Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-10-23
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION,

In his great grafton delivered at
Yorktown last Wednesday,, Hon.
Robert G. Winthrop made use of the
following language:
But let me add at once that, with
view to all these ends, and as the
indispensable means of promoting
and securing them all, universe,
education, without distinction of
race, must be encouraged, aided, and
enforced. The elective franchise can
never be taken away from any of
those to whom it has once been
granted, but we can and must make
education coextensive with the cleo
tive franchise; and it must be done
without delay, as measure of self-
defence, and with the general 90
operation of the authorities and
of the people of the whole
country One half of our country,
during the last ten or fifteen years,
has been opened for the first
time to the introduction and estab.
ishment of free common schools,
and there is not wealth enough at
present in that region to provide for
that great necessity. 1.-TWO millions
of children without the means of in
s'ruction," was the estimate of the
late DR.. Sears, in 1879. Every year
brings another installment of brutal
ignorance to the polls, to be the sub.
iect of caiolement, deception, corrup-
ton or intimidation. Here, here ia
our greatest danger for the future.
The words of our late lamented Pres
ident, in his inaugural, come to us
to day with redoubled emphasis from
that Enclosed grave on the lake
Cali the constitutional power of the
Nation and of the States, and all
the volunteer forces of the people,
should be summoned to meet this
danger by the saving influence OF
universal education. No drouth or
food or conAagration, no succession
of drouths or floods OF confagra-
tons, can be SO disastrous to our
material wealth, as this periodical in-
fuk, these annual foundations oil
ignorance, to our moral and political
welfare. Every year, every day OF
delay increases the difficulty Of
meeting the danger. Slavery is but
half abolished, emancipation is but
half completed, while millions Of
freemen with votes in their hands
are left without education. Justice
to them, the welfare of the States in
which they live, the safety of the
whole republic, the dignity of the
elective franchise, alike demand thai
the still remaining bands of ignor
ance shall be Embossed and broker
and the souls as we'll as the bodies
of the emancipated go free!
/ know whereof I speak; and havt
certainly given time enough to tn.
subject for fourteen years past, il
my relations to a great Southern
trust, to learn, at least, what tina
trust has done, what it can do, ant
what it cannot do. t-has been, thuI
far, as voice crying in the wilder
ness, calling on the people of thu
South to undertake the great work TO.
themselves, and preparing the way fol
its successful prosecution. It may b.
looked back upon, one of these days
if not now, as a little leaven which
has leavened the whole lump. Blu
the whole lump must be kneaded ant
moulded and worked over, with IN
ceasing activity and energy, by ever,
town, village and district, for itself
or there will be not sufficient breae
for the hungry and furnished masses
And there must be aid and appro
priations and endowments, by cit
les and States and by the nation Al
large, through its public lands, if il
no other way, and to an amount com
pared with which the gift Of George
Peabody, magnificent as it was fol