Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-08-04
From the Vermont Mercury.
STATE SCHOOL FUND.
NO. A.

Several of the States have funds designed
for the present benefit of common schools
and other literary institutions. These funds
are the result of the sequestration of lands
for that purpose, in the early history Of the
country. 1t is not known, that fund &C
cumulated by direct taxation, as ours will be,
if finally collected, ever existed out OF Yer
mont. Funds, based on real property, in
form Of rent charge, will have degree OF
permanently, which can never be realized,
when the fund is founded essentially in per-
sonal securities. Doctor Frankln's fund,
Instituted by lis benevolent founder, for the
benefit of NEEDY class in Boston, exhibited
on paper great facilities of accumulation,
and permanency, but the lutllity of ali such
paper funds, and their utter impotency TO
resist the power of accident and chance, was
long since shown in the dissipation of that
fund. Rents charged upon land are proba-
bly, as stable and enduring as any pecunlary
assurance, which has been devised; aud
still. that even this is liable TO disappoint the
landlord, will be admitted by all, who are
acquainted with the tenor, by which lands
are held in and about Albany, and the fire.
quent necessity, which has existed Tor call
ing out military force to assis: in collecting
rents when due. In this case il is under
stood, that the lands were sold subject TO
rent charge, which always remains an in
cumbrance on the land. The rent is an in
terest, with which the landlord never parted.
The genius of our constitutions is adverse
to the accumulation of property in large
masses, to be held in perpetuty. In mon
arches and other governments, less free and
popular than our own, their constituents IA.
vor this accumulation of property, and laws
are enacted to secure its enjoyment and use,
to the nobility in perpetuity. Such state
of things harmonzes well with mixed mon
archy, where one constituent of the govern
ment is privileged hereditary nobility
Such an order is essential TO such a consti-
tuition of government; this cannot be sus-
tanned without property, and property can
not be secured in perpetuity to family,
without the aid of the constitution aud laws,
and for this end laws are framed to perpetu-
ate property in noble families. 1t is no part
of the policy Of such governments to secure
equal rights, but to maintain privileged
class. The case is not so with our consti-
tutions, but these and our laws favor the
diffusion Of property and the security ofequal
rights The constitution Of the U. S. allows
no title of nobility, and by the Both Section
of the Constitution of Vermont, the legisla-
ture are required to regulate entails so as to
prevent perpetuites. There is nothing then
in our national or state constitutions to favor
an order of nobility, or to secure aperpetui-
ty of property. Without one or the other or
perhaps both Of these, it is difficult to per-
ceive how fund, consisting in mere per-
Il 81. hoe
real estate, can be maintained in perpetuity,
against the. whole genius of our constitu-
tons and laws. These constitutions and
laws may be regarded as public sentiment
embodied on this subject; and these are
surely adverse to such perpetuity.
The English statute denomnated de doniS,
and authorizing estates tail, was passed for
the benefit of the nobility, and without the
concurrence the House of lords, for whose
benefit the act was passed, it could not be
repealed; and still when that law, by its eff
fects, became public grievance, the courts
Of law, in the administration of Justice, vir-
tuaIly repealed, or rendered void the opera
ton of the law, by various methods adopted
on purpose TO bar the entail The law ex-
listed only about two hundred years, before
this attack, which virtually destroyed it, in
despite Of the power of the legislature. But
if in the staid and iron constitution of Eng
land, such law and one so emphatically
concurring with the pride and promotion of
the power and privilege of the king and no.
bles, could be so easily swept away by the
force of public sentiment, and against the
will of two out Of the three branches Of the
legislature, what possible chance has such
law as gives life to the school fund to sur
vive when the lreemen of Vermont feel the
grinding operations of the law, wrenching
from them in the shape of interest $40, 900
yearly in addition to all their other pecunia-
~ burdens This sum is the amount Of in
terest, at 6 per cent, on 81, 900 900, to be
annually collected for the support of schools
Such a state of things could not endure, and
il seems to us, that no rejecting mind can
entertain the thought of the permanency of
such system 1t could not exist in any
free state, when the necessity of the tax is
manifest In the payment of the rents the
will Of the tax paying community is not TO
be consulted, and. in the estimation of the
debtors Of the State, the system would con-
tain the very elements of subsection and
bondage, and they would break away from
what they would consider yoke too grev-
Gus to be borne AUDITOR.