The Charlotte Democrat., 1896-06-11

cessful popular government and popular
morality is not less political necessity
than popular intelligence.
Our public School system is not based
on the doctrine that each child is entitled
to an education; not on the ground that
an education is good thing for him; but
on the ground that his ignorance would
be dangerous to the State. More than
this, whatever has made this State great
in the galaxy of this Union, has been the
particular quality of education which has
been given to the people of North Caro-.
lima
1t we would teach, the rising genera
ton that North Carolina resented the
British Tax Act, in 1860. long before the
Boston Tea Party, historic fact which
ought to be heralded in song and story;
if we would proclaim that liberty was
first born in America within pistol shot
of this very spot; if we maintain and sues
cessfully defend to generations yet un-
born the fact that there was Mecklenburg
Declaration ofIndependence of on May 20,
l775; if we would repair The neglect
which has been given the Colonial Re-
cords of this State, 90 rich in Revolutions
ary valor and neFoism; it must be done
through the medium of a widely extend
ed public school system. Textbooks,
the product of North Carolina, must also
be taught in our schools; and the map of
North Carolina should be rescued from
the oblivion into which it is cast by ours
rent Biographies, and magnified until
Kings Mountain. Guilfprd Court House,
McIntyre's Branch, and Charlotte shall
be as familiar to the school boy of the
next generation as Bunker Hill is to
every little Yankee in New England.
want to see the names of the signers
of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde-
pendence as familiar to every school boy
in North Carolina as the names of the
participants in the battle of Lexington are
to every Northern lad. | want to see it
-emblazoned in our histories, and the re
cords of our colonial ancestors be snatch
ed from the desu -tude into which a care
less people has permitted them to fall.
Let the Star Spangled Banner float
over every public schoo in North Caro-
lima, but let there be a Hornets Nest on
the top of it.
Nor would 1 omit tho lyrics of our
people. Some ono has said, "Let me
write the lyrics of a nation and will
make it's history" I see no reason why
wake of an army of tramps can sing
through our borders "John Browns
Body" or '.Yankee Doodle" and that yet
the martial strains Of "Dixie" do not yet
ring upon the air. North Carolina has
history which every boy in the world
should read. 1t has produced men tht
were the peers of the noblest that have
ever received the decorations of king or
court.
Like other lands famous in the worlds
history, it is not only land of deeds, but
a land of ruins and land of memories.
Crowns of roses fade: crowns of thorns
endure. Calvaries and crucifxions touch
the deepest roots of the human heart The
triumphs of might are transient; they
pass and are forgotten. Tho sufferings of
right are craven deepest on the chroni-
cles of nations.
A Southern poet might have said of
North Carolina:-
EYES, give me land where the ruins are
spread,
And the living tread light on the hearts of the
Yes, give me land that is blest by the Just,
And grand with the deeds of the down. .trodden
just
Yes give me the land whei e.the battles red blast
Ras flashed on the future the forms of the past.
Yes. give me the land that has legends and laws
That tell of the memories of long vanished
days
Yes, give me a land that hath story and song
To tell of the strife of the right with the wrong
Yes, give o a LAID with grave in each spot.
And name on the grave that shall not be
forgot.
Yes, give me the land of the wreck ard the
tomb;
There is grandeur in graves, there is glory in
gloom.
For out of the gloom future grandness is born,
As after the night gloom the sun rise of morn.
And the graves of the dead where the grass ever
grows,
May yet form the FOOT stool of Liberty's throes:
And each single wreck of the war path of night
May yet be rock in the temple of light
If you depend on New England text
books, colleges and schools TO educate
your children in the future as in the past.
the glorious hlptory of this State will be
minimized. If you permit the civilization