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enlightened. Can such a people be said to be self-governed? Can they be justly said to possess all power in the State, when they are destitute of the only element which confers any power under any circumstances, viz: a proper degree of intelligence? No! the subject of the most despotic government, who is well educated, possesses more real power for all the practical purposes of life and human happiness, than the citizen of the freest country in the world, who is unenlightened. Of what value is the elective franchise to the individual who knows nothing of the nature of our institutions, or of the fitness for office of the candidate who asks his suffrage? Or what respect is a government entitled to command from its citizens or from foreign nations, which is the representative of the political opinions, not of a discreet and well-informed people, but of an ignorant and turbulent rabble? If there is any government on earth in which the people should be well educated, it is in such a government as ours,-a representative democracy, where the citizens have many duties to perform, and where they themselves exercise the functions of government through the instrumentality of rulers by themselves appointed.

The importance of universal education, has accordingly been recognized from time to time both by our Federal and State governments; the former, upon the admission of new States, having made liberal appropriations of land, belonging to the public domain, for the establishment of schools in such States; and the latter, especially the old States, large and handsome annual appropriations from the State treasury for the same purpose. A just and liberal spirit seems to animate the entire people of the United States on the subject, and a disposition to contribute largely, according to their means, to the establishment of good schools for the benefit of the rising generation. Our citizens are, generally, sufficiently intelligent and well-informed to appreciate the advantages of proper mental training, and it is only the extremely ignorant and degraded,-persons few in number, and who exert no influence on public opinion,-who are unwilling that their children should be properly instructed, and who seem hostile to scholastic establishments. Many instances of American munificence might be cited from among wealthy votaries of learning and science, who have endowed schools, academies. and colleges, which are an honor to their founders, and highly creditable to the age and country. It is to be regret

ted, however, that the liberal intentions of Congress towards the new States, in appropriating every sixteenth section of land to the purposes of education, have, in some instances, been partially defeated by the investment of the proceeds of the sale of such land in the stock of irresponsible banks; and it is equally to be regretted, also, that the Legislatures of several of the States, both old and new, have either neglected to establish Common Schools for the purposes of general education, or that, in other instances, where such schools have been established, they have failed to answer the beneficent purposes for which they were originally designed.

The policy of Common Schools being now the policy of the American people,—a policy as just as it is liberal, and universally acknowledged to be a suitable and even indispensable mode of preserving freedom and the institutions of freedom through all time, as well as a necessary consequence resulting from the very nature, objects and spirit of a free and equal government,-the question arises, and at every succeeding session of our Legislatures is becoming a more serious and important one, why these schools, in some sections of the Union, have proved such worthless and indifferent establishments,-why they awaken the contempt, instead of exciting the pride and eliciting the congratulations of a large portion of our citizens? Is it possible that the American people should have committed a blunder at the outset, in supposing that popular education,-the education of the masses,—was suitable in a country which recognized, in the very frame-work of its government, the doctrine of the equality of human rights? Certainly not, unless the government itself be a mistake, and its theory founded in error. Is the failure of the system to be attributed to the fact, that the system itself is impracticable and visionary? We know that this is not the case, because it has been fully carried out in many parts of the Union, and been attended with the happiest results. Shall we say, then, that our Southern Legislatures are indifferent to the matter of education, or incompetent to legislate upon it as other Legislatures have done? We should be unwilling to prefer charges so directly impugning their character for patriotism and capacity. Yet the failure of the Free School System in the Southern States must have some assignable cause or causes, which may be readily pointed out, and which are certainly deserving of serious consideration, if a reform in the system is ever con

templated, and if the project of popular education is not to be wholly abandoned.

When it is said, that in a free country the citizen is fully at liberty to think for himself, and to form his own opinions on any and all subjects, the proposition is a true one, but its latitude is such, that, unless taken with proper qualifications, an erroneous estimate may be entertained of popular rights and privileges. The acts and ordinances of the government are supposed to be the acts and ordinances of the people, of whose will the government is the representative. The Legislature seeks to understand what the wishes of the people are, and what truth, justice and the best interests of the people demand at its hands, and, by judicious provisions and enactments, aims to accomplish those wishes and protect those interests; and the law of the land, whether it have relation to the subject of education or to any other, becomes, accordingly, not only an expression of the popular voice, but a standard of opinion and action for the people, which they are bound to respect. If the Legislature, after due consultation and mature deliberation, enact a law organizing a system of public instruction, it is the duty of every good citizen, whatever his position in society may be, to obey it cheerfully, and to sacrifice his individual feelings and opinions, if opposed to the law, when by such sacrifice he promotes a great and general good. This rule must be adopted and strictly observed, even in democratic governments, or the consequence of its non-observance will be universal anarchy and misrule.

Different causes have been assigned for the failure of the Free School system in the Southern States, but the principal one undoubtedly is, the extensive patronage afforded to well conducted private schools and academies. These institutions, previous to the introduction of the Common School system, had secured the confidence of intelligent parents, interested in the cause of education, and, in consequence of the superior advantages they offered for acquiring a thorough preparatory education, they have always been preferred to the common schools, in which the teachers have been far less competent. The State system of education, in its early stages a very imperfect one, has always accordingly had to contend, in the matter of patronage, with res pectable private institutions, already firmly established, and supported and encouraged generally by our most influential

citizens. Love of country, or regard for the peculiar theory of our government, has not been strong enough to induce the most patriotic to relinquish the great and positive advantages which these excellent institutions have secured to the rising generation, for the benefits of a somewhat new and untried system, however popular in its plan, generous in its purpose, or congenial with the spirit of American liberty. The pride of wealth and station, so repugnant to the principles of our democratic faith and our professions of love for the people and respect for popular rights, has always been an obstacle, and a serious one, to the establishment of any plan of general education, which proposes to bring the children of the rich and poor, of the fashionable and the obscure, together on common ground, and to afford them equal opportunities of intellectual culture. Free schools have been unpopular with the higher classes of society, simply for the reason that they are free,-simply because they are regarded in the light of charitable establishments, intended for the education of the poor only. The poorer and less affluent classes have, on the other hand, been unwilling to send their children to them, because they are not patronized by the rich, and because even learning, acquired in such institutions, continually reminds them of the inferior and humble position in society which they and their offspring are destined to occupy. These, it may be said, are mere prejudices, but they are prejudices of the most inveterate and powerful character, and have long operated, and will be likely long to continue to operate, against any plan of education, which proposes to place the citizens of a free republic on a common level of privileges, and to give to all classes, without distinction, the same chances for attaining to usefulness, influence and eminence. Yet common schools, in the language of most of our Constitutions, are the very bulwarks of liberty,-the fruitful nurseries of freemen; and the last hope of a republican government is said, and doubtless justly said, to rest on the universal education of the people. There is a great mistake somewhere. Either our professions are worse than idle, or we are flagrantly unjust to our age, our country, and to the institutions we applaud on all occasions with so much vehemence. Much of the failure in our popular systems of education at the South, may be attributed to a want of adequate information in respect to the proper steps to be taken to carry it out suc

cessfully. The organization of our common schools has been faulty. Imperfect and injudicious methods of teaching and discipline, have been introduced into them; the teachers selected have not unfrequently been sadly deficient in proper qualifications; inferior talents, positive ignorance, and total want of experience, have not always been regarded as insurmountable objections, where orphans only, or the children of poor, illiterate and humble parents, have been the chief objects to be provided for by State liberality. The necessity of furnishing school manuals, adapted to the age and state of progress of the pupil, prepared with skill and judgment, free from objectionable matter, inculcating only correct principles in morals, science and government, and preserving a suitable uniformity in all the schools, has been greatly overlooked, and frequently even entirely unheeded. The subject of convenient school houses, which, in the New England States, and in other parts of the world, has been regarded as one almost of paramount importance, has received little or no attention among us. The most clumsy structures, often mere log cabins,-buildings erected without the slightest regard to architectural beauty, and with almost as little to the comfort of their inmates, poorly ventilated in summer, badly warmed in winter, indifferently lighted always, without furniture, without apparatus, without ornament in the shape of portraits of the great and good exciting to industry, such are the temples of science at the South of the common school grade, in which the future citizens and legislators of the commonwealth, or perchance Presidents of the Union, receive their primary instruction. It is in such abodes, surrounded with such influences, under such indifferent and even paltry direction, where the energies of the mind are depressed rather than developed, and where occupation is a pain and almost a disgrace, rather than a delight and an honor, that our young countrymen receive their first impressions of the charms of science and the excellence of virtue, and where the world is furnished with a spectacle upon which it is invited to look, and acknowledge the triumph of the just, liberal and equal principles of our free government.

A proper supervision of the schools, not merely by parents, but by boards of direction for the different Districts, embracing a strict inquiry into the qualifications of teachers, the numbers of pupils who attend the schools, the punctu

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VOL. VI. NO. 12.

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