President Garfield’s inaugural has very properly given special attention to America’s great problem, the condition of the colored people in the South. His fitly-chosen words may well be repeated:
“Bad local Government is certainly a great evil which ought to be prevented; but to violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil—it is a crime which if persisted in will destroy the Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy.”
As to the remedy, the President says:
“For the North and South alike, there is but one remedy. All the constitutional powers of the Nation and of the States, and all the volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet this danger by the saving influence of universal education.”
A sounder utterance could not be expressed if the word “education” be made sufficiently broad. The training of the common school, reaching only the intellect, is not enough. There must be the awakening of the conscience and the purification of the heart as well. Character is the foundation of manhood, and hence of a worthy citizenship.
The A. M. A. has from the first acted on the necessity of this broader basis, and hence its school and church work have been blended—the school has been religious and the church intelligent.
The President’s remedy of “universal education” has been criticised as requiring too long a time. Perhaps somebody can find a legislative or legal remedy that will work the cure more speedily. The past does not make us hopeful in this respect, and hence we, as one of the “volunteer forces,” which the inaugural mentions, will push on as vigorously as possible. This is the great work of the age for this nation, and we hope the strong and clear language of President Garfield will give a new impulse to it.