The American patriot., 1855-06-02
Macsuley on Popular Education.

Macauley on Popular Education.
This is my argument. 1t is the duty Of Gov
eminent to protect our persons and property
from danger. The gross ignorance of the com
mon people is a principal cause Of danger to
our persons and property. Therefore, it is
the duty of the Government to take care that
the common people shall not be grossly igno-
rant. And what is the alternative? 1t is uni
versaliy allowed that by some means, Govern.
ment must protect our persons and property
If you take away education, what means dc
you leave? You leave means such as only ne
cessity can justify, means which inhict fear
ful amount of pain, not only on the guilty. but
on the innocent who are connected with the
guilty. You have guns and bayonets, stocks
and whipping posts, treadmills, solitary cells,
penal colonies and gibbcts. Sec then how the
case stands. Here is an end, which, as we all
agree, Governments are bound to attain
There are only two ways of attaining it, One
Of those ways is by making men better and
wiser, and happier; the other is by making
them infamous and miserable Can it be
doubted which way we ought to prefer? Is it
not strange--is it not almost incredible, that
pious and benevolent men should gravely pro-
pound the doctrine that the magistrate is bound
to punish, and at the same time bound not to
teach
My confidence in my opinion is strengthened
when recollcct that hold that opinion in
common with all the greatest lawgivers, states
men and political philosophers of all nations
and ages, with all the most illustrious champi-
ons of civil and spiritual freedom, and espcci-
ally with those men whose names were once
held in the highest veneration by the Protest
ant Dissenters of England might cite many
Of the most venerable names of the old world
but would rather cite the example of that
country, which the supporters of the Volunta.
us as pattern.
Go back to the days when the little society
which has expandedinto the opulent, enlight
ened commonwealth of Massachusetts began to
exist Our modern Dissenters will scarcely,
think, venture to speak contumeliously of
those Purtans whose spirit Laud and his Com
mission Court could not subduc of those Pu-
ritans who were willing to leave home and kin
dred, and all the comforts and refinements of
civilized life, 10 cross the ocean, to fix their
abodes in forests, among wild beasts and wild
men, rather than commit the sin of performing
in the House Of God, one gesture which they
believed displcasing to him. Did those brave
exiles think it inconsistent with civil or reli-
gious freedom that the State should take
charge Of the education of the people. No, sir;
one of the earliest laws enacted by the Puritan
colonists was that every township, as soon as
the Lord had increased it to the number of fifty
houses, should appoint one to teach all children
to read and write, and that every township of
one hundred houses should set up grammar
school. Nor have the descendants of those
who made this law ever ceased to hold that the
public authorities were bound to provide the
means of public instruction. Nor is the doc
trine confined to New England. Educate the
people" was the first admonition addressed by
Penn to the colony which he founded. "Edu-
cate the people," was the legacy of Washing
ton to the nation which he had saved "Edu-
cate the people," was the unceasing exhorta-
ton Of jefferson; and l quote Jefferson with
peculiar pleasure, because, of all the eminent
men that ever lived, Adam Smith not excepted,
Jefferson was the one who most abhorred eve
ry thing like medding on the part of govern
ments. Yet the chief business of his later
years was to establish good system Of State
education in Virginia.
A young lady and gentleman were once look
ing at the picture of Washington's family.
Young lady-''who are those persons?" refer
ing to the ones on the pictnre. Young gent
''Ihose are Washington's children" Young
lady-"But he had no children" Young gent
-"Well, perhaps they are his grand children"
"Very probably, responded the young lady as
she petulantly drew her beauty from the pic.