SUMNER.
Mr. SUMNER said "that's school," and explained that he believed he was
venerated by the women of Massachusetts, but that their reverence for
him was too great to allow them to approach him with importunities.
Nevertheless, he was in favor of the bill, as tending to break down the
accursed spirit of caste, and to disseminate throughout the South the
three or more R's which he had so often had the honor of reverberating
throughout the Senate.
Mr. YATES approved of the bill. It was his general principle to vote for
any thing that looked to the disbursement of money. He was particularly
in favor of this measure, because he wanted an uniform education for
every body. He didn't want any body else to know more than himself, and
he didn't want to know more than any body else. (Voices--You don't.)
Take spelling. There was only one correct method of spelling--the one
that he pursued. And yet he had never found any other person who agreed
with him in it. Evidently, this was not right. He demanded that the
children of the country should be taught to spell on proper principles,
so that his works might be intelligible to posterity, as they were not
to his contemporaries.
Of course Mr. SUMNER seized the occasion to quote crowds of authorities
on education, which debilitated the Senate to a dissolution.
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