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was to be selected from the grammar schools to be educated gratuitously

at college.

Five years after the bill in manuscript was presented, it was printed by order of the assembly of 1784.

Jefferson says: "One provision of the bill was that the expenses of the schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in proportion to his general tax rate. This would throw on wealth the education of the poor."

In 1796 the assembly acted upon the bill, but inserted a provision leaving to each county court to declare when the act should go into operation within the limits of its jurisdiction, which, adds Jefferson, "completely defeated it. The justices being generally of the more wealthy class, were unwilling to incur the burden, and I believe it was not suffered to commence in a single county."

His interest in common schools never flagged, although his native State could not be aroused to its best interests, and in a letter to Hon. Joseph C. Cabell, dated November 28, 1820, he says:

"Surely Governor Clinton's display of the gigantic effort of New York towards the educating of her citizens will stimulate the pride, as well as the patriotism, of our legislature to look to the reputation and safety of our country, to rescue it from the degradation of becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of even our negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the hands of the other States what our indigenous predecessors were when surrounded by the sciences and arts of Europe. The success of education before the Revolution placed her with the foremost of the sister colonies. What is her education now? Where is it? The little we have we import, like beggars, from other States, or import the beggars, to betow on us their miserable crumbs."

The first constitution was adopted in 1776, second in 1830, third in 1851, and fourth in 1864.

In the constitution adopted in 1830 there is no reference to education, but in that of 1851 is the following provision:

A capitation tax, equal to the tax assessed on land of the value of two hundred dollars, shall be levied on every white male inhabitant who has attained the age of twenty-one years; and one equal moiety of the capitation tax upon white persons shall be applied to the purposes of education in primary and free schools; but nothing herein contained shall prevent exemptions of taxable polls in cases of bodily infirmity.

In the revision of 1864, this provision is retained in the twentysecond article.

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The first constitution was adopted in 1776; the second in 1851; and the third in 1864. The first provision on education is in that of 1864, and is as follows:

ARTICLE VIII.-EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The governor shall within thirty days after the ratification by the people of this constitution appoint, subject to the confirmation of the senate at its first session thereafter, a State superintendent of public instruction, who shall hold his office for five years, and until his successor shall have been appointed and shall have been qualified. He shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, and such additional sum for travelling and incidental expenses as the general assembly may by law provide; shall report to the general assembly within thirty days after the commencement of its first session ander this constitution, a uniform system of free public schools, and shall perform such other duties pertaining to his office as may from time to time be prescribed by law.

SECTION 2. There shall be a State board of education, consisting of the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of delegates, and the State superintendent of public instruction, which board shall perform such duties as the general assembly may direct.

SECTION 3. There shall be in each county such number of school commissioners as the State superintendent of public instruction shall deem necessary, who shall be appointed by the State board of education; shall hold office for four years, and shall perform such duties and receive such compensation as the general assembly or State superintendent may direct; the school commissioners of Baltimore city shall remain as at present constituted, and shall be appointed as at present, by the mayor and city council, subject to such alterations and amendments as may be made from time to time by the general assembly, or the said mayor and city council.

SECTION 4. The general assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, shall provide a uniform system of free public schools, by which a school shall be kept open and supported free of expense for tuition in each school district, for at least six months in each year; and in case of failure on the part of the general assembly to provide, the system reported to it by the State superintendent of public instruction shall become the system of free pubric schools of the State: Provided, That the report of the State superintendent shall be in conformity with the provisions of this constitution, and such system shall be subject to such alterations, conformable to this article, as the general assembly may from time to time enact.

SECTION 5. The general assembly shall levy at each regular session after the adoption of this constitution, an annual tax of not less than ten cents on each

hundred dollars of taxable property throughout the State, for the support of free public schools, which tax shall be collected at the same time and by the same agents as the general State levy; and shall be paid into the treasury of the State, and shall be distributed under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, among the counties and the city of Baltimore, in proportion to their respective population between the ages of five and twenty years: Provided, That the general assembly shall not levy any additional school tax upon particular counties, unless such county express by popular vote its desire for such tax; the city of Baltimore shall provide for its additional school tax as at present, or as may hereafter be provided by the general assembly, or by the mayor and city council of Baltimore. SECTION 6. The general assembly shall further provide by law, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, a fund for the support of the free public schools of the State, by the imposition of an annual tax of not less than five cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property throughout the State, the proceeds of which tax shall be known as the public school fund, and shall be invested by the treasurer, together with its annual interest, until such time as said fund shall by its own increase and any addition which may be made to it from time to time, together with the present school fund, amount to six millions of dollars, when the tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars, authorized by the preceding section, may be discontinued in whole or in part as the general assembly may direct: the principal fund of six millions, hereby provided, shall remain forever inviolate as the free public school fund of the State, and the annual interest of said school fund shall be disbursed for educational purposes only, as may be prescribed by law.

In the constitution just formed and to be submitted to the people on the eighteenth of September for adoption or rejection, there is the following:

ARTICLE VIII.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, shall, by law, establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient system of Free Public Schools, and shall provide, by taxation or otherwise, for their maintenance.

SEC. 2. The system of Public Schools, as now constituted, shall remain in force until the end of the said first session of the General Assembly, and shall then expire, except so far as adopted or continued by the General Assembly.

SEC. 3. The school fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of education.

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In the constitution of 1776 it was declared in article forty-one thatA school or schools shall be established by the legislature, for the convenient Estruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.

The same provision has been retained without amendment until the present time.

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A constitution was formed in 1776, which was amended in 1778, 1790, and in 1865, but no provision was incorporated relative to education or the encouragement of learning.

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First constitution formed in 1777; the second in 1785; the third in

1798, which was amended in 1839.

The provision relative to seminaries of learning in that of 1798 was retained in the amended constitution of 1839. It is in these words:

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13. The arts and sciences shall be promoted, in one or more seminaries of learning; and the legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, give such further donations and privileges to those already established, as may be necessary to secure the objects of their institution; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly, at their next session, to provide effectual measures for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institutions.

In the Constitution of 1865, the educational provision was omitted.

KENTUCKY.

Settled in 1775. Area, 37,680 square miles. Admitted into the Union in 1792.

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First constitution adopted in 1790; second in 1799; and the third in 1850. Article eleventh of the last pertains to education:

ARTICLE XI.-CONCERNING EDUCATION.

SEC. 1. The capital of the fund called and known as the "Common School Fund," consisting of one million two hundred and twenty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight dollars and forty-two cents, for which bonds have been executed by the State to the board of education, and seventy-three thousand five hundred dollars of stock in the Bank of Kentucky; also, the sum of fifty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-three dollars and twenty-nine cents, balance of interest on the school fund for the year 1848, unexpended, together with any sum which may be hereafter raised in the State by taxation, or otherwise, for purposes of education, shall be held inviolate, for the purpose of sustaining a system of common schools. The interest and dividends of said funds, together with any sum which may be produced for that purpose by taxation or otherwise, may be appropriated in aid of common schools, but for no other purpose. The general assembly shall invest said fifty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-three dollars and twenty-nine cents in some safe and profitable manner; and any portion of the interest and dividends of said school fund, or other money or property raised for school purposes, which may not be needed in sustaining common schools, shall be invested in like manner. The general assembly shall make provision, by law, for the payment of the interest of said school fund: Provided, That each county shall be entitled to its proportion of the income of said fund, and if not called for, for common school purposes, it shall be reinvested from time to time for the benefit of such county.

SEC. 2. A superintendent of public instruction shall be elected by the qualified voters of this commonwealth, at the same time the governor is elected, who shall hold his office for four years, and his duties and salary shall be prescribed and fixed by law.

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