Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-02-11
Education and Liberty.

That the education Of the people is essen
tal to the preservation Of civil and religious
liberty, is an axiom in modern political
philosophy. To leave apeope uninstructed,
or to allow the successive generations to
come on to the stage Of life without intel.
ligencc and mental culture, and, at the same
time, to put political power into their hands,
is to invite such storms and contests as will
surely wreck the State. In the light Of such
a principle, compulsory education would
seem to be necessity. For the ignorant
do not care for intelligence, and ambitious
political and religious sohemers do not wish
to have it impaired. It is desirable, there.
fore, in order to keep the government Of
free country from falling into the hands Of
the latter class, TO educate, 30 far as posi-
bic, the former.
Nor is sectarian education adequate to
the necessities of free state, or to the
preservation ofpublic liberty. 1t naturally
tends to deprive a people Of the influence
that common, universal education in the
public schools, would have in promoting the
unity, the harmony and the greatness of
nation. Parochial and sectarian education
is always partial, incomplete, and prejudi-
cial Of political interests. The voice Of
history makes the most earnest protest
against it. Its fruits have always con.
demned it. Itproduccs prejudiccs, narrow,
mean rivalrics and animosities, and inter-
feres with the peace and harmony, and con-
scquenty, with the prosperity and growth
Of a people. Large masses Of dangerous
ignorance are its invariable result. BE.
sides, sectarian education tends to build
up the influence and power Of the clergy.
1t would throw an immense and unfair 20.
litical power into their hands. And history
gives the most significant protest against
putting unequal AMI large power into the
hands of any class Of men. No matter what
their virtue or excellence, it will corrupt
them, and they will use it unjusty and
wickedly II makes no difference TO what
church they belong, whether Catholic or
Protestant, the possession Of undue and ex.
cessivc political power is corrupting and
cxasperating. The clergy Of any church
have power enough aside from the control
which the privilege Of educating or not cd
ucating the people would give them. To
grant them the additional power of secta-
rian education, at the public expense, would
be fatal to justice and equal rights and pop
ular liberty. 1t would put the nation under
control Of some church or other, than which
nothing can be more pcriIous either to the
church or to the nation.
In free State, therefore, public schools,
kept at the public cost, open for all, and
made compulsory on all, would seem to be
necessary to its preservation and to its
greatness That such schools are secular
and not religious, is no ground Of objection
to them. A secular school controlled and
maintained by the State, is in no sense ir-
religious. Religion is not taught in our
schools, and yet the schools are not unfavor-
able to morality and pure religion. They
Interfere with no popularity of denomina.
tional feeling or principle, and still they
tend to increase the force Of the moral vir-
tues and the power of religious principles
in the members of all the religious demon.
nations. A good education in secular
school never impairs the virtue or strength
of religion anywhere. There is no branch
Of instruction in our secular schools that
has any tendency to corrupt the moral
sense Of children. The influence they ex.
ert over the scholars is good, morally and
intellectually. Though now and then there
are bad things in them-though now and
then bad men control them or graduate
from them, the results and influences OIL
these schools are immeasurably good, ant
they tend to produce a class Of men ant
women who are not simply " clever devils,
but are equal to all the demands and dutie
Of social and public life.
The public schools do not, of course, d.
everything for q man. There are additions
instructions required. Moral and religious
teachers must come in to supplement the les
sons Of the secular education, in order +
train the pupils in other and higher things
but the effect Of the schools, on the whole, i
toproduce moral and intelligent people;
people capable Of caring for and perpetu
ating the principles and forms of popula
and free government. The effect Of then
Is to promote personal independence 0
thought. And when men begin to think
even in the narrowest circle, they will b
likely to think out into largo regions @
truth. 1t is to promote personal and pub
lie liberty, and therefore, the prosperity, tn
vigor, the wealth and the power Of the State
1t would be difficult to devise n NOR
eiiectual means Of general culture than GU
common schools, or one more fruitful of goo,
results. But as a system, it is yet in it
infancy. The necessity of the State for in
telligent and able men, for an inteligen
and virtuous and liberty loving people, will
constantly compel us to add to the exten
and the training and the efficiency of tn
system. The tendency will and must be
to add more and more to the course of stu
dies, to establish schools and universities
at which the aspiring scholar can complet
his education to the utmost limit, and 4
introduce something like the Austrian an,
German course. The idea is, that the prop
erty Of the nation should pay for the edu
cation of the nation, for it is on the basi
Of intelligence that wealth rests secure
that public virtue and order are preserved
But the public school system will neccs
sarily grow, however, slowly. 1t will ad
vance as mems ideas and exigencies re
quire 1t will keep adding to itself by tn