society of
_classes_, and a society of _classes_ can never be a _community_. When
the whole labor of a State is performed by a degraded class, that are
not included in the State as citizens or social beings, it is
impossible but that the class next above them should feel the force of
those theories and ideas which have produced such a state of things.
It is so. The poor white population of the South is degraded. They are
ignorant--they are not fertile in thought or labor. They are not so
low as the slaves, nor so high as those who own slaves. There are
three classes--the top, the middle, and the bottom; and two of these,
the top and bottom, being fixed and legal, the middle is modified by
them both.

In such a Society, there cannot be a _Common School_, in any such
sense as we mean it. Indeed, there cannot be _general education_ in
any State where ignorance is the legal condition of one-half the
population, as is the case in many Southern States. Ignorance is an
institution in the South. It is a political necessity. It is as much
provided for by legislation and by public sentiment, and guarded by
enactments, as intelligence is in the North. It must be. The
restrictions which keep it from the slave will keep it from the
whites, excepting, always, the few who live at the top. There cannot
be an atmosphere of intelligence. Slaves would be in danger of
breathing that. There cannot be a common public sentiment, a common
school, nor common education. Knowledge is power, not only, but
powder, putting the South in the risk of being blown up, by careless
handling and too great abundance.

III. Closely connected with this, and springing from the same causes,
is a contrast between the North and the South, in respect to free
speech and open discussion by lip and by type.

The theory of the North is, that every man has the right, on every
subject, to the freest expression of his opinions, and the fullest
right to urge them upon the convictions of others. It is not a
permission of law; it is the inherent right of the individual. Law is
only to protect the citizen in the use of that right.

It is the theory of the North that society is as much a gainer by this
freedom of discussion as is the individual.

It is a perpetual education of the people, and a safeguard to the
State. There is the utmost latitude of speech and discussion among our
citizens. The attempt to abridge it would be so infatuated that the
most dignified Court