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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



dotn to perceive the advantage of leaving to 

 the people of each State the control and man- 

 agement of their local State matters. 



" Believing this to be wise, believing that 

 nothing but evil will grow out of allowing the 

 Representatives of one State to have a voice as 

 to the local affairs of another, I have believed, 

 and all my teaching and experience confirm 

 me, that we should have power in the Federal 

 Government only over those matters as to 

 which the people of all the States have a com- 

 mon, general interest, and as to which the 

 people of a State could not act for themselves. 



" Now, Mr. President, in my judgment this 

 wise principle which has worked so well in the 

 past is violated by the proposed amendment 

 reported to the Senate by the Judiciary Com- 

 mittee, and which is now under consideration." 



Mr. Morton : " I should like to ask the Sen- 

 ator this question, whether the amendment as 

 it came from the House does not violate the 

 principle for which he is contending? " 



Mr. Kernan : "I answer with entire frank- 

 ness that to some extent it does." 



Mr. Edmunds : " It does to every extent as 

 far as it goes." 



Mr. Kernan : " I will answer frankly that I 

 believe that the matter of educating children 

 may be wisely left to the people of each State. 

 I believe that it is a home right ; I believe that 

 it will be exercised best in that way. I believe 

 that our experience shows that there is no 

 serious difficulty in its being exercised wisely 

 and well by the people of each State for them- 

 selves. But I recognize that moneys raised to 

 support common public schools are a fund to 

 support a system which pervades the Union ; 

 this system is regarded with great interest by 

 a large portion of our people ; and it is a single 

 subject. Inasmuch as there was danger that 

 sectarian dissensions would arise in regard to 

 the common-school moneys, inasmuch as it was 

 asserted that efforts were being made to divide 

 these moneys between the religious denomina- 

 tions, and there was great danger that the sub- 

 ject of the common schools would be made a 

 political question, and sectarian prejudices 

 aroused as an element in political contests, I 

 was willing to adopt the Elaine amendment, in 

 the hope and belief that it would quiet these 

 groundless fears as to the common schools, and 

 avert the evils which spring from religious 

 prejudices. 



" Therefore I say that while I believe it is 

 wiser and better to leave the people of each 

 State free to maintain their schools as they 

 see fit, and I do not believe there will be any 

 diversion of money raised for the support of 

 common schools to other purposes, especially 

 as in many State constitutions, as in that of 

 New York, there are provisions which forbid 

 the application of money raised for common 

 schools to any other object : yet if it would 

 allay that which I regard as the greatest evil 

 that ever comes among a community, strife 

 and bitterness in reference to religious creed, 



I was willing to vote for the Blaine amend- 

 ment, although, as the Senator from Indiana 

 says, it is against the principles I believe to be 

 wise. But I consider the proposed amendment 

 now before the Senate as going far beyond 

 that proposed by Mr. Blaine ; and in my judg- 

 ment, instead of allaying strife and dissension, 

 it will increase them and bring evil to our 

 schools, to our institutions, and to the people 

 of our country." 



Mr. Whyte, of Maryland, said: "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, Protestant though I am, and sprung from 

 ancestors who belonged to the straitest sect of 

 Irish Presbyterians, and imbibing the preju- 

 dices which I must confess attach to such 

 surroundings, nevertheless I fail not to re- 

 member that I was born in a State colonized by 

 Roman Catholics, in whose soil the banner of 

 religious toleration was first planted on this 

 American Continent. For the obtension of 

 religious as well as civil liberty the Roman 

 Catholics of Maryland, represented by the 

 patriotic Carroll of Carrollton, pledged their 

 lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors in 

 the Revolutionary struggle. Should I, as a 

 representative of Maryland, vote for this 

 amendment, I should deem myself faithless to 

 the spirit of the history of my native State. In 

 rny judgment the danger is not present which 

 this article, proposed in response to an ephem- 

 eral popular demand, is designed to avert ; 

 and it seems to me, to use plain words, nearly 

 an accusation against a large body of fellow- 

 citizens as loyal to republican liberty as we 

 proclaim ourselves to be." 



Mr. Edmunds: " Will the Senator allow me 

 to ask him a question ? " 



Mr. Whyte: "I am going to speak but 

 three minutes by the watch, and I beg my 

 friends not to interrupt me. I will yield, how- 

 ever, for a question if the Senator desires to put 

 one." 



Mr. Edmunds: "The question I wished to 

 ask was precisely in point to what the Senator 

 was saying, that there was no present danger 

 of the kind to which he alludes, whether he had 

 read the mandate ordinarily called the encyc- 

 lical letter and the syllabus of errors promul- 

 gated by the holy Pontiff in 1864 on this very 

 subject ? " 



Mr. Whyte : "Yes; but 1864 is not 1876 by 

 along shot." 



Mr. Edmunds: " It lacks twelve years of it." 



Mr. Whyte: "And a good many things 

 which people did in 1864 they do not do to- 

 day, I am happy to add." 



Mr. Edmunds : " Does the Senator mean to 

 say that he understands that the principles or 

 declarations of this letter have been changed, 

 or withdrawn, or modified ? " 



Mr. Whyte: "Yes, sir." 



Mr. Edmunds: "I should like to see the 

 proof of it." 



Mr. Whyte : " Has the Senator read Arch- 

 bishop Purcell's recent letter on this very 

 subject ? " 



