St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-05
SOME SENSIBLE GIRLS.
They Are Determined to Study
the Constitution Of the United

They Are Determined to Study
the Constitution Of the United
States.
Philadelphia Times.
A society of young women of the
well-to-dO class has lately been formed
in New York for the systematic study
of the constitution of the United States
and of the time and conditions which
led to its adoption. 1t is the pur-
pose OF these young women to leave the
study of the customs, manners and in
Stitutions of foreign lands to those who
are ashamed of being Americans, while
they, by special study. become ac-
the system of government under which
they live.
These girls are not of the strong
minded variety. They have simply
concluded that it is worth the while of
American girls to know something
about their own government. AS the
schools in which they were educated
did not furnish them the desired
information, they have fallen back
upon their only resource-that
of self-culture in the desired d.
reaction. To this end they are holding
private meetings for reading the best
H..
availing themselves OF the counsel of
the best informed of their friends.
Their course might we'll be initiated by
all young Americans of both sexes.
But what shall be said of the system
of education which renders 1t necessary
for fairly educated young people of
either sex to rely entirely upon their
own eXertions for knowledge of what
ought to be the very groundwork of
every Intelligent Americans education?
Is it not a shame that even native
born American children are de-
pendent upon private association with
those like-minded with themselves for
all opportunity TO study intelligently the
the shame not all the greater in view of
the millions of foreigners that are be-
coming American citizens without an
opportunity of becoming Americanized?
The extent to which this ignorance of
the American form of government pre-
walls, even among people who are con-
Sidered well educated, is appalling.
The legal profession affords the only
exception to this rule, and it is entirely
safe to say that nine-tenthS of the
law students learn little or nothing
of the constitution until they leave
school and college and enter
scribed for admission into their future
profession. Business men, teachers,
physicians and preachers are well
posted in nearly everything but that
which they should know most about,
ana hence it comes to pass that the
country is Oyerrun with constantly
Increasing army of well-meaning
cranks, male and female, who think the
millennium may be uShered in by an
act Of congress.
Every child, native OF foreign-born,
should be taught in the school OF col
lege it attends the principles upon which
our government rests. He should know
just what congress may and may not
and judicial powers granted by the con-
stitution. and. above all, he should
learn that the constitution was
the result of years of striving
toward a union of separate
republics and that it was sacred COM
pact in the making of which each state
with many misgivings at the time sur
rendered something for the general good.
If all American citizens understood the
almost insurmountable difficulties I'M
der which the constitution was framed
and adopted, there would be less diSpO-
sitiOn to violate its provisions or to
tiSoo ehNhi oc VI AiO pOl
For the present no adequate public
provision is made for the instruction of
the young in the principles of the
American system of government, and
those who want to know something of
it must do like the New York girls
teach themselves. Fortunately the
multiplication of libraries and books
makes this a comparatively easy
task, if some way could be de-
vised of making it fashionable. 1t has
been the fashion of late to despise every
thing American, but may it not be
hoped that this movement of the New
York girls means the Inauguration of
healthy change? If societies for the
study of the constitution were organized
in every neighborhood perhaps the edu-
Gators of the country would wake up to
the fact that knowledge of the form of
government under which it lives is quite
as important to all American child as
knowledge of two or three dead Ian
guageS.