Ulysses S. Grant: The Separation of Church and School

▪ Primary Source

      

      Several church bodies, notably Catholics and Lutherans, developed extensive systems of parochial education in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The parochial school was based on the conviction that "secular" education was inadequate, even dangerous, for children of church affiliation. The churches that were engaged in education argued that they had a right to some of the public funds that were devoted to schools. Bishops Michael Corrigan of Newark and John Ireland of St. Paul both actively sought public funds for Catholic schools. In Illinois, it was feared that the combined vote of the Catholic and Lutheran electorate would endanger the very existence of the public school system. With such issues as these in mind, President Grant made the following remarks at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1876.

      I do not bring into this assemblage politics, certainly not partisan politics, but it is a fair subject for soldiers in their deliberations to consider what may be necessary to secure the prize for which they battled in a republic like ours; where the citizen is the sovereign and the official the servant; where no power is exercised except by the will of the people. It is important that the sovereign, the people, should foster intelligence and the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future for our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's line but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.

      Now, the centennial year of our national existence, I believe, is a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundations of the structure commenced by our patriotic fathers a hundred years ago at Lexington. Let us labor to add all needful guarantees for the greater security of free thought, free speech, a free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion. Encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar of the money appropriated to their support shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school; that neither the state or nation, not both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford to every child in the land the opportunity of a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistical dogma.

      Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and private schools entirely supported by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.

Source: Rena M. Atchison, Un-American Immigration: Its Present Effects and Future Perils, 1894, pp. 90-91.

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