The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1890-10-25
A LATE CONVERT.
Democratic love for Free schools of Re
cent Date.
From the Chicago Tribune.


From the Chicago Tribune.
/ Congressman Mills says in his speech
at Racine:
/ The school house was created in the
state of Wisconsin when that territory
4 was cedrd to the nItrd States by hr-
ginia. Where does the Republican party
get this Sudden affection for the school
/ house? Let it carry out The old Demo
. cratic doctrine that was lald down IN the
I ordinance OF l7Ng The free schOOlhuuSc
was IN fall operation long before the Re
publican party was iofmcd: II VIII he III
full operation long after the Republican
I party is dead. 1t was part Of the tunda-
mental government.
Wisconsin SehoolhoHScs ow" nothing
to Virginia. Il state which was IN favor
of the education of the "classrS bat
not Of the masses, and practiccd It.
/ The first schoolhOuseS of Wisconsin
were built by men from the New En-
gland states and the teachers who
taught in them came from those see
tions, and not from the country south
OF the Potomac The sixteenth section
of each township was reserved for edu-
cational purposes by the ordinance of
+ l7S7 but that clause was inserted at the
request of Massachusetts men aCCus-
1 toned to free schools for a century, not
of Nirginians who had never known
them.
/ 1t is true that the confederation which
existed when the ordinance of l7S1 was
adopted was older than the Republican
party, for the principles of that party
were not born till the constitution of
the United States was adopted, and
nation took the place OF league OF
states.' When the constitution went
into force Republicanism came into
. I I'll IL
great leader. That the Democratic par
tv existed few years earlier, a. eXem-
/ pIiticd in the articles of confederation,
is quite likely. Doubtless it was then
and there that it became so badly poi
soned with its anti-natlonal doctrines
which ripened into a bloody secession
in 1861. But if Democracy did get It's
breath of life from that antt-Natlonal
instrument, the free school existed long
before IT. Us early as the first resolves OF
the general court of massachusetts IN
l647 ordering the establishment of a
school in each town ''to the end that
learning may not be buried in the
graves of our foretathers.
The conversion OF the Democratic
party to the cause OF free schools Is Of
late date 1t was against them in the
South before the war; it has sought
frequently 10 cripple mem III tIic u
so ii is amazingly impudcnt for this
Texan to talk about the educational IN
debtedncss Of Wisconsin and any other
state to Virginia. 1t has always been
the North that has sent the school
master and the schoolma am to the
South 10 diifusc the light and blessings
Of education among the people.
II is true that Virginia made ccs.lon
Of her shadowy claim t. the soil OF Wis
cons.n as part Of the territory north
west Of the Ohio-a ccssion which, by
the way, it was practically forced to
make. But whatever Justice there may
have been in its claim To ownership Of
Southern Indiana and Illinois, derived
from the occupation of kaskaskia and
Viucennc- by Gen. Clark, It's claim to
the territory which is called Wisconsin
now WAS Worthless