Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1866-10-17
Thoughts for the Day.

The din and the smoke Of the polit-
ical contest which reached its culmina-
ting point on Tuesday Of last week, is
clearing away. One day its results
are discussed the next our people
again 90 quietly about their usual work
Would that this feeble goose-quill OF
mine could pen words of burning pow
er, words that would arrest the atten-
tiOn and arouse the energies of the
people, and enlist their hearts more
completely y in another popular move
ment Of transcendent importance,
cause less exciting than political con-
test but surely no less tarreaching in
its results-the education Of all the
children Of all the people up to the
point Of thorough preparation for
good citizenship.
There is something so exciting in a
political contest, the principles at issue,
and the candidates, who are supposed
to embody them, are something so
tangible that the majority Of people
enter quite readily into the campaign
Not so with a quiet and fundamental
movement like universal education
Though its results show a powerful in
fuence for good upon society, yet ma
ny people do not fully apprehend the
great Importance of this matter. But
let us see what we would be without
our school system. Had our State
never adopted the free school system,
there is no doubt but to day a great
proportion of Pennsylvanians would
be unable to read and write This
fact is verified in the case Of the rebel
States, not one Of which had a system
of free schools, and large proportion
of whose people were unable to read
and write Out of seven deserters
from the rebel army who found their
way to Kishacoqullas valley, only one
was able to read and write; this is
probably about fair index of the av-
erage intelligence Of the rank and file
of the rebel army. The nation that
permits its children to grow up in ig
norance and subject to unbrided pas
sions, is on the way to anarchy or -des-
potism. To get an idea of the compar-
alive insecurity Of life and property of
the heavy expenses for the detection
and punishment of crime, and Of the
prevalence Of ignorance, poverty, and
unhappiness among the lower walks of
society, where there are no adequate
provisions for popular education, it is
onl y necessary to read description of
! the present social condition of such
nations as Spain and Italy. Even in
our free, prosperous, happy, and intel
! ligent New England and Middle States,
our methods Of home and school train
ing are yet so detective as not to &C
complish the important work of uni
versal education satisfactorily.
As an act of policy-not to mention
duty, mercy, and phiIanthropy-it is
wiser to educate all the children of the
State up to the point of good citizen
ship, than to have them grow up igno-
rant and undisciplined, to be the dupes
of dangerous demagogues as was, and
is still the case in the South.
1t is believed that had the southern
States at an early day established free
! schools like those ofthe northern States,
the late war would not have been like
| ly to occur, because universal educa-
! ton would have SO dignifed, elevated,
and disenthralled the class known as
poor whites" that they would have
been politically the ruling class. The
lordly slave-mastcrs who, contrary to
the eternal law Of Justice, lived by the
sweat of other faces, could not have
so held sway over their poorer fellow
beings, and thus the doubly incongru-