courses for students of all colors.) Can it be anything else
than training in elementary industry, such as is now
demanded for our Northern common-schools? If the
denominational freedmen's schools find this a necessity, is
it anything less for the Southern public schools act which
is contemplated in the bills before Congress?

Mr. Magoun reasons wisely. If the colored men of the South are to
continue their grip as the wage-workers and wealth-producers of that
section they must bring to their employments common intelligence and
skill; and these are to be obtained in the South as in the North, by
apprenticeship and in schools specially provided for the purpose.
Instead of spending three to seven years in mastering higher
education, which presupposes favorable conditions, colored youth
should spend those years in acquiring a "common school education," and
in mastering some trade by which to make an honest livelihood when
they step forth into the world of fierce competition.

Some may ask: Shall we, then, not have some scholars, men learned in
all that higher education gives? Of course; and we should have them.
Men fitted by nature for special pursuits in life will make
preparation for that work. Water will find its level. Genius cannot be
repressed. It will find an audience, even though the singer be Robert
Burns at his plow in the remoteness of Ayr, or the philosophic Æsop in
the humble garb of a Greek pedant's slave. Genius will take care of
itself; it is the mass of mankind that must be led by the hand as we
lead a small boy. It is therefore that I plead, that the masses of the
colored race should receive such preparation for the fierce
competition of every day life that the odds shall not be against them.
I do not plead for the few, who will take care of themselves, but for