The weekly North-Carolina standard., 1869-04-07
For the Standard.
Educate the People.

"That the education of youth ought to
form the principal part of the Legislators
attention cannot be a doubt, since education
first moulds and afterwards sustains the va
rious forms of government. The better and
more perfect the systems of education, the
better and more perfect the plan of govern.
ment it is intended to produce and uphold
In this important Object fellow citizens are
all equally and deeply concerned; and as
they are all united in one common work for
one common purpose, their education ougbt
to be regulated by the general consent. and
not abandoned to the blind decision Of
chance or to idle caprice"
These are the words OF one of the ancient
philosophers OF Greece, and are pre- eminentb
applicable to us at the present day. Espe
cially in government republican in form,
where each man has voice in the choice of
rulers. should the above sentiments be care
fully needed. Here almost every man is
voter, but how can men bear rule at the bal
lot box with safety to the Republic unless
they be educated?
Our legislators should look well to this
matter, act promptly. and secure to the peo-
pie before adjournment good system of
free schools. The people demand it. The
spirit of the age demands it. One third OF
the people of North Carolina have been ex-
cluded by law from learning to read, and
that portion have been the bone and Sinew
of the land; their toll has been unreouited
They are now free. They are anxious to
avail themselves of practical education
1t is due to them that tn y should be assist.
ed hy the State. We are no agrarian, as
such, but we believe in the eternal prInci-
pies of Liberty and Justice. and any party
or State that ignores them, will utterly fail.
Let our present Legislature then rise 10 the
dignity of the occasion. be liberal in estab
fishing good system OF public instruction,
and they will hereafter be considered bene-
factors OF the race.
Had the people of North Carolina even
the white population, been properly edu
Gated, they would never have allowed them
selves to be dragged into rebellion against
the Union. The census Of 1850 showed that
there were more white adults over twenty
years of age who could not read and write,
according to population, than in any other
State in the Union. Inscriptions and
traitornus leaders knew what they could do
with an ignorant rabble consequently they
went to work in their neiarious attempts TO
destroy the government. Thousands OF the
young men who entered the rebel service did
not know what the real issue was. They
did not know they were fighting to estab
lish an order of things that would eventual.
ly have resulted in the enslavement OF them.
selves and their children.
The same spirit is rampant in the land
to-day. Men oppose anything like liberal
ity in educating the masses, from the fact
that they will be better able to gull those
masses hereafter Educate man and he
will think and act for. himself, no matter of
what nation, or of what color he may be-
knowledge is power" Every true Re-
publican will stand up for good schools
for in them is the ground work of all that
is republican, and noble, and good.
1t is the same old spirit that prevented
Ivy statute, men, and women, and children,
from learning to read the Bible, that would
throw impediments in the way OF good
schools in North Carolina to day. Let the
Republicans see to it that they be strong
and slow themselves men," Ignore the old
practices of an effete, corrupt, and broken
down aristocracy, and begin anew. Let us
learn something from the experience of other
States and people, and not be slaves to
prejudice and sectional feelings.
es CALAMUS.