SEC. 11. Each city and county shall be held accountable for the destruction of school property that may take place within its limits by incendiaries or open vio

lence.

SEC. 12. The general assembly shall fix the salaries and prescribe the duties of all school officers, and shall make all needful laws and regulations to carry into effect the public free-school system provided for by this article.

Article VII, on county organizations, contains the following section respecting

SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

SEC. 3. Each township shall be divided into so many compactly-located school districts as may be deemed necessary: Provided, That no school districts shall be formed containing less than one hundred inhabitants. In each school district there shall be elected or appointed annually one school trustee, who shall hold his office three years: Provided, That at the first election held under this provision there shall be three trustees elected, whose terms shall be one, two, and three years, respectively.

83

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION RESPECTING EDUCATION.

The following propositions, slightly modified since their first publication in Special Circular No. 4, contain the main features of a system of public instruction which the people of every State, speaking through their constitutional convention, should, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Education, make obligatory on the legislature to provide:

1. The authority and duty of the legislature to establish, aid, support, and supervise schools of every grade, and all institutions and agencies of education, science, and the arts.

2. The security against diminution or diversion of all educational funds and benefactions.

3. The certainty of a minimum rate of taxation, increasing with the population, sufficient every year to secure the elementary instruction of all children within the State who shall apply, by teachers professionally trained, and in schools legally inspected and approved.

4. The distribution of all State appropriations derived from taxation or funds, on such conditions and in modes as will secure local taxation or individual contributions for the same purpose, a lively municipal or public interest in the expenditure of both sums, the constant co-operation of parents at home in realizing the work of the school, and the regular attendance of pupils.

5. A State board of education, having supervision of all educational institutions incorporated or aided by the State, and constituted in such way as to secure literary, scientific, and professional attainment and experience, freedom from denominational or party preponderance, sympathy with the wants of different sections and occupations, and independence of local or special influence.

6. A system of inspection, administered by the State board, intelligent, professional, frequent, and independent of local or institutional control, with the widest and fullest publicity of results.

7. State scholarships, securing free instruction in any higher institution incorporated or aided by the State, conditioned on fitness to enter and profit by the same, ascertained by open competitive examination.

8. A retiring fund, for teachers of public schools, made up of an annual allowance by the State, and an equal payment by those who register to secure its benefits, conditioned on prolonged service in the business of teaching.

9. An obligation on parents and guardians not to allow children to grow up in barbarism, ignorance, and vagrancy; and the exercise of the elective franchise, or of any public office, conditioned on the ability of the applicant to read understandingly the Constitution and the laws, and forfeited by any parent or guardian of children who neglects to secure the formal instruction of such children between the ages of 6 and 14 years, for at least eight months in the year, or to pay for their maintenance, if sent to a prison or reformatory, while minors.

NATIONAL LAND GRANTS,

FOR

EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.

STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS.

PRELIMINARY REPORT.

THE following pages contain the Act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, by which ten million acres of Public Lands were donated to the several States for the benefit of Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts; the Legislation of such States as have accepted the conditions of the grant and provided for the establishment of such Colleges; and an account of such Institutions as have thus far been established on the basis of the National Land Grants, and the Legislation of the States respecting the same.

NATIONAL LAND GRANTS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS.

3. STATE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE AND THE

CIRCULAR RESPECTING SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,

Washington, D. C., September, 1867.

To the authorities in charge of the Colleges and Schools established or aided by the Congressional appropriation "for the benefit of Agricul ture and the Mechanic Arts." (Act of July 2, 1862.)

THE undersigned, in the discharge of his duties as the National Commissioner of Education, has been directed by Congress to prepare a report setting forth the history of all the appropriations by the General Government for the promotion of Education. As a portion of this report, it is important that full returns should be given in respect to the organization of the Schools of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts which have received the benefit of the land-scrip issued by authority of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1862. These institutions as a class are so new in this country, and so much thought has been expended upon them, and at the same time so much remains to be ascertained in respect to their practical efficiency, even in the states where they exist, that a comparison of their various charters or acts of incorporation, programmes of study, regulations, funds, buildings, and collections is imperatively called for. Herewith you will find transcripts of the organic law of Congress, and also of all those state enactments consequent thereon, which have come to the knowledge of this Department. You will also find specific statements in respect to two Scientific Colleges in two of the oldest states of the Union, illustrating the kind of information which the undersigned desires to secure from every similar establishment.

Under these circumstances, you will contribute to the solution of a problem of momentous interest to the people of the United States, if you will respond as promptly and as fully as possible to the following requests. Letters and Documents addressed to the undersigned, and marked Official Business, may be forwarded free of postage.

I. Please forward one or more copies of any or all the documents published in your state respecting this national grant; especially,

(a) Any state laws or amendments to the state laws bearing on this subject, not given in the following pages

(b) The official reports required by the act of congress from every institution.

(e) Catalogues, circulars, programmes of study, regulations, etc., issued by the institution under your charge.