Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-03-16

wages are from S25 to $50 month. The
assistance should be granted Immediately,
for hundreds Of thousands Of children are
annually passing beyond the reach Of public
instruction
After quoting authorities to show the un-
doubted consttutionalty of this proposed
measure Of educational aid Mr. Tyler sums
up the whole matter, and closes his argument
in the following language:
"Then, to summarize the arguments for
this BILL the extent of illiteraoy in certain sec
tons Of this country has been shown by facts
and figures to be enormous. II is alarming
in view of the theory that this is a govern
Uent by the people and that its stability de.
ponds on their intelligence. II has been
shown with equal clearness that the Southern
States have not the means to provide a COM
mon-school education for their children that
they are hardly able to educate the white
children, much less the blacks in addition who
have been cast upon them. II has been
shown beyond all question that Congress has
the constitutional power to aid the States in
this work of vital importance to the nation
and that no greater duty rests upon it than to
grant such aid.
We expend $50, GOO, 900 annually
in pensions to those men now disabled who
once composed the Army Of the Republic and
defended and maintained it by their valor on
the field of battle let us now expend some
thing to qualify for intelligent citizenship the
army of children to whom must soon be COM
mitted the destinies of the nation
This measure is by no means a
mere local one. 1t concerns New England,
it concerns the North as well as the South
because it involves the highest interests of
the Republic. Let no man oppose it because
the money appropriated will be distributed
largely to particular section of the country.
II the North will be less directly benefited by
it than the South she should be thankful that
the spirit of freedom, (which has a thousand
charms to show" has always dwelt within
her borders, has prospered her industries, and
rendered it both possible and easy for her to
educate her children and placed her above
the need of governmental aid and grateful
for the high privileges she has enjoyed, she
should now from her abundance entend as
sistance to the South, which has so recently
emerged from the barbarism of slavery and
been scourged by the demon of war.
81 am aware that there are gentlemen here
who remembering the wrongs that the South
ern whites have perpetrated on the blacks
since the war, are inclined, if not determined,
to vote against this BILL claiming that the
South should educate her own people. For
those wrongs l have no word of defence, ex-
Cub6 UT phlllHllOu. 10 my nina Iney consul
tute one Of the darkest chapters in American
history. And yet it is easy to understand
that race proud of their ancestral blood and
lands to whom a white skin was patent Of
nobility, should revolt at another race, who
had recently been their slaves being sudden
ly made their political equals. 1t was a won
derful change which Southern men were call
ed upon to witness and endure when the freed
men carried the state elections and controlled
state affairs and the change was not the
more endurable on account of the ignorance
and unftness Of the blacks for the political
duties which they assumed. For all this the
white people should have remembered the
causes which led to the inversion of their So
cial system, submitted to the enfrsnchisement
of the blacks, and as a matter of wise policy
as well as of right, accorded to them the en-
joyment of their political privileges.
And certainly we OF the North, who have
always lived with freedoms soil beneath our
feet and freedoms banner streaming DER US,
must not now neglect the colored race to
whom until twenty years ago freedom was
only vision. 1t is enough for us to know
that there are millions of colored children in
the South without education and without the
means to obtain it.
''Neithershould we forget the white peopleof
that section, who seem to be earnestly strug-
Cling to rise above the cloud of ignorance
that darkens their land. We must take the
condition of society as it is, and, Rs legisla-
tors having in view the highest interests of
the people, forget the things that are behind,
comprehend and meet this great want for the
elevation of the people, in order that the re-
public may move onward to the high position
it is entitled to occupy among the nations of
the earth.
PRUSSIA learned that national greatness lay
in the iDtallapt nj har NaOp1a. banpa ha
watched her children, discovered their apti-
tudes, and educated them in the direction of
their fitness, whether for war, for literature,
the arts or Sciences or the other pursuits of
peace and Prussia, from being an insignif
cant nation, has become dreaded power in
Europe. France places schools within the
reach of all her children and compels their
education. Denmark, with population of
1000, 900, has 200, 900 school children, all OF
whom are in attendance except such as are
mentally or physically incapacitated Japan
is studying the best school systems of other
countries and striving to keep abreast with
the best sentiment of the age on this great
subject America gives freedom and citizen.
ship to 1000, 600 people, and leaves them in
Ignorance and poverty, with no provision for
their education.
''We are intense in our devotion to material
interests We build 10, 600 miles of railroad
in year, and develop an immense internal
commerce by means of the network of water
ways spread over the country. We explore
the heart of the earth for its treasures of coal
and iron, and the mountains pour out for us
their wealth Of silver and gold. The hum Of
our factories fills the land the products of
our soil feed the nations of the world. After
payment of all annual expenses, there is a
surplus revenue in the federal treasury of
nearly $50, 900, 600 to apply to the reduction
of the national debt. And yet with all this
material prosperity and progress we suffer
millions of human minds, with oil their la
tent faculties, with all their possibilities for
development and for good, to lie waste and
barren, waiting-let them not wait in vain
for the Transforming power that can quicken
them to life.
Zone remark further and close The Re-
publican party has always been the avowei
friend of the colored race. 1t is now neither
kind nor wise for that party to lock the doors
OF an overlooking treasury, turn with indif-
ference to the colored men who are struggling
to acquire something they can call their own
upon the earth and to improve their mental
condition, and say to them that each state
must provide for the education of its people,
and that the general government cannot in
terfere in this matter, when we know that
they have not the means and cannot obtain
tueh lrOm tuelr respective States 10 EDUCATE
themselves and their children.
The speech as a whole is strong and ad-
mirable presentation of the entire question at
issue, and we trust that the facts and argu-
ments which Mr.. Tyler has here SO forcibly
presented may have their legitimate effect in
enforcing upon the next Congress the neces-
sity for prompt action toward the solution of
the most vital problem which now confronts
the American people.
Helping the Negro.
There is pleasant sort of poetic justice in
the fact that grandson and namesake of
Inhn q Dalhnnn hnn Id az In, q .u,nunran.L