New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-20

and temporarily fix their compensation, and
to make the necessary regulations for the
government of the school, the admission of
pupils, &c. 1t opens the door to all possess
ing requisite qualifications without regard to
locality or other distinction, the only limta-
tons being that no sectarian character shall
be given to the school nor any exclusive
regulations adopted.
The third section provides that the expenses
of maintaining and establishing the normal
school, shall, until otherwise provided by
aw, be paid jointly from the colored school
und and the fund for public schools. No
lactual appropriation is therefore made in the
bill for any purpose.
The proposed school may be considered an
experimental one, to be crystalized into per-
manance es its value and Importance shall be
demonstrated by its management and sue
cess, and rs the means shall be provided by
subsequen: legislation.
The school system Of this District, though
far in advance of former years, and, as be-
lieve, constantly improving, is still behind
that of Northern and Eastern communities
greatly behind the necessities of the District,
and very much short of that model which the
national capital should afford.
The proper, thorough, systematic, profess
sional training of teachers is az essential to
good common schools as good common
schools are essential to public enlightenment
and the public welfare.
We have now no training school for the
proper education of teachers, no model school,
for their proper familiarization with the best
methods of imparting instruction, no public
high school in which the children of the peO-
pie may find the paths of higher mental
culture.
One high and normal school is not the edu-
cational ultimatum of this District, but it
will SO far fill an existing void as to more
nearly complete the outlines of our school
system, which may one day he rounded into
more perfect form, and will improve and
elevate the standard of our common schools,
atiOrding an Indictment to intellectual inn
provement and 4 reward for progressive APP
plication, stimulating the aspirations and
opening new fields for the ambition and use
iulness of the youth of the District.
No inducement which any town or city can
offer to new residents is so great or so at
tractive as good schools for their children.
The District of Columbia is to become a great
| city, not so much from development within
ITSELF as from the resident aggregation of
people from all parts of the Union at the ma
tiOnal capital. The exclusive ideas Of South
ern communities which repealed all persons
| not fortunate or unfortunate enough TO have
| been born within their borders, have largely
| given way in this District, to that broader and
more generous spirit which has created an
empire in the West within the last thirty
| years.
At the recent convention in Philadelphia a
delegate from Illinois congratulated himself
on the circumstance that but one member out
of his whole delegation was born in that
State. That was the Western idea. Con-
trast it with the old slave State idea of eXclu-
siveness. Contrast also the results of the
two ideas, and note the rapid growth, the
intellectual activity, the moral force, the ma
terial prosperity of the imperial free State,
where the newcomer is welcomed with open
arms.
SO here, the greatness, the wealth, the
power of the future city will be found in the
freedom of the coming, the welcome of the
reception, and the inducements to come, of
the representatives of all sections of our
common country. Here they are coming
with just that frequency with which we find
them room and place, and satisfy their seek
ings. Here they have come and are coming
men and women of all sections and nation
alities and races and religions. Our local in
stitutions should be as broad as the continent
from which we draw our population. Our
schools should be open to the children of all
who are here or who may come, and there
should be room for all. No sectiOnalsm
should hinder, no class discrimination should
degrade, any child of the Republic, nor should
those of any faith be repealed in seeking adj
; mission to our schools.
1t was with these views and upon this
plan that l introduced the joint resolution
which | have now moved as a substitute for
the bill as reported to the House. If, as
some would think, the time has not yet
come when existing distinctions of class and
race may be removed from our common
schools, it is certainly too late to re-enact
such distinctions in new organizations which
may be established. 1t is also far too late
to refuse to all equal chances for competition
in cases where merit is the only test of sue
cess.
The colored men and women Of America
are American citizens, entitled to all the
rights, endowed by fundamental law with all
the rightful privileges of other citizens, and
to ever and increasingly strive to perpetuate
a wretched conventional discrimination, en-
gendered by their oppressors for the purposes
of oppression, to seek to continue to impose
upon them the cruel indignities of an enforced
and now causeless debasement, is to degrade
that citizenship and to mock its immunities,
and is to abuse and insult human nature
itself.
If the colored child has hitherto been
taught submission and inferiority, it should
now be taught independence and equality.
If the colored girl has hitherto been made to
| lcti the SenSc Oi Siitillc lltltllllS nST CHECK
and crushing her heart at the knowledge of
her race and color, she should now, be pro-
tected in the sacredness of her womanhood
and shielded by that self-respect which an
equal education imparts equally to ALL
There is no essential difference among the
men and women of the world. The same
air breathes upon all, the same sustenance
gives life to all, the same calamties belali
them all. The heart beats and breaks under
a dark skin the same as beneath white one,
and hope, ambition, joy, despair, are not the
emotions of one race or class only, they be-
long to all alike, and constitute to all the
happiness or the misery of existence.
There are colored young ladies in this Dis
trict as aspiring andas sensitive as any others !;
in intelligence and native worth and refine
ment the peer of any in corresponding con-
dition of life. l want these girls to have the
same opportunities of mental discipline, to
have the same chances of personal useful
ness, to receive the same decencies of social
respect which the community owes to all.
And if there be any difference in the needs
of any class of our people, it is the need Of
greater number Of qualified teachers for that
large class whom We have heretofore wick
eddy denied reasonable opportunities of edu-