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CONDITION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.

In considering the condition of public education in the Southern States great allowance should be made for the difficulties, both political and social, through which they have passed during the last twenty years; the trials of war, loss of property, and pride and prejudice of race, have all had to be surmounted.

Time alone can change such conditions, and time only can remove sentiments which are their natural outgrowth. Many and notable have been the experiences of these years in the political life of these States.

This is but a short period in the life of a people, and is too brief a span in national life for the successful solution of great social and political problems.

It would be idle, therefore, to expect in the Southern States the same growth and results that have been accomplished where the system has been in uninterrupted operation for two centuries and the social fabric and civilization have not been disturbed by the rude hands of war, or political or social revolution. There perfection should be expected and should create no surprise. Few people who have passed through the same trials have recuperated as rapidly as the Southern people, or have adapted themselves more readily to their new conditions and addressed themselves with more fidelity and energy to the renovation of their social life and material industries.

This is eminently true of their school systems. They have directed their efforts to bestow the advantages of education equally upon the children of the two races, upon the principle that it is a duty, and that universal education alone will avert the ills of universal suffrage. They fully believe that true liberty is measured by intelligence, and that the civilization of the white man can be made valuable to the black man only through the agency of public education, and that without education good citizenship is hardly attainable. While they admit the defects in their systems of public education, and make no effort to disguise them, they know that Southern education has always had, and still has, some excellent features peculiar to itself.

With all the difficulties surrounding this subject a most gratifying improvement has taken place in their educational affairs during the last decade. Some of these States now expend one-third of their revenues in the support of their free public schools.

The reorganization of their system of public education grew out of the complete enfranchisement of the colored race, and became necessary in order to adjust their new political relations to this race under the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

The difficulties which beset the race problem may best be understood when it is remembered that no light broke upon Thomas Jefferson through the gloom in which his mind was involved when considering the subject.

While an advocate of universal emancipation, he could not reconcile himself to the idea of the two races living side by side upon terms of equality "in political rights, duties, and powers." The result of his reflections was summed up in the words, "nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, can not live in the same government." He was incompetent to grapple with the last prop. osition, and dismissed it from his thoughts as a practical question, with the hope, "under the auspices of heaven," for the emancipation of the black man.

Within less than one hundred years the dream of Thomas Jefferson has been more than realized in the complete emancipation of the black man, and in his admission to all the rights of citizenship under the constitutions of the States and the United States. It was a step attended with danger and difficulty, and many of the strongest advocates of emancipation doubted the wisdom and policy of conferring upon him the right of suffrage in his unprepared and ignorant condition.

The South accepted it in good faith as the verdict of adverse fate, and as the unavoidable result of the moral sentiment that swept away the institution of slavery, and with the determination to give it an honest support.

The spectacle is presented of two distinct races dwelling together in the same country, under the same government, in the full participation of the same political rights. While grave economic difficulties attended the solution of this problem, and grave political dangers still embarrass its realization, the question deserves to be treated with wisdom and forbearance, and it is hoped that both races will triumph over the difficulties and dangers that environ its full attainment. That the two races may permanently dwell together in peace and amity, under the protection of the same constitutional laws, is a consummation devoutly to be wished, to which the earnest support of the American people should be given.

FACTS REVEALED BY THE CENSUS OF 1880.

We must not, however, give ourselves up to a contemplation of what has been accomplished, but turn rather with renewed interest and zeal to the actual conditions affecting the further progress of education in the South. The Federal census of 1880 entered into the analysis and discussion of social conditions to an unprecedented degree. The comparative study of institutions North and South must be made in the light of the facts there disclosed, until another census shall have given us further information. Investigations of the data of the census bearing upon educational problems were begun by my predecessor, and have been continued under my direction. The results of this work have appeared from time to time in various publications of this Office, notably in Circular of Information No. 3, 1884, published by General

CONDITION OF PUBLIC EDU

In considering the condition of p States great allowance should be mad and social, through which they have years; the trials of war, loss of prop race, have all had to be surmounted.

Time alone can change such condi: sentiments which are their natural have been the experiences of these y States.

This is but a short period in the 1 span in national life for the succes political problems.

It would be idle, therefore, to expe growth and results that have been has been in uninterrupted operation fabric and civilization have not bee war, or political or social revolution. pected and should create no surpris through the same trials have recup people, or have adapted themselves tions and addressed themselves with renovation of their social life and m

This is eminently true of their scltheir efforts to bestow the advantag children of the two races, upon the p universal education alone will ave They fully believe that true liberty that the civilization of the white man man only through the agency of p education good citizenship is hardly defects in their systems of public ed guise them, they know that Souther still has, some excellent features pec

With all the difficulties surround improvement has taken place in the last decade. Some of these States 1. nues in the support of their free pul

The reorganization of their syste the complete enfranchisement of th sary in order to adjust their new p the amendments to the Constitution

The difficulties which beset the rac when it is remembered that no li through the gloom in which his min the subject.

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MINORS IN 1880, NORTH AND SOUTH.

resented show the number of adults and of minors "and sixteen "Southern" States in 1880, the proI minors in one thousand of the population, and s to one thousand adults.

Minor Population of the Northern States in 1880. a

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From these tables Map No. 2 is constructed. It shows for 1880 the number of persons under twenty-one years of age to each thousand of persons twenty-one or more years old.

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MAP No. 2.-Number of Minors to 1,000 Adults, 1880.

The duty of sheltering, feeding, clothing, and teaching the young of a community devolves, both by nature and by law, on the mature members. Other things being equal, this duty will be more or less difficult in proportion to the relative numbers of adults and minors.

When we use the tables with Map No. 2, we arrive at some striking views. Compare Vermont and Mississippi: Vermont had 578 adults to 422 minors, or 1,000 to 730; Mississippi had 421 adults to 579 minors, or 1,000 to 1,375. Hence the burden on the adults of Vermont was little more than half as heavy as that on the adults of Mississippi.

Here, then, is the first problem in Southern education-how to overcome the difficulties arising from a very large proportion of minor population.

WEALTH AND MINOR POPULATION IN 1880, NORTH AND SOUTH.

I next present two tables, giving, for North and South, the aggrerate of State, county, and local debts of each State in round millions of dollars; the true valuation of all real and personal property in each State, also in round millions; the difference between debt and valua. tion, or the "net" value of property in each State, also in round mill

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