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The Massachusetts School Fund was established by the Legislature of 1834
(stat. 1834, chap. 169), and it was provided by the act that all moneys
in the treasury on the first of January, 1835, derived from the sale of
lands in the State of Maine, and from the claim of the state on the
government of the United States for military services, and not otherwise
appropriated, together with fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter to
be received from the sale of lands in Maine, should be appropriated to
constitute a permanent fund, for the aid and encouragement of Common
Schools. It was provided that the fund should never exceed one million
of dollars, and that the income only should be appropriated to the
object in view. The mode of distribution was referred to a subsequent
Legislature. It was, however, provided that a greater sum should never
be paid to any city or town than was raised therein for the support of
common schools. There are two points in the law that deserve
consideration. First, the object of the fund was the aid and
encouragement of the schools, and not their support; and secondly, the
limit of appropriation to the respective towns was the amount raised by
each. There is an apparent inconsistency in this restriction when it is
considered that the income of the entire fund would have been equal to
only forty-three cents for each child in the state between the ages of
five and fifteen years, and that each town raised, annually, by
taxation, a larger sum; but this inconsistency is to be explained by the
fact that the public sentiment, as indicated by resolves reported by the
same committee for the appointment of commissioners on the subject,
tended to a distribution of money among the towns according to their
educational wants.
