Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-30

right to maintain our own schools, and train
our children as our consciences and our re-
ligion demand"
This may be taken as the essence of the
whole question. The reply to the plea is
simple, and we think unanswerable The
right" claimed is undeniable, and no
American of broad views of human liberty
and free government will dispute it. But
it is not an abstract right. What is termed
a right is really privilege that is accorded
by the social compact, which we call re-
public, and for the preservation of which
we erect certain political safeguards. Now
one of these is the duty of the State to see
that its citizens are SO educated that they
will be useful to the system of the State in
securing its preservation; to see that they
are so educated that they can read the
history and the laws of the country, and
especially the latter, which they must
obey, and must therefore understand. The
State, not church nor an individual, must.
of necessity therefore, be the judge of that
requirement and the sufficiency of it. 1t
does not enter the realm of conscience: it
no more infringes personal liberty than
it does in registration laws erected as
one of the means of ascertaining the will of
the governed; it no more trespasses against
the religious privilege, or right-if the
term is preferred-than in the laws requir-
ing that all shall contribute to the MAIN
tenance OF free school system.
The purpose of all laws similar to the
Bennett law, as Mr.. Curtis has SO well ex-
pressed it, is to conserve homogeneity and
to discourage hetrogeneity. That purpose
ought not to excite the opposition of any
citizen who desires the preservation of free
government. The Lutherans came to this
country to secure the benefits of such free
government. Their act of removal was
voluntary. They knew when they came
here that the founders of our system had
declared as substructural principle that
intelligence of the citizen is necessity to
the preservation of our liberties, and that
to secure that all citizens must have GER
tain degree of education in youth. To
that end free public schools should be pro-
vided, to the support of which all should
contribute, because the benefits of such
schools run to all classes of our people
and conserve the foundations of gov
eminent under which all have the privi-
lege to educate beyond the require
ments set up by the State, as they please.
1t is essential to the security of this free
government, and the perpetuation of the
system, to the protecting arms of which
the Lutherans fled to better their condi-
ton, that all the elements coming into the
State under the privilege granted to
aliens should assimilate with the Ameri-
can system. To that end it is deemed by
the majority, determined in lawful repre-
sentative assembly, that the citizen should
be able to read the history and laws of the
country in the language of the country,
which is the English tongue.
But if the arguments of the Lutheran
clergymen are good for anything at
all, they maintain the doctrine that
we shall not have homogeneity of
American people, but that we shall be di-
vided up into groups, SO that the Federal
Union will in time consist-as has well
been said-of multitude of Polands, b.
hemias, Norways, Germanies, Italics and
so on. The argument of the opponents of
the Bennett law leads to Just that end and
cannot be diverted from it. If the Luth-
Grams and Catholics of Wisconsin are, as
they say they are, devoted to American
institutions and will do battle, if need be,
to preserve them, they should not inter-
pose any obstacle to any method, that does
not interfere with conscience, that will
tend to produce race of Americans know
ing no other nationality and having re-
gard for no other political system equal to
that for their own. Whatever tends in an
opposite direction, these Lutherans and
Catholics ought to be able to see, really
imperils the liberty of conscience that is
now guaranteed to them and for which
they do not tire in giving thanks.