The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-01-30

are to be pauperized by exorbit:nt taxation
that we may show a paupeIs eratitude
when a moroccan Is doIed ous 70 us TOT
charity!
Gay 1t is difficult to believe that those who
maintain that the Federal government
should distribute money among the States
for public education are so simple as 10 DC
imposed upon by their own argument
The losses OF the southern States have been
great, they tell us. Alb, indeed they have
been-far greater than can De SHOWN by
any display OF figures and taxaDies. Our
losses embrace not only incaiculable and
irreparable losses Of property out what Is
worse, loss. / fear, OF manhood, loss OF
honor, and loss Of honest convection. we
believe anything, we reject anything, at
the mandate or caprice OF power.
But to return. The argument Is utterly
specious. viii the disbursement OF Fede-
raj money in Virginia help the property
owners, who have sustained such heavy
losses? It will only proIong and increase
their burdens, for this moneyat last comes
from them; and it will help those only, II
It helps anybody, who have lost nothing
and gained everything. The negroes, who
so sadly need the lesson OF self-reliance,
are to be still further debauched by de-
pendence on public bounties. The Fede-
raj Government Is to be memoriallzed to
continue and increase the burdens OF those
whose losses have been so great chiefly for
the benefit of those who have sustained no
losses, and who pay no part, or next to
nothing, Of the immense amount eXtorted
from the country by unnecessary taxation.
Again. are we fOolsy
H) We advance to another view which
is OF far higher importance. We dismiss
as unworthy even OF the comments we have
made the silly idea OF compensation. We
wish TO be neither helped nor hlndered.
We want no Extraordinarily none OF
that help which consists In taking money
from us and giving il to others, who, for
the most part. are the lazy, the idle, the
vicious. Such help does us harm and them
harm. It takes from us the incentive to
enterprise; from them, the necessity OF
labor. Government bounties are always
corrupting, are always wrong-are never.
never right.
But are we prepared for the entire oblit-
Grafton OF States lines, for the complete an
initiation OF State autonomy, for the de-
struction OF republican government on
this continent? Federal support OF public
schools means all this, and we will prove it.
When the Federal Government shall
have its system Of public schools it will
have completely under its control the
formation OF public sentiment throughout
the Union. Its agents and employees, in
the shape OF teachers, trustees, superin-
tendents, school boards, and school COM
mittees, will be in every neighbour
hood, from Maine to Texas and from
ocean to ocean. It will decide who
shall 60 to school, to whom. where,
when. IL will put into the hands
OF children such bOOks-itself will write
and publish the books-as will inculcate
its ideas and its policy. 1t will prescribe
what they shall learn, what they shall not
learn. Its employees, thick as Egyptian
locusts, will he only too ready to enforce
the mandates Of the master. whose bread
they eat. What history shall be taught, and
how; what theories OF government, what
principles OF constitutional Interpretation;
the duties and obligations Of citizens Sub
jects and dependents rather) to the central
governmental these and similar things
will he absolutely under the control OF the
Federal Government. As the children
emerge from boyhood into citizenship they
will be thoroughly inoculated with the
ideas which have been uniformly incul-
Gated for years on their plastic and yield
ing minds. The Government is no longer
the reflex OF public opinion, but public
opinion is the reflex OF government. a
party in power perpetuates its power for
ever. The foundation doctrines OF repub-
lican government are reversed; republic
canism has ceased to exist. No longer
infused with the vitalizing breath OF free
public opinion. the Government maintain
ing for a while the form and methods OF
freedom, will soon sink into the nerveless
calm OF a worse than Prussian absoutism.
But these results are not to follow, we
are told. because the money is to be dis
tributed to. and managed by, the States.
Mr.. Editor, Is public virtue and public in
tellgence so low that so weak an argument
needs to be exposed? Does not everybody
know that the Federal Government must
control. II it supports, the schools! 1t must
follow its money and see that in its admin
istration its wishes are observed. Its in
tuence in the control OF the schools will
be in proportion-ah, out OF all proper
tion-to the assistance il gives. The States
raise money by direct taxation, and there
lOlt dSdlu>t tOistthl plOltNt-s W.
eral Government raises money in all sorts
OF ways; and. backed by this precedent.
its power Of eXtorting money will be still
more unqualified. A time comes. it comes
when the States, losing more
and more the functions OF sovereignty, and
with less and less power to raise money by
taxation in consequence OF the surrender
to the Federal Government OF the power
TO tax for public education, will seek relief
from the burden in an appeal to the Fede-
raj Government to take into its full hands
the whole business Of public education.
What is Objectionable now will have then
been worn of by the long partnership Of
State and Federal Government in the
work OF education. The appeal will be
needed, and henceforth the United States
comes TO the front rs the educator of its
compelling the little urchins all
over the land to enter its schools; forming
their minds and their morals; invading the
OF the parental relation, the
sanctity OF our homes, and the freedom OF
our firesides. b. PURYEAR.
LIBERTY, Va, January %, 1884.
10 the Editor of the Dispatch:
Quite a spirited contest is going on now