Richmond weekly palladium., 1875-12-09
NON.SECTARIAN SCHOOLS.


I ~
Letter fro% Ex-spksker blaine Cou
stittksfona1 PEovssiOn&.
The following letter was written b,
Mr.. Blaine to a pronlfnent Ohio gentle
man, Just after thsx election in tina
State:
AUGUSTA, ~, Oct. 20, 1875.
MY DEAR SIR: be public schoo
agitation in your lat6 campaign is liza
/ bic to break out elsewhere, and, occur
ring first in one StatR and then in an
other. NAV keep the&whole country il
a ferment for years come. This in
evitably arouses sectarian feeling ant
leads to that bittercst and most deplor.
able of all strifes, the strife betweeI
religious denominat,pns. 1t seems t.
me that this question ought to be set
| tied in some definite and comprehen.
| sive way: and the only settlement thai
can be final is the complete victory fol
non- n-sectarian schools. I am sure thai
this will be demanded by the American
people at all hazards and at any cost
The dread of sectarian legislation in
this country has been felt many times
in the past. 1t began very early. The
first amendment OF the Constitution,
the joint product of Jefferson and Mad
ison, proposed in I169, declared that
Congress shall make no laws respect
ing an establishment of religion, nor
prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
At that time, when the powers of the
Federal Government were untried and
undeveloped, the fear was that Con-
gress might be a source of danger to
perfect religious liberty, and hence all
power was taken from it. At the same
time the States were left free to do as
they pleased in regard to ian estab-
lishment of religion, = for the tenth
-
juriSt, TheOphilus Parsons, and adopt
ed contemporaneousIy with the first,
declared that "all powers not delega-
ted to the United States by the Consti
tuition nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively
or to the people," A1maiority of the
people in any State in this Union can
therefore, if they desire it, have an
established church--under which the
minority may be taxed for the erection
of church edifices which they never en-
ter and for the supporter creeds which
they do not believe. This power was
actually exercised in some of the States
long after the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, and although there may
be no positive danger of its revival in
the future, the possibility of it should
not be permitted. The suspicious time
to guard against an evil is when all
unite in preventing it.
And in curing this constitutional de-
feet all possibility of hartful agitation
on the school question should be ended
also. just let the old Jefferson Madi-
son amendment be applied to the States
by adding the following to the inhibi-
tory clauses in section 10, article l, of
the Federal Constitution, viz:
mo State shall make any law re-
specting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
and no money raised by taxation in
any State for the support of public
schools, or derived from any public
fund therefor, shall ever be under the
control of any religious sect, nor shall
any money so raised ever be divided
between religious sects or denomina-
tions."
This, you will observe, does not in
terfere with any State having just such
a school system as its citizens may
prefer, subject to the single and simple
that the schools shall not be
made the arena for sectarian c0ntro-
versy or theological disputation. This
1t seems to me, would be
and conclusive, and
would be fair alike to. Protestant and
to jew and Gentle, leaving
The religious faith and the conscience
Of every man free and unmolested.
Very sincerely yours,
~ j. G. BLAINE.