12 
INTRODUCTION. 
tuting schools for the purpose of instructing children in the lower branches of edu¬ 
cation.” The recommendation was renewed in 1795, with the sanction of George 
Clinton, then governor. The legislature in the same year appropriated twenty 
thousand pounds ($50,000) annually for live years, out of the public revenue, to 
encourage and maintain, in the several cities and towns, schools, in which the 
children of the inhabitants residing in the state should “ be instructed in the 
English language, or be taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and 
such other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to complete 
a good English education.” The boards of supervisors were required to raise 
by tax in each town, a sum equal to one-half of its proportion of the moneys 
appropriated by the state; and commissioners and trustees were directed to be 
appointed, and required to make annual reports to the secretary of state. 
The returns made in 1798, showed that 1,352 schools had been established, 
and 59,660 children had been instructed therein in sixteen of the twenty-three 
counties into which the state was then divided. Mr. Comstock, a representative 
from Saratoga in the assembly of 1800, made an unsuccessful motion that the 
then expiring law of 1795 should be continued. The law therefore was suffered 
to expire ; and notwithstanding the earnest and repeated representations of gover¬ 
nor Clinton, the legislature omitted to adopt any measure for the reestablishment 
of common schools until 1805, when a law was passed, declaring that the nett 
proceeds of five hundred thousand acres of public lands should be devoted to the 
creation of a permanent fund for the support of common schools. The act 
directed that the lands should he sold, and the moneys derived therefrom loaned 
and suffered to accumulate, until the interest arising thereon should amount to 
fifty thousand dollars annually; after which period, the annual interest should be 
distributed for the support of common schools. The measure received important 
aid from the recommendation of Morgan Lewis, who then filled the executive 
chair. The fund thus established produced an income in 1810 of twenty-six 
thousand dollars; and Daniel D. Tompkins, then governor, in two successive 
annual speeches, urged the importance of an immediate organization of the com- 
