The Schools And The Nation

[We extract the follow'mg paragraphs from the recent able annual report of Hon. Johh M. Gheooey, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and coininend them to the careful attention of every reader of the Aegüs. The subject is one of the utmost importance in these days of the nation's trial.] American statesmen have always asserted the close dependence of free government on the cultivated iutelligenoe nd virtue of the people. Washington and bis colleagues early proclaiuied it, and the miglitiest na tu es that have followed have reiterated the same truth. - Out of this belief of American stateeaien faave growD, prineipally, the Ameri can school systeius; and out of il too have come those munificent douations of school and University lands, by which eduoatioo bas been enabled to keep pace witb the march of population, in the new and formiug States of the Republic, and to plant its school houses besido the cabins of the pioneers. No American mir.d will question the essential truth of this great American idea, and yet hut few minds have paused to mark how profoundly and widely the education of the people is interlinked, not only with the form of thegovernment, but with all the interests of the uation; how it sweeps through tho entire realm of our private and our public life, and touches, with an electric energy, every industrial, commercial, mora!, social, political and military element in the national character; how, in short it is the great nurturing mother, at once, of our material pros perity and our intellectual progress.- The grandest of the wealth produeing powers, - adding the science-eotupclled and unwarying forces of nature to the feeble energies of mere human toilers, - multiplying riobes in countlessprofuBion, - finding new values in all the crude materials of nature, and giving to property itself new and higher worth, in the increased security of its possession, and in ;he more elevated and excellent capacities for its enjoyment - it might wel] claim tl-e regards of even a merely commercial nation. But in its power to elévate and enlarge the sphere of life - to make manhood more inanful, and human;ty more graotjly and gloriously human - it lends to liberty new charms, and magnifies the national life into a power and grandeur sueh as no mere extensión of territory, and no numerical inerease of population can ever give. In this country, possessed as it is of a vast unoccupied territory, great efforts jare naturally been made to induce a large imtnigration from the over-crowded Btates of the old world. With immense domain, we have wanted an immense population ; and, in the anxiety to secure this, we have been in danger of forgetting that it is not the numbers, but the character of its people that renders a natiou great, prosperous and happy. - China with its uneounted millions ol people and its continental atretch of territory, has wielded less influence and filled a less place in the world's hiatory than tho little península of Greoco, or the rock girt British isles. What would it avail us as a State ïf, witb one great effort, we could fill our entire northern wilds with an i mported people ? Speculation would sell ite lands, and the State would have more voters, and moro members of Congress; but what then ? - Would our liberties be greater or safer? or would these children of the old world be made tnuch happier by being welcoraed to awüderness? Well might they sing : " Better dweil in the midst of alarms, Than reigu in this horrible place." I would not forbid nor discourage the oppressed sons of Europe from following the westward path opened by our fathers, aud from seeking an asylum for themsolves aud their childreu in this " land of the free." Let them come with their strong arms aud libertyloviug hearte; but let us remember that not merely by waving our flag over them, i-h;ill we transform them and their children into American citizens. American ideas taught by American schools, by an American literature, alone can properly melt this immense foreign element into tho great body of American citizenship, and keep our beloved country what the fathera made it and left it Let us be wa?ned that with every new wavo of imrcTgratJfin ttat eWeeps to our sböres, we must, not in a spirit of uarrow jealousy, but in equal love of our visitor and our solves, build liigher the bulwarks of liberty in tbo pubüe mind, and strengthen tho bonds of naiional uuity in the common cultivation of the people. The wisest men of both great classes of citi zenship - uativo and foreigu born - will recognize the urgent wisdom of these suggestions. Let our law makers give them heed. Let us Americanizo them, lest they Europeanize U8. The terrible histoiy of this most causeless and wicked rebelüon - a rebellion precipitated by the passion-impelled leaders of an untaught people - has added a new evidenco to the truth taught by our statesmen, and given a new revelation of the value of our schools. The grand " uprising " of the loyal and school-taoght North has been more than equaled by its grauder endurance. - While incredulous Europo has looked for our bankruptcy and downfall, we have met every cali for men and means not only with unwonted alaerity, but with unwasted strength ; and to day the loyal States are richer and greater than when the first gun woko the eehoes of war. We should be cqually blind to our best interests, and ungrateful to our schools, if we should refuso to recognize the agency of education in these magnificent resulta. It matters not that not every soldier eau read, and that many have never perhaps been in the school room. All have drunk in of the general tide of freo thought ever flowing from tho halls of learning. Through their educated pupils, our schools have transformed even the shops and strtets into wider school rooms for the instruction of the people and the dissemination of practical knowledge. The mind-power of the oation has uot only enabled it to couiprehend and accept the great issues of the conflict, but tuis taught it how to produce, on a sudden, all the needful material of war. lts skilied industry has stood in stead of mighty arseuals, filled with gathered munitious, and out of the brain of the nation bave sprung, ready arined, the grandest army and navy on the globe. The schooled conscience of the people has inspired it to overeóme tho cherished prejudices of generations, and to keep abreast with the magnificent moral revolution that has rolled ouward above the battle-fields. It is the grand, noticeable fact in this great war, that the people have led thegovernment, not the government the people. The people have thought faster and better than their rulers, and yet, with a noble reticence and trust they have waited patiently till their rulers could find out the public mind and follow it. Did free public schools need a new argiiuieotfor their defense, it is here afforded them. Did their friends need a new cali to labor for their improvement, it comes thuudertonod from this war. - Who henceforward can doubt that the free school is the necessary adjunct of a free State? And in the great future of national growth and power whioh begiua already to rise to sight beyond the battle fields, how much shall we need to work with a doublé energy and zeal these ugeno'es by which the people can alone be lifted into some sort of equality with their destiny, and the national conscience made equal to the control of the national career ! If our land shall escape the fate of tho republics of the old world, it must be through the aid of a christian civilization made prevalent and powerful by universal edueation. Three great reforms are needed in the free schools of our country : lst. As the schools are made free to the pupils, the pupila should be made sure to tho schools. The right to 'naintain schools by public tax, implies tho right to send to school by public authority ; and while the State should sacredly guard the right of parents to be the educators of thoir children, it should equally proiect the rigiit of the child to be educated, and should abovo all, enforce the grander right of society to secure oducation to its owu future cilizens. Leaving every parent to chooso hjs own school, it should see to it that nox;hild is reared to manhood without an education suited to his wants. 2nd. A purer and nobler moral culture should be made a regular part of school instruction. Not a mere negative morality, consisting in a. puritunic avoidance of wrong doing, but a great souled, active, and earuest love and practice of' the right - a daily inculcation by word and deed of every noble sentiment, of philanthropy, and truth, and duty - such should be tho moral educatiou of every pupil of tho public schools. Tho good of society and the safefry of the schools, deinaixd that we shall no lonjrer rest content, with a mere intellectual culturo whioh affords to the State uo pledge that those whom it has paid to edúcate, will use their education for the public good, and not for the public damage. Let tbs teachers be made free, while thoy teach the mind knowledge, to lead their pupils as far God-ward and Heaveu-ward as they can. 3rd. It ehould be insisted on that public education shall conform more to its public uses. Iustead of instnictiiig the pupil as if for his own personal and private good, we should demand that he be thoroughly eduoated also for the uses of society and the service of tho State, and thus tho public school be made public in a tigher sense. Let the knowledgo and seutiments necessary to a good citizen be made a part of eaeh school course. Let each pupil be taught tho history of bis country, the principies and framework cf its government, tne rights aud duties of the people in a republio, the obligatious of publio law and the principies of civil and religious libeity. All this may be accomplished in the common sohool by a simple coursa of reading and oral instruction, and in the higher schools by a moro extended and systomatio oourso of gtcdy. And tó tbiB let thórt fce &3dè3 s profound rcveronoo lor tho Conatitution and the laws of the land, an intelligent love of country, and a passion for liberty inciilcated by a frequent rebearsul of our national struggles, aud of the beroie enduratice and noble achievments of patriot soldiers and eitizens. Let story and song bo iuvoked to fill the soula of our childi'en with the grand and useful sentimeuts of national honor and national dofense. Let ohildhood in all the land bo taught to reverenee tho memories of the noble dead who on tho great battlefields, as at GeUysburg, Chattanooga, and a huudred more, bared their bosoras and offered their lives for their country. - Thus let the State care for its children, providing them a culture whieh may give theuj sound bodies, intelligent rninds, and pure hearts ; and in their uianhood, it will not lack for loyal citizens and valiaut defenderá.