“But, however this may be, the fact remains that the whole country is directly interested in the education of every child that lives within its borders.”
Douglass argues that educating children is a national responsibility, not a benefit whose importance ends at state borders or with private donors. The statement supports public access to schooling as a matter of shared civic welfare.
Source details
Address to the People of the United States, at a Convention of Colored Men, Louisville, Kentucky, September 1883; “Education” section of Three Addresses (Washington: Gibson Bros., 1886), Project Gutenberg #67919. The printed introduction dates the address September 24. Douglass calls for federal support for universal education during Reconstruction’s aftermath; this is historical policy advocacy, not present-day legal advice.