The North-Carolina standard., 1847-09-08

recognised its importance by wise constitutional
or legal provisions. The public funds set apart
Tor tins purpose in the whole Union, including
the generous grants OF land by the Federal Gov
ernment, 10 promote the sales of its public do
main, need not shrink from, comparison with the
boasted literary endowment of Europe; and vet
they fall very far shot Of the entire expenditure
In the United States for the education ofthe Young
The cost OF private instruction forms Of itself an
additional item of immense amount, while the
grand aggregate is still further increased by the
frequent contributions of individual benefcence
for the foundation Of libraries, the improvement
OF schools In the field of letters, as every where
else in country, the greet principle Of volunta
ry effort is ceaselessly at work, and constantly
rivals, by the energy Of its movements and the
magnitude Of its effects, the most successful action
on the part efGovernmenL The exercise of their
combined power has pervaded the very heart of
the people with the influences of moral and men.
tai culture, and has extended the means of educa-
tion 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. la the re-
pubIics of antiquity, religion was only part of
their political system, and the head Of the State
was also the father of the church.. This uunatu-
raj connexion, fatal alike to Christianity and %
liberty, which even yet fingers in the Old World,
land Of Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson
proclaims liberty Of conscience from sixty thou
sand churches, and incucales virtue and tolePaton
in as many Sabbath schools. Free government is
valuable, afieI all, not so much for any direct ex-
ertion Of its own power as for what it permits the
people TO work out for themselves ,... ..-
The Press began its work in 1859: century
after wards it had earned The prohibition of Eng.
land, and was strong enough to defy it and at
this day, it asserts its freedom by an influence
which is only not despotic because it is not har-
monious. Far outstripping by its enterprise the
fertility Of her own writer's, the American press
appropratcs unshrinkingy the literary treasures Of
the whole earth while it almost foibids importa
ton of books by the cheapness with which it re-
prints 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
power are only to be witnessed in the field Of
Journalism, where il more than equals France in
energy and knows no other rival throughout the
world. Il printed the first newspaper in America
! in the year l7O4; in 1928 it had joined an addi-
tional number of eight hundred and fifty; and, at
this day, il acts upon the popular mind through the
teeming columns Of more than two thousand
journals. Sharing, as we'll as stimulating, the
progressive spirit of the age it advances Hto the
wilderness with our hardy pioneers; keeps COM
pnny with our commerce among the islands Of the
sea and contends for supremacy with The sword
upon every battlefield which is won by victo-
rious 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 well
ms the schoolmasler of republicanism, it plants
among other nations the seeds Of freedom, which
il has itself rpened upon our soil and having
first contributed to the glory of America at home,
it crowns its labor of patriotism by making it bet
ter known, and therefore more honorcd, abroad.
With influences such as these, it more than
pays back TO country whatever OF nurture II has
received from it. and richly atones for all the i'm
perfecions or abuses by which it so often deserves
The rcproaches Of society, aud sometimes seems,
almost, 10 require the censorship Of law The
force of enlig htened public opinion constitutes,
after all, its best restraint and the only one which
would ieave to it all its value. Under this guld-
ance If its teachings are not always pure they are
seldom dangerous; for its errors arc met by truth
as soon as they appear and like the lance of Achil
les it has the virtue to heal the wounds which it
has itself inflicted. In the higher branches OF
literature, the good which it tconters is never doubt
ed and if it is less free from censure IN Its lighter
publications. yet its agency even there Is on the
side of virtue and in favor of liberty. Were it left
to me 10 decide" writes Mr. Jefferson, /" whether
we should have a government without pewsPa-
pers, or newspa pers without government, l would
doxical as this may seem, it cannot be doubted
that no government can be maintained in The spi-
rit of liberty and purity, without the christening
influences of the newspaper press
II is sometimes said that rich source Of instruc-
ton is closed to US, because America has no monn-
ments and if bV this it is meant that she Is not
vet marked with the decay Of age and the rava-
ges of time the assertion is strictly true. But
unless ruin is more desirable than greatness: and
the dim figures of antiquity more precious than
the fresh and glowing forms of youth, this feature
OF her characte: is rather her glory than her re-
proach The monuments Of America are not
found in the scattered fragments Of the dusty past,
but point all of them to the rising grandeurs OF the
far-of future; and while older nations "look back
Trough the twilight of ages that lose themselves
in night" the genius Of our Republic goes forth In
4 The dawn Of morning, 10 meet and welcome the
4 approach of day. No feudal castles, crumblIng 6
uoon our hills attest the ancient violence OF robber-
! lords, and not for US, do the glorious relics OF a
noble ancestry bear Witness in buried columns
! and broken arches, to the Degenerate spirits OF
their unworthy sons but in place Of these, and
I far better than these, zoe crown our andscapes
4 with contented homes, we build altars to science
by the hearthstone of every citizen, and with the
] spires of a thousand churches we point our chlt-
dren the path. 10 Heaven. While we can pre-
serve unimpaired TO our country, free instruction,
free religion and q free press, we need ask no
other support for our institutions, and no other
4 witnesses to our tame ;. fa@ s.
~ To the means of instruction which have been
already mentioned, I;should do wrong not TO add
that other peculiar education which springs from
tho very working of our republican system, and