Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-08-06

| "hatCfCi OfOt Inc law VI us pIOgLeoo.
This has been proven by the progress
of this nation. While its projectors
looked for benefcent results. the steps
made by the United States for the first
place among nations has exceeded their
anticipatiOns. They planned wisely and
hopefully, and the system they devised
TO make this problem of self government
successful was prompted by inspiration.
The history of republicanism from the
earliest times teaches that all republics
prior to this, failed through the igno-
rance and vice of the people. There
was no plan by which the patriotism
that created the republic could be main
tanned. Hence, when the people fell to
a lower plane, the state went with them;
depotism supplanted republicanism.
The fathers of the American State profit
ed by the teachings of history. and
sought to learn by what means heal
thy patriotic feeling could be MAIN
tanned. They decided that a system of
education, free to all and universal in
It's operations, would secure this end.
Our educational system has been pro.
gressive; it has grown with the public
opinion of the nation until the people
have certain confederation which they
cannot be moved. That it is the duty
of the state to educate is no longer dis
cussed; it is admitted, they only discuss
low the system can be made more COM
plete and effective, how the best results
car be obtained for the money expend-
ed. The people are fast coming to an
agreement that the passage of compul-
sorry education laws is of prime neces-
sity.
Eighty years before Christ COM
puisOry education existed in Babylon.
Schools tlourished throughout the length
and breadth of the land"
"The laws of Massachusetts provided
for compulsory education. with fines
and penalties, as early as June IA,
1912"
Martin Luther said: at is my opin-
ion that the government ought to COM
pei parents 10 send their children to
school,
"In 1649 the synod of Wurtemberg
made attendance at school compulsory
under penalty of a fine"
''In Saxony the law of 1873 made at
tendance at school compulsory from the
fifth to the fourteenth year"
Barsdow, the great-grandfather of
Prof. Max Muller. one hundred years
ago taught the true doctrine on this
subject in Germany. The German BIZ
ogrspher says in his life of Barsdow;
'This one great principal he established
that national education is a national
duty-that national education is sac
red duty; and that to leave national ed
ucatlon to chance, church or charity is
a national sin. Another principal that
followed. in fact as a matter of course,
as soon as the first principal was grant
| ed, was this that in national schools,
in schools supported by the nation al
large, you can only teach on which we
all agree; hence, when children belong
to different sects, you cannot teach the
ology."
We shall cite one more authority, thai
Of Daniel Webster. who in 1912 said
1.-The power over education is one of the
powers of public policy belonging essen
tally to the government. 1t is one O
| those powers the exercise of which il
indispensable to the preservation of so
ciety, to its integrity and its healthy
action. 1t is evident. therefore, tina
popular cultivation. as diffuse and gen
eral as the members composing the re
public, is indispensable to the preserva-
ton of our republican forms; and hence
arises the great constitutional duty o
the government 1t is the duty of sci
preservation, according to the mode o
it's existence, for the sake of the com
mon good"
The fundamental principles of educa
ton in the republic are laid down b,
Mr.. f. ID. Mansfield in his work emit
tied American Education, published il
1855:
l. "A free people govern them
selves"
,. "A free people must have fire.
minds"
3. Free minds must be enligtene,
ignorance makes slavery"
4. ITO enlighten mind, the sou
must be strengthened and developed
intellectually and spiritually"
5. That to think rigidly on all sui