The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-07-18
Speech OF G. G. Andrews, Esq, at the
Dedication ofthe Everett School House
NJ 81. Cloud, July 4th 1857.

~ OAOues SuAy HSA 1000
FELLOW CITIZENS l should have been
sorry indeed to lave been absent from these
services. l am sure it must be source OF
satisfaction to every member of this commu-
nifty that q school house has here been COM
pleted SO early. Remembering that it has
been built by private enterprize-for you
could not wait the delay which generally at
tends the formal organization of school dis
tricts-we shall not be unmindful hope OF
the obligations we are under to those who
have been especially active in the underta-
king.
The Fourth of July is good day for the
dedication of school house. Millions of our
countrymen are now celebrating this great
day. In the populous towns and cities there
will be magnificent OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
did military and civic professions, keeping
time to the eXhilarating strains of martial
music-the roar of cannon illuminatiOns and
fireworks, and all the display which art and
patriotism can devise. But / know Of no
ceremony which new community on this
northwestern bank of the Mississippi can
more appropriately employ to commemorate
the day than the dedication of school
house.
On this new frontier civilization has just
planted its standard. And is there anything
more identified with is history, more inspiring
to its hopes, or mere suspicious OF its tri-
umphs than the common school Had it not
been for the influence of common schools We
should have no cause to celebrate the Fourth
Of July. 1t was the intelligence of the peo-
pie which prepared the way for American
Independence and finally secured it. The
first settlers of America, as you we'll know,
were reading and thinking people. They
came over trackless ocean to get rid of the
accumulated evils Of ignorance. And when
they arrived they Immediately esta blished a
system of free schools for their Children
They nurtured that system with enthusiasm,
and it raised up strong minded men and wo-
men. 1t educated what was then called the
lower class. And that was the class which
began and carried the Revolution. The veal
thy class or the aristocracy included the To-
ries. And that is the class which, owing to
the naturl conservatism of wealth, in all
revolution in either hostile or at best pas
sive. 1t was the masses say, who first gave
willing ear to the voice of the Revolution,
and whose hearts beat in unison with the
sentiments of Otis and Henry. They had
sufficient intelligence to reason and to judge.
1t was as impossible for the British Govern
ment to deceive as to terrify them. Mr..
Burke in his great appeal for Cancellation
warned the House of Commons not to en-
courage hostile measures against the colo
MES. He told them that great number of
Blackstone's Commentaries had been import
ed by Americans, and that they were think
ing people, and would not yield up their
rights.
FREE SCHOOLS THE BASIS OF FREE GOVERN
MENT.
need not tell you that if we would have
liberal and enlightened institutions. or if we
would secure their permanency, We must pay
a proper regard to the education of the peO-
pie. There is such thing, however, as too
confident security. 1t sometimes happens
that communities becomes Indifferent as to
the condition of institutions, which are uni
yersally acknowledged as useful and believed
to be secure. In one of the most fourishing
towns of this territory which l visited last
spring-a town containing nearly 1000 in
habitan.s-I found there was nethera school
nor school house. will not name the
town, for was assured they would have
very fine school house erected as soon as Au-
tumn But amidst the rivalries of successful
business let us not forget the immortal in
junction of an American Statesman, that
s'eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"
As the triumph Of liberty in America was
the result of popular education, so the defe,t
which had baffied the effort of other States
for independence may be traced to popular
ignorance. The masses of Ireland have warm
hearts, and love of liberty, as well as "a
rich brogue" But if they had possessed the
intelligence which is diffused by free schools
such as our fathers planted, would not their
oppression and the burning eloquence of their
Emmets, their Grattans and their O'Connels
have stirred them to successful revolution
In Austria the censors Of instruction. with a
sagacity which despots are trained in, have
stricken from the books used in Hungarian
schools any faithful narrative of the Hunga-
rian revolution. If the people had been
properly educated could such abuses long be
practised? If the masses of Italy,
"Oh Italy how beautiful thou art
Yet l could weep, for thou AT lying, alas,
Low in the dust; and they who come to admire thee
As We admire the beautiful in death!'
If the masses of Italy were educated would
they submit to the tyrrany which to-day
blights that lovely land or to come nearer
home, would the people of Cuba still endure
sub or second hand despotism if they had
enjoyed the benefits of a popular education
Lord Brougham, one of the most progressive
British Statesmen, and who has done more
for popular education than any legislator of
Europe, says in his introduction to the Dia-
logues on Republican and Monarchical Gov
ernments, and the Review of the French Rev.
oluti"n, t. at one lesson most important and
practical, inculcated by those papers, is the
= supreme necessity Of absolutely excluding
the multitude, ill-informed and averse to de-
liberation, from any direct interference with
the government" Excluding the multitude
from any direct interference with the Gov
eminent! How do those words sound to an
American Is it not repeating in different
words the old maxim of king-craft, that the
people were created for the benefit of their
rulers? And yet it is very doubtful if the
masses Of Great Rritaln are capable of self
government. Their government is a consti-
tutional monarchy, and next to the govern
ment of the United States, is one of the freest
and most enlightened governments on the
globe. What we have reason to complain of
is that so little pains are taken there to quail
ify the masses for self government. In that
neglect they foster great evil and then plead
that evil as an excuse for Withholding power
from the multitude. Thus their example and
influence aid aristocratic and despotic rather
than popular institutions. In every age it
has been the tyrant's purpose to make his
subjects mere tools. To accomplish this he
is to keep their intellect as uniformed as
possible. Hence ignorance is the germ of
tyranny. knowledge, free and universal, is
the grand support of liberty. In its useful
influence on mankind, through all the future,
the day that saw the system Of free schools
established in America was worth more than
whole centuries crowded with sages like
Pericles and the Caesars.
THE PEOPLE ARE THE RULERS, AND SHOULD
BE EDUCATED.
But if the diffusion of knowledge tends to
inspire love for free institutions so the pos
session of such institutions carries with it an
obligation topromote education. 1t was well
admitted, long before Aristotle instructed
Alexander the Great, that rulers should be
educated. In this country the people are
rulers. They are the sovereigns. They hold
the supreme POWER. That the government
may be executed in a convenient manner
they repose this power by the ballot, in the
keeping of agents, legislative, executive and
judicial. Are they not under obligations the
most solemn and binding to keep informed
to qualify themselves for the great trust O.
exercising this supreme power? 1t is no
enough to relv with careless indifference,