Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-28

County Superintendents would be personally ac-
quanted with every school in their several ju-
risdictions, and would therefore bring to the
Board all the facts which would be necessary
for profound, practical, and progressive legisla-
tion, Each town would make its report, and
the County Superintendent would make theirs
othe Board of Education, and tins Board would
make its report annually to the Legislature, to
whom all the delegated powers must be respon-
sible, The County Snperintendents should
teach in every school, and deliver lectures on
all school subjects, and also conduct examina-
tions, The Secretary of the Board should go
through the State, delivering lectures to parents
and teachers, and spreading all the useful
knowledge he can gain He must be Argus
eyed, Briarean- handed # 4-3
A word of explanation about the Normal
school 1t is the first duty of q Legislature to
| secure good teachers. The profoundest phi
losophy of system OF public free schools may
be summed up in these eight words As as the
teacher, 50 is The school The schoolmaster is
the intellectual and moral missionary going
forth to preach the glad tidings Of knowledge
and virtue to the youthful population of the
land No Office this side the sun more honor
able No Office this side eternity more impor-
tant How necessary that he should be fitted
for his work! That he may properly govern
his school, he should have soldiers sternness
OVERLAPPING lovers good will. That he may
properly teach his pupils, he must have wealth
ut will, and will to use his wealth It is the
object Of Normal schools to confer these pow
ers, and bring out these qualifications.
Without time to explain the details Of the
system now indicated, would ask, What does
the world demand from the leading Christian
Republic in the nineteenth century, an
do oP lao
lation--a aieW idea---A NEW ERA | desire to
utter in the capital Of this State, and before
this crowded assembly, my emphatic protest
against the prevalent maxims Of legislation, as
they relate to public schools and ! aver that
legislation on these highest interests of human
ity is narrow and partial, and therefore un-
philosophic and unchristian. 1t has never yet
risen to the just conception of the dignity or
Importance, the power or the sacredness OF the
subject. Take the thirty State Legislatures Of
this Union, and what is true of them on this
momentous subject? They begin with false
view of human nature and human wants, and
they end where error and ignorance always
end in defeat and harm. There may be ex-
ceptions; but most of them seem to have no
more apprehension of the extent and fertility
of a child's mind, or of the relationships of
childhood to mature life, than they have Of the
way in which the pyramids were built. They
| legislate well enough about hay, beef and fish,
calico, hardware, and taxes because they IN
derstand these but when they come to legis-
late upon the human mind and human char
acter--;pos0erS upon Which all OUTWARD prosper
ity depends-then they seem blind to the first
facts of the case 1t is this blank ignorance Of
the paramount needs of society of which we
have right to complain and we call on all
citizens not to elect men as legislators who can
represent only the lowest strata of human
wants. From examining the records of Gov
ernment we might almost conclude that Legis-
latures regarded men either as natural law
breakers or fox-like trafickers or social shirks,
or uncompromising offce-seekers. or ntolerant
bigots for their chief action seems to be to re-
strain to limit, and to guard. Every page of
the statute-book frowns with penalties pro-
! hibtions fines and threats, Cannot Chris
| tianity raise society to moral selfrespect that
shall make higher legislation more efficient?
If our Republic declares to the world that
! knowledge and virtue are the only sources of
safety, improvement, and happiness shall
Legislatures continue to regard man as only
stomach or q fsta While they present motives
for bringing out the powers of the sea and soil,
shall they offer no motives for bringing out the
powers Of the mind and heart viii they never
recognise the Uhoie nature of man, the divine
philosophy Of life, the sacred afinities of moral
truth, the noble aspirations of youthful genius,
and the immortal thirst for the Excelsior z"
Will they never rise to the Christian idea of
legislation, and do as an assembly of Sayiours
would do if they were called to legislate for
the utmost good of future generations
You reply to all this, and say, that society is
not ready for such legislative action. And
rh,,. .o IL, nd
as you continue TO assert that IL is not readql
Change your hackneyed phrase, and say, en-
phatically, that society is ready, and how long
will it be before n new and blessed era shall
dawn on the State Take up the trumpet of
advice, and blow blast that drowsness itself
shall hear, and in ten years the masses will be-
gin to call for Christian legislation upon schools
Legislatures then would see that in most i'm
portant respect they stand I'm loco PARENTS
10 all the children Of the Commonwealth and
therefore that it is their solemn duty to see thnt
the child has in the school-house everything of
education which it will hereafter need in the
world. They would then see that national
character is manufactured by seeing that the
elements which should compose that character
are doing their proper work upon the formative
periods of youthful development They would
recognise the fact, that the laws of q State
have much to do with the morality OF State
and that the morality of State has everything
to do with its peace, thrift, and happiness; and
moreover, that Christianity enthroned in the
heart of any people, is the cheapest police that
any Government can maintain.
Let US from to-day, begin and hold up the
idea of a new era in gislation-God's idea of
eegislation-a recognition of the highest mo-
tive-powers of man. Then Legislatures will
nv ~,
guard; instruct as we'll as rule; and instead of
the thunder ton na of threats and nanaltias they