The Education Question [pp. 504-544]

The Education Question.
moral principles, should be a regular topic of instruction in
our public schools and higher educational establishments; and
that the whole process of education should be conducted with
the design of cherishing religious principles and feelings. On
the other hand, it is assumed that the State has nothing to do
with the religious instruction of the people; that religion
must be left to be inculcated by parents and the church; that
the only legitimate sphere of state action is secular education.
Indifference or hostility to religion; a dread of the union of
the Church and State; an apprehension of ecclesiastical domination; the opposition of Papists to religious instruction, and
even to the reading of the Bible in the public schools; the
difficulty arising from conflicting sects, have led a very large
part of the community to advocate or acquiesce in the exclusion
of religion from all places of education sustained by the State.
It is regarded as the simplest solution of a complicated problem,
to confine the State to secular education, and leave religion to
be otherwise provided for.
This is the ground publicly assumed by the majority of our
public men; it has received, directly or indirectly, the sanction
of several State legislatures; it is avowed and acted upon by
superintendents and commissioners; it is advocated by some of
our most influential religious journals, and by many of our prominent religious men. In the years 1842 and 1843, laws were
passed by the legislature of New York, forbidding " sectarian
teaching and books" to be employed in the public schools.
Everything was regarded as sectarian to which any person
would object on religious grounds. Every book, therefore,
even the Bible, and every sentiment to which the Romanists
objected, were banished or expunged when demanded. All
religious instruction and prayer have in many cases been proscribed. Teachers have been threatened with dismission, and
actually dismissed, for using even the Lord's prayer. E. C. Benedict, Esq., President of the Board of Education of New York,
delivered in August last an address, in which he asks, " What
should be our rational rule of conduct? Whenever we find a
few children together, shall we compel them to lay aside their
occupation for the time and read the Bible, or say prayers, or
perform some other religious duty? Will it be sure to make
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