# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1890_S42
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

42 Proceedings of the thirteenth convention

of the state, as against public nuisances, so also to proceed against such schools as may be found in conflict with public order and the laws of morality.

II.

We protest, however, against the Bennett Law, because it restricts our religious and personal freedom in an unnecessary and unjust manner. For

a. It gives the school board the right to determine arbitrarily that during the compulsory period a child may be sent only to a school of the city, town or district in which it has its residence, and takes from parents the right to send their children to a better and more suitable school outside the district.

b. It binds church schools and private schools to time regulations fixed by the school authorities, without these having to take the least account of local and church circumstances.

c. It prescribes certain subjects and a language of instruction for us, and is in general so worded that it gives the school authorities occasion to take to themselves rights that do not belong to them, whereas the state and state officials have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of church schools and private schools.

III.

We declare that, without regard to former party ties, we shall vote only for such candidates as pledge themselves to work for the repeal of the Bennett Law.

IV.

As patriotic citizens, as defenders of religious and personal liberty, as representatives of a truly reasonable and moral method of instruction, as friends of the English language and as opponents of every narrow-minded suppression of immigrant citizens and of the rightful use of their mother tongue, we therefore call upon all like-minded, freedom-loving citizens, without distinction of party or descent, to unite with us in the endeavor to obtain the repeal of the unnecessary, discord-sowing, unjust Bennett Law.

Our task will now be, on the basis of this platform, to influence the approaching election campaign also in such a way that, if possible, only such candidates be elected as legislators and officials of the state as are resolved to defend the cause of our parish schools and to bring about the repeal of the law hostile to us, whichever political party they may otherwise belong to."

Compare: Proceedings of the fortieth convention of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin and other states at Watertown, Wis., 19-25 June 1890, pp. 67-69.