Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1878-03-05


even the warmest friends of the bill
will not deuV that this issue will arise
upon the clauses. and that such IS
most likely to be the result. Some
NAV say, however. they believe these
decisions wrong. and liable to reversal.
What of that? Has the Legislature
met to spend its precious time ana
money to make up points 10 be moot
ed by the courts, whilst Virginia and
All her dearest interests are III the
throeS Of deepest agony =? why not
regard the opinions of the highest
courts. composed Of pure and able
men as entitled to at least equal con-
alteration with their own, acting
Uithiu The hounds of as strong and
sacred obligations ? These opinions
have been rendered several times by
courts nf competent authority. Can
we afford To wait till they are tried
again? Why should the Legislature
wish to have its power tested IN any
case which il can settle for itself?
But / am glad TO say thar few, if
any, desire such delay or such discus
sion. They insist that the bill is
framed to meet the requirements OF
these decisions. I wish | could agree
with them. | fear their expectations,
should the bill become law, will not
be realized. | have never read an in
strument more bristling with legal
points.
What saves it It's friends rely up
on the preamble, in which it is alleg-
ed that the prt servatiOn of the State
Government is the first necessity; the
constitutional obligations TO support
th.. system of free schools, the second:
and the payment of the present rate
Of interest on the amount claimed as
the principal of the public debt. the
third the taxes for the first two must
be paid in money i; the last may be
paid in coupons. The State has con-
tracted that all may be paid in cou-
pous. and, as already said. the highest
courts have ruled that this contract is
biading. The preamble attempts to
avoid this ruling by alleging that the
first is necessary To uphold the States
existence the second is made sacred
by the provisions of the fundamental
law, and by il put as of higher obllga-
ton, and that they both together,
with the interest Oh the public debt,
must be paid out of taxes at the rate
Of fifty ceuIs on the one hundred dot.
lars assessed value of property person.
al and real, which is as much as can
be imposed without ruinous results.
shall not stop to inquire whether
the first position be true or not, 10y
the simple assertion of the Legislature
and open to no further inquiry. 1t
certaimly contains a law suit. No
body will deny, in the abstract that
unless the State can live it cannot do
ANYTHING that be Ongs 10 life. That Is
traism.
But the second proposition, that the
Legislature is boHnd to support the
free school system at the expense of
the States creditors, either by the
necessity of its life, or the command
Of the organic law, l beg leave, most
respectfully, 10 deny.
Educa.!on Is great blessing, when
of the proper SOFT. and properly gain
ed. There is no one who longs for It
more thsu |. There is no one who
sees in it more of everything that goes
To form the free citizen-ihe "consu-
mate flower" of a atoms growth
But State has 30 more right to edu-
cate its Y, uths than an individual his
children at the expense of credItoTs.-
The taint of the source will cling to
ing noble men, there will grow up in
our midst those vino will feel through
life how dark a shadow even their
education casts upon the States his
tory.
Cur fathers did not need free schools
to make them what they were. Hap
py this generation could it rival them
in those virtues that 20 TO make up
81 IF u-f4aIfh ihnV
would not have tolerated them on the
soil of Virginia had they to be estab-
lished by the denial of their honest
debts.
The friends of free schools make q
woeful blunder if they think by such
means as this Till proposes to build
them up, or spread their usefulness.
They are stris ing them, as well as the
States fair FAM m st fatal blow.
Public free schools are not q necessi-
ty,. the world for hundreds of yeas
grew in wealth, culture, and refine
ment without them. They are
luxury. adding when skillfully con-
Quoted, il may be, to the beauty and
power of n State, but to be paid for.
ike aav other luxury, by the people
who wish their benefits.
GAItllOL, lIltltiOlt, bNllNNO NAaI VIZ
trainers of the organic law meant any.
thing else when they provided for
their creation and support. They did
not mean that we should deny the
uayInemt OF our dc hts, aud that, with
the money drawn from such source,
we should educate the children OF u 9
State. Whatever were their views OF
the benefits of education, they dlu not
think they ought To he bought at such
price. They believed, as you and L
believe, that even the life of the state,
like that Of the individual, saved by
loss of honor, 10 not worth much
Education, blessing as it Is, won In
such a way, contains a germ which
will be sure to bloom into q curse ;;
aud, believing this. they in the same
inatrument most fully acknowledged
the debt, and in several clauses pro-
vided for its payment.
That debt was due when fr e
scbooIs were scarcely, if ut all thought
Of as a system in the State; justly and
honestly due for full consideration
Since the war, and before the CoHstl-
tuiiOn was adopted, IL was four times
Acknowledged, and directly or indi-
rectly promises made TO pay 1t with
interest. and the charge of its repudlS-
tion most Indignantly spurHed 10y an
almost if not unanimous vote of n Leg
islature composed of men of the old re-
gime; among the ablest. 5est and tru-
est who ever grew upon Virginia soil,
and, whatever may be said OF those
who framed the Constitution, 1t VIII
not be deaied that it Wes adopted by
the people of the State.
will not now cast a stigma upon
those men by saying that they were
guilty. deliberately. of a pious fraud,
by plsnting the seeds of Reputation in
the organic law, the fruits Of which
they proposed thereafter to gather.
Whatever value may be put upon
the school system, however much We