Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-02-04


ONE WAY OF RELIEVING THE
NATION OF ITS NEW BURDEN
OF IGNORANCE.
One of the most interesting articles we
have read for some time on this subject Is
one in the ssNorth American Review" by
Albion W. Tourgee, the author OF "a
FOOLS Errandi' Its interest is not only
in the ability Of the writer which is great,
but in the fact that it is strong presenta
ton of one of the thoughts pervading the
anxious mind of the North about the pos
sibility of removing the dangerous burden
of ignorance, which the gift of the ballot
to the enfranchised black man has given
the nation to bear. The writer, who has
searched the census for his facts, shows
that forty-6ve per cent. of the voters IN
the southern States are unable to read
their ballots, this he holds renders them
unable to knew their political duty; to be
sure that their ballots represent their
wishes; to secure the counting of the ballot
they cast, or to protect themselves in the
exercise of their ballotorial privileges. The
exercise of power by these voters is as dan
gerous to the nation as the suppression of
their votes by force or fraud. They are
like the blind man with a sword who is
as likely to wound friend as foe. The dan
ger to the nation is the greater because in
the States where resides this mass OF ig-
norance also resides seventy-two per cent
of the power to choose President or con
stitute majority of the House of Repre-
sentatives, and eighty-four per cent. of a
majority in the Senate. Of the Republic
can party at the South seventy-6ve per
cent. is colored. The writer correctly
thinks that disruption of the "Solid
South and the distribution of the colored
vote between the fragments, we're it posi-.
BILE, would only be temporary remedy
for the evil which threatens the nation s
future.
There are two methods by which the
danger from this illiteracv may be
avoided; one, depriving the illiterate of
the ballot, method which can never be
adopted because one third of the states
would never agree to it, and the other
national aid to education. This last idea
he thinks was struck rather by accident
than intent by the Republican platform Ct
1880, and but feebly and timidly struck at
that, and to give it definite shape is the
aim OF his article. The writer thinks the
constitution sufficiently elastic to admit of
the exercise by Congress of this power.
West Point, Annapolis, the Signal Service,
the Department of Agriculture. are all
ventures outside of the constitution, and
ventures that never entered the thoughts
of the trainers of it, but the logic of their
existence was irresistible. So, the right
of self preservation against ignorance is
essential to the national life, and the pow
er to confer suffrage pre-supposes the right
to render its recipient capable Of its intel
ligent exercise. The illiterate voter is
more to be feared than the traitor or usur
per because he constitutes the following
which makes treason dangerous. There
are several plans for educating the litter
ate voter mentioned by Judge Tourgee.
one being the assumption by the general
government of the duty Of educating its
citizens without reference to State organ
izations. But touching this plan he thinks
that neither public sentiment nor the
iminency of the peril is such as to justify
such a radical departure from the system
of coordination which has hitherto exist
ed between the State and national govern
ments. The true plan he thinks is to raise
a sufficient national fund for educational
purposes, distribute it on the basis of
illiteracy, make the payment of the fund
directly to officers or teachers of schools in
towns and districts according to the num-
Der of illiterates therein, with thorough
supervision and inspection of the schools
thus assisted. The result he thinks would
be to apply more than two-thirds of the
fund to primary education at the South as
long as the present illiteracy existed there.
This, Judge Tourgee thinks would be SIM
pie justice. Slavery grew through nation
al encouragement and the amount inves-
ted in it yearly increased until the war be-
gan. The war not only destroyed this
capital but by making the freedman cit
izen imposed on some one the burden of
his instruction. The undertaking is an
enormous one for State or nation and for
the Southern States it is an impossible one
In hundred years they could not edu-
cate their illiterate population so that the
nation would not be constantly imperiled
by this mass of ignorance. The nation
not only encouraged slavery but profted
by it, the Northern merchant shared the
profit of every pound of cotton raised by
the Southern planter. and the Northern
manufacturer had the advantage of this
great market protected for him from for
eign competition by a tariff which made
every planter of the South pay tribute to
him. Equity and good conscience as we'll
as public safety demand that the nation
should assume a fair share of this burden.
The plan of Judge Tourgee does not pro-
pose that the states be the almoners of the
fund, but that it shall be distributed pref
ty much on the plan of the Peabody fund
to the people direct by the government.
Nor does it propose that the general gov
eminent shall have any control of such
schools as receive their quota but that if
they do receive it, they shall also be open
to the inspection and supervision Of rep
resentative of that government who shall re-
port on their methods, grade and operation.
The result Of his plan he says would be to
rapidly increase the number of men who
know how to vote, strike at the root of the
exodus by enabling the laborer to intel
ligently guard himself at home against
fraud; give an opportunity for reorganiz-
incr tho Raunhlican Marty of the South and