The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1875-12-09
THE MESSAGE.
The School Question Discussed.
Our Relations with Spain.
The Condition Of Cuba.
The School Question Discussed.
Our Relations with Spain.
The Condition Of Cuba.
To The Senate and House of Representatives ::

To the &ndte and House OF Representatives
On submitting my seventh annual
message to Congress, in this centennial
year of our national existence as free
and Independent people, it affords me
great pleasure to recur to the advance
ment that has been made from the time
of the colonies, one hundred years ago
We were then people numbering three
millions; now we number more thar
ferty millions Their industries were
confined almost exclusively to the
tillage of the soil; now, manufacture:
apsorb much of the labor of the country
Our liberties remain unimpaired. The
bondsmen have been freed from slavery
We have become possessed of the respect
if not the friendship of all civilized na-
tions. Our progress has been great. In
all the arts, in science, commerce, navi.
cation, mining, mechanics, law and in
general education, the progress is like
wise encouraging. Our thirteen States
have become thirty-eight, including
Colorado, which has taken the
steps to become a State, and
eight territories, including the Indian
Territory and Alaska, and excluding
Colorado and Nebraska territories, ex.
tending from the Atlantic to the Pacific
On the south, we have extended to the
Gulf of Mexico, and on the west, from
the Mississippi to the Pacific. One hun
dred years ago the cotton gin, the steam
ship, the railroad, the telegraph, the
. reaping, sewing and modern printing
machines, and numerous other inven-
tions of scarcely less value to our bust
ness and happiness, were entirely un-
known at home and abroad.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.
From the fall of Adam for his trans
gression to the present day no nation has
ever been free from threatened dangers
to its prosperity and happiness. We
should look to the dangers threatening
us, and remedy them so far as lies in our
power. We are Republic whereof one
man is as good as another before the
law. Under such form of government
it is of the greatest Importance that all
should be possessed of education and in
telligence enough to cast vote with a
right understanding of its meaning.
A large association of ignorant men
can not for any considerable peSiod op-
pose successful resistance to tyranny
as oppression from tie educated few will
inevitably sink into acquiesence to the
will of intelligence, whether directed by
the demag sgues or by priestcraft. Hence
the education of the mass becomes of the
inst necessity for the preservation ofour
institutions. They are worth preserving,
because they have secured the greatest
good to the greatest proportion of the
population of any form of government
yet devised. ALI other forms of govern
ment approach it just in proportion to
the general diffusion of education and
independence of thought and action.
PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND
MENT.
AS a primary step, therefore, to our
advancement in all that has marked
our progress in the past century, sug-
gest for your earnest consideration, and
most earnestly recommend it, that con-
stltutional amendment be submitted to
the Legislatures of the several States for
ratification, making it the duty of each
of the several States to establish and
forever maintain free. public schools
adequate to the education of all the
children, in the rudimentary branches,
within their respective limits, irrespect-
i've of sex, color, birthplace or religions,
forbidding the teaching in said schools
OF religion, atheistic or pagan, and pro-
hibiting the granting of any school
funds, or school taxes, or any part there
of, either by legislative, municipal, OF
other authority, for the benefit of any
other object of any nature or kind what
ever.
ACCUMULATION OF UNTAXED CHURCH
PROPERTY AN EVIL.
In connection with this important
question would also call your attention
to the importance of correcting an evil
that, If permitted to con tinue, will prob
ably lead to great trouble in our land
before the close of the nineteenth CEN
tury. 1t is the accumulation of vast
amounts of untaxed church property of
the United States which paid no tax,
municipal or State, amounting to about
$50, 600, 900.
In l776 manufactures scarcely existed
even in name, in this vast territory in
1870 more than two millions of persons
were employed in manufactures, pro-
ducing more than s., 100, 0,0O0,OO0 of pro-
duce In amount annually, nearly equal
to our national debt. From nearly the
whole OF the population of 1776 being
engaged IN the one occupation of agri-
culture, In 1870 so numerous and diver
sihed had become the occupations of our
people that less than six millions. out of
forty millions, were SO engaged. The
extraordinary effect produced in our
country by resort to such occupations
has built market for the products of
fertile lands distant frem the seaboard
and the markets of the world. The
American system of working various and
extensive manufactures, next to the plow
and the pasture, and adding connecting
railroads and steamboats,, has produced
IN our distant country result not equal
ed by the intelligent parts of other ma
tlons. The ingenuity and skill of
American mechanics have been demon
strated.
In 1860 the amount had doubled. In
1875 it is about s., ,00O, 900, 900. By 1900
without check it is safe to say this prop-
erty will reach sum exceeding So 600
OOO, 200. So vast sum receiving all the
protection and benefits of the Govern
ment without bearing its proportion Of
the burdens and expenses of the same
will not be looked upon with acquiesence
by those who have paid taxes. In a
growing country where real estate en-.
hances 50 rapidly with time, as in the
United States, there is scarcely limit tc
the wealth that may be acquired by Ill il
allowed to retain real estate without tax.
auon. The contemplation of so vast a
property as is here alluded to. without
taxation, may lead to sequestration
without constitutional authority and
through blood. l would suggest the
taxation of all property equally, whether
church or corporation, exempting only
the last resting place of the dead, ancc
possibly, with proper restrictions, church
edifces.
FOREIGN RELATIONS.
Our relations with most of the Foreign
Powers continues on a satisfactory anG
friendly footing. In colossal ENTERPRISES
the extension of our commerce and thu
cultivation of mutIla1 interests vva bo,,