The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-10-29

College and a Senate chosen by the States.
But there has been a steady growth of
popular government with the expanding in
~telligcnce of the people. In the North and
especially i'll the Northwest, the sense Of
personal independence has been more fully
developed in a legitimate and healthy
growth. The township organization is the
essential expression of this fact. 1t is the
means by which the ~neighborhood secures
its local interests. 1t is the most
convenient expedient with which
III social growth has supplied us for look
ing after our local needs. The schools,
the roads, the care of the poor, the sup
preston Of crime, the care of the public
health, the administration of justice in
petty causes. This is the work of the
neighborhood. 1t cannot look abroad for
help. The means of effecting these impe-
ratiye ends must be in its own keeping,
as certainly as that the daily food Of
each family must be in its own house.
The smaller the local organization, so that
It'll adequate to this work, the better and
cheaper it Willis done. The township is the
ripe result of our growing civilization, and
no people will ever abandon it who
have tried it. Yet this system is de-
nounced by the Conservative leaders of
Virginia as expensive and useless. Gen.
Eppa Hunton, in a speech at Little WASH
ington, R%appahannock county, last week,
denounced it as odious and detestable,"
and charges upon it a vast increase in
taxation. This charge is absurd and
baseless. BY hostile legislation creating
paid officers where none are needed, a
Conservative Legislature has endeavored
10 render the system odious and unpopu-
lar. The Free Schools, Of which it is the
essential guardian, have also been made
the object of the same hostile legislation.
Capitalization has been carried to IN ex-
IRENE, unknown even in despotic govern
ments.
Even the school trustees are appointed
by the State authorities in each township.
The people who send to school and pay the
teacher are not allowed to select their own
directors. They cannot tax themselves to
build a school-house, they have no motive
to special efforts, and nj competitive spirit
is exerted between neighborhoods as in the
North, where every district chooses its
officers and controls its school. Yet this
odious Capitalization is practiced by a
party who cry out against cenfratizat,on
and claim to be the especial champion of
local government. Its purpose is obvious
and is too detestable and wicked to be on
templated with patience. 1t hates the
township system, because it secures power
in the hands of the public to regulate their
own concerns. The local management of
the township dethrones the old aristocratic
order, and educates the people to self-gov-
eminent. 1t brings the schools down to
the homes Of the poor, and enables the
child of the day-laborer to compete with
the heir of the great planter, and the rich
banker, for the prizes of life. 1t strikes a
blow at venerated privilege by making the
people conscious of their power. For this
the Township is condemned, and ceaseless
war waged upon 1t by men who belong to
that old order that has cursed Virginia for
a hundred years; because of the hopes
and opportunities that it brings to the poor;
because ofthe protection that it affords from
the centralized ~despotism of the State ;
because it as the essential foundation ofte
Free School; it is hated. belied and loaded
with reproach by the aristocratic pretend
ers, whose power it threatens to destroy.
But the people are fast learning the
truth. They look upon their State as
poor and desolate, not by war mainly,
but by the sadder impoverishment Of
decay and see their children growns
or still growing, up into helpless illiteracy.
They cannot be deceived longer. They
ipiu cldagto the Free School, and they viii
hare the toDhship system as its essential ac-
compartment. They will strip off the
rags and filth which Anticipated Conserve
tism has tried to degrade these fair children
of Civilization, and put on the white
array of their approval. and bid them 60
forth to the great work of Education and So
cial Regeneration, for which the whole land
is signing.