Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1833-1861, 1855-02-16

of Incidence, and even Of shiitlessncss,
so terrible as in the North, as nowhere
else is the remuneration Of virtuous
industry so ample and so widely diff
fuaed.
II. There is just as marked con
trast upon the subject Of education,
and especially OF Common Schools
In the North we have Common
Schools. This is more than a school.
II is more than public school. II is
Common School. in distinction from
q select or class school. II is public
provision for bringing together, upon
a perfect equality, the children Of the
rich and the poor, the noble and igno-
bic, the high and the low. II Is pro-
vision Of our institutions, by which
every generation is led TO line and
made TO start equal and together
There will be inequality enough as
soon as men get into life. Some shoot
ahead: some. like dull sailors in feet.
are dropped behind. and men are stat
tered all along the ocean. But the
Common School gathers up their chill
dren and brings them all back again TO
take new start together. Thus our
schools are not mere whctstones 10 the
intellect; they are institutions for even.
ing up society; they resist the tenden-
cy TO separation into classes, which
grows with the prosperity Of commu.
nifty; they bind together. in cordial
sympathy, all classes Of citizens. For
nothing Is moro tenacious than school
day remembrances, and the last things
that we forget are playmates and
schoolmates.
The South may have schools. But
never Common Schools. The South
has no common people. There can
be States, there, but never Common
wealths. There Is no common ground,
where the theory Of society grades
men upon perpendicular scale. tits
n society Of classes. and society Of
classes can never be q community
When the wholelabor OF State Is per-
formed by q degraded class. that are
not included in the State as citizens or
social beings. II Is impossible but that
the class next above them shauld feel
the force Of those theories and ideas
which have produced such a state OF
things. II is so. The poor white
population Of the South Is degraded
They are ignorant-they are not fer
tile in thought or labor. They are
not so low as the slaves, nor so high
as those who own slaves. There are
three classes-thc top, the middle and
the bottom; and two Of these, the top
and bottom, being fixed and legal. the
middle is modified by them both.
In such Society, there cannot be a
Common School. in any such sense as
We mean il. Indeed, there cannot be
general education in any State where
ignorance is the legal condition Of one
half the population, as is the case in
many Southern States. Ignorance is
an institution in the South. It's po-
litical necessity. lis as much proyid-
ed for by Legislation and by public
sentiment. and guorded by enactmenis,
as intelligence is in the North. IL
must be. The restrictions which keep
it from the slave will keep it from the
whites, excepting, always, the few who
live at the top. There cannot be an
atmosphere Of intelligence. Slaves
would be in danger of breathing that.
There cannot be common public SEN
timent, common school, nor common
edication. Knowledgs is power not
only, but powder, putting the South in
the risk Of being blown up, by care
less handling and too great abundance.
(ro BE CONT NuED.)