The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-08-16

read nor write in 1880 than in 1870. Doubt
less 1888 would show still further progress
| but progress downward.
Surely it cannot be needful before thi
assembly to point out the perils to our IN
stitutions involved in this huge and in
creasing illiterate vote. How are the vote
| of ignorant men determined? First, i
small part by the comsels of the wise an
good citizens. | say in small part. for til
bad and designing demagogue has nor
power over the ignorant vote than til
good and unseltish patriot. Second, TIL
votes of ignorant men are largely de
| termined by prejudice. Out of prejudic
| proceed conflicts and all manner of Socia
and political wrongs. Third. the votes 0
| the ignorant are largely influenced b
! brides, offered i'll one form or another
| And this means fraud and corruption with
out end and bottomless. The worst thin,
| about this huge illiterate vote is not til,
/ lncapacity of the voters to use their bal
| lots wisely it is this Ignorance fits then
exactly to become the tools of corrupt mel
of superior intelligence. With an illiterat,
vote large enough to hold the balance O
power, elections are, for the most part
dictated by demagogueS and manipulate
by villains. 1t is left to intelligent, in
dllstrious and ,honest.citiZens to settle TIL,
cost OF corrupt government.
OBJECTIONS TO NEGRO EDUCATION CON
SIDERED.
| am not unacquainted with the answer
to all this as a plea for the education OF
the negro.
.Book-learning, we are gravely in
formed, is not sufficient the negro needs
education in morals. This is true, an(
true as to the negro, because it is true as tC
all other men. But will sensible men seri
Ously urge the negro S need of education i'll
morals as an objection to his education i'll
books? Is book knowledge then i'll itself
unfavorable to good morals Isignoranct
the mother of devotion and the nurse OF
religion? Then recall the fierce Arabs
who put torch to the library of Alexan-
dria and bid them burn down your colleges
andsschools bid them destroy your books
and stop your busy press forever. Then
stop all education-Stop all thinking-yeg
etate and die. 1t is unmitigated nonsense,
this miserable pretence of reasoning that
since the negro does need betterment
in his morals the school-house is not good
for him. A most significant fact may be
mentioned at this point; the only white
people in this country who are expanding
either much money OF much service in the
effort to improve the Negroes morals are the
people who are expanding most money and
service in the endeavor to teach him the
knowledge books. 1t is also true that those
who have the most to say about the Negroes
need of education in morals, as q reason for
not educating him in books, are precisely
the people who are not doing anything of
consequence to educate him in anything. To
a plain man there seems to be degree of
sham and can't in their talk.
The objections to the negro7s education
gin in four roots, closely united. First,
ignorance; there are not a few who are, at
bottom, opposed toall education. Second,
in stinginess multiplied thousands deny
their own children education because it
costs money. Money is their god. There
are many white men i'll this country who
are, by some sad miSchance, the fathers OF
families and the owners of good properties,
but they are too mean and too near barber
ism to educate their children. They are
traitors to their sacred trust of fatherhood
and disgrace to the human race. And as
to public schools, in which the children of
the poor may be taught the rudiments OF
education. objection, with most people,
would cease, if it cost them nothing. OF
this class of directors | have yet to meet
one man who opposed the schools some
body else's money paid for-1lnless from Il
sentiment worse than ayarice. Third, in
reiudice-prejudice against a negro be
cause he is q negro. AVarice is Il mean
spirit, but this sort of prejudice is meaner.
1t is cOwafdly and ignoble it is root and
branch, utterly unchristian. If any think
that my language is too strong. let them
test their prejudice. Take them to Jesus
Christ and ask Him to approve them. Test
them in the light of the Sermon on the
Mount and OF the Judgment Day. How
mean they look in that light Fourth, in
that appeal to two classes of
fears. One is, the apprehension that the
education of the negro will spoil him as Il
laborer. know what / am talking about
when | say that this fear is at the bottom
of much of the current opposition to the
education of the negro. | go among the
people and keep my eyes and ears open. If
the argument that supports this apprellen-
sion be worth anything it proves too
much for it is just us good an argument
against the education of the poor whites
it would certainly spoil them for labofers
The spirit that is capable OF such an OBJ
lection to the education of the poor of any
race is selfish, cowardly and essentially
mean. 1t is worthy only of the Dark
A ges 1t is at bottom plea for the tyr
amy of ''bosssm.' Put into form it says
this: Il am, by virtue of money, on
or learning, Il sort Of boss
among my fellow-men | must keep them
in ignorance that | may keep them down
and be better able to play the boss. y
MANS UPWARD TENDENCY.
But there is nothing in the argument
it is false all through, for no man is better
for anything in this world that is worthy
to he done because he is ignorant. A trained
dog is better than a wild dog. Ignorance
God intended men to do. 1t is first, last.
all the time, disqualification rather. Every
principle of right and justice denies it
every law of political economy condemns
it (; the history OF the human race repu-
dates it. Intelligence spoils no man for
that Il man ought to do in this
world And were it otherwise, what right,
before God, has one human being to keep
another human being in ignorance i'll order
to keep him his slave These questions
go to the bottom, and we must go the bot
tom in settling questions of rights and
wrongs between man and his feloWman.
What is history good for, except to
teach us by its examples Ii history
teaches anything it teaches that no social,
or labor, OF national, or race problem was
ever yet truly solved by mere repression
by merely trying to keep human beings
down. 1t is in our times seen at it's best
and its worst in Europe it is the Russian
system. 1t fails always and everywhere
there is in it dynamite and hell. 1t must
fail, for in it's very heart it is tyranny, and
the Eternal powers are against it.
With some, too, there is opposition to
the education of the negro from a vague
fear of something that is called ''sOcial
Just now the poor negro is in
"a place where two seas meet. There
are two classes of extremists /; one is in
mortal terror lest he should become some
body the other is morbidly anxious that
he should assert claims to what he is no
wise fitted for. If between the two he
does not lose his balance he will deserve
the respect of both. There never was in
this world in any nation OF community
such thing as social equality and there
never will be. The social spheres arrange
themselves, and no laws, promulgated by
State OF Church, will change the social al
finities and natural selections of men,
Men choose the circles for which they have
affinity, seek the comprehensive which
they prefer, and find the places that are
suited to them. No human force OF Sagac-
ity will change the socialla laws which bring
men together or repel them.
AN IRREPRESsIBLE MOVEMENT.
But the question is no longer Il question
as to what we prefer it is now a question
as to what can he done. These millions are
here among us, they are UNDERSTANDING
part in the government of this whole Ma
tion. When a man of sense can It have his
own way he will seek the next best thing