The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-03-07
A WORD TO THE PEOPLE,

Citizens of Bedford county! You will soon
be called upon to exercise an important prerog-
ative; that of choosing persons who shall be
clothed with certain prescribed powers to gov
ern your local affairs. For the peace and pros
perity of your several districts, it is as impor-
tant that proper persons be chosen, as it is for
the good Of the whole country that proper leg
islative and executive heads be elected. But
there is certain local Office, to which, in
great many instances, not enough attention is
given in the proper selection of officers, and to
which we wish to call your notice in this article,
we mean that of School Director. We have
always been of the opinion-and our expe-
rience has never taught us to change that opin-
ion-that the very best men in the land should
be selected for School Directors. Every friend
of education will at once see the force of this
assertion, and no long train of argument is
needed to establish the truth of it; and as we
are more particularly addressing the friends Of
education, we do not deem it necessaryto do so.
But as we remarked before, this subject does
not receive the attention which it deserves.
In many instances persons who are. opposed to
common school education, manage to have them
selves elected in order to do all in their power
to break down the SYSTEM just because its friends
do not exercise proper vigilance to keep such in
truders out. Thus the progress of the system
is retarded, and its harmonious workings de-
stroyed. With but little vigilance, all this
can be easily avoided. See that you do your
duty in that respect, by selecting none but the
best men among you for School Directors. Let
no man, under any circumstances, slip into that
important office, whose antecedents on the sub
ject of our common school system are not, like
Caesars wife, "beyond suspicion" If you love
education, if you are in favor of discharging
your duty toyour progeny by having their mirds
properly educated, and thus rear monuments
that shall bless your memory long after you
cease to exist, you will do this. Although our
country is torn by intestine strife, and every
kind of business is more or less prostrated and
paralyzcd, yet we must not neglect the subject
of education, we dare not tear down the Tenn
pie of Learning, or like Samson, we will be
crushed beneath its ruins. "We must edu-
cate we must educate" exclaims celebrated
writer, cor we must perish !'
Bedford county compares favoraby with her
sisters, and the commonwealth, in educational
matters; and the common school system has in
sinuated itself into the favor of majority of its
citizens to such an extent, that we doubt wheth-
er itcould be easily uprooted Weapprehend no
great danger therefore, from the influx of few
antagonistic directors, but we don't want them
elected because they are clogs to the wheels, and
throw obstructions before the scar of education"
and impede its onward progress. Select men
who are openly avowed friends of the cause
those who will appreciate the Importance of
their office, discharge its duties not for its en-
there are none-but who love
education for its own sake; and who will stand
nobly to their work regardless of the few grum-
blers who shall see fit to oppose them. Do this,
and you will have the consciousness Of having
done your duty in an humble but important ca
pacity.