Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-09-16
For The Chronicle.
Suggestions on Popular Education

NO. g..
To Wessrs. Humphreys, HarreH and Woods:
GENTLEMEN Il have now reached the 9th No. of
these papers, and have not as yet disposed of the
first topic, TO which your attention was invited
This, you may think rather too literal compliance
of Augustus Caesars celebrated mottp-Festina leate
hasten slowly that is despatch your business but
do it with due deberation and caution. 1t is, on
The whole, sound and prudent maxim but liable
to be abused If it should seem to you, Gentlemen,
that might have condensed into a smaller compass
what have said my only apology for not having
done So is that | write under the pressure of the
most arduous professional labors from which can
snatch only an occasional moment for composition
and, therefore, have little time to bestow on rhetor
ical embellishments and the graces ola polished and
finished STYLE or in the expression of my thought
with due degree of brevity. hope my rambling
manner has not exhausted your patience.
! had originally intended to devote one or two
papers to the discussion and calculation of the alb
solute necessity of public virtue in the subjects of
a free government. But the time and space already
devoted to the topic, now under consideration, will
oblige me to dismiss this view of the subject with
single remark or twoI Let it, then ever be re-
membered that Intelligence, enlightened mind cul-
tivated powers. and disciplined faculties, without
virtue and without the restraints of Christian prn-
cpes, are not only worthless but actually augment
the power increase the capacity, and intensity the
and another to think rightly. The power of
thought and excogitation, scope of intellect, the
capacity for devising great schemes, and adapting
means TO the accomplishment of ends are dangerous
elements in the character of wicked men, These
gifts and such as these may form the character of
such man as Catalina who when he attempted to
overthrow the liberties of his country aud upon the
ruins of Rome to ascend to supreme power, COM
menced by corrlpting the young men Of the city
and forming them for the commission of the most
daring crimes. He knew that the virtue and in
telligence of its young men form the strength and
safety ofany state 1t is not enough to obey the
laws. This simply will never make a good citizen
lie must indeed obey the laws love the institutions,
and support with an enduring devotion the consti-
tuition Of his country, and he must do all this from
lofty sentiment of patriotism, and deep sense OF
duty in a VOID, he must DO it, because it is right
and because the interest, the honor and the glory
of his country are staked upon his fidelity And
this is what call public virtue Win any man tel
me that this sentiment has nothing to do with tn,
preservation of our constitution and that education
has nothing to do with nspringt and keeping i
alive2 Tell IL not IN Gath publish il not IN the street,
Of Askelon This is-orought to be-one ofits prin-
cipal aims.
Permit me, Gentlemen, to call your attention t,
one other aspect of the subject and will pass OF
5 to the consideration of other matters.
The fertility of our soil the salubrity of our eli
mate the freedom of our political institutions, thu
Justice and equity of our laws, and above all, thu
b policy of our especially in forme
tenies-have aured foreigners to our shores b,
thousands and tens of thousands And still the,
b come. The ever flowing tide of immigration i
. pouring annually into the United States vast multi
r tudes from the populous countries of Europe. Tn
great majority of these immigrants are ignorant an,
n degraded, men without virtue, without any knowl
: edge of our Institutions, or the practical working
: the machinery of our government, and with
. out any ucfnlte nouOns OF what civil liberty Is
h Surely no sane man will pretend that such men ar
d safe depository of political power. And yet suc
r is the nature of our naturalization laws that in
very brief period after they touch soil they ar
admitted TO ahthe rights of citizenship, and the ex
ercise of the elective franchise From this sourc
IS there is there must be danger to political fabric
u Who can, or will deny ip But here once for al
Is | wish to guard myself against misapprehcnsiO
/ and misconsTuction. speak not the language q
Il party or faction ! eschew and aLhoT il, BIT a
s WISE prudent and patriotic men, must look thi
danger full in the face # win not do to blink ia
i matter, Protested politicians may. They are oi)e
!, more solicitous for votes than for the honor an
IL safety Of the country. But hope the people ar
mot disposed to beof the number of those, who hay
i ing eyes, see not, aud having ears, hear not tn
thing which nearly concern their temporal saliva
ton wish to say explicitly--and say it will
IS peasure-that we have, in every period of our pas
IS history, had, and still have naturalizod citizen
c whose talents aud virtues have been an ornamen
TO the country, men Of ardent patriotism and com
e preherIsive and enlightened views. Ofsuch, Ispeal
; not 10 is folly to deny the publication Of such