The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-03-02
HOW is 1T DONE.

HOW IS IT DONE.
Now when the emigrants pour in
upon us, even with a double volume
many persons stand aghast and say
they will destroy our liberties; they
will destroy our laws; they will de
lude public sentiment; they viii cor
rupt religion; they will undermine
morats. l am not afraid of any OF
these things. Ladies and gentle
men, as long as the digestion is with
US and the assimilation, 1 amt
afraid of it. When a lion eats an
OK the lion don't turn into an OK,
the OK turns into lion. Laughter.
The free public schools of Ameri-
ca are the stomach Of America. We
eat Irishmen, Scotchmen, Germans
and Danes, and we digest them, and
they are all Americans, Applause
and they make this change without
violence, imperceptibly, gradually,
naturally, and easily. If we could
put under society all these lights
we could lift society easily from the
bottom to the top by the free pub
lie schools of America. L remember
on visiting the city of Chicago some
years ago-I believe it was the fifth
annual raising of the city to a grade
[ Laughter they occupied their
time every year or two in getting
out of the swap. Laughter. L
recollect there was a hotel that
covered a whole block or square,
and there were 5000 jackscrews put
under the sills and at the sound of
the boatswain's whistle every one
of them turned a defined space and
lifted little by little the whole vast
building, and none of its business
was interrupted, and everything
went on without a crack in the cell
ing even, and / took notice that
when they lifted It's sill up every
thing else went up with it clear to
the top.
You put the jackscrews of the
public schools under the sills of the
commonwealth, and when you lift
the bottom you lift everything from
the bottom clear to the top up with
it applause for that which is good
enough to take care of the lowest,
and the poorest, and the worst, is a
fortiori, able to take care of those
that are better and easier. II f4ta a
Now, the free public schools of
America-it is said the state has no
right to found them and support
them, and the question is asked, do
you believe the state has right to
found churches and pay ministers?
No, don't. On what ground, then,
can you justify the state in found
ing schools and paying teachers?
Because they are very different
things. - -,.-... , - .. :. -. .-r-... ....
The state does not depend for it's
existence upon churches and upon
ministers. Looking at the church
purely from secular point of view,
the existence of churches for a
thousand years in nations has been
the source of cramps and cholics,
disorders, ruptures and mischief
applause. Churches in their
visible and exterior forms as ma
terial organizations have not helped
civilization; they have hindered it.
[ Applause The pulpits have lage-
ly been doors to prisons. | APP
plause. They have held Eu-
rope for hundreds and thousands. of
years; they have been dark lanterns,
open only within for the benefit of
the holders, throwing no light out
ward. In the great era of infidel
rebellion in France, Voltaire, Deidrot,
and Rousseau, and the men that
stood around about them, were the
real, reformers Applause ], and if, l
had lived at that time and had
known no other gospel but that
which the church preached; if L
had seen the chucrh allied with
aristocacy and with absolute mon
archy, if | had seen the priest join
ing hands with the magistrate in
holding
THE IRON YOKE