250 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
THE EDUCATIONAL WANTS OF GEORGIA. 
No. 2. 
It has been wisely said that History is Philosophy 
teaching by example.” In no bi-anch of human records 
are its teachings more instructive than in what relates to 
the blessings and benefits that accrue from Common 
Schools, established and maintained by law. The first 
public institutions of this kind, founded In any Christian 
country, had their existence in the New Wo^d, and in 
the colony of Massachusetts. The intelligent people of 
Scotland adopted the popular system of universal educa- 
tion in 1698 ; it was put in successful practice in Massa- 
chusetts just 27 years after the Mayflower landed its hardy 
emigrants at Plymouth Rock, and 49 years in advance of 
Scotland. It is only because the policy of educating the 
people at large has been longest in force in the colony 
and State named (over 200 years,) that we refer to its ef- 
fects there rather than in other places. 
According to Bancroft, (see Vol. L, p. 467,) “ The 
first years of the Puritans in America were years of great 
hardship and affliction ; yet it is an error to suppose that 
this short season of distress was not promptly followed by 
abundance and happiness. The people were, from the 
first, industrious, enterprising and frugal, and affluence 
followed of course, * * * One might dwell therefrom 
year to year and not see a drunkard, or hear an oath, or 
meet a beggar. The consequence was universal health, 
one of the chief elements of happiness. The average du- 
ration of life in New England, compared with Europe, 
was nearly doubled ; and the human race was so vigor- 
ous that of all v/ho were born into the world, more than 
two in ten, full four in nineteen, attained the age of seven- 
ty; of those who lived beyond ninety, the proportion, as 
compared with European tables of longevity, was still 
more remarkable.” 
Stern necessity compelled the people, by the abiding 
force of a cold, ungenial climate, and a sterile soil, to 
study and practice the most rigid ecpaoray. They, of all 
men, had no money to throw away on free common 
schools, if these failed to return to the tax- payers a fair 
interest on the investment, A more utilitarian commu- 
nity never existed ; and yet, from 1649 to 1856 these peo- 
ple have steadily adhered to the policy of educating the 
masses. Has the capital of the State been injured by be- 
ing compelled by law to support free schools I This is 
an important question, for it reaches the main source of 
o'pposition to these State institutions. They cost some- 
tiling, and the compensation, although liberal in dollars, 
as well as in moral, social and intellectual advantages, is 
not quite so immediate and obvious as some tax-payers 
desire. Rightly to appreciate the value of the system, it 
must be studied in all its bearings upon society for a se- 
ries of generations; and this calls for a little more labor 
and research than most men are willing to give to the 
subject. They may, however, not refuse to consider 
.some of the more prominent facts in the history of human 
culture. It is only within the last 20 years that Massa- 
chusetts capitalists have felt any considerable interest in 
the education of the operatives employed in cotton, wool- 
len, and other factories, in which their money is invested. 
They now regard New England common school educa- 
tion as a better protection for them than any national 
tariff possibly can be. Lord Morpeth, and other distin- 
guished Englishmen have called the attention of their 
countrymen to the great advantages attending the intel- 
lectual, moral and social culture of laboring artizans in 
New England. Lowell is gaining on Manchester rapidly, 
as may be inferred from the following statistics : At the 
last United States census the cotton goods manufactured 
in Massachusetts were returned at S19,712,161. In five 
years they were increased, as shown by the State census 
of 1855, to S36;464,738. These figures show an astonish- 
ing gain in one department of educated industry in five 
years of nearly seventeen million dollars ! 
Well might Lord Morpeth, and other educated foreign- 
ers, express their admiration of this common school sys- 
tem. It enables its far-seeing supporters to send a thou- 
sand miles South for cotton, and a like distance West for 
their grain and provisions, to feed operatives, and then, 
confessedly, distance all competitors in the civilized world. 
In this connection, and to lay bare an important tmth, 
we beg permission to ask, how the Cotton Factories at 
Augusta, and in Georgia generally, have prospered du- 
ring the last six years, while depending mainly on un- 
educated white persons to operate their machinery 1 
The citizens of Augusta expended several hundred 
thousand dollars to create in their midst an exceedingly 
valuable water power for manufacturing purposes, and 
rented it at a low rate of interest on the cost of the same. 
Cotton and labor (such as it is) are cheap and abundant; 
nevertheless, the capital invested in cotton mills can now 
be bought at fifty cents on the dollar, while capital invest- 
ed in x'^ugusta banks is generally at a premium. In the 
latter there are not two or three hundred uncultivated 
minds standing between the owner of the money and his 
profits or interest. Four or five educated business men 
work the machinery of a bank, and the risk is small; 
but far otherwise is the condition of capital in all large 
manufacturing establishments. Every stupid inattentive 
laborer has the power, through sheer carelessness, great- 
ly to damage working machinery of every kind, from the 
blowing up of a steam boiler to the bending of iron 
spindles. He may not only make short w'ork, and bad 
work, but sad destruction of the tools, implements, and 
complex machines necessarily put into his hands. This 
view of the subject explains the interesting industrial 
phenomenon of Massachusetts, with her two centv.mes o f 
free schools, being so far in advance of other States in 
manufactures. In textile fabrics alone, she produced last 
year goods to the amount of )878,071. If weald: be 
her object, is she not well paid for cultivating the natural 
productive powers of her citizens % Can intelligent 
Georgians expect to see the mass of their own citizens 
equally good mechanics and operatives, equally industri- 
ous and independent in point of property, unless they too 
enjoy the inestimable blessings of common scbooLs 
Every poor white man and every poor white woman in 
Georgia, as well as in Massachusetts, might easily stoc^' 
a shoe bench with all the tools necessary to make ti e 
