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86 The Maryland Constitution of 1864. [432
gates, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
were to form a State Board of Education, the duties
of which were to be prescribed by the General As-
sembly. There were to be School Commissioners in each
county to be appointed by the State Board for a term of
four years, to the number deemed necessary by the State
Superintendent. The General Assembly at its first ses-
sion under the new Constitution, was to provide a uni-
form system of schools, by which a free school was to be
kept open in each school district for at least six months
in each year. In case it failed to do this, the system re-
ported by the State Superintendent was to become law,
subject to the provisions of the Constitution and to future
alteration by the General Assembly. At each regular ses-
sion of the Legislature, an annual tax of ten cents on the
hundred dollars was to be levied throughout the state, the
proceeds of which were to be distributed among the coun-
ties and the city of Baltimore in proportion to their re-
spective population between the ages of five and twenty
years. No additional local taxes were to be levied without
the consent of the people affected. Further, there was to
be an additional annual tax of five cents on the hundred
dollars, the proceeds of which were to be invested until a
permanent School Fund of six million dollars was formed,
this Fund to remain inviolate, and the annual interest of
it disbursed for educational purposes only.198 As soon as
this Fund was formed, the ten cent tax might be discon-
tinued in whole or in part.
The Committee on Education had in mind two men for
the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction
—Libertus Van Bokkelen of Baltimore County and Wil-
liam H. Farquhar of Montgomery County, and it was pri-
vately agreed with Governor Bradford that he was to ap-
point either one of these men. The School Fund idea
198 For school funds prior to 1865 see report of House Committee,
House Journal, 1864, pp. 92-3.
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