Richmond daily palladium., 1884-08-26
OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM AND SCHOOL


Uniformed schoolboy would have been
ashamed. He eulogized the Demo
cratic party as the creator Of our edu-
cational system and our school fund
and our charitable institutions. All
| these he said had their blessed foun-
dations laid deep and strong in that
constitution which the Democratic par
ty created, and with which the Repub-
lican party has never been satisfied and
now seeks to change" If Mr.. Voor-
hees had known the facts he would
scarcely have ventured such declara-
ton. The foundations of our school
system and of our charitable institu-
Itions were laid before the constitution
Iof 1850 was made, and in which the
Democratic party created nothing OF
importance but the Objectionable black
laws" provided for in that instrument.
The first step toward the establish
ment of the Insane Asylum was taken
by the Whig Legislature Of 1912, and
while Samuel Biggar, Whig, was Gov
ernor of the State. The Deaf and
Dumb Asylum was also "created" by
the Wing Legislature Of l043, when
the first tax was levied for that purpose.
The Blind Asylum had its beginning
with. the Democratic Legislature OF
| Il845. All the foundations of these in
stitutions were therefore laid before
the Democratic constitution of 1880
was created, and two of the three when
the Wings were in power in the State
Mr.. voorhees, also declares that the
Democratic party created the common
school system of the State. The glory
of that system, which Is now world
wide and spoken of on every civilized
shore, belongs to the leaders OF the
Democratic party in Indiana, whose
record was made, and still exists, in the
convention from which the constitution
emerged" The absurdity Of this dec
laration is recognized by every intelli-
gent citizen of the State. The consti-
tuition of 1850 had about as much to do
with creating our school system as it
had with the Declaration of Independ-
ence. We quote upon this point an ar
ticle in the Indianapolis Journal:
Every body of mature age in the
State, possibly including Mr.. Voorhees,,
knows that our school fund is derived
mainly from two sources, the sale
|of one section of land, called
the school section in each
township, and the avails of the
sinking fund connected with the old
State Bank. These were created, says
the Senator, thirty four years ago, by
the constitution and the Democratic
party. Let us see. On the 10th OF
May, 17S5, the Continental Congress,
which was all the national government
we had at that time, enacted an ordi-
nance for the survey and government OF
the Northwest Territory, ceded by Vir-
That ordinance said: There shall be
reserved the lot No. Is of every town.
ship for the maintenance of public
schools within the said township The
far more celebrated ordinance of July
13, 1887, declared in article 3, that re-
ligion, morality and knowledge being
necessary to good government and the
of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be en-
Away back, ninety nine |
years ago, the seeds of the congression-
al township fund were planted, sixty
five years before the constitution which
MIR. Voorhees, says created 1t and all |
the rest of the schoolfund The sink !
ing fund, from which the larger portion
of the present school fund is derived,
was enacted by the charter of the State |
Bank in J January, 1884. sixteen years be- |
fore the constitution of 1880 was enacted. |
So We find that the convention OF 1851,
and the Democratic party therein did
not create either of the constituents OF |
the school fund.
Neither did that convention or that |
party create the school system. The sys-
tenn was created by the constitution of |
1916, and the later constitution in the |
article quoted by Mr. Voorhees, only ap- |
proved and re-adopted the article of
the earlier constitution. The constitu-
ton of 1916 declared that ut shall be
the duty of the General Assembly to
provide for general system of educa-
ton in regular gradation from town.
ship schools to State university where
in tuition shall be gratis and open to
all" Here was the constitutional
adoption of our free school system,
which, to give it Democratic paternity,
Mr.. Voorhees, places thirtyfour years
ater and attributes to the constitution
If 1850. 1t is strange that senator OF
he United States, who has spent his
whole political life in this State, should
exhibit such ignorance of the history of
he State he represents, or is it ignor-
lnee?