Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-12-16
MR.. BLAINE'S IDEA.
He Would Head OF the Pope with Go nstitu
tional Amendment.

The following letter was written by
J. G. Blaine on the public school
question /; "The public school agita-
ton in your late (Ohio) campaign is
liable to break out elsewhere, and,
occurring first in one State and then
in another, may keep the whole coun
try in ferment for years to come.
This inevitably arouses sectarian feel
ing and leads to that bitterest and
most deplorale Of all strifes. the strife
religious denominations. II seems to
me that this question ought to be set
tied in some definite and comprehen-
sive ways; and the only settlement
that can be final is complete victory
for the non-sectarian schools. | am
sure that this will be demanded by
the American people at all hazards
and at any cost. The dread of Sec
tartan education in this country has
been felt many times in the past. 1t
bhgan very early. The first amends
ment of the constitution, the joint
product of Jefferson and Madison,
proposed in 1899, declared that Soon
gress shall make no law respecting
the 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
Congress 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
San establishment of a religion" for
the tenth amendment proposed by
that eminent jurist, Theophilus Par
sons, and adopted contemporaneously
with the first, declared that call pow
ers not delegated to the United States
by the constitution, nor prohibited by
it to the States. are reserved to the
States respectively, or the people.
A majority of the people in any State
in this Union can, therefore, if the de-
sire it, have an established church
under which the minority may be
taxed for the erection of church edi-
fees which they never enter and for
the support of creeds which they do
not believe. This power was actually
exercised in some of the States long
after the adoption of the federal con-
stitution; and although there may
be no positive danger of its revival
in the future, the suspicious time to
guard against an evil is when all
unite in preventing it.
And in curing this constitutional
defect, all possibility of hurttul agita-
ton on the school question should be
ended also. Just let the old Jeffer-
son Madison amendment be applied
to the States by adding the following
to the inhibitory clause in section 10,
article / of the federal constitution,
viz:
No State shall make any law respecting 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 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 denominations.
This, you will observe, does not
interfere with any State having just
such a school system as its citizens
may prefer, subject to the simple and
single restriction that the school shall
not be made the arena for sectarian
controversy or theological disputation.
This adjustment, it seems to me,
would be comprehensive and conclu-
sive, and would be fair alike to Pro-
testant and Catholic, to Jew and Gen
tile, leaving the religious faith and tn e
conscience of every man free and un-
molested. Very sincerely yours,
n RTArNr