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Majority against repeal, 25,038.

In his annual message at the opening of the Legislature of 1851, Governor HUNT thus adverted to the subject:

"The operations of the act of 1849, establishing free schools, have not

produced all the beneficial effects, nor imparted the general satisfaction anticipated by the friends of the measure. It has been the policy of our State from an early period, to promote the cause of popular education by liberal and enlightened legislation. A munificent fund created by a series of measures, all aiming at the same great result, has been dedicated by the Constitution to the support of common schools, and the annual dividend from this source will gradually increase. The duty of the State to provide such means and facilities as will extend to all its children the blessings of education, and especially to confer upon the poor and unfortunate a participation in the benefits of our common schools, is a principle which has been fully recognized and long acted upon by the Legislature and the people.

"The vote of 1849, in favor of the free school law, and the more recent vote by a reduced majority against its repeal, ought doubtless to be regarded as a re-affirmation of this important principle, but not of the provisions of the bill, leaving it incumbent upon the Legislature, in the exercise of a sound discretion, to make such enactments as will accomplish the general design, without injustice to any of our citizens. An essential change was made by the law under consideration, in imposing the entire burthen of the.schools upon property, in the form of a tax, without reference to the direct benefits derived by the tax payer. The provisions of the act for carrying this plan into effect, have produced oppressive inequalities and loud complaints.

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"In some districts the discontent and strife attendant upon these evils, have disturbed the harmony of society. An earnest effort should be made to reconcile differences of opinion, to remedy the grievances arising from the imperfect operation of the law, and to equalize the weight of taxation by such principles of justice and equity as will ensure popular sanction. The success of our schools must depend, in a great degree, upon the united counsels and friendly co-operation of the people in each small community composing a district, and nothing can be more injurious to the system of common school education than feuds and contentions among those who are responsible for its healthful action and preservation.

"It cannot be doubted that all property, estates, whether large or small, will derive important advantages from the universal education of the people. A well considered system, which shall ensure to the children of all, the blessings of moral and intellectual culture, will plant foundations broad and deep, for public and private virtue; and its effects will be seen in the dimi nution of vice and crime, the more general practice of industry, sobriety and integrity, conservative and enlightened legislation, and universal obedience to the laws. In such a community the rights of property are stable, and the contributions imposed on it are essentially lightened. But I entertain a firm conviction that the present law requires a thorough revision, and that an entire change in the mode of assessment is indispensable."

On the 7th of January, 1851, Mr. MORGAN transmitted to the Legislature his third annual report as Superint-nuent, from which it appears that the whole number of districts in the State was 11,397; the number of children

on five and sixteen, on the 31st of December, 1849, 735,188; and the number of children taught during the preceding year in the several common schools of the State, 794,500-being an excess of 59,312 over the number between the ages of five and sixteen, and of 16,191 over the whole number previously taught. The entire expenditure for school purposes, during the year reported, was $1,766,668.24. The number of volumes in the several district libraries was about 1,500,000. The Superintendent again urged upon the Legislature the importance of a more thorough and efficient local supervision, through the agency of a County or Assembly District Superintendent; alluded to the increased usefulness and flourishing prospects of the Normal chcols in which, in addition to the usual course of instruction, a limited number of Indian youth had been received as pupils during the preceding year; and concluded by strongly urging upon the attention of the legislature the expediency and necessity of such an amendment of the existing law, es

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tablishing Free Schools throughout the State, as was demanded by an en lightened public sentiment. "The history of the past year," he observes, "in reference to this great enterprise, has been one of mingled triumph and disaster, The principle incorporated in the Act for the establishment of Free Schools throughout the State' has been again subjected to the test of public opinion. In their almost unanimous approval of that principle in the canvass of 1849, the electors very generally overlooked the specific details of the bill submitted to their sanction, confiding in the disposition of the Legislature to modify such of its features as might be practically objectionable. Serious obstacles to the successful operation of the law presented themselves almost upon the threshold of its administration. The boards of supervisors in more than one-half of the counties of the State had adjourned their annual sessions before the act took effect, without making the appropriations required by its provisions, leaving the several school districts to sustain a most unequal and oppressive burden of taxation for the support of their schools.

"Inequalities in the valuations of taxable property contributed, in many localities, greatly to aggravate this burden, and a spirit of opposition to the new law, inflamed by its determined opponents, manifested itself at the primary district meetings, and too often resulted in the entire rejection of the estimates prepared by the trustees, and the limitation of the term of school to the lowest possible period authorized by law. Appeals were as siduously made to the cupidity of the heavy tax-payers their interests sought to be arrayed against that of their less favored brethren, and against the interests of their children; their passions stimulated by the real inequal ities as well as fancied injustice of the burdens imposed by the new law, were readily enlisted against every attempt to carry it into operation. Numerous petitions were sent to the Legislature, praying for its repeal, or for such amendments as might render it more generally acceptable.

It was obvious that the law was liable to just and serious objections, and it did not meet with that general approval which was necessary to ensure its success. Under these circumstances, the friends of the new system were among the first to concede the defects of the bill, and while urging the pres ervation of the fundamental principle which it involved, were anxiously solicitous so to modify the details of the measure, as to obviate all its obnoxious features. At their suggestion and with their co-operation, bills were introdu ced into both branches of the Legislature, providing for a general and equit able system of State or county taxation, for the purpose of rendering the common schools free to all, dispensing with the necessity of a district assessment, out of which the principal embarrassment had originated. In the Assembly, the measures thus proposed were approved by a large majority; the Senate did not concur in the action of the House, but sent to the House a bill proposing a re-submission of the law to the people. At the close of the session, and when it became evident that no modification of the obnoxious law could be obtained, this bill received the assent of the House.

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By the adoption of this measure, the friends of free schools found them selves in a very embarassing position; they were compelled either to give their votes and influence in favor of the continuance of a law, some of the distinctive feature of which were at variance both with their wishes and judgment, or, by sanctioning its repeal, hazard the principle which had been deliberate" ly adopted by the Legislature, and approved by the emphatic expression of the public will. The issue thus présented could not fail of being greatly misapprehended. While the electors secured the renewed triumph of the principle involved, there can be no doubt that thousands of votes were cast for the repeal of the law, by citizens who desired only its amendment, and who would have recorded their suffrages in favor of a system of free-schools properly guarded, had the form of the ballot permitted them to do so.

"It remains then for the Legislature to give efficacy to this renewed expression of the popular will, by the enactment of a law which shall definitively engraft the free school principle upon our existing system of primary

education, and at the same time remove all just cause of complaint as to the inequality of taxation. District taxation has been found to be unjust, unequal and oppressive. It should therefore at once be abandoned, so far as the ordinary support of the schools is concerned. The funds necessary for payment of teachers' wages, in addition to the amount received from the State Treasury, should be provided either by a State tax equitably levied on real and personal property according to a fixed and uniform valuation, by a county and town tax, levied and assessed in the same manner, or by such a combination of these three modes as might be deemed most expedient and judicious.

"The common schools of the State should be declared free to every resident of the respective districts, of the proper age to participate in their benefits; and their support should be made a charge upon the whole property, either of the state at large, or of the respective counties and towns in which they are situated.

"The bill which passed the Assembly at its last session, provided for the levying of an annual tax of $800,000 on the real and personal property of the state according to the assessed valuation of such property, and for the distribution of the aggregate amount so to be raised, among the several counties and towns of the state, according to the number of children, of proper school age, residing in each. This sum, together with the amount annually apportioned from the revenue of the common school fund, would, it was supposed, be sufficient for the support of the several schools of the state,during an average period of eight months in each year. year. The whole amount expended for teachers' wages, during the year 1849, was $1,322,696 24, to which is to be added an aggregate amount of $110,000 for library purposes, making in the whole $1,432,696 24. The superintendent, however, entertains no doubt that the amount proposed to be raised by the bill referred to, in conjunction with the State appropriation, the revenue for which is rapidly and steadily increasing, will be amply adequate to the payment of teachers' wages for the average length of time during which the schools have heretofore been taught, and to the annual and adequate replenishment of the libraries and necessary apparatus in the schools.

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"Under the present defectively administered system of assessment, however, such a tax will operate very unequally in different sections of the State. The standard of valuation, both of real and personal property, varies, as is well known, in nearly every county of the State; while in some it is estimated at its fair and market value, in others it is assessed at threefourths, two-thirds and sometimes as low as one-half its actual value. If, therefore the existing standard of valuation is to be made the basis of the apportionment of the proposed tax, it is manifest that a very unjust and oppressive burden will be cast upon those counties where the assessment is in strict accordance with the provisions of law, for the benefit of those sections in which its requirements are evaded by an arbitrary standard of valuation.

The distribution of money when raised, serves likewise to render this disproportion still more manifest, that being based upon the population according to the last preceding census of the respective counties."

"Should the legislature deem it expedient to charge the annual support of the schools, over and above the revenue of the school fund, upon the taxable property of the State, and to retain the existing mode of distribution, the necessity of devising some mode by which the standard of valuation should be as nearly as practicable uniform thoughout the state, will be apparent. If this can be accomplished, or if the distribution of the funds raised were directed to be made upon the same basis with the apportionment of the tax, there can be no doubt,in the judgment of the Superintendent, that a state tax for the support of our common schools will prove the simplest, most efficient and beneficial mode of providing for the object in view: the establishment and maintenance of a system of free school education, in accordance with the expressed wishes of the inhabitants of the State.

"If, however, this were found impracticable, the same result may be obtained by requiring the board of supervisors of each county of the State to raise twice the amount apportioned to the county, as a county tax, and levy an equal amount as a town tax, in the mode prescribed by the exist ing law, which requires only an equal amount to be levied as a county and town tax respectively. This provision would simply increase the amount of school money now by law required to be raised, one-third, while it would entirely dispense with district taxation, for the current support of the schools. Inequalities in the standard of valuation adopted by the respective counties, would in this case prove unjust and burdensome to none; as the existing law has made complete provision for the adjustment of such inequalities in the case of joint districts formed from parts of two or more counties or towns. The whole amount of taxable property of each county would contribute in equal and fair proportions to the support of the schools located in its territory; and the angry dissensions growing out of the necessity of district taxation, the fruitful source of nearly all the opposition which has been made to the existing law, would be averted.

"In apportioning the public money, and the money raised by a county or State tax among the several school districts, the Superintendent is of opinion that some more effectual provision than now exists, should be made for the smaller and weaker districts, upon whom the burden of supporting a school for any considerable length of time during the year, is peculiarly oppressive. If a specified amount, say for instance fifty dollars, were required to be apportioned to every duly organized district whose report for the preceding year shall be found in accordance with law, leaving the balance to be apportioned according to the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one years residing in the district, the necessary encouragement would be afforded to every district, however limited its means, or however sparse its population, while ample resources would be left for larger and more populous districts. The several districts being thus furnished with adequate funds for the maintenance of efficient schools during an average period of eight months in each year, the trustees should be peremptorily required to expend the moneys thus placed at their disposal, in the employment of suitably qualified teachers for such a length of time as those means may justify.

"Such an arrangement would, it is believed, prove almost universally acceptable to the people of the State. The principle involved has repeatedly received the sanction of public sentiment. It is in accordance with the enlightened spirit of the age. It is the only system compatible with the genius and spirit of our republican institutions. It is not a novelty, now for the first time sought to be engrafted upon our legislation, but a principle recognized and carried into practical operation in our sister State of Massachusetts from the earliest period of its colonial history-indentified with her greatness and prosperity, her influence and her wealth, and transplanted from her soil to that of some of the younger States of the Union. "In each of our own cities, and in many of our larger villages, it has been established and successfully sustained by the general approval of their citizens, and wherever it has obtained a foothold it has never been abandoned. It is only requisite to adjust the details of the system equitably and fairly, to commend it to the approbation of every good citizen as the noblest palladium and most effectual support of our free institutions.

"The existing law has excited a degree of opposition which was not anticipated, but it is believed that it has grown out of the defects of the law, rather than from any prevailing hostility to the principle of free schools. "No law can be successfully and prosperously administered under our government, which does not receive the general approval of the people. It is the earnest desire, therefore, of the Superintendent, that the present law should be so amended as to produce greater equality-to remove all reasonable ground of complaint, and to render our great system of education more efficient and useful.

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