Part 33 (1/2)
The General a.s.sembly to which he was now returned, was the first that convened under the new Const.i.tution. Upon this body devolved the responsibility of reconstructing the statutes of the State, and adapting them to the requisition of the Const.i.tution, so as to secure to the people the practical benefits of the great reforms which had been achieved by its adoption. Mr. Rice contributed quite as much as any other member to the important legislation of the two sessions held by that General a.s.sembly.
It was said of him that he _was always at his post_. The degree of influence which he exercised as a legislator, was such as few have the good fortune to wield.
Among the variety of measures which engaged his attention, he took a prominent part in procuring the pa.s.sage of the act which authorized the establishment of two additional lunatic asylums in the State.
His course in relation to the subject of common schools attracted public attention throughout the State, and called forth from the press commendations of a very complimentary character. The correspondent of a paper published at Newark, writing from Columbus, remarks as follows:
Senator Rice, of Cuyahoga, has in charge a bill for the reorganization of schools and providing for their supervision.
No better man than Mr. Rice could have been selected for this work. He is a model man and a model Senator. Clear headed, sound minded, carefully and fully educated, with a painstaking disposition, he is the ablest chairman of the standing committee on schools that any Ohio Legislature ever had. Deeply impressed with the great importance of the subject--of the stern necessity which exists for basing our whole republican form of government on the intelligence of the people, he has carefully provided a bill, which, if enacted into a law, will give a good _common_ school education to every child in the State, and in so doing, has been equally careful that the money raised for that purpose be not squandered. The bill provides for a State Commissioner of Common Schools, and it has been mentioned to me as a matter of deep regret, that the Const.i.tution excludes Mr. Rice from being a candidate for that office--no member of the Legislature being eligible to an office created while he was a member, until one year after the expiration of his term of office.
On the question of the final pa.s.sage of the bill, Mr. Rice addressed the Senate in a concluding speech, which was published, and very generally noticed by the press. Among these notices, a leading paper published at Cleveland, with a magnanimity rarely possessed by a political opponent, makes the following comments and quotations:
Mr. Rice made the closing speech on the School Bill, in the Senate, on the 24th. It was his Bill. He had labored over it, and for it, a long time, and given to it every consideration, and gained for it every counsel, which, by any possibility, he could gain.
The text of his speech was the language of the Const.i.tution itself; the duty of securing 'a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State.'
Mr. Rice goes into detail on the school bill, and, regretting that we have not room for the detail, we close our synopsis of his very sensible speech by quoting its conclusion:
”It is certainly much cheaper, as well as much wiser, to _educate_ than to _punish_. How much of crime would be prevented if a higher order of education were generally diffused among all cla.s.ses. A well educated and enlightened people will have but little occasion for criminal courts, jails and penitentiaries. The educated man has ordinarily too much self-respect, too much regard for moral principle and the value of a good character to stoop to crime. In short, sir, the perpetuity of the government, and security of the citizen, and of property, depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the people.
”By the provisions of this bill, it is intended to make our common schools what they ought to be--the colleges of the people--'cheap enough for the poorest, and good enough for the richest.' With but a slight increase of taxation, schools of different grades can be established and maintained in every towns.h.i.+p of the State, and the sons and daughters of our farmers and mechanics have an opportunity of acquiring a finished education, equally with the more favored of the land. And, in this way, the elements of mind now slumbering among the uneducated ma.s.ses, like the fine unwrought marble in the quarry, will be aroused and brought out to challenge the admiration of the world-Philosophers and sages will abound everywhere, on the farm and in the workshop. And many a man of genius will stand out from among the ma.s.ses, and exhibit a brilliancy of intellect, which will be recognized in the circling years of the great future, as
'A light, a landmark on the cliffs of time.'
”It is only the educated man who is competent to interrogate nature, and comprehend her revelations. Though I would not break down the aristocracy of knowledge of the present age, yet, sir, I would level up, and equalize, and thus create, if I may be allowed the expression, a democracy of knowledge. In this way, and in this way only, can men be made equal in fact--equal in their social and political relations--equal in mental refinement, and in a just appreciation of what const.i.tutes man the brother of his fellow man.
”In conclusion, sir, allow me to express my belief, that the day is not far distant when Ohio, in the n.o.ble cause of popular education and of human rights, will 'lead the column,' and become, what she is capable of becoming--a star of the first magnitude--the brightest in the galaxy of our American Union.”
A proud hour now came for Mr. Rice! A good and glorious one for the State! The roll of the Senate was called, and that body, on the 24th day of January, 1853, proceeded to cast its final vote upon the bill, when only two negatives were announced.
Another bill, of scarcely less importance than the school bill, was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Rice, near the heel of the adjourned session, which with him was a favorite measure, and which seemed to meet with the hearty approbation of the public. It had for its object the establishment of a ”State Reform School,” expressly designed for juvenile offenders.
But owing to the late day of the session in which the bill was introduced, though very favorably received by the senate, a motion was made to postpone it until the next session. In reference to this motion, without attempting to make a formal speech, Mr. Rice explained briefly the object contemplated by the bill. His remarks relating as they did to a subject of public interest, were reported and published. The bill, at a subsequent session, resulted in establis.h.i.+ng the present Reform Farm School.
The eminent services which he has rendered the State in the promotion of her educational interests will be long and gratefully remembered by those of his fellow citizens who properly appreciate the true objects of life, and who wish to secure to themselves, to their children, and to the generations which will follow them, the social blessings which flow from a high degree of refinement, intelligence and moral virtue.
While a member of the City Council, in 1857, Mr. Rice took the lead in establis.h.i.+ng the Cleveland Industrial School, and was chairman of the committee that put it into successful operation. It has now grown to be one of the most important charitable inst.i.tutions in Cleveland. Mr. Rice is still active in extending its usefulness.
In the same year he originated the project, and introduced the resolution into the Council, authorizing the erection of the Perry Monument which now graces the Public Park of the city. The cost of the Monument, by the terms of the resolution, was made to depend on the voluntary subscriptions of the citizens. Mr. Rice was appointed Chairman of the Monument Committee, and after three years of persevering effort, succeeded in carrying the object of the resolution into effect. The Monument was inaugurated with imposing ceremonies, on the 10th of September, 1860, the anniversary of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Mr. Bancroft, the historian, delivered the Inaugural Address. As carefully estimated, not less than one hundred thousand people attended the inauguration. In carrying out the programme the battle of Lake Erie was reproduced, in a mock fight, on the Lake in front of the city. It was a proud day for Cleveland. Both the Monument and the inauguration were p.r.o.nounced a perfect success.
In 1861, Mr. Rice, being elected to the Board of Education, was appointed President of the Board, and during his term of office rendered essential service in promoting the educational interests of the city. In fact, he has always been a zealous friend and advocate of popular education. In his literary career he has become widely known as the author of ”Mount Vernon, and Other Poems”--a volume containing two hundred and fifty pages which has reached a fifth edition.
In 1862, Mr. Rice was appointed by the Governor of the State, with the concurrence of the War Department, a commissioner for Cuyahoga county, to conduct the first draft made in the county during the late civil war. In executing this delicate task he acquitted himself with firmness, integrity, and discretion. While in the discharge of his duties he found his office one morning suddenly besieged by some five or six hundred excited citizens, who were armed with pistols and other weapons, threatening to demolish the office and destroy the records. They had been instigated to make this demonstration by false rumors regarding the fairness of the draft. Mr. Rice met the crisis firmly, sent to the military camp on the Heights for a detachment of soldiers, infantry and artillery, who came to his relief on the ”double quick,” and dispersed the riotous a.s.semblage. To satisfy the disaffected that all was right and just in relation to the draft, Mr. Rice proposed that they should appoint a committee of their own to investigate the state of affairs in the draft office. They did so, and with his aid an elaborate examination was made, and the committee reported that the draft had been conducted fairly and justly in all respects. Mr. Rice then proceeded with the draft, and as luck would have it, two of the committee, who had been ring-leaders in getting up the demonstration, were drafted on the spot, and every body seemed pleased with the result.
In 1867, Mr. Rice, wis.h.i.+ng to express his regard for the cause of Missions, as well as for the college where he graduated, erected at his own expense, and with the approval of the college authorities, a beautiful marble monument in Mission Park, at Williamstown, Ma.s.s., commemorative of the origin of American Foreign Missions. The park is a part of the college domains, and within it there is a maple grove where a few pious young students of the college, in the summer of 1806, held occasional prayer-meetings. At one of these meetings a shower of rain compelled them to seek the shelter of a neighboring haystack, where they continued their exercises, and where one of their number, Samuel J. Mills, first suggested the idea of a mission to foreign heathen lands, as being a religions duty.
In this n.o.ble and philanthropic thought his a.s.sociates all concurred, and there, while at the haystack, consecrated themselves in solemn prayer, to the great work. From this circ.u.mstance originated American Foreign Missions. The monument was planned by Mr. Rice It is erected on the spot where the haystack stood, is twelve feet in height, and surmounted with a marble globe three feet in diameter, and cut in map lines. The face of the monument has the inscription, ”The Field is the World,” followed with a haystack, sculptured in bas relief, and the names of the five young men, who held the prayer-meeting, and the date 1806. The monument was dedicated July 28th, 1867, at the maple grove, in the park. A large audience was present. Mr. Rice, by special request, delivered the dedicatory address, which was received with a high degree of satisfaction, and afterwards published, with the other proceedings, in pamphlet form.