What Guides Us?

Quote from Ulysses S. Grant

 When I saw this quote by Ulysses S. Grant on the internet, I was reminded of the danger that lifting a single sentence from a speech can create, so I went in search of the context of Grant's quote.  We live in a nation where freedoms are very important to all of us.  Yet, what does it mean?...of speech, of religion, of the press, of assembly, of expression?  Grant sought to make a distinction between freedom of Patriotism and Intelligence versus Superstition, Ambition, and Ignorance.  Although "Ambition" may have been a questionable choice, since it can imply both "a praiseworthy or an inordinate desire," I like the quote.  In fact, his intention was concern about the delicate balance of government support for things about which Americans disagreed--some seeing them as good while others saw them as bad.

  

He was thinking about education.  In America's beginning, there was not immediate government support for education. Early schools were funded by parents paying tuition, charitable contributions, and sometimes by property taxes.  Today, public schools are funded through local, state, and federal money.  Even those who do not have children pay taxes to educate children who will grow up to be able to read, write, and capably have jobs that serve other Americans, whether that service is as doctors, hair dressers, musicians, soldiers, authors, or countless other things. However, public education did not really become common until the 1830s, gradually increasing between1850 and 1870.

Ulysses S. Grant served as President during the time decisions were being made about public education.  He recognized its importance.  It was a time of immigration, and Grant saw the role education would play in teaching all young Americans about American history, of sharing a common language, and bringing citizens together.  Different ethnicities could still preserve their traditions, while receiving a common education in public schools.

The challenge for Grant was that some public schools at that time were using the King James Bible in classrooms, causing Catholic schools to feel public funds should also be available to their schools. What Grant wanted were public schools that all children could attend. Rather than having the government fund all the different denominational churches, he wanted all Americans to have access to an education in public schools where no students were made to feel uncomfortable.  He was not trying to pick a fight about the King James Bible or the Catholic Bible.  He just wanted kids to have access to a free public school education, without imposing beliefs contrary to their own, or embarrassing them or making them feel different.  

Before I posted this quote by Grant, I wanted to know the context from which the quote was taken. What Grant was talking about was the challenge of a nation of so many differences in genetic roots, traditions, religions, and opportunities, to acquire a common public school education that brought Americans together in a mutual respect and patriotism for all Americans,  

The freedoms of our Constitution only work when applied to all Americans. without regard to ethnicity, wealth, or power of office.  Ulysses S. Grant was right in fearing for the Nation if we forgot the responsibility of all of us to protect and defend the Constitution.  If the American people, forget the careful drafting of our Constitution and the checks and balances they included, if Superstition, Ignorance, and perhaps his meaning of excessive Ambition cause us to ignore what our Founding Fathers risked their lives to give us, then this Nation may not survive.

Grant feared a threat "in the near future," --a threat that generations of Americans have so far avoided--, protected by those in uniform, by those in political office, by those on Court Room Benches, and by those in voting booths.  Perhaps in a democracy there will always be those who threaten the precious freedoms we enjoy, but none of us should ever take them for granted.  Read through the Freedoms I listed in the first paragraph of this blog.  Those freedoms are for all Americans, a gift from our  Founding Fathers, preserved by our ancestors, and left to us to protect for future generations. not just for us but for "Our Posterity.".  

"We the People of the United States, in Order to Form a more perfect Union

establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,

promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty

to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish 

this Constitution for the United States of America.