Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-06
SECTARI4N SCHOOLS,


SECTARLAN SCHOOLS,
At large recent reform meeting held in
New York, which was addressed by some
of the leading politicians, business men.
and clergymen of the city, Henry Ward
Beecher spoke against the tax bill then
pending in the legislature affecting the
schools of New York. As the bill was in
the Roman Catholic interest, which is
aiming to destroy the public schools, his
remarks turned upon sectarianism in the
common schools, as well as upon their
general value and management. Planting
himself upon the ground that there can be
no democratic-republican government
without intelligence, he asserted that it
became the solemn duty of the State to
educate the people in order to perpetuate
itself. This common intelligence cannot
be diffuscd through sectarian schools.
Disclaiming any sectarian preference he
contended for the making of the common
schools such that all classes and seets. the
Protestant, will patronize them and re-
ceive their benefits We copy portion
of his remarks.
plead for the common peoples sake, from
among whom sprang, and to whom l have
always belonged, with the warmest sympa-
thies ,as distinguished from the great sectarian
or religious part of the community. l plead
for the common public schools, without sec
tartan schools, for the sake of the great mas
SEES of the community, who most need schools
and least can furnish them themselves, and
will be most cheated when the public funds
are distributed by any sectarian rule. APP
plause. There are great many other con-
siderations.
hold there is nothing more important in a
democratic, republican community than getting
the circulation easy and free. You will always
have classes, but you must not have classes,
hardened into permanence. Freedom re-
quires that must have every opportunity to
be just as tall as can grow. Freedom re-
quires that l must swing my arm as like,
and must develop all the legitimate faculties
that God has given to me; and if there is a
man that is weaker than /, 90 above him.
That is democratic. Freedom requires that
every individual man should have the right
to use all the energies God gave him as he
thinks fit, provided he directs them in prop
er channel, and violates no human or divine
laws. That is democratic 1t means taking
the poer boy by the hand, and letting him go
up as high as his talents will admit Let
every man stand on that, and hold this will
classify society, and it's very tendencies are
to keep these classes together. They all form
and dissolve in every generation. Those thai
are able rise to the top and become natura
leaders, and those that are not able sink to
their proper level at the bottom. No man ha
right to undertake to get his boy position
which he can't maiRtain. If his boy wants tC
grow up to that he is justified in the purpose
but his father has no right to keep him in tina
class and to make it conventional ant
privileged class in the community. We wan
therefore, that there should be perfect ease
so that those at the at the bottom that have
got anything in them shall rise easily an,
naturally without any obstruction and thos'
at the top shall sink easily and naturally tt
the bottom. [Applause.
The common school is one of those grea
engines by which this common feeling of thu
community-this brotherhood feeling-is t.
be maintained. For we hold that every MAJ
has right to shoot up and go as high as liz
pleases without embarrassment, provided he
goes honorably. We hold, ON the other hanC
that tits good and wholesome that his children
where he started, and not only should they
do that, but they should feel that their only
friends are not merely those that are their
brothers. We want to get up a feeling OF
manhood and brotherhood, up and down from
side to side throughout the whole community.
would make your public schools so that
every mans sons, lawyers, doctors or minis
ters, shall have to sit down side by side with
the blacksmith's son, and the laborer's son.
and the coalheayers son. Your boys, old
gentleman with the gold-rmmed spectacles
yonder, are not bit better, and might side
by side with your washerwoman's boy Tap
plauseJ, and it is humanizing, and prepare,
them for good citizenship. 1t is best fol
your boys that they should not get airy no
tons into their heads; it is best for the chill
dren of the rich men to associate with tn,
children Of the poor, to know that they ar,
all bone of one bone and flesh of one flesh
and generation of voters which has beer
educated in the common schools is not likel
to foment discord and seek relief for injury
real or supposed, at the end of the dagger
Put the whole population through these com
mon schools, and you will go far to promot
a common veal, and that is what We special
7 w need-a feeling Of brotherhood, citizenshi
and common humanity. Now you must max
your common schools so good that no othe
school can live in the neighborhood. lAI
plause. If you make your common school
In is Instruction, so perfect IN Its whole al
paratus, so wise that no private enterprls
can equal IL, then, perforce you viii draw
the children of the rich and prosperous. Thl