Year: 1872

Mr.. SPEAKER :--knOwlng aS
do the apathy OF the people and
the indifference, if not active op-
position of many members Of this
House on the subject of popular
education, | will be excused for
begging the attention of members
to the remarks | am about to make
on the pending bill.


| have observed more than
once an evident impatience of
more than one member, whenever
anything has been read from the
clerks desk in relation to common
schools and the cause of popular
education. Significant facts and
figures when clothed in chaste
English have been SPOKEN Of as
high flown rhetoric. In order then
to secure the attention of the
House, desire to say in the be
ginning that the Craftsmanship OF
The Committee on Public Schools
and Education, has not made me
an unreasonable advocate of wild
and impracticabls theories of free
common schools. Nor do | desire
TO discuss the advantages Of edu-
catiun- "a IL relates to the indi-
vidual or the State -


There is one remark, however,
that | will make, which has refer
Ience II ore TO the effects OF igno.
rance and learning upon each 9TH
er, than to the Importance of edu-
cation or the evil effects Of igno
rance. They act upon each other
and each is damaged by the other.


In a State or government.
where there IS large proportion
ofignprant persons, those ignorant
persons do nearly all the manual
labor, and the educated and the
half educated men and women,
conclude very naturally, that the
divine command, 'by the sweat
OF thy brow, thou shalt earn thy
bread" WAS intended only tor the
ignorant.


The result of this is that the
professions are crowded with men
who ought to be producers instead
Of consumers--men hunting a
precarious existence by their in
tellect and dependent for success
on the necessities, mistortunes and
ignorance of their fellow-man.
Young men of intelligence instead
of engaging in productive pursuits.
marrying and elevatung and i'm,
proving The social circles in which
they move, Spend their income
like the prodigal son, in riotous
living, because j, will not maintain
vile in Incidence and pay the
wages of hired servants.


The inclination to shun manu-.
al labor is natural, but the incl,
nation IS strengthened by the fact
that the greater part of it is per
formed by the poorer and more ig-
nurant classes, and labor in itself
hnnorable is tn rrbY degraded
Even the prosperous farmer is Of
ten guilty of inculcating or per
mittirg to be inculcated the idea
that his children are reared and
educated for the bench, the bar,
the forum or the pulpit, and that
HE Successors need know only
when the seasons return in their
course, and when the harvest will
be ripe for the sickle. 4.


Such false notions as these are
engendered by the contact of the
intelligent with the absolutely is-
norant.


The poor and ignorant sees tina,
his more educated employer or
neiehbor lives in, ease if not luxu'
Iry, without the drudgery which
he unIefgoes, aud he desires tc
become educated, not for i.selt,
but in order that he may avoid
Ilabor-on the uther hand the edu'
Gated classes observe that al The
hewers of wood aud drawers of
water are not only poor. but often
times ignorant and wretehed, and
it avoids labor as far as possible


as the high road to penury,if moi
to temptation and crime.


Crime is the child Of ignorance
not of necessity. The thief anG
burglar are seldom impelled by
sense of hunger or nakedness : II
the productive and genial climate


of Tennessee the number of
wholly uneducated white convictI
in the State prison, exceeds th'
number OF educated by twenty
nine. and that, too, notwithstand
, ing the illiterates over ten year
of age are only one fifth of tn
educated, or those whe can rea'


and write.