Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

The amount of notes outstanding in favor of this

1,104 36

bank is To which add the sum of $358 30, a balance found and reported to be due, from a former agent appointed to settle the concerns of this bank, and we have the sum of $1462 66, constituting, so far as it is known, the balance of funds, belonging to that institution, to be hereafter collected and applied to school fund.

MILITARY DEPARTMENT.

In consequence of the repeal of "so much of chapter 8th, of" the military act, passed Nov. 1, 1837, "as provides for paying officers, non-commissioned officers, and musicians, for attending regimental drills," the expenses of this department have been considerably diminished.

The amount of orders drawn by the Auditor of Accounts on the Treasurer, on accounts by him allowed for expenses and services rendered this department, during the past year, is $1,135 62

Amount paid other claims for military expenses,

907 15

$2,042 77

The act of 1841, authorizing a trial by jury in cases of delinquencies in the performance of military duty, has resulted in much vexation and considerable expense to the State.

The following commnnication, from the late Quarter Master General, will exhibit the probable expense to the State resulting from those trials.

MONTPELIER, Oct. 25th, 1842.

SIR:-At your request, I hand you the expenses incurred in 13 regiments, from whose Quarter Masters returns have been received, showing in cash the balance due the Quarter Master, over and above the amount of judgments in his favor, for which the Quarter Masters have received or are entitled to an order on the Treasury, to wit:

1st Regiment,

2d

4th

5th

6th

7th

9th

10th

18th

20th

22d

$27 95

64 21

251 50

66 21

129 72

197 67

181 75

10 71

50 08

48 50

63

24th

25th

Making the whole expense to the State, in 13 regiments, exclu

sive of the loss on executions uncollected,

99 25 148 18

$1,285 36 Should the remaining fifteen regiments be equally expensive, the whole charge to the State will be but a fraction short of $2,800, for delinquencies at June training in 1842. To this sum should be added the losses on executions uncollected, which will probably amount to from $300 to $500 more, and perhaps a larger sum.

HON. D. PIERCE, Auditor, &c.

Which, added to

Your ob't serv't,

DAVIS RICH.

$2,042 77 1,285 36

$3,328 13

will exhibit the sum of

as the amount expended in the military department for the

past year.

D. PIERCE, Auditor.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO VISIT THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT.

THE Commissioners appointed by the Governor to visit the University of Vermont for the year 1842, beg leave to report as follows, viz:

That we hope we have not misunderstood the purpose of our appointment, as set forth in the resolution of instructions passed by the Legislature. And if it shall appear that we speak with decision and earnestness, it is because we feel that we cannot discharge our duties under our instructions without so doing, and to that we appeal for our justification.

We are required to give special attention to the objects set forth in the memorial of the Corporation of the University, and report our views in relation to them. We know not how to do this better than, in the first place, to call your attention to the frank and energetic exhibition of those objects in the memorial itself, which is as follows:

The undersigned, appointed by the corporation of the University of Ver mont for that purpose, beg leave to present the following

MEMORIAL.

The Corporation regard themselves as charged with the care of the University, not for their own interest, nor that of the Professors and Teachers, nor for the interest of any particular class or portion of the state, but for the benefit of the whole state. They regard the University as it was in tended it should be by the first constitution of the state, as one of the public interests of the whole commonwealth; and not the creature of any par ty less than the whole. They do not wish this interest to be abandoned by the Legislature any more than that the care of the Judiciary should be abandoned by it. They wish it to be cherished and perfected. They labor for it without reward, as a public interest, in which they are concerned in common with all their fellow citizens, but only as others are. But being charged with the care of it, and being held responsible both in law and conscience, to take care of it rightfully, they cannot but present themselves before you, and ask that the people be not despoiled of this interest by the neglect of the Legislature, or defrauded of the benefits they expect from this, by its remissness.

As a corporation we have formed plans for its usefulness; and without intending to arrogate superiority to ourselves, we are ready to justify them on all suitable occasions. We have expended money, and that with as much wisdom as reasonable men could expect. We have sought to increase the fixed property of the Institution, and we have done it; we have sought to enlarge its means of influence by increasing its libraries and the apparatus of knowledge; and we have done it. We have sought to give reasonably exact and thorough instruction; and we have done it. We have sought to obtain grounds round about the University buildings for their convenience, for their beauty, and for their necessity; and we have done it. These objects have demanded patient thought, diligent inquiry, accurate investigation, and prompt and efficient action. This we have not shrunk from. We have determined to make the University, as far as our means could allow, what every right-minded and every clear-heade d

H

man expected it should be,-a place where should be found all the healthful influences of sound learning.

To aid us in the care of this groat state interest, we have asked the assistance of the Legislature, but no assistance has been granted. From the day in which certain lands were set apart for the University, which at that time were worth nothing to it, or any one else, to the present hour not a single dollar has been given to it by the Legislature. So far as legislative aid and countenance are concerned, this interest of the people has been disregarded. When war has broken it up, when fire has consumed its pleasant places, when penury and want have withered its influence and destroyed its property, it has come in sadness, and knocked at your door, only to be told, "Be ye warned, and be ye filled, but depart." When adversity seemed to be weary of afflicting it, and temporary prosperity had crowned its self-denial, it has come with sunshine in its face, and asked for the smiles of a welcoming parent, only to be turned away in silence, and perhaps contempt.

Commissioners have been appointed by the Executive of the state, who have visited us, and, after thorough examination, have reported our condition and our wants; and urged them upon the attention of the Legislature, but without effect. Still, although frequently unsuccessful, we cannot doubt that the time will come, when this great interest will be wisely at tended to by those, who have in charge the system of education for the

state.

The corporation of no literary institution is organized like that of a bank or a manufacturing company, to accumulate wealth, or to make money. If its annual income meets its expenditures, it is all that it is intended it should do. If these literary institutions are to be enlarged corresponding to the growing wants of the community, they must be aided from abroad. It is impossible it should be otherwise, unless they pervert their charter, and abandon the object of their creation. As citizens, we demand that the University should be faithful to the purpose for which it was created, and as a corporation we will not suffer its funds to be perverted to the trade of speculation. We have then only to insist, as citižens and as men, that it shall go on to accomplish the objects for which it was made. And in doing this, it must have aid from without itself. Every one knows that it must. It is so implied in its charter, it is so implied aud was so understood by those who spoke of it in the original constitution of the state, and by those who adopted that constitution as the deliberate and solemn expression of their will, and it is so implied in the very nature of the institution itself. We ask, then, not merely as corporators, but as citizens, speaking to those, who hold their seats and their offices only because they represent our feelings, and those of our citizens like ourselves, that the wants of the University be examined into. And that they be examined into, not for the purpose of satisfying uneasy complainants, but for the purpose of an honest and adequate supply of the wants, if found to exist. We have never found our citizens generally unwilling, any, more than ourselves, to aid from their own earnings the highest interests of learning; and if asked individually and alone, we doubt not the members of the Honorable Legislature would be found just representatives in their feelings of the general desire to aid in promoting the highest interests of learning. We only desire that there may be honesty and firmness enough to express these feelings in public acts.

We are now without the means necessary to complete the site of the

University. We are without means to supply the requisite instruction which our various departments demand; and we are without means to organize such new ones as the wants of the people of the state require. We have not squandered our funds, nor abused our trust, nor neglected to provide suitable instruction, nor proved unfaithful to our duties; if we have, we refuse not to be censured. We, therefore, respectfully ask the Legislature to appropriate for the use of the University from the Literary Fund, from the anticipated revenue from the public national lands, or from our State Treasury, such sums as may adequately supply its wants; and, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

[blocks in formation]

The general position is taken in the memorial that the University is a públic interest. To this we fully agree. It is assumed in the original constitution of the state to be an interest for the benefit of all the citizens of the state, directly or indirectly; it is so implied in its charter; it is so implied in the decisions of our highest courts, it is so implied in the appointment of commissioners for annual visitation, and more than all, it is so implied in the nature of the institution itself. It, therefore, seems to us, that no man can rightfully understand his own duties as a citizen, participating in the government of the state, who does not aid and support it, as a public interest, as really and as truly depending upon his care as that of the Judiciary; in a word, of as great importance to the support and defence of the morals, of the habits, of the intellectual growth, and the religious prosperity of the commonwealth, as any other state interest that can be named. Not that we think that this public interest ought to have precedence over other great subjects, but then it ought to have its place, and receive the portion of attention due its intrinsic importance.

The original constitution of the state contemplated the formation of a University as belonging to the system of education necessary to the prosperity and well-being of the state, and without which the other parts would be incomplete, and could not accomplish their own purposes. It was classed with the county grammar schools, and the town common schools, as a part and parcel of one system. This was the unsophisticated expression of the wisdoin of our fathers, when they were neither blinded by party, nor bond-slaves to popularity. They spoke of this public interest even before that of the Judiciary, when, with prayers and tears and in the midst of war and of blood, they laid the corner stone of our political fabric. It was not, for a moment, looked upon by them as the creature of a particular sect or political party, but as an essential portion of the system of education, without which we could not be regarded as a civilized and Christian community, seeking to preserve itself. The University is certainly nothing to the Corporatiou as such; it is nothing to the Faculty as such; it is nothing to us as commissioners; it is for each and all of us as citizens, but for us only as it is for all others. It ought, therefore, in our view to be cherished as a public interest, and its wants met in the spirit of kindness and liberality. It ought to be withdrawn from all party influences of any and every kind, when exposed to them; and to be cher

« AnteriorContinuar »