and districts of country for which they were originally reserved ** and for no other use or purpose whatever." The assent of the inhabitants of any township was made a necessary condition for the sale of the school lands of such township. Similar provisions were enacted regarding the lease of the school lands." The general provisions of this act were later extended to the Choctaw school lands (March 3, 1857).

The Constitution of 1868 provided for a board of education, consisting of the secretary of State, the attorney-general, and the superintendent of public instruction, whose duties embraced the management and investment of the school funds; and the funds arising from the consolidation of the congressional township funds were directed to be invested in United States bonds.35

According to the provisions of an act of May 15, 1871, the board of six school directors of each county was empowered to sell or lease the school lands of any township within the county, with the consent of the inhabitants of such township;" and all moneys arising from the sixteenth sections were directed to be invested by the county boards of school directors in either bonds of the State of Mississippi or bonds of the United States.""

The present Constitution of 1890 provides for a State board of education, similarly constituted and endowed with the same powers as provided for in 1868.38 Furthermore, the State Legislature is directed to enact such laws as may be necessary to ascertain the true condition of the sixteenth section funds in the Choctaw district, and to provide that the school lands shall not be sold, nor that they shall be leased for a term exceeding twenty-five years." Moreover, the Chickasaw school funds. are declared a trust upon which the State is pledged to pay 32 10 S., c. 35, p. 6. 11 S., c. 104, s. 2, p. 200. Ibid., Sec. 6.

34 Constitution, 1868, Art. VIII, Sec. 3. Code, 1871, Sec. 2015.

33

38 Constitution, 1890, Art. VIII, Sec. 204.

ST Ibid., Sec. 2055.

59 Ibid., Sec. 211.

six per cent. interest per annum. According to the Code of 1892, the several counties, through their respective boards of supervisors and under the general supervision of the State land commissioner, have jurisdiction and control over the school lands."

As has been previously indicated, the State borrowed the proceeds of the sales of the Chickasaw school lands, and for years previous to 1871 paid interest to the Chickasaw counties at the rate of eight per cent. on the $815,227 thus borrowed." In many instances the interest paid to the counties was by them used for county purposes." In this Chickasaw cession the State received 163,825 acres from Congress, of which, in 1895, the State still held 30,000 acres." The fund accruing from this cession amounted in that year to $854,583, upon which the State was paying interest at six per cent., amounting to $51,055, and apportioned among the counties on the basis of the area of such counties."5 In the Choctaw counties the State received from the General Government a total of 661,000 acres, of which, in 1893, 67,764 acres were unsold. In 1895, this endowment was represented by a permanent fund of $197,421, known as the township fund, and produced in interest and rents a total income of $26,890."

The State of Mississippi thus received a total of 824, 825 acres of public lands for the support of common schools, of which, in 1895, about 95,000 acres remained unsold. The permanent fund thus accruing amounted to $1,052,004, and the income from interests and rents amounted to $77,945. This source of revenue constituted 5.5 per cent. of the total school revenue raised in the State."

40 Ibid., 212.

42 Miss. Sch. Rep., 1871, 26.

Miss. Sch. Rep., 1893–95, 31.

41 Code, 1892, Sec. 4150.

43 Ibid.

45 Miss. Sch. Rep., 1893–95, 31. This is the only instance of such a peculiar method of distributing school moneys accruing from the congressional grants, at least, that is known to the writer.

46 Miss. Sch. Rep., 1893–95, 17.

47 Ibid., 24.

It is of interest to note that the act of Congress of February 23, 1870, admitting the State of Mississippi to representation in the Congress of the United States, specifically provided that "the Constitution of Mississippi shall never be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of school rights and privileges secured by the Constitution of said State."-16 S, c. 19, s, I, p, 68.

University Land Grant

During the territorial period of Mississippi, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to locate an entire township of land within the Territory for the use of a seminary of learning therein. This act was repealed by an act of February 20, 1819, which directed, however, that a township of land be located by the Secretary of the Treasury, and be vested in the Legislature of the State in trust for the use of a seminary of learning."

50

An act of the State Legislature of January 29, 1825, required the auditor of State to lease the unimproved seminary lands for a term of four years; while an act of two years later (February 7, 1827) authorized him to lease any of the seminary lands for the same period." Up to 1831, $8,402 had been received from this source." On March 2, 1833, the Governor was directed to appoint three commissioners to estimate the value of the seminary lands; and the auditor was required to sell such lands at a price not less than three-fourths of the appraised valuation. All moneys accruing from the sales were directed to be invested in stock of the Planters' Bank of Mississippi." The lands were, evidently, rapidly sold; for in 1835 the seminary fund amounted to $277,283, and in 1839 it had increased to $314,146." An act of February, 1840, providing for the March 3, 1815.

48 3 S., c. 88, s. 5, p. 229.

3 S., c. 31, s. 2, p. 485. 51 Ibid., 212.

50 Hutchinson, 211.

62 Catalog Univ. of Miss., 1887, 163.

Hutchinson, 215.

Catalog Univ. of Miss., 1887, 160.

location of the State university, directed that all sums of money accruing to the seminary fund should be appropriated for the use and benefit of such university. By 1841 this fund amounted to $322,146, of which $168,518 remained uncollected.

56

55

Definite provisions for the investment and collection of the seminary fund were again made in an act of July 26, 1843, which authorized the Governor to appoint a commissioner of the seminary fund, who should possess full power to collect unpaid moneys, and turn the seminary funds into the State treasury. This act directed the State treasurer to credit the fund with interest at five per cent. upon all moneys paid into the treasury prior to July 26, 1843, and it further directed that thereafter the State should pay interest at the rate of eight per cent. upon this fund. During the following year (February 24, 1844) the Legislature passed an act to incorporate the University of Mississippi," which was formally opened for work in November, 1848.

In 1844 the Planters' Bank went into liquidation, and in that liquidation the seminary trust fund, for which the State was responsible, was absorbed. For many years the question of the State's indebtedness to the university remained a matter of sharp controversy. Interest on the fund, as required by the act of 1843, was not paid, but small appropriations were substituted in its place. In 1856 Governor McRae, computing the interest on the basis of that act, held the State's total net indebtedness to the entire university fund to be $1,077,790.59

The first amendment to the Constitution of 1868, passed in 1876, prohibited the State from paying any of the bonds issued by it to the credit of the university fund when that fund was used up in the purchase of stock of the old Planters' Bank.60 But such a repudiatory policy was repealed by an act of 1880

65 Hutchinson, 221. 57 Hutchinson, 227.

19 Ibid., 165.

56 Ibid., 223.

58 Catalog Univ. of Miss., 1887, 170.

60 Ibid., 167.

which declared the State's indebtedness to the university to be $544,061.33. Upon this sum the State was pledged to pay six per cent. interest annually; and accordingly, the sum of $32,643 interest was directed to be appropriated to the State University in 1880, and annually thereafter."1

The State had in reality obtained two townships of land for higher education, the earlier grant being for Jefferson College (q. v.), and the other furnishing the endowment fund for the university. But the State never regarded the Jefferson College grant as one made in behalf of the State. Consequently, Congress was memorialized to grant the State an extra townshtp of land for the use of the State University. On June 20, 1894, Congress granted this petition, and authorized the selection of 23,040 acres within the State, to supply the deficiency in the grant to the university."

Grant to Jefferson College

Five years after the establishment of a Territorial government in Mississippi, Congress directed that there should be reserved from sale thirty-six sections of public lands, to be located in one tract by the Secretary of the Treasury for the use of Jefferson College, and also certain town lots, in the city of Natchez, and an outlot not exceeding thirty acres, to be located by the Territorial Governor for the use of the college." The latter part of this act relating to the town lots and out-lots was temporarily repealed in 1804. The college lands were evidently not readily selected; for an act of Congress of February 20, 1812, authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to locate the thirty-six sections of land as indicated in the act of 1803. Finally, in 1832, an act for the relief of Jefferson College

1 Catalog Univ. of Miss., 1887, 168.

62 28 S., c. 110, p. 94.

63 2 S., c. 27, s. 12, p. 229, March 3, 1803. * 2 S., c. 61, s. 11, p. 305, March 27, 1804. 65 2 S., c. 24, p. 679.

65