Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-03-31
snail we Surrend err our Common
schools


| (Frem the New York Times, March 2l.l
Ii the great body of the people under
stood, what all close observers of currep
events know to be the fact, that formidabl,
conspiracy has been aidagainst our common
schools, it is probable that there would mo-
be so much apathy as now seems to exist OF
the subject. Several ministers have endeay
ored to rouse the public to due sense Of
the crisis-the Rev. G.. II. Hepworth, DR.
X. w. Clark, and the Rev. Mr. Steele, among
others-but, on the other hand, some preach.
ers, equally influential, have not hesitated tC
avow their willingness to see, first, the Bible,
laid under an intcrdlct, and then to assent tc
the total destruction of the common school
system. The idea is that these concessions
are due to the Roman Catholics on the
ground eff tolerance. They have never
asked what is due to Protestant parents and
children, nor have they considered the fact
that the cry tor the suppression of the Bible
and the dispersion Of the school funds does
not proceed from the bulk of the Catholic
aity, who are glad to SEND their children to
our schools, but from the priests, who see
that their power declines under the influence
Of y sound and liberal education.
The foreign-born Catholics who come to
this country, send their children to our COM
mon schools, without fear or hesitation. The
priests have, indeed, striven to fill their
minds with prejudices oa the subject, and
have even warned them of the danger they
run in exposing their children to contact
with ''heretics." But what Io,r, hard
working Catholic is there who is not thank
full for the instruction our schools have af-
forded to his or her children How many
men are there among us who owe all their
success in life to these admirable institutions,
open as they are to people of all creeds aud
nations? We have provided places of in
struction for all corners, asking no questions
about religion or race, and making no dis
tinctions of persons. Some of those who
come Immediately assert the right to reverse
every feature of this policy, and to impose
their own theories upon us. They say, ''in
the first place, we will not allow you to
read the Bible. In the next, we will break
up these schools of yours, and set up others
where we can narrow the basis of educa-
tion, and insist on conformity with the doc
trlnes of a particular creed"
Do we overstate the demands of the Ro-
man Catholics? If any body supposes so,
let HIM listen to the expressions Of opinion
in the Catholic journals. The Tablet,
paper of authority among Catholics, said
only last Saturday, in reference proposed
compromise, No, gentlemen, that will not
do, and there is no help but in dividing the
public schools, or in abandoning the system
fpublc schools altogether" The Catholic
Telegraph, of Cincinnati, has declared, SIT
will be glorious day for Catholics in this
country when, under the blows of Justice
and morality, our school system will be
shivered to pieces. Until then, modern Pa
ganism will triumph" The Freemans Jour
nal, December II, says: " Let the public
school system go TO where it came from
the devil 60 We ask, says Bishop Lynch,
of New Orleans, "that the public schools be
clcansed from this peace destroying mon
strosity-Bible reading" We cannot use
the common schools" says the Rev. Thomas
Preston, " because they answer not our end,
nor satisfy our conscience" We might mul-
tiply quotations TO the same effect until we
filled this column, but we apprehend that
no Catholic will repudiate the sentiments
comprised in the extracts already given.
1t will he seen that no half measures arc
proposed, and that so far from any anxiety
being shown TO conciliate the Protestants,
or to conduct the controversy in courteous
strain, offensive and violent language is very
freely employed. There never was con-
test so wantonly provoked by the Roman
Church as this one. 1t trusts for success TO
the habit which most people have of max
ing any concession for the sake of avoiding
disputes and quarrels. ''The Catholics"
such persons say, "only want to do what
they like with their own children" The
truth is they want to do much more than
this. They want to break up the educational
system which it has cost so much labor and
thought to construct, and which has already
been productive of such great benefits to the
whole country. We ought never to assent
to this course at the instiration of any sect
whatever. The system ans worked well, it
has satisfied the great mass Of parents, and
to no class has ii done greater service than
to the Roman Catholics themselves. The
children of the naturalized Catholics have
received an education free from all bigoted