The Indianapolis journal., 1884-08-23

kind Of absurdity that is not funny. There
are many forms of ignorance that no one would
think of laughing at But the infinite foolery
Of this blundering, blathering boast of Senator
Voorhees, is laughable, and nothing else. How in
thename of Momus anything with head on could
have been in public life twenty-five or thirty
years and learned so little, so much less or
worse than nothing, of State history is
psychological mystery as puzzling as the mixed
idiocy and musical talent of Blind Tom. Let us
look to the record for the origin of our school
system and our school fund
HOW WE GOT THE CONGRESSIONAL TOWNSHIP
FUND.
Everybody of mature age in the State posi-
bly, including Mr. Voorhees,, knows that our
school fund is derived mainly from two sources,
the sale Of one section of land called the school
section, in each township, and the avails OF the
sinking fund connected with the old State Bank.
These were created, says the Senator, thirty
four years ago. by the Constitution and the
Democratic party. Let us see, On the Goth of
May, 1885, the Continental Congress, which was
all the national government we hadat that time,
enacted an ordinance for the survey and gov
ernment of the Northwest Territory, ceded by
Virginia to the nation in December, 1888 That
ordinance said: There shall be reserved the lot
No 16 of every township for the maintenance Of
public schools within the said township" The
far more celebrated ordinance of July Ii,
1787 declared in article 3, that religion,
morality and knowledge being necessary
to good government and the happiness of man
kind, schools and the means of education shall
forever be encouraged Away back, ninety
oI
township fund were planted, sixty-five years be-
fore the Constitution which Mr. Voorhees, says
created it and all the rest Of the school fund.
In 1903 the Territorial Legislature provided for
the leasing of the school lands by the courts for
the purpose of improving them.n The people
began early to cultivate that fund which Mr..
Voorhees, says did not exist till forty two years
after In 1910 the Territorial Legislature pro
vided for the appointment of trustees for these
school lands, and prohibited the destruction Of
timber on them.
CREATION OF A SCHOOL SYSTEM
The first constitutional convention, in 1876,
made the following emphatic declaration in sec
ton 8:
knowledge and learning generally diffused
through a country being essential to the preser-
vation of a free government and spreading the
opportunities and advantages of education
through the various parts of the country being
highly conducive to this end it shall be the duty
of the General Assembly to provide by law for
the improvement of such lands as are or may be
granted to this State for the use of schools, and
to apply any fund which may be raised from
such lands, or from any other quarter, to the
Accomplishment of the grand object for which
they may be intended. The
General Assembly shall from time to time pass
such laws as shall be calculated to encourage in
ment. It shall be the duty of the General As
sembly to provide for general system of edu-
cation in a regular gradation from township
schools to State university wherein tuition
shall be gratis and equally open to all.
Here was a constitutional provision for free
school system, with a fund derived. from
Congress to sustain it, thirty-fou years before
any such provision had been made or. fund
created According to Mr. Voorhees,, the Con-
stitution of 1850, says:
knowledge and learning generally diffused
throughout the community being essential to
the preservation of free government, it shall
be the duty of the General Assembly to EN-
courage by all suitable means, moral, intel
lectual scientific and agricultural improvement,
and to provide by law for a general and uniform
system Of common schools, wherein tuition shall
be without charge and equally open to all
This merely re-enacts or confirms the order of
that the Democratic party in the constitutional
convention Of 1850, had nothing at all to do with
the creation of the public school system or the
fund that was intended to support it. The fund
was sxty-five years old, the provision for the
system thirty-four years old, when that conven
ton met. Such ignorance as Mr.. Voorhees, dis
plays in this matter, we say is ludicrous. No
other public man in the State could have made
so laughable blunder.
HOW WE GOT THE SINKING FUND.
The largest component of the school fund came
from the sinking fund created by the charter of
the old State Bank, january 28, 1884, sixteen
years before it existed, according to Mr.. Voor-
hees. Here are the provisions, copied from the
Acts of 1833-34:
Section 15 There shall be deducted from the
dividends and retained in bank each year. the sum of
twelve and half cents from each share of stock other
than that held by the State which shall constitute
part of the fund to be devoted to the pur
poses of common school education under the direction
of the General Assembly and shall be suffered to
main in bank and accumulate until such appropriation
by the General Assembly and said tax shall be in lieu
OF all other taxes and the stock in said
bank.
This provision applied all the taxes paid by the
bank to the establishment and support of free
schools. The following sections, 1I3 and ia,
created the sinkingfun and appropriated its final
assets to the creation of permanent fund for
the support of free schools
Section 113. There shall be created a fund to be
called the sinking fund.- which shall consist of all un
applied balances of the loan loans procured on the
part of the State for its stock in the State Bank OF
FOR the purpose of being loaned to stockholders to
meet their stock installments In the bank; the semi
annual payments of interest the State loans to
stockholders, and the sums that shall be received in
payment of said loans; the dividends that shall be de-
cared and paid by the State Bank the State stock
and the accrung such portions of the stock belong
ing to the other stockholders shall have been paid
for by the loan the part Of the State and which
shall not have been repaid by such stockholders.
Sec. ia The principal and interest of said sink
ing fund shall be reserved and set apart for the pur
pose Of liqudating and paying off the loan loans