Speech #490017289

While the population remained homogeneous the problem was simple. but with the influx of the Germans. the Scandinavians. and the Irish it became complicated. Detached communities. surrounded by jealous and to some extent unfriendly populations. were liable to grow up in permanent alienation from our system. Here the commonschool system developed unsuspected powers. and by educating together the children of immigrants and natives within the limits of its operation overcame the fatalities of race and the obstacles of instinct and blended them in the succeeding generation into the great mass of American citizenship. And. sir. to come down one step further. to the commonschool system and its operation in the great free communities of theNorth. more than to all other influences combined. is t6 be attributed that pervading. steadfast. unrelenting devotion to free government and fidelity to free institutions. to liberty of conscience. and to universal education that made the North invincible in that great struggle that created those impregnable bulwarks of civilization against which the passionate valor of the South dashed itself in vain. And. sir. it is due to the prevalence of the comumnonschool system. unaided by governmental intervention. gaining its force from those interior influences. by the exercise of which nations as well as men become great and strong. that since the war closed. upon the ruins of that civilization in the South. has been erected. so far as ithas proceeded. that tranquil and orderly fabric of industrial activity and reasonable policies. rich in every element of present prosperity. but far richer in every prophecy of future greatness. opulence. and renown.