New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-24
Orr Free schools.

HnVaIe huNlCcs lIOHl AlOduJ AnPciS
there is great danger of the Repeal Of the
Free School Law unless its friends shall
save it by some compromise or other that
virtually gives up the vital principle. The
precise form of such compromise IS not
vet indicated, but it is apprehended that
nothing short of return to Rate-bills and
INDECENT Exemptions will satisfy the ad-
versaries of Free Schools.
We say, then, emphatically to the
friends of Universal Education, Stand firm :
Be beaten if you must, but do not disgrace
the noble cause intrusted to your guardian
ship by giving it away. If you cannot
secure a majority of votes for some plan
which preserves the great principle OF
open school doors for all the children OF
the State, let our adversaries take the
matter into their own hands and fix 1t to
suit themselves. Let the People see
whether their clamor about the details OF
the present law-their pretense, in so many
instances, that they were in favor of Free
Schools but opposed to this La'0''-were
honest or deceptive.
For our own part, we will cheertully as
sent to any modification of the present
Law which leaves undisturbed the vital
principle of Free Instruction. Our oPpo-
nents may twist and turn the Tax Laws as
they see ft-they may pile extra burdens
on this City in punishment for her devotion
to Free SchoOls-they may impose State
Tax, Income Tax, or any thing they please,
except a Rate-bill with its concomitant'
the INDECENT Exemption. If they insist on
sending the school-rate collector to chase
widows hens and levy on solitary milk
pans and water-pails, we shall insist on
being excused. The question with US IS
not how large or how small the Rate-bill
may be-we protest againsti it in any shape.
AS property holder, we wish the destI-
tute to feel that their children are welcome
to all the advantages of our Schools, not
as a matter of favor to them, but of wise
and conservative public policy. We are
glad Of the chance of paying for the
schooling of poor children rather than
they should be kept from school by
dread of the rate-bill. We wish the
poorest mans child to feel that he has as
good right in school as the richest, and
not be exposed to the taunt that he is pau
per- scholar. If the adverse interest choose
and have power to make the distinct issue
of Free Schools or No Free Schools, by
repeating the presentLaw and restoring the
old system, let them do it! We have
beaten them twice in fair trials before the
whole People as jury, although they had
an immense advantage last fall in the pop
ular dissatisfaction with the details of the
present Law. Let us see if we cannot
beat them harder when that advantage
shall have been destroyed by their own
act.
Revolutions do not go backward-that
is, not permanently. If the Sun did once
stand still in Gideon, and if its shadow
on the dial went back fifteen degrees
at another time, neither ever became
a habit, nor was ever likely to. A
Free State which has once enjoyed Free
Schools, even under such unfavorable aus
pices as ours, will never rest satisfied with
any other. So if the rear-guard of the
Dark Ages in our Legislature see fit to
throw the State back on Rate-bills, and can
do it, let them The end of the world is
not set for 1850 according to our Almanac,
and what is lost now will be more than
made up in coming years. Stand firm