Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-16

eenth century because of their superior edu- cation.
 Mr. Merrill followed in carefully prepared 1 speech explanatory of the bill, reviewing the history of legislation on the subject of edu-
 cation, showing the progress made by the ag- ricultural colleges established by the govern 1 ment and pointing out the advantages to be obtained by the passage of some measure of 1 this character
 MT. Brown also supported the bill, start ing with the declaration that the stability of
 the republic depends upon the virtue and in telligence of it's people, With sparse pop
 ulation it had not been of such vital impor-
 tance, but with population of hundred
 million closely bound together, where large assemblages of ignorance could be hastily as sembled, there would be but little safety The interests of the country required 1t and the government should see that the intelligence of the country is developed and cultivated He deplored the deficient system of public
 schools in the South, through which the chil- dren of the poorer classes failed to be educated. Besides j. this there
 were four million slaves, whom
 it was deemed unsafe to educate while slaves,
 and it was hazardous experiment to give
 them freedom without education. He re-
 ferred to the slave trade of New England and
 slavery in the South, claiming that the sav-
 ages of Africa brought to this country as
 slaves were improved intellectually and mor-
 ally. It had been said by Presbyterian
 minister in New York, before the war, that
 there was more Christianity among the slaves
 in the South than among all the black men
 in Africa. There was an overwhelming Prov
 idence which took these savages prisoners
 and slaves from the wilds in Africa and made
 them slaves here, and in it's own good time
 tore slavery out by the, roots through the war.
 Before the war the right to their slaves was
 guaranteed by the Constitution, but when
 the South went into the war they knew if
 they failed they hazarded this constitutional
 right Following the freedom of the slaves
 came the bestowal of citizenship and the right to hold office, giving the negroes all the legal rights possessed by any citizen of the
 United States All these rights had been given without education. Here is a grave problem. The South was not able to edu- cate this four million people. The South was poor. It had lost two billion in slaves and two billion in support of it's armies for four years. They have lost large ly through destruction by the armies, and when the war ended they had to return to the Union and take their just proportion of the war debt for the suppression of the re- bellion. Before the war it was not the poli- cy of the South to educate the colored race Since the war it was their policy to give them the best education possible. He felt grateful to the Senators from New England for the interest manifested in the education of this class. He knew it had been said they had been sometimes cheated at the ballot box. Ignorance could be cheated everywhere, and he had no doubt all had seen ignorance cheated in the North as well as in the South. He de- clared himself in favor of 8 free ballot and a fair count He wanted to see it in Louisiana and Georgia, in New York, in Massachusetts, in Ohio and everywhere. Mir. Brown spoke in high terms of the educational institutions al- ready established by the government and said his only regret was that the fund as proposed by the bill was not large enough. He was aware that constitutional objections to the bill had been raised, but the recent struggle had enlarged the powers of the government The right of the government to dispose of the proceeds of the public land had never been questioned. Then there was another clause which guaranteed republican form of government to the States. If he was right in his opening remark, then it became the duty of the government to provide for the education of the people. He did not think there was any constitutional objection to the bill
 The bill was temporarily laid aside and the Senate took up the bill to pay Samuel A. Low, $4, 75O as clerk of the Territory of Kan sas for the compilation of the statutes of that Territory in 1855. MT. Ingalls, 6ercely de- the bill as an attempt to make the Senate of the United States pay for the con- pilation of the bogus statutes or slave code enacted by the so-called territorial Legisla- ture of Kansas, which met first at Paronce and then removed to the Sharone mission school, which never had a recognized exist ence. He denounced the code compiled by Lowe as the most damnable and outrageous code of statutes ever conceived
 Messrs. Vest, Edmunds and Cockren de- bated the question for a time, and what might have proved spicy and interesting debate on the Kansas territorial troubles was cut short by motion by MT. Allison to go in to executive session which, without disposing journed.