The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-10-28
From The Ne,c York Mercury.
Closing the Avenues to instruction.


Closing the Avenues to Instruction.
England is the'most cunning of monar-
chies. BY her constitution, the sovereign
can only be removed by revolution. And
for fear that vulgar people should, by o
perversty of talent, usurp the preroga-
tives of peerage, she jealousy guards the
doors to education, that only the scions of
her noble houses may enter and partakc.
Mr.. Lincoln, who has already more power
than king, seems to be organizing SIM
liar arlstocracy at present. He has taxed
all the accessories to public Instruction.
and is, apparently, bent by yet more srin.
gent regulations to keep the mass Of tho
people from knowing anything at ALL
All that made US Il free republican pco-
pie before was, the equal dissemination of
intelligence and the liberty granted to all
citizens Of all classes to agitate every pub
lie question. We had partisan presses
which were certainly BIASED and bitter,
but by reading both sides of all arguments,
good sense and reason triumphed; while
a number of able, disinterested weekly
journals, like THE New YORK MERCURY,
occasionally pronour ced upon the leading
issues, and toned down any hard repulsivc
features of the daily organs. The press
was equally Jealous to reform error, and
to oppose executive encroachment. When,
therefore, Mr. Lincoln, taking the reins of
Government, resolved to hold them as long
as possible, he planned ukase against free
publication, seized the kilograms, app,in-
ted newspaper-censors, issued warnings,
shut up editorial-ofices, and sent writer's
to his several bastiles. These acts being
vehemently opposed, be conceived a
shrewder and more dangerous policy of
breaking up the press, by imposing oner-
Gus taxes upon it. How we'll he has sue.
ceeded, we all know. The only papers
which steadfastly oppose him are main
tanned, despite ruinous expense, by the
free contributions Of the people while
thousands, less earnestly supported, have
stilled their tocsins, and rest in the grave
with the rights they strove to uphold
The mails were closed to the most obnox-
ious; the receipts Of all were made to pay
toll; and at last, all books, from the SIM
plest to the most abstruSe, we're placed un-
der embargo. The "Childrens Spellcr".
the key TO all information-was not even
excepted. From the alphabet to the
gravestone, everything was mucted.-
Across the path of every legitimate aspira-
ton, every househo!d-amusemcnt, every
struggle to acquire either taste or fact,
strobe some tax.collector, to make ingreas
narrow, or bar the gate altogether
So we stand to-day. Even our schools
obstructe !; learning made dangerous aud
expensive, like adventure; the art Of priu-
ting half eradicated, and ignorance made
the cornerstone Of our future loy,ty
Have we gained any compensation for
the REIMBURSEMENT of these rights Has
the Administration given US power, or ter.
ritory, or the prestige of arms? We are
burdenel with taxes we are drained of
good men labor is SO scarce that all nccks
must soon stoop to the primeval destiny Of
toll i! Had NJ. Lincoln regretted the
the wilderness which our fore.fathers hew-
ed down, and repeopled it with resisting
savages, he could not have 50 far removed
US from the arts and eisures of civilization
as by opposing to our future these myri-
ads of tax gatherers, this miosna of peril,
this darkness of ignorance, this river OF
blood. Timely energy might have saved
Us the Uuion, the lives of our brave sol
der-patriots, aud the anarchy Of debt, de-
population, and conscription. We want
the Union restored in all its primitive in
tegrity we want no divided country, CO.
mented with blood and crested with de..
potisn. We want The people to be free TO
read, free to think, free to debate
Strength is a paltry recompense for liber-
ty. We are weary Of those who advise US
to blindness, aud who would stifc inquiry.
Citizenship in the United States has really
fewer privileges now than in the old Euro
pean uouarchies. There is les to tempt
foreigners 10 settle in our country than to
induce ourselves to cclonize abroad.
What we need is, change of rulers
We must teach the Administration that
everything is mutable-that only truth,
freedom, and progress are eternal.