State Expenditures. 95 



not exceeding thirty thousand dollars, might be necessary for that 

 purpose. It is an interesting sequel to know that in 1841 the assembly 

 authorized the directors of this bank to reduce the value of each 

 share from fifty dollars to forty dollars. This action of reducing 

 the capital stock by one-fifth was based on the ground that the bonus 

 required of the bank had put too severe a strain upon its resources.^ 



9. Humane Institutions and Public Buildings. 

 During the first period the state estabhshed no charitable insti- 

 tution and with an exception of an appropriation in 1817 to the 



Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb 

 Asylum for j^ gave no aid to humane institutions of any kind.^ 

 Dumb From the year beginning April 1, 1830, this institution 



annually received money from the state for the edu- 

 cation of deaf and dumb persons who were unable to provide it for 

 themselves and whose friends could not bear the expense. In 1837 

 the assembly authorized the governor to choose some of the deaf 

 and dumb inhabitants of the state who were unable to provide an 

 education, using his discretion regarding the number to be chosen, 

 and to send them to the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Hartford 

 to be educated at the expense of the state. These beneficiaries were 

 to be between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. The governor 

 was empowered to contract for their education, for a period of not 

 more than five years, on terms at least as favorable as other states 

 were granted. He was limited to twenty-five hundred doUars for 

 any one year.^ This appropriation was continued in 1843 and the 

 act was amended to permit the governor to contract for the edu- 

 cation of deaf and dumb children between eight and twelve years 

 of age. For these he could contract for a term of eight years, but he 

 was restricted to a term of six years for all others.* As a matter 

 of fact, the amount allowed by the acts of 1837 and 1843 was not 

 entirely used, the actual expense for this purpose in a single sub- 

 sequent year being less than fifteen hundred dollars until 1841 and 

 not rising above two thousand dollars until 1844. In this year the 

 assembly voted that if in any year the full appropriation of twenty- 

 five hundred dollars should not be used, the unexpended portion 

 might be added to the appropriation for the next year.^ The total 



1 Public Acts, May 1841, chap. 4. 



2 Cf. pp. 49, 50. 



3 Private Acts, 1837, p. 26. 

 * Private Acts, 1843, p. 27. 

 5 Private Acts, 1844, p. 8. 



