The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-06-27
@ H q r L E S T O N,
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JUNE 27, 1866
THE BUREAU OF EDUC4 TON.

allowed to manage their affairs according to
their own best judgment. But slight as is
this postulate, it appears it cannot be con-
ceded. Not only are the four millions of
freedmen "the nations wards" but tho re-
mainder of the population of the South are
also to be regarded in the minority. We
have selfappointed guardians, who kindly
take charge of our affairs. They make laws
for us, and furnish US with strong military
peace establishment, to see the laws duly ex-
ccuted. This is matter of course. But we
are still further provided for. Our guardians
consider us non eompos, and they considerably
arrange whom we shall marry; what society
we are to frequent; who is to till our lands;
who is to teach our children, and who to
weigh out our tea and sugar. How can we
ever discharge the heavy debt of gratitude
we go on accommodating every day we live9
The load will soon become crushing.
Ever since our Northern friends have
gained foothold in the South, they have been
busily engaged educating" any and every
thing that came across their path. Whole
swarms of educators have been imported for
the express purpose,-trom all the regions
North and East Mr.. IcHADoD CRANE, with q
whole galaxy of thoroughly trained assist
ants, came,-with fear and trembling, it is
true,-but determined, nevertheless, to plant
the seeds of New England civilization on this
barren Southern soil They came, they saw
and they filled their schoolrooms with anxious
freedmen. This was all very we'll, and we
were glad to see it.
:. But they were singularly disappointed in
not being received with the same open arms
by the white population. This, of course,
they could attribute to nothing but perverse-
ness and prejudice. They reasoned thus !:
"These people at the South are very igno-
rant, Can neither read nor write;-and have
never even 30 much as heard of tho great
gospel of this nineteenth century. And here
are we, the accredited preachers and teachers
of the same. Yet, will they not come to hear
us, or sit at our feet to receive instru ction"
The msth0d haSR flad 9ttbe6 bsePpSssgaga tRS ass
we do not know our own needs, that we need
foreign schoolmasters,- -"strangers to take lis
in" Accordingly the Radicals, who are the
great wire-pullers of this entire machine
have just manoeuyred an Act through Con-
gress, establishing Bureau of Education,
by means of which they will obtain the right
to intermeddle, to their hearts, content, with
the private affairs of every family in the
land. True, this law will affect the Nor thern
as we'll as the Southern States But tit is we'll
known that it was framed specially with q
view to enlighten our barbario regions A
secondary object, perhaps, may have been to
secure fat places for innumerable aspiring
youths and faded sohoolmarms.
Laws of this kind have heretofore ALWAYS
been deemed unconstitutional, and utterly
antagonistic to the spirit of Republican insti.
tutions. Strange that the sOi-disant Republi-
can party should foist 30 many of these mon.
archical importations upon the people of the
United States
We're we to object and say, we need not
your interference. We have got along very
we'll thus far; your system is not suitable to
our people, nor to the sparsely settled dis.
triots of our country. A smile of contem pt
would be- the only reply, with perhapu the
5upercilious remark: "Look at your people.
how many of them can neither read nor
write; your women almost uniformly igno r ant
and illiterate;p etc. We cannot answer this
charge from the census as we had the mis-.
fortune of losing our library on a me mora.
bic night last year in Columbia, but we had,
during the four years of the war, abundant
Of testing the relative education
md intelligence Of the individuals oompoging
;he two armies There were some of our
soldiers who could not write their names.
There were many more who wrote and
spelled very badly, and others again (yery
many of them) who were gentle mon of in
:elligence, education and refinement. :
We came in contact with the soldiers of
she United States in Confederate pr isons and
hospitals, and found wagon loads of their
1iaries, correspondence, compositions, etc.,
On many q hastily evacuated camping ground.
And upon carefully weighing tn ESQ with
those, we have come to the conclusion that
there is ample room for the schoolmaster in
both Sections; and that neither. has much to
boast in this respect over the other.
AS regards the women of the Sou tb, il is
rue they have been much maligned. :; Even
10 this day scarcely letter can be taken m.
4ritten by Northern and Western ooyrea.