Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-10-25

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The Free school System.


desperate adveuiuren Of the Old WoTl
to seek home aud fortune 10 the Ne'
!. The PuriiAns, in banishing theInselv'
\ from the moiherland. Kindred aud lore
associations, to the dreaTy wilderness I
!. New England, hoping they might escaT
a persecution aud avoid the eOBtaminatin
ifuenees Of vice aud iu6deliiy which dali
surrounded their children. were hot M
mindful Of the many blessings that wOul
flow from a wide diffusion ofknowledge j
e their infant State. They rightly imagine
that in basing their civil aud aud religion
: institutions upon the intelligence aud yir
tue Of the masses, they had thereina found
| alton, against which the shafts Of su9er
stition aud despotism--such as they ha'
! often experienced in the Old World
, would be aimed in vain. Hence we en-
that no measures earlier enlisted their at
tentiou, after having secured the demo
cratic form Of government based upon thai
sacred compact which had its origin 10 the
cabin of the Mayiower, than to provide
the means f1r the perpetuation Of those
civil aud religious rights, which they had
made 50 many painful sacrifices to obtain.
Believing as they did, in the pinciple that
10 proportion to the enlightenment Of the
whole people they would securely guard
and cherish every principle aud institution
which had for its object the wei! being of
all they were not long in devising a sys-
TEN Of free schools, similar to those Of the
present day. The wisdom of that egisla.
ton no one will for a moment question.
Perhaps, it would not be claiming too much
in saying, that to no other sourse can the
unexampled progress which many por-
tons of this republic have so rapidly
made during the last quarter of a century
10 the advancement of the arts, sciences
and the development of useful inventions,
be ascribed, but to her system of common
schools. Nor are the advantages of
system like ours, confined solely to the adj
vancement of material prosperity; at
the same time there has unostentiously
been inculcated sound morality, a love
OF patriotism aud legitimate authority, aud
a genuine appreciation of the progressive
ideas Of the age, nowhere else to be found.
As an illustration, we have only to con-
trast the two sections so recently engaged |
in civil war. In the free North. We see
on every hand common schools, academies
aud colleges literally sustained. The FIRST,
under the fostering care of State, and the
after by the patronage of an appreciative
community; the people loyal and prosperous.
On the other hand, we see a land in which
popular schools are hardly known other.
wise than by name; academies and othe,
Institutions of learning sparingly support.
ID, aud the inhabitants, ignorant, vicious,
nd largely disloyal.
Other lands attest TO the benefits of
uch system. The Parliament of Scot
md, with commendible sagacity, more /
han hundred and sixty years ago. FORE $
NV the advantages of such system and i
'isely made provision for the instruction
her youth at the public expense. To.
ay, the proud eminence held by states t
len, philosophers and scholors, in the a
orld OF politics, philosophy and litora.
Ire, may be largely attributed to the /
effects of that measure. The n
zample OF other other modern nations {
ay be cited. In the recent history of Y
russia, perhaps this day in most points. l.
lc foremost nation of modern Europe 5,
G have an additional illustration of the o.
anltod blessings of national system of d
iucation. Her excellent system Of pub. cI
schools has done--or the spirit that has "
own from them-quitc as much toward d
wing herunity and strength at home and lie
huence abroad, as the mastery dipIom- pI
y of Blsmark, or his daring and victori. o,
is contest with the confedercy, in behalf
German unity and power, on the bloody D
I'D of Sadowa. Yet, in no country are "
permmitted to observe the growth and
ppy fruition of such an institution more nc
rlklngly displayed than in the history of ty
II own. In nation of freemep. like a
RS when the intelligence, virtue and S.
terprise of her citizens are made the IN
Sis OF her prosperity; where the wither. pu
effect of hereditary rank are neither be
by law or sanctioned by usage,
barrier between honest merit and to
bile distinction where a persons only tn
Tim to public recognition and trust con- tn
IT. IN his natural fitness and superior Il
affiliations. Here it is the promoter TO-
d conserver of common humanity the en-
'neer of the printing press; the ballot D,
K and popular government; the invisi- vi
bond of brotherhood which assimiates So
d unites the various tongues and races Of