as disloyal, boldly petitioned the State government for an endowment to establish primary schools for the better education of their children. The memorial, which is interesting as an expression of the views of the earliest settlers, as submitted to the governor and legislature, was as follows:

To his excellency the governor and the honorable the legislature of the free and sovereign State of Coahuila and Texas:

The inhabitants of Texas, represented by delegates chosen for the purpose of making known their wants to the supreme government, and assembled in general convention in the town of San Felipe de Austin, respectfully represent that from the time of the settlement of Texas up to the present time no step has been taken to encourage public education, and to create a fund exclusively devoted to that object. They would respectfully suggest that intelligence is the main pillar of republican institutions, and that without it no republic can be long-lived; that in every wellregulated community where free principles predominate education among every class of society has occupied the attention of the patriotic statesman; that the government of the State of Coahuila and Texas, heretofore so liberal and even munificent in grants of land to individuals, will, it is hoped, be equally so in the grant of land for so useful and patriotic an effort as will be the dissemination of knowledge through every part of society. Under these considerations your memorialists pray a grant of as many leagues of land for the promotion of education as the legislature, in its liberality, shall think proper to bestow, to be made to Texas as the foundation of a fund for the future encouragement of primary schools in Texas, in which will be taught the Castilian and English languages; and they further pray that the said grants be made to the ayuntamientos in Texas, for the use and benefit of the people in Texas, and for the object aforesaid, with the express condition that the said lands shall not be sold or otherwise disposed of until the voice of the people be taken thereon; and your memorialists conclude with a declaration of their attachment to the Republic of Mexico, and of their devotion to the Federal constitution, and also to that of Coahuila and Texas.

LE SASSIER, Chairman pro tempore.

Following this, what appears to have been the last endowment of schools by the Mexican State was an appropriation by decree of May 23, 1833, of four sitios (17,713 acres) for the support of primary schools in the department of Nacogdoches.

In 1833 also a decree was issued creating ayuntos (boards), who were charged with the care and distribution of school funds and providing for schools and teachers. But no special progress was made toward establishing a thorough public-school system, and according to a report of the Mexican commissioner, Almonte, there were only three schools in operation in Texas, while still a Mexican province, in 1834. One of these was on the Brazos, another on Red River, and the other in San Antonio. In 1844 the people of San Antonio concluded that the city should provide a public school for that municipality, and it was recommended that the old court room be utilized for school as well as court purposes; but this was not effected till 1849, when some lots set apart by the city for school sites were sold and the proceeds used for improving the building suitably for a school as well as court house.

SCHOOLS OF THE REPUBLIC.

The necessity of providing for education was impressed at nearly every important stage in the history of the government. In the declaration of the independence of the Republic of Texas, adopted in 1836 at Washington, Tex., it was complained that the Mexican Government had failed to establish any public system of education, though possessed of almost boundless land resources, and "although it is an axiom in political science that unless a people are educated it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty or the capacity of self-government." Accordingly the Congress of the new Republic was required to provide by law a general system of education, and under the stimulus of this wise provision and increased immigration numerous schools were opened. In June, 1837, President Houston approved the charters of Independence Academy and the University of San Augustine, both in San Augustine County, and Washington College, near the town of Washington, on the Brazos. The charters provided that they should be accessible to all students, irrespective of religion or politics. The property of such institutions was generally but not always exempted from taxation, and in some cases special provision was made for biblical instruction where the charters were for the benefit of colleges to be established under church auspices. In other instances the charters prohibited the sale of intoxicants near the school premises.

PROVIDING FOR "COLLEGES OR UNIVERSITIES.'

The first suggestion of a State university was an act of the Congress of the Republic of April 13, 1838, which was referred to a special committee, but was not reported back for consideration. Following this came a recommendation by President Lamar, in 1839, that an agrarian appropriation be made while the public domain was ample, for the purposes of education, including the establishment of the university. An act accordingly was passed granting 3 leagues (13,284 acres) to each county for establishing a primary school or academy in the county, and 50 leagues (221,400 acres) for the establishment and endowment of two colleges or universities, one in the eastern and the other in the western part of the State. About the same time President Lamar approved a charter for the College of De Kalb in Red River County, and in 1840 an act was passed to establish Ruterville College, in Fayette County. A number of private and denominational schools were chartered by the Republic, and subsequently others by the State.

PROVISION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The State constitution of 1845, the first in operation after the passing of the Republic, contained the following provisions regarding the public schools:

A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of this State to

make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public schools. * * * The legislature shall, as early as practicable, establish free schools throughout the State, and shall furnish means for their support by taxation on property. And it shall be the duty of the legislature to set apart one-tenth of the annual revenue of the State derivable from taxation as a perpetual fund, which fund shall be appropriated to the support of free public schools, and no law shall ever be made diverting said fund to any other use; and until such time as the legislature shall provide for the establishment of such schools in the several districts of the State, the fund thus created shall remain as a charge against the State, passed to the credit of the free common school fund.

No allusion was made in this constitution to the subject of establishing a university, doubtless on account of the convention being mainly concerned about the more pressing needs of the State incident to the transition of the young Republic into the American Union.

An act of the State legislature of 1854 appropriated $2,000,000 of 5 per cent bonds in the State treasury for the support and maintenance of public schools, to be called the "special school fund," the interest of which was to be distributed for the general benefit of the public schools.

In 1840 the Congress of the Republic increased the land grant to counties for school purposes by granting another league, making in all 4 leagues (17,712 acres) for each county, and provided that it should be divided, one-half for scientific endowment of an academic school and the remainder to be distributed among the various commonschool districts in the county.

THE FIRST STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

It was not till 1854 that a regular system of free schools was provided for by the State, the first school being opened in San Antonio. The office of State superintendent was created by the constitution of 1866, the superintendent being charged with the control of the school fund, subject to legislative regulations. Since then the superintendency has been changed several times, the duties being imposed ex-officially upon the treasurer and other State officials, till the office, after being repeatedly abolished and revived, has been finally fixed by the legislature and the department of education established, with an educational board, consisting at present of the governor, comptroller, and secretary of state, with the State superintendent of instruction ex officio secretary of the board.

LAND ENDOWMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.

An act of 1854 and subsequent acts which appropriated in the aggregate over 36,000,000 acres of land to "encourge the construction of railroads in Texas" were qualified by a subsequent act of the legislature giving the alternate sections of the lands to the free-school fund, and was still further qualified by the act of 1858, which gave to the

State University the tenth section out of every 10 sections set apart
for the railroads. This last act, known as the university act of 1858,
allowed the university $100,000 of United States bonds held by the
State and confirmed to the university 50 leagues (221,400 acres)
originally set apart by the Republic of Texas for "the endowment of
two colleges or universities." Altogether it is estimated that the land
grants to the university, independent of the 50 leagues, had they not
been impaired by adverse legislation, would have amounted to over
3,500,000 acres. The constitution of 1876, however, deprived it of
several hundred thousand acres which it already owned and 1,500,000
acres more which had accrued to the university up to that year from
the tenth section surveys, all of which the constitution bestowed upon
the free schools; and substituted but 1,000,000 acres in lieu of the several
millions accrued and accruing of more valuable lands of which the
university was deprived by the substitution. Hon. W. C. Walsh,
while State land commissioner, and familiar with the value of the lands,
furnished the writer with the following statement, showing what would
have been the university's endowment up to the date of the constitution
of 1876 had the grants not been impaired by subsequent legislation:

Fifty leagues (221,400 acres), at $1.50 per acre
Ten years' interest, at 10 per cent

One million seven hundred and fifty thousand acres, at $5 per acre.....
Interest on deferred payments (say 25 per cent)...

Total....

$332, 100 332, 100 8,750,000 2, 187, 500

11, 601, 700

Since the university funds were diverted by the legislature to other purposes, $12,000,000 will probably not more than cover what should have been the value of the endowment at the time Commissioner Walsh's statement was made in 1886, independent of the additional lands which would have accrued to the university since but for the action of the convention.

In 1883 the legislature made partial restitution to the university by a grant of 1,000,000 acres of the public domain; but this measure, in order to gain the consent of the legislature, had to be coupled with a grant of 2,000,000 acres to the free schools, which for that purpose was embodied in the same act.

THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL LANDS.

The school lands remaining unsold and belonging to the school fund originally embraced, independent of the 4 leagues to each county, some 14,025,024 acres required by law to be surveyed for the schools by the railroad companies in alternate sections with the railroad sections, by virtue of certificates for the alternates issued to such companies prior to January 1, 1875; also, some 24,087,453 acres surveyed since by virtue of similar certificates, and 2,000,000 acres granted by

1

act of April 10, 1883; in all, 40,112,477 acres. The county grants may be estimated at about 10,000,000 acres, and the grand total of school lands thus amounted to the imperial area of over 50,000,000 acres, independent of over 2,000,000 acres left to the State University. The grants to the university embrace the original 50 leagues from the Texas Republic, 1,000,000 acres substituted by the State for the alternate sections of the railroad surveys, and 1,000,000 acres granted by the act of 1883; in all, 2,221,400 acres.

As the railroad grants amounted to 38,112,477 acres, the ultimate result to the university from the tenth-section surveys under the act of 1858 would have been 3,800,000 acres had that act not been impaired by the partial substitution under the constitution of 1876; and thus it remains that the university, notwithstanding the restitution of 1,000,000 acres added by the act of 1883, is still deprived of about 1,800,000 acres accrued and accruing to it from its originally splendid endowment.

POST-BELLUM CONDITIONS.

In Texas, as in all the Southern States, educational affairs were materially affected by the civil war and reconstruction of the State government. The convention, known as the "secession convention of 1861," adopted the constitution of 1845, with such amendments as were required to conform the government to war necessities. No important change was made in the constitution in its educational provisions, but the war naturally interrupted the operations of institutions of learning of all classes. Some of the proceeds of sales of the school and university lands had been received during the war on pending land notes, which fell due and were paid in Confederate scrip, and the school and university funds were kept merged in one account, so it was difficult to determine the particular share of the university. In his message of April 29, 1870, Governor Davis suggested that the university fund and lands might properly be considered as part of the common-school fund, though not directly included therein by the constitution.

An ordinance was passed declaring the "war debt" of the State incurred before the Confederates were dispossessed of the control of the government to be "null and void." Some $140,000 of university funds had been used by the State, as it was supposed, in the interest of the Confederacy. It was accordingly declared to be a "debt of doubtful validity," and was not validated as a just obligation of the State till 1883, when the fact was urged that the money had been used by the State for frontier protection from the Indians and Mexicans, and not in opposition to the Federal Government. The legislature thereupon covered it back to the university, and with it an item known as a "comptroller's certificate," for $10,300.41, issued on account of sales of university lands.