The Republican journal., 1881-02-03
The Educational Question.

| tar from beng q / oOiS frTdllu. lluef
the title of "Aaron's Rod in Politics. he
toreshadows the coming national issue as
the educational question. The Thought
which is to compel a new departure in
politics" he says sis the relation Of the
general government-t American ma
ton or the American people-to the il
| literate voters of the several States" 1t
is hardly necessary to urge the necessity
for popular education everybody is ia
miliar with the stock arguments used in
| its behalf: everybody knows it is the high
average of intelligence which has given
this country its present prestige and pros
perity: everybody knows, Richard Grant
| White to the contrary Notwithstanding,
that in the common schools We're laid the
! foundations for the future greatness Of
many of our citizens. The converse OF
| the propositions by which the necessity
of popular education is urged are equally
familiar. Ignorance and vice 90 hand in
| hand. There are no possible dangers to
| threaten our republic from without SO
| greatly to be feared as those arising from
iIliteracy within. Ignorance among the
people, the source of power, is poisoning
| the stream ut its fountain head. And it
| is to this danger Judge Tourgee calls at
tention in a stirring article, which will
carry conviction to many. He treats the
question ably, and not from a partisan
standpoint. But his sympathies are nat
urally with the Republican party and he
admonishes that party not to neglect this
issue, which public sentiment is demand
ing shall be pressed to a successful con
clusiOn. There are difficulties to be over
come, of course. A movement in behalf
of popular education on the part of the
| general government will be pretty sure
to exercise 'the demon of State soveT-
eignty;' to Grouse the sleeping lion" in
the breast of the hide bound Bourbon.
We shall be told that the Constitution
does not provide for such a step. Nor
does it. But, as Judge Tourgce points
out, "the Departments Of Agriculture,
! the Coast survey, scientific and exploring
| expeditions, the Military and Naval Acad-
emies at West Point and Annapolis, and
many other branches of administrative
work are beyond the purvieW of the writ
ten Constitution" If not warranted by
the letter Of that instrument they are at
least in accord with the spirit of our in
situations and with the advancing civil
cation Of the age in which we live. The
| Constitution is a good anchor, but our
ship of state is not destined to swing for
ever idly at her moorings AS to the
power Of Congress over the subject mat
ter Judge Tourgee says
! The power TO provide for the education of the
people to secure the intelligence Of its electors
and thereby prevent its dislntegration and de
struction is one of these incidents of national ex-
isence The right Of selfpreservation and de-
fence is as much al essential of national o. in
dividual life. The power to provide for an inttl-
gent exercise of the ballotorial right is necessary
|
ruled By the ballot. the ballotbox must be kept
open, tree, and the power to be exercised through
1t must be the power of intelligence. The rule OF
the ballot implies supervision and the power 10
make all particpa in our governmental control,
| implies the right to make them lit TO do 50. Man
hood suffrage. equality of right presupposes, in
the power comforting such equality. the power and
the right to render the recipient capable of its in
| telligent exercise. The safety Of the republic is
the highest law, and the most evident condition
IF its pta hat bnp phr, nt. slilnh how
cient intelligence to know what they desire to do
and when they are doing it The illiterate man
who holds ballot is like the blind man who
| Yields sword-he knows Lot whether he wounds
friend or foe
The ballot box controlled by ignorance is as
much an instrument Of chance dice box The
| illlterate has, in the first place, but limited
| means of learning how he ought to vote, and no
| means at all of making sure that he has voted as
| he wishes. He is the ready victim Of fraud He
| invites deception, and furnishes tood to the dem
| agogue. He is more to be feared than the traitor
| or usurper, because he constitutes the following
| which makes treason dangerous The ignorant
voter swells the rank and file Of the army that fol
| lows at the heels of the corrupt politician. Educa
| ton does not make men honest, but it enables
| them to detect fraud. 1t is safe guard, because
the bulk of mankind are honest, and If intelligent
enough to distinguish the right will follow it. The
power to educate its voters then, is and must
be- inherent in any republic because it is only an
incident of the national right of self defence
The facts that some seventeen per cent
of our population is illiterate, and that
twenty per cent. of our voters cannot read
their ballots, by no means disclose, in
Judge Tourgee's opinion, 'the immnency
of our national peril" The real danger,
he thinks, lies in the unequal distribution
of the percentage of illiterates. He pre-
sents table computed from the census
of 1870, with the remark that while the
recent census will considerably increase
the aggregates it is not probable that it
will materially effect the relative proper
tons. This table reveals the following
facts
!. The sixteen Southern States contain about
one third of our voting population, and ui,post
| three toaiutS OF our Wttef0cY
2 Forty five per cent. of the voters of the South
ern States are unable to read their ballots
B. The illiteracy of the South plus six per cent
OF the lterate voters, can exercise the entire
power of those States.
f. If this illiterate vote be neutralzed by force
or fraud, majority Of the intelligent voters or
twenty eight per cent of the entire vote of these
States, will exercise their entire national strength
These States have one hundred and thirty eight
electoral votes or, in other words they exercise
serenity tro per cent Of the power necessary to
choose President or constitute majority in the
House of Representatives, and ei1hty.fou PEI. cent
of majority in the Senate.
The remedy proposed by Judge Tour
gee is the raising Of a national education
al fund, to be distributed on the basis OF
illiteracy, the payment Of the fund to be
made directly to the officers or teachers
f of schools in towns or districts, accord
ing to the number of illiterates therein
and on proof that schools, free to all
> within school age, have actually been
kept in operation therein for a certain
specified portion of the year The sun
| allou.od !. IA .,.,..G -