Tracts on Republican Government and National Education: Addressed to the Inhabitants of the United States of America

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J. Watson, 1840 - Education - 24 pages

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Page 24 - For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property, and we look not to the question, whether he himself have, or have not, children to be benefited by the education for which he pays.
Page 24 - We do not, indeed, expect all men to be philosophers or statesmen ; but we confidently trust, and our expectation of the duration of our system of government rests on that trust, that by the diffusion of general knowledge and good and virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may be secure, as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the slow, but sure, undermining of licentiousness.
Page 5 - The working classes, in consequence of the injustice which has meted inordinate labor for their portion, have hitherto had but little time to improve their minds or form their manners. In consequence, there are few eloquent, and not a great many fluent speakers among them. This is to be regretted ; for eloquence is a giant power in a commonwealth like this. But we must take things as we find them, and make the best of them.
Page 24 - We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue, and of knowledge, in an early age. We hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and a sense of character, by enlarging the capacity, and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere; to keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion,...
Page 19 - I ask, to be fed and clothed, when, as all facts show, the labour of the parents is often insufficient for their own sustenance, and, almost universally, inadequate to the provision of the family without the united efforts of all its members ? In your manufacturing districts you have children worked for twelve hours a day; and, in the rapid and certain progress of the existing system, you will soon have them, as in England, worked to death, and yet unable, through the period of their miserable existence,...
Page 19 - I must hasten to the rapid developement of the system of instruction and protection which has occurred to me as capable, and alone capable, of opening the door to universal reform. In lieu of all common schools, high schools, colleges, seminaries, houses of refuge, or any other juvenile institution, instructional or protective, I would suggest that the state legislatures be directed (after laying off the whole in townships or hundreds) to organize, at suitable distances, and in convenient and healthy...
Page 20 - ... double tax might be at once expedient and politic. First, a moderate tax per head for every child, to be laid upon its parents conjointly, or divided between them, due attention being always paid to the varying strength of the two sexes, and to the undue depreciation which now rests on female labour.
Page 21 - Fed at a common board ; clothed in a common garb, uniting neatness with simplicity and convenience ; raised in the exercise of common duties, in the acquirement of the same knowledge and practice of the same industry, varied only according to individual taste and capabilities...
Page 20 - In the older establishments, the well directed and well protected labor of the pupil would, in time, suffice for, and, then, exceed their own support ; when the surplus might be devoted to the maintenance of the infant establishments. (in the beginning, and until all debt was cleared ofF, and so long as the same should be found favorable to the promotion of these best palladiums of a nation's happiness, a double tax might be at once expedient and politic. ) (First, a moderate tax per head for every...
Page 23 - In this particular, New England may be allowed to claim, I think, a merit of a peculiar character. She early adopted, and has constantly maintained the principle, that it is the undoubted right, and the bounden duty of government, to provide for the instruction of all youth.

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