The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-03-07

official position imposes. He asserts that
The estate has contracted that all 1.-THE taxes)
may be paid in coupons that is the school
AK included-yet ignores the fact that the
Constitution, which was adopted before the
contract was entered into, provides diff
ferently, and that it was this point which
Judge Staples SO ably discussed in his dis
senting opinion in the Antoni VS.. Wright
case, and it is this very point, raised in
more perspicuous and less obscure manner
divorced from the isolated question OF cou-
pons, and comprehending the existence of
the State-that the Barbour bill presented
for the courts to determine. The Governor,
however, in his supreme wisdom and legal
prescience, smashes the point with one fell
blow Of his battle-axe veto.
''Our fathers did not need free schools to
make them what they were," is one of the
sentences which the Governor would like
the people to accept as an argument to JUS
tlfy his extraordinary action. Had we con-
fined ourselves to the habits and usages of
''our fathers" railroads and the telegraph
would not be the agents of commerce and
communication, betting the globe and span
ming continents. From the time the Barons
wrung Magma Charta from King John,
the spirit of freedom and mans rights
have been progressing in the successive
generations of Anglo-Saxons. The Puri-
tans ard Cavaliers breasted the tempests and
waves Of the ocean, under the inspiration
Of liberty, and, as the decades rolled on,
their yearnings were formulated into con-
stiuution and government, based upon the
intelligence and virtue of the people. The
very idea Of Republican government means
an educated constituency, and the approach
we make to perfection in our Institutions
in the great canons of free thought, free
speech, free press and free gospel, and
government Of the people, for the people,
and by the people,-will be measured by
the educational advantages Of all the people
who constitute the government. What has
been achieved in the ';past hundred years."
'without free schools,' is nothing to be
compared with what will be achieved in the
next hundred years to come aoith free
schools. We believe in the progressive ex
pansion of human intellect and comprehen-
sion, in the improvement of all the agencies
which go to strengthen the intellections and
refine aud develop the moral forces, and
among them we count as paramount the
school-house, open to every child, whatever
his birth or condition. No grander mission
can invoke the functions Of government
than the education OF the rising generation,
which must direct the States destinies and
gauge its moral and intellectual growth. To
assume that the public free schools are not
necessity" but luxury to be paid
for as you would your brandy smashes or
theatre tickets, is to confess to an ignorance
of the character Of our institutions, an in
difference to the great groundwork upon
which they are erected, and the pathway OF
religious and political freedom blazoned
by the Republic of America. The Governor
of no other Commonwealth in the broad
limits of the Union would so have affronted
the intelligence of the world by such dec
laration. But Governor Holiday is mere
atom in the intellectual world-a moat dane
ing in the sunbeam of popular intelligence,
and can no more arrest the popular thirst
for knowledge and the yearnings Of the peo-
pie for light and truth, than he could turn
back the current of the Mississippi by a
wave of his hand. France ''drunk with
blood, "and, inspired by materialistic reason
ing, Keeling in infidelity, could decree no
Sabbath, sneer and scoff at Religion, and
adore instead the Goddess of Reason in the
figure of brazen naked female; but it does
not follow that we, basking in the light Of
the civilization of the 18th century, are pre-
pared to close the school-house, the Sabbath.
school and the sacred records of Revelation
to the poor children OF Virginia, in order
to satisfy the demands of the heartless spec
ulators in the States misery and destitu-
ton, or because "our fathers'' lived under a
less enlightened dispensation. The very God
of humanity and justice would send a wither-
ing blight upon the sacrilege, and vindicate
his own purpose in the intellectual and
moral improvement and advancement of
the human race.
We do not know that 1t is unfortunate that
Governor Holiday has seen proper to shock
the sense of right and justice Of the people
of Virginia by his message and the reasons
upon which it is based. 1t is challenge
for conflict with the friends of Free Schools
and humanity. 1t unveils the motives and
purposes of the enemies of the people, and
vcrifes all that we have so frequently said,
as to the secret springs which have been
moving men and organizations in Virgin
ia. 1t means war against the Free Schools.
1t is to crush and keep down the people,
that the privileged few may rule without
challenge. 1t is to 60 back to the restric-
tions upon mans rights; nourish classes,
and make the people hewers Of wood and
drawers of water. The issue is boldly made.
and it is for the conscience and manhood
of the State to say how it shall be decided.
We cannot say that we did not expect it.
1t has come, however, sooner than we an
ticipated. It is thrust upon us with rash-
ness that partakes of desperation. 1t savors
Of the fixed bayonet charge from ambush,
and ventures the result upon an assault by
surprise. We mistake the temper of the
people Of Virginia, however, If they 10 not
meet it like men who know their rights, and
knowing dare maintain them.
The "Dispatch" Of the LIST says: AUDI.
tor Taylor stated on Monday that consider.
ably over a million of dollars Of the revenue
due OH the LIST of December last went 0vel
unpaid, and so will remain until the 18th Of
June next" The Dispatch proceeds 'sWhy
is that 1t is the result of slack-twisted
legislation--an inexcusable weakness of the
Legislature that yields on almost all occa'
sions to the appeals of collectors OF the pub
i lie revenues"
And why are those appeals NADER Sim
ply because the collectors know that to force
the collections would be to confiscate the
property of the people, and throw thousands
out of house and home. Property at forced