New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-22
nDTER.EDTCtTION.D

a paragraph Is travelling through the newspapers
which attributes TO ex-senator Cameron rather
eiuarlar and we may say star ling opinion. The
puruort oi th,s "a that in the Sonth the young ne
f,rocs are "oycr-educated." This, the ex-senator
holds # he ~ correctly reported, units them Tor
work. II also develops their vicious qualities"
II likewise "cOnyoris them INTO sharpcrs." II this
bc truc we must be- allowed TO say that 1t is very
dlsconrlgug. For # black youth IN danger
from oyer-cducation, we cannot see why white,
yonth are not IN equal peril. nor why cducntion NJ
fine North is not to be- Judged III the way. The
charge srcally one against whole common school
systom IL also happens that 1t ~ 4 very old ono.
The opponent. Of popular education took precisely
this ground even III Massachusetts,, IN trying tn
preyeut the establishment OF High Schools. They
said that advanced studies would unit young men
for manual labor. They wanted popular education
to stop with reading. writing, arithmetic and, may
bc Grammar. There are not wanting those who are
still of the same mnd. although they are not many
Iruf,rtunatcly these faul FLINDERS do not tell us
inst whore. their opinion. the line should be
drawn We do not blame them for this, Tor they
orld NOT tell us if they tried. Any education, even
Of the slightest character, would have the same re-
sult which they precatc that is, If they right
or reasonable in their predictions. Wo do not say,
" What will you do with white children I" for that
rston is settled by the common sense of the North
Inf we may properly ask What will You do with
Iloc,, childrenp Suppose that they left in the
d.rse ipuorance which preceded emancipation Cut
,beu off from reading and writing; let them have
ma more knowledge OF anything than is absolutely
necessary to the tiIer OF the soil the' lower order
of mechanics; put out The light which has just be-
am, boweycr fecbiy, to illuminate their lives DO
dis and what will come nextf Nothing has been
occompllshed except, far as possible, to repeal
the emancipation and make the blacks slaves again.
W. sball 90 back substantially to serfdom Names,
m such matters. are nothing. Only there will be
this difference. If you stop educating the
freedmen. You must also stop their voting.
Thu boon of voting without the boon of
education will be not only absurd. but
daDperous-in fact neither will be u boon at all.
Take away the education and the votes, and
we shall at once have three millions Of slaves again.
Can II be. after all its sangunary experience, that
rho country still bankers for the old domestic in
stitution. the very cornerstone of which was pro-
found lgnoranceT
II the negroes are getting an education, as the
ex -Senator says they are, which develops their
vicious qualities" the sooner we have educa-
tioual reform the better. Laborers most of these
sable pnpils must necessarily be and whether they
are TO be aborers or not it would be cruel to CON
vert them into sharpers." In some parts of tho
South formerly colored men reluctant to labor
for reasons not ut all connected with their immense
literary advancement; and even now these reasons
may still exist in certain localities II negro here