The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-01-12

United STATES snail De fully educated?
Shall We arrange all,the schools upon one
plan. SO that every boy and every oiri
| shall pass successfully through the differ
ent grades of The village public school,
The High School. the State Collsge, and
the National University Who viii be
the prophet to foretelI the results OF So
grand an enterprise ? Will it be in our
Day that Ignorance aud crime shall van.
ISL from our fair land and aball We bA
permitted 10 see the fair proved anoaI ~
Thought enthroned with the Goddsss.of
Liberty, and see the Two, disnensing
blessings for US all, and exaltiug our pss
ton to the highes: place among the king
doms of earth =?
The subject of National Schools is
worth thinking about. l see many oh
structions to the perfect working of tina
| system in all its parts. But have much
faith in the wisdom and integrity of this
| age, Indeed, / feel that we ought TO be
thankful that our time 10 live in the
world is now, aud under this Quilted
States government, and in Kansas.
is worth great deal to live in the
year of our Lord 1867. Every man, and
every woman, to-day, is joint inheritor
OF the rich estate of human knowledge
that has descended TO US from the Past.
The world for six thousand years has
been trying all kinds of experiments,
and you and l reap the benefit of the
successes, and need not repeat the failures.
A great deal has been accomplished. Civ
liz on, science, aud the arts, are not on
interior levels. The work of the Great
Reformation is not before the world still
t. be wrought. England paid twenty
million pounds sterling, years ago. aud
her slaves became freemen. Russia
States of America have stricken the
shackles from the hands of four million
bondmen. How TO accomplish these
great results are among the finished prob.
lens of the world. And let US thank
God that The heavy burden of slavery is
removed from these three great nations of
the earth
According TO all British accounts. we
Americans have become somewhat full
some in our self gloritcation. So as not
TO err this time in regard to our present
educational condition, l will quote Eng
lish authority. A short time ago Nj.
Eilice, a very eminent member of the
House Of Commons, who had recently
visited our country, said, in conversation
with John Bright, that in those New
England States there was the most per-
feet government Ia the world there was
the most equal condition, and most uni.
Versal comfort among the people and he
SAID that the whole population, he believes,
were more instructed, more moral. and
more truly happy than any other equal
population had been in any country or in
any age of the world. l conclude that
nothing more need be said in favor of
our American institutions. What is true
OF New. England is none the less true of
other parts Of the Union. Now let US
hear John Bright explain how this state
of things WAS broug ht about.
the Rhole of this is to be traced,''
he says in public address at Rochedale,
"not 10 the soil, not to the climate, but it
is TO be traced, believe, to the extraor-
binary care which the population, from
'he days of Pilgrim Fathers until now,
have taken with every child, boy aud
girl. that they should be instructed at
least in the common branches of learn
ing. Ia New England they consider
their plan (of universal education) the
only plan. They have tried it for two
hundred years. Its success is beyond
all contest it is absolutely complete.
There is nothing like it that has been
equally successful In the world"
He then goes on to say that if the
people of England had sense to compre-
bend their true interests, they might
compel to be done there what the Amer
leans have accomplished here.
We have, right to cherish an honest
pride Ia the result of our educational
system, and We may well be gralfed
when 20 intelligent and upright an Eng
lishman as John Bright, the champion of
liberty, pays US the compliment to desire
transfer of our educational means aud
agensies to his country. ii,
Inourown State of Kansas school svs-
lem has been es ablishsd, which, uuder
the fostering care OF the State, has proved
eminently adapted to the wants of the
people. But the good things it contains
have not all been brought out-they could
not be. The ripened fruits of The autumn
noon are still some distance 10 the future.
The schools of a State, and all connected
herewith, must be n ade to correspond
with the wealth aud condition Of tie people
in that State. Ia Kansas we have activ-
ily aud intelligence, but, as yet, little 40.
cumulsuon OF capital. Then we have
hal churches to build, school houses in
every district aud village. court houses
and hotels taese, Ia addition TO business
houses aud houses for our families.
But when l travel over the State and
pass school house alter school house, not
/ poor ones in out-of-ihe-way places, but
! good ones 10 beautiful places, newly built
of stone, large, we'll seated. and provi-
ded witE black boards and maps and
! when | arrive at Lawrence and visit the
carefully graded school at that place,
stand 10 the shadow of the State Univer>
siLy building. and see about me on every
side such evidences as cannot help bat
see, OF public spirit, thrift, iutelligence,
refinement, in spite Of border rufian vio-
lence and the famine of 1860. in spite Of
the fearful massacre by QuantFell and
when 90 on TO LsayenwOrth and fnd
that every one of the three Thousand
Children Of that city has supplied for him
the same educational advantages that the
4 bows of Boston have and then when I
know that the same is true of Atchison,