Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1886-09-23

most uncompromising foes to public
tranquility and prosperity ? The great
body OF the people, comparatively
! unlearned. who labor contentedly in
the ordinary pursuits of life . trow
not. They are educated men-it may
be. distinguished men-whO. impel.
led by personal or party copsidera-
tions. organize conspiracies to cheat
the people of their rights, aud defraud
them of their lawful prerogatives-
who combine into associations to Gre
ate "corners" in the markets, and pro
duce panics in the business world,
sending widespread calamity on the
wings of their ill-omened enterprises.
These are our real enemies, and their
numbers and influence are quite suf-
fcient to show that education, so f,r
from being an adequate conservator
OF the public safety, may be SO per-
verted as to become its most deadly
adversary.
Except the Lord keep the city the
watchman wAketh but in vain,'' and
other declarations of like import, show
the light in which the doctrine under
consideration, appears when tried by
the standard of unerring truth. No
nation. however high it's attainments
or ample its advantages, is of itself,
aud left to itself. competent to secure
its own preservation. \ greater power
than man possesses is requisite for the
mighty task.
There is 4 destiny that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as We may
a Providence that interiors in the al
fairs OF men, setting up one and put
ting down another, according to the
purposes OF that Infinite Wisdom who
sees "the end from the beginning,
and so orders the movements OF uni.
versal being as to secure the results
contemplated in its creation. And
only those who conform their conduct
to the requirements of the Divine law,
who practice that righteousness"
which "exalteth a nation" have any
just and reasonable grounds for ex-
pecting permanency and stability in
their political institutions.
7 Education, to Te etfectual in this
direction. must be grounded upon
moral purity. rooted in virtue. and
controlled by those great principles
of personal rectitude and probity,
which have their basis in true and
genuine religion. With these, it is q
blessing from which we may conf.
IDENTIFY expect the most oene6cent re-.
suits; without them. it may, and pro-
badly will, prove an unmitigated curse
"a potent engine for the destruction
of that which it is intended to defend
and maintain.
If this position be well taken (and I
believe it to be impregaable), it fol-
lows that popular virtue is quite as
necessary to our political welfare as
popular education. They are both in
dispensable. II, therefore, the State.
on the ground Of public safety, has
the right to enforce the one. it has an
equal right to enforce the other. 1t
would be puerile folly to say the State
has the right to strengthen the muni-
ments of its safet " in one direction,
and at the same time compel it, by q
denial Of right. to leave them broken
and PROSTATE in another. Grant
therefore, the right of the State to en-
force popular education, as a measure
of public safety, by compulsory laws
and you grant at the same time i'll
equal right to enforce popular moral
ity and religion, by the very same
means. This is the logical outcom,
of the assumed right of compulsory
education-a reductiO ad absurdnn,
which am disposed to think you vii
hardly care to admit. State churches
legalized religion, statutory morality
and compulsory virtue. are scarcely il
the line of modern American thought
+ and yet they are easily defensible oil
the same principle as compulsory ed
ucation. SO that, If the one be right
the others cannot be wrong.
Having thus disposed of the ques
tion of y4sAt, will sery briefly eer
slider the question of erPed'ency. In
: deed, the discussion might we'll res
} Just here, for. the doctrine of righ
| having fallen. that sfexpediency mus
. fall with it; but in order to embrac
the entire subject, some attention mus
be paid to the latter.
E ! argue that compulsory edueatio
is not expedient. frat. because it
: unnecessary. To Justify such a wild
, departure from ordinary methods
5 there must be an extraordinary fail
: ure of the usual means Of education