The judgment of the public determines
the legality of the proceeding; but it is possible that in some cases a
public judgment might be secured which could not be supported by a
process of moral reasoning. On what moral grounds, then, does the right
of taxation for educational objects rest? I answer, first, education
diminishes crime. The evidence in support of this statement has already
been presented. It is a manifest individual duty to make sacrifices for
this object; and, as every crime is an injury, not only to him who is
the subject of it, but to every member of society, the prevention of
crime becomes a public as well as an individual duty.
The conviction of a criminal is a public duty; and, under all
governments of law, it is undertaken at the public charge. Offences are
not individual merely; they are against society also, inasmuch as it is
the right of society that all its members shall behave themselves well.
And, if it is the right of society that its members shall behave
themselves well, is it not the duty of society to so provide for their
education that each individual part may meet the demand which the whole
body asserts? And, further, as a majority of persons cannot individually
provide for their own protection, it is the duty of society, or the
state, or the government, to furnish the needed protection in the most
economical and effective manner possible.
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