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.... $2,352, 832 26 Four per cent United States registered bonds, redeemable in 1907.... 52, 000 00 ($140,000), cost.... Bonds of the District of Columbia, 365 per cent 801, 000 00 (par value)... Bonds of the District of Columbia 35 per cent 137, 300 00 May 1, 1910 to 1919.... Troy city 3 per cent registered bonds, redeemable 375, 000 00 Bond and mortgage of the Commissioners of Emigration, four per cent... 50, 000 00 Money in the treasury. Total 1 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. 200, 000 00 46, 388 45 $4, 014, 520 71 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 establishing and conducting examinations in ac- For the purchase of text-books, maps, globes and philosophical apparatus for Academies.. 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 Incor poration of Denominational Colleges by the Regents, Considered and Settled. In March, 1822, the Methodists of the Genesee 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, reported 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. "The first of these petitions states in substance that the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at their last annual meeting, resolved to establish a Seminary of Learning within their district. That in the prosecution of this intention, they appointed a committee to designate a place for the institution, superintend the collection of funds, and apply to this Board for an act of incorporation. This committee has fixed upon a site in the vicinity of the village of Ithaca, had obtained subscriptions to the amount of more than $6,000, and had resolved to proceed in the course of the approaching spring to the erection of buildings. The petitioners further represent that the system of education proposed to be adopted in this institution is the same as that pursued in other seminaries of learning in this State, and they, therefore, solicit the approbation of this Board, and pray for its aid to enable them to complete their plan.' "The petition of the Trustees of the Geneva Academy represents, that the only effectual means of securing the ends for which that institution was established, they have determined to make an effort to procure for it such endowments as they trust may entitle it to the powers and privileges of a College. They state that they already have property secured to the amount of $1,500, independently of their lot and buildings, which they value at $9,500. They also receive an annuity from the corporation from Trinity Church in New York, of $750 for the support of a principal and assistant, which, it is supposed, would be rendered permanent to the President of the College. In addition to this, they have expectations of aid from other sources from which they calculate upon raising funds within the term of three years, to the amount of more than $50,000, which shall produce, annually, more than $3,000. They, therefore, pray for a grant of College powers, to take effect at the expiration of 1 The committee referred to consisted of Rev. Charles Giles, Rev. George Harmon, Rev. Jonathan Huestis, Joshua Hathaway, Joseph Speed, David Woodcock, Jesse Merritt, Charles Humphrey, and Elijah Atwater, Esquires. In a pamphlet entitled "An Address of the Committee appointed by the Genesee Annual Conference to superintend the establishment of a Seminary of Learning at Ithaca, to the Public, in behalf of the Institution" (Ithaca, 1821), they stated their object as follows: "The Ithaca College is designed to combine all the branches of male and female instruction from the first rudiments of an English education to the higher sciences usually taught in American universities. And the committee are authorized to give assurances that although it has been announced under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and will be conducted ostensibly under their direction, yet that it will be established on as broad and liberal principles as any college in the United States; and a system of instruction adopted without regard either to political or religious opinions." The building proposed to be erected was to be sixty-two feet by forty and three stories high, and the amount proposed for the endowment was $40,000. The first trustees were to be the committee above named with Lewis Beers, William R. Collins, Charles W. Connor and Joshua Wyckoff. that period, provided they shall procure, within the same, the permanent funds and income required by this Board. "I. The first question which these applications present for consideration relates to the policy of increasing the present number of incorporated Colleges, and extending the patronage of the State beyond those which have already received charters. "Your committee are well aware that an opinion has obtained amongst a highly respectable and intelligent portion of the community in favor of concentrating the efforts of both public and private munificence to the existing institutions, in the hope of serving more effectually the great cause of education, by the accumulation of those funds which would otherwise be distributed in local and partial endowments, by the consequent increase of the emoluments of professors and tutors, as well as of the means of collecting large libraries, and forming extensive depositories of philosophical apparatus, and by thus assembling together in a few great establishments, numerous bodies of persons devoted to the common pursuit of literature and science. But, however advantageous institutions upon such a scale and foundation may have proved in countries which have made greater progress in wealth, population and the arts of a refined and luxurious civilization than our own; however admirably adapted to the security of a political hierarchy, or favorable to the enjoyment of that ease and leisure which in those countries is sometimes both the incentive and reward of literary exertion, yet your committee, with due deference, conceive, that in this country such establishments are neither applicable to the state of society, congenial to the manners and characters of the people, or consistent with the form and principles of the government. "The great end of education is, to fit men for the active duties of life, and imbue them with those principles of morality which are as essential to the welfare of society as to the present and future happiness of individuals; and in this country, it seems to your committee, that the former of these combined objects ought to be kept steadily in view, to the exclusion of the prospect of literary bounties and rewards, so long as the habits and condition of the community preclude the separation of a portion of its members into a distinct class, devoted solely to the cultivation of polite literature and of the sciences; whilst the latter branch of the same great end should constitute the chief purpose of the system of public instruction under a government whose existence depends on the virtue and intelligence of the people. "That system, therefore, which is best calculated to promote this two-fold object of public education ought to receive the preference, and the point seems in some measure already settled, in favor of the multiplication and distribution of the higher seminaries of learning by the act of the Legislature under which the Board derives its powers. By this law the University of the State,' comprehends all the Colleges, Academies and Schools,' which are or may be established therein. The Regents who form the corporation are |