Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1885-10-29

"oWd iSlmC VII zoO,OOO, anu uC IOt VI DOCKS, school fixtures
and apparatus would take $4,000 more, aggregatng the sum of S., oso.
900 as the outlay required in making preparation forsx months instruction
of the unenroned scholastic population of the State. Able and indefati
gable as our accomplished State Superintendent of Public Instruction is.
and supported as he Shy an efficient corps of county assistants I venture
to say that he and his co labores would shrink from the hopeless task of
raising this additional fund either in the State OF in the counties by taxa
ton or otherwise. 1t cannot be done. We are not able toraise the means
requisite for the education of our population and meet the current demand
upon our resources.
Between 1860 and 1880 the assessed valuation of our property decreased
As per cent, while our population increased 80 per cent From 1870 to
1880 our population increased 2S3,S36, while the assessed valuation of
our taxable property diminished 4goo5,62S, reducing us to $1s7 per
capita of population, while the Middle and New England States ano from
$500 to 81, ooo per capita. Fifteen States of the Unon-Alabama Arkan.
ss, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, MissisInpi Mis-
souri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and
West VHgnla-occupy substantially the same position. They have an
unenroIed scholastic population numbering about s,ooo 900. for whom
they have not, and cannot make, adequate preparation. Il would require
the expenditure OF $55,ooo,o 900 to make preparation for their instruction
for the average term of three months.
These fifteen States now expend for three months instruction of their
enrolled scholars about 100000 annually. With the exception of
Maryland and Missouri, they are financially in the same condition as
Tennessee. The aggregate decrease in the assessed value of their proDertv
between 1870 and 1850, in thirteen of these States reached the enormous
sum OF $4I1,475o9O. With all our efforts the number of nGuerates are
increasing while the percentage OF llteracy was only reduced about 2
per cent throughout the country In the last decade. Under this condition
OF things it is ulhmg with a great question and a great danger to ask or
expect an Impoverished people to provide the means required to meet
existing emergencies, which reach and affect the whole country. Contrast
our educational situation with that of Massachusetts. The duration of
her school term Is III days; ours only IS. Her enrolled pupils are withn
less than 900 OF her entire scholastic population; ours only about one
half. Her annual school expenditures amount to about SIS per capita
Of her enrolled scholars, while ours reach 81 20 per carita or n cents
per month Tor each pupil.
Other Eastern and Middle States are able o expend, and are expanding
from four to ten times as much per scholar as we of the South. Such
inequalities in educational advantages, which mention merely to illustrate
the necessteSo OF our situation and need Of ad, are attended not only with
corresponding differences in the tastes, sentiments and opinions of the
people Of these different localities, but lead to wide differences in
social and material progress and in power and influence; for the
fact cannot be ignored that education is the underlying agency of all
rrnuracc. tot II Cami.c uL l. a.. Lu-l.l- II,
and that the more widely it is di1used in any State or community
the more power and influence that State or community will exert and
exercise In forming and moulding the public opinion that moves and
guides the onward course OF the social current The greatest strength
and the highest glory of the General Government is to be reached in the
mutual prosperity and equal advancement of the separate States of which
tits composed, and the more nearly they can be tremendously developed,
educahonany and otherwise, the greater will be the certainty with which
they can be brought into active cooperation with each other and with the
Federal head.
l would, therefore, press upon your atenJR as one of the benefits to
result from Federal aid, and which wouaE lone render it a wise and en-.
lghtened policy for the Government, the Aeral consideration that the
increased educational facilities which wouldM thereby supplied and main
tanned will tend to harmonic the principle Vic opinions and the manners
of our c%ounuymen; will make us a more Homogeneous people, and will
s ssstsa's in ' 'os: '1~; isslsIsiA i ~ 1 u ! ! E T.. 49,, Of
spirit of liberty, which Rs ever consttutaA nadonAures safe guard in
the hour of danger.
If there is one lesson more valuable THAI another taught us bv the
annals of the past, It's that no people had ever long maintained their
freedom or even preserved their nationality 18th whom the spirit of liberty
has degenerated or decayed. The liberties kthe Roman republic were
gone long before the barbarian hordes of theNorth, like a dark torrent
swept her nationality out of existence. The accomplished historian, in
describing its decline and fall under the prevalence of ignorance and the
spirit of party, informs us that "by suffering the spirit of liberty to decay
they became slaves to sucha succession of monsters as God never sent. in
his wrath, to execute vengeance on any other nation; that in the greatest
revolution of the greatest government of the world, losing the spirit of
liberty was the cause and losing liberty was the effect"
The blessings of liberty can neither be fully enoyed by those who DOS
sess it nor be preserved by those who are to follow without the spirit of
liberty and pure patriotism, which must, with us, find their true afment in
the general diffusion of knowledge requisite to the formation of enlightened
public opinion.
Halum, in his Constitutional History, speaking of the English govern
ment, says: awe are deceived by the comparatively perfect state of our
present liberties, and forget that our superior security is far less owing to
positive law than to the control which is exercised over government by
public opinion" This is emjnenty true with us. Constitutions and laws
unprnciped are feeble barriers in communities where there is no enEght
ened public OPINION to lend Its vtahzng influence and force in the preser
walton and maintenance of law, of order, and of Justice.
washington, with that tarslghted wisdom for which he was so dis
tngushed, in his farewell address to his counrymen, condensed into a
single sentence this idea when he said, "That in proportion as the
structure OF government gave force to public opinion it is essential that
public opinion should be enlightened
Madison, IN 1926, added his warning voice in the declaration. ''That a
popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring
1t, is but the prologue to a farce or tragedy, or both"
When the great ends and purposes for the attainment of which the
Government was established, the promotion of a more perfect union. the
establishment of justice, the domestic tranquility, the common defense,
the general welfare and the blessings of liberty, rest for their preservation
and accomplishment upon the intelMgeHeee q Aeazenship, common TO
both the States and the General Government, why should not the latter aid
In providing the means essential to secure that intelligence? Ifitcan find
justification in expanding millions to provide for the education of the