National Republican., 1880-12-22
National Education.


The prospect of extending the benefits
and blessings of education TO the people
who are too poor to provide for it from
their own means, and especially to the
colorcd race in the South, is another
source of grief to our brethren of the
Democratic persuasion. The Utica Oh
serrer, one of the leading Democratic jour
nails of the State of New York, declares
that the national educational bill is un-
democratic, and thon solaccs its sorrow
by intimating that the Southern Senators
who voted for it are all old Wings, and
hence not representative Democrats
All this is true, no doubt. The
Democratic party never has been dis
tinguished for its devotion to the cause
of civilization, education, and advance
mcnt. 1t understands too we'll the true
elements of Democratic success in this
country. 1t knows that its strength
centres in the great cities, which are
counted as moral ulcers on the body
polite, and most decidedly in those local
tiles where ignorance and vice are pre-
dominant. Knowing this, and desiring
to prolong vitality and length of days for
itself, it would be strange indeed If IL
should be found favoring any change of
policy that would sap the foundations Of
its power, and peril its future success.
As civilization expands and education
and intelligence spread themselves over
the face of society, the vital powers of
the Democratic party diminish and dis
appearand itslongevity becomes abridged.
1t is a notable fact, established under or
dinary observation, that in those sections
of the rural districts where school-houses
are most numerous and the benefits of
education are most widely dispensed
among the people, the Democratic party
is weakest and has the least hold upon
the popular judgment. Is it strange,
under such circumstances, that the Demo-
Gratis should denounce the national cdu-
cational bill rs undemocratic? 1t is the
truth, simple and unadorncd and what
is most surprising is that, coming from
that party, the elements of truth are so
prominent in furnishing the motive
which impels the denunciation. No
where in the country has Democratic
hostility to the cause of popular educa-
ton been more markedly manifest
than in the State of Virginia.
Under wise auspices an educational
fund had been appropriated and sacredly
dedicated to the cause of popular educa-
ton in that State. The rising generation
had hope and promise of the means of
an education that would prepare them
for future usefulness. But in an evil day
the Bourbon Democracy obtained control
of the state Government, and this sacred
fund was seized upon and dissipated, thus
dcspoiling the people of sacred boon.
No stronger proof can be adduced of the
hostility of the Democratic party to edu-
eating the masses Of the people than is
furnished in its history in the Old
Dominion. The density of Democratic
Bourbonism is nowhere in the land more
patent than in Virginia, where it lays it's
hand ruthlcssly upon fund sacredly
dedicated to the cause of popular educa-
ton. The result is that the school
houses in that State have been very gen.
orally closed, the teachers dismissed, and
the children remanded to their homes to
remain in ignorance, or obtain such ad-
vantagcs of education as cluster around
the flresidc. This is Bourbonism in Vir-
ginia and elsewhere in the country
where that political upas sheds its poison
upon the face of society.