The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-09-02
For the Democratic Adrocate.
Governor Hamilton and Higher
Education.

EQucaG1On.
Editors Of the Adsecate, Westnsi,aster In
explaining the two College Bills. passed by
the late Legislature, and the disposition of
them by Governor Hamilton, it is necessary
to give the history of higher education in
Maryland. Our patriot fathers recognizing
intelligence, morality, and religion as the
foundation of stable government soon after
the Revolution, began the establishment of
Colleges and Academies for males. The do \
nation made to each county for an Academy
was $500, subsequently increased to 81 200.
This appropriation was designed for those of
limited means, one free pupil was to be edu
Gated for each 500 given by the State, No
appropriation, however, was made for any
female institution till sixty odd years later,
when in 1858 Cambridge Female Seminary
was established with an annual donation OF
$500, and St. Mary's Female Seminary with
81, 500. The next session, Baltimore Female
College, which had been incorporated in
1S49, with power to confer degrees, received
donation of $3.50 per annum, subsequently
increased to 81, 500, for which it educates one
free pupil with use of books, from each Sen
atorial district of the State.
The regular annual appropriations to Male
Colleges and Academies amount to S56, 100;
to the two Female Seminaries and Female
College $500, or less then one-tenth OF what
is paid to the male institutions. Besides this,
since 1868, 100000 extra appropriations
have been made to male institutions, but not
an extra dollar to any female institution.
Since 1872, S150,000 have been paid for the
board of benefciaries in the Male College, on
condition that, after graduation, they should
teach two years in the State. 1t is not sup
posed that, for this outlay, the three Male
Colleges, taken together, have educated thirty
teachers, while the Baltimore Female Col
lege, besides its other work, has trained and
sent forth one hundred and eighty two teach
ers, as shown by the Report of the Trustees,
giving Names dates of graduation and fields
of labor. j t5Il
1t is known that Baltimore City pays three
fifth of the revenues of the State, consequent
ly, of the annual donations to Colleges and
Academies, she pays S36, 900 year; OF the
$500, 900, extra appropriations, she has paid
| $3.50. 700, and of the $150,000 for board OF
benefciaries, $4,000. For all these amounts
this great city of 100000 inhabitants receives
but $500, or the education of three pupils in
the Baltimore Female College, while the
smallest county in the State has its academic
fund of 81 POO This injustice to woman and
the great City of Baltimore is intensified,
when it is considered that she paid her taxes
towards higher education in the State for
sixty-two years without receiving a dollar IN
return. The Trustees of the Female College,
thinking that delicate girls were entitled to
the same aid as stalwart young men, petition
ed the Legislature at the last session, that
'the board of the State benefciaries in the
Baltimore Female College should be paid as
in the three Male Colleges of the State. A
Bill to that effect was introduced, and with
out word of opposition in either House, pass
ed the House of Delegates by a vote of 81 to l6,
and the Senate without dissenting voice.
This Bill would have given free board to
one pupil from'each county, in addition to free
instruction, and, as by the law Of 1868, the
several Orphans Courts were required, in
filling scholarships, to give preference to such
applicants as, after q competitive eXam1na-
ton, were presc11essd by the School Commls-
sioners, it would have had the effect OF slim
ulating the efforts, both of teachers and pu-
pills, through all the counties. But our Gov
ernor, with the feelings of an Autocrat rather
than Democrat, resolves to ignore the action
of the two legislative bodies by pocket veto
of this bill, and that of the Western Maryland
| College. ...~
Though slightly indisposed, he could east
ly have remained at Annapolis, and signed
the bills passed by the Legislature, or rejected
them in a MANLY manner, as any other Gov
ernor would have done. But he preferred
taking recess for two weeks, and in the in
term Speaker Keilholtz is taken sick, and,
May 30 we have the strange scene Of the
Governor and Heads of the Legislature, with
Clerks and Secretaries, and other State Off
Gals, travelling between Annapolis and Bal
timore, forth and back, with a trunk full OF
unsigned bills. 1t was not enough to exhibit
this show once, it was to be repeated again
May 31st. AT the first meeting the Governor
promptly signed the Bill relieving Gamblers
from the penalty of imprisonment, the only
punishment they regarded. They were known
to be powerful political auXiliaries, and their
preying upon.the community, and corrupting
the young and inexperienced, was of no con-
bells are now in full blast.
A bill for the inspection ofmilk, as in other
cities, and against feeding mich COWS with
distilled swill, had passed the Legislature,
despite the distillery lobby, but the Governor
comes to the rescue, asserts the rights of COWS
to their whiskey swill, and refuses to sign the
bill that had been framed in the interest of
the public in general, but especially of nurs-
ing mothers and their sick infants. We know
not to what extent, if any, the decision of his
Excelency may have been influenced by his
0acner of a dairy farm If not q dlstille'y.
The three Male Colleges had secured the
board of their benefciaries, but the Governor
does not sign the Bill for the board of the
benefciaries in the Female College, which
had done the State great service. He signs,
however, ''the appropriation for the Home of
Colored Girls Women of Baltimore and
Maryland! Are your fair daughters of less
account than the Niggerlings of the State
The meeting adjourned, thirty-two bills re-
naming unsi gned, the Governor having first
announced that ''Mistakes are in some of
them, and others require further eXamina-
tom
May 31st the Governor convened the legis-
lative officials again, bringing seventeen bills
with HIM, leaving fifteen in Annapolis as
positively vetoed. Among the seventeen was
the Milk Bill, though it had already been in
Iddorsed a"Not approved - u This, it is pre-
sumed, was done, not that he had any idea of
signing it, but in Difference to public opinion,
as a meeting of the citizens had been called in
relation to the bill. The Governor signed
meeting, saying "He wanted to hear further
on the Oyster Bill and some others" The
trainers of our Constitution, requiring all bills
to be signed during the session of the Legis-
lature, or Immediately after, though clever
men, did not foresee that we should have a
Governor so careful that after two months of
patient thought he would require still further
time for deliberation. But the Governor did
not intend to convene the legislative officials
again; it was merely an unmdnly subterfuge
to tighten public odium by delay. His Auto
cracy thus vetoed twenty-five bills, among
them that of Western Maryland College and
that of the Baltimore Female College, both of
which had passed House and Senate almost
unanimously The bill ofthe former provided
for free tuition for one pupil from each Sena-
torial district of the State; the bill of the lat
ter for free board of one pupil from each dis
trict. Disappointed in his grasping for power