Despite the great significance attached by many of the Congressmen to
the civil rights of the Negroes, that of the education of the freedman
was considered hardly less important. One of the first Negro
Congressmen to commit himself on this problem was Rainey of South
Carolina. That he had the proper grasp of the educational needs of his
country is shown by his forceful speech made for national aid to
education. He contended that the natural result of this mental
improvement will be to impart a better understanding of our
institutions, and thus cultivate a loyal disposition and lofty
appreciation for them. "The military prowess and demonstrated
superiority of the Prussians, when compared to the French, especially
in the late war [The Franco-Prussian War]," said he, "is attributable
to the fact that the masses of the former were better educated and
trained than those of the latter. The leavening spirit of the German
philosophers has apparently pervaded all classes of the population of
that empire."[64]
The same problem of the education of the Negroes evoked from Walls, of
Florida, an opinion replete with sound judgment on the matter.
Replying to the objection of McIntyre, of Georgia, that the
establishment of a national education fund would interfere with
States' rights, Walls conceded, first, that the Constitution confers
upon the States all those rights neither expressly delegated to the
Federal Government nor prohibited to the States, and second, that one
of those rights is the power of regulating common schools; but he
doubted the applicability of that principle in this instance. The
enemies of progress in the South, he maintained, opposed the education
of the masses both of Negroes and whites because of its tendency to
liberalize these people. He assigned this policy, therefore, as the
motive underlying the opposition of McIntyre to the establishment of a
national education fund. He rejected the proposition advanced by
McIntyre that the $300,000 appropriated by the legislature of Georgia,
of which the Negroes are entitled to a portion, would be shared by
them. Continuing, Walls pointed out the activities of the Ku Klux
Klan, and the burning of Negro homes and of their schools as
inconsistent with the contention that they would receive a fair
distribution of the school fund. He reviewed, moreover, the history of
the free school movement in Florida and Georgia, assigning the cause
of its failure. Concluding his speech with a summary arraignment of
the policy of that time, he urged not only the establishment of a
national education fund but also of a national education system as
constituting the sole assured method whereby the poor whites and
Negroes of the South might secure proper educational facilities.[65]
Walls, moreover, submitted a resolution calling for a statement
relative to the public lands granted for school purposes, and
thereafter introduced bills for the purpose of making large grants of
the public lands to schools.[66] Contemporary with Walls in the
Forty-third Congress, R. H. Cain shared with him great concern over
the question of educating the masses. In the Forty-fifth Congress, he
proposed a measure,[67] somewhat similar to one previously submitted
by Jere Haralson, to establish an educational fund and to apply the
proceeds of the public lands to the education of the people.[68]