Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-07-25
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nation powers more arbitrary thar
the Gear of Russia ever dared to ex
ercise, they would tremble for theiI
country's fate A more periIoul
piece of legislation than the Kr
klux Bill they could not nave autic
ipated, and could they have had .
voice in the debate which secured
the passage of that bill, they woulc
have counseled first the employment
of peaceful, conilatory measures o.
amnesty, equal rights, and the more
healing medicine of patience, charity
confidence and general education.
know the public mind is divided on
this great question and | leave it to
every citizen TO settle it as best he
may but | most earnestly entreat
him to oppose at every hazard all
encroachment upon the rights of the
several States not warranted by the
constitution, remembering that when
the individuality of state govern
ment is merged in the government
at Washington, this boasted republic
is but another name for monarchy.
And finally, ask if we are real
izing that last highest condition es.
sential to the best government, the
giving to every child in the land a
plain unbiased education We have
struggled through dark days Of rev.
olution, the quicksands of party fac,
ton, and the storms of intestine war.
We have we'll nigh established the
fact of the possibility of self-govern-
ment, All that we are to-day we
owe to our common schools. On
them our system was built, and on
them we must stand or fall. All
ties Of common interest, all compro-
mise, all craftsmanship is powerless
to preserve this republic if the power
and energy of our common school
system is in the least degree crippled
or impaired. Make it sectional or
clannlsh, warp it in the interests of
any political or religious faction,
bend its mighty energies to the fur
therance of any other object than its
legitimate work-the moulding and
training the citizen to the duties of
the state-and you may as we'll
sweep it out of existence, and send
this great and boasted republic like
rudderless ship out on the stormy
sea of anarchy. The attempt to sub
vert the true ends of our educational
system not only merits stern protest
and rebuke, but SO powerful have be-
come the interests arrayed against
| it, that it demands she active oppo-
sition of every right-minded citizen.
We cannot wonder, then, that those
ambitious factions whose only
thought is to perpetuate their power,
that those INSCRIPTIONS sects which
in other days and distant lands have
sought to advance the name of relig-
ion by ignorance, find in this great
republic most promising field for
the establishment of creeds, before
whose claims all national grandeur,
all domestic peace, all individual ex-
cellence, and even liberty itself, are
of little moment. Knowing the pow
er of Uncommon school they craftily
seek to control it or destroy it. We
must guard with vigilant eye all en-
croachment upon the province of our
schools. All our hopes of the future.
all conditions of national life and
continued republican liberty are
wrapt up in the purity and freedom
of our common schools, and that man
is traitor to his country's best in
terests who, under any pretext how
ever plausible, or in the name Of any
church however sacred, seeks TO con-
troll it for any other purpose than the
interests of the state.
Such my friends are some Of the
dangers toward which, like bohidden
shoals, our happy land is drifting.
We have learned by sad experience
that if any crying evils exist in our
nation it is neither wise nor prudent
to cherish the false hope that great
wrongs or threatening dangers can
be remedied or removed without the
most earnest effort on the part of the
people. Could the gifted statesmen
who framed our government, when
they blindly suffered human slavery
to remain principle in our polity,
in the false hope that the wisdom
and humanity of their children would
remove evils with which they have
not courage to grapple, have lifted
| the sombre curtains of the future !;
could they have seen the long years
of desolation and war which their
hesitation entailed upon this land,
think you they would have suffered
through q mistaken caution even the
endorsement Of tacit acquiescence to
that dark system which even then
cursed the colonies
A great national evil is not RENE
died by delay. If dangers threaten
US to-day our safety is in prompt and
earnest action. And this duty is now
pressing upon us. 1t is not in the
zeal of factions, the contests of party,
the wisdom of statesmen, or honest
legislation that we trust, but in the
sovereign people acting upon earnest,
intelligent conviction. If we are
blind to these growing evils, if we
rest secure in the past and shift the
responsibilities and duties Of the hour
upon other sholders, do not think
we can look for long lease of nation
al life. We can only look for a speedy
death, the more melancholy and dis.
graceful because Of the high position
from which we tall. But if we are
true to the principles of republican
liberty, if we check the dangerous
power of public and private corpor-
ations and land monopoly, if we do
not paralyze our industries with OPP
pressive taxation, and above all, if
we keep the powers of the general
government within the limits of the
constitution, recognize the sovereign
ty of this sisterhood of independent
states, and keep our common schools
pure and free from party strife and
religious creed, if we secure universal
amnesty and the practical recog
milton of human equality ana the
Brotherhood of man within our bor-