Establishment of the Free School System.

RENEWAL OF THE WAR AGAINST THE SCRIPTURES.

IN 1849, the act was passed establishing free schools throughout the State-our present free school system-determined by popular vote, the whole number of votes cast being 249,872, and the majority in favor of the law, 157,921. On the question for the repeal of this system, there were cast 393,654 votes, 184,398 for the repeal, and 209,346 against it; leaving a majority of 25,038 against repealing it. An annual tax of 800,000 dollars for the support of free schools, is provided for in this system, in addition to which there is a school fund of more than five million and four hundred thousand dollars, so that the whole annual amount applicable to the support of free schools is one million and one hundred thou

sand dollars. The responsibility devolving upon the State Superintendent at the head of this vast system is immense, and the report of Mr. Morgan in 1851, was an admirable development of the grand and comprehensive character, moral and intellectual, which this system should possess. The history of the system, prepared under his direction, remarks that "there is no institution within the range of civilization, upon which so much for good or for evil depends, upon which hang so many and such important issues to the future wellbeing of individuals and communities, as the common district school. It is through that alembic that the lessons of the nursery and the family fire-side, the earliest instructions in pure morality, and the precepts and examples of the social circle are distilled; and from it those lessons are destined to assume that tinge and hue which are permanently to be incorporated into the character and the life." The grandest and best results from this school system it is declared can be anticipated, but only "by an infusion into its entire course of discipline and instruction of that high moral cul

ture, which alone can adequately realize the idea of sound education." "The means of elementary instruction demand and will repay the consecration of the highest intellectual and moral energies, the most comprehensive benevolence, and the best affections of our common nature."

From the preceding sketch of this system, taken from the public documents, it will be perceived that while the greatest care has been justly taken to exclude sectarianism, its founders and promoters were equally careful and determined that the Bible and religion should not be excluded; they intended and provided that moral and religious instruction should possess a fundamental place and influence. With such a purpose, they commended the enterprise to God, and to the religious convictions of the country.

Accordingly, provision was early made by law, giving opportunity for the exercise of a religious influence by the teachers, yet not sectarian; and under Mr. Spencer's administration it was decided, and the enactment is part of the system, that "Teachers may open.

and close their schools with prayer, and the reading of the Scriptures, accompanied with suitable remarks, taking care to avoid all discussion of controverted points, or sectarian dogmas."*

And yet, in the face of this decision, and of usage hitherto, it is now directly asserted that to give this permission to the teachers will be to trample upon conscience, and open the door to sectarianism, and take away the rights of those who do not believe in the importance and efficacy of prayer! It is asserted that even though the reading of the Scriptures were permitted, yet, to say one word as to their meaning, to explain, illustrate, or enforce their lessons, is an intrusion on the universal conscience, and especially on the Romish conscience, and ought not to be suffered. And by various influences and edicts, personal and oral, and contrary to the public enactments, the Bible itself has in some cases been excluded, and the endeavor has been made, and in some instances successfully, to introduce a

*Randall's Common School System of the State of New York, p. 273.

secret, silent, inquisitorial common law against all prayer and religious instruction, and to produce the impression that anything bordering on religious truth will endanger the popularity of the teachers and the schools, expose them to the charge of sectarianism, and be regarded with suspicion and disfavor by the appointed school authorities. In some cases the teachers have been publicly threatened that if they do not drop those practices, nay, if they even persist in using the Lord's prayer, they shall be turned out of their places. Such threats have been made to female teachers, even in the presence of the children, and no redress has been granted for the insult.

Whence has sprung so rapid and alarming a change, in subversion or utter disregard and violation, of some of the best and earliest established fixtures of the public school system? Whence has arisen this restraint, this fear, this ban upon the Bible and religion, notwithstanding the known fact that the use of the Bible and religious instruction has been the wont of the schools from the beginning, and to exclude it now, on pretence of its being