The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-11-11
THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM.

There is hope that the Vermont Legis-
lature will pass bill providing for the
township system of schools. 1t is posi-
BILE, even probable, that in the ancient
days the district system was of service,
that it represented progress, but for
many decade it has had no virtues and
many vices; it has faced the education.
ally dark ages when men cared more for
little neighborhood prominence in the
matter of purchasing wood and hiring it
samed, split, and housed, in employing
niece to teach or in boarding the teach
er with sons wife, than in securing the
best instruction and influence for all the
children. To-day the local district sys-
tenn retards progress, fetters the school,
caters to selfish and other base instincts.
The home of the heroic Green Mountain
Boys can not afford to prevent all educa-
tional advancement by chaining the
school to this petrifying and purifying
district system. In Danville, Caledonia
Co., Vermont, there was born on April
4th, 1902, one of the most distinguished
sons of the Green Mountain State. He
was in the Vermont University when it
died in 1912, studied law at Peacham and
removed to Pennsylvania in 1915. In
1885 in the Legislature of the Key Stone
State, this man made the most brilliant
and effective public address ever deliver
ed on American soil AS the result of
his plea for public schools, Pennsylvania
won the first great educational legisla-
tive victory, and Thaddeus Stevens was
the forerunner of Horace Mann and
Henry Barnard. The Senate had de-
feated the school bill, the chaplain of the
House had prayed earnestly for it's de-
feat in that body. From twenty eight
counties had come five hundred and fifty
petitions bearing the names of thirty
thousand voters demanding the defeat of
the public school measure. The House
was sure TO oppose it by vote of almost
two th one until Thaddeus Stevens, this
Vermont-Pennsylvanian, made his plea
for the schools, after which the vote was
with him nearly two to one. Here are a
few sentences from that memorable
speech:
I'VE are told that this law is unpopu-
lar. Has it not always been so with
every new reform in the condition of
man? Old habits and old prejudices are
hard to be removed from the mind.
Every new improvement which has been
gradually leading man from the savage
through the civilized up to highly cul-
tivated state, has required the most
strenuous and often perilOus exertions of
the wise and the good. But much of its
unpOpularity is chargeable upon the vile
arts of unprincipled demagogues. In
stead of attempting to remove the honest
cater to their prejudices, and take adj
vantage of them, to gain low, dirty, tenn
porary, local triumphs. Who
would not rather do one living deed than
to have his ashes enshrined in ever burn
ing gold? / trust that when we come to
act on this question, we shall take lofty
ground look beyond the narrow space
which now circumscribes our vision
beyond the passing, fleeting point of
time on which we stand and 50 cast
our votes that the blessing of education
shall be conferred on every son of Penn.
sylvania, shall be carried home to the
poorest child of the poorest inhabitant of
the meanest hut of your mountains, so
that even he may be prepared to act we'll
his part in this land of freemen, and lay
on earth broad and solid foundation
for that enduring knowledge which goes
on increasing through increasing eterni-
ty. l am comparatively stran-
ger among you, born in another, in dis
tant state; no parent or kindred of mine
did, does, or probably ever will dwell
within your borders. l have none of
those strong cords to bind me to your
honor and your interest, yet if there is
any one thing on earth which l ardently
desire above all others, it is to see Penn
sylyania standing up in her intellectual,
as she confessedly does in her physical
resources, high above all confederate ri
walls. How shameful, then, would it be
for these, her native sons, to feel less SO,
when the dust of her ancestors is min
gled with her soil, their friends and rela-
tives enjoy her present prosperity, and
their descendants for long ages to come
will partake of her happiness or misery,
her glory or her infamy. l have often
thought and wished that was the owner
of the whole mountain of Ophir. 1 would
scatter its yellow dirt upon the human
intellect, until, if there be one fertiliz-
ing property in it, every young idea would
shoot forth with oYershadowing luxuri-
ance."
May the spirit of the immortal Stevens
be in the Legislature of Vermont, and
may his eloquence inspire some descend
ant of the Green Mountain Boys to place
his native State in the front rank in edu-
cational advantage. r. Journal Of
Education.
Boss Croker and Grover Cleveland
shaking hands over the glorious victory
in New York State is spectacle full of