Show = = = = = = = = ff0 SCHOOL FUNDS I FUNDS1 1 hrvV VJ s A Glanca It the Rlsa ol Free GlanceJat 7 Schools SALT tAKE CITY Maj 51880 Editors JTtraldi Oa resuming my pen relating tJ the reports of tli3 clerks our county courts and the repoit of the territorial terri-torial superintendent schools I call attention to my closing remarks in my letter of the 14tb of April I tben said after noticing the amount of meney expended by the people of the territory in educational matters that this leads me to reler to a few historical event which han influenced the system of education in the states and which has given I I tUueti the acts of Congress on this subject also 10 the acts of Congress and added these will appear in roy next nextWben the colonies thirteen in number were contending for their independence and resisting by force of arms the claims of England under George Ilf each colony except Maryland had unoccupied hIld unimproved un-improved lands to which they could resort for raising funds for any purpose pur-pose to which tbey might wish to apply them This is not our condition condi-tion We have no public laud Tne United States owns toe land The public land then owned by the colonies if they succeeded in gaming their independence would belong to the body politic To taka the funds arising from its sale and apply it for the general good education being apart a-part was only taking of the common und for the common good It was not taxing by forco of law onu person per-son to educate another persons children To sell this land and layout lay-out the fund arising from the eale or interest and annually apply the interest in-terest or to lease the land for an annual rent and aoply the rent annually to educational purposes wai cnly to take the common fund owned equally by each person born or to bo born for the common good It was only asserting in the law what was in the public mind that education educa-tion was good and ot common intel in-tel eat that all were entitled to have a common share in itt benefits Now I am not able from my own norary to state mmuiejy now many of the states on gaining their independence inde-pendence thus appropriated the funds arising from the eae of thia land but some did appropriate a part of euch funds I will here add thAt a section of country forty miles square and this is only a small part ot a state would contain 1600 square mileswhich makes the number of 1 OJ4000 acres Thisat only 2 per acre would raise the little sum of 2018 000 Tbia sumat an annual intereetcf only 6 per cent will yio d a little more than 122000 per annum a sum nearly double our ad valorem tax The difference between them and us is this they have a common source from which to raise common funds we have no such common source therefore we because we mustresort to direct taxation States having large quuutitif of pub lio lands won1donly have to pply n small part of their funds ariding from the sale thereof to educational mt tars they not feeling it but we not having any such common source do feel it At that time there was a large extent of unimproved country northwest and southwest of the Rivar Ohio which in due time was ceded tot to-t c United States fur the common good In 1787 Congress passed an ordinance ordi-nance for the government ot that part of this country which lies north of the liner Ohio in the third article of which it is stated that religion morality and knowledge being necessary neces-sary to a good government and tho happiness of mankind schools and the means cf education shall forever be encouraged This shows the sense of Congrees on the subject of schools and the means of education and explains why that body subsequently legislated in favor of the means of education But there were other means employed to promote pro-mote intellectual pursuits and at a much earlier date In 1618 King James I authorized the members of the Church of England to assist the members of that church to erect churches and schools in Virginia plantations for the education of the children of the Indians and of the colonist and ECOn alter 10000 acres of land was bet apart for the support of the college and 100 colonists were sent from England to cultivate these lande In 1619 the governor was in btructed by the company to see that each town borough and hamlet prc cured by just means a certain number num-ber of their children to be brought up in the first elements of literature and that the most tonardly among them should be tent to tho college they intended to erect Other means were then employed to effect that un deiUking These were called the college and free schools These schools in tome sense were free yet then as now they cost the lime the income of Und nnd the money of the more wealthy part of the inhabitants There was established at Cambridge Massachusetts near Boston a school and the richer inhabitants of Boston in 1636 subscribed toward the maintenance main-tenance of a freeBcboolmajler This so diflused the elements of an education educa-tion and met with such favor that the inhabitants bound EOme home or land for a yearly allowance forever and many benevolently disposed bit legacies in their wills and tne towns made allowances out of tho common stock or set apart a portion of land to be improved forever for the main tainance of a free school In the State of New York the Dutch West India Company bound itself to maintain good and fit preachers schoolmasters and comforters com-forters of the sick which evidently meant preachers of the established church of Holland by which the training of Christian youth was to be provided for IIn the house by the parents 1IIn the schools by the schoolteachers school-teachers IHIn the churches by minister elders and catechists especially op pointed for the purpose We further find that the outline and most of the essential features of the system of common schools now in operation in the New England states l and in the elates which have since adopted the same policy will be found in the practice of tho first settlers of the several l towns which composed the original colonies of Massachusetts Connecticut and Nen Haven So far as religion was concerned con-cerned with these coloniU tlifit faith was that the Bible waj the only I authoritative expression of the divine will and that every man was able o judge for himself in its interpretation This made schools a necessity to bring all persons to a knowledge of the scriptures It made it necessary to adopt a civil government by which their officers were elected by the inhabitants in-habitants who would take an oath ol allegiance to that government It made it necessary for their leading men to be educated ti ecable them to command public confidence and add fresh knowledge to the stock of knowledge they then possessed In short knowledge was a part of their religion Faith wn9 good but knowledge knowl-edge and intellectual acquirement were essential to its exacisp These small as they now seem to to gave tone and eventually stability to the government yet it took a long time The opposition to the diffusion of knowledge in Europe was su strong that schools progressed slowly For nearly 150 years the major portion of the people of tho thirteen colonies remained uneducated only in common laborious exercises But as before said whrn the colonies obtained ob-tained their independence there were even more resources ready to be called out The meant other than direct taxation for the support of schools was at their command Uith us it is and over bM been diflsrcnt No common souice no mean but tuition fees and direct taxation to educate our c Jll hon not a single will giving us a legacy tj aid luedj caliona pursuits not a foot of l > uid as yet which we by law apply for that purpose not a single donation except ex-cept temporary expedients that hag come to my knowledge which by law can apply to this purpose All these to us are blank To us it is educate ycur own children yourselves or resort ti direct taxation What shall we what ought we to do The acts of Congress are numerous where lands have been granted and other means devoted to aid in edu eating the youth I will notice only a few OIIIO The act of 1803 2 Statutes at Largo 25 granted to the Slate of Ohio one thirtysixth part of the land of that state being aa I hive good reason to believe net less than 600 000 acres By tho same act 3 percent per-cent on the sales of other lands after deducting expenses was also granted to aid in making roads in that state These unitedly were about one eighteenth of the land of the United States in that state Before this data other land equal to about two townships town-ships seventytwo square miles bad I been granted for higher schools MICHIGAN The act of June 23d 1S36 5th i Statutes at Large 59 the same proportions i pro-portions of land m Michigan was granted for the same purpose two townships equal to seventytwo square miles having before been granted for a university ILLINOIS By the act of April 16tb 1818 3 Statutes at Large 430 a like proportion i I propor-tion of the land of the Uutsd States in that elite was granted for the same purpose two townships equal to eeventytwo square miles having before been granted for a seminary of learning ALABAMA iaBy the aat of April 201818 8 Statutes at Large 467 onethirtysixth part of the land of the Uuitcd States in t3e dale of Alabama WAS appropriated appro-priated 10 educational purposes and i one township for the support cf a I seminary of learning and by the act of March 2 1879 id 491 another 1 township was crauted to the use of a I seminary and 5 per cent on the sale of lands to the use of roads canals and improvement of the navigations of the rivtrti ARKANSAS By the act of March 2 1827 i Statutes at Large 235 two townships cf 1 land equal to seventy Lwo square milts was granted to that state for the use of a seminary of learning and by Jhe act of June 23J 1836 5th Stables at Large 58 one thirtysixth part of the land of the United States in that state was granted for the use of schools and 5 per cent ot the money arising from sales of land in that hints after deducting the expenses ex-penses of sulc was reserved for making mak-ing l roads canals within that elate TENNESSEE The elate of Tennessee was erected out ot that portion of country ceded to the United States by North Carolina Caro-lina b by which cession there were certain lands reserved for the use of the future state To carry tho grant into execution by Tennessee and by Congress un act was passed settling the boundaries of land l owned by Congress and by that state Tuia act is found in the Statutes at Lfge vol 2 page 381 by it the State of Tennetsec was to appropriate 100000 acres of land to the use of two colleges ouo in east und one in west Tennessee and 100000 cores for the use of academies one in each county and the state was to appropriate appro-priate 620 acres in each six miles square for tbe use of school in that state This you ace is one thirty sixth part of the land and 200000 acres in excess of that amount reds act was passed April 18 1806 You see Mr Editjr I have nor selected from six stales three nortn and three south of the River Ohio These show tho general not the special proceedings of Congress in relation to schools in the states Subsequently Congress adopted a regulation by which when tho public lands were eurveyed by the United States in a territory sections 16 and 36 in each towsbip equal to one eighteenth of the land should be reserved re-served for the me of schools Our organic law section 15 is an instance with which however we cannot avail ourselves until we became a state stateNor is tlm all From the time independence in-dependence wail gained until about 1830 a period of r little less than fifty year the United States was in debt on account of the revolutionary war and the Indian wars and the war of 1812 which necessarily took all the money they could justly command com-mand About this year 1830 these debts were paid and a surplus fund soon accumulated in the United States treasury This fund amounted to about 40000000 An act of Congress passed authorizing this fund with the exception of 5000 000 to be deposited with thp stales to be returned under certain conditions condi-tions See Statutes at Large vol 5 page 55 This deposit was to be in proportion to their respective representation repre-sentation in Congress This fund would yield A handsome annual interest to fotb elate ranging rang-ing from 60000 to 120000 This fund some uf thek states perhaps SIIr iSo tot understand under-stand the minulia was so invested as to use tile interest annually cr the benefit of schoi li By an act of Congre of September I Septem-ber 4th 1841 see Statutes at Large vol 5 p 453155 10 per cent on the sale of bonds in designated states was to be reserved for the use of the stales and 500000 ares of land for internal improvements This land grant wartlgu fitended to new states Bj an net of Congress of September 28ib 1850 see 9th vol Statutes at Large p 519 swamp lands were granted to lbs ttitea in which such laud were situated r Now Mr Editor I Iwe noted Eorns of the means which have been made available for educational pur roses in the states which to us are denied because we are not yet a state Leaving us ai before laid instead of resorting to public property to secnr a fund for educational purposes to resort to tuitional fees and direct taxation tax-ation Had we these opportunities we should not hear anything more about taxing one man to educate Ito other mans children Still they clearly BIOW that the people of the United Stales look upon eJucstion as of a public nature and of gntt importance im-portance Yours truly Z SNOW |