Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1856-01-26
PRO-sLAvERY VIEW OF FREE
SCHOOLS.


ries, lusts, PHILOSOPHERS, fanaticism and iollics,
free farms, free labor, free nggers, free society,
| free will, free thinking free love, free wives, free
children, aud free schools, all belonging TO the
same brood Of damnable isms, whose mother Is Sin,
and whose daddy Is the Devil-all are the progeny
Of that prolific monster, which greeted Satan on
his arrival at the gates Of hell. which,
--'seemed woman to the waist, and fair
! But ended foul in many sealy fold
| Volumnous and vast, serpent's arms
] With mortal sting; about her middle round
A cry Of hell hounds never ceasing bark'd
With wide Cehcrcan mouths full loud. and many
/ A hdeous peel; yet when they list would creep,
II aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,
And kennel therei yet there still MARKED and
howled
Within unseen
/ But the worst Of all these natons--bccause,
when once installed, 1t becomes the hot bed propa-
gator Of al-is the modern system Of free schools.
We forget who Il is that has charged and proved
that the New England system u free schools has
been the cause and prolific 0f all the legons
Of horrible inficltcs aud treasons that have turn
ell her cities into Sodoms and Gonorrahs, and her
fair land into the common nesting place Of bowling
beilnmitcs. We abomiua,e the sysiem teeduse the
schools are free, and because they make that which
ought to be the reward Of toll, aud earnest, ardent
and almost superhuman individual effort, cheap,
commonplace, priceless and uunyiting.
/ The Examiner is a leading administra-
ton paper in Virginia, and one of the stauuch-
est and most consistent supporters Of Slavery
Us u Divine institution, in the country. 1t
is quite probable that many of its southern
contemporaries will not endorse fully the
above invectives; but, considering the source
from whence they emanatc, they may be
'reckoned' us a fair exponent of the views
entertained by large class of Shareholders,
including most of the distinguished "irst
families" of the Old Dominion.
The free school system of New England
and the other northern States needs no de-
fence. Its effects may be seen in the n,clli.
gence, industry and enterprise of those who
have been nuriurod under its influence. The
present condition of tho arts aud sciences,
within these limits, the mighty inventions and
multiplied discoveries of her citizens, the at
tainments of her scholars, the achievements
+ of her nrtzans and artists, the books Of her
ss So s !he Texieys gagazass and newsgs
convincing proofs of her advancement in all
that enriches and ennohles man, without the
injury or oppression of any portion Of the hui
man race. Aud whoever mny have charged
our free schools with being the fountains of
irreligion, immortality and pollution, can have
proved it only to the satisfaction of those who
believe in the correctness of the logic used by
the editor of the Examiner, in the article quot
cd above.
1t would seem very singular to person I'M
acquainted with the peculiaritles of our south
/ ern neighbors, that those, who thus decry
, free schools because they make education
= "cheap, commonplace" or, in other words,
accessible to the humblest individual in the
community, claim to be not only democrats
hu, the t,uest and most devoted followers of
Thomas Jeiiersion. In the minds of those
however, who know that their philanthropy
as well as their craftsmanship is reduced to
the standard which slavery prescribes, it ex-
cites nosurprise. The doctrines put forth by
! the Examiner are as dissimilar to the educa-
tional precepts inculcated by Jefferson, as the
political creed of the politicians represented
by that journal is repugnant TO the principles
which characterize the Declaration of indie
pendence. In the Life and Writings of Thorn
as Jefferson his biographer says: "a system
of education which should reach every de-
scription of citizens, as it was the earliest, so
it was the latest of public concerns in which
he permitted himself to take public inter
est"
! The truth is that Slavery as it exists in the
southern states forms the chiefest bulwark of
. the mos, offensive aristocracy in this country
This aristocracy contempates the elevation
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of very small class at
the expense Of all others. The more limited
the means of education the better is preserv-
ed the distinction of caste. The gulf separat-
,, ing the rich and the poor, instead of being
bridged by free schools, is made constantly
more and more impossible. Slavery origi-
mates privileged class, and this aristocracy,
; like any other noxous plant, thrives best on
the fostering degradation which surrounds
originates it,
There can be no security for such an aris-
tocracy on one side aud degradation on the 9TH
or, where knowledge is generally difl'used, and
the day that shall inaugurate the establish
ment of system of free schools, like ours of
Massachusetts, in Virginia, or in any slave
State, will mark the beginning Of the certain
abolition Of slavery, Ignorance is absolutely
essential to the security of despotism. Every
despotc government on earth, keeps its sub
5 iects in ignorance; every system of oppres-
5 sion does the same; the ignorance of the mas
ses of Roman Catholics, is the strongest pill
J lar on which that church rests. Slavery NAV
well hate free schools, and the slavery propa-
gandists of the south, il they intend to per-
petuate the institution, had better Danish all
free schools, and all freedom, from among
them.
) We have no sort Of patience with that
class of amiable, easy conservatives who are
constantly decrying "agitaton," and who are
I. ever ready to apologize for three-iourths OF
4 the aggressions of slavery To Ina snra tbav