Year: 1875

ruler, she is striving to throw OH the letters that have bound her. It is now proposed near the close of the first century of our eXlst ence--as republic--tO swap places with poor Mexico, and to throw our country under the car that has nearly crushed the last spark of life from ner, while she is mak- ing successful efforts toward our elevated position as regrrds pup lie education free of all church influence. And Tucson IS the favored spot where it is sought to plant this blight and mildew to rot out the public school houses, and turn the bright eyed boys and girls back into ignorance again. !,

 ask you to look the civilized world over and see the condition of the people where education is controlled by sectarian creeds Look at France, with nearly half her paulation unlettered and her power and glory fast passing away. Cross the Rhine, and see united Germany with her free schools and scarcely an illiterate person in the whole empire; see how she has risen in power just in proportion as her schools have increased. Look at Spain, with her sectarian schools tOttering on the verge of ruin, her people in ignorance, poverty and distress, falling lower and lower. Look at the little republic of Switzerland, nestled in the SnOw-clad Alps, with her compulsory educational laws, every man capable of read ing and writing, everyl man a freeman, defying mOnarchies on all sides, and ready to give up life to maintain the independence and freedom of their own beloved land.

 Sir, the line is so we'll marked between those countries that SUD- port general system of of educa- ton and those which do not that the traveller need not be told when he passes from one to the other. On the side of education, are seen thrift, charity, content ment and happiness, and on the side of iliteracy, are seen poverty, intolerance and distress. The question is so plain and simple that it does not require argument; all that is needed is to read his tory and admit facts. It has al- ways been the favorite argument l of those who seek to keep the people in ignorance so they may rule and tyrannize over them, that they do so by divine right. The monarch upon his throne, claims to derive his right to rule from above, and that his person is sacred and he can do no wrong. He uses the cloak of religion to sustain this right, and millions of human beings have been brought to torture and death, because they dared to have and express opinions contrary to the ruling power, and all this in the name of religion and by d power claimed to be Di- vine. Sir, we are endeavOring to raise up people in our public schools, who will have the man. Illness and courage to oppose this divine-right humbug, We are ecdeavoring to raise up people who will be kind and charitable to all, who will prescribe no one on account of their religious be- lief; who will in the future as in the past, accept and support men for their true worth and not on account of the particular religious creed they may entertain. If there is any religions creed that cannot stand upon this platform of equal fairness and justice to all; if its dogmas cannot be sustained by a broad and liberal system of education independent of church influence, then weak indeed must be the principles upon which it is founded. We do not propose in any manner to interfere with the religious instruction of the youth; we only seek to give them the rudiments of an education so they can be made useful men and wO- men; and intend to let them go to the church aud home circle for their religious teaching. In this way we propose to raise up a ge- neratiOn of true American citizens who will come upon the stage of action with their religious opi- nions mainly moulded by the mother who has 50 earnestly watched and prayed for them and the church influences that have surrounded them; but they will be as liberal and tolerent for the opinions of others as the schools have been in which they were instructed; and in this way we propose to keep in the councils of the nation in the future as we have in the past, men of all creeds who will work in harmony and unisiOn for the honor and glory of our common country.