They have levied out of their poverty thousands and tens of thousands and millions of dollars. which have come back to them seven. ten. ay and a hundredfold. in added wealth and population drawn thence by the educational and social advantages which grew out of this free expenditure for schools. It has been the sign by which they have conquered. The schoolhouse on the hill and the church near by represented not the benevolence of somebody on the outside. but the virtue and the selfsacrifice of the people themselves. and they paid for them out of their hard earnings. and that has attracted immigration. brought people to that country. laid broad and deep and strong the foundations of a commonwealth of which the whole nation is proud. as a crowning result of American civilization. There never was a school system. there never was a local administration of any kind. there never will be anything that is worth anything in human affairs where all things material to it are not the result of sacrifice on the part of those immediately concerned. and the beneficence of the General Government introducing itself into the school districts. into the townships. into the counties. into the States. with the arm of its power accompanied by its gold. will shrivel up all these aspirations of the people themselves. will induce them as far as anything can to put out their children to nurse to the General Government. take away the interest of the people in regard to this great subject. and substitute for it the idea of leaning upon the General Government for everything that is material with reference to this question of education. I do not see in this any question of constitutional power. but I do see in it the most dangerous endeavor I have ever witnessed to extend the power of the Federal Government at the expense not only of the State governments but of every form of government within them.
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immigration