CONSCRIPTION OF TEACHEES. 
 
 If the new Military bill, as reported to Congress from its 
 appropriate committee, should in its -present form become a 
 law, it will abolish the entire educational system of the 
 country. Thus a most' grievous and permanent injury 
 would be inflicted upon her, from which she would not re- 
 cover for generations to come. The evils that would follow 
 would descend most heavily upon our children and child- 
 ren's children, and would outlast all the other calamities 
 which this war will entail upon her. This bill, in propos- 
 ing to exempt professors only, and not the teachers of pre- 
 paratory and common schools, will frustrate its own object. 
 For in the ruin of the schools is necessarily and unavoid- 
 ably involved that of the colleges also. 
 
 In proceeding to show these things, I respectfully ask the 
 serious attention of our people, and especially our legisla- 
 tors; as it is a much graver and a far more momentous ques- 
 tion than is generally supposed. 
 
 I repeat distinctly, the ruin of the schools, will involve 
 that of the colleges also, permanently and completely. The 
 latter presuppose the former, and are useless without them. 
 Schools are to colleges what feeders are to a reservoir, or 
 what the foundation is to the superstructure. It would be 
 just as wise to erect at different points, and at great ex- 
 pense, capacious reservoirs, guard and maintain them at 
 great cost of men and means, and then cut off from them 
 every feeder or supply pipe. Or it would be no more ab- 
 surd to erect a grand and colossal superstructure, and then 
 pull away the plainer, but more substantial foundation, ex- 
 pecting the superstructure still to remain. It may also be 
 fearlessly asserted, that, if colleges could exist without 
 
Schools are far more essential to a country than colleges, 
 We might possibly do without the latter, but not the for- 
 mer. The best educational interests are always "ound to 
 centre in common schools. For it is there, that boys get 
 that incentive, that impetus, that thirst for knowledge, and 
 that start, which will enable them afterwards, if so disposed, 
 to attain by their own almost unaided exertions to higher 
 degrees of knowledge. This is constantly done. How 
 often do we find in the front rank in all professions, many 
 men who were never at college. And, as has been said, 
 only those boys whose ambition and eagerness would enable 
 and induce them (provided they had received the benefits of 
 a good school) to climb to distinction without further aid, 
 would generally be benefitted by a collegiate course. Abun- 
 dant facts prove, that schools are absolutely indispensable to 
 a country; but, on the other hand, there is no ev dence at 
 all, that colleges, without schools, (even if that were possi- 
 ble) would foster or promote education, or at all benefit a 
 nation. I would by no means disparage colleges ;"but as 
 their friend and advocate, and as one writing in their be- 
 half, I am unwilling to see them cut off from their only 
 source of aliment and support. 
 
 Nor would the army gain numerically anything by the 
 operations of this bill. In our palmiest days, schools and 
 teachers were much too few for the wants of the South. She 
 has always labored under this great disadvantage. The 
 war has made fearful inroads upon these small numbers. 
 And now, I do not hesitate the assertion, that the whole 
 Confederacy would not afford from the teachers a fall regi- 
 ment of efficient soldiers. Will the advantage, then, at all 
 atone for the serious, permanent and irretrievable injury 
 thus inflicted upon the whole country? 
 
 The natural effects of a state of war are greatly to crip- 
 ple and interrupt education ; and yet at no time is it more 
 essential, whether from its present advantages, or its future 
 beneficial results. Crime is more rife — social and moral re- 
 straints are broken down — evil of all kinds has greater 
 
license — the whole eouaniunity is demoralized more or less-- - 
 the laws become weak and inoperative — men intensely self- 
 ish — the gentler and better feelings are crushed out by the 
 stern and cruel necessities that are upon us — by constant 
 contact with profanity, debauchery, Sabbath-breaking and 
 crime in general, the soft and delicate sensibilities of human 
 nature are blunted — and frequent scenes of ghastly wounds, 
 of mangled forms, of blood and slaughter so ossify, yes even 
 petrify the hearts of both men and women, that the one is 
 in danger of becoming unsexed, and the other of returning to 
 the savage and barbarous state Now who is to care for the 
 children in such a state of things ? The men are in the field, 
 and the women have not only their own, but the accumulated 
 cares of the men upon them. The whole land is in a state 
 of widowhood and orphanage. The tendencj' of war is 
 downward and intensely evil. Few are the restraints now 
 left to society. Shall we, then, sweep away one of the most 
 important and effective of these few? Shall we, then, take 
 the small handful of men, who have devoted their lives to 
 the care of our children, and offer them also in sacrifice to 
 the insatiate and bloody Mars? Surely the very times most 
 imperatively demand, that the preacher and the teacher 
 should be left unfettered to pursue their beneficial and all 
 important vocations. 
 
 Again, one of our greatest wants now is, and will be 
 after the war, a pure southern literature, especially text 
 books for our schools. Nearly all such books now in pro- 
 gress are in the hands of professional teachers. This bill 
 will also stop this important work. Yet it alone can afford 
 the only sure defence to our children against the poisonous 
 flood of Yankee school books and Yankee literature, replete 
 as it always is with Yankee religion and Yankee political 
 and social dogmas ; and it alone will save them from mental 
 vassalage to that nation, whose principles and tenets we 
 hate with a perfect hatred. Conscript Fathers I Pause 
 and reflect before your country, or at least her principles, 
 perish, not by the foe, who is now thundering at her gates, 
 but by your own patricidal hands f 
 
To pass such a bill would simply be to acknowledge and 
 publish to our enemies, that they have thrust us so close to 
 the wall, and reduced us to such a desperate extremity, that 
 we must wholly sacrifice our most vital interest, one, with- 
 out which, even the principles for which we are contending 
 would be both worthless and ephemeral — that our armies 
 are so small, that for the sake of a handful of men, we 
 must altogether ignore the best interests of posterity, 
 turn loose our children upon the world's common, leave 
 them to the tender mercies of a state of war, trust them to 
 the elegant refinement and pure morality of a street educa- 
 tion, and shut our eyes to the consequences. It is not true 
 that any such necessity is, or ever will be upon us. And 
 such a bill is open to the charge of giving " aid and comfort" 
 to our enemies. 
 
 History and the custom of all civilized nations fully sus- 
 tain the views expressed in this article. Certain classes 
 have always been regarded by both friend and foe as essen- 
 tial to the morals, to the intellectual and spiritual good of 
 society, and have therefore been always considered as non- 
 combatants. Napoleon, perhaps, was the sternest and most 
 remorseless conscriptor the world ever knew. And yet he, 
 even in his most trying hour, never permitted either the 
 priest or the pedagogue to be interrupted, while engaged in 
 their peculiar professions. It is true, that both teachers 
 and preachers have been found in the ranks. But I know 
 of no country, whether our own in the revolution of '76, 
 or of England, or of France, or of any other at any time, 
 which by law abolished all schools, and placed all teachers 
 in the ranks. It is likely true, that some men make use of 
 the profession as a stepping-stone to something else, or who 
 wealthy, become teachers for the sake of an honorable em- 
 ployment ; and perhaps there are some, who screen them- 
 selves from the calls of their country by hastily becoming 
 teachers. But there are others, who, at no little expense of 
 means, time and labor, were educated expressly for the pro- 
 fession, and who have spent their whole lives in this calling. 
 
Now I think, it would be wrong to diminish at all the number 
 of teachers. It is very plain, that education^ now above all 
 other times, ought to be most carefully fostered and cherish- 
 ed. But if it be really true, that our country is brought to 
 so great an extremity, as to demand a still greater sacrifice 
 of her educational interests, then ought Congress to dis- 
 criminate at least (for the good of the country) in favor of 
 those men who are professionally teachers, and have made 
 it the sole business of their lives. Surely they cannot do 
 less. And if they have at heart the welfare of the country, 
 and desire to carry out the wishes of the people, they will 
 put no impediment or hinderance in the path of education, 
 and in no way contract or cripple its facilities. 
 
 In view of these truths, is it not the madness of folly 
 and a most short-sighted policy, to take away from the rising 
 generation, when they are peculiarly exposed to so much 
 immorality, corruption and vice, the great restraining, cor- 
 rective and conservative machinery of the land, and to hand 
 down to a degraded, demoralized, and illiterate posterity 
 the precious, but to such, the dangerous and ephemeral 
 inheritance of the principles, which are now costing their 
 fathers so much blood and treasure ? What glory, what 
 honor, what prestige will cluster around our country's name 
 in another generation ? Or, how long would that genera- 
 tion, which this bill proposes to make savages, be able to 
 maintain, or appreciate the priceless legacy? It would be 
 like the merchantman obtaining the pearl of great price at 
 every sacrifice, and then casting it to the earth, for the dog, 
 the vulture and the jackal to biold their unclean carnival 
 over it. 
 
 JUNIUS. 
 
EXEMPTIONS. 
 
 In the exemption bill recently reported from the military 
 committee, there is one clause to which we beg leave to call 
 the attention of Congress. We refer to the wholesale con- 
 scription of teachers as a class, and the limitation of the ex- 
 emptions to the professors of colleges, theological seminaries, 
 &c. Whilst we freely accord to those who may, perchance, 
 become the advocates of the bill in its present form, the 
 full weight of the argument based upon the necessity of fill- 
 ing the ranks of our army, we are yet constrained to be- 
 lieve, that the passage of the bill as reported, would not by 
 any means add to its efficiency to such an extent, as to justify 
 the fatal blow struck at the educational interests of the 
 country. 
 
 We do not expect all at first, to appreciate the full value 
 of a regular system and high standard of education amongst 
 a people ; as this requires a careful and unbiased considera- 
 tion. Nor have we space to discuss the general effect 
 of a system of schools and colleges upon the morals and 
 intelligence of a community, and in the preparation of 
 those who are in future years to become the rulers of our 
 political and social destinies, and to assume the high places 
 of honor and trust. We are aware, that in this country, at 
 the present day, there are those who are willing to sacrifice 
 all deep and patient study of general principles, of law, of 
 social, political, moral and natural science upon the altar of 
 a pseudo, practical sense, utilitarian system of materialism, 
 too shallow for the higher order of mind, and to denounce 
 everything beyond their comprehension, or that requires too 
 much labor and study to accomplish, as mere abstraction 
 and theory. Tet they will, at the same time, pay even an 
 
undue deference to the great writers of a preceding 
 without reflecting, that such writers are the logical resil 
 of a high order of mental training, a training that almc 
 invariably begins with the earlier years, and tends to impai 
 a vigor that can subsequently apply itself to the collation^ 
 and co-ordination of facts, the induction of general princi- 
 ples, and the acquirement of information subordinated to 
 method, completeness, and availability. But we have 
 neither the space nor the leisure for general discussion. We 
 desire simply to advert to the proposed bill, and to call the 
 special attention of our legislators to the consequences that 
 would follow from its adoption. That a most vital blow 
 would be struck at the interest of education, from which 
 the country would not recover in a long series of years, if 
 ever, is palpable. The bill provides for the exemption of 
 the professors of our colleges, and, in the same clause, pro- 
 poses to take away all support from them in putting an end 
 to preparatory schools. The respect shown to education is 
 more nominal than real. Independently of this fact, the 
 success of our colleges is even now entirely prevented by the 
 military laws already in existence. A student must assured- 
 ly have attained the age of seventeen, even under the most 
 auspicious circumstances, when he is prepared to profit by a 
 college course ; but at that age the law demands his services 
 in the army. The present usefulness of our colleges is 
 almost completely destroyed, and it is now in contemplation, 
 not only to render this destruction complete and permanent, 
 but to entirely subvert the whole system of education in the 
 country for many long years even after the restoration of 
 peace. A very little consideration will make this manifest. 
 Colleges cannot of course flourish during the war, and, at 
 its expiration, they will recover only upon one condition, 
 that there shall be the requisite number of teachers in the 
 country to prepare students for entering upon a collegiate 
 course. 
 
 By the present virtual suspension of colleges, uo new 
 
 addition to the corps of teachers can be expected, whilst 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 y, who were preparing to enter the profession ; and 
 ny, who had already entered it, have long ago volun- 
 .ered and fallen in the service — our college halls were de- 
 serted during the first year of the war by the volunteering 
 of the students en masse, the great majority with unfinished 
 educations. Even with our schools, no student can be pre- 
 pared to enter the profession before being called into the 
 field. Should the present corps of teachers, therefore, be 
 depleted in the military service, there will be few indeed at 
 the expiration of the war to recover our lost position ; and 
 the important interest of education, in which society is 
 deeply involved, as well as the success of our colleges, will 
 be put back more than half a century. Teachers are not 
 born as poets, but one corps of teachers is both the logical 
 and chronogical antecedent, so to speak, of another. It 
 should be carefully observed, that, although it is a matter 
 of very great importance to the moral and intellectual de- 
 velopment of the minds of our youth, at all times, to keep 
 in training and under discipline, all those between the ages 
 of ten and seventeen, and although society is deeply in- 
 vrlved in the sacrifice of this interest, even for one genera- 
 tion, it is by no means* the only, or chief consideration in 
 the matter under consideration. The question is not wholly 
 as to the suspension of our school system during the war, 
 but for many years after the restoration of peace. Enough 
 teachers must be left to the country to continue their labors 
 with success immediately at the expiration of the war. 
 There can be no source of supply to fill the depleted ranks of 
 the profession, even to inaugurate the movement in the direc- 
 tion of education at that opportune moment, unless a wise le- 
 gislation shall be content with certain limitations and restric- 
 tions in the exemption law, instead of a wholesale conscrip- 
 tion. It must be observed also, that the annual increase of 
 population bv births, was not affected until the beginning 
 of war, if at all, and that, consequently, unless the war 
 should continue for a much longer period, the demand for 
 teachers remains the same. Moreover, at all times, but 
 
especially at present it is necessary, that therq 
 
 sufficient number of teachers to supply comi 
 
 simple centres of education are not available fol 
 
 body of our youth. Now the proper restrictions 
 
 posed to secure competent teachers to the country, 
 
 as far as practicable, apply to capacity, experience, a?! 
 
 whether the profession had been one chosen for life, &c. 
 
 In connection with this subject, there is another demand- 
 ing the earnest attention of our legislators. Under the 
 supposed auspices of the times, and the revival of the in- 
 terests of education in the Southern Teachers Convention, 
 several valuable elementary books, that required very little 
 time for preparation, have been given to the public. Other 
 works of a much higher order are in progress. Congress 
 could do nothing, that would more advance the interests of 
 education, than to give full protection to all authors of text- 
 books, under any restrictions that would not defeat the ob- 
 ject. As a text-book may be of incalculable value., and as 
 the very small number of those, having such works in pre- 
 paration, could not at all affect our military strength, we 
 can conceive of no admissible argument against the exemp- 
 tion of this very small class, subject solety to the limitation, 
 that all such shall follow the profession of teachers, and 
 shall have had their works in progress prior to some date 
 anterior to the passage of the act. The country would thus 
 also secure good teachers. This subject demands the seri- 
 ous attention of Congress, as there is, without any compli- 
 cation of the bill, the prospect of great benefit, without the 
 remotest danger of any detriment to the public interests. 
 
 We suggest, then, in consideration of the facts we have 
 barely more than hinted at, the necessity of examining 
 carefully into the effect of the proposed measures, before 
 any action is taken thereupon. We do not attempt any dis- 
 cussion of the momentous influence exerted by this profes- 
 sion upon the morals and intelligence of a people; but leave 
 the consideration of this subject in all its bearings to the 
 candid judgment of reflecting minds. Few men would be 
 
12 
 
 ;e their own children deprived of all the advan- 
 
 intellectual and moral training of our schools, 
 
 grow up in ignorance and vice ; but, when this 
 
 Universal, and the very foundations of society are 
 
 J£d by it, the subject assumes a very serious aspect, 
 
 id deserves the careful study of statesmen. We are not 
 r yet prepared for the partial moral and intellectual barbarism 
 that would result from the destruction of one of the main 
 foundations of good society and good government. The 
 organic constitution of our southern government, when es- 
 tablished, will be of a character demanding the most con- 
 summate statesmanship : and the empirical folly of an age 
 that would follow the destruction of the pulpit and the 
 whole framework of school and college systems, would ren- 
 der nugatory all our efforts for the establishment of a just 
 and permanent government. It requires no great prescience 
 to see already, that the future of the South, even- under the 
 most auspicious circumstances, is full of danger and uncer- 
 tainty. 
 
 A time of war is one in which the moral and intellectual 
 is ever subordinated to the material and physical. We all 
 feel this, and submit to it, " ex necessitate rei;" but few re- 
 flecting minds would be willing to see the same general per- 
 nicious influence perpetuated at the restoration of peace. 
 Those who labor at all times in opposition to this tendency 
 of things, in the pulpit and in our schools, exercise a sani- 
 tary influence upon society, that cannot be overestimated, 
 and not even appreciated, without a careful examination 
 into the manner in which society is influenced and moulded 
 by the educated mind from above. The necessity of such 
 influences is of paramount importance, whatever be the re- 
 sult of our present struggle. Whatever that result may 
 be, there are certain interests that should never be immo- 
 lated to such an extent as to degrade us to a moral and in- 
 tellectual, as well as physical inequality with our enemies, 
 without a certain prospect, that the increased efficiency of 
 our army would amount to something worth balancing in 
 the scales with the deep interests thus involved. 
 
 PARENS.