Until 1856 the state made no provision for the insane, the blind, or the deaf and dumb, but in that year buildings and maintenance were authorized for each of these, and each of the institutions was endowed with 100,000 acres of land.2

Expenditures for public buildings increased after 1852. A new. capitol, governor's mansion, land office building and treasury building were erected. They were modest buildings, for the cost of constructing and furnishing all of them did not exceed $270,000.

Expenditures of minor importance were for pensions and for what may be called industrial purposes. No general pension law was enacted, but cases of soldiers and seamen disabled in the Texas Revolution or in the service of the Republic of Texas were dealt with individually. Industrial expenditures were for the taking of the state census, and in 1858 for a geological and agricultural survey of the state. Public printing increased in cost after 1851, mainly because of the increased volume of printing.

Expenditures so far considered related to state duties of unquestioned legitimacy. The policy that should be followed in regard to internal improvements, however, was the subject of a vigorous controversy. During the republic four railroads were chartered, but the aid granted to them was only their right of way over the public domain, and not one was built.3 It was not unusual to find in state constitutions which were drawn up at about the time Texas adopted hers a provision that enjoined encouragement to internal improvements. A similar injunction was lacking in the Texas Constitution of 1845, and the only provisions relating to the subject were that no appropriation should be made for internal improvements without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses of the legislature, and that the state should not be part owner of the stock or property belonging to any corporation.1 During the first years of statehood railroad companies were chartered, but no construction took place, and the charters were forfeited. No subsidies were given, foreign capital was timid, domestic capital was both scarce and otherwise more profitably employed, population was sparse, the traffic in sight small, and distances to be covered were great. The failure of unaided private enterprise down to 1852 to provide means of transportation forced the question of state assistance to the forefront of public questions.

1 The expenditures for the penitentiary from 1848 to 1861 amounted to $318,958. Report of the Comptroller, 1868-9, pp. 44-49. See also House Journal, 5th Leg., appendix.

2 Laws of 1856, Adjourned Session, pp. 39, 58 and 61, and Laws of 1858, p. 251.

3 Alexander Deussen, "The Beginnings of the Texas Railroad System," in Transactions of the Texas Academy of Science, vol. 9, p. 43.

The method of state assistance first adopted was the donation in several special chartering acts of eight sections of land for each completed mile of road.2 Previously, in 1850, statutory permission was given the cities and counties along the route of the proposed San Antonio Railroad to subscribe to its capital stock.3 The city of San Antonio and Bexar County each subscribed $100,000, and these were the only municipal subsidies given in Texas before the Civil War.4

The imagination of the public was kindled by the receipt by the state of the $5,000,000 of United States bonds; and in 1852 public meetings and conventions began to be held to discuss the subject of internal improvement.5 During the years from 1852 to 1856, which was a period of discussion, three plans for securing a system of improvements were presented. One was called the "State Plan", and was championed by Governor Pease. It comprehended a system of railroads, canals and river improvements. The railroads were to be built and owned by the state.

1 Art. 7, sees. 8 and 31.

2 Special Laws of 1852, p. 97.

3 Laws of 1850, p. 35.

4 Texas Almanac, 1859. The special tax levied by Bexar County was reluctantly paid, particularly by non-residents of the county, and the state comptroller in 1856 or 1857. following an opinion of the attorney general, instructed the assessors and collectors no longer to insist on the payment of the tax. Report of Comptroller, 1856-7, p. 20.

5 Message of Governor Bell, January 13, 1853; House Journal, 4th Leg., Second Sess., p. 20. The Texas State Gazette, July 12, 1856. The Galveston News, January 17, 1854, and May 29, 1855.

but leased for private operation. The funds for construction were to be raised through the sale of state bonds, and the interest on the bonds was to be met by a direct tax, until an amount sufficient to meet the interest should be realized from the sale of the public lands or from the profits on the constructed works.1 The advocates of this plan thought that by it the state would secure during the next fifteen years internal improvements valued at from twenty-five to thirty million dollars. "No argument against the practicability of the plan here presented," said the governor, "can be drawn from the experience of other states, which have attempted a system of improvements, because none of them have attempted a system like this."

Another plan was called the "Iron Policy." It was so called because it proposed the investment of the school fund in railroad iron which was to be loaned to the roads.2 Governor Pease regarded this plan as the alternative to the "State Plan."3 The third plan was called the "Loaning System," and was the plan to invest the school fund in the bonds of railroad companies.4 The "Loaning System" was approved by the convention called to consider internal improvements which met in Austin July 4, 1856, and in which twenty-six counties were represented.5

It was pointed out that the experience of other states with internal improvements had been "enormous expenditures on unprofitable works, State debts, repudiation, and finally ruinous taxation."6 This experience was heeded, and the "State Plan" and the "Iron Policy" were rejected. The policy adopted was, first, to donate to each railroad sixteen alternate sections of land for every mile of completed road, the land to be surveyed in sections of 640 acres at the expense of the road ,1 second, to loan for ten years at six per cent interest the United States bonds belonging to the school fund to railroad companies chartered by the state, at the rate of $6,000 for each mile constructed, the loan to be secured by a first lien upon the property of a road;2 third, to appropriate $300,000 out of the state treasury for the improvement of the navigable rivers, bayous, lakes, and bays of the state, and for the construction of canals.3 The act carrying this appropriation imposed the important conditions that the maximum amount to be given to any one river project should be $50,000, and that no aid should be given unless there was raised by private subscriptions a sum equal to one-fifth of the amount asked of the state. Some eighteen contracts were entered into, and by the end of the fiscal year 1863 the appropriation of $300,-000 was exhausted.4 It is difficult to believe that the amounts expended accomplished anything. Texas rivers apparently were no more permanently navigable before the Civil War than they are today, for it was proposed in 1856 that $100,000 should be expended on digging a number of artesian wells at the heads of all Texas rivers in order that they might be supplied with water.5 Any improvement in the rivers which may have been effected as a result of this state assistance was suffered to be lost during the years of the war and the Reconstruction.

1 Message of Governor Pease, November 5, 1855; Senate Journal, 6th Leg., p. 8. House Journal, 6th Leg., pp. 401-412. The Texas State Gazette, February 24, 1855, and April 5, 1856. The Galveston News and the Galveston Journal supported the State Plan. The Marshall Republican and the Houston Telegraph prominently opposed. See Galveston News, January 1, 1856.

2 House Journal, 6th Leg., pp. 412-19. The Texas State Gazette, April 5, 1856. The Galveston Weekly News, December 25, 1855, and January 1, 1856.

3 Senate Journal, 6th Leg., p. 29.

4 Majority Report of the Committee on Internal Improvements; House Journal, 6th Leg., pp. 401-12. Message of Governor Bell, November 12, 1851. Message of Governor Pease, December 23, 1853.

5 The Texas State Gazette, July 12, 1856.

6 House Journal, 6th Leg., pp. 401-12. The Galveston News, June 5, 1855.

1 Laws of 1854, p. 11.

2 Laws of 1856, Adj. Sess., p. 31.

3 Laws of 1856, Adj. Sess., p. 9. For railroad mileage see ante, p. 84.

4 At the end of the fiscal year 1859 there had been drawn $217,227. In 1860 and 1861 $90,449 was drawn, but this amount less refunds and the sum derived from sale of property left net amount drawn of $87,-555. In 1862 and 1863, $2,529 was drawn. The total drawn was $307,-311. See comptroller's reports, 1856-7 and 1858-9; and the original Warrant Register, 1861-1871, in the vault of the comptroller's department. Texas Almanac, 1858, p. 191.

5 House Journal, 6th Leg., p. 517. The Galveston News, June 5, 1855, thought the amount appropriated insufficient to secure permanent navigation. In the issue of December 4, 1855, the appropriation is defended as sufficient for securing permanent navigation for several hundred miles into the interior.

Expenditures of a character different from the above were those for education and the public debt, and these will be treated in connection with the school funds and the public debt.