Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-12-15
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Progress of the Nation in it's
First Century.
Review Of Our Foreign Re.
IationS.
The Cuban Question Discussed at
Length.
According cf Belligerant Rights
Opposed.
Specie Resumption Forci-
bly, Urged.
The Repairs in the Navy Depart.
ment.
The Question Of Education and
Schools.
The Question Of Education and
Schools.
NATIONAL PROGRESS


Schools.
NATIONAL PROGRESS.
To the Senate and House of Representatives
In submitting my seventh annual message
to Congress, in the Centennial year Of our
national existence rs free and independent
people, it affords me great pleasure to recur to
the advancement that has been made from
the time Of the colonies. one hundred years
ago. We were then peopls numbering only
three millions. Then industries were confined
almost exclusively to tillage OF the soI now
manufactures absorb much Of the labor of
the country. Our liberties remain unimpaired;
the bondsmen have been freed from slavery
we have become possessed of the respect, if
not the friendship, of all civilized ma
TONS; Our progress has been great
in all the arts, in science, agricul-
ture, commerce. navigation, mining,
mechanics, law, medicine, etc.; and in general
education the progress is likewise encourag-
ing. Our thirteen states have become thirty
eight, including Colorado, which has taken the
inltiatory steps to bee ome a state, and eight
territories including the Indian Territory and
Alaska, and excluding Colorado, making ter
ritery extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, on the south we have extended to the
Gulf of Mexico, aud On the west from the
west from the Mississippi to the Pacific. One
hundred years ago the cotton gin, the steam
ship, the railroad, the telegraph, the reaping
sewing, and modern printing machines. aud
Numerous other inventions of scarcely less
value to our business and happiness. were
entirely unknown.
In 1776 manufactures scarcely existed even
In name, in all this vast territory In 1870
more than two millions Of persons were e1a-
ployed in manufacturing, producing more than
SO, 100. 000, 600 worth of products, in amount
annually. nearly equal 10 our national debt.
From nearly the whole population of 1776
being engaged in the one occupation of agri-
Ia
had become the occupation of our people,
that less than six millions ont of more than
forty millions were so engaged. The extraor-
binary effect produced in our country, by re-
sort to such occupations, has built market
for our products of fertile lands distant from
the seaboard and markets of the world,
The American system OF working various
and extensive manufactures next to the plan
and the posture, and adding connecting rail-
roads and steamboats,, has produced in our
distant country a result not equalled by the
intelligent parts of other nations. The in
genuity and skill of American mechanics have
been demonstrated at home and abroad IN a
manner most dattering to their pride. But for
the extraordinary genius and ability OF our
mechanics, the achievements OF our agricul.
tuIists, manufacturers and transp0rters
throughout the country, would have been inn
possible Ell attainment. The progress
of the miner has also been very
great. OF coal, our production was
small; now many millions of tons are mined
annually; 50 with iron which formed scarcely
an appreciable part of our products half q CEN
tury ago, we now produce more than the
world consumed at the beginning Of our ma
tional existence. Lead, zinc and copper, from
being articles of imports, We may expect to be
large exporters of, In the near future. The
development of gold and silver mines
been remarkable but has had large inHuen &C
upon the business of all commercial nations
EDUCATION.
Our merchants in the last hundred years
have had marked success, and have establish.
ed d reputation for enterprise, sagsscity, pro-
gress and integrity, unsurpassed by
the people Ct older nationalities This
good name is not confined to their homes
but goes out upon every sea and into every
port where our commerce enters. With equa
pride we can point to our progress in all of the
learned professions, as we are now about tx
enter upon our second centennial. Commenc
ing our manhood as q nation 1t is we'll to lool
back upon the past and study what will b.
best to preserve and advance our future
greatness. From the fall of Adam for hi!
transgression, to the present day, no nation
has ever been free from threatened danger
to its prosperity and happiness. ",
should look to the dangers threatening u
and remedy them SO far as it lies In our power
We are republic whereof one man is as goot
as another before the law. Under such
form of government it is of the greatest i'm
portance that ali should be possessed of edu-
cation. and intelligence enough to cas-
vote with right understanding 6
its meaning. A large association O
ignorant men cannot for any considerable pc
rod oppose successful resistance to .tyrann,
and oppression. There are few but viii inev
itably sink into acquiescence to the will O
intelligence, whether directed BY the dema
gogue or by The priestcraft. Hence the edaca,
ton of the masses becomeslof the first necess
ity for the preservation OF our institutions
They are worth preserving, because they hav,
secured the greatest good to the greatest pro
portion of population of any form of govern
ment OF which I am advised; all other forms O
government approach it just in proportion t,
the general diffusion Of education and indie
pendence Of thought and action. As the pr
mary step, therefore, to our advancement il
all that has marked our progress during tn,
past century, suggest for your earnest con
that 8 constitutional amendment be submitted
to the legislatures Of the several states fs
ratification, making it the duty OF each Of th'
several states to establish and forever main
tain free public schools, adequate to the edu
cation of all the children in the rudimentar.
branches within their respective limits, ire
spective of sex, color, birthplace or religions
forbidding the teaching in said schools of re
igious, atheistic or pagan tenets, and prohibit
ing the granting OF any school taxes or any par
Thereon, either Dy leglslatlve, municipal o
otherwise, for the benefit of any other objec
OF any nature or kind whatever.
TAXABLE PROPERTY.
In connection with this important question
would also call yodr attention to the ina
portance of correcting an evil that, if per
mitted to continue, will probably lead to grea
trouble in our land before the close of thu
nineteenth century. 1t is the accumulation o.
vast amounts of untAxed church property. II
1850, / believe .ne church property of the
United States which paid no tags, municipal
or state, announced to about $50, DOC, zoo; il
1860 the anouD1 had doubled; in 1875 it il
about 81, 900 600 900. By 1900, without check, il
is safe to say this property will reach sum
exceeding SIS, 600 600, 600. So vast sum re-
ceiving all the protection and benefit Of the
government without bearing it's proportion OF
the burdens and expenses of the same, will