just as unreasonable, just
as absurd, just as wicked to force the people into uniformity in the
matter of education. One species of tyranny as well as the other
disregards the just claims of conscience, tramples on the most vital
rights of individuals, and usurps the most sacred right of the family.

The State may, indeed, require that the children should be educated, in
order that they may one day become worthy members of society, and fit
subjects for the State; but claim, and give, and control their
education, the State cannot. There is in all this matter a feature not
always clearly represented. It is this: any provision made by the
"State" for education, must refer _to the poor and otherwise
unprovided_, and be justified on the grounds of the State standing to
these classes _in loco parentis_; beyond this, though the State, as to
"charitable uses," may be defined _parens patria_, yet, as to the people
at large, _it has nothing to do with their education whatever_. If this
simple though undeniable fact were properly understood, it would save a
world of trouble and confusion.

I am speaking of a "_Christian State_," and the State in America is
Christian. The very graves, if necessary, would open and give up their
dead to bear testimony to its Christian origin. Its civilization is
Christian, and is the product of the principles of the "_New Law_" as
taught and promulgated by the Church. The distinguishing feature of this
civilization is, that it has asserted the dignity of freedom of the
_individual man_, while the ancient, or Gentile, civilization, _sunk_
the _individual man_ in the composite society called the State. In that
case it was but reasonable that the _State_ should, _as owner_, take
upon itself the burden of providing, not only for his government, but
also for the education of his offspring. These, too, belonged to it, on
the maxim of Roman or Pagan law, that _partus sequitur ventrem_, or the
offspring follows the parent. This is the origin of the Pagan doctrine,
"_the children of the State_"--a miserable relic of barbarism. It is
important to keep this fact in mind, when we deny the _supremacy of the
State_ in the matter of education.

Our children, then, are not the _children of the State_. The State has
no children, and never had, nor will. The State does not own them, nor
their fathers nor mothers, nor anybody else in this country, thank God!
We have not got that far yet on the road to civil slavery,