James A. GarfieldJames A. Garfield, (1831-1881) 20th President of the United States (1881), assassinated

James A. Garfield Quote

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”

James A. GarfieldJames A. Garfield
~ James A. Garfield


Ratings and Comments


Joe, Rochester, MI

Not so much popular education as basic education, the three Rs. Add History to show our government has moved from a Constitutionally Limited Federal REPUBLIC to a tyranny, and maybe ... maybe this country has a chance to return to freedom and justice.

Anonymous, Reston, VA US

Excellent observation, and given where our tyranny is coming from, the best/wisest/most effective step we can take to solve this is to outlaw private religious based schooling and home schooling for purposes of providing that basic education... it clearly does not work to allow it, and our children deserve better.

David L. Rosenthal

I regret having read the comments.

A 16 yr old, IN

You guys are bright. You want the corrupt government, that you obviously don't like, to be the only one educating the masses.

Meshell, atl, GA

I'm really just here because his name is the same as what I am obsessed with, Garfield the lazy, orange cat! : )

John Anderson, Tacoma, WA

Public education is certainly one way to create a nation of docile subjects. Some of us do not wish to be subjects. We will continue to teach our children truth as we see fit, not simply allow the state to teach them the state's version of truth. A list of men NOT popularly educated includes George Washington, John Adams, James Monroe, James Madison, Adam Smith. While education is certainly profitable and may even be necessary to the preservation of freedom, state imposed education is antithetical to individual liberty.

id, k
  • Reply
id, k    8/23/09

I dont understand it

Waffler, Smith

I like associating with educated people. I could choose to live in a land of uneducated persons where no one could read or write. The Bible says "one man sharpeneth another". In our interactions and education we become "better".

jim k, Austin,Tx

Reston is right. We should outlaw home schooling and herd all the kids into these giant prisons that we call public schools, and don't forget to walk through the metal detecter. And if you can't read when you graduate, not to worry, there's remedial reading classes when you get to Flunk U.

J Carlton, Calgary

What passes for an education system today can't possibly be what Garfield was referring to. The one we have now needs to be flushed with a great many other aspects of psychotic Government.

Publius
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  • Reply
    Publius    5/21/11

    Reston, VA US...Outlawing parents from being able to educate their children or at least see to their education through private schools of their choosing is of the most oppressive measures any government can impose. That's not liberty and justice, its tyranny. I have the right to raise and educate my children as I see fit. Anyone who tries to take that right from me and sink their communist claws into my children will be met with every ounce of resistance that I can muster from my mind and body. You are far too trusting of the government. No government is, ever will be, or even can be perfect. Therefore it can never be trusted with as much power as you constantly call to give it. You are far too arrogant. You have consistently dismissed the ideas of the many martyrs of history quoted on this site. You are not more intelligent or wiser then they were. You have not faced the oppression they did or sacrificed as they did to keep freedom alive. Men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Adams would kick your ass just for making a statement like the one you have above. The defecation that spews from your mouth is nothing more than a hindrance to anyone having heard it. Being a free person, you have the right to express your own ideas but you also have the responsibility to come up with some that are worth listening to.

    Patrick Henry, Red Hill

    Popular education that has been decoupled from illumined moral instruction is, in itself, a woefully inadequate foundation of freedom and justice.

    Prerequisite to the presence of actual freedom and justice are an understanding of and solemn regard for rooted in Reality morality.

    In the absence of the tempering influence of morality, freedom devolves apace to become licentiousness and justice becomes unrealizable.

    Ronw13, Oregon

    Garfield. a Calvinist, educated in liberal arts, Reformed Protestant.
    Siding against Martin Luther's following, of which the South embraced, salvation by grace through faith, tempered with the natural law of morality, restraint and responsibility. So as far as Garfield's " popular education" goes, absolutely questionable ! corrupt doctrinal teaching, With a little home work one will find, such perversion as inclusive to the point of destruction of a civilized wholesome life. Such is the result seen today world wide.
    Other than wanting a gold standard put in place during the reconstruction period, of which he was murdered, not much else of worth.

    Mick, Manchester

    Private = privilege in terms of education and is generally only accessible to the minority who can afford it to maintain the old boys network. Don't know about the US but Private schools in the UK are allowed to register as charities to avoid paying tax on the majority of the fees they charge - this is a national scandal. Chronic underinvestment in state education which is the real problem is then excused as failed ideology. A decent and universally accessible education is a basic human right which is denied to many in some of the worlds richest countries.

    Mike, Norwalk

    I guess the statement could be theoretically correct while, in the vast, VAST majority of times, the reality is to the extreme - inaccurate. What is "popular" education? The current theocratic seminaries (government schools) seem to be popular. Such prominent and favorite dogma propagation is antithetical to natural law, inalienable rights of man, freedom and justice. As example, how many graduates of said theocratic seminaries can define natural law or related constitutional law (as is averse to legal positivism), inalienable rights (as are inherent in the individual without third party intervention), freedom (as is an expositor of pure liberty), and justice (being that 'ALL' courts in Amerika are so extremely corrupt)?

    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

    It's high time we put rational education into the schools. Let's eliminate football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis and all the other games from the schools and make a world of informed productive citizens. Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create an informed citizenry.

    Mike, Norwalk

    Sillik, you are an ignorant theologian propagating the degradation of a noble specie. Your definition of rational, and realities definition of rational are diametrically opposed. By example: it has been shown that those who learn to play musical instruments at a young age do much better in math later on; those that play sports early (and continue) do much better with memory and in science. Of course socialists can't stand a better society  they only understand control and enslavement.

    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
    • Reply
    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown Mike, Norwalk 4/25/24

    Mike, Norwalk,  I mentioned that baseball, to a couple of baseball players on the local college team, they could not distinguish between stealing an automobile and home plate, one responded, "we got a couple of guys on the team like that."  Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create productivity.

    Mike, Norwalk
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    Mike, Norwalk Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 4/25/24

    Sillik, you need to broaden your circle of conversationalists. It would behoove you to speak with people who have IQs in the double digits and not just stupid socialists.

    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
    • Reply
    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown Mike, Norwalk 4/25/24

    Mike, Norwalk, you obviously don't believe what I say when I profess there is no god, calling me the theologian. If you are ever to bring me to the court room like you say and ask me to bring a god to the witness stand I  will have to admit
    I simply don't have one. I will definitely ask you to bring your god to the witness stand and try desperately to keep a straight face. Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create the atheist.

    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
    • Reply
    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 4/25/24

    Mike, Norwalk, additionally IQ is another unrealistic irrelevance.  IQ is a subjective rebellion in an truly objective world. Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create objectivity.

    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
    • Reply
    Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 4/25/24

    Mike, Norwalk, another addition of rationality. Everyone, at the point of healthy self-awareness is Socialist like everyone is really heterogenous.

    Mike, Norwalk
    • Reply
    Mike, Norwalk Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 4/26/24

    Sillik, believing socialism to be a moral or correct existence translates the tenets of religion into a religion itself. Because socialism can NOT follow a linear truth, those professing such religion must alter definitions continually to continue a lie (as do you). Your personal claim is to be the unique messiah of socialism - making you a god by definition (a theocratic leader; even high priest / god). Sillik, your statement: “If you are ever to bring me to the court room like you say and ask me to bring a god to the witness stand, I will have to admit I simply don't have one”; is a lie - by definition, you are there, in your full god status.

    Religion is: a sacrosanct object of conscience (an ethic(s), a moral(s), a value (system) or an orientation of correctness / enlightenment) believed sufficiently conventional as to enable an attributable action(s). Religion’s initiating elements of conscience, through fruition of action, encompasses self-obligated pursuits, imperative practices and devoted interests outside law of nature’s absolutes. When such enabling fundamentals are drawn upon or referenced as authority, an issue of correctness, power, reason or logic to exert specific actions (ordinances, rules, statutes, a mandated action, etc.), a formal religion is established. A ‘god’, ‘causation’ or other ‘relegated source’ of such enabling elements may or may not be instrumental (or even useful) in defining religion.

    Religion is: “real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to ⋯ our fellow men.” (Bouviers Law Dictionary) Webster's New World Dictionary - Fourth College Edition uses a slightly different vantage on Bouvier’s “fellow men” by stating, Religion is: “a) any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy [the Christian religion, the Buddhist religion, etc.] b) any system of beliefs, practices, ethical values, etc. resembling, suggestive of, or likened to such a system [humanism as a religion] ⋯ any object of conscientious regard and pursuit”. Buddhism and Humanism do not claim authority of correctness from an extra-corporeal domain; - they are religions with with no such gods (much like socialism)

    The concept of a god is but an indicating element, category, or tenant that may or may not be useful in revealing or identifying religion. For example; A concept of, or the word ‘God’ never developed in the Hebrew covenant society (there being only a sacred relationship between Father and child - ‘el’ being a powerful executor: i.e. a mayor, a governor, a demon, a person of strength such as Sampson, etc.) and was only adapted by forces and influences outside the covenant experience (such as by Egypt’s influence - an early attempt to communicate with captors; much like slaves with their socialist overlords). As such, Jesus, by carnal understandings and use, is a God to Christians while not being a god to other belief systems or religions, even though the Christ’s teachings are honored as good and His secular laws are recognized as a founding jurisprudence (gravity, science, physics, fiscal law, life, liberty and property / “the laws of nature and of nature’s God”).

    Because the Christian God is inter-dimensional and eternal (science proving there being multi-dimensions), your socialist court has no authority or ability to call on such entity’s presence. Such socialist court claims sufficient authority and ability to call all temporal entities to bear. In that court, would you as a socialist call your socialist god to the stand? Your childish attempt at legal procedure and/or logic holds no validity or sense in the real world. It is obvious by your rejection of science, truth and all things substantive that you are an empty vessel incapable of progressing beyond a baby’s delusions. Not understanding the terms of this quote (freedom, justice, education, etc.) you are inadequate in addressing such.

    @

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