New-York daily tribune., 1865-11-24
RURNING sCHOOL.HOUsEs.


II ;s cur;ous to notice how truly characters
tic is Slavery in its ultimate Spas'ns. ~ u'in
bom, A. a Tennessee dispatch informs US
certain es-patrisrchs, disgusted i'll their serene
minds BY tho turn which affairs nave 'ano"'
and exasperated ts the last degree by inc hiu'
ous sight OF a Freedman's School-house' couiu
find no vent for their pressing paSsioilS' eAooP'
nv ;ndnleepcs in arson. So they set hre 70 'he
little seminary, and reduced it to ashes foith'
with came sn order from Gen. Thomas ne'
build the school house Immediately ihi'
being contemptuously disregarded. a detacn'
msut Of soldiers is now stimulating the acli'
teo,uraJ capacities Of the TullahomanS' WIN
what success VIC shall presently heaT' ln'.
little eyent sufficiently illustrates the animn' o'
a certain class. While you are expecting them
20 reconstruct State. they are burning schoo''
houses. II is very suggestive.
For our own part, we are ready TO confess,
after pretty long experience OF the ioiiy vi
mankind. that we have never heard or read oi
ANYTHING 50 foolish a. this OF course, there Is
10 flmlt ID DulndU niuuCiuo'ioh' cNN
white man. even in Tullahoma, should fancy
that his safety or prosperity depends upon Keep
ing two-tbirds of his neghbOrs in the densest
Ignorance. seems almost incredible. 1t Is as u
a community should prefer the neighborhood of
tigers or bca-constrictors to that oi COWS or
sbeep or horses. Ignorance and Slavery were
compatible. and of piece; but Ignorance
and Freedom can produce nothing better
than License, and the hard tyranny which
Il Decessitates. Unless the Freedmen :
school. .houses are to be ss safe and as sacred
ss churches, not destroyed but muitphed'
not dchled but adorned, not degraded but
glorified, we can hope for no peace, no prog
ress and no prosperity. 1t Is the utter bind
ness TO this truth in every Free State long since
recognized and literally acted upon which Is
producing local troubles, and making the future
difficult and dubious. 1t is like the last furry
o, the whslc which skaters the boat and sends
its crew drifting about in mortal peul IL ID
Ike the inability of the Bourbons to learn or 10
forget. 1t Is Ike the satanic waywardness
which cared for nothing between rule and ruin.
We are not discouraged by the observation oil
such folly, only because We are certain that II
is limited, eyen at present. by the instinct oi
seli-prcserv alton, and because We Know that
time will make less and leSs its power for evil,
until it disappears altogether.
Nothing is moro certain than that the South
must have intelligent labor. or become IN time
a mere desert. IL may seem to be paradox
that man who can read and write will, tor that
very reason, better cultivate cotton, sugar, rice,
and tobacco; but it is literally true, and, what
is more, I, is truth upon which by far the
most prosperous part of the nation has been for
two centuries acting with the most prodlgious
success The more intelligent the laborer, tue
higher viii be- his motives, and the moro ele-
waited his motives, tho more steadily and profita-
| bly, will he work. As mere matter oi money,
how much would Massachusetts ask day 10
abolish her public schools Close and niggardly
as she has been called, the gold has not been
minted which could tempt her. She shrinks
from popular ignorance as she would from pesti-
| lence or a famine. Her confidence in popu-
| lar tOUriUOu ~ puDuC ShOEuaiu oi4u
ornament is no idle and Utopan dream.
She has tried the e1periment-she began IL
when she was weak and struggling for political
existence; she has carried il on through revolu-
tons and reyerses, through peace and war, in
the day of great as in the day of small things
and she fully comprehends that all she is she
owes to the fidelity with which she has excluded
ignorance from her borders. Yet with this ex-
ample, and many others ike it, before their
eyes. the white folks of Tullahoma are afraid Of
Freedmen's Schools Do they prefer Freed
mems .Jails2 Freedmcns Almshouses Freed
mems Hospitals Do they prefer Incidence to
industry Indifference TO alacrty ! StOlidity to
intelligence ? wasteiulness to thrift lawless-
ness to loyalty tumult to order Ii not let
them be chary of burning any more school
houses