Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

A Bill

For an act for the redemption and Distribution of the School Fund.
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Sect.[Section] 1^st Be it enacted by the people of the state of Illinois represented in the General Assembly That the Commissioners of the school fund2 be and they are hereby directed and required to draw from the office of the Bank of the United States at St Louis, the amount of money therein, belonging to the school fund of this state, and deposite the same in the Treasury of the state 3

Sect. 2. It shall be the duty of the Governor to ascertain the amount of principal and interest which the state is indebted to the school fund for moneys borrowed thereof, so soon as the same can be done, and upon receipt of such information, the Governor is hereby authorized and required to negotiate a loan on the best terms for the state he possibly can by public notice or otherwise, at an interest not exceeding six per centum per annum for such sum of money as will be sufficient to reimburse the said fund for the principal and interest due the same by the state. Provided said loan shall be made redeemable by the state

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at any time afteryears.

Sect. 3. Whenever the said loan shall be effected and the money received from the bank as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Commissioners of the School Fund to give public notice thereof for three weeks in the newspaper printed by the public printer, and also of the receipt of all other moneys belonging to the school fund as the same ^may^ be received from the Treasury of the United States under the compact with the state.

Sect. 4. It shall be the duty of the said Commissioners so soon after the next census is taken and the returns thereof made as provided for by law, to pay over on application, to each school commissioner in each and every county in this state, a rateable share, to be ascertained by them, of the said fund, in proportion to the number of children in each and every county between the age of five years and twenty years as enumerated in the official returns of said census, for which rateable share, the said school Commissioners

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shall severally receipt to the Commissioners of the school fund.

Sect. 5. It shall be the duty of the said School commissioners to loan out the said moneys, together with such other moneys as may be in the lands or may be received by them from the sale of the sixteenth sections, in such sums as they may deem advisable and for such time as they may think proper not exceeding twelve months and at a rate of interest not exceeding twelve per centum per annum, taking both real and personal security therefor.

Sect. 6. It shall be the duty of the said School Commissioners to report their proceedings every six months to the County Commissioners court, and to submit their books, papers, vouchers, notes, bonds mortgages and other securities for loans, at the same periods, to the said Court, and to permit the said Court at any time to inspect and examine the same or upon refusal thereof to be removed from office by the same court. The said court shall also have power, if in their opinion the

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public interests require the same, to remove the said school commissioner at any time and appoint another; and the said court is hereby authorized to require from time to time such additional security from the said school Commissioners now or hereafter to be appointed as they may deem necessary for the safety of the moneys that may be in their hands.

Sect. 7. The said Court may allow to said school Commissioners a sum not exceeding two per centum on all the moneys loaned by them respectively.

Sect. 8. The County Commissioner’s Court in each and every county in this state, may proceed to divide their several counties into as many convenient school districts as said Court may think expedient accurately describing the bounds of the same, and the inhabitants of each and every school District so soon as the same may be established and designated, may proceed in such manner as they may think proper, to elect three Trustees, who shall be considered the Trustees

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of the School District in which they may be respectively chosen and who shall hold their offices until their successors shall be elected

Sect. 9. It shall be the duty of the said trustees or a majority of them, to superintend the erection of suitable school houses and the employment of teachers in their several Districts, and make report semi annually to the County Commissioners’ Court of the number of scholars in each District school, the branches of education taught thereat, the name and capacity of the teacher, the time each scholar has attended, and the general condition of each school; and they shall also annually report to said Court the length of time any school may have been kept in their several Districts; and for this purpose the said Trustees or a majority of them, shall require of the teachers in the respective districts, to keep a day-book in which such facts shall be registered, which said book shall at all times be open to the inspection and examination of said Trustees.

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Sect. 10. Whenever the said Trustees of the several ^school^ districts, shall notify in writing signed by them or a majority of them, the School Commissioner of the County in which said districts may be established, that a school has been commenced and a teacher employed therein, it shall be the duty of the said School Commissioner to pay over, on application of the said Trustees or a majority of them, their distributive share of the interest arising from the fund so received from the Commissioners of the school fund and from the sale of the sixteenth sections taking their receipt therefor; and for the purpose of ascertaining such distributive share to which each school District may be entitled, it shall be the duty of the said Trustees in the several districts as herein proposed to be established, as soon after their election as practicable, to ascertain the number of children in their several districts between the ages of five years and twenty years, and make return thereof in writing under their hands

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within ten days thereafter to the School Commissioner, which said report shall be made under oath before any Justice of the peace of the proper County, and when received by said School Commissioner, shall be filed by him among the papers and vouchers appertaining to the school fund, and which return, verified as aforesaid, shall be sufficient authority to the said School Commissioner, to pay over to the said Trustees their respective distributive shares of said interest.

Sect. 11. If the said School Commissioner or Trustees or either of them, shall at any time squander or embezzle the money that may be placed in their hands, or any part thereof, they shall, upon conviction thereof, before the Circuit Court upon indictment found, be imprisoned in the Penitentiary, for such time not exceeding five years, as the Jury in their verdict may prescribe.

Sect. 12. It shall be the duty of the several assessors of taxable property in each and

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every County in this state, on or before the first monday of August 1837, when assessing taxable property in their respective counties to ascertain the number of children between the ages of five years and twenty years in the several Counties within this state, and the said assessors shall enter the number thereof in a proper column of their several lists of taxable property, correctly designating the same

Sect. 13. Within twenty days after such list or enumeration of children shall be made by the said assessors, they shall respectively, in writing under their hands and verified by their oaths to be administered by any Justice of the peace of the proper County, make return thereof to the several County Commissioners Court at the first term to be held thereafter, and it shall be the duty of the said Court to enter said return upon their records, and immediately thereafter transmit a certified copy of the same under

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the seal of the said Court, to the Commissioners of the School fund, which shall be filed among the papers pertaining thereto, and shall be sufficient authority to warrant the said Commissioners to pay over to the several School Commissioners, the distributive share to which each County may be entitled of the school fund as it may hereafter accrue.

This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

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[ docketing ]
A Bill
For an act for the redemption and distribution of the school fund.

[ docketing ]
[01]/[27]/[1835]
Mr Murphy from the Minority of Com [Committee]on Education with Greene of said Com introduced Bill read twice: Laid upon the table & 500 copies ordered to be printed

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[01]/[30]/[1835]
C. W. H[Committee of the Whole House] Saturday 31

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[02]/[03]/[1835]
Rejected

1Richard G. Murphy introduced HB 162 in the House of Representatives on January 27, 1835. The House tabled the bill and ordered 500 copies printed. On January 30, the House referred the bill to the Committee of the Whole and made it the order of the day for January 31. On February 3, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole to consider the bill. The House discharged the Committee of the Whole from further consideration and refused to engross the bill for a third reading by a vote of 25 yeas to 29 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting yea.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 396-99, 449, 474; Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 377.

2When Ohio and Indiana became states, Congress earmarked five percent of the net proceeds of all future sales of government lands within those states for the construction of roads and canals. In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, Nathaniel Pope successfully argued that the proceeds from sales of government lands in Illinois should be earmarked for education rather than infrastructure. Upon statehood, Congress granted to Illinois three percent of the net proceeds of all federal land sales in the state to be used exclusively for education; this became known as the “three percent fund”. Congress additionally granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund. Congress specified that one-sixth of the three percent fund was to be used for the establishment of a college or university; this became known as the “college fund.” Congress furthermore specified that the proceeds from the sales of land in two entire townships would be reserved for a seminary of learning; this became known as the “seminary fund.”
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07.

3In an accompanying report, Murphy argued that, while in the federal bank in St. Louis, the fund “has remained idle, and unproductive, for many years.”
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 398.