The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-12-12

4
, ment and the payment of her debts, but sh
; provided for the education OF her poor {
both races. This was done by common cor
sent; not by force Of arms, or the NOR
subtle but none less dangerous force of til
} ballot. 1t was done by the approval OF et
cry class-educated and ignorant, rich an
poOr-as an offering to the present and risin
generation, and a promise of the futur
greatness OF the Commonwealth. Its warm
est advocates and most enthusiastic admir-
ers will claim for it no more than this. !
education be great boon, if its advantage
inure to the benefit of the State, they viii
/ not deny that to secure them the system
must not be founded in wrong. 1t woult
be no honor to State, and consequently nj
benefit, to be decorated by spoils wrestet
from the weak and innocent, especially i
those weak and innocent had befriended thu
State in the time Of her need. and those evi
dences of friendship constituted the verl
elements of the States strength. Granting
the friends OF public free -schools every thins
they wish or claim for them; granting tina
the State ought to provide them, and tina
they ought to be thrown open freely without
money and without price that they are a b
solutely in theory above any and every pub
lie or private objection; that their blessings
permeating every class OF life and pursuit
will
| INvIGORATE, ELEVATE, AND BEAUTIFY
THE COMMONWEALTH;
even then it does not follow that we ought
to violate established law and plighted iaitf
/ to uph' Id them; because we know that
without the recognition of these latter theil
friends cannot by any possibility long pre-
serve the benefits which they seem so abun.
| dainty TO nrOmisa themselves
/ When think of these things, there Is
nothing have ever said that need wish to
retract. would not, because I would not
| detracr anythl' G from the credit and honor
of my State, whatever might be my views
OF the expediency of her course or policy.
So when find this great benefaction lying
in the path of her history will not stultify
her conduct and diminish her fame by say.
ing that the means for the benefaction were
to be provided at another's expense. She
did not so intend, and she has SO expressly
declared 10 the writing of endowment.
place no value upon intellectual educa-
ton without the moral accompaniment. In
deed, would much prefer ignorance !; for
such an education does not make good men
or good citizens, but puts weapons in the
hands of the wicked to accomplish evil pur-
poses. Mephistopheles is none the less wick
ed, only the more so, because he is simply
intellectually cultivated. Education mental
and moral, must 90 together, hand in hand,
and then will both its power and goodness
| work for the common welfare. When free
schools are established they ought to be the
best that culture and the means at hand can
devise and perfect; but above everything
there ought to breathe through them in their
different departments and grades the purest
morality, and their foundations and super
structure ought to be proof against the
charge that they were built Of money which
should properly have gone to others. What
sort of citizens would youths educated in
such a way make, or wherein is any benefit
| to result to the individual or the State |
therefore repeat that if..the people of Vir-
ginia want public free schools they must pay
| for them out of their own means. And it is
no relief to say that the Constitution pro-
| vdes for them it also provides for their sup
port by taSation-the only way in which
they can be provided f rand at the same
tim provides for other things of equal dig
nifty and of equal obligations, to say the
| least.
| But under the Constitution and law as now
interpreted, and the inadeqnacy of the rev
enues, the public creditors who have not tax
receivable coupons have disappeared from
The scene altogether, for they get nothing !;
and those holding taX-receivable coupons
getting their dues leaves the issue no longe
between the creditors and the public free
school system, but between the public free
scoo system and the State. One third in
amount of the public creditors get nothing.
SO that. as. matters now stand, after the sup
port of the Government the revenues are
divided between them, as a mass, and the
public free schools, not being sufficient TO
pay both. The public creditors and their
friends say theirs is first in point OF time and
dignity;
THE FRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC FREE
SCHOOLS
insist with equal force that idst the contray
| is true. The letter Of the Constitution pro-
vides for both; and l most respectfully in
sist that the terms of that Constitution must
| be complied with.
do not think it requires any preambles,
| bills, or acts of Assembly to satisfy us that
| the life Of the State must be preserved, and
that in and on it are involved and based ev.
cry question and every interest. In it the
public creditor finds his only hope of JUS
tice; for it he trusted. The public free
school upon its bosom rests, and without it
would have neither local habitation nor
name. The State must live, or the hopes Of
the creditor and the free schools both perish.
| Ills le ~ pain LllaG WIllSb WlIlG IL lccl
as il were simply writing truism.
And yet talk, quite vague and hard to I'M
derstand, Is heard about robbery, misappli-
cation. misappropriation, diversion OF the
| the school fund. lam sure those VINO use
these ugly terms. do not intend them in a
criminal sense. yet they are calculated to de-
ceive the ignorant, but cannot possibly mis-
lead those who look at the revenues and eX-
penditures of the State. When those reve
| nues are applied according to established
rule both of the General Assembly and the
highest courts to preserve that organism in
which cohere the rights of life, liberty, and
property, which are the fruit OF civilization.
and which could not survive one moment
the reign of law, and without which every
thing would resolve itself into chaos-public
| free schools and all-and if there is a deficit
it does not prove robbery or any other base
crime, it simply proves that there is a defic-
iency of money in the treasury to meet the
requirements. I, therefore, do not suppose
any reasoning or reasonable man ought to be
| mislead by these harsh. and, to say the least,
not very decorous terms. II such has been
the impression Of any one hitherto, I am
sure very slight examination will unde-
ceive him. / think the friends of the schools
will do much more for their promotion and
success by avowing at once that there is not
revenue sufficient to carry them on properly,
and urging increased taxation for the pur-
pose, rather than charging innocent men
with grave offences. I am very sure that
no member Of the General Assembly, and
no tue friend of the public free schools
would deserve it, yet an illiberal and cyni-
cal posterity might pronounce the same
Judgment that it has done on Demetrius the
Silversmith, and his felIow-craftsmen, that
when they CT led so Justify
s'GREAT is DIANA OF THE EPHEsIANS,''
they were not thinking so much of the in.
terests and honor of che Goddess as of the
sales of their own merchandise.
The time will very soon come, il not al
ready at hand, when the friends of the pub
lie free-school system will not be regarded
as those who in teeir zeal would force it into
and over other obstacles, regardless of nee
essities of State or rights OF individuals; bu
rather those who would found it in justc,
and equity and charity, so that, instead o
being a standing reproof to the State am
the victorious enemy Of Others rights, i
will be, as it ought, the perpetual glory o
the beneticence of great Commonwealth
and the promise to future generations of al
answering and abiding devotion to plight
ed faith and untarnished honor.