balance might remain of $30,000 appropriated to hold a State convention.1 In 1858 the sum of $100,000 a year was appropriated from the earnings of the Western and Atlantic Railroad for the benefit of schools, and it was provided that a sinking fund should be created to redeem certain bonds of the State, and that in lieu thereof 6 per cent. bonds should be issued which should form a permanent educational fund, the State pledging itself to pay the interest annually for the benefit of education. In accordance with the provisions of this law, bonds to the amount of $350,000 were issued in the years 1859 and 1860. It will be observed that this amount corresponds very nearly with the one-third of the surplus revenue set apart as an educational fund by the law of 1838, and it may be regarded as substantially the same fund through all its mutations.

In the absence of official reports on the finances of Georgia (which, until 1840, were bound up with the session laws of each year, but have since been discontinued), it is impossible to state, even approximately, the amount realized for the benefit of education in that State, from the income of the surplus revenue fund. According to the comptroller general's report for 1840, the amount appropriated for education under the act of 1838 to that time was $100,646.89. From this should be deducted the income of the academic and poor school funds, which together yielded $21,509.39 in 1839, according to the report of the State treasurer for that year, and about the same amount in 1840. This would leave $57,632.11 as the income of the surplus revenue for those two years; and by referring again to the report of the comptroller general for 1840, we find that $57,527.64 were actually received from the Central Bank on account of the educational fund in that period. We have no data by which to determine whether this annual income of about $28,763 a year was realized from 1841 to 1859 or not, but it is not unfair, perhaps, to assume that it was; if so, we have a total amount of about $604,040 received from the income of the surplus revenue fund from 1839 to 1859 inclusive, to which should be added the interest at 6 per cent. on $150,000 in bonds, issued in November, 1859, which appears to have been paid when due, November 15, 1860, making $613,040.

No interest has been paid on the $350,000 in State bonds belonging to the educational fund since 1860.

ILLINOIS.

Of the $477,919.14 surplus revenue fund received by Illinois, the sum of $335,592.32 was at once added to the common school fund, on which 6 per cent. interest is paid by the State. The amount of interest realized from January 29, 1837, when the first amount ($16,979.56) devoted

9 CI

1 Session Laws, 1851-'52, p. 1, seq.

2 Session Laws, 1858, pp. 49-51.

3 Report of the State School Commissioner, 1871, p. 13.

151

to education was received, to November 30, 1877, was $818,794. The greater part of this has been used for the payment of teachers, but a portion is comprised in the county school fund, which amounted to $348,285.75 in 1876.

INDIANA.

Indiana received as her share of the surplus revenue fund $860,254.44, of which sum she set apart $573,502.96 for public school purposes. Of this sum $567,126.16 were at once distributed among the counties, which were authorized to loan the same, on real estate security, at 7 per cent. interest. Subsequently, the remainder, $6,376.80, was also distributed. In 1873 the rate of interest on loans from this fund was advanced to 8 per cent. This applied to all loans made after March 8 of that year; and in his report, dated November 1, 1874, the State superintendent estimated that two-thirds of the whole amount was at that time bearing interest at the rate of 8 per cent. a year. The data accessible do not admit of an absolutely correct calculation, but reckoning interest on $567,126.16 from June 30, 1837, to June 30, 1875, at 7 per cent., and on $573,502.96 from June 30, 1875, to June 30, 1877, at 8 per cent., we have the sum of $1,640,014.88 as representing the aid received for public schools in Indiana from the income of the surplus revenue fund. This is rather below than above the real amount. The income of that portion of the surplus revenue fund set apart for educational purposes in Indiana cannot be used for any other purpose without a change in the State constitution, and it may therefore be regarded as permanent.

KENTUCKY.

In the distribution of the surplus revenue fund Kentucky received $1,433,757.39, and, February 23, 1837, passed an act setting apart $1,000,000 thereof for a school fund; but as three only of the four instalments provided for by the act of Congress of June 23, 1836, were paid to the States, the Kentucky legislature modified the law above mentioned the following year, reducing the grant for a school fund to $850,000, on which the State guaranteed 5 per cent. interest. No general system of public schools was established for several years, and the interest as it accumulated was invested from time to time in State bonds bearing 6 per cent. interest, except $65,847.36 paid in 1839 for 735 shares of stock representing a par value of $73,500, in the Bank of Kentucky, the (estimated) dividends on which were $5,880 a year.

According to the report of the superintendent of public instruction for 1842, the public school fund at that date was constituted as follows: State bonds bearing 5 per cent. interest

State bonds bearing 6 per cent. interest
Bank stock....

Total

$850,000

67,500

73,500

991, 000

Interest continued to accumulate on the bonds until 1848, when,

through the strenuous efforts of Hon. Robert J. Breckinridge, who became superintendent of public instruction in 1847, the arrearages were funded in a 5 per cent. State bond for $308,268.42, dated December 20, 1848. The expenses of the school system for 1849 amounted to only $16,995.69, and the balance due the school fund on account of interest for 1848, together with the income for 1849, amounting to $101,001.49, was funded in 1850 at 5 per cent. The amount of the school fund (all derived from the surplus revenue) December 31, 1850, was $1,400,270.01; the income from interest on State bonds was $67,013.50, and from dividends on bank stock (estimated) $6,000, making a total of $73,013.50 a year. The total expense of the school system for three years (1847 to 1849) was $88,958.04, of which $85,212.97 were paid for the support of the schools, and but $3,745.07 for all the expenses of administration, including salaries, travelling expenses, printing, postage, &c. The income since 1850 has amounted to about $73,000 a year, and the total income from 1851 to 1877 was about $1,241,000.

LOUISIANA.

Louisiana received $637,225.51 as her quota of the surplus revenue fund. What part of it was set apart for the support of schools or whether any thereof was at first distributed in any proportion for this purpose I have not had time to ascertain. The first mention of the fund that I have discovered is in the school law of 1853, section 3 of which provides that the income of the United States trust fund shall be considered a part of the income of the current school fund. On this latter fund the State seems to have paid interest at the rate of 6 per cent. for the support of schools. In 1853 and in the four years following this interest amounted to $28,795.14 annually. The same amount was probably expended in 1857, in 1858, and in 1859.

I have not investigated whether the school fund of Louisiana was or was not expended for other purposes during the years 1861 to 1865; if so expended, the State either must have replaced it for its original uses or guaranteed the old income to the schools, because the school laws of 1867 mention the "free school fund" once more and state that the annual income therefrom was $28,795.14, as before.

I am not satisfied with this meagre account of the surplus revenues loaned to Louisiana, but must plead want of time for this lack of knowledge.

MAINE.

In the distribution of the surplus revenue fund Maine received $955,838.25, and divided it, except $6,000, among the several cities, towns, and plantations of the State. A law enacted March 8, 1837, provided that "any city, town, or organized plantation is hereby authorized to appropriate its portion of the surplus revenue or any part thereof for the same purposes that they have a right to [appropriate] any money in the treasury from taxation; also to loan the same in such manner as they deem expedient on receiving safe and ample security therefor."

A number of the towns bestowed the surplus revenue fund or its income on public schools, but as no returns of the yearly distribution of this fund are required of the towns it is impossible to ascertain the total amount used for education. Partial returns for the years 1837 to 1839 show that $659,598 were thus expended.

At the time the surplus revenue was divided among the towns of Maine, the boundary between that State and New Brunswick was in dispute, and an attempt to take a census of the inhabitants of the "Madawaska to wnships," comprising the northeastern portion of the State and of the present county of Aroostook, was defeated by the arrest by the New Brunswick authorities of the agent appointed to make the enumeration. The State treasurer, estimating the population of those townships (which were then unorganized), held back their proportion ($6,000) in the distribution. It remained in the State treasury until 1861, when $5,000 of it were set apart as a separate school fund, the yearly income of which, at 6 per cent., is allotted to those towns for the support of schools. The amount thus realized from the enactment of the law to and including the year 1877 is about $5,100.

MARYLAND.

Maryland received $955,838.25 in the distribution of the surplus revenue, and, after deducting $274,451 to pay interest on the public debt of the State, enacted that the annual interest, at 5 per cent. a year on the remainder ($681,387.25), should be devoted to "the support and encouragement of common school education." In 1840 it was provided that $1,000 of this income (the whole amount of which is $34,069.36 a year) should be devoted to the education of indigent blind persons.

It appears, therefore, that Maryland had realized from the income of her share of the surplus revenue, from June 30, 1837, to June 30, 1877, about $1,362,774.40 for the benefit of public education.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Massachusetts' received as her proportion of this fund the sum of 1 Governor Edward Everett, in his address to the Massachusetts Legislature, January 12, 1837, called attention to the surplus revenue fund accruing to Massachusetts. The State, by an act dated April 4, 1836, had subscribed $1,000,000 to the Western Railroad. Governor Everett said: "Among the modes of disposing of the Commonwealth's share of the surplus, it will deserve consideration whether a portion of it would not be wisely applied to redeem the faith of the State pledged by this subscription.

"There are other enterprises of improvement and public objects of high interest which will doubtless receive due consideration; a discussion of which, on the present occasion, might seem uncalled for. I will only ask permission to observe that I am sure the highest of them all will not be forgotten-the intellectual improvement of the people. Massachusetts owes what she is mainly to the provision made by our fathers, from the earliest days and out of slender means, for the education of her youth. The constitution has devoted one whole chapter to this subject, and has made it the ex

$1,338,173.58, two-thirds of which (except $2,500) were distributed among the towns, which were authorized to "apply the money so deposited with them, or the interest upon the same, to those public objects of expenditure for which they may now lawfully raise and appropriate money, and to no other purpose."

1

Many of the towns bestowed the surplus revenue fund or its income on the public schools, but, the records of town grants being inaccessible, it is impossible to show the entire amount expended in that way. A careful examination of the annual reports of the State board of education from 1838 to 1877 shows that the total amount in that period was about $280,440; but this is doubtless considerably under the real sum.

The $2,500 mentioned as reserved from the distribution to towns was constituted an Indian school fund, and the income at 6 per cent. has been regularly expended for the support of Indian schools. It has amounted altogether to $6,000.

The cause of public education in Massachusetts has, therefore, been aided pecuniarily to the amount of at least $286,440 from the interest of a portion of this grant by the General Government.

MISSOURI.

The share of Missouri in the distribution of the surplus revenue fund was $382,335.30, and the whole amount was set apart February 6, 1837, to constitute, with the proceeds of the saline grants, a permanent school fund.2

The fund was invested in stock of the Bank of Missouri, and for many years the income was variable, averaging for the first eleven years about 5 per cent. a year. The fund is now invested in State bonds bearing 6 per cent. interest.

Allowing interest at an average rate of 51 per cent. from June 30, 1837, to June 30, 1872, and at 6 per cent. from June 30, 1872, to June 30, 1877, we find that $842,193.48 have been realized by Missouri from her share of the surplus revenue fund for the benefit of public schools. As the surplus revenue fund of Missouri is made a part of the public school fund by constitutional provisions, it is unlikely to be diverted to any other object.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

This State received $669,086.79 in the distribution of the surplus revenue. The money, except that inuring to communities not then incorporated into towns, was divided among the several towns as in Maine and Massachusetts, and with the same privilege of devoting the whole press duty of all legislatures to foster the colleges and schools. I own I can imagine no worthier use which can be made of a portion of this fund than that of rendering education better, cheaper, and, consequently, more accessible to the mass of the community."

Massachusetts Session Laws, 1837, chap. 85. 2 Missouri Session Laws, 1837, p. 137.