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

County Superintendent would be personally ac
quainted 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-
ton. Each town would make its report, and
the County Superintendent would make theirs
to tho 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 Superintendent should
teach in every school and deliver lectures on
all school subjects, and also conduct examina-
tons. 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 asa
A word of explanation about the Normal
school 1t is the first duty of Legislature to
secure good teachers The profoundest phi
losophy Of system Of public free schools may
be summed up in these eight words As is The
teacher, so as The school. The schoolmaster ia
the intellectual and moral missionary going
forth to preach the glad tidngs 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
Mt will, and will to use his wealth 1t 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 I an
swer, It demands o new dispensation of legs-
lation--a aeW 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 n 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 q 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 I'M
derstand these; but when they come to legis-
late upon the human mind and human char
acter--poUerS upon achich all outwdrd 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
eminent we might almost conclude that Legis
latures regarded men either as natural law.
breakers or fox-lke traffckers, or social shirks
or uncompromising ofice-seekers or intolerant
| 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-
! hibitions, 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 q
stomach or a fist While they present motives
for bringing out the powers of the aea and soil,
shall they offer no motives for bringing out the
powers of the mind and heart Will they never
recognise the ghoie 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 2"
Will they never rise to the Christian idea of
legislation, and do rs an assembly of Saviours
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
why is it not ready Because you, and such
as You, continue 10 assert that ii is not reddq
Change your hackneyed phrase, and say EN-.
phatically, that society as 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 drowsiness 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 y
TO all the children Of the Commonwealth and
therefore that it is their solemn duty to see that
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 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 new era in legislation-God's idea of
legislation-a recognition of the highest mo-
tiye-powers of man. Then Legislatures will
urge as well as restrain direct ms well as
guard instruct as well as rule; and instead Of
the thunder tones Of threats and penalties, they