Part 2 (2/2)
_Spread of Infidelity through Bad Education in America; or, The Object of the Public School System_
Mr O A Brownson, in his book ”The Convert,” Chaps VII and VIII, gives us the following inforin of the Public Schools in this country:
”Frances Wright was born in Scotland, and inherited a considerable property She had been highly educated, and was a woinal powers, and extensive and varied inforht up in the utilitarian principles of Jereland in 1825, she wrote a book in a strain of aly of the American people and their institutions
She saw only one stain upon the A in the condition of the Aro-slavery
”When, in the next year, Mr Owen ca a new ht came with him, not as a full believer in his crotchets, but to try an experiment, devised with Jefferson, Lafayette, and others, for the eht, however, failed in her negro experiment She soon discovered that the Ae in earnest for the abolition of slavery On more mature reflection she came to the conclusion that slavery eneral emancipation, and a radical reform of the American people themselves
”The first step to be taken for this purpose was to rouse the Anity, to emancipate it froy, and its fear of unseen powers, to withdraw it froinary heaven after death, and fix it on the great and glorious work of pro_
”The second step was, by political action, to get adopted, at the earliest practical moment, a system of State schools, in which all the children from two years old and upward should be fed, clothed, in a word, maintained, instructed, and educated at the public expense
”In furtherance of the first object, fanny prepared a course of Lectures on _Knowledge_, which she delivered in the principal cities of the Union She thought that she possessed advantages in the fact that she was a woreater curiosity to hear her, and she would be perainst the clergy and superstition than would be one of the other sex
”The great measure, however, on which fanny and her friends relied for ultimate success, was the system of public schools
These schools were intended to deprive, as well as to relieve, parents of all care and responsibility of their children after a year or two years of age It was assueneral, incompetent to train up their children, provide proper establishovernors for thee of majority
”The _aie of its burdens, and to re it _indissoluble_; and, on the other hand, to provide for bringing up all children, in a rational manner, to be reasonable men and women, that is, _free from superstition, free froard for the invisible, and make them look _upon this life_ as _their only life_, this earth as their only home, and _the promotion of their earthly interests and enjoyreat enee, or faet rid of these three institutions, and we ion is to be substituted science, that is, science of the world, of the five senses only; for private property, a cooods; and for private faht and her school saw clearly that their principles could not be carried into practice in the present state of society So they proposed theeneration, trained and prepared in a system of schools founded and sustained by the Public They placed their dependence on education in a systeed after a plan of William Phiquepal, a Frenchht
”In order to get their systeanize the whole Union, secretly, very much on the plan of the Carbonari of Europe The members of this secret society were to avail themselves of all the means in their power, each in his own locality, to form public opinion in favor of education by the State at the public expense, and to get such islatures as would be likely to favor their purposes This secret organization commenced in the State of New York, and was to extend over the whole Union Mr O A
Brownson was one of the agents for organizing the State of New York He, however, became tired of the work, and abandoned it after a few months”
”The attention of so-called philanthropic men in all parts of the country, was directed to the subject In 1817, and the following years, commenced what has been improperly termed a revival of education To for anizations were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Worcester, Hartford, Lowell, Providence, Cincinnati, etc; Thomas H Gallaudet, Jareat efforts through the press; there were established the 'American Journal of Education,' in January, 1826, and the 'Ahout New England from 1826 to 1830, in behalf of Public Schools; lectures were delivered in every precinct in the States, on the subject of education; there were also established local school periodicals, as well as others of apublic opinion in favor of Public Schools, in every corner of the country All these means, and the zealous and unwearied efforts of Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and others, have contributed towards the success in establishi+ng the Public Schools in our country”--_American Encyclopaedia_
This is a brief history of the Public Schools It tells, in clear ter about, naeneration without belief in God and ieneration that looks upon this life as their only life, this earth as their only home, and the promotion of their earthly interests and enjoyion, reatest eneeneration that substitutes science of this world for religion, a cooods for private property, a coeneration that substitutes the devil for God, hell for heaven, sin and vice for virtue and holiness of life
We may, then, confidently assert that the defenders and upholders of _Public Schools without religion_ seek in America, as well as in Europe, to turn the people into refined Pagans They recently betrayed theow openly said, for an equalization of religious contradictories, a religion and an education which stands above creeds, and knows nothing about dogion of which a certain poet says: ”My religion is to have no religion” The object, then, of these Godless, irreligious _Public Schools_ is to spread aion_, the religion which pleases ion of irrational animals How far this diabolical scheme has succeeded is well known, for there are at present from twenty to twenty-five millions of people in the United States who profess no distinct religious belief Everywhere the same effects have been observed Licentiousness, cruelty, and vice--”Positivism,” or the substitution of the harlotry of the passions for the calion How can it be otherwise?
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Jean Mace
[B] ”_La Solidarite” _(Le Monde Maconnique, October, 5866 [1866], p
472)
[C] ”_La Solidarite” _(Le Monde Maconnique, February, 5867 [1867])