KENTUCKY. 



In addition to the foregoing resources, the 

 State has unadjusted claims against the Federal 

 Government, for advances made during the 

 war, amounting to $505,478.52. 



Holders of the bonds have been notified of 

 the readiness and desire of the State Treasury 

 to pay the principal, with accrued interest and 

 without discount, but they have declined to 

 receive the money and surrender the bonds. 



While the sinking fund yields more than is 

 required for the redemption of the State in- 

 debtedness as it falls due, the revenue is in- 

 sufficient to meet the expenses of the govern- 

 ment. The Governor for two years past has 

 urged upon the Legislature some action which 

 should remedy this difficulty. In his last mes- 

 sage he recommended that the Commissioners 

 of the Sinking Fund be authorized to invest so 

 much of the cash and cash assets on hand, be- 

 longing to the sinking fund, in 5-20 bonds of 

 the United States, or other equally good and 

 convertible securities, as will be sufficient to 

 pay off the outstanding redeemable bonds, and 

 that such securities should be held by the 

 commissioners for that purpose and no other, 

 and that all the other resources of the fund, 

 " except the five cents now imposed by law on 

 the $100 of taxable property," be diverted to 

 the revenue proper. The amounts paid out of 

 the Treasury during the past two years to 

 various charitable institutions and other ob- 

 jects named, together with the revenue col- 

 lected and the surplus remaining for general 

 purposes, are exhibited in the following state- 

 ment : 



The expenses of the penitentiary for the 

 year were $28,083.53, and its revenues, 

 $9,912.15. The House of Keform for Juvenile 

 Delinquents has been completed, and placed 

 under the charge of a Board of Managers. The 

 other public institutions show a favorable 

 record. 



Rapid progress has been made in establish- 

 ing railroad communications between differ- 

 ent parts of the State. The Elizabethtown & 

 Paducah Railroad, 185 miles in length, has 

 been opened for travel during the year. It 

 penetrates the coal and iron region of Western 

 Kentucky, and will aid greatly in developing 



the mineral wealth of that section. The Eliza- 

 bethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy Road has 

 been completed from Lexington to Mount 

 Sterling, and during the year 1873 will prob- 

 ably be extended to the mouth of the Big 

 Sandy, to connect with the Chesapeake & 

 Ohio. 



Great improvement has been made in the 

 matter of public education, though much still 

 remains to be done. During the year ending 

 June, schools were taught in 5,308 of the 5,381 

 districts of the State. The total number of 

 pupils was 416,763, an increase of 10,925 over 

 the preceding year. There is now no general 

 tax for educational purposes, either by the 

 State at large, or by local authorities. The 

 Superintendent, in his last report, lays down 

 the following as " the grand desiderata " for 

 an effective school system : 1. A general 

 statute allowing the districts to tax themselves, 

 without the necessity of procuring special 

 legislation ; 2. A law providing for the build- 

 ing of good school-houses upon a uniform plan ; 

 3. A Normal School for training teachers ; 

 4-. A general law allowing cities and towns to 

 tax themselves to establish graded schools. On 

 the subject of popular education, the Governor 

 says in his message to the Legislature of 1873 : 



"Whatever political or other differences may obtain 

 among us, this is one about which we cannot afford 

 to diner. It is, and should be, the piide of the State 

 to preserve her own schools, regulated and controlled 

 in her own way, and to keep m her own hands the 

 education of her children. We have witnessed vari- 

 ous efforts that have been made to induce the Con- 

 gress of the United States to set up a system of 

 ''national education," which, if done, would virtual- 

 ly take away from the State the control of this sub- 

 ject. It is alarming to contemplate the success of 

 such a scheme. Its direct and inevitable tendency 

 would be to destroy our identity as States, and as 

 the people of separate States ; to promote, at once, 

 the consolidation and centralization of all political 

 power in a Federal Government ; and alter, at least, 

 those forms and institutions of freedom which we 

 have ever regarded as essential to the maintenance 

 of our constitutional liberty. 



He renews a recommendation made in his 

 previous message on the subject of organizing 

 a System of education for the colored popula- 

 tion: 



The education of this race is not a duty of charity 

 alone, but is demanded by the best interests of soci- 

 ety. They form a numerous class of our citizens, 

 sharing with us in civil and political rights, upon 

 whom, too, we are largely dependent for carrying on 

 the industry, especially the agriculture, of the State ; 

 and, just in proportion as they shall be left in igno- 

 rance and vice^ or improved in morals and intelligence 

 by the discipline of a suitable system of education, 

 they will become to the Commonwealth, on the one 

 hand, an incubus of pauperism and crime ; on the 

 other, a useful part of our population. Many of these 

 people are struggling hard in the direction of edu- 

 cating their children, and have shown a wonderful 

 measure of success. 1 trust you will not fail to pro- 

 vide for a system of schools for this portion of pur 

 population, and offer them encouragement and assist- 

 ance in this important department. 



The session of the Legislature which began 

 in December, 1871, continued until the 25tk 



