The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1905-06-01


this Southern Aristocracy. Thomas Jefferson
always held his political theory OF
Ss sn,', Element democracy conditioned on his
AristOeraey. other theory Of Universal Educa-
ton, which included the emanc-
patton and education of the negroes and the
training of every white child in system reaching
from the free common school to the State Uni
versity. In his sorrow and wrath that his own
State would not adopt his splendid ideal, he
declared that "his own people would become
worse than the inhabitants of the Barbary States.
Al the great Virginians were with him. and he
left a growing common school public that IN
every Southern State for forty years attempted
to put his educational system the ground. And
for the Southern Aristocracy, as whole, it may
be said, nothing SO became it as its leaving
During the twenty years after 1904, when the
sons of the fathers were still permitted to govern
the South, it adopted the American common
school for both races and all classes, essentially
as set up in every Southern State, by the power
OF the nation during the period of reconstruction
Having done this its grandest work since the
days Of Washington, it retired in good order
and no longer exists, as a class, in any Southern
State
But now what were the plain people OF the
South about during the first seventy years of the
Republic. up to the fatal year when at the call
Of the aristocracy they 'shouldered arms" and
through four years made for the American sol
diery name and fame undisputed through the
world?
First body, now probably represented in
the Northwest by as many people as the entire
100000 of the old dominant Southern class dis
couraged by the prospect at home. turned their
har ha anI g Il, ,,I a.. 4
to the new Northwest. Along with them were a
considerable number OF the more liberal-minded
of the leading families. in pursuit Of a broader
opportunity than they left behind During the
twenty years from 1890 to 1880 nearly the entire
body OF pronounced ant-slavery people in the
South. including the Quakers, removed West.
Among them were the parents OF Abraham Lin
coin, and with him large body of young men
whose names became household words, twenty
years later, in loyal service to the Union. No
State contributed more valuable people OF this
sort TO the three great Northern commonwealth
across the Ohio River than Kentucky
Those that stayed at home. under the leader
ship Of the liberal wing the all round follow
ers OF Jefferson, for thirty years, from 1890 TO
1860, agitated every Southern State with thci,
demand for common school education for the
white people. They were opposed largely by the
planter class and the Protestant clergy, who at
that time had greater influence in Southern edu-
cation than the Catholic clergy in Italy to-day
Almost every Southern public man OF national
reputation understood and favored the educa-
tional movement. with some OF the foremost lead
ers in the universities But by 1860 only two
border States Missouri and Kentucky. with
North Carolina and Louisiana and seyral OF the
largest cities, had succeeded in keeriug on the
ground system OF common schools for white
youth; Tor which they were indebted TO the labors
OF group of educators that the children in these
States in the future will crown with honor The
history Of this remarkable movement has been
given to the country by the United States Bureau
OF Education, and should be read by every school
teacher in these sixteen States The result was
that, at the outbrea, Of the Civil War, there was
common school public in the South the educa-
tional disciples OF Jefferson. who were ready to
take advantage OF the opportunity that came ten
years later, to plant the American common school
in every Southern State.
The four years Of war were great university
for the plain white people OF the South First, il
gathered up a million of their young
The Civil War and able-bodied men and sent them
eein ps on ION their travels through their
TO the Fore. own vast empire. from Washington
TO Mexico. Twenty years ago a
Southern Governor told me that not one man in
five hundred in his State travelled one hundred
miles year The stay-at-home Southerner of
those States, outside of the upper sort and the i'm
migrating class, lived within his own beat away
from contact wl,h his betters, tied to his own
possessions and hampered by illiteracy in a way
nobody has yet published 10 the world. He had
q vigorous Training hu has own obstinate sensn