Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-03-04
The Public Schools-Relationeh OF
Parents TO Children-Who can
ana who should Control
Compulsory Education.

EDITOR HERALD I'll beg leave to
submit TO the public, through the
medium Of your valued and wide
spread paper, q few remarks; first
on the relationship between parents
and children second, on the rela-
tlonship in which parents and chill.
dren stand with respect to the state
or government and third, on the
great subject Of public schools. My
attention was turned to those subjects
by . letter written by q lady who
signed herself canon" which letter
appeared in the HERALD of Septem-
Der 25th. l e
First in order then is tho relation
ship that exists between parents and
children. This 10 unalterably fixed
by the laws of nature and Of natures
God. Parents are bound BY both
the divine and human laws, a. we'll
40 by the ties of natural affections, to
feed, clothe, lodge, protect and in
every way provide for their children,
and to keep thsm as much as posi-
BILE out of the way of all dangers and
INFECTIONS as regards both health aud
morals. They are required by the
divine law to teach them daily and
diligently the law Of God as they
find 1t written 10 the old and new
testaments, seven the King on
his throne is bound to preserve .
true copy, and read it daily TO his
children" See Deut. 4, 6, IL and II
chapters,and Psalm rs. And child.
rem are bound as strictly to obey
their parents by both the divine and
human law, in Lev. 10 CHIP. and
81 verse and Prov, Chap. IS, 1915
and %; Luke, 2 Chap. ard 81 verse;
Eph. 8 Chap. and versa. Col. Sd
Chap. and goth verse, aud many
other scriptures. Add parents ara
held responsible for all breaches Of
the divine and civil law committed
BY their children, as long as they are
under their control, and that is as
long as they have legal right to 90
to public schools. Thus we see tha,
parents are bound by all laws, natur.
81, divine and humsn,to support, care
for and train up their children in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord
in order that they may become use.
ful and good citizens. And in order
that they may fully consummate this
duty, children are bound by the same
laws to obey their parents in all
things, and no other person or per.
sons, for.they cannot serve two mas
ters.
Our second topic is the position Of
relation in which parents and child,
rem stand as regards the state OF
government. And first, remark
that the genius of the laws and gov.
eminent of the United States is ia
be secure, free snd untrammeled lib
erty to all its citizens, to do that
which is good and best calculated to
promote and secure the most refined
civilization, thliberty Of conscience
in the religion of the bible, and to
suppress all wrong or evil doings
that will tend in any way to retard
the progress Of others, and to promp,
its citizens to do this more by
example than by arbitrary law.
The laws of the United States and
the statutory laws of each State are,
or ought to be predicated upon the
divine law. (See Blackstone's Law
Commentary. And these laws
leave, as we have seen, the edu Ca.
ton of children to their parents alto.
gether. And nothing can be more
revolving to the minds of kind and
tender parents, Gall parents are kind
and tender) than after feeding, cloth.
ing. indicating, and in ali things
caring for their children, to be com.
PEELED to send them to school over
which they have no control. Not
even over the books that are put in
to their hands to read and study. and
for which they are made to pay an
exorbitant price, and from which
the bible, the standard Of all civil.
cation, is rejected. and in which
there are no established rules OF
government but that of the rod, or
some other fantastical method of en-.
forcing obedience to the mandates Of
the disinterssted pedagogue. Thus
parents may and often do send their
children to school in the morning and
receive them home at evening with
their backs or limbs chequered over
with the rod or otherwise abused. ]
do not think that in view of the rela.
tive position that parents and chill.
dren stand in with the State, and in
view of the fundamental laws of the
United States, that any State has
power to enact q statute compelling
parents to send their children to such
schools or to any school. The very
thought of the State having such an
unnatural control over parents and
children is painful to all parents and
children who enjoy natural affection,
and was never known in any truly
civilized, to say nothing about chris.
tanned government in the world.
Shall we, the most civilized and chris
tianized nation on the earth emulate
heathenism or follow the legislation
of their heather law -giver, Lycurgus,
who was conversant with the heath.
gods, or shall we patronize the semi.
civilized governments in Europe
whose citizens are deserving them
and making rapid strides to our best
OF governments as an asylum from
oppression ? No; let us improve
upon our good laws, repeal our bad
ones, and provoke one another to EN-.
ulation by example. All truly civil.
lied American parents have natural
affection for their children and are
ambitious to have their children ex.
eel their neighbours children, in all
knowledge and preferment, and
need no unnatural and oppressive
laws to compel them to send their
children to school, if schools were
what they should and might be. y
Bot large majority of our citi-
liens have to do as they can and not
as they would, and have to be salts
fed with limited edcation for their
children. Some are providentially
kept back in the world, and may not
be able to sufficiently clothe their
children or 10 nurchaaa hooks auch