The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-08-16
"A Debt Due from Pres.
e,,t to Future GeneratiOIls.'

We copy from the New Era (Goldsboro, n
C,l the following most excellent article upon
the subject of cducation. All that we need
say is that every remark applies to this latitude
as we'll as to that of North Carolina.
Railroads and mines, rising towns and i'm.
proved farms, are each in their turn receiving
due attention Nor are county Societies and
State Fairs, Crcuses and musical troups left
behind the curtain. The man of pleasure and
the utiitaran have each lis appropriate theme,
and freely and steadily does he descant upon
J it. This, we admit, is all right. But willie
wewond have all these things (circuses ex-
cepted) properly and prudenlly attended to,
we would never forget aS the golden subject
of all our thoughts, the Common Schools OF
North Carolina.
No thinking man can fail to perceive the
beauty and force of the exalted sentiment at
tie head of this article. 1t is Il maxim, once
uttered by the celebrated Geo. Peabody. which
ought to be written Oh tables ofstone, with pens
of adamant "Educatinn: q debt due. from
present to future generations" How, friend.
y reader, shall this debt be paid The way
to pay it is clear, but the will, we fear, is want
ing. Our Common Schools, the only agents
by which We can discharge this honorable debt,
lie almost neglected and forgotten. Now and
again, it is true, we can hear the voice of some
good man raise itself above the din and Glamour
of the giddy masses, and earnestly plead the,
calse of education; then, again, it dies upon
the ear, aud the greatest of all subjects is. for
gotten. In,ths way nothing good will be ac-
complished. Too much time has already been
wasted in moody deiberation OH this subject.
Nothing, as yet, worthy of notice has been
done. Our Common Schools arc far behind the
are. Our teachers are uncducated and badly
paid, and our children are growing up in IS-
nrance TO remedy this evil is no hard task.
and we do hope that remedy will be speedily
applied.
As good old Edgcoube is about to take the
lead in every thing that is honorable, SO, we
learn she is going to set the example in this,
by placing her Common Schools on. a perma-
nent and proper basis. She is at this time agi-
tating the question. Of levying school tax that
will afford'to every man within her borders,
the means of educating his children. In this
she does well, and when it is done, the orphan,
the widow, and the poor man.. will bless her,
and, in less than two years, every county in
NORM \ aTOll0d VIII Dc COHstldltIe W loilo"
such q bright example.
The Common Schools of the country should
be in operation at least forty weeks out of fifty
two, in each year. And if, perchance, the un-
fortunate children of some poor men could not
attend so long, yet the neighborhood school
ought never, during this period, TO be closed.
We believe that Edgecombe is endeavoring to
secure sach state Of things as this. Edge
combe already renowned for her fine farms,
proper system oil permanent schools, where her
children and youth wil receive instruction.
Let her persist in this matter until she has
achieved conquest, and what son OF herS,
may we ask, will obStruct her progress.
In sustaining our Common Schools, what
else are We doing, but sustaining our own chill
dren-buding our own house, sweeping AND
making cheerful our own frcside! We are
driving ignorance and vice far away from US,
and making virtue and intelligence the rich in
heritance Of our sons and daug ghters IL. the
having Of a small annual tax, to secure and pro-.
pagate the blessings of general education, none
or but few men of wealth, will object. And
where such arc found, it is not because of the
amount to be paid, but because it comes to
them as some hing new or unexpected, and
therefore unnecessary. But the poor man
child is chief object Of concern. In no State
or county.perhaps, is education at lower ebb
among the working classes, than in North Ca
rolina. In this respect, they hang rs an incu'
bus upon the literary character of our State, a
fact clearly dedncible from the last census re-.
port. North Carolina has produced, in pro-
portion to her population as many "great men"
rs any other State in the Unon and yet has
more persons within her borders, in the same
proportion, unable toread aud write than any
ether State, old or young, in the Union.
Is not this Lumialing? And, is it not
strange that while our good poop are able and
willing to pay the enormous sum of 5000, 1000,
(six hundred thousand dolIars) annually, for
imported liquors, that cannot possibly do any
good, they cannot, or rather seem unwilling to
raise 100000 Tone hundred thousand dollars }
for educational purpose? This unfortunate
state of things clearly exists, but il is no hard
matter to remove it, for our people, when
taught what is right, we sincerely believe, are
sure to practice it.
We see that the cxpcdiency of levying q
school tax in Edgccombe is now undergoing a
strict investigation at the hands of the people
We invoke them, by their patriotism and agri.
cultural fame, by the love which they bear,
and the duty which they owe to their children,
by the philanthropy Of Washington and the
bright example of himself and all his success
sors us scholars and patrons Of education, to
raise the standard of their Common Schools
high-so high that every county in the State
may read the inscription, and adopt it as theiI
own.
Saeratus is said to be in iur
ois to the human system, and that it destroys
thousands of children and some adults every