Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-03-15
EDUCATION.
sr l.. VIRGINIA FREE Oh.

1
with TIE same curious and interrogstng spirit.
TriHing as the subject may seem, some one may,
half unconsciously (such is the power of habit,)
hazard the inquiry, " Why continue to bore US
with this worn out subject of Education ?" Why"
We own that it is hackneyed topic, that it has
become as Tedious as twice told tale, vexing the
dull ear of drowsy man." We venture upon it,
not because we hope the little say will WELD
an influence where ADLER pens have failed, and not
because we have anything very novel, or very
original TO promulgste but simply that we are I'M
der promise so to do. Our apology is, that it is
only by the discussion of such subjects that the
truth be elected, and the best ways and means,
for the urtherance of our interests, discovered and
applied. Education, especially "femae education"
has, it is true, become trite topic, but yet it is
one in which we all possess so deep, and vital an
interest, that the mind should never be allowed to
turn away from it weary stale, fat and unpro6-
table" 1t has become automatic that a Republican
Government depends more for its stability and
prosperity upon the cultivation and general intelli-
gence Of its subjects, than upon its embattled fleets
and standing armies And it is true beyond
doubt, that the American Republic is more ndebt-
ed for her present eminence, to the Teacher and
the school house, than to the General and the ar.
senal Education is the only security for the main.
tenance of that liberty for which fathers fought
and bled A nation of freemen should be also
nation of scholars, and each man owes it to his
country to make himself such, to that degree which
may be in his power, in order that he may be able
to read, think, and act, as an independent being,
unin6uenced by the arts Of unprinciped dema-
gogues.
Let the masses of any community remain uncu.
tivated and uninstructed, and they will soon fall
into that direst of despotsms,-the tyranny of the
enlightened few the uneducated many, who
exist only as tools in the hands of those whose su-
perior knowledge qualities and stimulates them to
take every advantage which blinded ignorance al
lows to achieve their own selfish ends That the
necessity of education among is generally felt,
is not to be denied A proof Of this we find in the
fact that the Southis waking up" to the impor-
lance OF a more thorough and widely diffused cul.
tivation of the Southern intellect. This is mani
tested by her liberal legislative provisions for
carrying forward educational enterprises, in the
rapid sprnging up of institutions of learning both
male and female and in the establishment of that
mighty agent of progress, the Free School Still
she is not doing enough. As yet she is strong,
it is true, but it is because she is weak that she
should exer: the power she possesses. The limbs
which never used will eventually become par
ayzed, the faculties which suffered to lie in in.
dOlent inaction, will soon sink into imbecilty It
is for her even now, to be Cup and DONG" casting
dependency to the winds, she must DEFY d. icul
ties, and toll onward and upward with untiring en-
ergy and never tagging zeal Any one who will
take the trouble to examine into this subject lit
tie, will find that there is yet immense labor to
be performed with great practical difficulties in the
way of its accomplishment The knowledge OF
this fact and not indifference, we would fain be-
ieve to be the reason Why so little has yet been
accomplished in putting forward this great work
Yet, if reports be true, it is time that something
done. 1t is said to be "fact attested by fg-
ures," with what accuracy we have here neither
time nor space to determine that the American
people disburse every year, one half as much for
the support of their dogs they DO for the educa
ton OF their children Such a statement made in
reference to the Esquimaux, or the Kamschatka.
dales, whose predictions for cdanity are proven
bal, would scarcely be surprising,-bu the United
States of Americs,-what are we to think of il?
To bring the subject home, it is stated that
one of our most enterprsing and wealthy Southern
States contains 40, 600 children capable of educa.
ton, who are unable to read or write If, in igno.
rance such this, they attain the stature of men
and women in mind children still. the imbecilty
Of childhood without its innocence what can they
be expected to add to the general prosperity and
progress of their native State? Most probably
1000 OF these children will in few years become
voters each possessing power at the polls equal
to that of the most enlightened citizen. How lie
such a one to know if his vote be cast upon the
scale Of right or wrong, If ne cannot so much as
read the names Of the candidates upon his ballot!
1--WE must educate" We owe it to our country,
to our children, to ourselves. We must afford the
sufficient cultivation to enable them TO read
the Bible, and the newspaper for themselves.
The South should concentrate in one common 70
Gus, her zeal her knowledge, and her experience,
in endeayOring to give a school TO every neighbour
hOoi and gather into them the children which soon
are to control the destines of our countryside
little tow headed urchins from whence are to come
in all probability, the future leaders and giant minds
Of the Republic. Let 10 one smile at this for it
is not to the son Of the rich planter hurried away
early to a Northern University, as though there
were disgrace in a Southern diploma, driven
through the usual old four years course Of some
twenty odd" ologies, aud imbbing at the same time
many more odd i@l'; returning at last from the
feet of some abolition Gamalie with his head full of
fanatcism, and his heart cherishing an enmity to
home usages and Institutions is not to SUCH we
repeat, that we are to look for aid when we hear
the cry OF breakers ahead, and find that the good
Ship of State is drifting from her moorings. MOI
the strong armed and steady-hearte pilot, the
MAN for such crisis viii spring from the so-caled
lower or middle orders OF the people; he will have
once been the boy who conned his lesson at the
homey desk of the free school, whose mind strug~
gled upward in its masculine development amid
the hills aud valleys Of bis native South, whose
teachers taught him the rights Of man from her past
history, and the duties incumbent upon him from
her future destiny.
Is il objected that II we educate the masses, the
Learned professions" already filed to reple ion,
will be completely overwhelmed with candidates.
aud the other AVocations OF life suffer in couse
quence from starvation, as these from surfeit' We
think not. The palmy days Of the "learned pro-
fessions" are no more. The vulgar antipsthy to
mechanics" so inconsistent with American char
scter, is rapidly passing away. Our people have
begun to find out that the pursuits OF agriculture
aud stock farming, the superintendent Of manu-