The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-27

more closely connected with the hap
piness and prosperity of the individ-
ual, the State or the Nation, are poll
tics and marriage than education; and
it is gratifying to Americans to know
that in no other country of the world
is there greater interest in all that
concerns the welfare of the race and
the progress of the individual than in
these United States in the year 1896.
In education in particular has there
been notable progress and despite the
hard times of the past few years
never before in the history of our ma
ton has the number OF graduates of
schools and colleges been SO great as
in the present year, or the gifts to the
cause of education been more nu-
merous or substantial, leaving out of
consideration special great gifts made
occasionally in preceding years for
the founding of great institutions of
learning, as in the case of the Leland
Stanford or the Chicago University,
for instance. The increasing dona-.
tions every year to the great cause of
education show that those who laid
the foundation of the Great Republic
builded we'll in making religion and
education, freedom and the inaliena-
BILE rights of man the corner stones
of the structure.
For this great service New England,
the poorest of all the colonies, must
always receive the chief credit. The
settlement of the Puritans on the
bleak shores of New England was
promptly followed by the establish
ment of system of local schools,
Every township $50 runs one of the
earliest enactments) after the Lord
hath increased them to the number
of fifty householders, shall appoint
one to teach all children to read and
write; and when any town shall in
crease to the number of hundred
families they shall set up a grammar
school.
From New England this system OF
local schools spread rapidly to other
sections, particularly into the South
after the Civil War. The growth
in general intelligence has been i'm
measurably greater in the United
States within the last two hundred
years than in any other country
and in this fact is to be found the
surest defence of republican institu-
tions in this country and the world.
Reading and writing by no means
completely fit for the high duties of
intelligent citizenship, but they are
indispensable as placing in the hands
of everyone born to the great heri-
tage of free institutions the means
whereby his own education may be-
come progressive to whatever ex-
tent his talents and abilities can carry
him.
That the great common school
system of the United States is so
rapidly being supplemented by col
leges and universities springing up
all over the country indicates that
the standard of citizenship is advanc-
ing and the vista of opportunity is
now grander than ever before in the
history of any nation. 1t is natural,
however, that even this picture should
have it's shadows, and no true
friend of progress will refuse to
look at the other side of the shield.
Never before have there been graver
causes of disquiet to those who look
forward to the universal triumph of
free institutions than exist at present.
Unfortunately America is not wanting
in instances, even among its legisla-
tors and statesmen, of venality
that would have seemed and been
impossible in the earlier history of
our country. Yet even in this respect
the offenders, when once fully known,
have had reason to appreciate the
fact that their standard of political
morality was not that of the great
mass of the people: the people who
are the strength of the government
and its unfailing resource in time of
stress and danger.
1t is sometimes said that our con-
tinual stress of political excitement
is not good for the people or for our
institutions. But the political bat
ties in the States and the battle royal
every four years in the Nation are not
mere contests for place and power
to determine which party shall dis
pense patronage. Politicians, and
there have been many of them, hold
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