The semi-weekly Republican. (St. Francisville, La.) 1872-1872, 1872-03-22

tGiI they could endure. therefore,
il they had never spent an hour be-
fore thinking upon the subject, they
now, naturally, cast about them for
some means Of activity engaging
their whilst, at the same
time, doingl.good.
Other men, however, have made
the cause Of education their care and
study for a lifetime. Among these
latter was the ]ste THApDEUs STEVENS
properly styled " The Father Of
the Common School system Of Penn
sylvania." He did more to estab-
fish free schools in that Common
wealth, the home Of his adoption,
than did any other score Of men of
his day and generation. The schools
could only he put into being and
kept in existence by taxing tie pee
pie. Anything intended to increase
the burtbens Of taxation upon the
Woodworking farmers, however good
in itself, was calculated to render its
author very unpopular This, how
ever, gave him no cause for alarm
lie WAS, himself, among the large
taxpayers, if not the very largest, in
the County which lie represented in
the Assembly. He Was bachelor
and had no ycang persons about
him who conld be benefited by the
schools I; while nearly all Of the fer
mers who complained, most loudly,
We're the heads OF large families Of
nnt'1tored cbi!lFcn--sadly needing
The benefits arising from liberal
plan Of education.
During IL long public career,
Mr.. Stevens made a number OF mis-
takes, us might have been expected
in o mere mortal that Of his fight
upon the ancient orders of Free
masons being inexcusable and Who'll
~ unnecessary but on the subject
Of nuseetarian frce-achools lie was
sound, and for that we know linn.
While the school question was under
consideration, before tie lawmakers
Of Pennsylvania, miserable petit
logger representing one OF the noun
tain counties in TIE Legislature,
sought to make capital among the
taxpayers OF his section for himself
and in Mr.. Stevens district against
him, by doaounoing the measure in
81 long, windy speech, closing in the
following language "This is a
scheme Of robbery proposed to be
perpotratea upon the poor down-tEod-
den, tax-rislacn people of whom
your humble servant is one" He
was no socucv seated than MI. Ste
VEINS arose and spiked bis Gun in the
following scatcl4ing manner -
F" l[r; Speaker! I have been cred
IDLY informed That the member OF
this House who has just taken his
scat, after getting rid Of his doleful
lamantation, is q married man and
the father Of eleven ragged children.
The question naturally arose and I
asked it, Are these children made
to do without hats and shoes on ac-
count Of tue large Sums Of money
paid out by their father fol- taxes =?
To which my informant replied /:
"The books OF the tax-coliectors, for
the last twenty years, show that the
father Of these miserably neglected
children, who might become useful
citizens, if they had some person to
take proper care Of them, or if the
State assumes their education, has
paid, on an average, twenty-five cents
per anne,7n!" This silenced that
sort of attack, as it was well-known
to all the members that Mr.. Stevens
paid hundreds of dollars in taxes,
annually, and was willing to be tax
ed more heavily than ever, in order
to put the means into the Treasury
with which to enable the State to
educate the children OF other people;
having none Of his own to send to
school
The more unselish a man becomes
the more he desires the welfare of the