appropriation of twenty thousand dollars for the erection of buildings for the new institution, and also an endowment of two townships of land. It was desired that this grant should be located east of the Mississippi River, as it was known that that stream would be the western boundary of the new State.1

The Delegate was unable to secure the twenty thousand dollars; but by an Act of Congress approved June 12, 1838, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to set apart and reserve from sale, out of any public lands within the Territory of Wisconsin to which the Indian title had been, or might be, extinguished, and not otherwise appropriated, a quantity of land not exceeding two entire townships, for the support of a University, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever. This land was to be located in tracts of not less than an entire section each, corresponding with any of the legal divisions into which the public lands are authorized to be surveyed.

One or two portions of this Act are worthy of note here. The earlier Congressional grants for university purposes had provided for the location of the townships en bloc. In the grants to Michigan and Wisconsin a different policy was inaugurated. Authority was given to select the lands in seventy-two parcels from unoccupied lands in any portion of the State, and opportunity was thus given to secure, by judicious choice, excellent lands for the endowment of the University. The sequel will show how shamefully this opportunity was abused.

Again, the land was given for the support of a University. The grant seemed to contemplate that the proceeds should be used for the maintenance of an institution whose grounds, buildings, apparatus, and all essentials to its organization should be furnished by the State at its own expense. The results of ignoring this manifest intent of the grant were most disastrous, and in time brought the University to very narrow straits.

An attempt was made by the Board of Visitors of the Territorial University to have these 46,080 acres of land put under their control; but the land was never so appropriated. The powers of the Board of Visitors continued throughout its existence of nearly ten years to be merely nominal. Its only office was to keep alive the university idea.

Something was accomplished during the territorial period in the way of selecting the lands. Commissioners for this purpose were appointed by the Legislature in January, 1839. But nothing was done by them, and, in 1841, Nathaniel F. Myer was appointed to select a quantity, not exceeding 10,248 acres. The duty was performed with care and good

The Territory of Wisconsin in 1837 included, outside the boundaries given to the State on its admission into the Union, what now forms the States of Iowa and Minnesota, together with a large portion of Dakota. By Act of Congress, June 12, 1838, the limits of the Territory were contracted so that of all the territory beyond the present bounds of the State, the north-eastern portion of Minnesota alone remained. This, in turn, was lopped off when the State was admitted in 1848.

judgment. The subject of the appraisal of the university lands will be treated in another connection.

Summary.-Up to the time of the admission of Wisconsin as a State, in 1848, no progress had been made toward the establishment of a University beyond the location and appraisal of part of the seventy-two sections of land donated in 1838 by the General Government. A Board of Visitors of the "University of the Territory of Wisconsin" had been in existence, but had served no function other than the merely passive one of perpetuating the expectation of a University, and thus preventing the dissipation of the resources of the prospective institution.

LANDS AND FUNDS.

In the 46,080 acres of the grant of 1838 was the possibility of a most liberal university fund. But, although Wisconsin might have taken warning from the evils that had accompanied the administration of the university grants in the four States previously created out of the NorthWest Territory, she neglected to take counsel from this experience and even fell into special error of her own. The history of the Wisconsin grants is important and interesting, not only as a contrast to the more enlightened and faithful management of similar trusts in other States, especially those admitted in later years, but also as being intimately connected with the fortunes of the University, at least in the earlier portion of its career.

Selection of the Lands.-By joint resolution of January 11, 1840, the · Governor of the Territory was authorized to appoint one competent person in each of the land districts in the Territory to locate a portion, not exceeding two-thirds, of all the lands given by Congress for the support of a University. The lands were to be selected by the commissioners in equal quantities in each of the districts, as best to promote the interests of the fund. No improved land or lands claimed by actual occupants should be selected. Within thirty days after making the selections in any one district, the commissioner was to give public notice thereof, in a newspaper printed in his land district, for six successive weeks, and on completing the selections, make a report to the Governor, to be by him approved and transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, with a request that the several tracts of land therein mentioned might be set apart and reserved for the intended purpose. During the year 1840, 30,748 acres were located; but the lands set apart in the Mineral Point land district, although twice selected, were not approved by the Secretary of the Treasury. In the other two districts about 20,497 acres were reserved, leaving yet to be set apart on February 3, 1846, a fraction over 25,582 acres. This residue of the seventy-two sections was located during the territorial period. Appraisal and Sale of the Lands. -Notwithstanding steps were taken to induce the Legislature to apply the grant of 1838 to the "University of the Territory of Wisconsin," and to put the proceeds of sale under

the control of the Board of Visitors of that nominal institution, it was never so disposed of. The State Constitution made these lands a basis for the support of a State University. Measures were immediately taken to make the fund available. The Legislature, by an act approved August 12, 1848, authorized the appointment of three persons in each county as State appraisers of school and university lands. They were required to take an oath "to appraise the same at a fair valuation, without reference to any improvements made thereon, but giving due consideration to other circumstances, such as proximity to settlements, credit for purchase money, etc." Sixty-three sections were soon appraised at an average valuation of $2.78 per acre, ranging from $1.13 in Grant County to $7.06 in Washington County. In many cases the appraisements were ridiculously small. Immigrants were pouring into the new State and the country was being rapidly settled. The lands in a short time would be worth many-fold the appraised value. The policy adopted by the State was not that of securing the largest possible fund for the University, but of attracting settlers by the low prices of land. This course, though undoubtedly of temporary advantage to the State at large by promoting immigration, was disastrous to the permanent interests of the University.

The Congressional grant was bestowed, not for the foundation, but for the support of the University; not as an original basis, but as an endowment. These lands were not the property of the State to be disposed of at will and pleasure; they were held in trust to be sacredly guarded. A faithful administration of this trust would have required that the lands should be sold at the highest possible price, and, if necessary for this purpose, they should have been withheld from sale for a considerable time. But the State was recreant to the trust reposed in her. Reasonable care and judgment had been bestowed upon the selection of the lands, and the appraisers had opportunity to insure to the Univer sity the basis of a magnificent endowment; but it was preferred that even the best lands should be sold at the low Government price, in order to enhance the attraction to settlers to the highest possible extent.

The lands selected were often found to be pre-empted under the United States homestead laws, and new lands had to be selected and appraised at considerable expense. In January, 1850, the regents called the attention of the Legislature to these illegal appropriations and appraisals. They pointed out that "while the school lands, which are of course lands of ordinary quality, are appraised at an average value of $3.44 per acre, the selected university lands are appraised at the average value of $2.78, being sixty-six cents less per acre than the appraised value of the school lands."

Of course no effort was made to obtain more than the appraised valuation for the lands. A law of 1849 authorized sales and provided for the investment of the proceeds. The minimum price was fixed at the appraised valuations, but these were too easily converted into a maxi

mum. Many sales were made during the following year. In 1850 a better policy was adopted, looking to a larger ultimate fund; the minimum price was raised to ten dollars per acre. Notwithstanding the sale during the next year of more than a thousand acres at or above the increased price, the pressure brought to bear upon the Legislature was sufficient to procure the passage of an act reducing the minimum price to seven dollars an acre, with some exceptions. Pre-emptors were given credit for the excess over the new minimum price.

But this more enlightened policy in reference to the university trust was but temporary. The particular evil in the administration of the educational trust funds in Wisconsin was that of using the national grants in a way to attract immigration at the expense of the interests of the trusts. The advancement of the material interests of the State was laudable in itself, but there is not a particle of justification for sacrificing permanent educational interests to more rapid settlement. But the latter became the settled policy of the State. In 1852 new appraisals, at a minimum of three dollars per acre, were directed, and most of the remaining lands were accordingly valued and sold at that price. The sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was all that was realized from the seventy-two sections. From a similar grant Michigan realized over half a million.

In 1848 seventy-two sections of saline lands were granted to Wisconsin. As there were no saline lands in the State, the Legislature petitioned Congress to substitute for them seventy-two additional sections for the University. The desired substitution was made in 1854. But, although the lands were carefully selected, the errors and shortcomings displayed in the management of the former grant were repeated in this. Sales were made on the terms fixed by the law of 1852, absurdly low as they were. In 1859 the provisions for appraisal were repealed, leaving the minimum price, however, at three dollars; and in 1864, in spite of the constitutional provision requiring appraisal before sale, the price of all lands never appraised was fixed at three dollars per acre.

System of Investments.-The system of investments was pernicious, and caused great losses to the fund. The proceeds of sales were loaned by the commissioners-the secretary of state, treasurer, and attorneygeneral-to individuals in sums of not over five hundred dollars to each, upon real estate mortgages. It was impossible for three individuals at the capital to make safe investments to thousands of persons all over the State, of whose responsibility they knew nothing. The absurdity of the system was exposed by the land commissioners in their report for 1861: "The State government having assumed the management of a trust fund, ought, at least, to manage it as prudently and carefully as a man of ordinary judgment and discretion would manage his own af fairs. Yet, would any prudent capitalist invest his own money in loans to men he did not know, taking security upon lands he never saw, with no better evidence of their value than the appraisement of two men of

whom he knew nothing?" In 1862 investments in State bonds were authorized, and subsequent laws provided for loaning the funds to cities and counties, and for investments in United States bonds. But great losses had occurred under the old system of loaning to individuals; exactly how much these were it is impossible to say.

Disposition of the University Funds.-Not only was the trust reposed in the State betrayed and the interests of the University sacrificed by the illegal or inadequate appraisals of the lands and the low prices fixed, but the fund when accumulated was diverted from its true objects. The grants were bestowed, not for the foundation, but for the support of the University. But loans of twenty five thousand dollars and fifteen thousand dollars were authorized by the Legislature from the principal of the fund to build North and South Dormitories. It was necessary, therefore, to use the interest largely for the repayment of these loans, instead of for its true purpose of carrying on instruction and providing a library and appliances.

The grant of 46,080 acres in 1854 renewed the hopes of the friends of the University. The report of the regents for that year pictures the future in glowing terms: "After the reduction of this new grant to the productive form, and the extinction of the debt, the annual income of the whole endowment will not fall far short of twenty-two thousand dollars, and receipts from other sources will swell this amount to twenty-five thousand dollars. These conditions will enable the Board to carry on successfully the collegiate, normal, and agricultural departments; to provide for the additional structures without the accumulation of debt; to make yearly additions to the apparatus, library, cabinet, and other collections; and, finally, to establish the professional schools of law and medicine." But these just hopes of what should be realized from the new endowment were vain; in a few years the University passed through the severest crisis in its history; fresh loans for the erection of the main hall threw an additional burden upon the funds, so that the closest economy barely sufficed to prevent the temporary closing of the University. Finally, the income of the University in 1866 had dwindled to a mere pittance of five or six thousand dollars.

In 1862 Wisconsin received two hundred and forty thousand acres of land by virtue of the Agricultural College Act. It is not necessary to review the old tale of low appraisals and of sales at almost nominal prices. The history of the application of this grant, in its productive form, belongs properly to the second period of our history. And we may now leave this story of mismanagement and fraud to review the internal affairs of the University. When we return to the subject of the funds and endowments of the institution, we shall find that the year 1866 forms a real and decisive turning point; we shall observe a different attitude toward the school on the part of both Legislature and public, and we shall see an attempt to atone for these errors of the past.