Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-05-23
F rom the Baltimore Sun.
Civil Rights and the Public Schools.

In The debate Ia the Senu,u on Wednes-
day, on the civil rights bill, Senator Thur
man. Ohio, who pointed out at some length |
and with his usual ability, constitutional
objections to the bill, said sit did not com
mend itself, he was satisfied, 20 at loast one
nail oil those who would vote lOf 1t, and the |
only object OF its passage was 10 retain the
eight hundred thousand negro votes which |
were virtually essential TO the Republican !
party He predicted that the passage OF
the bill would result IN destroying the en- |
tire common school system OF the South, |
whereby one million colored children III
that section would be deprived of educa-
ton.
There can be no donbt among OBSERVING
AMI rejecting men that Senator Thurman
is right when he says that not one-Ealf OF
| those who Will vote for this bill secretly ap-
prove 1t. Though he expresses this init
nation in temperate terms 1t conveys u
| rebuke TO the advocates of this measure, the
| force and truth Of which must be painfully
| felt by them, un less they are bereit of all
sensibility. The significance OF the state
| meDt Is that they are willing to do great
| mischief for personal and political ends.
| They are not such imbeciles as to believe
| That tho hill ought to pass IN its present
! shape. While such sentimental theorists
| ana mere men of books Summer might
| honestly indulge such an illusion it Is not
| to he supposed for a moment that the active
| and practical men of affairs in the Republi-
| can party dream of such Jolly. We should
| be the last TO accu 80 them ofsuch ignorance
| as not 10 know better, and not to under
stand thoroughly the impractlcability Of
such an enterprise, and the mischIevous-
ness or the attempt. There can then be no
assignable motive for their course, but the
venal, personal and political aims which
have actuated their policy in South Caro-
lima, Louisiana and other reconstructed
States The most intelligent coored men,
even, OF The South are grateful for the ad-
vantsges which they already enjoy especial
ly IN regard to opportunities of education
and are alive to the perils with which these
ast arc threatened by the passage of this
bill. The colored pastor of the Third Street
Methodist Church, in Richmond. took a
practical view of tho owl right, I'LL In a
late address to his congregation. He said
| "The moment such All enactment appears
| on the statute book the public school sys-
, tenn in the South Will receive a blow that
| Will cause It's death, and no power this side
oil heaven can lntuse life into Its dead car
cass. Then who Will Da the losers, the
blacks or the whites? In Virginia
there are eighty thousand colored children
attending the public schools. What will
bacome of them?''
| Ihis colored mans congregation appeared we'll
satisfied with his position upon the question. II
they did not endorse il, they have not thought
proper to reprimand him for his opiuions. Some
OF the coiored politicians OF Richmond however
look oilense at 1t, and meeting was held few
days ago to announce their views IN favor of the
i.,N,' siShts bill, of which, perbpps, they know
little, though 1t seems to have beeu thought prop
|, er to make no attack On the colored pastor
Senator Brownlow of Tennessee who was sc
unceremoniousy handled by the late coored con
vention at Nashville, on account OF his opposition
| TO mixed schools has published a long letter. IL
which he carries the war into Africa, and assail:
his sssallants with character site rgor. In regarc
to mixed schools he tells the colored people tha
in demanding the co-education of the races thel
are pursuing an abstraction. He says
"fhus the colored convention have reached ou
alter an abstraction the civil right to mxe6
schools, or as penalty of the failure of III,
whites to accede their demand the 'ciyil right t
% tear up and destroy, for au indefinite period th
beneicient and common school system OF Tennes
see. And this, too, when they themselves pro
claim that under the law, as it is, they have eQua
| facilities with The whites for education and do no
10 need it,
lie likens this abstraction" to tiat OF th
southern people before the war when demandn!
their Lights IN the territories. The latter lost
says he, all their real rights by pursuing thl
shadow-and so the colored people will lose tn
public schools by insisting that there shall be &C
education.
From all parts OF the South the indications i
regard TO the injurious effects which appre
hended to the public school system from the pa.
% sage OF the civil rights bill are the same as thos
which Senator Brosnlow has uttered i'll regard
Tennessee The public school systems In til
southern States cannot survive the enactment
that law.
20 In Maryland we have an excellent public schoI
IA. system, the labor OF years, supported by taxatio
-, upon our people, and which has worked well iC
:, both whites aud blacks. In the event of the pa
sage OF the civil rights bill with the feature Ill
posing mixed schools, our Maryland system, liz
that IN other States, may be menaced, though
K. may become the duty Of its fIendS, believing Il
bill 10 be unconstitutional To make case an
i carry IL to the hiedcr courts and decide the que
]. ton OF constiutiouaiity, rather than overthro
The public schools ut once, catastrophe whiI
on none can think OF with composura except thot
er who do not care what institutions destroye
u OF what ruin is worked, that they can kee
he themselves aud theIr party IN power aud place.