Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1847-07-28
LECTURES ON DEDICATION.

! Those who heard Mr. JILLsoS were richly re-
! warded for their attendance His Lecture was
/ finished roducton-repete with elevated sentiment
| and Impressive truths-and clearly evincing that
| he had not only made the subject matter of deep
study, but waSfpy impressed with its importance
and most anxious TO enlist the community in the
| great work of Educational reform. The question,
he well remarked, is not between Education and no
Education, but between right and a wrong Edu-
cation. " The fact that onehalf or even twothrds
Of the children of this community are without the
walls of the schooroom tells but hall the story
| Those without are learning, and with a progress
scarcely paralleed in the history of any communi-
ty, because the aids and helps of learning are at
hand. Teachers experienced willing active, are in
the Gcld-nor is there any want of pro.essorships
locations, apparatus, or labratores We have gam
blng-houscS, billiard saloons some twenty or thirty
grog shops, ranging from the fashionable Cham
| p1ign seller to the Beer pedlar. In addition to
which, by way o. zest and entertainment, We have
had during the last year not less than fifty exhibi-
tons in mountebankcry, ranging from the theatre
to the siXrenny thimbe-player With such aids
and helps, who doubt the progress Of youth,
who are wiihopt the school room, TO be equal at
least to the progress of those tcuhiH, though the
| lessons learned, and the influence of those lessons
upon the mind are heaven wide in their operation?
In view of this state of things the obligation of the
community to afford the means of a right education
to the masses, by the establishment of common
ctr Oh no
| right, too of every child to be educated-a claim
which no government can shuttle Off be it free or
| despotic, was position assumed and most ably
maintained But we cannot be expected 10 follow
| the speaker in his various arguments and ustra-
tons, however much the public ight he benefited
by knowledge Of them, We give page or two
of the concluding part of the Address, which, if not
read with interest and profit it will be the fault OF
| the reader
| I'VE haze asserted that to be educated was an ia
heTen; right of every child This right flows, if not
from the nature, at least from the necessities OF
! things. The government that performs It's full
functions is bound, not simply TO punish for the yio
lations OF natural right but to prevent their
renee. II am injured in property, character, or
| life through the ignorance intcnperancc direct
~, by the vices surerinducci by these evils, has
| the government performed its whole duty to me by
| immuring the criminal within the prison walls
Has it restored my property, my character, or tc!
! Much less has government performed It's whole duty
to tie criminal 1t has but locked the gate after
tAc horse is stolen; but tied the hands OF one of
the effects, not to improve and instruct him in the
ways OF virtue but cast him among the vile, to be
made ten fold more the child Of Satan than before
I while they Leave the cause still untouched.
This is such protection only Yuturcs give
to lambs il government is bound to protect al all
it is bound to do ii in the most efficient way-in
the way that God and Nature direct That lgno-
rauce is giant source of crime and anarchy, who
can doubt Then is Ignorance the great criminal
that should be driven from, the land And the gov
eminent that fails to do it, has failed to perform It's
Heaven designed functions. 1t has not only viola
ted its trust to those who suffer from the crimes Of
Ignorance, but the poor criminal it has douby
| deeply wronged. He was once the innocent, harm
| less pratmg child. The eye Of his intellect gen
tly opened and he looked out upon the world, and
saw 1t all a sea OF beauty Of nol city, Of charms.
! gladstone smile lit up his bright blue eye and
| merry shOct peaed from his tiny lungs. o! how
londiy did tue parent eye watch each boyIsh gam
! boil and echo back his lIghtest wish; how sWcetIy
glidcd on his summer day; how light and Joyous
the ftlul visions, tie gosamer ances Of world of
peace, and that dear cot his home. 4 few years
! glide Ncr him, aud lie begins to find that all is
not gold that glitters: paymatcS begin 10 Sicer
| and call him ignorant: lie wonders why: he j.
sciops OF no crime: and kccner feels the bitter
taunt Perhaps at the intervals of toll the parent
has succeeded III learning him to lisp the aphllct;
! TO sIell his name the passion to learn IS awakened;
the desire to compete with his little comrades and
| repcl their rude jccr is burning bright within lie
vanders out little distance from home and spells
out on Il high building" Sciccl School for Toys at
! s. per qu0Jfcr. With countcnauce flushed, and
heart paptatng lorj JOY scarcely less than ANNA
ted tie gIe nlatA cmdticlan when he had Sol cd his
| Il problem, he speeds his way home, and cries
Father have found it, | have found it. where
| can learn t. spell and rcaG--to know the world,
| and all that's in it, No, my SON. says the ia
tner, "yoI cannot go; | have not the means; il
! takes all my time and money to clothe and feed
YOU again he Lifts his mostencd eye and i'm
| ploring hands, and Says father can not 90 to
| school where cousin john and James, and all my
little playmates 60 and learn TO read so well. Did
| you not tell me bat yesterday morn that God was
10 reSpectcr OF persons, that he had made all OF
one blood that he shoWercd his blessings alike upon
the r.ch and the poor; that he rewarded those who
were good with blessing and with plenty. O, Fa-
Their, am | to blamc?" No, my son, but human
gov enmcnts are not as perfect as divine; they do
not pretend to make all men rich But, Father,
did not the man tell on Independence day, that
! this was the lest olenmcnt earth. that It had
declared that oil men were created equal. ard had
| rghtto the pursuit OF happiness-tha if We would
| only learn and be intelligent, it would always be
and did You not help them fire that gun, and carry
that flag, and clap your hands, and say it just
So that the man had told the truth! Father, am
not equal 10 cousin John; can't run as fast; can't
| lit as much hav'nt got a mind; can't think
! as well as he; wont it make me as happy to think
| havnt a right to know where the tall mountains
where the big rivers run, where Babylon stood
! where Egypt is, and the Red sea where Pharaoh
was drowned How can learn and be intelligent
| how shall | know what is right and wrong! O,
! tell me, Father, why they should shut up my intel
ect in darkness, drive me from the school-room,
and then call ne ignorant; and because could not
see to do right 10 shut my body up in prison, and
not let me the light ofday. Am | TO blamed"
And is il rightl Do You wonder that the mind
is soured, that the spirit is crushed and broken that
the criminal is made and when rcquisitiou is made
for blood, who will be the guilter OF the two, the
community or the victim
LET US then not cease to agitate this subject
until the moral and political duty TO educate Is ad
nlitcd and performed until the right to the means
OF 4 common school education is fully recognized,
and placed in the category as the night to life.
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness