public
domain, need not shrink from comparison with
the boasted literary endowments of Europe :;
and yet they fall very far short of the entire
expenditure in the United States for the edu-
.tion of the young The cost of private in
5truction forms of itself an additional item of
immense amount, while the grand aggregate
is still further increased by the frequent con-
tributions of individual benelcence, for the
foundation of libraries, or the improvement of
schools In the field of letters, as every
where else in our country, the great principle
Of voluntary effort is ceaselessly at work, and
constantly rivals, by the energy Of its move
ments and the magnitude of its effects, the
most successful action on the part Of Govern
ment The exercise of their combined power
has pervaded the very heart of the people with
the influences Of moral and mental culture, and
has extended the means of education to every
grade of society and every condition OF life
Aided, however, by no combination with
the State. the religious teachings of America
are the work purely of private benefcence
In the republics of antiquity, religion was on
Iva part of their political system, and the head
of the State was also the father of the church.
This unnatural connexion, fatal alike to chris
tianitY and to liberty, which even vet fingers
in the Old World, has been wholly repudiated
in the NeW-and the land of Roger Williams
and Thomas Jefferson prociaims liberty of con-
science from sixty thousand churches, and in
culcates virtue and federation in as many Sab
bath schools. Free government is valuable,
after all, not so much for any direct eXertiOn
OF its own power, as for what it permits the
people TO work out for themselves.
The Press began its work in 1859; a CEN
fury afterwards it had earned the prohibition
of England, and was strong enough to defy
it; and at this day, it asserts its freedom BY
an influence which is only not despotic becaus :
it is not harmonious Far outstripping by its
enterprise the fertility of our writers, the Ame-
rican press appropriates unshrinkingly the
literary treasures of the whole earth while it
almost forbids importation of books by the
cheapness with which it reprints them, and the
facility with which it scatters them among all
classes of the reading community. But the
most striking displays of its activity and pow
er are only to be witnessed in the field of Jour-
naliSm, where it more than equals France in
energy, and knows no other rival throughout
the world. 1t printed the first newspaper nj
America in the year 1704:in 1828it had joined
an additional number OF eight hundred and fif-
ty; and, at this day, it acts upon the popular
mind through the teeming columns of more
than two thousand journals Sharing, as well
as stimulating, the progressive spirit oft the age,
it advances into the wilderness with our har-
dY pioneers; keeps company with our con-
merce among the islands Of the sea and con-
tends for supremacy with the sword upon ev-
cry battle field which is won by our victorious
arms. Already it sends us shipping lists from
the Sandwich Islands, chronicles the news OF
the day in La Vera Cruz, and echoes back the
thunder of our cannon from the shores of the
far Pacific Becoming thus the missionary as
we'll as the schoolmaster of republicanism, it
plants among other nations the seeds of free
dom, which it has itself ripened upon our soil
and having first contributed to the glory OF A
merica at home, it crowns its labor of patrio-
ttsm by making it better known, and therefore
more honored, abroad.
With influences such as these, it more than
pays back to our country whatever of nurture
it has received from it, and richly atones fol
all the imperfections or abuses by which.lt SC
often deserves the reproaches of society, and
somtimes seems, almost, to require the censor
ship of law. The force of enlightened public
opinion constitutes after all, its best restraint
and the only one which would leave to it al
its value. Under this guidance, if its teach
ing are not always pure, they are seldom dan
gerous; for its errors are met by truth as sooT
as they appear, and, like the lance of Achilles
it has the virtue to heal the wounds which i
has itself inflicted In the higher branches o
literature, the good'which it confers is neve
doubted and if it is less free from censure II
its lighter publications, yet its agency ever
there is on the side of virtue and in favor
liberty. |sWere it left to me to decide write
Mr.. Jefferson, "whether we should have
government without newspapers, or newspa
pers without government. would not hesl
tate moment to prefer the latter Paradox
ical as this may seem, it cannot be dOubtedl
that no government can be maintained IN ia
! spirit of liberty and purity, without the chas
tening influences of the newspaper press.
1t is sometimes said that rich source OF IN
Cfr Il D.