"
Now for the parallel case. A member of a Congregational society is
employed to teach a school in a district occupied exclusively by
Friends--a case not uncommon. He is employed there, not as a religious
teacher, but for another specific and well-defined object. It is for the
purpose of teaching the children of that district _reading, writing,_
and _calculation_, and for such other purposes analogous to this as the
law providing for the establishment of district schools contemplated.
Now, when he is placed in such a situation, with such a trust confided
to him, and such duties to discharge, it is not right for him to make
use of the influence which this official station gives him over the
minds of the children committed to his care for the accomplishment of
_any other purposes whatever_ which the parents would disapprove. It
would not be considered right by men of the world to attempt to
accomplish any other purposes in such a case; and are the pure and holy
principles of piety to be extended by methods more exceptionable than
those by which political and party contests are managed?
There is a very great and obvious distinction between the general
influence which the teacher exerts as a member of the community and that
which he can employ in his school-room as teacher. He has unquestionably
a right to exert _upon the community, by such means as he shares in
common with every other citizen_, as much influence as he can command
for the dissemination of his own political, or religious, or scientific
opinions.
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