The true Democrat., 1856-03-11
from DeBow's Review, January lS56 Educational Reform at the South.

question IS, whether we are using these mean
 Judlclously? An important inquiry, this, fo
 the welfare of the rising generation.
 Education, viewed in all it's aspects, is vast
 n momentous interest, to be contemplated ad
 vanced, fostered. Especially in its practica
 bearing upon the creative energies, the indus
 trial progress of community, does it demand
 imperatively the attentive consideration of al
 classes of citizens, professional, mechanical
 and all, without exception. Let the people
 be educated, practically educated, a the coun. try is safe.
 It IS Impossible to over-estimate the inapo,t. anee 9 the yomhfmmind being t,ained under home a9tueaces, and the imperative duty which de. wolves on those having the guardianship of their progress, to cherish and give pretere,ace t our ooon institutions of lea7ninq and 9aatiye ;u- strmctors. The neglect of this duty has, in times past, been carried 10 an alarming extent: and
 Its effects are often perceived in the fosteripo of unnatural prejudices, which are seldom unroot- ed, even after the youth has grown up to man. hood Even where a child has been tauobt the elements of his education at one of our own primary schools, the very text books put into hs hands are calculated to impress him wi.b the Idea that he must go abroad to finish his studes"
 We acknowledge, with modification and shame, that, blessed as we are as a people with abundant resources for improving our standard of education and literature, we remain. in snite of all the efforts which have been hitherto mt forth to remove the stigma, far in the back ground of our contemporaries in avaling our serves of the means at our disposal Iii all that pertains to the encouragement of home industry we nave the requisite material and are beqin- hlng to exhibit, more and more, every day, the proper spirit In the fostering of home lit erature we have made but slight advance.- Northern periodicals and newspapers innumer- aoie stll md their main support among the people, Whose every effort at improvement it Is their delight to decry; whose occasional essays |" excel not one of them has ever designed to encourage; whose institutions it is their daily ann to bring into odium and disrepute. We invite thls by taking them freely to our bosoms. maNln9 them regular, acceptable, and anxious " looked for visitors to our family circles and llOranes. And this, on the plea that they are furnished to us cheaper and on larger scale than our own! Cheaper. Aye, if the price of our reputation, our property, and our ndepeno- ehce bartered for the trash they give us can be called cheaper bargain than we can make at our own doors, we yield the point. But we get more Tor the value of our subscription money, More what? More trash, more abuse, more reports ot ant-saVery conventions of anti $ b. bath, antl-manmony, and anti everything in general, mass meetings; more fulsome prospec- tuses of more new literary speculations of the same character, and a few more inches of printing paper
 It Is true that we are not yet prepared to come into immediate competition with northern pub- lISh in ba by which they succeed in imposing upon the gullabiity of thel southern patrons ard the "reading community generally. Through their machinations 1t is true, they have hither. to enjoyed monopoly in our own market It is an acknowledged fact that northern publca- tlons are, in a large measure, indebted for their extensive circulation to southern patronage. Go into any little village in our southern coun- try, and you will find, in almost every log. house in its vicinity, one or other of the multi tude of ladies' fashion books published in the northern cities, or great mammoth sheet pur- porting to be family journal of useful reading which, from its immense circulation in the southern and western States, the publishers are enabled to issue at a very moderate rate of sub- scrrtion. One of these journals, not long ago. put forth highly offensive trade against the south, for which it has been severely castigated by respectable portion of the press. And yet, this family paper, with many others of its class, is reaping a harvest of wealth for its proprie- tors, while periodicals, devoted mainly to the vlndcatlon of southern interests, like the SOlHh- e7n Quarterly ReUietO, Southern Literary Messen- ger, De BOo0's Revie1C, and many others in va rous branches of literature and science, conti- nue to be neglected by many who should be their most prompt patrons and advocates. Is this state of things to last? Or is the progress of the anti-savery sentiment at the north de- stined to work out slow butpermanent change in the prospects of southern literature? We hope, the latter.
 We want few large publishing houses at the south, from which may be sent forth, not only reviews and magazines, but books in euery department of educotion. Our school books, espe- cialg, should De a0riten, prepared asd pubshed 6y southern men. Who more capable of moulding the opinions and installing proper principles into the minds of youth than such as recognize the same interests and feelings with their fathers and brothers-those who have been brought up in the same community, and understand best the many little peculiariies ofdispostion, of domestic education, etc, of which strangers know nothing? Yet, where do we procure almost every school book that has ever been in use since the days when our grand parents took their first lessons in spelling? From the north. Whence do these numerous, officious and so- ciable pedlars of Peter Parley's Pictorial Histo- res of the United States, and the inexpressible horrors of slavery and slave holders, hail?- From New York and Boston, or perchance a little further down east" Who are their principal patrons?- Southern parents and teach- CTS: or they would not visit Us 50 often, and stay so long when they come. And who are to re- ceve the benefits of the precious instructions which these abolition t,eotises impart? South. ern boys and girs-the children of southern planters and slave owners, who read the inter- eSting tales of their fathers cruelty and op- presson" towards the unfortunate victim of bondage and wonder whether all Is true that these amiable writers for little boys and girls'' say of them.
 The i" English Reader'' is one of our oldest collections of school boy oratory. There are some good selections in it. The topics which it embraces are generally chaste, impressive and patriotic Many of the sentiments contained in it are, in general sense, such as we would desire to see impressed upon the understandings of American youth. |" LovelPs United States Speaker" the National Reader" the Young Ladies' Reader" Columbian Orator. ,''" Scotts Lessons" the Village Reader," and numerous others, have been used for years, and are all, in some respects, valuable compilations. We apprehend, however, there are few parents or teachers who are familiar with the whole of thelr contents, or they would demand expurg- ed editions for the use of their children. The slckly sentimentaty of the poet Cowper, whose ear became so "pained," and his soul sick with every days report of wrong and outrage" that it made him cry out in agony for "a lodge
 in some vast wilderness" where he might com. mune with bowling wolves and partners on the blessings of liberty, CD stamps it's infectious poison upon many of the pages of these works. Hear his wailings on this distressing theme: .' Thus man devotes his brother and destroyes; And worse than all. and most to be deplored,
 As human natures broadest, foulest blot,
 Chains him. and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that mercy, with pleading heart, Weeps when she sees inflicted on beast.
 Then what is man? And what man seeing this,