Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-09-07
OUR PUBLIC scHooLs.-No. VII.
By 3. 8. RANDALL.

Bi y. s. RANDALL.
Every child of proper age must be brought
within the pale Of instruction. or the great work
Of universal education is imperfecty and defect
lively performed. If but one neglected child Of
penury and misfortune be suffered to grow up in
ignorance and vice, who shall undertake to an
sWer Tor the harvest Of crime and guilt, of desc
iation and wretchedness, which the misdirected
energies OF mat one perverted mind may occa-
sion The strong arm Of the law, potent as it
may be 10 punish, may be impotent TO Drepeat the
commission through his means of the most IA
grant outrages upon the person and the property
Of the citizen
Neither the general security afforded by the
prevalence OF knowledge and virtue throughout
the mass Of the community, nor the prompt in
terpostion Of the laws and their ministers nor
the sufterings of the miserable culprit nor the.
salutary terror OF his punishment, can restore
from the darkness, Of tire grave the lnpI,lerer's
hapless victim, or fill the void in the domestic
circle caused by the lawess hand Of violence.
Nor can that community, which, by an adequate
ana timely provision for the intellectual and I
moral culture Of all its future citizens might have
prevented the terrible catastrophe, "but it did
not, be held guiltless before God or man for the
innocent blood which may thus have been she'd
Are we told that the liberty Of the citizen must
not be infringed even for the full attainment of
the blessings Of universal education; that the
authority Of the parent over his child is sacred
anu must not be interfered with; that no power
exists Whica can or ought to compel an American
freeman to educate his child against his will
The liberty thus challenged-the liberty Of grow
ing up in ignorance and in the unrestrained in
dulgence OF lawless passions in the midst of o.
civilized and christian community-is an anoma-
lous and dangerous species of freedom alike ia
tai to its possessor and hostile to society
The maniac found mt large in the Strpatc oF a
populous city, with deadly weapon in his pos
session, however peaceabe might be his demea-
nor for the time being, or however strong his
protestatons against any infringement Of his per-
sonal liberty, would speedily be placed under iu-
diclous constraint; and yet the equally revolving
and dangerous spectacle Of hundreds of youth
ripenng..for the pententiary, the prison, and the
gailoWs, daily meets our eyes in the crowded
thoroughfares of our great capitals Morally
certain as we are, and must be, that few brief
years at most, perhaps few brief months or
days, will intervene before the murderer's knife
shall strike down some devoted victim or the
robbers reckless and desperate grasp be upon
some cherished home or valued treasures we NAV
not interpose to avert these calamties and sub
stitute the blessings Of education in their stead
lest we violate the Hderty Of Tie citizen! When the
deadly bolt has fallen and CONSERVATION pervades
the wondering crowd, and angry passions are
clamorous for speedy and condign retribution,
and the doom OF the man-slayer or convict is
sealed, We perceive, too iate that had the paternal
care of the community been as eager and effca-
cious to Prerent as it has shown itself prompt and
speedy to punish, these disastrous results had
been spared.
Extensively, then, as the blessings Of education
may be destined to prevail among u.s. and broad
ly and deeply as the seeds of virtue and goodness
may be scattered, while there remains in any
locality single human being ignorant depraved
and unrestrained, we may rest assured that no
etfectual safeguard exists against the ravages of
the destroyer. Like the sword of Donysius. the
weapon Of violence and of blood hangs suspended
by single hair over all we value and all we love:
and every good citizen is directly and powerfully
interested whether he perceive it or not in the
speedy reclamation Of this one wandering outcast
OF humanity. When however, instead of one SOL
itary child of vice, and want, and degradation
and misery, their name is LEGION" and they
throng the avenues Of all our great cities and
towns; when countless thousands are annually
expended in protecting society from their assaults,
and in bringing them to Justice or providing for
their support; and when from every direction
=" the voice Of our brothers blood calls from the
ground against the hesitating, timid, and ineff-
cacious restrictions Of Governments and socie-
which operate only when no
remedy can avail-surely the dictates of sound
wisdom and comprehensive beneyolence, no less
than the suggestions Of common prudence, de-
mand the timely attention Of every enlightened
statesman and far-seeing philanthrppist.