The following statistical tables are only too familiar:
Number of Males in the late Slave-holding States twenty-one Years of age and upward who could not Read and Write in 1870 and 1880:
| ——— | 1870. | ——— | ——— | 1880. | ——— | ||
| White. | Colored. | White. | Colored. | ||||
| Total | 217,371 | 850,032 | 410,550 | 944,424 |
| Total number of illiterates of voting age in the late slave-holding States in 1870 | 1,167,303 |
| In 1880 | 1,354,974 |
| Increase of illiterate voters in the South from 1870 to 1880 | 187,671 |
| Increase of illiterate whites of voting age from 1870 to 1880 | 93,279 |
| Increase of illiterate colored people of voting age from 1870 to 1880 | 94,392 |
| Total number of males of voting age in the South in 1880 | 4,154,125 |
| Total number of illiterate males of voting age in the South in 1880 | 1,354,974 |
| 32.3 per cent of the voters in the South are illiterate. | |
| Of the illiterates 69.7 per cent are colored and 30.3 are whites. |
From these tables it appears that the illiterate voters in each one of the eight Southern States having the largest proportion of emancipated slaves exceed in number the majority of votes ever cast even at the most important elections. In one of these States the ignorant voters constitute an absolute majority of the total voting population of the State. In more than one-third of the Union the ignorant voters are almost one-third of the total number of voters. Most seriously important of all, these tables show that the illiterate voters of the South have increased in the last ten years, from 1870 to 1880, almost two hundred thousand. This increase of ignorant voters in the last decade exceeds the number of votes cast in any one of more than twenty of the States of the Union at the last Presidential election. Adopting a phraseology that was very familiar in the political debates of a generation ago, it may be truly said that ignorance at the ballot box has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.
In the electoral colleges which choose the President, in both Houses of Congress, in all the departments of the national government, ignorance at the South is as efficient for evil—as mischievous and dangerous—as if it was in New England or New York, or here in the Western Reserve. It was settled by the war for the Union beyond recall that the United States constitute one people and have one national life, one interest and one destiny.
Recognizing this to be one of the legitimate results of the war, the people of the Nation by constitutional amendments entered into every State and defined and regulated those vital elements of free government—citizenship and suffrage. In pursuance of these amendments the lately-emancipated slaves by the most solemn expression of the national will became citizens and voters. In the presence of these facts, how can a statesman say that under this Constitution there is no duty and no power to give national aid to fit by education these freedmen for the responsible positions in which the Nation has placed them?
Under the Constitution as it was before these vital amendments were made, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and other great men of the early days of the Republic, whom we are accustomed to call the “Fathers,” by significant and solemn enactments and recommendations fully affirmed the principle that the general government could and ought to give encouragement and aid to the education of the people. They placed in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, as the corner stone of the institutions they wished to build, this article: “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” Under every administration from the origin of the government to the present time, appropriations of money or land for education in the States and Territories have been made by the general government, and it is now too late to question the constitutional power of Congress to make such grants.
The exercise of this authority by Congress is in strict accordance with the distribution of the governmental powers, which is one of the distinguishing features of our American institutions. Whatever in civilized communities individual citizens can do better than any public authority is wisely left to individuals. Whatever local organizations, such as counties, towns and cities, can more efficiently accomplish than individuals, or the State, or national government, belongs to the local authorities. The extensive range of powers which State governments can most beneficially exercise should be confided to the States. The aim of the framers of the national Constitution, and of the people who have amended the original instrument, has been to confer on the national government those supreme powers which would enable it to secure to the people of the United States, “union,” “justice,” “tranquillity,” “the common defense,” “the general welfare,” and “the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.”
The history of education in this country and in Europe abundantly proves that individuals and communities never have and never can provide universal education. Government alone is adequate to the task.