The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-07-21
WASHINGTON, ID. G..
For the National Era.
AMERICAN EDUCATION.
BY l.. A HINE.


l. PRELIMINARIEs--II. WHAT is EDUCATIoNl-
III. REPUBLICAN sCHoLARsHIP--Iv. COLLIE
GIATE EDUcAHoN-v. FEMALE EDUCATION
VI THE AMERICAN SYSTEM
/. PRELIMINARIES.
The Spirit Of the Age! All hail What is
the spirit Of the Age? Tell us ye who mouth
the praise so Oft. Is it commercial Yea, YER
lily Is it Mormon worship Undoubtedly. Is
it invention Behold the fire annihilator, the
static pressure engine and Solomon's carbonc
acid gas triumphant over steam steamboats,,
locomotives and telsgraphs, are too old for men,
ton here. Is it conquest? Texas, California
Cuba, Sandwich, and - Mexico, too, may
soon give the answer. Is it reform! Be not
deaf to the answer of the advocates of land re-
form, woman's rights, language reform, rigi-
toriouiseu, peace, prison discipline, liberty,
equality, and fraternity, socialism, and human
perfectibility Is it the advancement Of Sci
ence! Ask Agassz, Silliman, Hitchcock,
Hall, Foster, Owen, Redfeld Mitchell, Pierce,
Bache, Rogers, and host of others, who can
convince you, ere the sands of an hour have
fallen that the past half century has done
more than several whole centuries put togeth-
er had previously done.
But what is the Spirit of cage? There
is something underneath all these migbtier
than them all, in which is embosomed the glo-
~ of the present, the hopes for the future, and
the elements Of all human progress. Listen
1t is the Educational Spirit that has so deeply
seated itself in the hearts of all philanthro-
pists, and is to make every man and woman a
priest of nature; and her God, eloquent with
love, and harmonious in the truth, is to make
each man and woman kings of themselves self
sovereign in their individual democracy, and
yet beating in unison the same chords of Gov
eminent as they throb through millions of
hearts! Heaven be prased-let all mankind
rejoice Is not this the Spirit Of the Age? LO,
the Empire State, with more scholars in her
schools than youth under her Jurisdiction
with 500 600 volumes in her school libraries,
and Normal Institutes for her teachers 10,
Ohio, with her new Constitution cOnsecratng
the peoples cause, and her frequent Education
al Conventions, full Of enthusiasm 10, Michi- |
gan with her school Libraries and her adoption |
of the great practical doctrine, that the prop
erty of the State shall educate the children Of |
the State 10, Kentucky with her Governors |
announcing that every draft drawn upon the |
people for Education shall be duly hOnored
10, Louisiana voting half million at once for
this purpose 10, California and Wisconsin, the
youngest Of the Sovereign Fraternity, with am.
pie educational capital in prospect husbanded
with trusty care TO- all the Republic beats
high in their course, which is the soul of pro-
gress, the redeemer of mankind the saviour
from poverty, depravity, and crime.
Such is the Spirit Of the Age, and to this all
other spirits are auxiliary. Commerce lays
her golden treasures at her altar, to be offered
up in the name of human development. Nam
mon scowls as the Spirit Of the Age bids him
bow to the demands of the immortal mind; but
ho Obeys. Invention brings his conquests of
power to save the labor Of the people, and give
them time for study Railroads are uniting |
the ocean with the mighty river the great
lakes with the Southern Gulf and the free in |
termingling Of distant peoples stimulates the |
movement Of mind Telegraphs click to the
touch of n thousand miles distant, and II great
thought in Boston, Cincinnati, or New Orleans
beats instantly through the whole National
heart Conquest dedicates his territories to
free schools, and strikes down the iron gates
that had interposed between the people, and
the temple Of knowledge. Peace calls for
schools because, as Solomon of old would say,
they are fools who fight Reform lifts up her
loude3t shout for every advancement that is
made in universal enlightenment. Such is the
Spirit OF the Age. 1t received its birth in that
pregnant sentence of Locke's, that of all man.
KIND we make nine parts in ten on what they
are, good or bad, by their education ;" and its A
growth was accelerated by the massive an S
nOuncement Of Burke, that Education is the $
chief defence Of nations which Chalmers I
declares to be Zone Of the mightiest of those 5
sentences or oracuar sayings that have ever
fallen from any of the seers or sages of our
land"
But the pilgrims are the fathers of the sys.
tenn OF popular Democratic American Educa.
ton They opened the doors of the academy 4
and the college to the people, and now the pro- @
gress OF civilization in all nations is determined
by the number Of schoo-houses they contain. Y
The Pilgrims were Bible men, holding it to be a
the first duty of all to read the Bibe--in oppo-
Htlon to the Catholics, who believed that the
Book should not be crOteric, Exposed to the
Yulgar) but eSOferic, confined to the indOctri-
nated) The Pilgrims repudiated this idea Of
sacred mysteries, entertained by Plato, Arts
totle, and Pythagoras, and transmitted through
Rome to modern times, and said the most ga
cred things should be administered unto all
men-in short the Bible should be read uni
yersally. But Rome replied, that this could
not be- for the people were unlettered, and
could not decipher the lea scriptum. True,
reJoined the Puritan, but we'll soon answer |
that argument by insttuting schools in every
neighborhood, and compelling the parents to
send their children. 1t demanded powerful
motive to establish SO vast 40 beneficial an en-
terprise and that motive was found in relg
GUS progress in hostility to Rome. But no mat
ter the Puritan prevailed and the Catholic is
now competing with him for the best common
schools! In scarcely any other quarter can we
find equal advancement Not even has discov-
cry and invention greater achievements to
boast than Education. Every year adds in
terest and zeal to the cause, as the proceedings
of the late Cleveland Convention abundantly
prove
Happy was the remark of Bishop Potter, the
President of tho Association, that the Conven-
ton had assembled in the name of Progress
We have come to proclaim the progressive
spirit that should ANIMATE the Association we
have organized We stand where, fifty years
ago, no voice was heard proclaiming the pro-
gress OF the race. Now we are in beautiful
city OF twice ten thousand souls
We come to proclaim that the founders of this
Association have hearts beating high with
progress. But when we come in this spirit we
stand also to indicate our interests in the
cause of conservatism. While we are seeking
unattainable good, VIC would not ignore the
past nor part with one of the blessings it has
transmitted Happy, too, was his reference
10 cotemporaneous conventions assembled on
the same day in other parts of the country and
the world while in the great State of Ohio
the Educational Association is in session, Sci
ence has assembled her votaries at the capital
OF the Empire State; and across the water
all nations are congregated to display the tri-
umphs Of Peace and to lay more deeply the
foundations of it's porpetulty!" Verify, the
world does move, and il is Education that makes
it march But
.. WHAT Is EDUCATIONP
Professor Bates, of Boston, took an early OPP
portunity to inquire What is Educaton? He
said that discipline ID ttitutes the gist of Edu-
cation, Let us see What is discipline Ii
relates more especially to tho training of the