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NON-PROSCRIPTIVE SCHOOLS PROMOTIVE OF HARMONY,

Sir, as to the practical working of non-proscriptive schools, or, in other words, schools where black and white are taught in the North and East as well as in the South, it does not appear that either race is injured, or that the cause of general education suffers. At Yale, Harvard. Wilberforce, Cornell, Oberlin, the testimony id that both races get along well together. Nor is the South without such schools. In Madison, Kentucky, there is the Berea College, a notice of which I read from The American Missionary, for November 1873, pages 243 and 244. It reads as follows: 

Less than thirteen years ago sixty-five armed men drew themselves up in line before Professor Rogers's house, close to the spot where now stands this new building, and notified the professors and trustees that they must leave the State within ten days. Less than six years ago half of the whites left the school because black men were admitted to its privileges; but the white students came back in time, and some of those who participated in mobs were not ashamed now to be recognized as friends. 
Here are gathered from twelve to fifteen hundred people from the mountains and from the Blue Grass country, literate and illiterate, rich and poor, white and colored, farmers, mechanics, and professional men; a very mingled crowd, but a very attentive and orderly audience.

It is an interesting sight, that large number under the green roof, listening eagerly through the morning and evening. But the fact that southern-born whites and blacks, in nearly equal proportion and in large numbers, have, for the past six years, recited together and in perfect harmony, makes this institution typical of what may be accomplished through the nation, and it makes more than local importance. It requires no argument to show how much the colored people will be benefited by such an education. There is nothing like just such a school as this to teach mutual respect and forbearance, to dignify labor, to enforce regard for the person and property of all classes, and to take away some one the arrogant superciliousness of caste and race.

I also call attention to the following from the New York Independent, January 22, 1874, headed "Civil Rights and Yale College:" 

Where the principles of impartiality were brought to bear, whether in reference to schools, cars, churches, or hotels, there has always been first a huge outcry from the whole herd of white tyrants; then upon the first trial, an ostentatious repugnance on the one hand, and a visible sensitiveness on the other, but finally both repugnance and sensitiveness forgotten in general acquiescence and oblivion. If Mr. Harris has forgotten it, will he please listen to the chapter of history of Yale College? 

In the year 1831 there was an effort put forth to secure a college for colored youth. At the time even the crumbs which fell form the mental boards of the various colleges were denied by these people. It was proposed to locate this college in the city of New Haven. But when this plan became known a violent opposition at once arose. The officers of the city called a public meeting. The city-hall was densely packed, and the whole afternoon was given to the consideration of the matter. The following is the public record of the result: 

"At a city meeting, duly warned and held in the city-hall, in the city of New Haven, on Saturday, September 10, 1831, to take into consideration a project for the establishment in this city of a college for the education of colored youth, the following preamble and resolutions were by said the meeting adptd [[adopted]], namely: 

"Whereas, in the opinion of this meeting, Yale College, the institutions for the education of females, and the other schools already existing in this city, are important to the community and the general interest of science, and as such. have been deservedly patronized by the public; and the establishment of a college in the same place, to educate the colored population, is incompatible with the prosperity, if not the existence of the present institutions of learning, and will be destructive to the best interests of the city: Therefore

"Resolved, by the mayor, alderman, common council, and freemen of the city of New Heaven in the city meeting assembled, That [[that]] we resist the establishment of the proposed college in this place by every lawful means. 

"DENNIS KIMBERLY, Mayor.
"ELISHA MONSON, Clerk."


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It is needless to add that the danger was averted by this prompt and imposing array of force, and Yale College was saved to New Haven, and Connecticut, and the country. In 1831 the delicate nerve of Yale College could not endure the shock of seeing black boys educated a mile away; now she takes them to her own arms and bids them call her alma mater, and to our notion she looks quite as fair and as buxom as ever. We are not a bit surprised to hear Mr. HARRIS, of Virginia, talk in the same wild strain as Mayor Kimberly in 1831; for we know him to be forty-three years behind the times. 

Again, the following from Old and New for February 1874, a respectable monthly published in Boston, Massachusetts, and written by C.G. Fairchild, a write not unknown to fame, will be read with interest and by all thoughtful persons. It is headed "Non-proscriptive Schools in the South."  The writer says: 

The question of non-proscriptive schools at the South takes us at once to the fountain-head of a formative influence, to that which itself begets force, which is noiseless and imperceptible, but which is as pervasive as sunlight, and as powerful to build up that against which tempests may waste their energies in vain. "Whatever you would have appear in a nation's life, that you must put into its schools," was long since a Prussian motto. Powerful as Prussia has proved this influence to be in fostering a love of country, it is far more powerful in the more subtile work of strengthening or allaying social prejudices. Are non-proscriptive schools, therefore, desirable; and can they be secured?  

Few can understand, without careful and extended personal observation, how essentially different was the construction of society in the South from that in the North. It recognized two distinct classes--the laboring class and the cultured class; classes as distinct as the roots and the fruitage of a tree. The one needed only the shelter of the hut, as the horse has his stable; for the other, no mansion within the reach of their means could be too spacious or elegant. Theoretically all labor was to be performed by slaves; while the fruits of labor were to raise to the highest culture and perfection the ruling class. Such a society had no place for an industrious, self-respecting middle class. Slave labor placed its own badge of servile degradation upon all labor. The white man whose hands were roughened in the strife for his daily bread was despised even by the negro slave. No southern conception was more natural than that northern society was composed of "mud-sills." Universal labor meant nothing else to them.

How, then, shall this exploded idea of civilization be overcome? In times past the negro race has been the exponent of labor at the South; and it is, for many years to come, to be closely associated with it. If, therefore, this race is to be separated from all others in the public schools, and even the youngest children are made to feel that the race is set apart for its special mission and destiny in society, how can we hope to make labor respectable? The old badge of servile degradation will attach to it not only for the black man but for the white man. To place blacks and whites in the same school is not to say that the races are equal or unequal. It is to animate all the individuals with a common purpose, with reference to which color or nationality has nothing to do. If color or nationality has anything to do with social affinities, non-proscriptive schools will not affect their natural and healthy influence. But color and nationality have nothing to do with labor. That is a matter of capacity and necessity. This fact a truly common-school system will impress constantly and effectively upon society, and thus relieve labor from a most unnatural and damning stigma put upon it by slavery.

The class distinctions perpetuated and taught by class schools infuse a detrimental influence into politics. Black men, no less than white men, should differ on public questions. But such difference cannot show itself in political action to any great extent as long as there is perpetuated a distinction so fundamental between the white man and the black as that the children of the latter cannot go to school with those of the former. In such a case class interests will predominate over those interests which are more general and less personal.

The same writer, in noticing an institution at Marysville, Tennessee, where black and white children and youths are taught, says:

If all the facts bearing upon this point could be collated, not only the enemies but the friends of non-proscriptive schools would be astonished.

Let the doors of the public-school house be thrown open to us alike, sir, if you mean to give these people equal rights at all, or to protect them in the exercise of the rights and privileges attaching to all freemen and citizens of our country.