The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1866-10-05
We Irn.s Edunafel


siilaien2 Are You in view of the great
changes social. peeuniary aud political
witch yoR have experienced, are now cog
nizant g, tee Painfally. and are doomed to
taelsfssrsse{
of the rising generationg In spite Of the
suggestions Of our woes. our suferings,
viii we be unmindful Of the needs of our
children. Will we persistently persevere
in exemplifyiug 10 our own persons the old
adage that you cannot learn old dogs new
tricks''?
Though yonder sky IS the same under
meath whose canopy we were born-though
the same sun shines by day, and the same
moon placidly smiles upon US and the same
kind Providence still promises to fuIfl His
covenants-though we have not yet a new
heaven and a new earth--yet mark the
mighty changes in our public and private
relations, our pursuits. our social necessi-
ties!
The time has been. when cultivating
virgin soil, and crops, whose cultivation
was necessarily a routine system, we might
hope to grow rich and to die rich and leave
our children rich by initiating our great
grandfathers in all things. God bless our
ancestors! As a race they were more wor-
thy than wei They filed their places, act
ed their parts comparatively well. But
now, under that old flag they made and de-
Tended, in the name of that constitution
they framed and put in operation and pre-
served, how have old things passed away,
and behold! how all things have become
new! "Do you not see it? Do you not
feel IT.? as A. johnson used to say n old
stump-speaking times. And have not you
felt it? 0! viii you not yet feel the power,
the tyranny, the iron rod of your couquer-
ers?
Do you still expect to 60 to mill with
stone in one end Of your sack, because your
beloved grandpa did SO. and thrived, grew
rich, made you rich, and made your gov
ernment respected and respectable. Truth
stranger than fiction forces upon US the
recognition of the fact that if we are too
old to change our habits of thought, we
must prepare our children for the responsi-
bilities they will have to meet under cir
cumstances and surrounded by relation
ships social and political very different
from those which, in past times, we con-
sidered it our privilege to enjoy.
Yet since the close of the war we have
quietly watched the movements and the
efforts of our people. In the race to get
riches, have they yet given evidence that
they are alive to the increased importance
of education to the rising generation? Four
years of bloody war, of excitement, Of con-
fusion, of devastation, of plunder and rob
berry, witnessed the closure, or virtual sus-
pension of most Of our educational institu-
tions-in some instances their dismantling
viz: Giles College. The child six years
old in 1861 who lives in this county of
Giles, is a walking volume of history. For
he or she can tslk of Buell., of Mitchell, Of
Turchin, of Dodge, Of Sweeney. Of Freed
mans Bureau, of Brownlow, of robbers, Of
arsoDs, of battles. OF retreats, of threatened
starvation, Of Sherman and his hordes ol
devastators, of fathers imprisoned, of moth
ers insulted, of hopes disappointed, the ad-
vent of Forrest, the disaster of Hood at
Nashville, of oaths administered without
number, unscrupulously taken, Of deserters,
of noble self-sacrifce, of final subjugation
Yet while learning all this history in the
severe school Of experience, in our changed
t circumstances, low much have they been
trained for the realities of the present, the
severe trials of the future?
Still another year (and more too) has
passed, and what are the sighns Of a recog-
milton of the immediate, the rapidly increas
ing necessity of giving attention to the in
; terests of those little walking historical
: prodigies.
) We are not of those who think that th'
: education of tbs Southern veteran, who
g true to his cause, "stuck to the last" or
2 until disabled, has been neglected. Th'
? school in which he was disciplined and hi
e mind exercised, was peculiar, enlightening
e and eleyatiug. Such man and such as b.
0 can make headway in the midst Of any ''se
of troubles he may encounter; for hi
/ skill in weathering the storm, has beef
+. tested and his character for irmness an
: euliebtened views Of consequences estab
= lished.
? Nearly six years have elapsed since th
!. agitation commeuced, which cut of tn
G opportunities of educating our children.
j. contest must now go on between capita
0 and labor Formerly in the South capita
n and Iabour were unitedly pursuing the sam
end THez intellect was not valued 50 yer
+ 4 high as capital. Talents and accomplish
J ments, intellectual and moral, were oTna