The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-11-27
EDUCATE THE FREEDMEN.

n profitable investment.
EDUCATE THE FREEDMEN.
Education is an essential element in the
prosperity of a republic. Intelligence is
quite MS important for the conservation OF
pure ballot us religion. There is need
of clear head no less than an honest
heart Never vas there a more pressing
need of earnest endeavor to secure to the
freedmen this inestimable boon than now,
not only for their own good, but more
cmphatcally for the good of the country.
Impartial, if not universal, suffrage is sure
TO come and that very soon. The Dem
ocrats will give it if the Republicans do
not. If the North does not the South
will. This result is inevitable, and it
becomes those who have the best interests
of the country at heart to be up and NOV
ing to secure her welfare. Slavery has
been abolished, and education should sup
pement emancipation. The entering
wedge of advancing civilization should b
driven 10 the head. Three millions of
Ignorant people, whites and blacks, have
become accessible to northern philanthropy
by the recent upturnings of rebellion and
ito triumphant overthrow. Their great
need. now, is education. We have no
right to say what the negro can or cannot
do when educated. Give him the same
start, mental, historical and physical, with
the white, and it is impossible to foretell
to what an eminence lie may attain
Educate any man and the power is occur
ed which will achieve all the other reforms
which we seek in society. All our hopes
Of future civilization lies in education and
not in legislation. All questions now
coming up for popular discussion find
their final solution in the mental develop
ment of the people of which the negro is
now part. Indeed, public opinion up
on this point is rapidly advancing
Prominent Democratic journals are al
ready advocating universal suffrage, and
the number Of Rcpublican lvocates of the
same principles has been recently largely
increased. While we cannot but regard
the denial Of the ballot TO the negro on
account of race as wholly indetensible,
we dare not ignore the inexpedicncy of
granting any ignorant man, white or
black, voice in shaping government
whose institutions he docs not understand,
whose constitution and laws and intcres's
he does not comprehend. And yet this
result is soon to be accomplished. Unless
the negroes and poor whites at the South
are soon educated, we shall witness the
anomaly of giving the ballot to three mil
lions Of ignorant people whose highest
ideas arc the qualification of passions and
appelitcs
The South may confer suffrage, but
,CW not facilitate education. The friends
of the poor and the oppressed, practical
ph'lanthrorists, must and will accomplish
this great and glorious work, Those
who have Witnessed the practical benefits
of q general diffusion of knowledge at the
North, and those at the North whose
hearts are warm for the oppressed and
dowLtrodden everywhere, must be the
pioneers In fact, they are SO. The
work is already begun, and, despite the
difficulties they encounter, there will be
no halIing or cessation of effort until it is
as difficult to find person who cannot
read and write, south of Mason and
Dixon's line, as il now is in New Eng
land. The New England branch of the
Freedmen's Union Commission has now
one hundred and thirty-eight teachers in
South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia,
at an annual expense of S6j, 900, less
than $500 Tor each teacher. The eager.
ness of the freedmen TO learn is attested
by all reports, and the poor whites take
advantage of opportunities presented in
this way to some extent i lie way seems
to be open as it never has been before for
securing more general diffusion of
knowledge at the South and the necessity
for general intelligence is Inc rensed in
proportion.
TIE YANKEE School TnAcnERs AT
THE SoUrn "A traveller in Georgia has
made it in his way to call on some of the
Yankee school teachers there, and writes