Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1867-01-16


attention of the people and their repre-
sentatives Yet it is not by legislation
alone that any people can be brought to
understand their relations to each other
as citizens. Their best instructors are
| themselves. However liberal the appro-
7 priations may be, if these are not second
ed by that commendable spirit which inn
pels the parent to impress upon the child
the necessity of a sound moral and intel
lectual training, your representatives are
/ generous, in vain. Every thing depends
! upon the people; hence the great complaint
( preferred by the convention of teachers.
. of shOrtness of terms in some districts. of
! the small attendance of enrolled scholars
of the employment tOfunqualifed instruc-
tors, and of the want of proper school
/ houses, results unqueStiOnablynOtS so much
from the Indifference ofthe State. as from
the negligence of those who are invited to
share and to enjoy the blessings of a cheap
and admirable system of popular educa-
ton. If my fellow-citiZens will ONLY re-
collect the difference between the oppor-
tunities of the present generation and
those of their fathers, and how much is
to be gained by a cultivation of modern
facilities, they will require little exhorta-
ton to the discharge of duties which re-
late almost exclusively to themselves and
to those nearest and dearest to them.
| The Importance of common schools in
| Il republican government, can never be
fully estimated. To educate the people is
the highest public duty. opermit them
to remain in ignorance is ineXcusable.-
: Every thing, therefore should be encour-
aged that tends to build up strengthen
and elevate our State on the sure founda-
ton of the education OF the people. Every
interest and Industrial pursuit will be aid
cd and promoted by its operations; every
man who is educated is improved in use
| fulncSS, III proportion as he is skilled in
labor, or intelligent in the professions,
and IS in every respect more valuable to
society. Education seems to be essential
to loyalty, for no State in the full enjoy
ment of free schools, ever rebelled against
the government.
! Pennsylvania should be the vanguard
in the great mission of education. She
| should remember that she has been the
| mother of States, she should also be the
teacher of States. "The great problem of
civilization is how to bring the higher in
teIiigence ofthe community, and its better
| moral feelings, to bear upon the masses of
the people, so that the lowest grades of
! intelligence and morals shall always be
approached the higher, and the higher
still rising. y church purified of super
stition solves part Of this problem, and
good school system does the rest.n
THE STATE MILITARY
Nothing, after the education of the pco-
! pie, contributes more to the security of q
| State than a thorough military system.
! The fathers of the Republic, acting upon
| the instinct of preparing for war in time
! Of peace, embodied this knowledge among
| the primary obligations of the citizen.
| \ ct the rebellion found Us almost wholly
| unprepared. Our confidence in our in
| Stitutions was so firm that the idea of an
i,tt
| less from those who had been the spoiled
children" Of the government, was never
| believed possible, however threatened
| The first clash Of arms found Us equally
| undeceivcd and unOTganiZed, and we very
soon experienced that the contrivers of
| the grca slave conspiracy had not only
strengthened themselves by the stolen
| ships, arms and notifications of the gov
eTnmcnt, but had been for years designed
| ~ inStructing their youth in the science
Of arms; and when the bloody tempest
opened upon us they We're ready to spring
1T the heart of the Republic, while the
citizens, in whose hands the government
| was left, were compelled to protect them
selves and their country as best they
| could.
When we reflect upon the terrible sac
| riiceS we endured to maintain our liber-
ties, and anticipate that glorious period of
t
( will be dedicated to human freedom, and
when the despotisms of the earth will
| cOnstruc our example into standing
| threat against their tyranny, we cannot
| disregard the consideration of this impOr-
tant subject.
As before remarked, PENNSYLVANIA con
tributcd over three hundred thousand
troops to the national cause Dcductng
the loss Of nearly thirty thousand by
wounds and disease incurred in the field,
what an immense army has been left to
circulate among and to educate the mass
Of our population! Properly cOmprehen-
! ding this thought, we have ut once the
| secret Of our pnst success, our present safe
~ and our future power. 1t would / e ca
| ~ TO create an emulation in the science of
! arms among the youth OF the State, by
proper organization, and to disseminate,
in all our schools, that loyalty to the
| whole country, without which there can
| be no permanent safety for our liberty.
In their late report, the visitors to the
! West Point Military Academy laid Il sig
| niicant stress upon the necessity of such
prereptors, in the future, as would teach
| the students of that institution their first
@ud unavoidable obligations to the prin
| ciples upon which the government itself
rcposes. The neglect of this kind of in
struction was felt i'm almost every move
ment during the recent conflict; and it is
not going too far to say that many who
disrcgarded their Oaths, and who drew
their swords against the government that
had educated and nOurishcd them, found
a meretrieious consolation in the fact that
they were permitted to cherish an allegi-
ance to the state in which they were born,
which conlIictcd with and destroyed that
love of country which should be made su-
prema and above all other political obii-
cations.
If, in our past and recent experience,
there has been exhibited the valuable and
splendid achievements of our volunteers
in the rational defence, there has also
been shown the necessity for military