Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1871-03-08

and his dearest right. Tho govern
mont which, BY a compulsory sytiem
Of education, absclvcs him from this
duty and dcprives him Of this right
would be simply the worst Of dcspots
isms that ever degraded and crushed
out manhood
If the Government, then, cannot,
without violating tho most sacred Of
personal rights, confer the good cdu-
cation in manners, arts, and science,
which the photographer declares to
bc important, how can il impart tho
religious education which, according
to the same authority, is indispensi-
bic When Catholics, Protcstants,
Jews and Pagans can agree upon a
universal religion, it will perhaps bo
practicablofor government, Of which,
religious freedom is a fundamental
principle, to undertake national COM
pusory system Of education.
We appreciate the Importance and
dcsirableness of universal education.
The greatest obstacle TO it-as society
is constructed now, and will continue
to be until the millenium--is in the
circumstances of the poorer classes.
With them the Woodworking strug-
gle with want commences at the very
age when the mind first becomes sus-
ceplibe Of intellectual culture, and
the necessity for incessant physical
exertion leaves them no leisure for
the exercises OF the school-room. If
their daily toll is RENTED the penalty
is starvation. How can government
make their education compulsory with.
out providing for their subsistchte p
II the head Of family, either through
misfortune, disease, or the indulgence
of vicious habits, is reduced TO such
poverty that the children must labor,
from the very earliest age at which
they are capable of labor, for their
daily bread, how are such children to
be embraced in the national scheme
of education, except by setting aside
the guardianship of tho parent, and
adopting them as the wards Of the
nation? In such case very extensive
national nurseries and boarding houses
would be the inevitable adjuncts Of the
national schools. Tho children, thus
adopted, would have to be maintained
and instructed at the public expense,
until their understandings were en-
lightened, their tempers corrected, and
their manners and hibits formed-in
fine, during the whole period of their
adolescence for nothing less, IN tho
language of the great champion of tho
scheme, would insure thoir progress
towards that completeness OF culture
which American citizenship requires"
1t ia, therefore, plain that the com
pulsory system could be but partial in
its operations. The very class il is
desired to benefit is beyond its reach,
while the classes that could be brought
within its operations would only be
injuriousiy affected, by its interference
with their natural and inalienable
rights and most sacred duties.
We have sketched but few of the
repulsive features of this utopian rad
ical scheme Of compulsory education.
Its establishment would contribute
nothing to the existing means for the
enlightenment of The people, but would
assuredly add to theoppressive burthen
of their taxation, while greatly in
creasing the power and patronage of
the Federal Government, already
dangerous TO our liberties. 1t would
be the elimination of that antirepub.
lican policy, which having by fraud
and violence usurped the rights of the
States, now seeks to abolish the most
sacred ofporsonal rights in the furth-
erance of its iniquitous plan of consoli.
dation.-The Paper.