Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-05-05
Public eEdueation-senator MorrilI's Speech.

At the request of Mr.. Morrill, of Vermont,
the Senate, on Wednesday, took up the bill
to establish an educational fund and apply
portion of the proceeds of the public lands
to public education, and to provide for the
more complete endowment and support of
national colleges for the advancement of
scientific and industrial education.
Mr.. Morrill, said he started with the pre-
position that all our public lands, which are
hereafter to be sold an d are not called for as
free homesteads, should be held exclusively
for educational purposes - purposes that
tower high above and dwarf all others.
Should any exception to this rule ever he
suggested, let it then be considered on its
merits. We have already given to State-.
without regard to their population, no.
coo, 900 acres of land for the support of com
mon schools, and eighteen of the States thus
aided have school fund of Si3 500 ,7Sj |
The Western or new States, as to common
schools, would appear to have been literally
provided for. Our school population of five
years of age to seventeen, inclusive, is l.
055, ,i43, or nearly one third of our entire
population. Only about one-half Of this
number, or 6,545.ll attend school Of any
sort. and among all of the four or FIVE mil
lion of colored population only lS0,372 at
tend school, or hardly enough to furnish a
silver lining to cloud so dark. Five mil
lion and a half of our population cannot
write and t 800 900 cannot read OF illit-
crate male adults, twenty years of age and
over, we have 1,6Il ,2l2, of which NUN Der
rs, ,470l are whites. There are thus more
lliterate voters among either white or color
ed than the usual majority of any party
taking part at any national election. They
are, therefore, the potent auxiliaries of all |
parties, the decisive make-weights, and must |
more or less control the destinies of the |
country. Can any happy augury of ages to
come be drawn from these dismal facts?
The government promised what it would |
do when it took charge of the land fund, |
and that promise cannot be avoided by the |
plea that the government has nothing to do |
with education. If Congress has binding |
duty to perform relative to education |
next TO religion the highest concern of man
kind-it also has a duty scarcely inferior |
in its scope as to the discherge of an in
pOrtant trust, no less than that of the dis |
pOsal of the residue of our whole public |
domain in such a manner as will best pro-
mote the present and future welfare. moral |
and material, of great, enterprising, and |
exacting people, and in strict accordance |
with the terms of our compact The |
Southern States need all the aid we can |
properly grant. for both common schools |
and colleges, and they viii sill have to RELY. !
in the race with their sister States and the |
lar +ba. u 4
enthusiasm to place themselves on the road |
TO equal rank with those where educational |
Instructions are more deeply rooted, and |
where they have already given promise Of |
good and abundant fruit
The States, 1t is true, have much to do, |
but the national government, superior in its
higher nature and wider scope, has more i'm
portant work to do, having given to each |
State the guarantee Of a Republican form of |
government, guarantee impossible of full |
tlmcnt, as our wisest men have never |
denied, without general and thorough edu- |
cation. To support the national govern
ment and Its honor, every citizen willingly |
stands ready 10 sacrifice not only property. |
but life itself, and shall it be said for this the
government is to do nothing in return? Are
there no reciprocal duties ? Stripped of |
personality. character, dignity, virtue and
moral elevation as basis of governmental
duties, what would there be left to love, or
what that patriotism would rush to defend
What that Christian would pray might be
immortal? The character of a nation
clearly does not altogether depend upon its
geology. climate, soil, oysters, and terrapins,
but very much upon Its governmental and
educational institutions, and upon that
growth of manhood which is their ripened
product.
Upon the broadest principles of the
purest and most far-seeing economy, the
friends of the present bill base its highest
claims to public favor, and it cannot be put
down by hue and cry raised to crush
measures of far different character, with
which it has neither kinship nor affinity. 1t
may not Improperly be claimed that this
measure really plants the seed of future
harvest OF revenue, and will in the end not
only augment the productions of industry,
| ana increase the wealth of the country, bat
that 1t will t ereby add considerably to the
receipts Of the Treasury, which always rise
or tall with the general prosperity
and beyond all this, 50 far as broader
education rapidly tends to multiply the
number of letter-writers, or promote the in-
terchange of ideas and courtesies, as well as
of commodities, it may be expected TO con-
tribute something toward lifting up even the
Postoihce Department nearer TO II self-sup-
porting condition.
In conclusion Mr. Morrill, said | have
endeavored to point out
First-That the fund TO arise from all
sales of public lands must hereafter be very
| inconsiderable. Whatever the extent Of the
/ public domains may be, it is growing less
] year by year, and the homestead demands,
| by foreign immigrants and by the hundreds
/ of thousands of American citizens annually
arriving at their majority. are steadily in
creasing. Surely the small driblets remain
ing to be actually sold ought to be consecrat-
ed, in accordance with the conditions set for
forth in our title deeds. to ''sehools and the
means Of education" for the permanent and
universal benefit of the people.
! Second-That more aid to common schools
of better type is needed in every quarter of
our Union, and that it Is much wiser to give
to youth assurance and faith in a higher life
than to provide dungeons for manhood.
Tbird-That the number of those who are
being thoroughly educated is disproportion-
ately small, and that colleges TO which
many more of all the industrial classes
might resort are not only vitality important,
but are loudly demanded by all those who
do not hold an education to be baneful
luxury from which all the INDECENT and in
dustrious, as so many born ounces, are to be
excluded in the lump.
FOurth-That while it il not proposed to
divert any funds from the treasury that will
not yield fourfold return, the objects aimed
at are more precious than gold and silver,
and higher and more universal education
vii yoke neither the people nor the treasury
with Poverty.
Finally, may not invoke favor to such
legislation as not infrequently makes men
better than the law; that will tend to kin
die national passion to have Americans. as
a whole, become the best educated of any
people in the world that will attach them
more ardently to a free government than to
any other known 70 mankind that will in
spIre some ambition to excel in the arts of
peace as well as in the arts of war and bring
forth that wisdom which gives security and
progress to society, and which may serve to
make our native land and its ever increasing
millions of people eminent in the future an
mails of time for all the virtues required to
adorn character or race among the nations
of the earth