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This recommendation was adopted February 26, 1834, as a rule, in the distribution of the Literature Fund.

In noticing the chapter of the Revised Statutes which continued the law of 1827, we should especially indicate a new provision then introduced, which operated most unequally and unjustly while it remained in force. We refer to

The Apportionment of Moneys to Academies by Senatorial Districts.

The Revised Statutes (which in this respect took effect at the beginning of the year 1830), contained the following provision :'

"The Regents shall have the control of the whole income arising from the Literature Fund, and shall annually divide such income into eight equal parts, and assign one part thereof to each Senate District. They shall annually distribute the part so assigned to each District, among such of the incorporated Seminaries of learning, exclusive of Colleges, within such District as are now or shall become subject to their visitation. by a valid corporate act."

This rule of equal division among Senatorial Districts, thus introduced, afterward became a subject of grievous complaint among those who suffered from its unequal operation, and it may be well to here notice some of the statistics of distribution for some years previous, in order to enable the reader to judge, as to how far it was justified, at the time of its adoption, adding the apportionment of 1830 to further show how the rule operated during the first year after it took effect:

Distribution by Academies and Senatorial Districts, from 1823 to 1830, inclusive.

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1 Section 23, article 1, title 1, chapter 15, part 1 of Revised Statutes.

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·|$5,000 00135,000 00|$5,590 00136,000 00|86,000 00|$10,099 93|$9,993 88 $10,000 00

$625 00 $625 00 $698 75 $698 75 $698 75 $1,262 48 $1,249 21 $1,250 00

The Regents, in a report made March 20, 1830,1 in reply to resolutions of the Senate, concerning the best mode of distributing the income of the Literature Fund, suggested that the inequality that appeared in the operation of the rule of apportionment by Senatorial Districts in the first year, would be likely to increase rather than diminish, from the number of new Academies that were annually rising up, principally in the new counties, unless some of the institutions in the city of New York were allowed to participate in the distribution, and remark, that "although the number and high standing of our Academies are subjects of felicitation, yet there is a medium as to numbers, beyond which usefulness may be questioned. The patronage which would barely sustain one hundred in a feeble, lingering condition, would support half this number in a state of progressive improvement and usefulness. As most of the academic scholars go from home for instruction, the expense of education would not be materially increased, while its value would be enhanced by a more concentrated patronage. The public benefits expected from literary schools do not depend so much upon the number as upon the character of these schools; not so much upon location, as upon the abilities and qualifications of the teachers, the extent of the philosophical apparatus, library, etc. Of the large sums expended by the State upon our Academies, it is believed, but a small portion has been employed for objects of permanent improvement, owing to their rapid increase, and diminution of patronage, resulting as well from this increase as from the establishment of numerous select schools for teaching the higher branches of education."

On subsequent occasions the Regents referred to the rule of distribution by Senatorial Districts as unequal in its operation, and it was repeatedly made the subject of remonstrance, but the only special notice taken by the Legislature, was in a report in Assembly, made April 19, 1841,' from the House Committee on Colleges, Academies and Common Schools, occasioned by numerous petitions, chiefly from the Fifth District. This report was adverse to a change, although admitting that the Fifth District would receive $1,535.48 more, and the First District $855.70 less, upon a uniform apportionment based upon attendance throughout the whole State.

Legislative Doc., No. 400, 1830.

2 Assem. Doc., 256, 1841.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE LITERATURE FUND BY SENATORIAL DISTRICTS FROM THE TIME WHEN THE REVISED STATUTES TOOK EFFECT IN 1830 TILL THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION IN 1846.

(1.) Number of Students Allowed to have Pursued Classical Studies.

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(2.) Amount distributed in each Senatorial District, and the Amount that would have been due upon a uniform Distribution based upon the Number of Students pursuing Classical Studies throughout the State.

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Amount that would have been received by each Senatorial District upon a uniform Distribution for the whole State.

First.

Second. Third.

Fourth. Fifth.

Sixth.

Seventh. Eighth.

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Return to the Plan of Impartial Distribution for the whole State.

The apportionment by Senatorial districts continued through seventeen years, and until superseded by a clause in the Constitution of 1846. It was said in its defense, that the object of the subsidy was to encourage feeble academies in poor and thinly settled districts;

but we can scarcely understand the force of this, since the district most benefited was that including New York city.

Upon the return to a plan of distribution upon equal terms for the whole State, but little change was made in the details of operation for a long period. By referring to the table of Attendance in Academies, showing the numbers claimed and allowed, it will be seen from the percentage column that the number participating in the distribution of the Literature Fund was a very large percentage of the number claimed as entitled to the privilege, until the year 1866, when it suddenly dropped from a point high up among the "nineties," down to less than two-thirds, and in two years later to less than half.

If we seek to learn the reason of this sudden change, it will not be found due to any change in the law, or in the form of the reports, or in the instructions under which they were made, but to increased attention in the scrutinizing of the reports, and the rejection of many claims that were not strictly in conformity with the spirit and letter of the ordinances under which the distribution was made.

In February, 1855, a standing committee was appointed upon the Distribution of the Literature Fund, consisting of Mr. Hawley, the Lieutenant-Governor (Mr. Thomas G. Alvord) and Mr. Parks; and on the 12th of January, 1866, the Lieutenant-Governor, from this Committee, reported as follows:

"That reports have been received from 202 Academies, and that the most careful and critical examination, embracing months of labor, has been given to them. While many are so accurately made as to require no correction, either in their financial or literary parts, others are deficient or incorrect in both. The printed forms, prepared with great care, are designed to relieve the officers of the Academies of much of the labor to which they would otherwise be subjected. The part of the report which relates to corporate property and financial affairs, is quite minute in its details, but not more so than is required for the preservation of the property and the economical administration of the finances. There is a strong tendency in all corporate bodies not created for the direct pecuniary interest of the corporators, to transfer labor and responsibility, which in the case of Academies, are often devolved almost wholly on the Principal, whose connection with the institution is often only temporary. This necessity produces laxity of management and neglect of that care of property which is indispensable to its preservation. The Committee have no doubt that the responsibility to which the trustees of Academies are held in the details of their annual reports, has contributed very essentially to the preservation of their academic

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