Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1882-06-29
THURSDAY, JUNE 80, 1882.


Franco, taking pattern, has OF last begun
to look to education as safety valve
against revolution and boodshed and is
preparing to give to her people increased
facilities for education. England, too, is
Strengthening her great universities aud is
more than ever reaching down her haud to
elevate the masses by the wholesome in
hueuccs Of general education Other
nations are moving in the same direction
and even Mosem Turkey is looking up to
the value aud importance of knowledge
among tho masses. In this country, New
England, tho West aud Southwest arc
preparing their citizens for tho highest
order of education. Harvard and Yale
have about 900 students aud the unver.
s'ty of Michigan has 1890, while a large
number of other colleges and universities
arc patroniScd proportionately. If We hope
to.keep our past prestige 10 statesmen and
scholars, we must move forward in the
same direction. In lS47 McCarley said of
the Scots that in the seventeenth century
they were said to be SO low aud degraded
that tho proposition was made to reduce
them to slavery, as it was thought the
whirping-post was the only corrective Of
their habits of idlcncss and crime.
McCarl"y said instead Of this another
scheme was adopted. Schools were cstab
lishcd and system Of general education
inausnratcd among the people. The
change which resulted from this course
| was greater and moro wholesome than
could have been anticipated. The Scot
carried his superiority into every enterprise.
llo ranked lrimus into parcs in whatever
TIC undertook. 1t stood thus, the Scot Of
the seventeenth century was dirty, ignorant
and low, and in the eighteenth century he
became an object Of envy, because Of his
high qualifications aud fitness in whute.cr
he undertook When he mixed with other
nations aud people he rose to the top as
naturally as oil, whether in law, medicine
or in any Of the avocatons of life. Tho
country has now tho same rocks and
mountains, the same soil and climate aud
other physical characteristics as then,
but education has given to the people Of
that country moro than my fertility Of soil
could have afforded them. Look at Ger
many in this century, one of the greatest
powers Of Europe in arts and arms, in
literature and science and in all that con,
s,itutcs true greatness. Less than
century ago she was suppliant at the
feet of Napoleon, her territories ovcrrun,
her cities taken aud her armies defeated.
The king called his ministers and advisers
around him and it was determined to re-
hatilitatc the people and elevate their con.
di,on by education What have been the
consequences? The defeats of the past
we're wiped out and France, once her
proud con1ncrcr, mnac to pay tribute to
Germany. Oar country is rot without cx.
ampIcs of the value of education. New
England, with poor aud broken soil aud
rigorous climate, is yet ono of the richest
and most prosperous portions of tho United
States. We pay IN annu,l tribute to her
i'e'oiios "Hu olucl ihuuSllleS. llcE prose
perity does not proceed from her corn or
other farm products, nor even her manu-.
factories, but it is due TO the education Of
tho masses of her people, brought about by
perfect system Of common schools. This
is the never falling source of prosperity to
any and every people who will avail
themselves Of it. This same cause has
enabled that section to control the govern
mcnt and give to many Of tho States her
laws, for wherever her citizens have gone
Westward they have carried their laws. If
we ever expect to regain or have influence
in the government sc must educate our
people and send men TO the councils of the
nation capable Of framing and advocating
laws and of constituting tho constitution or
take them from others.
If an example were needed Of The bcne-
fetal influence of education, We would not
need 60 beyond this town. Some years
pgo the Lutheran College was located and
opened in Walhalla. After few years it
was removed, but the people, having had n
Taste ef education, were not satisfied to lose
its benefits They had learned that cduca-
ton, like light, dcsccnds, and that it is 10
the power of DO man or set of men to shut
it out. This feeling resulted in the organic
zaton apd opening of Adgcr College, which
is now a center of light to this community
The same taste Of education resulted in tho
Io,o e a lo II. u. n