Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-02-22
ICcmmunIcGket.T
Compulsory Acknowledgements Con-
Guided.

WOfk some SOOu RESULTS Ia lls SpScidl
field of labor, yet, by parallel appli
cations of the rule, everything sa-
cred in domestic relations would be
rendered liable TO misguided and ia
natical dictation and thus the very
theory of our form of government
might be reversed in practice
In this my concluding article, L
promised to point out the obstacles
which have occurred to me as being
in the way Of just and thorough
execution of such q law. But before
going into this, will venture an OBJ
servation or two upon what should
be the warrant and tenure Of all le-
gal enactments- authority to act,
admitted. All penal laws which re-
quire for their execution the machin-
cry of voluntary complaint and tes-
timony, should be founded only in
the we'll settled convictions and the
abiding sense of the mass of law
abiding citizens. No set Of legisla-
tive thinkers" as the lamented Lin
coin, called them, would have a
right, acting on a chance ascendancy
or by force of lobby pressure alohe,
to go one step beyond this yet, the
larger portion ofour statues are be-
gotten by an incestuous embrace of
Chance and Lobby. Legislation at
State capitals is game of bowles,
and workshop Of crude expert
ments in vain and shallow conceits
and upon public credulity. We set
up to knock down one experiment
is succeeded by a swarm Of others
equally preposterous, only to graft
fly the "vaulting ambition" of master
workmen aiming at self; but in the
meantime, the temper of the mass
who are made to foot the bills is be-
coming exhausted. Tinkering, or
reckless trifiing in matters Of legisla-
tion is not much unlike playing with
lighted matches among explosive and
combustibie materials. We cannot
be too careful not TO poison the
fountain or TO weaken the force Of
legal authority.
In passing this compulsory law
then, we must contemplate its thor
ough enforcement There must be
no discrimination between classes
and conditions, especially not be-
tween the rich and the poor-God
help the poor! The rich who choose
to educate their children at home by
o private tutor, must be held alike
amenable with the poor who, by rea-
son of their poverty, are unable to
send their children even to the pub
lie school for take it, that the
State cannot recognize in the law
any means Of education other than
the public school without providing
for the intervention Of "mouchards"
and smelling committees or without
investing the examining magistrates
with inquisitorial powers TO test the
motives of delinquent parents and
the educational qualifications Of their
children. This suggestion opens q
rich field of inquiry which l shall be
sure not to overlook, but for the
present will inquire what possible re-
mission, without rendering the COM
pulsory process entirely nugatory,
can be made in the law in the case OF
delinquent parents who set up in de-
Tense, considerations of health, of i'm
becility, of moral associations, or of
the teachers unfitness, on behalf of
their children, when under inquisito-
rial examination Will such allega-
tions be joined in the issue to be tried
by "a one-horse Justice Court, and be
decided by the ordinary run of to-
bacco chewing, smoking, whiting,
smutty story telling, six men juries b?
Again, and here is my promised
iaSurmountabLe obstacle - There
must be nothing in the organization
or administration Of our public
school system, which shall in the
slightest degree violate the rights of
conscience; or in other words, no
religious sentiment or formula can
be inculcated in the school routine
OF text book containing controvert-
ed dogma be make use of, without
rendering your compulsory law q
dead letter. The rights Of one, even
an Atheist, in this particular, are as
sacred as those of any other and the
most scrupulous non-intervention
must be enforced to ensure this
equality. But it cannot be denied
that this great right, this foundation
of all other rights, is systematically
violated in almost every school dis
trict in our land. A bill to remedy
this abuse and to enforce our consui-
tuition guarantees in this regard, was
lately considered in our Assembly :;
but, as was expected, it was summa-
rily "scalped, ""cut up, "quartered,"
divided. "dissected" and "strangl-
ed" in Com. of the Whole" A few
years ago the author would have I'M
doubtedly met literally and not figur-
atively, as the Herald facetiously
rendered it, the fate of his bill. So
there is progress. A few years
hence tho essential features Of this
"strangled" bill will be the law of
the land, and until they are you can
not enforce compulsory education.
Our Supreme Court must aud will
sustain any plea in defense founded
upon the existing unconstitutional
status of our schools.
1t is usual in arguing legal ques-
tions to quote the authorities to con-
clude the argument. Following the
rule, shall introduce q standard au-
thority upon any subject of a litera-
ry nature, and quote from the chap
ter therein, entitled "4Uuch Ado
about Nothing" Transition to the
case under consideration is easy, and
but little remains TO be supplied.
We are considering case in viola
ton OF your compulsory law, gentle
men, with DoGBERRY as "learned
Justicer."
Care called. Presentthe offending parent and child
CIR. Of ton years, with the usual retnue OF "bum-
mers," all smoking sinking pipes and squirting
right and left small but filthy cascades of tobacco
saliva
DoGB.--Is our whole dissembly appeared
A. BUMMER.-Which be the maeiactors
DoGB-Marry, that am | and my partner
Let the offenders come before me. We will