p. 301 | THE STATE OF SOCIETY; MR. BEECHER'S TESTIMONY

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

THE STATE OF SOCIETY; MR. BEECHER'S TESTIMONY.

The following vivid picture of the state of society, both in Europe and America, designed to show the importance of a judicious system of education in this country, gives a good idea of some of the elements of strife which are now being “held”:—

Society everywhere shows symptoms preceding disturbance. In Europe it is far more apparent than among us. There it would seem that at last by various processes sufficient light has struggled down to the strata of the intelligence of the people, and they are beginning to take part in incidents which determine governments and events. Intelligence has been working down until the upper classes are going to let up among themselves, in influence at least, the great lower classes. Fifty years ago De Tocqueville foretold what has since become history, and the movement of the great masses in Europe has taken place. To-day, all Europe is an organized oppression. Standing in sympathy with the great under classes, I say that this oppression will be met by violence, and I believe that all are now on the verge of a great eruption. The lever has already been touched, and the men who have the vote have the command. Nihilism, Communism, Socialism, are only cries for liberty and for light. They find that the reason of their oppression is ignorance, and they cry for knowledge. But knowledge alone will never help them. They want intelligence, and observation, and decision. And as the movement advances, new channels have to be secured for the escape of their intelligence. The intelligence of the people is like steam,—harmless if free, but if it is confined and compressed you know what the result will be. In Russia the blinded political managers insist on shutting down the steam valve; they won't even allow them to whistle, and their fate is upon us.

We are receiving vast accessions from all Europe and Asia, and these people are bringing hither their manners, their necessities, and their poverty. Eight millions from abroad are mingling with us. Four millions from within, but recently slaves, are with us. And in their hands we have placed the ballot. We do well to consider the situation. The industrial question for us is scarcely less important than the dynastic is for Europe. You have given them suffrage, and in doing so you have let out an angel or a devil, whichever it is going to be, and you cannot bottle it up now. The giving of suffrage to four million people as unfitted for it as any human beings could be, was a terrific experiment, and yet since they have had it they have voted just as wisely as their masters did before the emancipation. Ours is the most complicated government on the face of the earth, but I am hopeful of humanity while it has intelligence, liberty, and morality, or self-control. The preparation of the thirty-nine out of the forty millions for their responsibility rests on the new profession,—the school teachers. The free, public, common school is to do the work. The common school ought to be free as water, and should come unbidden to every man's door without regard to complexion or condition. The common school is the most democratic institution ever invented, and with it universal suffrage is possible.