Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-09-19

anthropists, the question What method will
best promote the cause of popular education
and pure religion in the South The neces-
sity Of both is almost universally recognized.
| Neither can take the place of the other. Edu-
cation unsanctiied by religion issues in in6del.
| ity and anarchy. religion unenlightened by
education begets superstition and despotism.
The .choo-house without the church produces
China the church without the schooi house,
/ Italy the chu ch and the schooi-houss, Re.
publican America.
| How to combine these 40 is an important
problem. There are two possible solutions.
The religious denominations may undertake
the double work. They may plant the paro-
chial school by the side of the church they
may teach at once the rules of arithmetic and
the lessons of the catechism, the laws OF gram
mar and the doctrine OF theology, Such
| system gives parochial schools. On the other
| ban d, the various religious denomination may
assume their peculiar province the work Of
religious instruction. To that they may con-
| fine themselves, while the whole community
untes in a common effort for the education OF
the masses, not only in secular knowledge, but
| in those precepts of morality and teachings of
| the Christian religion in which all agree. This
system gives the common-school 1t is the
almost universal sy stem of Protestant Repub-
! llIanism.
/ Ii is not necessary TO discuss the respective
advantages Of these two methods. The general
question has long since been settled by the
test OF actual experiment. Wherever the
cause Of popular education prospers, lis pros
perity is rooted in the common school system.
| Where the parochial system is pursued, the
ca1se both Of religion and education suffers.
In Holland, whence We have largely borrow
ed our institutions of civil and religious liber-
ty, the schools are carefully guarded from all
sectarian influence. The teachers, though Civ
ing general religious instruction, are forbidden
to teach the doctrines of any particular denom-
ination- Calvinist and Lutheran, Arminian and
iSociuian, Protestant and Catholic unite in the
common-,chool. In Swi'zerland and generally
throughout Germany, similar result Is attain
ed by different means for though education
in Christian doctrine is there afforded in the
schools. the hours for religious and secular in
struction are carefully kept separate, and the
religious instruction is impaired by the pastors
OF the congregations to which the pupils sever
ally belong. In Ireland, for many years, the
schools were under the control of the Church
lof England, and the children Of the Roman
Catholics. who constituted six-sevenths of the
population, we're :hus in effect excluded. At
length, after nearly thirty years agitation. an
unse ctsrsn board of education has been es,ab-
lished, representing Proteslants, Catholics Or
thodox and Unitarian., under whose direction
L
lied free from ecclesiastical control. After
long and heated discussion this principle Is
VI iversaly adopted in The Northern States OF
| America The common school is jealousy
defended from all sectarian inh fence. Only
those religious precepts and principles are H.
Iculcsted which are of universal acceptance,
while ed uca, ion in theological doctrines is ieti
10 the church and Sunda, school. There Is no
place where this distinction between religious
md fs Hiy ma n.
tanned than in the Northern State. of America
none where the cause both of religion and
Of education better fourishes.
| While such is the favorable result OF unde-
| nomn tonal education, We are not lett with
| uu testimony to the effect OF the other
l.ystem We need not refer TO Roman Catho-
lc countries. In Scotland I've quo from an
oficis report) the parish schools have prov
ed quite inadequate to the educational wants OF
the country, and ale defective and Objection
able in consequence of the smallness OF the
class invested with the patronage, the limited
portion of the community from which the
te. ch.rs are selected, the general luadequacy
of their remuneration, and the system OF maj
.gement applicable TO schools under church
control"
| In England, the absence of official sys
TEN of public instruction has lett the poor
mainly dependent on parish scaools. 'Almost I
them. But they are generally planted 10
connection with the house of worship. and
without cooperation between the sects, IN
msny districts thew are closely crowded to-
yether, while other di ,tricts are leit destitute
| There are, for example, eight OF 'hem IN one
district of Manchester within the radius OF a
quarter of mile /; and four OF them 10 another
district not more than two or three hundred
YARDS apart The result i. empty rooms, dis
prited teachers, and an Improbable Invest
ment of money and an expenditure OF labor.
| This witness does not stand alone. Ore.
Cha mers, Hook, Davidson, Vaughn, Tay or
of Trinity College, Nicoll OF Glasgow Uni-
versity, Archbishop Whaieiy and John Stuart
, Mill, are but a few among the many VINO, Ia
! miliar with the parochlai school system, have
given their testimony i'll favor at the suostltu
lion of public Schools not under ecclesastica
contro!, nor attempting to afford specihcs reil
; gious instruction.
When Emancipation first rendered depeud deu
upon US so many lpless sufferers, al Christian
made haste to their assistance, and ecclesiastca
societies We'd with unsectsran associations II
the work of D ysicsi relief and secular educa
| zion. To the honor of the church be it said
that no denomination was deaf to the call o
| humanity and God. These special and local
ixed efforts have done much for the relief an6
. education of the Freedman. But now, In or
der to perpstuate the results already attained
to secure ths greatest amount OF good with tn
least expenditure in the future, to avoid dupll
cation of charities and rivalry of societies, and
p | above all, to establish selt-sustaining an
n growing system of popular education, modelie
upon the patterns afforded by past experience
a more perfect organization ana more sys
tematie division of labor are required; an
eapecally is it necessary that We should Ora
with some precision the lines which separat
L the work Of the ecclesiastic Il from that OF th
phianthropic associations, and determln
whether actiang through UNCONVENTIONAL agel
cies we will content ourselves with such pare
chial schools as they may establish, or wnetne
] assigning to them that more distinct mission
ary work which Is quite sufficient TO absorb a
their energies, we will combine IN one nattion
and unsecarian organization for the establish
ID ment in the Southern States OF tina, commo
school system which is the glory and the safe'
of our country. Already the various und
nominational Freedmen's societies have unite
to form such an organ lZation, IN the America
in IFreedmen's Union Commission, a commissic
j. which embraces representatives OF all demon
. liuations, includes constituent societies in a
. part, of the North, and during the past yes
% has sustained over seven hundred teachers, an
instructed over forty thousand pupils Hecoi
I'd mixing NO distinctions of caste or color, II d
D. votes its energies mainly to this one work, Il
a promotion of popular education in the Sout
ht Tho education of the South, especially of Il
IN Freedmen, is a truly religious work none Il
II iess 90 because i. is undenominatiooal. Cous
Of rightly says, :. The less We desire our sohoo
Ito bs ecclesiAstical, the more ought they to
CO | Christian" Called to this work not only
A | h. cI.,ms of country and humanity but also