have the greatest interest in being blind to them. Old details of the plan are constantly being discarded, and new theories attempted in their place. The national anxiety for the education of the young, however, always remains, and it is this which gives the true direction to the officers who are placed in charge of the schools. Education in a democratic community is as necessary as the standing army which its internal differences call into existence. Much credit is doubtless due to the charitable intentions of the community, but the prevailing motives for the sacrifices they make are those of protection for themselves, and regard for the destinies of their country. It is of little consequence, the American believes, how many people you admit to the suffrage so long as you can rely upon their all voting intelligently, upon proper reflection and information. To enfranchise large numbers of persons who have not proved themselves to be qualified to form rational opinions upon public affairs, and whose antecedents are a presumptive evidence of their unfitness to be intrusted with a share of political power, is an act which, even in a democracy, excites discontent and many misgivings. This is proved by the strong and general opposition which exists in the United States to negro suffrage-an opposition so strong, that the people who insist upon its acceptance by one section of the country refuse altogether to hear of its enforcement in their own. It was required that the South should let negroes

CHAP. X.

EDUCATION INDISPENSABLE IN DEMOCRACIES. 225

vote, not because any one believed or pretended that the negro was qualified to vote intelligently; that was never asserted; but because the concession was regarded as a just compensation to the race for the hardships and sufferings inflicted upon them in previous generations, as a security for their freedom, and as a measure of retaliation against those who endeavoured to divide the Republic-in short, upon a variety of political considerations which are wholly independent of the propriety or impropriety of allowing uneducated persons to take a direct share in the government. If the question of negro suffrage had been decided upon the latter basis alone, the whole voice of the country would have been raised against it. Expediency, political conceptions of justice, party spirit, were the motives, and the only motives, which led the country to sustain it.

"The people must be educated before they can safely be intrusted with political power," is, then, a ruling maxim of every American who has a true knowledge of the principles of his own government, or a just appreciation of others. During the political contests which followed upon the termination of the war, the most intensely radical section of New Englanders were exceedingly solicitous respecting the education of former slaves. They knew perfectly well that, if these ignorant blacks were allowed to govern, fresh as they came from the cotton-field and the sugar-brake, great and wide spread must be the mischief which would ensue. Hence the demand

arose for confiscation of Southern lands, for the purpose of creating funds wherewith to found and endow schools. Of so much consequence is it held to be that all persons shall possess facilities for forming independent opinions upon the course of public affairs, that in Massachusetts every man must be able to read and write before he is allowed to cast his ballot. Supposing that Massachusetts citizens held that it was equally necessary in the South to adopt this safeguard and protection, it would follow that the negro could not vote. But other considerations determined the question, and the instant admission to political privileges of four millions of scarcely civilized voters, was thought to be the least of the two evils between which the nation saw itself compelled to choose.

The voluntary principle in religion has also had its influence in encouraging free education. Each sect was not only obliged to build its own churches and support its own priests or clergy, but also to take proper measures for the education of the young. These denominational institutions now exist all over the country, and greatly limit the scope of the purely secular schools. An inspector of the public schools once complained to me, "every denomination thinks it must have its own school, and hence our field is sadly reduced." The eighth census shows us that nearly five millions of persons received instruction in the various States in the year 1860; but this return included schools of all descriptions. The schoolhouse always springs up, as if in a night, by the side

CHAP. X.

DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS.

227

of a church. In a new settlement the one is never considered complete without the other. They are nourished with an equal hand, and thrive commensurately with the growth of the community. The poorest cheerfully give of their slender substance to protect the welfare of their sect, which to their minds is advancing the great cause of religion, and to provide means for the instruction of the young. The secular principle in education is indispensable, where the chief object aimed at is to entice parents of all shades of religious opinions to send their children to school. It is, therefore, an essential and not an optional part of the educational system in America. Indeed, the managers of these institutions sometimes strive too hard, and sacrifice too much, to make their establishments popular with all. They offend many by their over anxiety to keep religion outside in the street, and to "conciliate" certain sects. When one of the schools in Boston was opened, the usual devotional exercises were abridged, and the reading of the Bible altogether omitted, because the building was in the midst of a Roman Catholic population, and several priests had been invited to attend. This pleased the Catholics very much, it was said, and probably with truth; but Massachusetts has always been a Protestant community, and it is possible to avoid giving offence to Roman Catholics without tricking out the schools in false colours and disguises to accommodate them to their dogmas.

If all the appliances for education in America were excellent of their kind, the children of Americans ought to be the best educated in the world; but will any one except a very prejudiced and uninformed observer assert that they are so? The effects of a superficial and desultory training are palpable to every one who lives in the country, and who watches life and manners with impartial eyes, and who has listened to the frequent complaints of parents that their sons know nothing thoroughly.

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They skim over the surface of things," it will often be said, "and will not work, as one reads and hears of English boys doing." There is no people in the world who read so much and know so little as the Americans. It will be understood that this remark applies simply to the masses, who live upon a mental diet furnished by newspapers, and cheap magazines, and tawdry novels. The learned class are by no means few in number, and it is yearly strengthened by the sound and efficient work done in the excellent Universities of Yale and Harvard. There, some of the finest intellects in the country have been cultivated, and men of distinguished abilities daily conduct the studies of the graduates. It is not the fault of any of the States within the Union if their inhabitants are not possessed of a common and serviceable education. They appreciate the truth of the words pronounced by Mr. Robert Lowe, in the House of Commons, "that it is absolutely necessary that their masters should be taught their letters." While England is intent upon