Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-02-04
~ From II I llama oils Joi raal.
The Supreme Court and the Free


Eight large houses and more than thirty
teachers are tasked to their utmost to meet
our educational needs The early morning
hour, AMI the evening" see our streets
swarming with pleasant faces Fastening 10
school, or playing happily on the road
home Every day looks in upon nj
teen Hundred children working in these
seven hives like bees. to gain the first ell
emeDts of usefulness and responsibility in
good education. At this very time the
school houses are crowded with proud pa
rents witnessing the benefits that the
schools have conferred on their Children
Visitors are daily attesting by constant at
tendance On the examinations, and by hon
ct praises, the magnitude of the good pro-
ldncei. Citizens, whose citizenship is
worth claiming. have no.el here that
their children may enjoy the advantages
OF our city Schools. In no other town
in the State are the Free Schools so we'll
fillcl, or so well established, as here
They are great good, growing steadily
greater; benefit without single iniuri-
Gus drawback No man has been made
poorer, worse or unhappicr by them. No
man has lost money OF reputation by them.
But many poor men, whose children with
out the Free Schools, would have had to
drone out the days and years in misclliey-
ons idleness, have found kind guardians
AMI permanent good in them. They have
brought clncation into many house that
would never have seen the light OF spell
ing book, or felt the life of Intelligence,
without them. They aTe ths pride of our
city. the best monument of our liberality
and wisdom. There are few men who de-
serve to be called men, who woul Int ratli-
Ell see another "panic" than the destruc-
tion of our city schools. Yet, if power,
combined with blindness OF malice. can cf-
feet it, we are likely to sec tlein destroyed,
or greatly injured.
Most Of our real lers are aware that some
mischieyous instinct, or strange fatality,
has made our Supreme Court the steady
enemy Of popular education. No oppor-
tunity to strike blow at our Free Schools
has been let slip, or used to less than the
full extent Of its -mischievoas power
! There has not been decision made BY the
Court in regard to the schools that has
not been stab at them They have new
or been tonrhed by that tribunal but to
their injury. Ii anybody doubts this let
him look through the Reports, anl fnd
single case in which their decision has
given strength, endurance or extent. to the
system. Doubts, that just conservators of
the law would construe for the benefit Of
community, and for the preservation of
wl,a, Is good among Us, have been uniform
Is thrown, with the whole weight Of inge-
nuity that the Court could give them,
agains. the schools. Ii point suscepti-
ble of two constructions has been present
ed, the Court has always. given it that
which will most surrey hrr. the schools
Education has never had the benefit of the
Courts constructions. Ignorance, so far
as it is fosterei by the lameness or weak
ness of Free School system, has been its
Pc. Tile Court has now done about the
best for its favorite that can. be done. 1t
has decided, in the case of Jenners VS..
the city or Lafayette, that cities can
not levy taxes to carry on their schools.
So far as the funds of the city are con-
cerned. and they constitute the letter por-
tion OF the means for keeping up the
schools, this decision leaves them unsup-
ported. unless the citizens should prove
more liberal than the Court, and pay as a
voluntary contribution what cannpt be ex
acted as a tax 1t enlpties our school
h7uses, and turns out those two thousand
children. the poor to idlensss, and the
d, l. l.
is our best boast. 1t leaves us with no
city schools. except for.the Iittlctime aud
with the doubtful good, that the diminutive
State fund can give US. This Is great in
july The utter annihi.ation OF the Supreme
Court till the end of time couldn't do one
tenth Of the damage that the stopping Of
our city schools for ono year would pro.
tluce. We can better spare every lawyer
in that tribunal, than we can spare single
primary school. The Court. however
necessary in the proper discharge of its
duties, cannot be weighed an instant
against the vital necessity of free ciuca
.tion flesmf 81 a5 -r-f5 80
n- To a decision Involving such injurious
consequences We should expect the Cpur,
to BE impellel by nothing less than the
most inexorablc necessity. "A plain re-
auifement OF the Constitution. about which
no ingenuity could raise fog OF miscon-
slrGcllon. can alone Justify a decision that
uproots the labor Of six years in the most
righteous duty that men owe TO society
Whether the Court had such reason for
their decision our readers may judge
Here is their argument. ''1hc Gonstitu-
tion requires aAiferm school system, and
uniform taxation to- support il, and the
permission to cities TO establish or keep
up their schools by their own money in
case the State does not give enongh, dcs-
troys the uniformity. and is therefore un-
constitutional" The Legislaturc,E not
willing to keep the schools uniformly"
worthless, Authorized those cities that
were willing to pay to have better schools,
to do so: If that is a. breach of the .'uui-
.formity". required By the Constitution. so
would be any difference Of location, efiici-.
ency or numbers. The Supreme Court
in following itg own former decision
has lost, sight Of the vital principle
of the Constitution, and in wilder
ness of technical constructions has dropped
our schools to starvc. The Constitut-
uion,. no man believes, who = has not
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