Arizona weekly miner., 1875-02-26
SPEECH OF HON. 4. E. DAFIS.
PUBLIc SCHOOL EDUcAuoy.


 St. Joseph, ill Tucson, February 10, Hon. A
 E. Davis, of Mohave county, remarked as
 follows:
 MR. PRESIDENT: In entering upon the
 discussion of this bill, shall endeavor to be
 brief and to speak to the point. l deem it
 but proper, as there has been unusual and
 extraordinary measures adopted by an ear
 nest lobby 10 mould our legislation upen
 this subject, to answer some of the attacks
 made upon our school system, by the adyo-
 cates of this measure. This bill proposes to
 take from the school fund a sum of money
 and appropriate 1t ta the benefit of secta- rian school. Whether the sum be great or
 small Is of little consequence. am opposed
 to the principle involved, and upon that
 basis l meet the issue. l will discuss the
 right and power of the government to edu-
 cate its people, and endeayOr to show, if the
 government has the power, and if it is a
 duty 10 educate the people, that then the
 system must be founded upon broad and
 liberal principles so all can unite and receive
 a copmOn benefit thereby. Our government
 is based upon the theory that man Is capable
 of seli-government, and to put thls theory
 into practical operation, the people must be
 educated, or the government is a rope of
 sand and must fall to pieces. Any govern
 ment has the inherent right to do all neces- sary things to preserve its own existence It being conceded necessity to educate the
 people for and to fitly enable them to pre-
 serve seltgoyernment when established, it
 follows that 1t is one of the plainest duties for
 the government to adopt the required meas
 ures, and 10 see that they are enforced to
 educate the people. These measures are
 being adopted by general system of public school education. 4 common and neutral
 ground is established in the public school
 house by the exclusion of all sectarian books and religious teaching, so that the children of every faith can go there without being in- stFucted in any religious creed, or hearing one word uttered that shall conflict with their religious teachings at home or in their church. Sir, ask is this not fair and just plane to meet upon? Should not every American heart swell with pride, in the con temptation that in our own free land, We are building up fountain of knowledge where the high and low, the rich and poor, the children of every creed and nationality, may go and at least be enabled to obtain the ru- ailments of an education. Divide this fund up among the various creeds as Is contempla- tNo III a way bN tiilS Otll, anu Wudt will be the result Sir, by the time each of the various sects have received a share, there will be nothing left for a general system of education. The privileged few will receive a religious education, according to the tenets of the particular church to which they be- long, while the masses grow up in ignorance. The chief corner stone of their education would be bitter and relentless hatred to op- posing creeds, and very soon those who would be called upon to govern and control the destnles of this nation, would, by force of education, be religious bgots regarding the advancement of their church as of more importance than country, republican institu- | tlons or anything else on earth, and the ig- | norant masses would be swayed and controll- | ed by those religious bigots. It Is needless l to say that republic cannot long be sus- tained when this state of affairs shall exist, | and it is as plain to be seen as the sun at l noon-day, that this nation would have no ex- | istence as republic, in a very short time, if | our general system of education should be | broken up. Sir, our government was based | on the solid foundation of entire separation i of church and State, and it is essential that | our system of education shall be free there from. Unite church and state, and public schools will be destroyed; unite church and schools, and church and state cannot long be kept separate. If the friends of liberty de- sire to keep Church and State separate, as the fathers of the republic practically did by the adoption of the principle in the Consti- tuition of the United States, then they must keep separate churches and schools. Edu- cate two generations solely in the Moham- medan faith, and you will raise up genera ton who will fight, if necessary, to raise the Crescent above the Cross and so it will be with any religious denomination, no matter by what name 1t Is called, or at what shrine it's followers worship. Let religious thought and action be as free as the air we breathe: but educate the youth to be true American charitable and tolerent towards those of every faith
 Sir. l deplore the fact that the peace and harmony which We have enjoyed in Arizona turing the past SIX years, struggling amid ieath and poverty, to educate our little ones. nave been broken. am pained exceedingly o have the conviction forced upon me, that my vandal hand would now seek to tear hem from the public school. Had I not cen what have, l would not have believed hat any one who has been reared upon free oil, would aid in tearing down the public chool, and rear instead sectarian schools md thereby raise up divided people to late and despise each other on account of . eligious belief. Sir, such action would lead urther, it would destroy general system of ducation. and allow the masses to grow up n ignorance and steeped in crime They z Tould turn our free and enlightened repub- I c back to the tenth century, and bring on i, religious wal, and again introduce the in I truments of human torture used in that De- lod, to compel obedience to bigotry and in- Olerance
 Sir, ask you to turn your eyes toward $ UT sister republic, Mexico, and see the pov- Ii rty and destitution that have been brought n pon tbe unfortunate country by the system :, sectarian education that is now attempted be forced upon us. See how noblv. un- V CT her present wise and patriotic ruler, she W striving to throw off the letters that have i, ound her. It is now proposed near the :, oSe of the first century of our existence-as republic-to swap places with poor Mex " O, and to throw our country under the car al lat has nearly crushed the last spark of life er om her, while she is making successful ef- c, rf= f,.rx- .ao -of.