Huntsville gazette., 1884-03-22

ring the second five years sum equal to
the whole amount it shall be entitled to
receive under the act. One-tenth of the
moneys paid to the States may be expended
in training teachers
Blair addressed the Senate on the BILL
This was the most important bill brought
before the Senate since the war. Had
common schools existed everywhere and in
sufficient numbers all over the United
States there would have been no war, tie
said. Knowledge and virtue were natnr.I-
" associated and were essential 10 be
maintenance Of the Republican Governs
ment and free institutions; it was there
fore, the paramount duty Of the nation to
see that its citizens were educated. An
American citizen had continuous public
life even without hslding public office.
He was the governing power of his coun-
try; he was king The education of the
common school was all that twenty-four-
twenty -ffths OF our citizens could secure,
and the effort of the nation should be to
secure to all the highest possible good
from the common school.
NATIONAL ILLITERACY.
According to the census of 1880. ont of
So 000, 900 population in the United States
there were and 82-100 per cent who could
not read and - and 44-100 per cent who
could not write. The proportion Of white
Ia -,<>r NJ ar,9
100 per cent, of colored AZ and 70-100 per
cent. The number of persons OF school
age was Is, 527, 332, while the number en-,
rolled was only 9,781, ,221, and even of that
number the actual average attendance was
about two-thirds of the enrolment or about
one-third Of the number that should at
tend.
In the thirty-four cities Of the Union, so
| to so per cent. of the children were not en-
rolled at all-that is, would never know
| how to read or write. More than one-ninth
of the citizens Of the United States were
unable to read or write He cited statistics
to show the varying proportions Of illite-
rates to the whole population for several
years past The average immigration was
now, he continued, equal in intelligence to
the average of our native population.
ILLITERATE VOTERS INTHE SOUTH.
| It is fact, rot familiar to the public
mind that nearly ttree-fourths of the illit-
crate voters of the country were in the
Souti ern States those States having one
| third of the voters of the country. Be
tween 1870 and 1880 there had been no
diminution in the proportion Of illiterat, s
to the whole population. As shown by the
census tables, not more than three-fourths
of the voters, he thought. really had such
a measure of education as to enable them
intelligently to weigh reasons for and
against public measures which must come
before them, and which must ultimately be
adopted or rejected by the body of the peo-
pie.
| A numbar Of the foremost educators of
different sections of the country came be-
fore the Commissioners Of Education Of the
two houses of Congress to alvocats legisla-
tive measures which should aid tbs school
systems of the States. They he'd expressed
the conviction that many of the States We're
unable to meet the difficulties which illite-
racv were imposing upon them. "The
safety of the republic" these gentlemen
had said, sis the supreme law.
CONDITION OF THE NEGROES.
Referring to the general industrial and
social condition of the colored population
of the South. Blair declared that it was
rapidly becoming worse The people are
dlscoutented and demoraliZed, young men
becoming more ard more disposed to vio-
lepce, and are drifting into a condition
which bodies harm to the repnbl;c unless
education be brought promptly to bear
| When England freed the siave in Jamaice,
she paid 500 900 900 to tue former slave
owners. but made 10 provision for he ed-
ucatlon or elevation OF the slaves themselves.
! The result WAS seen, in the fact that go per
cent. of the births in the island of Jamaica
were illegitimate. Looking at the snbject
.roadly he thought that for mnch Of the
ignorance which existed in the United
States the whole country Was to some ex-
tent responsible, because the Southern
States were not alone in the responsibility
for the existence of slavery; and since the
existence of the nation was as much de-
pendent on intelligence as it was on the
perpetuity of the States, the nation as a
whole could not afford to be Indifferent to
the educati IN of its citizens.
| On the conclusion of Blair's speech the
Senate went into executive session and on
the doors being reopened, adjourned.
,, Killing Negroes in Lauderdale
County.
From The Advocate