Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-09

/ reckon our school system the very chief
| Blind and devoted love of country may
exist under a ~despotism, if ignorance be
the mother of q superstitious or childish
attachment; but liberty and republican
ism can be built on no other solid founda-
ton than intelligence in the whole mass
of the people. A wise s~elf-interest is
made the basis of all scientific political
economy, and when a whole people have
learned to estimate that interest truly, be-
sides loving their country dearly, you
have ground for faith in the stability of
their government, such as can be got in no
other way. 1t is because of the general
conviction that our common schools may
be made to secure this result, that there is
an equally general belief that no money
used for public purposes is SO we'll invest,
ed as that which supports our school sys-
tenn. a''h
No statement of our condition and our.
duties would be complete which did not
almost an army in itself Of the maimed
and disabled heroes to whom the return of
peace brings no bright prospect for their
own future. The dead may be- supposed
to look down in glory and in pride upon.
the work they haveaccomplished by she'd
ding their blood, and cur memory of them
becomes rather exultant than painful;
but these sick and crippled mes are con-
demned to look upon the general prosperity
and JOY, feeling bitterly that their lives
must be deprived of nearly everything
which health and vigor would have Sc
cured them. If we should give them
cause to think their country is ungrsteful,
we slalldouble their misery and be our
selves unfaithful to one of the most solemn
duties which can be imposed upon us,
More than eight thousand disabled Ohio
soldiers are already upon the rolls of the ma
tioRal pension bureau. The p~ittance which
the general Government can give them will
not save them from want. How can we
best do the remainder of our duty toward
them2 A beginning has already been
made in the temporary establishment Of q
State Soldiers Home, but it is manifest
that it will provide for a very small part
of those who have good claim upon US, if
indeed any system of congregating the
pensioners in permanent asylums can ac-
complish the desired end. l believe the
people are ready to do their whole duty in
this matter, and will expect those whom
they have intrusted with the Legislative
power to provide adequately by law the
best practicable system for discharging
this great debt of honor. This disposition
on their part has been manifested not only
in the noble and generous private contri-
buttons through societies and commissions,
by which the comfort of our soldiers i n
the field and the efficiency of our military
hospitals were wonderfully increased, but
the same spirit has prompted numerous
local monuments to our dead, and will, l
trust, grow into some permanent memorial
on behalf of the State at large, in keeping
with the dignity of our position and with
the depth of our feeling.
In these as well as in other ways, the
late war has Brought great burdens upon
our State, but its prosperity has been such
that they have been borne without impov-
erishing u people or straIning the public
resources. Our State debt has been dimin-
ished during this very period of commo-
tion, and such has been the thrift Of the
community and the success of business en-
terprise, that we see on every hand the
evidences OF accommodating wealth. Ohio,
'fthe first-born of the ordinance of 1897
has been true to the principles of that
great act of craftsmanship, which dedi-
Gated the northwestern territory to free
dom and free labor, and now more than
ever before is realizing the benefits of the
wisdom which then launched her upon a
career of unexampled growth under the
auspices Of religion, intelligence and free
dom. .r
A different policy, based upon a false
and unjust system of labor, has brought
forth its matured fruit of rebellion, fol
lowed by desolation and ruin. God grant
that the lesson SO sternly taught by expe-
rienco may be wisely learned by all, and
that the return to the right path may
everywhere speedily result in such abound
ing happiness and well-being that past
strifes and sufferings may be forgotten in
the universal joyl