Year: 1875




The Common School Question


"Watchman, what of the nightg
Is the cause of public education
progressing or retrograding? Are
there no strong currents working
against our public school system?


1 am no alarmist. From the depth
of my soul 1 loathe and abhOr the
senseless CANNON of office seeking
politicians, yet / cannot fail to see
the signs of the times. From the
first planting of the American col
onies till now, grave questions have
always been pending. 1t has always
been crisis. Seven or eight times
within q generation VIC have seemed
to be near disruption of all our civil
bonds. Whether the danger now is
more imminent, God only knows.
1 have no sympathy with those,
that are, with mournfully elongated
countenances, uttering their jere-
miades over what they deem the
speedy downfall of their holy Jerusa-
lem, but l can not fail to see, with
half an eye, that there are certain
threatening clouds skirting our edu
cational horizon, which may possibly
spread over our skies, shutting out
onr sunlight, and ultimately pouring
down deluge to sweep our school sys-
TEN out of existence. We have the
token already of the approaching
tempest. The Geghan bill is indica
tive of something greater in the fu
turc. 1t must be quite clear to the
mind of any one that has watched
the course pursued by the ultramon-
tanes to secure the passage of the
bove-named bill, that the action of
the Legislature in this instance was
but an advance wave of y strong cur
rent of opposition to other features
more vital and essential to the public
welfare, We do not make this state
mont because We object SO much to
what the bill contains in itself but
because it was done ut the demand of
the Church of Rome. Never before
did foreign church venture to speak
to American Legislators as it spoke
recently to democratic representa-
tives In Ohio. "Obey us" cried the
priest, cor we will drive you from
power, and mark you with inetacea-
BILE brand." The democrats yielded,
and in yielding they sacrificed all
principles of true manhood. Now,
let it he borne in mind that it is the
Pope and Roman Curia with whom
we are brought face to face. The
very same faction, ''which is the de-
fender of Bourbon, in France and
Spain, of Catholic unity at Rome. re-
ligious tyranny and the temporal pow
OF s,f the Pope which threatens Ger
many with the horrors of invasion
and civil war, and Italy with the
fiercest plague of priestly tyranny"


Now, the question is, shall the
Pope rule the State Of Ohio. Shall
caste, sectarianism, European preju-
dice and transatlantic f0llies be sub
stituted in the place of the princi-
pies of human equality and mental
progress which have made our coun
try great and happy.


Again, in order to show that there
is true cause of alarm on the parb OF
the friends of free education, let us
see what the Catholic Church, or
rather the priest, for it is assured
that the members of the church have
no more will in the matter than
dumb, driven cattle has promised the
democratic party. The Catholic Tel
egraph tells it, "The unbroken, solid
vote of the Catholic citizen will be
given to the democracy at tho coming
election" Why did they make such
promises? Was it because the Ge-
CHAN bill was of such paramount i'm
portance? No. 1t was because they
regarded the bill as test To try the
loyalty of the demacratic party To
the Church of Rome, and their will
lingness to redress their 40 called
grievances, Liston 10 what tho Tele-
grsph gays, when this bill was pen
ding: ''That party democratic is
now on trial. The Geghan bill will
test thes lncerity of its professions.
The probation is now ended. They
have tasted the forbidden fruit"


What next? Has that foreign
church made any more demands? "If
the party Is under obligation to rec
tify one wrong to which the church
is represented as suffering, it does
not discharge its obligation until all
of these so-called wrongs are recti-
fed"


Well then, what comes next? The
New York Freeman's Journal tells
us, awe do not want to be taxed for
a Protestant or Goddess school. Let
the public school system go where it
came from-the devil" &c.


We see that the muddle about the
Bible in the schools has ceased, What
that they demand is, the total over
throw of the whole school fabric.
They may ts.lk much about their pro
rata share of school moneys, but
this is all an idle talk. Any person
of any intelligence knows that a dis
tribution OF school moneys to the va
rious religious sects on the basis oi
enumeration would be as impractica
BILE as it is unconstitutional. To give
every sect pro rata share of the
school moneys to enable it to support
its own schools, and teach its own
system of religious faith in them
j would be to divide into dozen OF
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