WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
363
African Slave Trade Law, the Fugitive Slave Law, or the Dred Scott Decision. When the laws are no longer regarded, regulated liberty is at an end. Whenever the will or prejudices of individ- uals becomes the tribunal before which constitutional rights are to be adjudicated, this fabric of government which has been reared through blood and tribulation must fall. Maintain the Constitution and the powers that exist through it. In the Union, we may exercise all the rights which are necessary to our pros- perity and safety. Let us resolve that "it must and shall be preserved." It is our only ark of safety. Though my attention has been absorbed by matters connected with your national relationships, the deduction as to what my policy as Governor would be can easily be drawn. The same principles which have led me to advocate retrenchment and re- form, a strict compliance with the Constitution, a rigid exaction of duty at the hands of officers of thergovernment, an equal dis- tribution of the benefits of government to all classes and all sec- tions, opposition to monopolies and special legislation, a liberal policy in regard to the actual settler on the public domain, will guide me if elected your Governor. Upon the subject of Education I may be allowed to present a few ideas. I believe it to be the duty of the legislature to provide for the education of the masses. Not your classical education, but the a b c, a-b ab, b-a ba 1 k-e-r ker education, and so on up to the mathematics. In all the elements of a common school eduation; necessary to the ordinary affairs of 'life, in a knowledge of our language and the history of the country, your youth should be educated. When a community has imbibed these at the fount of learning, it cannot be called ignorant. Libraries will be found all over the state. Knowledge will then be within the reach of those who wish to obtain it. Private enterprise and philanthropy will rear institutions of an advanced character. Those who wish to educate their sons in the sciences will have ample opportunity to do so and they generally have the means to spare to do it with. At any rate they should not do it at the expense of the masses. Great men are not made in these institutions. Not that they are not useful in their way, but they do not present the mode of education to which the state should devote its energies. The men of the nation come from the old field schoolhouses or your private academies. Such, you should foster, because all may avail themselves of them. But a great National or State concern becomes the receptacle of the sons of
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