The Portland daily press., 1875-12-04
(From the New York Tribune.l
The Schools and the Presidency,

Mr. Blaine has issued the most important
manifestation thus far in the Presidential cam
paign of 1876. 1t is nothing less than an effort
to appropriate to himself whatever capital
there was in Geu. Grants Des Moines speech
on the Roman Catholics and the schools. 1t is
admirably put; it is plausibe,-ls in fact the
only solution of the question, provided further
solution is needed; and it is launched at pre-
csely the right time MIR. Blaine has discov-
cred that there is nothing at present to prevent
any state from having an established church,
or for distributing the funds raised by taxation
in the interest of any sect, whether for educa-
tion or for other purposes; and he proposes a
Constitutional Amendment to limit the powers
of the states to this further extent His propo-
sal has the great advantage of being in form
to which nobody can object. Nothing can be
said against it except that it is not needed ;
while the feeling already aroused goes to show
that great many of our best citizens think il
is peeded. Every politician knows that there
is no subject on which the average well-to do
citizen in the country districts is so sensitive as
upon the possibility of Roman Catholic aggres-
sion, particularly with reference to the schools
There is no point wherein popular prejudice can
be so skillfully wrested to political use. Mr.
Blaine adroitly seized upon this feeling recogniz-
ed the danger to which the President called the
public attention, and passed clear beyond him
by proposing practical remedy. Cynical OBJ
servers may think it strange to see Protestant
ism in the hands of such defenders; and even
the intimate associates Of the President and
Mr.. Blaine may confess to some surprise at
this sudden cal in behalf of evangelical relig.
ion against the Pope. Nevertheless, they have
struck upon one of the most efficient agencies
for us in the present political situation; and
Mr.. Blaine, at least, knows exactly what he is
about Without regarding the merits of the
question or taking into account at all its relig-
ious bearings, we may fairly pronounce this
the shrewdest and most formidable move vet
made on the Presidential chess.board for 1876
Nor do we make light of the real danger
which does in some quarters threaten the sys-
tenn of public schools. II has already been
found necessary, in this and some other states,
to prohibit by constitutional provisions any
division or diversion of public school funds
But experience has shown that these provisions
can be evaded. 1t may yet, of course, become
necessary 20 meet the question in state elec-
tions. If the attack should continue, and at
some future time should become so powerful as
seriously to threaten the existence of the system
of free, non-sectarian schools, it may be need
full, by amendment of the Constitution of the
United States, to raise up irsuperable barriers
against all forms of assault upon the system
For, come what may, the people of the country
will sustain their schools, knowing that free
thought and free education are the basis of
Republican government, and that free institu-
tions cannot be always safe in a land in which
the education of the young is left to the
churches