New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-29


make.
The Bulletin irtimates to the REPuB-
LIcAN that it exhausted itself on the ethics
of the public schools on the fifteenth in
slant, and otstinately refuses an encore.
We stand ready to make all needful apol-
ogies which may be demanded for being
unable to reconcile the views expressed in
that champion article with those con-
tanned in a later issue. On the fifteenth,
the Bulletin said politicians, LEI the
public schools alone" On the other &C.
casion, it complained because religious
denomination could not even apply for a
division of the funds and control of the
public schools without provoking protests
"irom Radical gruntlings." 1t is not our
purpose, at present, to point out the dis
crepancies Of the two publications of our
contemporary; nor is it of special import.
ance. The Bulletin may, for aught We
know, have designed to put itself on the
record Of both sides of very delicate,
though not evenly balanced, question.
All that our contempor airy has said of
the attachment of the American people to
the public school system is indisputably
correct, and very clearly and properly
stated But the admonition to the politi-
clans to let the schools alone is piece of
brlulm .fltl,nen which even the Democracy
of Ohio disregarded in the late election.
That party permitted the public school
system to be threatened in its name, and,
like their purblind friends in New Jersey,
suffered defeat in consequence. But poll
ticians will not let the schools alone, nev-
ertheless. We do not think it is desirable
that they should. The public school sys-
TEN is, as the Bulletin has shown, an
essential part of the policy of all the State
governments. AS such it necessarily at
tracts the attention of the politician or
statesman, whether in the Legislature, on
the bench or in the executive chair.
There is nothing, in our judgment which
ought to deprive citizen of his interest
in the system of education. Being a poll
tician does not disqualifya man for study
ing the questions of public finance, the
tariff, internal improve ments, or any
thing else which he may possibly
be called to pass upon as a
legislator or judge. There is nothing
more sacred in the common school sys-
tenn than there is in human liberty, and
yet men may howl out their platitudes
about the one in bar-rooms, at mass meet
ings, through the columns of partisan
papers, and even in the churches pro-
vided the remarks are applicable to white
Democrats, but must remain entirely mum
when the interests of their children are
involved. If the politicians are not per-
mitted to look after the public schools,
pray, who are to do it? Perhaps the
Bulletin will say, the priests and parsons
of the numerous religious denominations,
Christian and otherwise, which flourish
on the sins of the world We would not
object, provided these ministers of divin-
ity could furnish satisfactory bonds to
keep the peace for even month. The
politicians are sometimes q little violent
in their discussions of pratical as well as
abstract questions, but they rarely fly into
such ungovernable passions as the clergy
manifest upon what appears to the world
to be trivial points of dispute. The poll
ticians, for instance, have no objection to
having the Bible read in the schools,
while it is hercely denounced as immoral
by its salaried expounders. Why, even
the lawyers permit their clients to read
the statutes, and would have no objection
to make if Blackstone, Kent, Story, or any
other standard author were read in every
school in christendom.
If the Bulletin means by its injunction
to politicians to let the schools alone, that
its own party leaders will endanger their
success if they attempt to break up the
system of public education, we regard it
as sound advice which might have been
serviceable to the Ohio Democracy if they
had acted on it in time. Like most other
good counsel, however, it came too late
and will not be regarded now. While the
American people are determined to pre-
serve the present admirable system of free
schools, there is party equally deter
mined to break it up, and will affiliate
with any other party that can be per-
suaded to assist in the work, We do not
say, politicians, let the schools alone; but
we do say, guard them with jealous care
from all enemies, in whatsoever guise they