Each of these colleges was in return to educate a certain number of students free.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.

This institution, founded in 1869 for the education of the blacks, has had since 1874 an annual appropriation of eight thousand dollars from the State. Eight thousand dollars was also granted in 1870. This appropriation is now suspended until such time as the institution shall cease to educate white students.

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FUND.

The share of Georgia in the land granted for agricultural colleges was two hundred and seventy thousand acres. The donation was accepted in 1866,1 but it was not till 1872 that the Georgia State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts was established at Athens. It is "a distinct organization, complete in all its parts, but still being an integral part of the University of Georgia."2 It received fifteen thousand dollars from the State in 1875.3

Another college was founded in the same year, the North Georgia Agricultural College, at Dahlonega. Two thousand dollars of the annual income from the sales of land were set apart for its support, and twenty-four thousand five hundred dollars additional has since been appropriated.

4

In 1874 the citizens of Milledgeville subscribed two thousand dollars annually to the payment of teachers in a college to be established in that town, and in 1879 the State chartered Middle Georgia Agricultural College there.5 This college gets annually $1,500 from the landscrip fund and $1,000 from the rental of the State buildings at Milledgeville. Additional appropriations have also been received to the amount of $8,500.6

7

Other agricultural colleges have been established at Cuthbert, Thomasville, and Hamilton, all partly supported from the land-scrip fund. This fund was, in 1876, $243,000,

All the above colleges are considered as branches of the State University. They have received assistance from the State to the amount of $57,000.

EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION.

By an act of 1850 exemption from taxation, hitherto confined to the University of Georgia, was extended to all other colleges."

"Letter from the Secretary, D. H. Hill, Jr., December 2, 1888.

7Laws of 1878-79, 97. Laws of 1880-81, 100.

Speech by Hon. A. J. Peeler, Austin, Tex., 1877.

Cobb's Digest, 1083, 1085, 1096, note; Laws of 1849-50, 379.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

Besides the article in the Constitution of 1777, already referred to, we find in that of 17981 the following:

"The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning; and the Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, give such further donations and privileges to those already established as may be necessary to secure the objects of their institution; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, at their next session, to provide effectual measures for the improvement and permanent security of the funds and endowments of such institutions."

The Constitution of 18652 reads thus:

"The General Assembly shall have power to appropriate money for the promotion of learning and science, and to provide for the education of the people; and shall provide for the early resumption of the regular exercises of the University of Georgia, by the adequate endowment of the same."

SUMMARY.

Georgia has pursued a consistent policy of State aid to higher education. Institutions for literary, scientific, professional, military, industrial, and technical education have received frequent assistance from the State. The policy of utilizing the public domain for the endowment of higher institutions of learning, put into legislative form by Georgia in 1784, marks a departure in the history of American State education, and for this Georgia deserves much credit.

The direct assistance of the State, exclusive of land endowments and scholarships, may thus be summarized:

Liberal provision for higher education in Florida was made by the United States. Two townships of land were granted in 1823,* and in the act admitting the State to the Union there were set apart "two en

1Art. IV, sec. 13; Poore, 395. Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1867,100. Art. II, sec. 5,3; Poore, 406.

* See Education in Florida, George Gary Bush. (Circular of Information No. 7, 1888, Bureau of Education.)

U.S. Statutes at Large, III, 756.

tire townships in addition to the two townships already reserved, for the use of two seminaries of learning, one to be located east and the other west of the Suwanee River." The duty of selecting and securing these lands was by an act of 1835 intrusted to the register of the land office. Eight years later five trustees were appointed to take charge of and lease the seminary lands. All sums that had been or should be obtained from this source were to be loaned on bond and mortgage at eight per cent.3 In 1847 the register of public lands was given power to rent or sell the lands, and invest the proceeds in United States stock.4

The first move toward realizing the object of the grant was made in 1846, when a board composed of two persons from each section of the State was directed to give its views in regard to establishing the two universities. An act of January 24, 1851, authorized the establishment of two seminaries of learning; the one east of the Suwanee was to be a normal school; the one on the west was to give instruction in the mechanic arts, in husbandry and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens. As soon as the buildings of either seminary were ready for use, one-half of the interest on the seminary fund was to be passed to its credit.

It is interesting to note that on the day the above act was passed a memorial of the Legislature to Congress requested that permission be given the State to appropriate the proceeds of the seminary lands to common schools. A similar petition appeared in 1877, on the ground that it would be better to maintain efficient common schools and a normal school. Both efforts seem to have been unsuccessful.

7

Liberal aid being granted by the inhabitants of the two towns, East Florida Seminary was located at Ocala (but afterwards removed to Gainesville) and West Florida Seminary at Tallahassee. In 1869 they were made free schools, with the exception of the classical department of East Florida Seminary.10

1 Act of March 3, 1845.

2 The Territory had assisted education by means of lotteries. Quincy Academy had been authorized to raise one thousand two hundred dollars by a lottery, while a like device was to secure ten thousand dollars for establishing and maintaining free schools in St. Augustine. See Laws of 1834, 56, 64.

3 Laws of 1843, 36. (See also Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1876, 61-63, where the whole history of the seminary lands can be followed.)

9 Laws of 1852-53, 83; Laws of 1856-57, 28; Laws of 1865-66, 50.

10 Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1876, 63.

STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The proceeds of the sale of land scrip, invested in United States or State bonds, were by an act of 1870 to form the endowment of Florida Agricultural College,1 Its site was fixed at Eau Gallie, but as this was "a remote and comparatively unsettled and inaccessible part of the State," the Legislature in 1877 ordered that the college should be removed to any central point the trustees should select.2 Lake City was chosen, and the college was organized in 1885. Up to 1887 $30,750 had been received from the State.3

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

Article X of the Constitution of 1838 reads as follows:

"SECTION 1. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or may hereafter be, granted by the United States for the use of schools and a seminary or seminaries of learning, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, *** shall be inviolably appropriated to the use of schools and seminaries of learning, respectively, and to no other purpose.

"SECTION 2. The General Assembly shall take such measures as may be necessary to preserve from waste or damage all land so granted and appropriated to the purpose of education."4

The substance of these provisions reappears in the Constitution of 1865. The Constitution of 1868 contains the following provision:

"The Legislature shall provide a uniform system of common schools, and a university, and shall provide for the liberal maintenance of the same. Instruction in them shall be free."5

Educational property may be exempted by law from taxation.6

SUMMARY.

Although Florida's educational policy has been one of State aid, her conduct is more creditable in the field of common schools than in the field of higher education, where it is only of late years that much activity has been manifested. The appropriations for the latter purpose, so far as ascertained, amount to $30,750, for the Agricultural College.

1 Laws of 1870, 45.

2 Laws of 1877, 103.

3 Report of Commissioner of Education for 1886-87, 710.

4 Poore: Charters and constitutions, 326. Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1867-68, 112.

5Art. IX, sec. 2, Rep. Com'r Educ., 1867-68, 127; Poore, 355. In 1869 an act was passed in conformity to this provision. It was made the duty of the Board of Education "to use the available income and appropriations to the university or seminary fund in establishing one or more departments in the University," beginning with normal and preparatory work, but keeping in view the establishment of a university on a broad and liberal basis. See Laws, second session of 1869, 9, and further, Bush, Education in Florida, 46, 47.

6 Art. XIII, sec. 1; Poore, 357.

880-No. 1—14

The following extract taken from a letter received from Mr. Albert J. Russell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Florida, dated July 27, 1888, indicates the work being done by that State toward higher education. It indicates that Florida is assisting State institutions.

"There is no published statement of appropriations, except what is given in the journals of the various Legislatures. An annual appropriation of eight thousand dollars is made for normal colleges, and one of five thousand dollars for the Deaf-Mute Institute. These are fixed. Each Legislature, however, is frequently called upon for appropriations for the State college and State seminary. In 1885 ten thousand dollars were given to the State college, and in 1887 seven thousand five hundred dollars more to the same college and ten thousand dollars to the East Florida Seminary. Each of these institutions has a permanent inviolable invested fund of its own, the former one hundred and ninetyfive thousand dollars, and the latter ninety-five thousand dollars, with sixty thousand acres of land unsold and in the market. The State also appropriates annually one thousand five hundred dollars for teachers' institutes. I believe these facts cover the field of our appropriations.