EDUCATION IN CONVENTION OF 1857 227
decided by a vote of 27 to 15 not to expend the university fund for at least ten years. Since the fund was small, this delay was a good thing. The people as a whole were not prepared or ready for a state university and did not want it at this time. They did not feel that they could support it and send their children to it. The fund was to be invested so that it would increase.
The convention established a board of commissioners consisting of the governor, the secretary of state and the state treasurer. Their duties were to sell the school and university lands, invest the funds arising therefrom and such other duties as prescribed by law. The placing of politicians in the leading educational offices was a bad feature, as they did not give due diligence in protecting the schools' interests. No minimum price was placed on the lands for sale, as later there was in some states, 18 and consequently gave ample opportunities for fraud.
Mr. P. B. Marple, disagreeing with the majority of the education committee, submitted a separate minority report. This report was more exhaustive and detailed than the majority report, containing eight 19 instead of five sections.
There are three outstanding differences brought out by Mr. Marple. In the first place the land assets and moneys now constituting the university fund shall (as soon as Congress shall consent thereto) be and remain a part of the common school fund. This provision was practically useless, as there was a legal objection to it. Congress had never consented to it for any other state and was not likely to in this case. Secondly, no county shall receive its apportionment of the school funds unless there shall have been raised in that county an amount of money for the schools equal to one-half of the appor-
18 For example, such a provision was made in the constitution of Washington, Article XVI.
19 See manuscript copy of the minority report of the state constitu- tional convention, at the Oregon Historical Society at Portland.
