DISTRIBUTION OF THE SURPLUS REVENUE.

In 1836 there was a large sum in the Treasury of the United States, chiefly derived from the sales of public lands, which was not needed for the current expenses of the General Government, and a law was approved on June 23 which provided for a distribution of the surplus among the twenty-five States of the Union on the basis of their respective representation in Congress. Afterward, the benefit of the act was extended to Michigan, which had just been admitted into the Union. This fund, amounting to $28,101,644.91, has since been held by the several States admitted into the Union prior to 1837, subject to call by the General Government. Several of them have devoted a part or the whole of the income realized from this fund to public education.

ALABAMA.

Of the fund referred to, Alabama received $669,086.79, which sum was deposited in the State Bank and its branches. By the first section of an act approved February 3, 1840, the bank and its branches were required to pay yearly $200,000 "for the purpose of aiding in the establishment of schools in the several townships of this State;" by the fifth section it was provided that no town should receive its proportion of this fund until it could be shown that a sum equal to one-third of the amount applied for had been raised by subscription; and the tenth section provided that "the annual interest of the surplus revenue deposited with this State shall be set apart to assist in the appropriation made by this act." This law was repealed January 21, 1843.

A law "to establish and maintain a system of free public schools in Alabama" was enacted February 15, 1854, the preamble to which reads as follows:

That to carry into effect that provision of our State constitution which wisely declares that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged in this State;" to realize the objects of the General Government in making grants and appropriations for the establishment of schools in each township; and to extend upon equal terms, to all the children of our State, the inestimable blessings of liberal instruction, the following system of free public schools is hereby established in this State and shall have the full force of law after the passage of this act.

The law was very elaborate. The first section of Article 1 contains provisions to create an educational fund, the first component of which was to consist of "the annual interest, at 8 per cent., on that portion of the surplus revenue of the United States deposited with this State under the act of Congress of the 23d of June, 1836."

This school law was amended in 1856 and again in 1860, but the provision respecting the interest on the surplus revenue fund was not disturbed.

The first application of the income of the surplus revenue fund for the support of schools (for 1855) was made December 1, 1854; the amount was $53,526.94. The total income of Alabama for educational purposes in that year was $237,515.39. Of this sum, $74,687.60 represented the

interest at 6 per cent. on $1,244,793.36, received up to that time from the sales of sixteenth section lands granted by the General Government for the support of schools; and $7,767.30, the interest at 8 per cent. on a fund of $97,091.21 derived from the sales of lands granted by the General Government in lieu of sixteenth sections which had been found to be valueless. That is to say, Alabama was able to pay $135,981.84. considerably more than one-half of her educational expenses in that year, from the income of a fund, granted directly and indirectly by the United States, which amounted to $1,310,971.37.

No reports of the school fund of Alabama from 1856 to 1864 have been accessible. The State superintendent of education in his report for 1865 remarks that no annual report had been issued from that office since October, 1859, "yet our system of public schools was kept up till the appointment of the provisional governor in July, 1865, although amidst the embarrassments incident to a state of fierce warfare.”

At 8 per cent. interest the surplus revenue fund would have yielded $374,688.58 in the seven years from December 1, 1854, to December 1, 1860, and it may be inferred that that sum, as well as the income from the land funds in the same period, was distributed for the support of public schools according to law.

In his report for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1869, the auditor of Alabama presents the following statement of the educational funds of the State:

Amount December 1, 1860:

Sixteenth section fund'...

Valueless sixteenth section fund

University fund...............

Total

Amount paid in from December 1, 1860, to December 1, 1867....

$1,399, 343 83 97,091 21 300, 000 00

1,796, 435 04 310,794 12

2, 107, 229 16 209 75

2, 107, 438 91

The entire principal of these several funds, and of the surplus revenue fund, was used by the State in the war of the rebellion and is returned by the auditor in this report as "educational fund indebtedness." The close of the war found Alabama with crippled resources and an empty treasury. From a statement by the superintendent of public in

1 There appears to be an error of $100,000 in the printed figures of the auditor's report, which read $1,499,343.83. In the same report he states the sixteenth section fund at $1,710,317.70, which, diminished by $311,003.87, the amount received between December 1, 1830, and September 30, 1833, would leave $1,399,343.83 (instead of $1,499,343.83) as the capital of the fund December 1, 1830. This inference is strengthened by the fact that the auditor gives $2,107,438.91 as the aggregate of the several educational funds at the date of his report, whereas the figures as printed foot up $2,207, 438.91.

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struction, we learn that the State made appropriations to pay the interest on the hypothetical school funds from 1866 to that time. There is some uncertainty respecting the years 1866 and 1867; all that is definitely known being that in 1868 the legislature passed an act appropriating $200,000 to pay the interest due the school fund prior to October 1 of that year. The amounts received were as follows:

By an act of the general assembly of Alabama the interest on the several educational funds has been reduced from 8 to 4 per cent. a year, so that the income from the surplus revenue fund for 1876 was but $26,763.47. Adding the several amounts deduced for the period from the time the first apportionment was made in 1855 to 1876 inclusive (omitting the years 1861 to 1865), we have the sum of $767,219.47 derived from the income of the surplus revenue fund by the State of Alabama for the benefit of education. Although this statement might be modified somewhat if all official documents relating to the subject were accessible, it is believed that the amount would be increased rather than diminished.

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CONNECTICUT.

Connecticut received as her distributive share of the surplus revenue fund $764,670.60. A law was passed by the legislature of that State

Annual report of John M. McKleroy, superintendent of public instruction, Alabama, for the year ending September 30, 1875, p. 65.

In Connecticut in 1636, the legislature, deeming the chartered rights of the colony to be in danger, granted to the towns of Hartford and Windsor "those lands on the north of Woodbury and Mattatuck, and on the west of Farmington and Simsbury, to the Massachusetts line north, to run west to Housatonic or Stratford River; provided it be not, or part of it, formerly granted to any particular person to make a plantation or village," in order to "preserve them from the grasp of Sir William Andros." The object of the grant, as stated by Trumbull in his History of Connecticut, was that these towns should hold the lands for the governor and company (of the colony); accordingly, after the danger was passed the governor and company claimed them again. The towns refused to give them up, and after a long and bitter controversy a compromise was made in 1726, and the lands, comprising fourteen townships, were equally divided between the government of the colony and the two towns to which they were granted in 1686, each receiving seven townships. In May, 1733, a legislative committee appointed to view the lands which had reverted to the colony recommended that there be granted "all the moneys which shall arise from the sale of

December 29, 1836, which provided that this fund should be divided among the several towns on the basis of population; that one-half the income received therefrom should be devoted to the support of public schools; and that one-half might be used by the towns for general purposes, though a majority of the voters might also devote the whole or any portion of the last half to the support of schools.

This law was amended in 1855, and since that time the towns have been required to devote the entire income of the surplus revenue fund to the support of public schools.

Many of the towns appear to have availed themselves of the provision of the law of 1836, which authorized them to appropriate for the benefit of public schools, in addition to the one-half of the income set apart for that purpose, such a proportion of the remainder as a majority of the voters might determine. Frequent reference is made, in the reports on education from 1838 to 1846, to the amount of the income used for the benefit of schools, but the specific amount is not definitely stated. Acthe seven townships to the towns in this colony which are now settled, to be divided to them in proportion to the list of polls and ratable estate in the year last past, to be secured and improved forever to the use of the schools kept in the several towns according to law, and that one of the fifty-three shares in each township be sequestered for the use of the school or schools in such town forever." In October, 1737, a committee to sell the lands was appointed in each county. As most of the treasurer's records prior to 1769 have disappeared, it is difficult if not impossible to ascertain how much was realized from the sales. It is known that one township, Norfolk, sold for £6824 108., and another, Kent, for £1225 198. The moneys received and distributed form a part of the local funds of the several towns. 'In the revision of the statutes of Connecticut published in 1750, the fifth section of the "Act for appointing, encouraging, and supporting schools" provided that the local school funds created out of the avails of the sale of the seven western town-ships, according to the act of 1733, and distributed among the several towns and societies, are to remain a perpetual fund for the support of schools, and for any application of the interest to other purposes the principal was to be paid back into the treasury of the colony, and the town was to lose the benefit thereof afterwards.-(Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools in Connecticut, 1853, pp. 49-52.)

There is no means of ascertaining the amount of pecuniary benefit the schools have derived from the income of this permanent productive fund during nearly a century and a half.

When several of the States ceded the Northwest Territory to the General Government, Connecticut reserved 3,300,000 acres, and Virginia 3,700,000 acres, within the present limits of Ohio. Connecticut granted 500,000 acres of her reservation to citizens of that State whose property had been burned by the British in the revolutionary war, and sold the remainder for $1,200,000. Before this sale several efforts were made to enact that the proceeds should be devoted to the support of the ecclesiastical establishment, and in 1793 such a law was passed, the benefits of which were to be shared alike by all denominations. This law created great dissatisfaction and was repealed the following year, and in 1795 the act was passed devoting the entire proceeds to the creation of a common school fund. This fund was loaned at 6 per cent. per annum until 1872, when the rate of interest was increased to 7 per cent. The first dividend to the schools was made in March, 1799; the total amount of dividends from that time to December 31, 1876, was $7,316,083.91; and the capital of the fund was reported in the latter year to be $2,011,226.54, nearly double the original amount.

cording to the reports of the secretary of the board, and later of the State superintendent, it was about $33,000 a year. In his report dated May 7, 1839, Secretary Barnard remarked:

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A second and considerable resource to meet the school expense is half the income of the "Town Deposite Fund,” # and such portion of the remainder as the towns may appropriate to common schools. As far as heard from, about one-half of the remainder is devoted to this object, making an aggregate income of over $33,000. The school revenue from this source for the year 1846 was reported at $33,441.66.

The total amount of surplus revenue deposited with the several towns was $763,661.83, the income of which is now, according to the report of the secretary of the State board of education for 1876, about $46,000 a year.

From a careful examination of the State reports on education and other documents, it appears that $1,474,790.64 had been realized from the income of this fund for the benefit of public education in Connecticut between 1837 and December 31, 1876, a sum nearly twice as great as the original deposit.

DELAWARE.

In the distribution of the surplus revenue fund Delaware received $286,751.49. In 1837 a part of this money was invested in bank stock, a part loaned to railroad companies, and $5,000 loaned to Sussex County, the two loans being at 6 per cent. A law passed February 22, 1837, provided that the income of these investments should be equally divided among the three counties of the State; the share of New Castle County to be paid to the trustee of the school fund for the support of public schools; the share of Kent County to be devoted to public schools or to such other purposes as the levy court and court of appeals of said county might determine, and one-third of the share of Sussex County to be used for public schools and two-thirds for the support of paupers. By a subsequent law (February 12, 1845), the entire income of the share belonging to Sussex County was to be used for education.

About this time the subject of public education was receiving the earnest attention of patriotic and thoughtful men in Delaware,' as well

In this connection the following extract from the message of Governor Comeygs to the legislature, January 5, 1841, will be of interest. Referring to the subject of education, he said: "Without noticing the other arguments which might be adduced against such a system [i. e., a system of "pauper" schools, entirely supported by public funds], I will remark that, in my opinion, no plan can be devised so well suited to this country as one supported partly by a State fund and partly by the aid of the people. The privileges of instruction should be alike open to all, and every white child in the community, let his condition be what it may, should be permitted to partake of the same common benefit, enjoy the same advantages, and aspire to the same distinction. The mental culture of the youth, like every other matter of public utility, should properly be the business of the State, and not a matter of individual concernment; and in a free republic it should be regarded as an internal improvement, without which all others are comparatively unimportant."