The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-01-17
PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION.


Our readers are aware of the discreditable
controversy between Gov. Warmoth and the
School Directors. While taking no part in q
quarrel which is exclusively confined to few,
the whole subject of public school education,
which necessarily interests many, may very
properly be adverted to, at time when public
attention is concentrated on the subject. The
injury and injustice involved in this subject,
as it regards Catholics, is akin to that which
lay at the basis of our Revolution. To compel
large class of citizens to pay a tax for an OBJ
ject from which no possible benefit can accrue
to them, must, by all right-minded people, be
considered the most odious form of tyranny.
That this subject is attracting attention be-
yond the circumscribed limits to which it has
hitherto been confined, will be gathered from
the fact that periodicals exclusively devoted to
education, are discussing the merits of the sys-
TEN at present SO much in vogue. A publica-
ton called The Neo York 7eacheT>aad american
Educational Monthly, for January has an
article on this subject, which evinces, for a
Protestant, commendable candor, and shows
that the author is not only learned, but that he
is imbued with the soundest philosophy:
The most marked distinction between pagan
and Christian society is to be found in the
relations which the State bears to the family.
Scarcely was the Lacedemonian boy released
from his mothers apron-string, when the State
seized him with an iron hand The State was
thenceforth his father and his mother The
sanctities and duties of the family were annihil-
ated. Body and soul he belonged to the Moloch
of Power. Private conscience was more
than a piece of coin in circulation it was a
part of the public property. Christ restored
tile family as it existed in Adam and Eve.
Christian civilization denies that the State can
destroy the family. The family is primary;
the father the head the mother the helpmate /;
the children in subsection, and for whom the
parents shall give an account to the Father in
Heaven. The Christian State has no authority,
by Divine or human appointment, to invade
this trust. 1t has therefore no mission either
to coerce conscience or to dictate the education
of it. 1t is the duty of the State in every way
to facilitate, but it cannot arbitrarily control
the mental and moral training of the peoples
children. That right and that responsibility
are homestead, and belong to the parent
Now the Catholic parent is aware that
there is between his creed and all Others the
widest and most irreconcilable differences, and
that it is impossible to open the New Testament,
at almost any page, without forthwith encoun-
tering the prime difficulty. To read the Bible,
without note or comment, to young children, 10
to abandon them to dangerous speculation, or
to leave them dry and barren to all Christian
knowledge In mixed schools there is no
other recourse because it 10 impossible to make
! any comment upon any doctrinal teaching OF
Christ and his Apostles, without trenching
upon the conscientious opinions of some one or
other of the listeners. 1.-THE Father and are
one,n-" the Father is greater than There at
once we have the Unitarian and Unitarian at
deadlock! "This is my body it is the
spirit which quickeneth, the flesh profteth
nothing" here we have the primitive Luther
an, who believed in the real presence (con'uo-
start;allv,) and his Calvanistic coadjutor in
Reform squarely at issue! UNLESS yon be
born again of water and the Holy Ghost" etc:
seriously divided in opinion. Nevertheless,
| widely as they differ one from the other, there
is fundamental assimilation between all the
Protestant sects, which may render 1T possible
for them to unite in one educational organiza-
! ton and yet, we find many of the most en-
lightened and earnest among the Protestant
clergy in America zealously advocating
the denominatiohal system, such as we find in
the European countries above referred to.
ly based upon doctrinal religion and they are
liberal enough to insist, that, by natural right,
as well as by the constitutional guarantees OF
| the faith of the parent may lawfully be
| forced or surreptitiously imposed upon his