The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-12-03
The Peabody Educational Fund.


Q. S. GRANT and VIM. N. EyARTs of
New York, WILLIAM AIKEN ofSouth Car
olina, Chief Justice MORRISON B. WAITE,
HENRY R. JACKSON Of Georgia, THEo-
DoRE LYMAN and SAMUEL A. GREEN,
of Massachusetts,, RUTHERFORD B.
HAYES of Ohio, Taos. C. MANNING of
Louisiana, ANTHONY J. DRExEL of
Pennsylvania, JAMES D. PORTER of
Tennessee, and the General Agent, DIR. j.
L. N. CURRY. BISHOP WHIPPLE of Min
nesota, and Messrs. SAMUEL WcTMoRE
1.-THE Treasurer) of New York, and A. H
II. STUART of Virginia were absent.
The General Agent, Dr.. CURRY, sub
mitted detailed account of school work
in the several States, from which we
make the following extract:
MISSISSIPPI.
The last Legislature made no change in
| the school law. An Act was passed to "Es-
tabIish an Industrial Institute, aad a
College for the Education of White Girls
in the Arts and Sciences. Among other
things contemplated by law is thorough
normal education. Twenty thousand
dollars was appropriated for the Institute
1t has been located at Columbus, that city
having offered buildings already erected,
and So, 900 in bonds at par.
General J. A. Smith, the, superintendent
writes: ''The Institutes are attracting
unusual interest this year Not only is
| Al r Il,
people generally are taking a liyelier in-
terest in them than at any previous time.
/ Ia fact, there is just now, on small scale,
an educational revival in Mississippi; and
attribute it in no small degree to Institute
work through the agency of the Peabody
Fund"
The total amount expended, Oct.
l, 1888, was $50, 1895, of which Mississippi
received 1850, apportioned as follows:
Scholarships $2,25O; institutes, 81, 600;
Public Schools, $500.
The committee on the defaulted bonds
of Mississippi and Florida, consisting of
the Messrs. THOMAS G. MANNING, of
Louisiana, HENRY r. JACKSON of Geo
rgia, and A. H. H. STUART of Virginia,
made their report, which was accepted
and the vote accompanying it adopted.
The report on the Florida bonds was writ.
ten by General JACKSON; that on the
Mississippi bonds by Judge MANNING, as
follows:
When Mr.. Peabody made the gift to
this Board of the Mississippi bonds, the
amount was eleven hundred thous-
and dollars, and he expressed his conf
dent belief that the payment of the
annual interest would not be longer
delayed. He was careful to inform the
Boa ID that these bonds were not, and
had never been, under the ban of the
Mississippi Government, and he parti-
cularized the distinction between them
and certain other bonds which had been
long before repudiated by the State of
Mississippi.
The Board forebore for several years
to take any action upon these bonds. No
attempt whatever was made for several
/ years to obtain from Mississippi any
payment of interest. Her condition at
that time, like that of most of the
States that are recipients of Mr.. Pea
body's bounty, appealed to the sympa-
thy of the Board, and her inability to
discharge her debt received frank recog-
milton, and so she was not asked to pay.
But in 1871 the Board thought it had
become time TO act, and your Memorial
to the Legislature was presented, praying,
in terms the most respectful, that pro
vision should be made for the payment
of the interest upon these bonds that
Mr.. Peabody had consecrated to sacred
uses. Not the slightest notice was taken
of it.
| 1t is important to bear in mind, that,
up to the time when that Memorial was
presented, the validity of the bonds
held by this Board had never been ques-
toned. 1t is also pertinent to recall the
fact, that from the organization of this
Board, through all those years when
Mississippi was not paying interest on
her bonds and thus increasing our in
come, she was receiving from this Board
even more than her fair share of its
fund.
But if no answer was given directly
to the Memorial subsequent events show
ed that a practical response was in
III 1Ct1, a
amendment was passed through the
Mississippi Legislature repudiating these
bonds outright, and in 1876 this repu-
diation was approved by a second
Legislature. One looks in vain to find
in that legislative act a disclaimer that
the State will be any longer recipient
of that bounty which she thus despoiled.
One naturally expects that the State |
will in future decline to receive any
portion of our income when she has
deliberately determined to withhold from
that income what she owes it. Contri- |
button to it of her own debt should pre-
cede distribution of any portion of |
it to her. But the fact is, that she has
received over $4,000 from our Fund,
besides having a full proportion of the |
scholarships at Nashville College. The |
interest she has withheld from us dur
ing the existence of this Board is $473,- |
$50 That is the sum we would have |
received from her during the seventeen |
years of our existenee, and would have /
distributed, had she paid only the inter /
est annually aecruing upon the bonds |
we hold. Her whole debt to this Board,
principal and interest, nov amounts to
more than million and a half of dol
lars.
1t is needless to remind the Board
that second effort was made in 1882 to
induce the Legislature Of Mississippi to
take some action on this matter. The
effort was as futile as the first. Indeed
nothing can be done in that direction
until another constitutional amendment
is made, and of that there is not the
slightest hope. The bonds held by this
Board will never be paid in whole or in
part, and it is therefore incumbent upon
US to consider whether we are really
carrying opt the wishes of our founder
in permitting Mississippi, while she
withholds one-third Of our annual in
come, to receive any part OF that ghlch
we realize from other sources. She re-
tains In her treasury every year $27 $40 I !
that We ought to haye,-a larger sum (
than We could or should Fatably distri- {
butte to her.
1t is not fair nor just to the children
Of other States that we should take from
thea any part of our realized income
and give It TO Mississippi when she q
Eithholds from our resources every year 9
! larger sum than she is ratably entitled :
%. We therefore recommend that that Q
State be eliminated from the field of our e
operations until she pays the annual 2
interest upon her bonds that We hold, or Z
Until she makes some settlement OF ad
ustment of her debt to this board. Q
And We wish to observe. and to empha-
ize the obsel walton, that this recon- {
nendatiOg is not a punitory measure 2
ut simply natter Of justice to the 9
hildren Of other States, If whose liter !,
sts and rights as participants If Dir. 9
,aabndy ) bounty, we are trustees bound 2
8 take eaFe that they suffer no harm. 7
e g. MAxNING, Chairman. g