ounty in the commonwealth,
and to the distribution, annually, to all the towns, of such a sum for
the benefit of the schools as shall simply operate as an encouragement
to proportionate efforts on the part of the towns. A fund which should
be so large as to suffice for the support of the whole school
establishment of the state, as is the case in Connecticut, would, in the
opinion of the committee, be rather detrimental than advantageous; it
would only serve to draw off from the mass of the community that
animating interest which will ever be found indispensable where a
resolute feeling upon the subject is wished for or expected. Such a
result is, in every sense, to be deprecated, and whatever may tend to
it, even remotely, should be anxiously avoided. A fund which should
admit of the distribution of one thousand dollars to any town which
should raise three thousand dollars, in any manner within itself, or in
that proportion, would operate as a strong incentive to high efforts;
and, if to this should be added the further requisition of a faithful
return to the Legislature, annually, of the condition of the schools,
the consequences could not be otherwise than decidedly favorable." This
report was accompanied by a bill "for the establishment of the
Massachusetts Literary Fund." The bill followed the report in regard to
the proportionate amount of the income of the fund to be distributed to
the several towns. This bill failed to become a law.

In January, 1833, the House of Representatives, under an order
introduced by Mr. Marsh, of Dalton, appointed a committee "to consider
the expediency of investing a portion of the proceeds of the sales of
the lands of this commonwealth in a permanent fund, the interest of
which should be annually applied, as the Legislature should from time to
time direct, for the encouragement of common schools." The adoption of
this order was the incipient measure that led to the establishment of
the Massachusetts School Fund. On the twenty-third of the same month,
Mr. Marsh submitted the report of the committee. The committee acted
upon the expectation that all moneys then in the treasury derived from
the sale of public lands, and the entire proceeds of all subsequent
sales, were to be set apart as a fund for the encouragement of common
schools; but, as blanks were left in the bill reported, they seem not to
have been sanguine of the liberality of the Legislature. The cash and
notes on hand amounte