In the free States, in many cases, after a long and doubtful struggle, it has been settled that the State can and ought to provide free instruction for all its people. In almost all of the late slave-holding States, however, especially in those States in which the number of colored people is large, the efforts made since their reconstruction have conclusively shown that to establish and support an efficient system of free education without aid from the national government, in the existing condition of the South, is simply impossible. The situation of the South is so manifestly exceptional that it is needless to dwell upon it. Slavery and free schools would not dwell together. Slavery did not, could not, tolerate universal education. I do not pause to debate the question, who was responsible for slavery. It is perhaps enough to say that the Union and the Constitution breathed into this Nation the breath of life, and gave to it that glorious history of which we are so proud. To the Union and to the Constitution we are indebted for our present prosperity, power and prestige, and the still more inspiring future which lies before us. The Union and the Constitution, to which we owe all that we are, and have been, and shall be, contained and recognized slavery. All who took part in forming the Union or in framing the Constitution, all who maintained them down to the war which brought emancipation, are in some degree and in some sense responsible for slavery. The only American citizens who are in no way responsible for slavery are the sons of Africa. “They are here by the crimes of our ancestors and the misfortunes of theirs.” And it is especially these colored people who now eagerly and with uplifted hands implore the Nation for that light which education alone can give, and without which they cannot discharge the duties which the Constitution requires by making them citizens and voters.
The slaveholders of the South had their full share of educational facilities. But when the war ended, their impoverishment was more complete and disastrous than ever before befell a wealthy and civilized community. Without capital, without credit, without a labor system, and burdened with debt, they were in no condition to establish free schools. Want of means was not the only difficulty. Neither white nor colored people at the South had any knowledge or experience which would help them in establishing popular education. The colored people were eager to learn. To them education was a badge of freedom. But encumbered with we know not how many centuries of barbarism behind them, and certainly with two or three centuries of bondage, they were utterly helpless to do anything which presupposes knowledge and experience in relation to the complex methods and organizations of social life in highly civilized communities.
We need not dwell on this aspect of the subject. It has plainly come to pass that the whole question of popular education at the South must be considered and dealt with by the great body of the whole people of the Nation. The appeal must be made to the popular judgment, conscience and patriotism. War measures and political measures are no longer required to settle the controversies of the past, or for reconstruction in the South. To finish the work of uplifting the slave, and to fuse into one harmonious whole our lately divided people, we must rely upon the healing influences of time, and upon the forces which religion, business and education can furnish. Of these forces, the government can usefully employ only one. The stream of time will flow on, “The designs of Providence to fulfill.” Religion, depending under God, upon individual conscience and sense of duty, unaided by government, wins its way by the voluntary contributions and efforts of Christian men and women. Business, an agency of vast and unmeasured power in promoting the peaceful progress of mankind, results from a deeply seated and universal principle of human nature—self interest—and will most efficiently do its work when government wisely lets it alone. To complete reconstruction and regeneration in the South, the only force now left to the government is popular education.
Let national aid to this good cause be withheld no longer. Let it be given by wise measures based on sound principles, and carefully guarded. But let it be given promptly, generously and without stint, to the end that the whole American people may be reared up to the full stature of mental and moral manhood required for intelligent self-government under our American institutions.
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT A. D. WHITE.
Fellow Citizens: At that period to which our distinguished chairman has just referred at the close of the late civil war there were presented to this nation a number of great questions, appalling by their magnitude and by the dangers of a wrong decision. Among these I think one was in the hearts of all thinking men foremost: What shall be done with these millions formerly chattels, now citizens, the wards of the nation, the wards of humanity? Two answers were given to that question. Two paths were open to the triumphant nation. The first path laid out before us by many was simply confiscation. It was said: Don’t in Heaven’s name give to this country a great class of agricultural laborers divorced from the soil, with no property in the land upon which they stand, for if you do this you will but have escaped from the black sea of bondage into the red sea of pauperism and of socialism. We were told that right favored such a course. It was declared that these freedmen had a right to the soil which for ages had obtained its only value from the unpaid labor of themselves and of their forefathers for many generations. We were also told that experience favored such a course. We were pointed to Russia, where by the ukase of the despot a vast body of serfs had been set free, and had been endowed from the lands of their former masters. But, thank God, nobler counsels prevailed. The better instincts of the Anglo-Saxon race predominated. May I not say that the rising, the reviving spirit of brotherhood between North and South averted such a catastrophe. Nay, may I not go farther and still more truthfully say that that same hand of the Almighty, which every reverent and thoughtful student of history sees displayed so clearly in the history of our nation from first to last, was never more evident than when we avoided this path to new and deeper wells of bitterness. But on the other hand there was pointed out another path—a path chosen by devoted women, by earnest men, and that path was simply education. It led us at first, no doubt, through thickets of dislike; it led over chasms of hatred; nay, still worse, it led through vast deserts of indifference—but at last it became better and broader. It became better footing; it became more and more paved with the noble deeds of self-sacrificing men and women. It became more and more shaded by noble growths of human self-sacrifice until all could see it as the appointed highway and a better and nobler future for the whole nation.
My distinguished friend who has preceded me has looked at this question from a lofty point of view—the point of view of a statesman—the point of view of one who has been able to survey this and the other questions which naturally connect themselves with it over this entire nation from the highest seat which any loyal son of this Republic recognizes—the Chief Magistracy of the United States. May I be permitted to survey it from a much humbler elevation—from that of a simple instructor of young men, whose duty for years has been to show to young men, and, indeed, I am happy now to say, young women also—to show to them the indications in human history of the great hand of God leading humanity on through all that blooms and decays, through all that struggles and suffers, through all that falters or stands fast, to the great goal which Divine Providence has appointed. And in that view and from that point I do not hesitate to reiterate the assertion that in all our history there is no greater proof of a Divine intelligence which takes an interest in the affairs of this world than in that Heaven-inspired choice of the path of education rather than the path of confiscation.
You will remember, doubtless, fellow citizens, that prophecy of Thomas Jefferson—the greatest political genius whom our country has yet seen—that prophecy which used to ring in the hearts of some of us before the civil war, even into the watches of the night—that famous prophecy which seems to have come from Divine inspiration, beginning with those terrible words: “I tremble when I remember that God is just.” Had Thomas Jefferson foreseen the fulfillment of his prophecy he would have been blasted with horror at the sight of the wrath of the Almighty poured forth over this land, North and South, for, as has so well been observed, whatever sin there was, rested at the doors of the North as at the doors of the South. But had that great political genius looked over and beyond this out-pouring of God’s wrath, he would have seen an out-pouring of mercy which would have led him to kneel humbly in adoration at the blessings lavished upon the future nation. He would have seen the nation welded together into one homogeneous whole as never before. He would have seen prosperity revived as it had never been dreamed of by the most sanguine. He would have seen an enlightenment and civilization taking their roots, which he, with all his optimism, never dared dream of.