The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-08
FEDERAL AID FOR THE ILLITERATE.

One of the fayorite schemes now discussed
in Capitolian circles is the appropriation of
money from sales Of government lands to the
several States in aid of their respective funds
for the support of free public schools.
If the Republic was free from debt and in re-
ceipt of an ample revenue to meet all proper
expenses, little objection would be made to a
distribution among the States Of the money
realized by sales Of the lands belonging to the
General Government, each State receiving a
share in the proportion Of its population, and
each making such disposition Of its share as
might to its authorities seem most advisable.
The surplus revenue of tho General Gov
eminent was once distributed among the
States in the form of loan which none ever
expected to be returned. What disposition
was made of it by the States would be too
long story to relate. Some applied it wisely
to diminution of their debts, then compare
lively small Some treated it as the result Of
general tax of which they had paid their
due share and used it when returned to them
as they would have used the proceeds Of any
can safely conclude that the money received
from the Federal Government in loan was
honestly used for the benefit of the people.
The distributed surplus was the result of sales
of public lands in part, but chiefly of collec-
tions of revenue from duties on Imports. To
the people who consumed the imports which
paid the duties, they cost an advance OF
more than double the amount of
duties received; and when redistributed
among the people the actual benefit to the
masses was less than half what it ought to
be-. The net result Of the transaction was
total loss of about three times the amount
received by the several States from the Gen.
eral Government Few of the States used
the surplus revenue fund for the support
of schools, and in many cases it was SO
invested that it could have been realized and
returned to the Federal Government after
reasonable notice.
The distribution was at the time popular,
but it was never consonant with our indi-
vidual idea of the functions of the General
Government respecting the money collected
under federal law. The power to acquire, in
some way, from the people the means OF SUBJ
sistence was q power as valid and necessary
as was the right to exist. But the capacity to
make any other use of revenue than to
apply it to the support Of the government has
no warrant in the letter or spirit of the Con-
stitution.
The proposed distribution Of the public
land money has far less warrant, because,
chiefly, it is not surplus revenue. The gov
eminent is enormously in debt, and therefore
it would i'll beft its condition to even lend
any part of its income and much less to give
it away for a semi-charitaole purpose. That
the unsold public lands of the Republic be-
long to the people of the States alike is
truism which scarcely needs repetition. The
money from the sale of such lands is a general
and universal possession, and ought to be
employed generally and as near universally as
practicable, so that what belongs to all may
iuure to The benei. Of all. 1t is not, We ap.