Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. Speaker, with the 1st gun fired upon Fort Sumter the nation was born into a new life. All that has followed, all that will follow, must be regarded as the natural outgrowth of that great event. With that act we passed forever beyond the middle ages of our Iiistor as a nation. Those tntes which ha so long been sanc tuaries to which cruelty and injustice could fiee for shelter and protection were by that act thrown open to the civilizing influences of the age. The light burst in upon them, alon the track of our advancing armies, never to dar (en, never to retrocede, so long as the nation itself should endure. 2 great conclusions have been reached. We have found that the hitherto governing populations of those States could not be trusted to uphold the national Government. Nay, more, that they have sought, through unparalleled sacrifices, to overthrow it. For some reasons, through some causes, operating universaly, and through long periods of time, the people have been rendered) unfit to wisely govern themselves, much less to participate in the government of others. The strove to drag down the entire temple of our liberties; they have succeeded at east in burying their own prosperity in ruins. The responsibility for all this has been properly charged to slavery. Slavery has been swept away, but the ignorance, the degradation, which were its consequences remain, not to die during this generation, not to die during many generations, unless we now do our whole duty as legislators. Another great fact presents itself: 4 million human beings have been lifted from a condition as low as that of the brute to man hood. We have declared them entitled to the right to work out every attribute of goodness or grace or greatness which God has given them. We have taken the shackles from off the limbs of nature and hidden her follow out her own instincts to her own perfect destiny undeterred by any artificial obstructions of ours. Proclaiming nothing, promising nothing, we have thrown open all doors to the black man and cried God speed to him as he moves forward into the future. What pressing necessity results from these 2 rent facts? Education. Education for the white man of the South, that he may so wisely and liberall judge as to love the great nation which li s him up, and the flag which is the symbol of the noblest and broadest liberality in all this world. Edu cation for the black man, that the new powers conferred upon him may not be merely brute forces reactin against himself, but may be wisely directe to his own advantage and, the glor of his country. Education for the country itself, that the entire 0ulation may rise to the level and above the evel of the most favored localities; and that as we are the freest, the bravest, and the most energetic, so also we may become the most enlightened people upon the face of the earth; the foremost instruments in whatever good God may yet design to work out upon the globe. Is it not a shame, Mr. Speaker, that this nation, which rests solely and) alone upon the intelligence of the citizen, and without which it could not exist for an hour, should thus far have done literally nothing either to recognize or enforce education? As John Adams said, “The despotisms have stolen a march upon this Republic in the liberal patronage of that education upon which a republic is based.” France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia have made education an affair of the State and have esteemed it as of the highest consequence. In Prussia the Minister of Public Instruction ranks next to the King. In France the office of Sn erintendent of Public Instruction has been ignified by such illustrious names as Cousin and Guizot. But the U.S., whose theory of government is that if the people are ignorant they are necessarily unwise, if they are unwise they are necessarily misgoverned, and if they are misgoverned every interest dear to the citizen is necessarily put in jeopardy the U.S., I say, whose very comer stone is the enlightened judgment of each individual citizen, has allowed despotisms to build up mighty systems in behalf oFeducation, while in this, its capital, not a Dept, not abureau, not even a clerkship is to be found representing that andest of al interests. e will be tol that we have left all that to the States. Yes; and we have had the rebellion as a consequence. The attempt to invert the pyramid and build a great, wise nation upon an ignorant, bi oted, and brutalized population has cost hal a million lives and 4,000,000,000 of debt. And it will cost us still more. We cannot make bricks without straw. We cannot build a republic without intelligence. But we are told that the man who cannot read and write is not necessarily lacking in intelligence. No; not if he is immersed in the midst of an intelligent and educated population. He may grow. "To what heworks in, like the dyer’shand." He may borrow enough of the results of edu cation from those around him to compensate for his own deficiencies. BHtXlBCB him in an equally ignorant population an his superiority Will be simply that of the chief among savages. Civilization is nothing more than education. We excel the past because we have swept a wider field of observation; we possess the accumulations of a greater number of generations of workers; we are ourselves happier, wiser, better because we know more. When any man rises up and defends igno rance, he does it in a language eve word and syllable of which is a testimony to the untiring industry and the constantly increasing cultivation of his predecessors. He cannot utter a word in favor of ignorance and its barbarisms without touching upon words drawn from the cultivated inhabitants of Home or Athens, or those later races who fought their way up from ignorance and wretchedness to learning and reatness. Out of his own mouth is he concinned. Nay, more, his logic flies back upon him like the weapon of the Australian; for if ignorance is desirable in the constituent, it must be equally so in the representative, and he who hast e learning wherewith to defend ignorance should give place to him who hath most of that ignorance which he eulogizes. 2 widely different policies found their fountains 200 years ago upon the Atlantic coast, and their waters have swept forward across the continent upon parallel lines. The results are before the world. In 1042, Massachusetts proclaimed the 1st of these policies in these words: “It is the duty of the municipal authorities to see that everychild within their respective jurisdictions should be educated." The otherpolic was proclaimed in Virginia, when in 1671 Sir Villiain Berkeley, Governor, thanked God that I “There are here no free schools or printing: and be e we shall not have them these 100 years. God lieep us from both." And so these policies set forth upon their pilgrimages toward the settin sun, carrying with them the destinies of millions of human bein s. In the track of the 1st were found intel igence, enterprise, invention, industry, prosperity, liberty, and justice. In the wake of the other 1,000 hideous things lifted up their heads i orance, sloth, poverty, Oppression, cruelt“y, s avery, and last of all, anarchy Which from its horrid hair Shook pestilenceand war." And all these things were as inevitably contained in those 2 parent seeds, education and ignorance, as are the branches of the oak contained in the Qorn. Wh, sir, so exactly, in the order of God’s providence, does like produce like, that the words of Governor Berkeley, in 1671, were repeated almost literally in the words of Governor Q“Vise 150 years later, when he tha‘ed God that there was not a single newspaper published in his district.” Compare these two pictures. Theyarety ical. The 1st is an extract from a speech ofl enry Ward Beecher, made in 1865, descriptive of northern society. He says:, “ We find the villages touching eachother and the roadsare lined with noble housesand orchardsand gardens, and treesand fields innumerable covering the free.broad expanseof this happyChristian land, becausethey have acknowledged the commonman educated the commonman and sanctifiedhis work." The 2nd picture is from the pen of Judge Underwood, in his address to the grand jury of Norfolk on the 8th of May, 1866. He says: “Those at the North who assail us seemto forget our peculiar circumstances. That education, which is almost universal with them.is hereconfinedwithin very narrow limits, and the masses of the people who cannot read are necessarilydependent on the educated fcw for their opinions and conduct." to“rTyo convince the most skeptical let us look at the his and condition of the 1st congressional districtin this State. That district contains morethan 4 times the territory of the rich, profierous enlightened. happy, liberty loving Stataof dIsland. It‘ns.fo proven the bats to flit or owls to once‘the seat of lcarning and of boasted Virginia hospitality, the birth place of 4 Presidentsof the EUnngitleisdh States and embracing the site of the 1st settlement in America, the city of James town. which, now morefallen thun Tyre or Sidnn or Sodomand Gomorrah. has not enoughof ruins left boot in. In the 19 counties of that district there is not now, as its Representative in Congress 30 years ago boasted, a single newspaperpublished, and so long has the schoolmasterbeenabroadthat probablymore than3/4ths of Innaylivegrown menand women can ncilher read nor wrfle.’ Let us reduce these descriptions to the test of actual figures. In 1850 according to the facts set forth in the U.S. census of that year, the amounts expended in the support of public schools in the 3 political divisions of our country were as follows: In' the rebel States. In the border slave States In the free States. Total. Or, to speak of these results in round numbers, the entire slaveholding population expended about 3/4ths of a million of dollars, while the free States expended nearl 6 millions. 11 States lately in rebellion, containing several million people, expended about half a million dollars, or about 50,000 dollars each in the education of the populacel In some remarks which I had the honor to make to the House in the early part of the session I showed that according to the census of 1800 the total number of persons in the U.S. over 20 years of age unable to read and write, and who were born in the country, and excluding the slaves, was 834, 106; and of these 545, 177 were found in the southern States, containing 1/3rd of the population, and but 288, 923 in the northern States, containing 2/3rds of the oulation. If the same ratio prevailedI that is found in NewEngland there would be less than 30 4,000 illiterate personsin the southern States; as it is the number is over half a million!. Nothing, it seems to me, would more clearl demonstrate how faithfully the upas tree, which was planted upon the shore of Virginia by governor Berkeley has extended its blighting and deadly influence, than these figures. Can we doubt for one instant the great and pressing necessity for the General Government to interest itself in this question of education? As we have found ignorance and rebellion everywhere associated together as parent and child, must we not destroy ignorance if we would have the nation live? If so, what less can we do than pass the bill now before the House? Do we not need such a dept? Mr. Speaker, we mock and jeer at 001‘ Mexico. Our contempt for her anarchica and revolution scourged people chills even that sympathy to which she is entitled by her misfortunes and her sufferings. To what are we to attribute her condition? The answer is a“in. It has been liberally estimated, ” says Branta Mayer, in his work upon Mexico, “that of the Indians and negroes not more than 2%. can read and write, and of all others not more than 20%.” “ If we take this computation to be correct, ” continues Mr. Mayor, “ as I believe it is, we shall have: 01' Indians and negroes who can read and write 80, 1!) Whites and others. “007.62 Total able to read and write out of a population of 7,687,748 “If we suppose."saysMr. Mayor, "that out of the ohnaelfomnillyli, on whites 500,000 or one are males, and that of that half million but 20% or 100,000 can read or write we will no longer be sur used that a population of morethan 7 millions have hitherto been controlled by a more handful of men or that the selfish naturesof the superior classesI o wield the physical and intellectual forces of the nation have forced the masses to becomebut little more than blind instrumentsof their will." We pity Mexico. From our higher position of peace and security we can alfor to ook down open and pity her. The clamor of arms yet resounds in her midst; while almost within sight of this Capitol the ruins of the great rebellion are yet smoking; and we are laboring under the dreadful burdens of our debt an counseling together how we can intrust a share of the Government to the tender hands of the men who fought. to destroy it; how we can consi n the lamb to the wolf under constitutional p edges that the wolf shall forego his nature. Mr. Speaker, we have little room for self congratulations over poor Mexico. As you came here from your home, Mr. Speaker, you passed over the little State of Delaware, represented on this floor by one member and at the other end of the Capitol by 2 Senators. Let us compare Delaware with Mexico. In 1860 the total number of free persons in Delaware over 20 years of age unable to read and write was: Of whites. of free negrocs. Total. 13, 169 We must add to these one halfthe total number of slaves in that year, namely, 1, 798, and we have a total of 14,068. Now, the total population of Delaware in that year was 112, 216; which being divided in half would give us about 66, 108 as the total of persons over 20 years of age. Of this number 14,068 are unable to read and write, being one 4th of the population. Truly, we have cause to set ourselves above Mexico and commiserate her! If popular ignorance has plunged Mexico into poverty, anarchy, and ruin, what shall it do for the U.S.? Can the same cause ield one set of results west of the boundary hue of Mexico and an entirely different set of results cast of that line? Let those who indulge in such delusions turn to the present wretched condition of the rebel States. In what are they better than Mexico 7 How many degrees are the “corn crackers, ” the “sand h“illcrs, " and the “ clay eaters ” above the greasers ” and “guerrillas” of Mexico? How far were the dirty, unkempt hordes of ignorant men who flocked under the standards of Lee and Johnston fitted for self government, fitted to hold up the polished pillars of the eat temple of law, order, and civilization? et those answer who believe they can extract the precious jewels of moderation and wisdom out of the darkened brain of ignorance, wretchedness, and degradation. For my part, it appears to me as plain as the sun at noonday, that if we permit ignorance to spread over the land, doubling, almost trebling its numbers, as in the past in every 20 years, eating away our civilization, degrading our people, impeding commerce, destroying manufactures, making brutes of the masses and demagogues of the leaders, that this great nation of ours cannot by any possibility survive for half a century. It is no flourish of rhetoric to say that we hold the destiny of mankind in our hands. See with what eagerness we are scanned by the civilized world; mark the cfforts now being made by foreignations to approximate to our institutions; listen to the words of the great leaders of nation invthe other hemisp ere. While Gladstone praises us, Naoleon soothes his people by telling them that Trance and the U.S. rest on the same ideas! Tyrants are stealing our livery to serve the devil in. It is something to feel that upon this lobe we are the forefront of civilization an human regress and the undoubted masters of the futurc. But with this reflection comes homethe over whelming responsibilities of our position. We must not fall. We carrythe world upon our shoulders. NO human prescience can cal culate the results of our destruction to the cause of humanity. Then let us eliminate that which is more dangerous than slavery ignorance. Let us laborto make every man who votes an intelli gent, conscious, reasoning, reflecting being. Then the true Republic will be realized. Then the struggle of parties will be, not to hold back the world, not to throw blocks before the car of progress, but to strike down every error, every wrong, every injustice. Pass this bill and you give education a mouth piece and a rallyi point. While it will have no power to enter into the States and interfere with their systems, it will be able to collect facts and report the same to Congress, to he thence spread over the entire country. It will throw a flood of light upon the dark places of the land. It will form a public sentiment which will arouse to increased activity the friends of education everywhere, and ignorance will fly before it. Itwill press forward in its work from the bright villages of the North down to the lowly huts of the poor white and the poorer freed inan in the South; downto the bayous of Loui siana, down to the evergladcs of Florida, down to the very shores of the Gulf. And in its track what a glorious assemblage shall pour forward; the newspapers, the public libraries, the multiplying railroads, the improved machinery for agriculture, the increased comforts for the home, with liberality, generosity, mercy, justice, and religion. Pass this bill and after generations will bless your work. No man can sum up all its consequences. Here to this center will be brought all the results of exerience and experiment in the pursuits of e neation. Here they will be an alyzed and eliminated, and from this center they will 0 forth in an uueeasing flood to all parts of the land. This is a foundation upon which time and our enormous national growth will build the noblest of structures. The hope of Aga$iz may here be realized; or even that grander dream of Bacon, “ that university with unlim ited power to do good, and with the whole worl paying tribute to it.” Mr. Speaker, the condition of the South is the great argument in favor of the passage of this bill at this time. We must take some measure to provide for or induce the education ofitspeople, black and white. But, sir, I can say With truth that I press this measure with no unkind feeling toward the people of that unfortunate region; that I will do all in my power to alleviate the sufferings they et endure; that their prosperityis identical With that of the country, and their elevation essential to the permanence of the nation. I press this measure because it is just to all and will be beneficent to all. As war dies let peace rise from its ashes, white winged, white robed, and lumine us with the light of a new morning a morning never to pass nwa 'wliile the world shall stand. Then may be sai, in the language of one of our own writers: “How tlgy pale, Ancient.myth and songand tale, In this wonder of our days, When the cruel rod of war Blossomswhite with righteouslaw. And the wrath of man is praise." Mr. Speaker, Ine wyield theremainde of my time to the Gentfrom NewJersee [Mr. Rooms]