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enacted that every salt spring, together with the section of one mile square which included it, should be reserved from sale." The enabling act of 1802 granted to the State of Ohio," the six miles reservation including the salt springs commonly called the Sciota salt springs, [and] the salt springs near the Muskingum river ** with the sections of land which include to be used under such terms and conditions and regulations as the Legislature shall direct;" provided that the Legislature shall never sell, nor lease same for a longer period than ten years." These salt spring lands were later reserved from public sale by an act of Congress of February 29, 1808, providing for the disposition of public lands in Ohio.68 In 1824 the State Legislature petitioned Congress for authority to sell these saline lands for educational purposes.69 On the following December 28, 1824, Congress authorized the Legislature to sell the salines described in the act of 1802, "the proceeds thereof to be applied to such literary purposes as the Legislature may hereafter direct."

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In 1827, the proceeds of the sales of these lands were ordered. by the Legislature to form the nucleus of a State common school fund, and between 1835 and 1845 an annual pro rata distribution of interest was made among the counties." In the latter year the interest distribution suddenly ceased, and so continued unpaid until 1873, when the State was pledged by law to pay the annual interest in accordance with the law of 1827. Knight's investigation (q. v.) indicates that up to 1884 even this interest was never paid.

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The proceeds of $41,024.05 7 accruing from the sale of the thirty-five sections of salines were thus applied by the State to its own uses. At the present time the State is pledged to pay "interest annually, at the rate of six per cent. per annum,

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upon all money which has been paid into the State treasury on account of sales of lands commonly called 'salt lands;'*** and the money received from such sales shall constitute an irreducible debt of the State." "

Surplus Revenue of 1836

Of this grant Ohio received $2,007,260.36. By an act of the State Legislature (1837), this money was ordered to be divided among the counties, to be loaned until 1850 to internal improvement companies to the State, to the counties, or to the canal fund, at six per cent. interest. Five per cent. interest on such loans was, moreover, to be devoted to the use of schools in the counties. In the school law of 1838 there was inserted a provision that the interest on the surplus revenue should be used for common school purposes.

An act of 1843 authorized $1,500,000 to be borrowed to pay creditors of the State's public works. This sum was directed to be abstracted from the surplus revenue, and it was ordered that five per cent. interest on the amount so taken should be paid the school fund.76 An act of 1851 added to the common school fund "the balance of the surplus revenue fund.'

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What the final reservation of the surplus revenue for school purposes in Ohio may have been, the writer has not been able definitely to determine. The school report of 1837 indicates that $101,363 annual interest on the surplus revenue was then due the school fund." But the identity of this fund was lost in 1851 by its absorption into the "Common School Fund."

Swamp Lands Grant

By virtue of the act of Congress of 1850 granting to the several States the "swamp lands" within their borders, Ohio has been credited with 117,931 acres," of such lands. In 1851

14 Ohio School Laws, 1898, Sec. 3952. 75 Bourne, 95.

76 Ibid., 96.

77 Ibid., 98.

19 State Grants, 8.

18 Ohio School Report, 1837, 48.

the State Legislature provided for the payment of the proceeds of the sales of these lands into the State treasury on the account of the school fund." A law of 1873, which now stands on the school laws of the State, directs the payment by the State of six per cent. annual interest "upon all money heretofore paid or which may hereafter be paid into the State treasury on account of sales of swamp lands granted to the State of Ohio by act of Congress; the money received from such sales shall constitute an irreducible debt of the State." The " Swamp Land Indemnity Fund" on the books of the State auditor amounted to $24,742 in 1897, with an interest of $17,857 due on the fund.8%

Agricultural and Mechanical College Grant

By virtue of the agricultural and mechanical college act of 1862, Ohio received 630,000 acres in scrip. This grant was accepted by the State Legislature on February 9, 1864, and in 1865 an act was passed authorizing the sale of the scrip on conditions therein expressed," at a rate of not less than 80 cents per acre." Difficulty being experienced in selling at this price, the law was modified, and by December, 1865, the entire scrip had been sold at 53 cents per acre, the total proceeds of the sales amounting to $342,450, which sum was paid into the State Treasury and granted 6 per cent. semi-annual interest.

After much investigating and legislation, wherein both the Miami and Ohio Universities were considered for the joint recipiency of the grant, an act was finally passed (March 22, 1870), to establish and maintain an Agricultural and Mechanical College in Ohio, and in 1873 the institution was opened. The year previously, the endowment fund had, by the accumu

30 Knight, Land Grants, 60.

81 School Laws, 1883, Sec. 3952; School Laws, 1897, Sec. 3952.

82 State Auditor's Report, 1897, 16.

43 State Grants, 4.

84 Ohio School Report, 1886, 358.

85 Ibid., 361.

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lation of interest, increased to about $486,000. The fund was, in 1873. furthermore increased by the grant of the proceeds of the congressional cession of certain lands in the Virginia Military District (q. v.) By an act of Legislature, 1878, the name of the agricultural college was changed to the “Ohio State University."

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In 1877 the Ohio State University Fund was made a portion of the irreducible State debt, amounting in 1897 to $547,776, upon which the State paid $32,861 interest. In 1891 provision was made by the State for an annual tax levy, which, unless otherwise designated by the Legislature, shall be onetenth mill tax, which constitutes the "Ohio State University Fund." From this source the State University received $132,985 in 1897.90

The Virginia Military District Cession

When Virginia surrendered to the General Government her claims to the Northwest Territory in 1781, she reserved certain lands lying between the Great Scioto and Little Miami rivers to satisfy the bounty land warrants promised her soldiers for services in the War of the Revolution." After these warrants had been satisfied, a large tract of comparatively worthless land remained for years in the possession of the General Government. By an act of Congress of February 18, 1871, this tract was granted to Ohio, and in April, 1873, the grant was accepted by the State. The State, in turn, transferred the land to the agricultural and mechanical college recently chartered. Concerning the exact area of this grant nothing definite was known in 1886; 70,000 acres had then been discovered and turned over to

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the Ohio State University. From these lands, $38,343 had been realized in 1885, of which $13,655 were added to the endowment fund, and $18,042 were expended in buildings, the balance remaining unappropriated.

Agricultural Experiment Stations Act of 1887

The annual appropriation of $15,000 arising by virtue of the act of Congress of March 2, 1887, has been appropriated by the State to the work of the State Agricultural Experiment Station situated at Wooster."

Government Endowment of 1890

This grant arising by act of Congress of August 30, 1890, has always been appropriated for the further endowment of the Ohio State University in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the aforesaid act.

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93 Ohio School Report, 1886, 359.

94 Year Book, U. S. Dept. Agric., 1895, 559.
95 Ohio State Univ. Catalogue, 1894-95, XIII.

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