5. Property held by the Regents in Trust. Six per cent State stock held in trust for Delaware $4, 825 00 5, 080 07 Since this transfer, a statement of the mode of investment, and of receipts and payments have been reported annually by the Comptroller. There has been no considerable variation in the amount of capital, which is required by the Constitution to be preserved inviolate, and its revenue applicable only to the support of Academies. Its mode of investment was reported in January, 1884 (referring to the 30th of September previous), as follows: United States four and a half per cent registered United States four per cent registered bonds. Six per cent deficiency stock, 1887. Six per cent deficiency stock, 1891. One hundred shares of Albany Insurance Co. stock... Total... $102,600 00 10, 000 00 25, 000 00 28, 000 00 102, 000 00 4, 000 00 380 76 $271,980 76 The appropriations from the income of this fund have been made annually, and for specific objects. The amount appropriated in 1884 was 2,000 to Academies for dividends, and $3,000 for books and apparatus for Academies. The sum of $3,000 was also appropriated in 1884, from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, for this purpose UNITED STATES DEPOSIT FUND. Under an act of Congress approved June 15, 1836, the surplus moneys in the national treasury on the 1st of January, 1837, after deducting $5,000,000, were directed to be deposited among the States on the basis of representation in Congress. It was regarded as a deposit liable to be withdrawn and in February, 1861, when treason was fast ripening into open rebellion and the credit of the government was at lowest ebb, the Legislature of this State pledged itself to guarantee its repayment; but this emergency did not come Article IX, Constitution of 1846. A like guarantee is applied to the Common School Fund, and the United States Deposit Fund. and the fund has from the beginning been a rich legacy to the common schools and other educational institutions of the State. The surplus in the treasury supposed to be available for distribution under the above act was $37,468,859.97, to be paid in four quarterly installments, but when three of these were paid the surplus was exhausted, and but $28,101,644.96 was paid. The following table' gives the amount received by the several States, and the disposition made of the funds by the first acts that were passed by the States, no account being taken of subsequent legislation: The principal of this deposit was in this State, $4,014,520.71, and from its income, $28,000 have been given annually to Academies, beginning with 1838. This table was prepared for the present use by Secretary Murray, of the Board of Regents. Under a requirement in section 1 of article 9 of the Constitution of 1846, the sum of $25,000 has been taken annually from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, and added to the principal of the Common School Fund, which has thus increased nearly a million of dollars in amount since this measure began.1 In addition to the annual appropriation of $28,000, from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, for distribution among Academies in proportion to the attendance of students pursuing studies under the rules required by the Regents, there has been granted annually the sum of $18,000 (varying somewhat in different years, and now fixed at $30,000), for the instruction of common school teachers in Academies, and various special appropriations to higher educational institutions of the State. The condition of this fund is reported annually by the Comptroller, and from the report made in January, 1884, the mode of its investment appears as follows: Mortgages for loans in charge of the Commissioners of the several counties, including the amount invested in county bonds in pursuance of chap. 553, Laws of 1864..... Six per cent Canal Deficiency Loan, redeemable in 1891..... Four per cent United States registered bonds, redeemable in 1907.. Bonds of the District of Columbia, 35 per cent ($140,000), cost..... ... 65 Bonds of the District of Columbia 35 per cent Bond and mortgage of the Commissioners of Emi $2,352, 832 26 52, 000 00 801, 000 00 137,300 00 375, 000 00 50, 000 00 200, 000 00 46, 388 45 $4,014, 520 71 The capital of the Common School Fund, at the beginning of the present fiscal year, was $3,827,901.54, of which more than two-thirds ($2,273,000) was invested in United States registered four per cent bonds redeemable in 1907, and the remainder chiefly in city and county bonds and mortgages of unquestionable valid. ity, but less productive than in former years on account of low rates of interest. The revenue during the fiscal year 1883 was $577,802.34. The appropriations made from the revenue of the United States Deposit Fund in 1884, were as follows: For dividends to common schools..... For the increase of capital of Common School Fund. For the purchase of text-books, maps, globes and Total... $75, 000 00 28, 000 00 25, 000 00 30, 000 00 10, 000 00 1, 000 00 3,000 00 $172, 000 00 Formerly the salaries of School Commissioners were paid from this fund, but these are now paid from the School fund. Having given a general outline of the origin and organization of the Board of Regents, and a statement of the funds under its control, we will present, in the order in which they have arisen, the principal facts of record concerning the Colleges and Academies of the State of New York, the agency of the latter in the preparation of Teachers of Common Schools, the first, and for many years the only Normal School of the State, the State Library, the State Museum, and the various scientific and literary subjects that have come under their care. CHAPTER V. RULES FOR THE INCORPORATION OF COLLEGES. There being applications pending for college charters from Kingston, Fairfield and Hamilton-Oneida Academies, in the spring of 1811 the matter was made the subject of a report by the committee, which being concurred in by the Board March 11, 1811, became the declared policy of the Regents in respect to new colleges, as follows: "That under the provisions of the act instituting the University, no Academy ought to be erected into a College until the state of literature therein is so far advanced and its funds so far enlarged, as to render it probable that it will attain the ends and support the character of a College in which all the liberal arts and sciences are to be cherished and taught. "That in the opinion of the committee, no College ought to be established until suitable buildings have been provided and a fund created, consisting of a capital of at least $50,000, yielding an annual income of $3,500. The Academies in question furnish no evidence of any such requisite means, and their petitions ought not to be granted. * * * "The literary character of the State is deeply interested in maintaining the reputation of its seminaries of learning; and to multiply Colleges without adequate means to enable them to vie with other similar institutions in the United States, would be to degrade their character, and to be giving only another name to an ordinary Academy. The establishment of a College is also imposing upon the Government the necessity of bestowing upon it a very liberal and expensive patronage, and without that patronage it would languish and not maintain a due reputation for usefulness and universal learning. The committee are, therefore, of opinion that Colleges are to be cautiously erected, and only when called for by strong public expediency." The Policy of Restricting the Number of Colleges and of the Incorporation of Denominational Colleges by the Regents, Considered and Settled. In March, 1822, the Methodists of the Genesce Conference presented a petition for the incorporation of a college at Ithaca. They represented that their subscriptions amounted to more than $6,000, and they intended to proceed in the erection of a building as soon as the spring opened, in case an incorporation could be obtained. The trustees of Geneva Academy at the same time presented an application for a charter, representing also as directly sectarian an interest as the former, and this gave opportunity to the Regents for considering the policy that should govern their Board in cases of this kind, which would undoubtedly arise in applications from various religious denominations. A select committee was appointed to report upon this subject, consisting of Mr. Duer, Mr. Lansing and Mr. Williams, and on the 25th of March, 1832, Mr. Duer, from this committee, rcported as follows: "That your committee have given to these respective applications that full and deliberate consideration which their importance seemed to demand; and they now beg leave to present to the Regents a summary of the facts and reasoning which have led to their conclusions in regard to them. |