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

natural continuation of the process of creation,
taking up that process just where the Deity
left it. They would see and feel the propriety
OF having short portions of the Bible read and
explained every morning in the school Of hay-
ing prayers read from books specially prepared
for schools Of having moral questions d!s
cossed by the pupils, and moral lectures de-
hyered by the teacher, and of introducing as
textbooks, such manuals as " Sulivans Moral
4 Class Book" "Wayland's Moral Science"
HaPs Morals for Schools" and such like
Such legislators would see and feel, that to
aeny 70 the hungering and thirsting soul of
cnlldhood the nourishment which these books
are prepared to give. would be little less than
| committing murder by starvation Such legis.
iaoois would not interfere with any sectarian
preJudces; but, rising above them all. would
hx on the two central principles of the uni
verse JUSTICE and LOVE, and would so en-
body them IN the educational codes Of the
State, rs 10 silence noisy demagogues and in.
tolerant bigots
May say a word TO the Legislature Of Yer.
mont Your constitution wisely recognises the
principles for which have been contending
In accordance with its spirit, let me ask you
civil fathers, to consider the vhole nature of
man, His physical, intellectual, and moral pow
ers are each dear to God let them be equally
dear to you. Give them all their fair natural
chance in your State, IT, by partial or penu-
rious legislation concerning schools, you do
everything to sharpen the intellect Of youth
and do nothing to ehristianize the conscience
you make giant of that intellect and dwarf
Of that conscience. do you not thereby double
the power Of doing wrong, and proportionably
lessen the disposition to do right? We invite
human society, and to make the deepest phi
nj tura "a hos nf 10
gislation. Congress, when it sat apart portion
Of the public lands, in every town, as devoted to
education, has set you a noble example; and
it seems to say to you, that next to parents,
you are responsible for the intellectual and
moral culture of the rising generation !; and
especially of those whom the ordinary agencies
of society cannot reach. We trust you will
heed nations exhortation.
We ask you to render the public schools of
your State attractive to youth. Furnish them
with accomplished teachers, good libraries, and
| extensive apparatus. Where the honey is,
| there the bees will always come. You promise
tempting rewards to any citizen who shall rear
the fairest forest of oaks. or raise the largest
cattle, or invent the best machine-would it
be unworthy of your patriotism to bring your
appreciation to bear, in some form, on the best
school-teacher on the fittest class-book or the
| worthest pupil2 Are not mind and morals
staples worth some patronage You spend
vast sums in prisons and penitentiaries, in watch
men and sherifs--will you not provide some
thing which will render these useless If you
plant moral principle in the plastic mind of
youth, you put there hundred governors. Are
you not bound to make the process which is
preventive of crime, so perfect that the cura-
tive one will not be needed?
Perhaps you reply to all this, and say-"We
are afraid Of sectarianismn And so are we .
but we are not so much afraid Of any of the
prevalent forms Of Christianity as we are Of
!, the heathenism which threatens us we are
not half so much afraid Of sectarianism as we
are of inidelity or rs we are Of the blackness
and darkness Of ignorance Better eat sour
bread than starye
Civil Fathers deepening moral responsl.
bility rests on you. You are addressed on
! every side by emphatic voices. Our Pilgrim
ancestors, from the rock of Plymouth cali out
to you from the visible past and command you
to follow up the two great principles Of the
church and schoot-house, which they have be
queathed to us in trust. So, too. from the in.
visible future, do coming generations call to
you, ere they arrive, beseechipg you TO provide
for them that instruction which shall make
them equal to all the demands of an advanced
civilization, VIII you be deaf to the command
ofyour fathers or the prayer Of your children
have thus gentlemen Of the Institute. ndi-
Gated, not as had wished, but as / am able
the new era in legislation, which it seems to me
the Christian religion demands of the leading
republic of the world in the nineteenth century
Adler pens | hope will convert these hints 10
life aud power. God grant that our country
may so strike that grand keynote, that all the
republics Of our hemisphere, which are Just in
their childhood and all those in Europe which
are Just being born may ioyfully catch the sa
cred tones and chant together, as in chorus,
the song of redemption, liberty, and love, which
is the song oftruth, education, and Christianity
And now in bringing this course of lectures
to close, il must have been apparent to all
that the need of moral culture is more and
more felt ms indispensable to the highest i'm
proyement and prosperity of our schools Most
happy am to find the present thus telegraph.
ing to the future Let this Institute lift SO
high the Christian standard that every Lepis.
ature in the land may read its heavenly motto.
And now, methinks. | hear the car Of the
nineteenth century laden with the improve.
mcnts in art, literature. science, and religion
speeding ts way towards us, with its breath OF
fire. 1t comes from the North and It is the
duty Of this Association to see that It stops not
until it has reached the EXTREMIST verge of our
Southern continent We trust it will pass
through the capital Of every State, to give to
each Legislature the opportunity of making its
generous contributions. Thus laden, il shall
acquire a momentum that will crush to atoms
every opposing power. Shallwe not welcome
its coming Yes Let us hail it from our in
most hearts, and shout it along it's way Hear
we not the noise Of its wheelsi Let it come--let
it come God give it speed Clear the track
for the bells rings. -. .s.71