What was the distribution act of 1836

Its proceeds transformed the moribund Literary Fund , established a decade earlier, into a nearly inexhaustible source of revenue for local schools, lasting until the end of the Civil War.

On a political level, the surplus ushered in more than a decade of Whig political supremacy in North Carolina, coming after a lengthy battle on the national level between Democratic president Andrew Jackson and his congressional opponents, the Whigs, led by Henry Clay. In Jackson had vetoed an earlier distribution bill that sought to return federal funds from the sale of western lands to the states after the national debt had been repaid.

But the issue refused to die, and Jackson was forced to accept the compromise bill of By then even Democrats, while distrustful of federal encroachment on state rights , were clamoring for the revenue to reduce state taxes and pay off the state debt. In some states, however, the more progressive Whigs successfully advocated use of the money for internal improvements primarily railroads and swamp drainage and state aid to public education. The stock and securities were assigned to the Literary Fund, where the accrued dividends allowed annual financing for the state's first " common ," or public, schools.

The failing Raleigh-Gaston line, which the state was forced to buy in , proved less lucrative. It was the public schools that benefited most from the Literary Fund's expenditures after By Rockingham County voters had authorized the first free common school in the state; within six more years, every county had at least one public school. More than , children were enrolled in , when 2, individual schools were in operation.

For all its limitations, the experiment in federal revenue sharing was more successful in North Carolina than in other states, where speculators and unwise investments quickly used up the distributions. Although the surplus distributions were theoretically issued as loans to the states, they were never required to be repaid; many states expected the federal largess to continue indefinitely, but for political and economic reasons, this did not occur.

The next attempt at federal revenue sharing did not occur until the s, more than a century later. Hugh T. Lefler and Albert R. Raleigh [N. J, Lemay. Bourne, Edward Gaylord. The history of the surplus revenue of ; being an account of its origin, its distribution among the states, and the uses to which it was applied.

New York: G. Putnam's Sons. Collins, Wm. The panic of occurred because of overspeculation in western lands, poor banking procedures, and a decline in farm prices, all of which the distribution system which called for the distribution of surplus funds to the states further compounded.

Americans abandoned the provisions of the act in when Congress passed the protectionist Tariff of , which greatly slashed federal revenues. Next post: Disease. Previous post: Divorce. Distribution Act Next post: Disease Previous post: Divorce.