III. _Is the public school system, as a system, in itself necessarily
corrupting?_ As preliminary to the answer to be given to this question,
it is well to consider what the public-school system is.
1. Every inhabitant is required to contribute to its support.
2. It contemplates the education of every child, regardless of any
distinction of society or nature.
3. The system is subject in many respects to the popular will; and
ultimately its existence and character are dependent upon the public
judgment.
4. In the Massachusetts schools, the daily reading of the Scriptures is
required.
The consideration of these topics will conclude my remarks upon the
general subject of the moral influence of the American system of public
instruction. In New England it is very unusual to hear the right of the
state to provide for the support of schools by general taxation called
in question; but I am satisfied, from private conversations, and from
occasional public statements, that there are leading minds in some
sections of the country that are yet unconvinced of the moral soundness
of the basis on which a system of public instruction necessarily rests.
Taxation is simply an exercise of the right of the whole to take the
property of an individual; and this right can be exercised justly in
those cases only where the application of the property so taken is,
morally speaking, to a public use.
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