and on their report and recommendation, on the 14th day of November, 1865, ordered the Quartermaster General to sell the same at auction, which he afterwards did. This property was old and had been more or less used.

On the 5th day of December, 1865, the Quartermaster General had the following new property in his hands belonging to the State, to wit:

Thirty-seven hundred wool blankets, 2500 rubber blankets, 1200 rubber ponchos, 7776 canteens, 7776 haversacks, 1118 table knives, 1156 table forks, 757 table spoons, 636 tin plates, 709 tin cups, 175 candle-sticks, 112 pepper-boxes, which he recommended to have sold, for the reason, that it was almost impossible to preserve the most of it from injury, if not destruction, through a succession of summers, that it would be useless till wanted for the militia when called into active service, and that when, if ever, such an event should happen, similar property could probably be purchased in market for less than this would now sell for.

On this application, a board of survey was appointed, composed of C. C. Wilson, Colonel 4th Regiment Vt. State Militia, W. H. Ballou, Captain 4th Regiment Vt. State Militia, C. C. Putnam, Jr., Captain 4th Regiment Vt. State Militia, who, on examining said property, recommended its sale. Their report was confirmed, and the Quartermaster General authorized to sell the same, at such time or times as he saw fit, with directions to stop or suspend the sales when, in his opinion, it was not selling at remunerative prices. Under these orders he sold property to the amount of $6,235 64, when, finding that the United States were selling like property, in very large quantities, all over the country, thereby depressing prices, he suspended further sales; but said order is still in force, and the residue of that property will be sold under it, during the present fall and coming winter, unless the Legislature direct otherwise.

STATE AID.

Hon. John Howe, Jr., agent for the distribution of State aid to soldiers' families, has made his final report, showing that, from September 1, 1865, to April 15, 1866, he disbursed, under the acts of April 26, 1861, and November 14, 1862, the sum, in all, of $582 18. The agent states that there is now no outstanding claim under either of those acts. I herewith transmit said report.

VOLUNTEER TROOPS.

Since the last session of the Legislature, the four companies of the 9th Regiment and the entire 7th Regiment of Vermont Volunteers have been mustered out of service. Those of the 9th were mustered out in the state of Virginia, December 1, 1865, and the 7th Regiment at Brownsville, Texas, March 14, 1866. From these points they returned to Vermont, where they were paid and discharged. Thus all the obligations of Vermont, in connection with the active prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union, have been performed, and all the organizations sent from the State, and which have contributed so largely to its reputation and honor, and to the final success of the national arms, have ceased to exist as such, and the officers and men composing them have laid aside their arms, assumed the garb of the citizen, and have quietly mingled with the mass of the community. All honor to these noble men that yet live; all respect, undying respect, to the, memories of the fallen, who so cheerfully gave their own lives that their country might continue to live!

The original numbers that composed the different Vermont organizations for the war, were :

Total of loss (brought from preceding page),
Mustered out of service, in all,

13,728

15,239

Aggregate,

28,967

Veterans re-enlisted,

1,961

Enlisted in the U. S. Navy, Army and Marine Corps, 1,339 Drafted men, paid commutation,

1,971

Total number of men furnished by this State, 34,238

NORMAL AND COMMON SCHOOLS.

For many years there has been an increasing strength of public sentiment in this State favorable to the adoption of some adequate means of supplying a more specific course of instruction for the teachers of our common schools. This sentiment has increased very rapidly, and has become more and more defined within the past few years, until the great majority of thoughtful friends of popular education seem thoroughly united in desiring the establishment of some system of State normal instruction.

The national troubles, and the very large expenditures induced thereby, have hitherto delayed any attempt to inaugurate such system as would respond to the general demand; for, while all have been united in opinion that we were in duty bound to lose nothing of the ground already gained in the field of educational labor, all have equally agreed that the heavy burden of our taxes rendered it unadvisable to undertake any new enterprises, however laudable, which must necessarily increase so largely the State burdens, as would be done by the attempt to establish a system of State normal schools similar to those of some of our sister states.

Within the last year, the way seems to have been opened by which a beginning may be made in the accomplishment of this important work, and at very slight expense to the State. The trustees of Orange County Grammar Schoolan institution of established character-have proposed to the Board of Education to surrender up the use of their school property for a term of years, for the purpose of converting their school into a State Normal School; the Board of Education to establish courses of study, the first to include all the branches required by law to be taught in the common schools, and the second to be more rigid, and to require in

its mastery a year's longer time; the board to determine the qualifications for admission to and graduation from the school, and to attend, by its agents, upon all examinations, and decide who shall be allowed to enter and to graduate; the board to nominate the principal, and the trustees to engage as principal no other than some person so nominated by the board; the trustees to keep the school property in good repair, and to determine the rates of tuition and receive the same for their own benefit; graduates from the first course to receive certificates which shall inure to their benefit, as qualifying them to teach in any common school in the State for five years; and graduates from the higher course to receive credentials which shall avail them as perpetual certificates. This proposition has been approved by the Board of Education, and will appear at length in the report of their Secretary, and, at their request, I commend the subject to your careful consideration.

I recommend the enactment of a law by which the Board of Education may be empowered to accept the proposition referred to, and also to accept, in their discretion, similar propositions from other schools in different parts of the State, and to carry out the compacts that will result from such acceptances, by attending, in person or by agents, the examinations for admission to and graduation from any schools thus adopted, and granting to graduates the appropriate certificates.

I desire also to commend to your attention the matter of the authorized list of school text-books, a somewhat extended discussion of which will be found in the report of the Board of Education to your honorable body. The original selection of school books was made in 1859, to expire in 1864; but the time originally appointed for its duration was afterwards extended to 1867, and will now soon expire. This plan of an authoritative selection of school books, although strongly opposed at first, seems to have won its way to very general approval.

Some legislation at your present session will be necessary to prevent a return to an unlimited diversity of books, that cannot but injure the schools; and I recommend that the Board of Education be empowered to revise the authorized list of school books, and publish the same as soon as may be practicable, and that the authority of the present list be continued until such revision be made public.

REFORM SCHOOL.

Under the act approved November 9, 1865, entitled "An act to establish the Vermont Reform School," I appointed, by and with the advice of the Senate, Aaron G. Pease as acting commissioner, and Lewis A. Dunn and Lewis Pratt advisory commissioners, who soon afterwards located said school at Waterbury, Vt.; and in connection with said location, the commissioners purchased about sixty-seven acres of land, part of the old Governor Butler farm, so called, taking a deed of the same to the State, at the price of six thousand two hundred dollars. This purchase exceeded by two hundred dollars the sum they were authorized by said act to pay for land. They paid toward it six thousand dollars, and gave a guarantee to deed back one acre out of the south-east corner of the land purchased, in case the Legislature at its present session should fail to make a further appropriation of the two hundred dollars. The land purchased had large and valuable buildings on it, suited to the wants of the school, and though the commissioners were unrestricted in the amount of expense in erecting all suitable buildings for the accommodation of said school, yet as these buildings came with the land, the restriction as to the sum to be paid for the land, applied to the whole purchase. I most heartily recommend the appropriation of the remaining two hundred dollars, as the acre to be conveyed back is worth much more than that sum.

Russell Butler is the owner of about sixty-five acres of land, which adjoins that purchased, and is a part of the old Governor Butler farm. This he proposed to sell to the State, as a part of the Reform School farm, at the price of four thousand two hundred dollars, and he gave a bond to convey it at that price, should the Legislature at the present session appropriate money for its purchase. This land is nearly destitute of buildings; a portion of it is rich meadow land, a portion excellent pasturage, and the residue-twenty to twenty-five acres-excellent wood-land. This land is richly worth the price asked, and would, in my opinion, be a very judicious purchase for the State, as it seems really necessary in order to constitute such a farm as the school needs; and should the present opportunity to purchase it be neglected, I do not think it could ever again be obtained at anything like the price now asked. I therefore recommend an appropriation for its purchase at the price named.