Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1

In force Feb.[February] 7, 1835.

AN ACT to provide for the distribution and application of the interest on the School, College and Seminary funds.

School commissioners to provide account books.

Accounts how kept.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the commissioners of the school fund2 are hereby required to provide a well bound book, in which they shall keep the accounts of the School, College and Seminary funds—the accounts shall be kept separately, in the manner following: The commissioners shall charge themselves with the amount of each sum received, on the date of receiving the same, and credit themselves with each sum paid and loaned out, showing the date of each payment or loan; they shall charge the State with the State paper and Auditor’s warrants purchased, showing the date and amount of each purchase, and shall charge interest on the said State paper and Auditor’s warrants, at the rate of two per cent. per annum from the date of purchase to the fifteenth of February, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and on that day add the interest to the principal, and then charge interest on the sum produced by such addition at the rate of six per

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cent. per annum for one year; and at the end of every year thereafter, the interest shall be added to the principal, and bear interest at the rate aforesaid the succeeding year; they shall in like manner charge the State with each sum loaned, showing the date and amount of each loan, and charge interest on such loan or loans, at the rate of six per cent. per annum for one year, and at the end of every year the interest shall be added to the principal, and bear interest at the rate aforesaid. The accounts shall be continued in manner aforesaid to the last day of December in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and on that day the interest shall be added to the principal of each sum, and the sums produced by such addition, are hereby declared to be principal; and the interest shall thereafter be charged upon the said principal in manner aforesaid, until the State shall refund the same; and no part of said principal shall be paid out as interest, nor unless expressly authorized by law; nor shall any law providing for the appropriation of interest on either of said funds, be so construed as to apply to interest accruing previous to the said last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.

Interest on college and seminary funds to be loaned to the school fund annually.

Sec. 2. The Commissioners of the School fund of the State, shall annually loan to the School fund the interest of the College and Seminary funds, to be added to the interest of the school and township funds, for distribution among the several schools in the State established under this law.

Said interest to be annually distributed to the several counties.

Sec. 3. The Commissioners of the School fund of the State, are hereby required to distribute and pay out the interest which may have accrued on the said School, College and Seminary funds, on the first Monday of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, and on the first Monday in January annually thereafter, for the encouragement of learning, in the manner and upon the terms and conditions hereinafter provided.

And in proportion to the number of inhabitants in each under twenty years of age.

Sec. 4. The Commissioners of the School fund shall ascertain from the returns of the census to be taken in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, the number of white persons in each county under twenty years of age, and also the amount of interest due the several funds aforesaid, on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, and apportion the interest among the several counties in proportion to the number of persons under the age aforesaid, and certify the amount due to each county, to the Auditor, whose duty it shall be to issue a warrant on the Treasurer in favor of each School Commissioner for the amount due to his county, and the interest shall be apportioned annually thereafter and distri-

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buted as aforesaid, until the next census shall have been taken, and on the first day of January in every year next after the taking of the census of the State, the said Commissioners shall make a new apportionment of interest, and cause the same to be distributed in the manner and upon the terms aforesaid.

To be paid to the teachers of schools.

Proviso.

In case the interest should amount to more than enough to pay half the amount due teachers, how disposed of.

Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the School Commissioners of counties to receive from the Treasurer the amount of any and all warrants which may be drawn in manner and for the purposes aforesaid, and to distribute the same among the teacher of schools, who may have kept schools in conformity with the provisions of the act entitled “An act to provide for the application of the interest of the fund arising from the sale of school lands belonging to the several townships in this State, approved first of March, 1833:”3 Provided, That no teacher shall be entitled to receive more than one half of the amount due him for services rendered within the twelve months preceding the first of November previous to the time of making such distribution; and if the interest in the hands of a School Commissioner in any county, shall, at the time of distribution, amount to more than enough to pay one half of the amount due the teachers in his county, then the overplus shall be set apart as a county fund, and shall never thereafter be subject to distribution, but shall forever remain as a principal fund, to be denominated “The County School Fund,” to be loaned out by the School Commissioner of the county as township funds; and the interest accruing thereon, shall be subject to distribution for the support of schools in the county, in the same manner and under the like regulations as is or may be prescribed for the distribution of the interest on the State fund: Provided, That in making the distribution of the State fund for the present year, no teacher shall be paid for any service rendered before the first day of June next.

Township funds to be separate from county funds.

Sec. 6. No part of any township fund shall be made to constitute any part of a county fund; and teachers employed in townships having no productive fund, who keep schedules and make returns as is required in townships having productive funds, shall be entitled to a distributive share of the State fund, and the township funds shall be paid to teachers at the time now required by law.

Approved, Feb. 7, 1835.

1On December 28, 1834, the Senate passed a resolution instructing the Committee on Seminary, School Lands, and Education to inquire into the expediency of a law for the distribution of the interest arising from the school fund to the counties of the State. On December 30, 1834, Cyrus Edwards from the Committee introduced SB 35 in the Senate. On January 28, the Senate amended the bill by adding a proviso to the fourth section, striking out the final part of the fifth section, and adding an additional section. The Senate passed the bill as amended on January 30, but then subsequently reconsidered the vote and tabled the bill. On January 31, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 2 with an amendment, in which the Senate concurred. The Senate then passed the bill as amended. On February 3, the House of Representatives voted against a motion to table the bill by a vote of 20 yeas to 34 nays, with Abraham Lincoln voting nay. The House passed the bill on February 5. On February 7, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 473, 498; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 144, 152, 222, 286, 318, 361-62, 375, 379, 386, 402, 447, 453, 455, 461; Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 374, 375, 376-77, 393, 410.

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.” Since 1829, the state had been borrowing from the school and seminary funds in order to pay basic government expenses.
“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; “An Act Authorizing the Commissioner of the School and Seminary Fund to Loan the Same to the State,” 17 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 118-19; 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.

3The 1833 act required that teachers keep a record of all students and on which days each student attended school.
“An Act to Provide for the Application of the Interest of the Fund Arising from the Sale of School Lands Belonging to the Several Townships in this State,” 1 March 1833, Revised Laws of Illinois (1833), 562-66.