80 The Financial History of Connecticut, 



dispose of large tracts of wild land in Ohio and New York at any 

 reasonable price, he had decided to attempt to exchange land there 

 for farms in Connecticut. Here again he showed his shrewdness 

 by taking advantage of the western emigration movement. In 

 negotiating for such an exchange, he offered, upon the request of 

 the owner, to pay one-sixth of the value of his farm in cash, the ' 

 rest in western lands. This would provide the farmer with a little 

 ready cash with which to go west and make a start. The result 

 was that during the fall and winter of 1827 he acquired for the fund 

 Connecticut farms valued at twenty-five thousand six hundred 

 dollars in exchange for wild land worth about twenty-two thousand 

 dollars and cash for the balance. ^ This transfer brought to the 

 fund lands which would yield a revenue and which were exempt 

 from taxation in place of lands which were only a source of expense 

 to the fund. These illustrations give an idea of the problems which 

 were met and the methods pursued in solving them. Such failures 

 on the part of debtors to make payments to the fund and similar 

 exchanges of property characterize the changes in the composition 

 of the fund from year to year. 



Two acts of the assembly deserve mention in this connection. Until 

 1826, in accordance with a resolve passed in 1800, whenever the prin- 

 cipal of the fund was converted into cash, it was in- 

 of Fund vested exclusively in bank stock or stock of the United 



States. In 1826, at the suggestion of the commissioner 

 of the fund, the general assembly authorized him to invest this 

 money also in loans secured by a mortgage of real estate located in 

 Connecticut and worth at least double the value of the loans. In 

 1828 the act was modified to permit loans when the security was 

 situated in New York or Massachusetts.^ Until 1824 only fifty- 

 seven thousand six hundred dollars of the fund had been invested 

 in bank stock and this had been invested in shares of the Hartford 

 Bank before 1815. As the years passed, however, this amount was 

 more than quadrupled and there were investments in seventeen 

 banks at the close of this period. 



To convey an idea of the composition of the principal of 



this fund the following table is given. It itemizes the capital 



^ ... at different dates in accordance with corresponding 



Composition ^ ° 



of Fund reports of the commissioner of the school fund. 



Report of Commissioner of School Fund, 1828, pp. 3, 4. 

 Report of Commissioner of School Fund, 1835, pp. 1—7. 



