more useful, responsible, and intrinsically honorable office of schoolcommittee-man is shunned as thankless and burdensome...

... Hence it often happens, that the citizens, best qualified for the station, decline its acceptance; or, having accepted it, they abridge its labors, and thereby curtail its usefulness...

... Our law enacts, that every town containing five hundred families, . . ( . . . equivalent to three thousand inhabitants, . . shall maintain a school, to be kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, << for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town," ten months, at least, exclusive of vacations, in each year, who, in addition to the branches of learning to be taught in the district schools, shall give instruction in the history of the United States, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, and algebra; and in towns of four thousand inhabitants, the master of such school shall be competent to instruct in the Latin and Greek languages, and general history, rhetoric, and logic. In this Commonwealth, there are forty-three towns, exclusive of the city of Boston, coming within the provisions above recited... Of these fortythree towns, only fourteen maintain those schools " for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town," which the law requires. The other twenty-nine towns, in which this provision of the law is wholly disregarded, contain a very large fraction over one-fifth part of the whole population of the State, out of Boston... In these twenty-nine towns, which do not keep the "town school" required by law, the sum of forty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-six dollars is expended in private schools and academies, while only seventy-four thousand three hundred and thirteen dollars is expended for the support of public schools.

The refusal of the town to maintain the free town school drives a portion of its inhabitants to establish the private school or academy. When established, these institutions tend strongly to diminish the annual appropriations of the town; they draw their ablest recruits from the Common Schools; and, by being able to offer higher compensation, they have a pre-emptive right to the best qualified teachers; while, simultaneously, the district schools are reduced in length, deteriorated in quality, and, to some extent, bereft of talents competent for instruction.

Fourthly. Another component element in the prosperity of schools is the competency of teachers...

... The teachers are as good as public opinion has demanded. Their attainments have corresponded with their opportunities; and the supply has answered the demand as well in quality as in number. Yet, in numerous instances, school committees have alleged, in justification of their approval of incompetent persons, the utter impossibility of obtaining better for the compensation offered.

It was stated publicly by a member of the school committee of a town, containing thirty or more school districts, that one-half at least of the teachers approved by them would be rejected, only that it would be in vain to expect better teachers for present remuneration. And, without a change in prices, is it reasonable to expect a change in competency, while talent is invited, through so many other avenues, to emolument and distinction?.. it appears that the average wages per month paid to male teachers throughout the State, inclusive of board, is twenty-five dollars and forty-four cents; and to female teachers, eleven dollars and thirty-eight cents... it is supposed that two dollars and fifty cents a week for males, and one dollar and fifty cents a week for females, would be a very low estimate for the average price of their board, respectively, throughout the State... On this basis of computation, the average wages of male teachers throughout the State is fifteen dollars and forty-four cents a month, exclusive of board, or at the rate of one hundred and eighty-five dollars and twenty-eight cents by the year; and the average wages of female teachers, exclusive of board, is five dollars and thirty-eight cents a month, or at the rate of sixty-four dollars and fifty-six cents by the year.

It is thought by some, that the State cannot afford any advance upon the present salaries of teachers, which we have seen to be on an average, exclusive of board, fifteen dollars and forty-four cents per month for males, and five dollars and thirty-eight cents for females. The valuation of the State, according to the census of 1830, was $208,360,407.54. During the past season, it has been repeatedly stated, in several of the public papers, and, so far as I have seen, without contradiction or question, that it is now equal to three hundred millions. The amount raised by taxes the current year, for the support of Common Schools, in the towns heard from, is four hundred and sixty-five thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars and four cents, which,

if we assume the correctness of the above estimate respecting the whole property in the State, is less than one mill and six-tenths of a mill on the dollar.

Would it not seem, as though the question were put, not in sobriety, but in derision, if it were asked, whether something more than one six-hundredth part of the welfare of the State might not come from the enlightenment of its intellect and the soundness of its morals? and yet this would, to some extent certainly, involve the question whether the State could afford any increase of its annual appropriations for schools.

From the best information I have been able to obtain, I am led to believe that there are not more than fifty towns in the State, where any thing worthy the name of apparatus is used in schools... This great defect will undoubtedly be, to a considerable extent, supplied by the law of April 12, 1837, which authorizes school districts to raise money by taxation, to be expended for the purchase of apparatus and Common-School Libraries, in sums not exceeding thirty dollars the first year, and ten for any succeeding year.

HORACE MANN, Secretary of the Board of Education.

Boston, January 1, 1838.

131. THE PRE-EMPTION ACT OF 1841

The following act, approved September 4, 1841, really represented a compromise on the public land question between the West and East. The first sections of the act contained a conditional provision, which never went into effect, for the distribution among the states of the proceeds from the sale of public lands. As a sop to the West, the latter sections definitely established in public land policy the principle of preemption which had been temporarily in force at various times previous.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 5, pp. 455–456.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, every . . . man, over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of inten

tion to become a citizen... who since the first day of June, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty, has made... a settlement in person on the public lands to which the Indian title had been... extinguished, and which... shall have been, surveyed prior thereto, and who shall inhabit and improve the same, and who... shall erect a dwelling thereon,.. is hereby, authorized to enter with... the land office... any number of acres not exceeding one hundred and sixty, or a quarter section of land, to include the residence of such claimant, upon paying to the United States the minimum price of such land, subject, however, to the following limitations and exceptions: No person shall be entitled to more than one pre-emptive right by virtue of this act; no person who is the proprietor of three hundred and twenty acres of land in any State or Territory of the United States, and no person who shall quit or abandon his residence on his own land to reside on the public land in the same State or Territory, shall acquire any right of pre-emption under this act; no lands included in any reservation... no lands reserved for the support of schools, nor the lands... to which the title. has been or may be extinguished by the United States at any time during the operation of this act; no sections of land reserved to the United States alternate to other sections granted to any of the States for the construction of any... public improvement; no sections... included within the limits of any incorporated town; no portions of the public lands which have been selected as the site for a city or town; no parcel or lot of land actually settled and occupied for the purposes of trade and not agriculture; and no lands on which are situated any known salines or mines, shall be liable to entry under and by virtue of the provisions of this act...

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That when two or more persons shall have settled on the same quarter section of land, the right of pre-emption shall be in him or her who made the first settlement, provided such persons shall conform to the other provisions of this act; and all questions as to the right of pre-emption arising between different settlers shall be settled by the register and receiver of the district within. which the land is situated, subject to an appeal to and a revision by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That prior to any entries being made under and by virtue of the provisions of this act, proof of the settlement and improvement thereby required, shall be made to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the land district in which such lands may lie... and all assignments and transfers of the right hereby secured, prior to the issuing of the patent, shall be null and void. SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That before any person claim

ing the benefit of this act shall be allowed to enter such lands, he or she shall make oath before the receiver or register of the land district in which the land is situated... that he or she has never had the benefit of any right of pre-emption under this act; that he or she is not the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land in any State or Territory of the United States, nor hath he or she settled upon and improved said land to sell the same on speculation, but in good faith to appropriate it to his or her own exclusive use or benefit; and that he or she has not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner, with any person or persons whatsoever, by which the title which he or she might acquire from the government of the United States, should enure in whole or in part, to the benefit of any person except himself or herself; ..

132. THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY OF 1842

The following treaty provided a settlement of uncertainties in the international boundary as far west as Oregon. It was ratified August 22, 1842.

Public Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 8, pp. 572-577.

ARTICLE I.

IT is hereby agreed and declared that the line of boundary shall be as follows: Beginning at the monument at the source of the river St. Croix as designated and agreed to by the commissioners under the fifth article of the treaty of 1794, between the Governments of the United States and Great Britain; thence, north, following the exploring line run and marked by the surveyors of the two Governments in the years 1817 and 1818, under the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, to its intersection with the river St. John, and to the middle of the channel thereof; thence, up the middle of the main channel of the said river St. John, to the mouth of the river St. Francis; thence, up the middle of the channel of the said river St. Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook; thence, southwesterly, in a straight line, to a point on the northwest branch of the river St. John, which point shall be ten miles distant from the main branch of the St. John, in a straight line, and in the nearest direction but if the said point shall be found to be less than seven miles from the