In 1811 measures were taken to organize and es tablish in active force a system of schools; such a system was reported in 1812, and the first distri bution of money under the provisions of 1805, and in accordance with this system, were made in the year 1816. Besides the avails of the lands and of the bank stock above-mentioned, the legislature en acted in 1819, that one half the amount to be re ceived from quit rents; the loans of 1790 and of 1808; the shares of the capital stock of the mer chant's bank, held by the state; the nett proceeds of lands escheating to the state in the military tract, and the nett proceeds of the fees of the clerks of the supreme court, should all be assigned to this fund. In 1824 a reservation in certain grants for lotteries, amounting to forty thousand dollars, was added to the fund. In 1826 it was enacted that one hundred thousand dollars should be annually distributed by the state for the support of common schools; but as the fund then produced but eighty-five thousand dollars, the remaining fifteen thousand dollars were paid from the general funds of the state. In 1827 further appropriations, to make up the full amount of one hundred thousand dollars, were made from the state loan of 1786, and from the bank stock still held by the state. These two items amounted to one hundred and thirty-three thousand six hundred and sixteen dollars.
In the same year the credit of the state was pledged in certificates of stock to a canal company (the Hudson and Delaware), which certificates were to be sold, and the premiums obtained added to the school fund; this transaction produced fifty thousand dollars; and finally, a large number of town lots at Oswego, amounting to ninety-one thousand three hundred and forty-nine dollars, were sold in the same year, and the proceeds, together with all the sums obtained from the above-mentioned sources, swelled the productive capital at the beginning of 1828 to one million six hundred and thirty thou sand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars. The constitution of the state provides that the pro ceeds of all lands which shall be hereafter sold or disposed of shall belong to the fund for the support of common schools. In 1830 these lands consisted of eight hundred and sixty-nine thousand, one hundred and seventy-eight acres, estimated at half a million of dollars, which, added to the pro ductivecapital, makes two millions one hundred and thirty thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five dol lars. Besides the general fund of the state, there are likewise several local funds arising out of certain reserved lands in the respective coun ties. More than eighty towns are stated to parti cipate in the benefit of these funds, amounting to the sum of about seventeen thousand dollars annu ally.
Progress of the System. The first distribution of public moneys out of the fund was made, as we have said, in 1816, and not till then can the system be said to have gone into actual operation. An esti mate may be formed of the influence of this system by comparing the state of things before the funds became available with that which has existed since. In sixteen counties in which the state of schools was reported in 1798, the number of schools was then one thousand three hundred and fifty-two, and of scholars fifty-nine thousand six hundred and sixty. In the same counties, in 1828, the number of school districts established was two thousand five hundred and eighty-six, and of scholars attending them, one hundred and forty-two thousand three hundred and seventy-two. Even this comparison falls far short of exhibiting the actual increase of schools and of pupils throughout the state, for in 1798 there were in all but twenty-three counties organized, and therefore only seven which did not report. But in 1828, there were fifty-five counties, divided into seven hundred and forty-two towns and wards, and eight thousand two hundred and ninety-eight school districts, containing four hundred and forty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six children. It is true, there are other causes besides the inherent efficacy of the system, which should be regarded in accounting for the rapid increase of schools and pupils. The new counties formed subsequently to 1798, were settled chiefly by emigrants from New England, who brought with them, as an essential part of their existence, a habit of regarding univer sal education in common public schools, as among the primary objects for which laws are to be enact ed. And when the system had been once established, it is easy to see that its operation upon the minds of new companies of such emigrants, must be to determine them to select the state which had made this munificent provision for that, which they con sider as one of the first wants of their nature, to be their permanent abode; in preference to another, where no such allurement was held out, whatever might otherwise be the physical superiority of the latter. Thus we see, that the system of common schools has reacted, in turn, in favour of popula tion, and consequently in favour of wealth and of power, physical, moral and political.
The above table exhibits only the amount of mo ney paid out of the funds, and so much as the au thority of the state imposes on the towns, to be rais ed by them, in consideration of their receiving those funds, which is an equal sum. The several school districts have besides the authority to levy a certain proportional sum, about double, it is believed, of that derived from the fund.