San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1886-08-12
Free Schools and Free Churc hes.
Galveston News,


To say that ,ne address of Judge Gus
tave Cook at the San Marcos Chautauqua
reunion is somewhat exuberantly charac-
teristic, is to accord it no ordinary credit
for brilliant and picturesque expression and
for honest fervor of sentiment. With due
consideration for its literary and sentiment
nj merits it must be said that in its verbal
pyrotechnlcs it is little bewildering, in its
speculative philosophy little cloudy and
fantastic, and on the whole little incoher-
emit 1t is needless to discuss the abstract
peneralities which are laid down as axiom
! attic truths in tho exordium of tho address.
The author propounds something like q
specific thesis when he takes issue with the
present secular system of public free
schools in Texas. The thesis IL, i'll sub
stance, that virtue, as supremely essential
to the maintenance of good government
and free institutions, must have precedence
over intelligence, and that virtue in this
sense of n saving factor means "the cohes-
i've power of common religion. Inc
thesis is thus stated more largely in the Ian
guage of Judge Cook:
but in all this wild hunt after intelli-
eence who has uttered n single plea for vir-
tue. which is far more essential to the
maintenance of good government and free
institutions? Good government might DO
maintained by virtuous people without
education, but never by an educated people
without virtue. 1 have sand upon another
occason that it is my belief society can be
held together and government maintained
only by the cohesive power OF common
religion. l repeat it here, and emphasize
| it by saying that free government can be
he maintained without free schools, but
not without free churches. Education is
certainly desirable, but virtue - absolutely
indispensable in the perpetuation OF free
government. Intelligence, as the servant
of virtue, is the guardian of liberty; eman-
cipated from her control, it is the champion
of licentiousness. As servant, 1t Is lnval-
unble; as a master, it would be intolelable" !"
II might Le urged with even more plausi-
bility that virtue, in the general sense OF
honest moral or religious sentiment, as the
servant Of intelligence, is the guardian OF
liberty and of the peace and welfare OF So
ciety, but emancipated from the control
and guidance of intelligence is the hotbed
and parent of endless broods of social dis
tempers and public calamities Judge
Cook surely cannot have forgotten that II
was the fanaticism of such unbridled virtue
which plunged this country into the tragedy
of the late sectional war. John Brown was
eminently virtuous and intensely religious,
after his fashion when he heralded the cir
repressble conflict" with rifle and dagger
and torch for the desolation of the South.
Tho most desperate and dangerous of the
anarchist dynamiters plead virtue, burning
with indignation at wrong. as justification
for their destructive designs and murderous
acts. And no one questions that tho great
mass of the followers of Mr.. Powderly or
Mr.. Irons, in an organized labor movement
which has done SO much to disorganize III
dustry and work detriment TO the general
interests of business and enterprise, labor
and capital, have been actuated by an hon
est aud virtuous zeal, according TO theii
lights, for better and more equitable indus
trial conditions. In view of such instances
it would seem pertinent 10 ask. II virtue,
whether as a moral OF n religious sentiment
is to be organized as masteran guide OF IN
telligeuce in the control and use OF govern
ment. in what precise shape is il proposed
TO organize this sovereign powerI On this
poiut Judge Cook Is hardly as explicit n
could be wished. He tells US, in eject, that
free churches must go with free schools. OF
free government must 90 to everlasting
smash. Well, the constitution has plenti'
fully provided for free churches IN prOyid'
ing for absolute freedom in matter Of TO
hgion. and for the equal protection Of al
religious denominations in their respective
modes Of worship. II has gone further.
and provided for the complete exempted
of church buildings and all church proper
tics ufoper frofn tsEation. Bat tins doe'
not suit Judge Cox What be vants ap
! parsutly is free churches furnished via
r,hrie enllovugeuf AZ leart be condemns
the constitution for n0t permitting virtue
which uilh him j. somo sort q religi1ui
cult. % share in the school lands and % h
b incideufallv ondorei With sehOol Inoleys
I have no apologies b oGer.' De sags
for this ailrsio1 20 prori11n ln o..
+ cns-ifufio1 iu our cgl.i-tltlon Hllc1 !
uouid q tio1saui tines belisrs vas -
c.7mEr haudiuurk - izn1rance rather tia,
) tue canning aTti1as q inf1ality- lnstead
o. e-l-isting rsllgio1s zeal n the c-lse q