108 PERILS. — RELIGIOi^" AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



There must be a fixed habit of obedience to rightful 

 authority. Such obedience on the part of the many can 

 never be secured by teaching a religionless morality; as 

 well might we expect to run a locomotive with light or 

 to propel an ocean steamer by means of her compass. 



If, then, the State, which has the right to exist, has the 

 right to perpetuate its existence, and if popular morality 

 is essential to the perpetuity of free institutions, and if 

 a knowledge of the fundamental truths of religion is 

 essential to popular morality, then has the State the 

 right to inculcate those truths. 



As individuals we are of course bound to respect 

 religious principles, however much they may differ 

 from our own, and we must be patient with religious prej- 

 udices, however Wind and bigoted ; but if self-preserva- 

 tion be a duty as well as a right, then is it the duty of 

 the State to teach these fundamental religious truths (not 

 sectarian dogmas) to its children even though the 

 agnostic parent objects, exactly as it is the right and 

 duty of the State to take the boy from the plow, the 

 mine or the mill and put him in school, if need be, 

 against the protest of the parent, not for the good of the 

 boy, not because the parent has no rights which we 

 as individuals are bound to respect, but because the 

 necessities of the State are superior to individual rights. 



Sectarian dogmas are not essential to popular morality. 

 The State, therefore, has no right to teach them, and to 

 do so would be radically wrong in principle, and oppres- 

 sive to many citizens. ^ It is objected by some that this 



1 The writer has never heard of a public school in which a Protestant 

 catechism was used or any distinctively Protestant doctrine was taught. 

 But Rev. Dr. C. O. Brown, of Dubuque, Iowa, states that the Roman Catholic 

 catechism is taught as a regular study, in school hours, in the public schools 

 at Key West. New 3Ialory, Prairie Creek, Bernard, Wilton, Hol.y Cross and 

 Tete de Morte, all of that state. 



"I myself," he says, " have seen it in two of these schools and heard a 

 recitation at regular school hours." " At Spruce Creek, Spring Brook, 

 La Motte, Otter Creek. Butler, District No. 3 and many other places in 

 Jackson Co., a similar state of things exists." — Tlie Public Schools and Tlieir 

 Foes. Fifth Address. 



