COMMON SCHOOLS. I. The first provision made by law for the creation of a Common School Fund in Tennessee was by an act passed in the year 1823. It established offices for receiving entries of vacant lands north and east of a certain line, which passes across the State, called the Congressional Reservation Line. These lands were to be entered at 12 cents per acre; and the moneys received were to be paid by the entry-takers, every three months, to the Agents of the Bank of the State of Tennessee in their respective counties, except Davidson and Knox, in which counties they were to be paid to the principal banks. All these moneys were to be lent out by the banks and their agents, and the principal was to "remain and constitute a perpetual and exclusive fund for the establishment and promotion of Common Schools in each and every county in the State." II. The taxes on those lands were also to constitute a part of the perpetual fund, and the tax collectors were to keep them separate, and pay them over to the bank and its agents, who were to make a semi-annual distribution of the interest upon the proceeds of those lands and taxes, among the School Commissioners created by the same law. III. By an act passed in 1827, the following funds were "appropriated to the encouragement and support of Common Schools forever." 1. All the capital of the new State Bank, except the one half of the sum already received, and the interest on that capital. This capital was a million of dollars, "in bills emitted on the credit and security of the borrowers, the whole to be warranted by the State on the proceeds of the sales of its unappropriated lands." 2. The proceeds of the sales of the Hiwassee lands. 3. All lands previously appropriated in the State to the use of schools. 4. All the vacant and unappropriated land in the State, to which the State had, or might have, title. 5. All the rents and mesne profits of School lands, accrued and not already appropriated, or to accrue. 6. All the funds denominated school, or common school funds, in the act of 1823, not already otherwise disposed of. 7. The donation made to the State by Mason Lee, of South Carolina, with a certain exception. 8. The donation of John Rice, of 5,000 acres of land. 9. All other donations that had been, or might be, made to the State, unless for some other specific purpose. 10. All the stock owned by the State in the old bank of the State, at Knoxville, amounting to 400 shares of the stock of that bank, together with the dividends due thereon. 11. Escheated lands. 12. All the personal effects of intestates having no kindred entitled by the laws of distribution to the same. IV. By the amended Constitution of 1834, art. 11, § 10 "The fund, called the Common School Fund, and all the lands and proceeds thereof, dividends, stocks, and other property of every description whatever, heretofore by law appropriated by the General Assembly of the State for the use of Common Schools, and all such as shall hereafter be appropriated, and the interest thereof, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support and encouragement of Common Schools throughout the State, and for the equal benefit of the people thereof; and no law shall be made authorizing said fund, or any part thereof, to be diverted to any other use than the support and encouragement of Common Schools; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to appoint a Board of Commissioners for such term of time as they may think proper, who shall have the general superintendence of said fund, and who shall make a report of the condition of the same, from time to time, under such rules, regulations, and restrictions as may be required by law." V. This Board, consisting of the Treasurer, Comptroller of the Treasury, and an executive officer called the Superintendent of Public Iustruction, was created by an act passed at the session of 1835-6, and was made a body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession, and the power of holding and possessing property of every kind in trust, for the use of common schools, by the name and style of the "Board of. Commissioners of Common Schools for the State of Tennessee." As a preliminary measure to the organization of the schools, it was made the chief business of this Board, and especially of the Superintendent, to collect the Common School Fund, and to invest it in the stock of the Planters' Bank. VI. By an act passed at the session of 1837-8, the "Bank of Tennessee" was established, and "the whole of the Common School Fund, whether vested in the stock of the then existing banks of the State, or in the hands of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or in the hands of county agents or other persons, except so much as may have been vested in any works of internal improvement, was made a part of the capital of that Bank. And the Superintendent was to pay the fund, as well as the proceeds of certain lands, to the Bank as part of its capital, and was to receive from the bank State stock, or certificates of debt therefor. Of the dividends of the bank, one hundred thousand dollars was annually set apart for Common Schools, and the faith of the State pledged for its annual appropriation to that object, and eighteen thousand dollars to Academies. VII. The school fund having been thus created, and a large part of it collected and invested under these laws, an act was passed at the same session of 1837 -8, "to establish a system of common schools in the State," reënacted and amended by an act passed at the session of 1839-40, by which it is made the duty of the superintendent, every year, on the third Monday in July, to apportion the school moneys to the counties, according to the ratio of their white children between the ages of 6 and 16 years, respectively, as compared with the white children of the whole State within those ages, ascertained by the county school commissioners. $117,087.40 The am't distributed on the 3d Monday, 15th July, 1844, was* ceived about 47 1-7 cents. * The amount distributed on the 3d Monday of July, 1842, was $119,750 ; and on the 3d Monday of July, 1843, was $116,750. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS. 1. Washington, Johnson, Hawkins, Sullivan, Carter, Green, and Cocke counties. 2. Sevier, Claiborne, Morgan, Jefferson, Campbell, Blount, Anderson, Munroe, and Grainger. 3. Rhea, Knox, Bradley, Polk, McMinn, Marion, Roane, Meigs, Hamilton, and Bledsoe. 4. Coffee, Warren, Overton, Van Buren, Fentress, White, De Kalb, and Jackson. 5. Franklin, Marshall, Lincoln, and Bedford. 6. Hardin, Hickman, Maury, Giles, Lawrence, and Wayne. 7. Williamson, Wilson, Cannon, and Rutherford. 8. Sumner, Smith, and Davidson. 9. Humphreys, Dickson, Montgomery, Henry, Stewart, Robertson, and Benton. 10. Shelby, Hardeman, Fayette, Haywood, McNairy, Lauderdale, and Tipton. 11. Carroll, Madison, Weakley, Gibson, Perry, Penderson, and Obion. The Senate consists of 38 members, elected for four years, one fourth being elected every year. The House of Representatives consists of 100, elected annually on the 1st Monday in August. Pay, $3 a day, besides mileage. The Speaker receives $6 a day, and the Clerks $10 a day each. The State is divided into eighteen Circuits or Districts, and the following are the Circuit Judges, who have each a salary of $1,200, except the Judge of the 5th Circuit, who receives $1,500, and the Judge of the 12th, $1,300 Each Circuit has an attorney, who receives $300 and fees. The Governor is authorized to make such temporary appointments of Engineers, as may be deemed expedient by the Board. FINANCES. The State debt is $4,064,500, of which $615,000 is at the rate of 5 per cent., and the balance at 6 per cent. interest. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund have promptly paid the interest on the debt. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund are W. Owsley, Governor and Chairman ex officio; John Tilford, President of the Northern Bank of Kentucky; Virgil McKnight, President of the Bank of Kentucky; Joshua B. Bowles, President of the Bank of Louisville; Ben. Hardin, Secretary and Treasurer. Banks. There are three principal Banks. (1.) The Bank of Kentucky, at Louisville; capital, $3,700,000, of which the State owns 7,239 shares, of $100 each. It has branches at Lexington, Maysville, Danville, Greensburgh, Hopkinsville, and Frankfort. Virgil Mc Knight, President, and Geo. C. Gwathmey, Cashier. (2.) Northern Bank of Kentucky, at Lexington; capital, $2,237,000. John Tilford, President; M. T. Scott, Cashier. It has branches at Paris, Richmond, Covington, and Louisville. The State owns 2,540 shares, at $100 each. The usual dividend is 7 per cent. per annum. (3.) Bank of Louisville; capital, $1,083,800, branches at Paducah and Flemingsburgh. The State owns 406 shares. The usual dividend is 6 per cent. Value of taxable property, in 1843, $196,729,033; white males over 21, in 1843, 124,700. Total revenue, $312,235.86, exclusive of Bank stocks, tolls on rivers and roads, and profits of the Penitentiary. Surplus in the Treasury, Oct. 10, 1843, $64,614.10 Board of Education. Ryland T. Dillard, of Lexington, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Chairman ex officio. Salary, $750 and expenses. Ben. Hardin, Secretary of State, and Owen G. Cates, Attorney General, members ex officio. STATE INSTITUTIONS. - Lunatic Asylum, at Lexington, founded in 1822 Average number of inmates during 1843, Deaf and Dumb Asylum, at Danville, founded in 1822. Pupils, Penitentiary, established in 1798. Number of convicts in 1843, 66 Average annual profits for four preceding years, $28,000. Number of Boats that have passed, and amount of Tolls received, on the 170 24 19 166 |