The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-30

ernuents of the South, so eloquently deplcteu
by the gentleman from Indiana, Mr.. Voor-
bees and the gentleman from Kentucky, MI
Beckl was due to the fact that, in reconstruct
ing those States, you had based their govern
ments upon their ignorance. Inc cri.iclsn.
Just in part. You did, Repubilcan st .ae:
in reconstructing those States, iounq thel Sos- L
ernments upon their ignorance You eoud
not do otherwise. The education of those
States had proved itself unfit to govern. Those
States had proved the memorable truth, that
tyranny Of one class over another is bad and
degrading to both. What we have to say, |
however, is not that the. event has shown |
that ignorance is fitted to govern the State, |
but only that the event has shown that the |
ignorant slave is less injured and degraded by |
the relation than the educated tyrant. The
mistake you made was this; that you failed to
see that the power to establish government
on the will of the whole people, which you as
serted, was in the nature of things mseparable
from the power to require the education OF
the whole people. And the Repubhcan
statesmen at the close of the war are only to
be reproached in regard to their dealing
with the South with the fact that this truth
dawned slowly on their minds, or that they,
failed altogether to see it. You thought II
YOU wrote on a paper, "Let the whole peo-
pie govern - you thought if you wrote on
parchment, "Let the black man vote, ana
stamped it with a seal and put it away IN tne
archives of the State Department, and had IL
proclaimed by the President, you had done
something. But you failed to remember that
the Government you had created would be a
reproach to the principle of democracy itself
miles, Won added, 'sBut when the black man
votes he shall have secured to him the knowl-
edge how to vote.' You thought in the
precedents of this Government that the pow
ers of the national Government, and the dis
hafxx 81
States, were to be ascertained by seeing what
particular machine had been used heretofore
in their accomplishment, and not by looking
to see what end has the national Government
the right to accomplish or to guaranty.
But your offense toward the South is light
compared with that of your Democratic oppo-
nents With what hatred, what bitter and
relentless hatred, has the Democratic party
pursued these unhappy States of the South!
How has that party sought to fasten upon
that beautiful and unfortunate section of our
land everything that degrades mankind! Slav-
cry, poverty, crime, disorder, ignorance, nave
in turn found in that party efficient and ac-
tive allies. When measures to redress these
are proposed in Congress, Democracy clamors
that they should be left to theStates; when pro-
posed to the States, it clamors that they should
be left to counties or localities. In the county
or locality they are left by that party to the ku
Klux Khan, who burn the school-house and
see to-day, under the rule of that party, with a
school system in but twenty-five or twenty
three out of ninety-one counties, and the school
system, although adopted by a vote of the peo-
pie, not actually put in force in all those. In
that State, Mr.. Speaker have from the most
trustworthy information-there can be found
county after county in which there has not been
a child at school for twelve months, and will
not be child at school for twelve months to 5
come. .iitihG eit a.fFa -si4nay8, .il- .,
The gentleman from Kentucky Mr. Beck
the other day spoke eloquently and reproachful-
ly of the debt which he said had been piled up
in the southern States under Republican mis-
rule. 1t is doubtless great wrong wastefully
to impose a burden of debt on the energies of a
State, but how trifling compared with crushing
out the intellect of people by ignorance. t L
think could refer that gentleman to a State
where the Democratic rule has been uninter-
rupted for years. Throughout all the period of
the war, throughout all the period of recon
struction, the Democratic rule in Kentucky has
been undisturbed. Now, in Kentucky there is
white native population OF ,035, 600 OF these
there are, over ten years of age, 724 742; and of
that number-I speak now of the white native
population, not observation-disclosures cannot read or
write 1913, 846-native whites over the age of ten
years. ~ ID H.t-i3id flil.Y5sr ON -H -7s.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, in taking the census they
take the statement of the man inquired of
whether he can read and write. In large
number OF instances the pride of the ignorant
person leads to false answer. In all instances
recognize G few characters makes the claim.
1t is well settled fact in educational Statistics
never disputed, that at least thirty per cent.
should be added to that census number to get
at the actual number of those who are practi-
cally illiterate for all purposes of acquiring in
formation by reading, or using writing as
means of communicating with others. Adding
that thirty per cent. you have 251, 999-nore
than one third of the entire white native popu
lation of Kentucky who are practically Hitter
ate. ''i'.l'N F'itA .iV' l't4 fi Dali n.a
Universal education, too, more than all other
agencies, produces the habit of exercising po-
htical functions in large numbers of men. The
citizen who understands the history, the poll
tics the interests of the State, honorably as
pires to take his share in turn in its admins
tration; and you have in every State where the
the people are universally educated large num-
bers of persons fit for and aspiring to hold
political office. Now, what is the effect of
that? Why, in every State where that exists
you have one hundred men exercising State for
every one that exercises national functions
City officers, county officers, school district
officers, members and officers of the State
Legislature, outnumber as one hundred to one
the national officers; that is, persons charged
with national political power. What is the re-
suit? You have these men close to the people,
carrying on their political functions among the
people, constantly in contact with them, seek
ing all the time to promote the dignity, the inn
portance, and the power of the State offices
which they hold against men removed from the
pcOplc mere III w dSuluSGOu al u Instance SEEK
ing the dignity and Importance of the national
office. Under system of universal education
all the powers and forces are centrifugal and
not centripetal. D .5& l9Atiil lli
Now, ask the consideration of members on
both sides Of the House whether in the imme-
date future, in the disturbed and angry period
which possibly may be upon us, they prefer to
trust to constitutional restraint TO protect the
rights of their States which they value, or
whether they will trust the protection of those
rights to the powers which education plants in
the heart, in the brain, in the conscience of the
entire people i.tt e+itejl 1880,
Mr.. Speaker, 1 have studied from youth up
this admirable division of powers between the
States and the nation. l have had some per-
sonal reasons to inform myself of the history
of its introduction, and to be proud of the
statesmen to whom, by the declaration of one
of the ablest of Southern statesmen, that fea-
ture of our Constitution is largely due. de-
clare with a clear conscience that / believe the
support of a system of free, universal educa-
ton, by the Democratic party of this House,
and by their influence in the States which they
control in the country, would remove forever
and at once all possibility of the encroachments
OF the national Government which they pre-
tend to fear LIT your constituents understand
their rights, if they have the education which
enables them to explain and assert them, if |
they have wealth of inventive power the power
OF earning large wages which education brings,
the strength in war, the wealth in peace, the
power over the reason of other men; if they
have the habit of welding State powers which
knowledge brings, are you afraid that any GEN.
trail power welded five hundred or one thous-
and miles away will ever deprive these men of
their cherished rights? II
Now, Mr.. Speaker, this bill seeks this end.
avoiding carefully all exercise of power which
may seem to any person at all questionable
The principle upon which it is based has been
eloquently stated by the able gentleman from
Mississippi, Mr.. Perez, the chairman of the
Committee on Education and Labor. and ONLY
repeat this idea, which is his, in order that nv
own statement of the bill may be complete. 1t
is based upon this principle, deeply seated in
hearts of the American people, that the public
lands OF the nation are the patrimony Of the
people: Every laboring man who looks anxi-
ousy forward to the future, who thinks what
the future has in store for himself and children.
comforts himself with the knowledge that there
is in the West, in the Northwest, with stimu-
liant climate and fertile soil, with infinite coal
and iron below, and infinite corn fields above. a
vast region where his children and his chldren's
children may have for themselves home and
freehold. These two ideas are inseparably as
ISOLATED: the dignity of American labor, and
the value of American territory. Now, sir, as
we are from time to time disposing of these
vast lands, there is danger that this vast patri-
mony of the people will be frittered away. |
They are not wasted, of course, when they go |
for the homestead of the settler We propose
that the proceeds of those lands shall be, in the
language of the first section of the BILL forever
consecrated to the education of the people
When long after those lands are covered with
wealthy populous, free, intelligent States, this
fund, which your wisdom has set apart for that |
purpose, will be increasing and growing-a
fountain of perpetual wealth and a fountain of |
perpetual liberty to your children. fr.lf |
Now, Mr.. Speaker, L wish to spend q little |
TINA in pOintinu autt tn tba