New-York daily tribune., 1866-02-13
THE sCMOOLmAsTEH pIassiNG.

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whose sei-i,npcsed duty Is to toaci, the enAncl-
patcd negroes, and the American Union Com
mission. whose self.mposcd duty Is to teach the
poor Whites. al "a recent meeting Of their officers
resolved to consolidate theiF organizations; and,
under the name Of the American Freedmen and
Union Aid Commission, to undertake the stu
pcndous task OF educating all the unenGghtened
classes Of the southern States. This Conmis-
sion Is now the most important phlanthropic az
sociation IN America While the physical oondi'
ton Of the Southern poor will still be cared for,
to limited extent, the Commission VIII
mainly devote Itself to the great work OF
Education. If it shall be as successful 0s this
its patriotic purpose entities il 10 be, il will
create, for the first time in our history, q self
governed and enlightened people south of
Mason and Dixon'S line. II was because tie
masses of the population in the Southern States
were brutally ignorant that the most illterate
and ill-brcd oligarchy Of the century ruled them
a, with rod Of iron and. without consulting
them, against their interest, against their
wishes. seeded from the Union, and drove
them by hundreds Of thousands into the deadly
trenches of Virginia and Tennessee Generals
Lee and Johnston were our National trant Off
GERS, whose duty was to punish their gfown--p
boys for not attending school.
1t was ga big job" to whip The South, ond 1t
will be big .iob to teach it. Take the negroes
to begin with, and we find nearly a,OoD,Ov
young and old who are eager for Instruction,
who prize il as tangible sign of their freedom.
because, in tho day before Abraham was
il was q penitcniiary clersc 10 teach them to
read. These 100000 VII. need 100000
teachers. But suppose thst We take onc-lourth
Of them only, even this population viii require
at least 10000 "school-marm-, and each Of
them at thi, rate will have 80 pupils. which Ia
as many as oon he properly instructed By one
person.
Instead Of having q million of pupils IN the
schools at Tho present time, Gen. Iiow1rdS re-
port show, that there are not sixty thousand. II
will be seeu therefore. that this work is still in
it infancy.
The expense of educating one.'ourth of the
negroes will be about $40 900, coo per arnum
unit, they are cniranchiscd when they will
have the powcr-and exercise tot establish
ing common schools in every town or parish,
and Of taxing the entire population 70! their
support.
II j, surely not Necessary to argue that the
old ruling cla,- if It obtain, the power. will do
little or nothing for the worn Of education.
OF course it i, absurd to expect them to do
anything for the negro. Ii they do not Danish
the teachers whom the North employs 1t will
be- more than their present attitude and threaten
ing, warrant u, 10 expect For. a. Gen. How
ard says. Il believe the majodt, of the White
people 20 he utterly opposed 20 educating the
negro. The opposition is 20 great that the
teachers, though they may be the purest Of
Christian people arc neyerthele,, visited, pub
icly and privately. with urdisgused marks OF
odium." Testimony from every point where
coored schools have been established confirms
the truth OF this statement.
But il seems TO rs that i, ia equally idle TO
expect the oligerchy to do anything for the poor
Whites, These did not surrender their ideas
with their armies; and theirrod philosophy
tended TO keep the poor in ignorance. The
Charleston Mercury once was honest enough to
say that the working people had no more right
10 education than the slave. Their mode OF
political management was based on the assump-
tion that the masses are uneducated, and Of no
account, excepting as ciphers TO be placed after
their unit of authority. This old class at pres
ent is again in power; and, unless the negro Is
enfranchised by Congress, ii Will undoubtedly
retain its authority. l. it likely that j, will re-
verse its traditional policy-a policy which kept
the schoolmaster abroad
Journals in the interests OF the Southern oil
garchv. on both sides Of the Potomac, viii not
hesitate to deny that the ignorance OF poor
Whites is so universal or so great as our state
ments would indicate. Their amazing bold
ness in denying our previous statements on this
subject induces us TO clinch them with De
Bows statistics. We select the census of lej0in
preference to that of Ic6O-although the figures
OF the more recent volume tell more dccisiyely
in our support-becauSc the former was eIclu-
syely Southern compilation, often tampered
with in the interests of Slavery, and because
also, in view Of the great losses of life during
the past four years, it is probably nearer the
actual truth Of to-day than in the succeeding
census.
In Alabama there were 80, 91 adults who
could neither read nor write. OF this number
1921 were males and 20, 72l were females.
In Mississippi there were 1888 illiterate