The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-12-23
Universal Education.

of the day in the Senate was the debate on tn
bill proposing to devote portion Of thehpro
ceeds of public lands to public education Mr.
Burnside (Rep., R. ~ introduced the bill ant
spoke very briefly in its favor. Mr.. Morrill,
rep, Vt.,) who had the right to the foo
from yesterday and gave way to Mr. Burnside
delivered lengthy speech in support of tht
measure, and Senator Brown Dem, Ga
closed the debate for the day in ringing
speech in favor of the bill
Mr.. Morrill, said that the bill proposed tc
consecrate the proceeds of the public lands te
the education of the people. As the amount
of such sales will hereafter be small it is pro
posed to add to this education fund the net
proceeds of all receipts for patents, after de-
Quoting the expenses of the Patent Office. The
entire fund is then TO be invested in United
States bonds, and the interest annually appor-
toned to the various States and territories,
upon the basis of population between the ages
of five years, except that for the first ten years
the apportionment is to be made according to
the numbers of their population of ten years
and upward who cannot read and write; with
the further provision that one-third OF the in
come from the fund shall be annually appro-
priated to the more complete endowment and
support of colleges established, or such as may
hereafter be established in accordance with
wv CIV " O6i So' app ~ ~ Aoo.' u a tiio
annual income OF each snail amount 70 S5o,u00;
and thereafter all beyond that sum is to be de-
voted to the education of the children of the
several States and Territories, between the
ages of six and sixteen years. Authority is
also to be given for the acceptance of any
sums donated for these objects by will or 9TH
erWise, and the donations in our country for
educational purposes have been and are likely
to be of unexampled liberalty. Among other
FEATURES OF the Oil Is one pfoVidlng Ior tne
special instruction OF common school teachers
MI Morrlil argued that the amount OF the
pubic DOMAIN couid oe devoted TO no nobler
purpose than the 1urtnerance OF popular edu-
cation. lie reviewed the history OF the land
grant colleges winch were established In 1862,
and OF which there are in 1851 a total OF forty
one, with an aggregate fund OF $5,3lO,o92, and
an average OF $50 students and IL professors to
each; still, these institutions are entitled to
the unstmted favor OF Congress, and they
should receive 1t. as proposed by the bill The
census returns OF 1870 show 4,o28 ,0S4 illlterate
people in the United States, In the same sta
Iistical neighborhood OF this ugly fact comes
another equally regretable, that we have OF
school population 14,41o,923, while only 5,003,.
1913 are in actual daily attendance at school.
The fate of these millions Of unschooled boys
and girls, the budding flowers OF life, greatly
depends upon the fate OF this bill Every
American heart will beat in harmony with an
effort to Danish illiteracy throughout the land,
and any person born here after 1880, and I'M
lble to read and write, should bel phenome-
non. For existing deficiencies no reproach
applies to the present generation, which may
well be excused from any ancestral RESPONSE
oiity; nor can we afford to hiss those who
ire now acting on the same great stage with
ourselves, but the responsibility will weigh
heavily upon the men of to-day for whatever
literacy hereafter survives. Under our form
If government, swayed to and fro by universal
suffrage, it becomes our gravest duty as legis-
ators to take heed that all those who WELD
power at the ballot box shall be fully informed
IF the high trust they hold, and of their duty
% discharge that trust with fidelity to the
whole country and to the sacred obligations of
IN enlightened conscience All of our citizens
hat intellectual and moral dignity which ap-
oreciates and accepts some personal RESPONSE
oilties to their country for their political priv
leges and for their appropriate exercise
Mr.. Morrill, also commended that popular ed
1cation became of all the more Importance be-
came of great numbers of illiterate immigrants
coming to our shores. Willing to labor and
anxious to learn-as should be this adventuI-
BUS host of comparative strangers to American
nstitutions-shall we not plant both common
schools and colleges among such raw and rel
ltively unrestricted multitude wherever it
nay be ultimately distributed; And as to the
indians, unless wars with them are to go on
brewer, giving to our little army difficult work
md no glory, they must be tanned while young
~ humane and generous instruction; but that
can hardly be required or support
I'd at the sole expense Of the separate states or
territories, all of which would probably with
more alacrity contribute to the swift expulsion
If these native lords of the soil from their
borders.
We have also four or five millions of color
ID people just released from the degradation of
slavery and intrusted with political power.
they need extensive primary and technical
,ducation, in order that they may to larger
extent find employment in many useful
branches OF industry beyond the shovel and
Zoe, and IN places where they were born. That
he prolific colored race, II not exlled or ostra-
'ized by relentless fate. will ultimately make
contributions to music, literature, oratory,
md many OF the arts which Americans will
lot be 10th to claim, can hardly be doubted
Mr.. Morrill, referred to the progress OF edu-
'atlon In Great Britain, Germany and other
nations OF Europe, and to meet this world
vide competition we cannot afford to fall be-
lind In schools and schooling. The best edu-
lated nations are the most powerful and pros
porous ones. Ii we are In large measure what
our fathers have made us, the next generation
Will be sure to be more or less fashioned by
hose who to-day provide and direct our sys-
EN- OF education. 1t is not enough that we
ia.o o. i4 "a "n 49,,
where nature has been equally bonntiful
,hould be the equally in productive power of
INV other acre or any other man. It is not
snough that. with population OF nearly fifty
million. only about twenty-five thousand stu
tents annually find their way through any
md all of the old literary colleges It seems
obvious that both colleges and common
schools reo,,ire the earnest attention and the
most precious resources of all the states, as
we'll as of the general government Without
undertaking tRe entire control of the general
;nbiect. Congress NAV vet legitimately make
, contribution so emnhatic that no state will
alter in generous co-oneration.
. The constitutional hover to donate public
lands or their proceeds for educational pur-
noses annears to have been long ago well set
led hv systematic annronriations amounting
to more than one hundred and forty million
acres to new states, or one-sixteenth part of all
the national domain within their boundaries.
"a, - - - -.