Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-04-14
FANATIC AT LARGE.

we nave UCAOAV 10 q omeA HomPUNN
hearing the imposing title: "0ur sick
man. and how to cure him or the educa-
tionsl problem in the cotton States;
eighth lecture in the seventh course Of
Sunday afternoon lectures, delivered I'M
der the auspices of the Free Religious
Association in Horticultural Hall, Bos-
ton, March I, 1875, by Dexter a. Haw'
kins, Chairman Of the Committee
on Education Of the New York
City Council of Political Reform.
1t more distinctly utters the sen
timents Of the csnting, intolersnt
and bigoted WITHDRAWING Puritan than
any document we have seen for years.
1t is ahead Of anything to be found 10
the Radical papers, because it is inter
larded with sanctimonious drivel and
absunds with expressions of extreme
piety. The fact that it was delivered in
a public hall in Boston argues that II had
hearers, and that it is printed we may
infer has more or less readers. The
boast is made in the outset of this polit-
ical harangue delivered on Sunday that
only a strong, seltwilled, enlightened
and active race like the New England
Yankees can endure a republic. Every
nation has its sick man. In the days Of
Noah they were nearly all sick, and had
TO be drowned out, and thus originated
~hydropathy. The Jews had their sick
man, and finally became extinct as q
nation. Every nation in Europe has had
its sick man, and for two thousand
years the medicine Of force has been
administered to repress him. No men
ton, however, is made of Ireland or
Poland or Hungary or the Pope o.
Rome. These we're not the kind Of sick
men to illustrate the South, which is the
sick man Of this country. When our
national Constitution was adopted the
country inherited a disease, to-wit;
Negro slavery. Right here he jumps to
1860 without explaining how slavery was
put away by the ancestors Of his Boston
audience. Not a word Of praise was
bestowed upon them for setting their
negroes free. The only emancipation
proclamation noticed or commended was
that of Lincoln. The disease threw the
patient, that is one end or side of him
into q delirium, for which compromise
plasters were no longer a remedy. The
only cure left was an extensive and lone
continued operation Of old-fashioneC
p~hlebotomy, leaving the patient pros
trated and exposed to attacks of otheI
maladies. A long discourse followsupoI
the illiteraey Of the South. The black.
are eommisserated and called the ward
of the nation. The whites are borr
and bred petty tyrants and oil
~garchists. The people at large ar
compared to a crew Of dock labOrers sen
to sea in charge of an ocean steamship
OF course all the virtue and statesman
ship Of the country m from th
higher law God7and-norality party Q
New England, except what little !
vested in the carpet-baggers sent South
he rehashes the stories Of Southern GU.
RACES, aad says this is a more %inyitip.
missionary field than any that has beel
occupied for the last century. The Sane
wich Islands, Africa and the East Indie
are no comparison to it. His remed
for the patient which he manages in hi
minds eye to sever from the main bod
polite, perhaps to avoid contamination
is a vigorous aud persuasive missionar
work, especially through the press, th
pulpit and rostrum. Tracts and pampf
lets are to be showered down upon th
cotton States until every voter is aliv
to the necessity Of providing by law 70
the education Of every child. This piou
agitator takes no account Of the fact tina
the white Democrats Of Tennessee ar
Voluntarily paying for the educatio
of the blacks who pay no taxes, and tbs
a similar state Of affairs exists in otht
States. The truth was not what /
sought, but to strike deep at the roots
old preiudices and hates. His concl1
sion of the whole matter is that Ii
national government should have Il
power to require each State to establis
aHd sustain a system of free commc
schools, and that there is an immedia
necessity for this power. In addition
favors the amendment to the constit
ton proposed by Senator Stewart
Nevada, which gives Congress the pow.
to establish a school system in Stat
failing to do SO. The identity Of the lie
sturer is Of no consequence. We new
heard Of him before. But he is here Il
exponent Of a certain class in the lar
of isms and ultraisms, q class not wit
out its influence in the politics of Il