Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Resolved, That the Auditor of Public Accounts be requested to furnish this House with a statement, showing,

1st. The whole amount of School Fund, belonging to this State, and the interest due from this State on said Fund;

2d. The whole amount of College Fund belonging to this State, and the interest due from this State on said fund; and

3d. The whole amount of Seminary Fund belonging to this state, and the interest due from this State on said Fund.2

1On January 28, 1835, Edwin B. Webb introduced the resolution in the House of Representatives. James T. B. Stapp, the Auditor of Public Accounts, responded to the House on January 30. Stapp’s report indicated that the school fund was valued at $74,236.94 and was owed interest of $13,292.47; the college fund was valued at $14,847.38 and was owed interest of $2,654.49; and the seminary fund was valued at $33,496.84 and was owed interest of $7,180.19. Since 1829, the state had been borrowing from the school and seminary funds in order to pay regular government expenses.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 408, 457; “An Act Authorizing the Commissioners 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.

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.