In our republic the people are said to be the sovereigns of the
government; and we frequently hear of the “sovereign people.” And who
are the sovereign people? Are they the ignorant and the vile? Are they
the base and the profligate? Alas, for this lovely land of ours, were
such sovereign further than their votes on election day can make them!
And even in this privilege of voting, their sovereignty is sufficiently
operative for evil. And were these miserable apologies for the freemen
of America to triumph over the enlightened and the virtuous, what
would the name of America be but the stamp of infamy? To the ignorant
and the vile, the base and the profligate, our government extends the
right of suffrage. It recognises all as politically free. But can
such characters aspire to the place of office which the enlightened
alone can fill? Their boast is of their right to vote, and not of
the talent or the chance to occupy the place of office. And what
a pitiful sovereignty is this for an American freeman to boast!――a
sovereignty which gives him a right to vote, and which allows him to
hurrah for another who is wiser and better than himself; while he
has no qualifications of his own to fit him for office, nor even to
judge who is best prepared to be the officer. And in the hands of the
ignorant man this elective franchise is a dangerous trust. He knows
not how to exercise it for his country’s good, and for the advancement
of his country’s prosperity. He has the power to vote, and that is all
that he can be proud of. And his vote is thrown, like the implements
of the gaming table, at a hazard. And if the chance of the government
for prosperity depended on him, it would certainly hang upon the hazard
of the die. Shame upon such a sovereignty! shame upon the boy who is
base enough even to risk the chance of becoming such a character! He
is unfit to rule, or to choose his ruler, and he is unworthy of the
rights and privileges which his free government confers upon him. I
tell you, boys, that such a character is complimented, he is highly
complimented, when it is said of him that he is “fit for treason,
stratagem, and spoils.”
THE INTELLIGENCE NECESSARY TO THE AMERICAN CITIZEN IS TO BE OBTAINED IN
THE SCHOOL.
It is to prevent such sovereigns as these from ruling the land, and
leading it into infamy and ruin, that temples of learning are erected
in every city, and town, and village, and in every district throughout
our states. Provision is made by the state governments for the
education of the young, so that their characters, as social beings,
and as patriots, and Christians, may be properly developed; and that
they may be prepared to sustain the free institutions in which their
honor is reflected, and which will sustain them as free American
citizens. And in the arrangements which are made for the universal
diffusion of the blessings of education, provision is made for all, so
that no man is too poor to have his child educated. If he has not the
means of paying for it, the education is afforded without the pay. The
blessing is intended to come, as it ought to come, like the rain from
heaven, upon the rich and the poor, and upon the evil and the good.
And the poorest boy in the land, if he is active and industrious, and
ambitious, may rise to eminence in any of the professions. All that is
necessary is for him to have his character developed in all that the
model I have held up includes, and his success is certain. While other
lands may boast their princely palaces, their lofty towers, and their
splendid temples, our free America may point to her public schools, and
exclaim: “These are my pride!――these are the treasuries where my jewels
are stored!”