If this be a correct statement of the case, and I assume that it is, the _Union_ (and not the _States_, severally) is responsible for the ignorance of the black people of the South.

Slavery could not have existed and grown in the Union save by permission of all the States of the Union.

It is therefore obvious that the agency which created and fostered a great crime is obligated, not only by the laws of God but of man as well, to assume the responsibility of its creation and to remedy, as far as possible, the evil results of that crime.

The issue cannot be evaded.

The obligation rests upon the Union, not upon the several States, to assume the direction of methods by which the appalling illiteracy of the South is to be diminished.
2.