Year: 1875

| the polls on ignorant voters. We may
| pass laws after laws to detect and punish
! frauds on voters, but no legislation viii
I prove adequate till good education be


comes universal. 1t is greatly to be re
| gretted that the Catholic children are


not in the common schools with the ap
proval of the Catholic clergy, because


it necessarily casts the influence of the


body of the Catholic membership who


are not able to share the full benefit Of
| the common schools, in favor of limiting
the scope of common school instruction


to the lowest possible amount.
But 1 do not sympathize with those


who fear that the schools will become


too good A good, and even a liberal
education of any young man or woman


regard as a public as we'll as a private


blessing, and as worth to the public all


it costs to furnish the instruction. There


is no ground to fear that the mass of the


people will ever get too much education.


l am willing to pay taxes for the educa-


ton of any child who shall exercise the


selfdenial and perseverance necessary


to the gaining of an education higher


than the average, and shall never think


myself the loser. There is no danger


that too many will become intelligent or


learned


Inc mas an interest," III III


above all estimates of its cost. The true


glory of nation consists not so much in


its material wealth and power as in the


cultivated minds and character of its cit


izens.


An illustrious instance of the recogni-


ton by the State of its interest in every


grade is to be found in Germany, where


the public fund contributes to the sup
port of the peoples school, the gymna-
slum, and the university. Great as the
German empire has proved in material
power, her greatness in intellectual cul-
ture and in all knowledge is still more
commanding. Undoubtedly her present
military ascendency is largely due to her
schools. But her greatest glory consists in
the citizens produced by her liberal edu-
cational policy. Her numerous learned
men and their worldwide Investigations,
and her men of genius and literary re-
nown, have secured a more permanent
fame to Germany than the success of her
arms. Military glory may be obsured by
defeat, but the triumphs of genius and
cultivated mind, in science and in itera-
ture, survive dynasties and empires.


Any sect or any party in this country
which places itself in opposition to the
public covntenance and support of COM
mon education, or of advanced education
and learning, opposes the best interest,
and the manifest destiny of the nation
Let no sect or party hope to persuade
the American people that Ignorance is
bliss" or that a sound education in liter
ature and the sciences is goddess.


What can we say to such declarations
as the following, from the Freemans
journal, leading Catholic paper, of
New York:


Education is not the work of the State
at all. 1t belongs to families, and should
be left to families, and to voluntary asso-
The school tax in itself is an
unjust imposition"


Again, the same paper says, under
date of December last:


1--WE demand of the State as our right,
either such schools as our Church will
accept, or exemption from the School
tax. If it will support schools by a gen
eral tax we demand that it provide or
give us our portion of the public funds,
and leave US to provide schools in our
own religion, under the supervision of
our own Church. We hold education to
be function of the Church, not of the
State; and in our case we do not and will
not accept the State as an educator"


And even the Catholic Telegraph, here |
at home, says


It viii be a glorious day for the Cath
olics in this country when, under the |
avs of justice and morality, eur school |
system shall be shivered to pieces. I'm /
I'll then modern paganism will triumph"


Such passages as these verify all 1 |
have said of the purposes of the Catholic |
clergy. They would excite indignation |
put that they evince a total misconcep-
ion of our government.


These expressions may not meet the
concurrence of all the priests; and am
'ure the laity have shown no such hostil-
ty to the common schools. The priests
1ave usually shown more prudence and
orbearance in other matters. l am glad
20 learn that the Archbishop of Cincin-
1ati has recently disapproved of the term
goddess" as applied to the public schools,
md at the same time remarked that
some of the best teachers in the parochi-
u schools had been educated in the pub
lc schools of Cincinnati. But as the
Democratic party is frantic for political
power and are willing to ruin our cur
'ency in order to get it, so some of these
priests seem to be frantic for the mastery
IF the schools. They want the children
lnder their unchecked control In
school and out of school they must be
masters of the children. They under
stand that in childhood they can best es-
,ablish their priestly authority, and they
lre determined to do it. 1t is difficult
20 speak of such pretensions with pa
lence, and we are thankful that the
state which they attempt to set aside as
IN educator will not be set aside, but is,
md will be, master.


1 trust that they will learn, before it is
90 late, to respect the government which
thor anA 70
,he fundamental principles of our gov
.rnment, and that the laity may learn to
'espect their own good judgment against
clerical dictation. Let us look with due
allowance and charity upon the mistakes
Of all our felloW-citizens. On reading
,he maledictions which they cast upon
our noble schools we are forcibly i'm
pressed with the necessity that these
gentlemen have some lessons in true
American democracy, and that the Anne
'ican people will be found competent to
give them.


But remembering the differences of |
our antecedents, let US use philosophy
and eschew anger. Let us, however,
take every means of making it known |
beyond all chance of error or mistake |
that the common school system is part |
Of our Republican State, and that to call |
it goddess or pc gan, while it is not like |
ly to "shiver' the schools, will go far to |
destroy our respect for the discretion or
good manners of those who say such |
things. This fearful disposition of one
portion of Gods creatures to bastardize |
all the rest, and claim to be the only |
genuine offspring of the Deity is too
to be effective. The public
schools cannot be put down by an cpl
10