The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-08-20
The LrreprGssibie Conflict.

We think 1t would. be real kindness
to the rulers of the Romnn church ~
make them dismiss all thought 1T break
ing up the American school system. If
their church would content itself with
religious instruction from its own pull
pits, in its Sunday schools, III its homes,
and sectarlan institutions, which, like
Protestant sectarlan distributions,
should derIv no support from the state
treasury, its growth would b. regarded
with little regret, and no fear at all Its
own constituency could be kept heartily
united. If it persists in its efforts TO
revolutionlze our educational system,
sooner or later it will be obliged to act
POLITICALLY as well as relgiously, and in
that event IL Is far more likely To incur
defeat than to obtain success That the
state must provide free, uUsectarian
schools FIR the education OF all its chill.
dren is the deliberate and final ;onvic.
ton of the great majority of the Amer
lean people They may be slow in
giving expression to that conviction at
the polls; but if issue is provoked with
sufficient persistency, they will speak at
last in tones of thunder. And the IN.
availng attempt to destroy our school
system will occasion most lamentable
political hatred and social bitterness.
Whatever may be done TO dishearten
them, however, we have not much hope
that the priesthood will give up their
purpose of having their sectarian schools
supported by the state. They are de.
termined to keep the children of their
adherents under ecclesiastical guidance
and control from morning to night,
seven days every week They dare not
trust them in an atmosphere of intellec-
tual independence and free inquiry
They have become very fond of the coll
ored race since it was entranchised, and .
mean to add hundreds of thousands of
black voters to the political strength of
the Roman church in America, If
they cannot succeed at once, they will
wait patiently but YEARLY, Therefore
the friends Of unsectaran public schools
should ponder and initiate the example /
of the board of education in Rochester.
n. Y. After long and careful DELHI
Grafton it has voted, by decisive ma
jority, that all religious exercises of
any nature he prohibited in the public
scho,
t. IS tie oAly impregnable groand
for the friends Of unsectarlan schools to
take. Let children 20 to the public
schools for their secular education, and
for their religious education to the Sun
day schools of such churches as their
parents may prefer. Our country has
no established religion The religious
instruction now given in the public
schools is SO nominal, meagre, and un-
impressive as not TO be worth contend.
ing for. In secular schools honor, truth,
purity and order must be required Let
doctrines and rituals be remanded to
churches and homes Thus the friends
of the American system of popular edu.
cation can present united and invinci-
bic front to Roman agaressions, and
mauy Of the Romanists themselves may
be couciliated and dsarmed.
While the republican party is united
and aggressive in its defense OF the
American unsectarian commOn-school
system, aud the democratic party is
driven by fear of fatal internal divisions
into at least nominal and temporary ac-
cord and acquiescence, 1T may be well
to have this momentous question set
tied, in all the states, by such constitu-
tional guarantees as shall fill the Roman
hierarchy with wholesome despair. The
priesthood is slow to learn the lesson of
defeat. 1t is fertile in plans to evade
the plainest guarantees, and it knows
how to manufacture keys which can
open most closed questions but Yankee
aud resolution may give the
Roman rulers a task of unprecedented
difficulty Christian Register, Boston,
Mass,
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