Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-01-29
How THE "sCHOOL FUNB" Was
BEEN MANAGED. t..f

II A<A-AN IN ~
The school fund question was up
again in the Senate yesterday. Mr..
Norman offered a bill, the preamble
to which recites that there was
used in the payment of the interest
of the State debt the sum of $685.
go of the school fund, and that the
coupons for which said sum was
paid out are in possession of the
Treasury" The bill then directs
the Governor to issue the six per
cent bonds Of the State, with cOu-
pons attached, of the current Sc
ries, to the school fund for this
s2S8, $40, which was used in paying
interest. There is a history of this
school fund" which it is pertinent
TO repeat here. On the 9th of
June, 1863, the Legislature passed
"an act to secure the funds
provided for public education"
which directed chat the present
funds in coin belonging to the Bank
Of Tennessee, be invested by the
Governor, Secretary of State, and
Comptroller, in United States or
Tennessee bonds, and be subject to
future Legislative control On the
9th of October, 1865, the Governor,
Comptroller, and Secretary of
State reported to the Speaker of
the Senate that "the amount of
gold and silver found" among the
assets of the Bank of Tennessee,
"was S446,719 20, which was in
vested in United States 7-30 bonds,
TO the amount of S618, $50" and
the Governor in his message of
Oct. 3, 1865, to the Legislature,
stated that these bonds were
yielding the State an annual inter
est of $45, l32 %" In this same
message the Governor said:
81 advise that out of the proceeds
of what is left Of the Bank, the
Common School Fund shall be, as
far as possible, replaced. This large
fund emanated mainly from the gon-
eral government, and was held by the
State in sacred trust. The declaration
of this trust may be found in the act of
Congress which created it, and is for
the instruction of children for ever And
by the constitution it is declared to be "a
PERMANENT FUND never to be dimin-
ished by legislative appropriation nor
the interest devoted to any other use
than the support and encouragement Of
common schools Perhaps a more per-
fidous act than the appropriation OF this
fund to reasonable purposes was not
committed during the late perfdious re-
beliOn.
81 hold, and | think the courts will
sustain the opinion, that the State, by
virtue Of her sovereignty, has priority
over all other creditors of the Bank The
State, as Trustee, represents the School
Fund as against the Bank and that the
School Fund, by virtue Of the peculiar
constitutional trust with which it was
clothed, has priority over all other cred
itors of the State. Certainly this fund
has priority over the common depoSitors
OF note holders of the Bank. | therefore
advise you to lay your hands upon every
dollar you can cOnstitutiOnally seize, to
replace this fund Lei the State keep
her faith with the destitute and long
neglected school children, no matter who
else may suffer, and then settle with
other creditors as best she may"
The act of Feb. 1G, 1866, "to
wind up and settle the business of
the Bank of Tennessee, contains
the following provisions:
Sec. f. Thatthe funds now in the Gus
tody of the Governor, Secretary of State
and Comptroller, in the form of, and
known as United States seven-thirty |
bonds or securities invested under an
act of the General Assembly, and amount |
ing to the sum Of six hundred and eight |
cen thousand two hundred and fifty dol |
lars, with all the interest thereon accrued |
and accruing, and declared as part Cf |
the perpetual school fund by an act of |
this General Assembly, shall continue to
be held as common school fund, and shall |
never be diminished, as provided for in
chapter IL, section 10, of the constitution
of the State of Tennessee.
Sec. 5. That the President and Dr.
rectors, without delay, and at as early a
day as practicable, cause an assignment
and deeds of trust of all the assets of
said bank and branches, and property Of
al kinds, real, personal and mixed, in
,luding the funds above described, S6lS,-
$50 and all interest thereof accrued or
to be made and executed in the
name aud behalf of the Bank of Tennes>
zee, and under its seal, for the uses and
n trust as follows First to secure the
all sum of $l,J00,000 the amount of
he Common School fund deposited in
he Bank of Tennessee by acts Of the
legislature, which shall be a preferred