States to which scrip was issued for agricultural and mechanical colleges, and amount. "In scrip means an issue of redeemable land scrip or special certificates, assignable, which might be located according to law to States which had no public lands within their limits from which their allowance could be satisfied.] Land grants and reservations for educational purposes to June 30, 1883. (See the Public Domain, p. 1250.) For public or common schools.. For agricultural and mechanical colleges.. For seminaries or universities, to June 30.. Add grants for university purposes to the Territories of Dakota, Mon tana, Arizona, Idaho, and Wyoming In all, a grand total to June 30, 1883, of........... Acres. 67, 893, 919 9,600,000 1, 165, 520 230, 400 78, 889, 839 The value at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre is, in round numbers, $99,000,000; but it may be safely estimated that these educational grant lands have realized to the States more than $250,000,000. The foregoing exhibit is not complete. Since the last of these tables was compiled provision has been made for agricultural colleges in the new States of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and Idaho upon the usual scale--90,000 acres to each State save to South Dakota, to which 120,000 acres has been given. They have also received, in lieu of the saline lands, swamp lands, and 500,000-acre grants for internal improvements, specific grants for normal schools, scientific schools, or schools for mines, and also for public buildings. The method of the Governinent has been as soon as, in running the lines of public surveys, the school sections in place 16 and 36 are fixed and determined, the appropriation thereof for the educational object is, under the law, complete, and lists are made out and patents thereof issued to the States. When sections 16 and 36 are found to be covered with prior adverse rights, such as legal occupancy, and settlement by individuals under settlement laws prior to survey of the lands, or deficient in area because of the fractional character of the townships, or from other causes, selections for indemnity are made. The acts of Congress quoted in Chapters VI and VII, and the tables here given, do not make a complete showing of what the National Government has done for education. Previous to June 30, 1882, there was patented to certain States under various acts of Congress 559,965 acres of saline lands. Previous to June 30, 1SS3, there was patented to the public-land States, in pursuance of law, 56,455,467 acres of swamp and overflowed lands.". In 1841 Congress passed what is known as the "State selection act," by which it granted to each State named, and to each new State that should thereafter be admitted into the Union, 500,000 acres of public lands for internal improvements, which included the quantity that was granted to such State before its admission and while under a Territorial government for such purpose. Previous to June 30, 1883, the selections made under this act amounted to 7,806,554 acres. By a long series of acts Congress also granted to the public-land States, except California, 2, 3, and 5 per cent on the net proceeds of the sales of public lands made therein. These allowances were originally made on the condition that the States should not tax lands sold by the Government for a term of years after they were sold. This was with a view of increasing the sales of wild lands. Previous to June 30, 1882, payments to the States on this account amounted to $7,333,069. There have also been many special grants for educational purposes that need not be here enumerated." 3 Still another source of contribution must be mentioned. By the year 1836 a considerable surplus over and above the wants of the Government had accumulated in the National Treasury, the disposal of which became a political question. Congress finally disposed of both question and surplus by sections 13 and 14 of an act to regulate the 1 Public Domain, pp. 218, 096. Ibid., pp. 222, 1248. Ibid., pp. 254, 752. 4 Ibid., p. 721. 5 See Donaldson: The Public Domain; and Blackmar: Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. deposits of public money, approved June 23, 1836. It was enacted that the money which remained in the Treasury on January 1, 1837, reserving the sum of $5,000,000, should be deposited with such of the several States, in proportion to their respective representation in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, as should by law authorize their treasurers, or other competent authorities, to receive the same on the terms specified; and the Secretary of the Treasury should deliver the same to such treasurers or other competent authorities, on receiving certificates of deposit therefor, duly signed, which should express the usual and legal obligations, and pledge the faith of the State for the safe-keeping and repayment of the money, and should pledge the faith of the States receiving the same to pay them and every part thereof, from time to time, whenever they should be required by the Secretary of the Treasury for the purpose of defraying any wants of the public Treasury, beyond the amount of $5,000,000 aforesaid. If any State should decline to receive its proportion of the surplus on the terms named, the same should be deposited with the other States agreeing to accept the same, in the same proportion. It was further enacted that the said deposits should be made with the States in the proportions named: one-quarter January 1, 1837; one-quarter April 1; one-quarter July 1, and one-quarter October 1, all in the same year. The surplus amounted on January 1, 1837, to $37,468,859.97, three-fourths of which sum was divided among the States according to the method prescribed in the act; the fourth installment was never paid, owing to the necessities of the Government growing out of the financial crisis of that year. The States receiving the deposits have never repaid them, and have never been called upon to do so. The lands and moneys described in the preceding paragraphs were granted to the States to be used for such purposes as they saw fit. Naturally, an example was soon set of bestowing the funds arising from these sources, in whole or in part, on education, and with the lapse of time this example has been more and more followed. Many of the States applied the money received in 1837, in whole or in part, temporarily or permanently, to schools and education. In this list are found Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont. The schools of some of these States still derive a revenue from this source. It is foreign to the present purpose to inquire into the disposition that the States have made of the other funds mentioned. It will be found, however, that these subjects are frequently referred to in the extracts made from State constitutions in Section X of this paper.2 1 Stat. L., Vol. V, p. 55. 2See E. G. Bourne: History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. An interesting account of what is known as the "Town Deposit Fund" will be found in the Report of the Connecticut Board of Education for 1890, pp. 144–147. AUTHORITIES.-The following may also be consulted with advantage: A. Ten Brooke: American State Universities and the University of Michigan. J. K. Patterson: National Endowment for Schools for Scientific and Technical Training, Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1874. VIII. THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. X-92 I. Memorial of the National Association of State and City School Superintendents to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, February 10, 1866.—II. An act to establish a department of education, March 2, 1867.III. Sections of the Revised Statutes defining the province of the Bureau of Education. At the annual meeting of the National Teachers' Association for 1864, held in Ogdensburg, N. Y., August 10-12, S. H. White, of Peoria, Ill., read a paper entitled "A national bureau of education." At the meeting of the same association held at Harrisburg, Pa., August 16-18, 1865, Prof. S. S. Greene, of Providence, R. I., delivered an address entitled "The educational duties of the hour," emphasizing the need of a system of national education." At the same meeting, A. J. Rickoff, of Cincinnati, read a paper entitled "A national bureau of education."3 About the same time Dr. Henry Barnard, who was prevented from attending the Harrisburg meeting by illness, matured a plan of a central agency and headquarters for conference, correspondence, discussion, and publication relating to schools and education. At this meeting the association adopted resolutions that commended to the General Government the organization of a bureau of education for the purpose of collecting and publishing educational statistics and of making suggestions for the advancement of popular education in the several States, and that authorized that a committee of five be appointed to carry the resolutions into effect, and that the president of the association be chairman of said committee. It was further resolved that a committee of three from each State represented in the association be appointed, whose duty it should be to circulate petitions among the people of their respective States praying Congress to establish a department of education. What immediate efforts these resolutions led to, if any, the compiler is not informed. At the annual meeting of the National Association of State and City School Superintendents, held in Washington, D. C., February 6-8, 1866, Dr. E. E. White, of Columbus, Ohio, again presented the subject. The immediate effect of this presentation and the accompanying discussion was the appointment of a committee to embody the substance of Dr. White's paper in a memorial to Congress, said committee consisting of E. E. White, State commissioner of common schools, Ohio; Newton Bateman, State superintendent of public instruction, Illinois, The American Journal of Education, Vol. XV, p. 180. 2 Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 229. 3Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 299. 4Ibid., Vol. XV, pp. 806, 810. and J. S. Adams, secretary of the State board of education, Vermont.1 The committee prepared the memorial before separating, and requested General Garfield, who was then serving his second term in Congress, to take charge of the measure in the House of Representatives. General Garfield consented to accept the commission, but requested Dr. White to draw up the bill, which he did. On February 14, having first obtained leave, General Garfield introduced the bill and memorial. The bill was twice read, the two documents were ordered printed, and the subject was referred to a select committee of seven: Garfield of Ohio, chairman; Boutwell of Massachusetts, Molton of Illinois, Patterson of New Jersey, Donnelly of Minnesota, Goodyear of New York, and Randall of Pennsylvania. On April 3 the committee reported a so-called substi tute, but the substitute was the original bill slightly amended, the principal change being the adoption of the name department instead of bureau. The subject was debated at considerable length. In its favor it was argued that the department, if established, would be of great service in collecting and publishing statistics and other information concerning education, and that it would be serviceable in promoting schools and education in the Southern States. It was replied that it was unnecessary and unconstitutional, and would prove expensive. The vote was taken June 8. Mr. Garfield had granted to other members of the house so much of the time allotted to the discussion that his own speech was cut short by the Speaker's hammer; however, in response to earnest requests, he wrote out his notes in full and gave the speech to the public. The vote stood 59 yeas to 61 nays, but was reconsidered June 19. Mr. Garfield said it was an interest that had no lobby to press its claims. "It is the voice of the children of the land," he said, "asking us to give them all the blessings of our civilization." The bill now passed, 80 yeas to 44 nays. Carried to the Senate, it was immediately referred to the Judiciary Committee. At the next session, January 30, 1867, it was reported back; February 27 it passed after brief discussion, and March 2 it received the President's approval. The change. wrought in the temper of the House between the 8th and 19th of June was mainly due to the persistent zeal with which General Garfield urged the measure in private. In later debates-for the department was no sooner created than attacks upon it began-one member said the passage of the bill by the House was due to Garfield's "persuasive eloquence," and another declared that it was carried by "dint of personal entreaty." In defending the department, Garfield called the proposition to abolish it " putting out the eyes of the Government." Dr. White's paper may be found in the American Journal of Education, Vol. XVI, p. 177. It is found in the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1867-68, p. 49; in the American Journal of Education, Vol. XVII, p. 49; and in President Garfield and Education, p. 183, prepared by the compiler of this chapter and published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. |