Sec.2.  The prosperity of a state or nation depends essentially upon the education of its citizens.  This is seen by comparing the condition of the people of this country with the condition of the people of those countries where the benefits of education are not enjoyed.  Ignorance tends to make men idle, vicious, and miserable.  On the other hand, learning is not only a means of enjoyment in itself, but of improving the social condition of a people.

Sec.3.  Again, a free government is better adapted than any other to promote the welfare of a nation.  But if the people are not properly educated, they are incapable of self-government.  And as many persons are unable to pay for the tuition of their children, the safety of the government itself requires the establishment of a system of education, by which the great body of the people may be fitted to discharge their social and political duties.  The states have accordingly instituted school systems for the instruction of children and youth of all classes at the public expense.

Sec.4.  In most of the states, the schools are supported only in part, in a few of them wholly, at the expense of the states.  Some states have provided funds, the income of which is annually applied to this object. Fund generally signifies the money or capital stock employed in carrying on trade or any other business operation. State funds are the moneys and other property of the state which are set apart for paying the expenses of the government, or for the construction of canals, roads, and other public improvements.  The interest of these funds, and the income from other sources, are called the revenue.

Sec.5.  In some states, school funds are created by appropriating the public lands, which are lands owned by the state as a body corporate.  The proceeds of these lands, from sales or rents, constitute a part or the whole of the school fund, the interest of which is annually applied to the support of schools.  If the income from the school fund is insufficient for this purpose, the deficiency may, as is done in some states, be supplied, in whole or in part, by taxation, or from the state treasury.

Sec.6.  Many of the new states have large school funds.  At an early period, while most of the territory from which these states have been formed was yet the property of the United States, and uninhabited, Congress passed an act by which a particular section of land (number sixteen) in every township is reserved for the support of schools therein.  By this act, one thirty-sixth part of the lands within each of these states has been thus appropriated, besides smaller portions granted for the benefit of a university in each state.  These lands are in the charge of proper officers, who dispose of them, and apply the proceeds as the law directs.