Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-01-21

osity has also sought the opportunity to make
many and large auxiliary donations. But,
almost without exception, they sOrely need
some further help to bc fully equipped for
the important work originally proposed and
now urgently demanded by the people of the
| respective States
1t may be confidently submitted that the
facts recited show these institutions to be en-
titled 10 the unstinted favor of Congress, and
that no other grant of lands has been bestow
ed upon a more worthy object, or one which
has been productive of more adequate and
comprehensive results. There is something
to show for the outlay, and it is destined to
last forever.
The second part of the present bill brings
to the front school houses; in the words of
Lowell, 'thc Martello towers that protect
our coast" 1t will he found, | fear, that
these in many places are insufficient in num-
Der and very inadequately supported.
1t would be vain to hide from ourselves
tn. wide extent of illteracy among our peo-
pie. The census returns of 1870 reveal the
fact that the aggregate number is 4, 52S, ,OS4.
In the same statistical neighborhood of this
ugly fact comes another equally regrettable.
that We have of school population IA, AIS, ,923,
while only 5,003, 29S are in actual daily at
tendance at school Think of it, Hardly
|
should have been in the schoOl-house were
there The fate of these millions of unschool-
ed boys and girls, the budding flowers of life,
greatly depends upon the fate of this bill.
Every American heart will beat in har-
mony with an effort to Danish illiteracy
throughout the land, and any person born
here after 1880, and unable to read and
write, should be phenomenon. For exist
ing deficiencies no rcproach applies to the
present generation. which may well be cx-
cuscd from any ancestral responsibility; nor
can we afford TO hiss those who are now act
ing on the same great stage with ourselves,
but the responsibility will weigh heavily
upon the men Of to-day foT whatever Hitter
acy hereafter survives.
If statesmen were 10 study National thrift
alone, or nothing but the material interests
of the people, nothing but how to give them
the greatest force in industrial efficiency for
the production Of wealth and ability to sup
port themselves and families, they could not
be unmindful of the material advantages or
of the increased power which follows uni
versal education. 1t diminishes pauperism
by opening new avenues TO labor, and by
showing how money can be saved as well as
earned. 1t makes rio:e of social lIfe and
there is less crime to he supported or pun
ished. 1t finds nobler fields of ambition than
fields of war, and cherishes human brother
hood 1t furnishes Il skilled force at hand
for constant wants and emergencies; TO build
railroads, TO open mines, to establish work
shops, and to build ships, as well as 10 make
the waste places blossom as the rose"
II the Iron he blunt. and he do not whet the edge
then must he be put 10 more strength
II men are to be made contented to remain
in the places of their birth, wearing ont their
lives in all respected AMI useful industries,
they must be made to feel that nowhere else
can there be found wiser or better instruction
for their children, and nowhere that that
instruction will he more generously appIe-
ciated.
But under our form OF government, sway
cd TO and fro by universal suffrage, it be-
comes our gravest duty rs legislators TO take
heed that all those who wicd power ut the
ballot box shall be fully informed of the high
trust they hold, and of their duty to dis
charge that trust with fidelity TO the whole
country and to the sacred obligations Of an
enlightened conscience. All of our citizens
not privileged part-must be raised to
that intellectual and moral dignity which
appreciates and accepts some personal rcspon-
slbility 10 their country for their political
privileges and for their appropriate exercise.
Large as are our boundaries and rs distin
gulshed as have proved many of our foreign
bern citizens the time approaches when the
short allowance of dense population must
be contemplated or when the stratened con-
dition of our children's children may force
them to assert, as rightful heirs, better title
to our National patrimony than that of
strangers TO its cost and strangers 10 the work
ings OF American institutions. Here is Il
grave question, and its solution cannot long
be safely postponed. IT, however, the dis
/ cDntputeI W hnr Asia
or from Europe, should cease 10 invade our
Shores the bulk of those now here are likely
to remain, and if they and their posterity re-
main unschooled, their degradation will be
our degradation. Our school houses AS well
as churches should therefore he wide open to
heathens, if here to stay, ratler than our jails
and houses of correction.
We are annually receiving large accessions
TO our population through immigration, and
more have been on the wing 10 our shores
this year than usual All other nations COM
bined receive much less. The bulk of our
illiteracy, unfortunately, can be traced in
many parts of the country 10 the foreign ele-
ment. In the years from 1870 to 1880, in
elusive, the number OF immigrants arriving
here appears to have been 3, 3,l99, ,39i, or a
number more than equal to our entire popu-
lalion in lii6, when We struck for ndepend-
ence. From 1c20 to 1870 the number OF i'm
migrants was 9,5l3 $40, making total since
1890 of IL, 1O4, ,52S OF these more than four
millions were from Great Britain and Ireland.
These great tidal waves of drifting popula
tion will continue to flood our shores as long
Us men and women are attracted by our free
institutions, by free homcslcads, by free
common schools, AMI by higher WAGES. They
are all claiming this as their home, for veal
or woe, destined to become citizens and in
s,f , ba L
ercise the privileges uf citizenship about as
soon as they are domcied Willing to labor
anxious to learn. as should be this adventur-
GUS host of comparative strangers to Amer-
can institutions, shall We not plant both COM
mon schools and colleges among such a raw
and relatively uninstructed multitude wher-
ever it may be ultimately distributed:
OF much smaller magnitude, not, however
so small as TO be wholly kept out OF sight is
the question Us to what shall lie done with
the various Indian tribes whose reservations
appear like blotches on our maps, and which
SO rudely exclude the culture of 50 much of
our vast domain west of the Mississippi
| These scattered representatives Of the orig
inal occupants of the American continent,
US their tribal relations become dis
solved, present primary and indisputable
theoretical claims TO citizenship. Il may not
have the force here of binding precedent,
but the Choctaws were permitted 10 hold
two seats in the Confederate Congress. OF
the present estimated two hundred and fifty
five thousand Indians in the nited States
whether slowly vanishing or slowly incrcas-
ing-not less than sixty thousand may I've
called civilized and sef-supporing.
The school at Hampton, Virginia. aud
more than at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, would
appear to show that the children of the red
man can be made To receive instruction and
10 learn the value Of industry as well as of
letters. The experiment, beyond all doubt,
has been measurable success. No one here
or elsewhere has objected 10 the schools,
nor To the one hundred and Sc 7cnty day
and boarding schools which have been
also established and supported by the
nation among the different tribes. Our people
in coming ages. when sharply called 10 give
some account of what We have done with
10, the poor Indian cannot deny that we
have been his keeper and will moi regret that
even these few humble schools stand TO our
credit.
Unless wars with the wild Indians are to
60 on forever, giving 10 our little army dill
cult work and no glory, they must be tanned
while young by humane ami generous in
structIon, but HAT instruction tan hardly be
required OF supported at the sole expense OF
the separate Slutcs or Territories
We have also some four or five million OF
c,loreI people, just released from the deg
radiation of slavery suddenly iniruSted with
all til. political power welded 10y any equal
number Of citizens wherever they may be.
and equally eligible to the highest positions
in offices OF trust anu honor. Freedmen, by
emancipation and the right ui suffrage, nave
reached Aristotlc's definition ut men, and
have become political animals, hut without