Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-04-04
Education Necessary to Promote Lib
erty...OuF Free Schools.
NUMBER III.


comprehensive sense, is aniagonistic to
slavery Of mind and body; that without
Education there can be no true Liberty; I
that only those nations, the mass Of
whose people are educated, are free or
aspiring after freedom; and that where |
ignorance or a Goddess education pre- |
walls there oppression has It's home, and
the people care not to rid themselves Of
the incubus
In this nineteenth century, and in this
land OF education, religion and freedom,
these propositions cannot be successfully
eontroverted There are those, howev-
er, who would, il they could, deny these
truths, and who are in their hearts OPP
posed 10 the general diffusion OF knowl.
edge. Such persons are those Copper
head demagogues who, like so many
reptiles and vermin, flourish bess in the
dark, and seek TO prevent the general
education Of the people, in order that
their mediocrity may appear conspieu-
Gus, and that they may succeed in get
ting into their possession Offices that they
cannot gain when the people are gener-
ally educated.
There is also church whose priest
hood are always working underhandedly
against Free Schools, and who are OPP
posed to popular education. They do
not want the people instructed unless
they can have the management OF their
schooling, and be enabled, in this way
10 train their minds in the tactics Of their
own dogmas and superstitions
These. influences are hostile 10 the
system of Common Schools, which is
the glory of New England, New York,
Ohio, and other more fortunate States
than our own, and which, through the
| sleepless and constant efforts Of the
friends of general education, is enjoyed
in Evansville, under the old City Char.
ter No other city in Indiana has Free
Schools that are Of much public utility
Every other City in the State has adopt.
ed the New Charter, under which, ac-
eording to our present Constitution as
expounded by the Copperhead Perkins
and his Democratic associate Supreme
Judges, it is impossible to keep up the
Schools more than half the year, and
then in such way as to render them a
burlesque and delusion
The spirit of hostility to Public
Schools manifested its opposition with
deadly effect, through that plant tool Of
bis party, Judge Perkins, at time when
the Common School system began to
work smoothly and systematically. The
Common Schools Of the State, which
we're doing glorious work in educating
the rising generation, and redeeming the
State from the disgraceful stigma that
rested on her,were remorselessly stricken
down by the democratic" Judges at
one fell blow, thousands of poor chill
dren turned out of school to grow up in
ignorance, the State injured intellectually
10 the eyes Of the world, and thousands
/ of emigrants 10 the West turned away
from the State to seek homes where they
could educate their children.
The stigma we speak Of was caused BY
the fact that, in 1850 out of a popula-
ton in our State of gSs, 4l6, there were
I2,7l0 adults over twenty years of age
who could not read aud write Yet in
the face of such disgrace, caused by
n palpable want Of Public Schools, a
: Supreme Court in this enlightened age,
at the bidding of poli.ico-clerical con
spirators against the liberties OF the peo-
. pie, struck down our Free Schools aud
turned thousands of children out to ig-
norance and degradation, And this
foul deed was perpetrated in the face OF
this Constitutional provision, one elanse
of which was relied on to justify this
crime against humanity.
" knowledge and learning, generally
dIhused throughout community, being
essential TO the preservation of free
government il shall be the duty of the
; General Assembly to encourage, by all
suitable means, moral, intellectual,
} scientific, and agricultural Improvement;
and TO provide by law for general and
uniform system of Common Schools,
wherein tuition shall be without charge,
aud equally open to all
In place of interpreting the word uni
form literally, in the interests of Edu.
cation, in the spirit of the above ex-
tract, and according to its obvious
meaning, the Supreme Court made a
decision, far-fetehed and strained, the
effect of which was to reduce all the
Schools in the State down to the dead
level of the smallest and poorest com
munity So that the largest and wealth
lest community, no matter how eagerly
they may desire to sustain liberal sys-
tenn of Schools, can not tax themselves
, specially for the purpose, but must be
content with the niggardly allowance OBJ
tanned from the School Fund. Evans
, vile, of all the cities in the State, is the
I only exception to the general rule, and
she enjoys this advantage under the Old
, Charter, which is older than the New
Constitution, and was not repealed by
the Act of June is, 1852
The Constitutional Convention and
: the General Assembly tried to do their
duty IN the premises, but the Supreme
a cOurt-that clog on the wheels of pro-
gress-undid ell their work, and turned
. the field of knowledge, which was be-
= ginning to yield glorious fruit, into a
bowling wilderness. The excavations Of
J, an outraged people ought to rest an