"By an act entitled 'An act donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,' approved July 2, 1862, the Congress of the United States donated certain of the public lands to the several states and territories, and provided for the issue of land scrip as evidence thereof. The fourth section of this act provided that all moneys derived from the sale of the scrip should be invested, and that the moneys so invested should constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which should remain forever undiminished, and the interest should be inviolably appropriated to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object should be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts in such manner as the Legislatures of the several states might respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life. The fifth section declared that the grant was made upon certain conditions, the assent to which by legislative enactment was required before the grant should become operative. The first condition was that, if any portion of the fund invested should be diminished or lost, it should be made up by the state, and the annual interest regularly applied, without diminution, to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section. The second condition was that no portion of the fund, nor any interest thereon, should be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings. The third condition was that any state which should take and claim the benefit of the act should provide, within five years at least, not less than one college as described in the fourth section, or the grant to such state should cease, and the state should be bound to pay to the United States the amount received for any land previously sold.
"By an act passed March 21, 1863 [P. L. p. 441] the Legislature of the state of New Jersey accepted the grant made by the congressional act referred to, 'for the purposes and upon the conditions in said act of Congress specified.' By the same act commissioners were appointed to receive the scrip and convert it and invest the proceeds according to the terms of the grant.
"By an act passed by the Legislature of New Jersey, April 4, 1864 [P. L. p. 650], the Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, and Treasurer were appointed a commission to administer the fund realized upon the sale of the land scrip, and were directed to pay over the interest of the fund semiannually to the trustees of Rutgers College for the special purposes and upon the special conditions therein referred to. These conditions were that the said trustees should devote said interest wholly and exclusively to the maintenance, in that department of Rutgers College known as 'Rutgers Scientific School,' of such courses of instruction as should carry out the intent of said act of Congress in the manner specifically prescribed by the fourth section thereof; that said trustees should furnish gratuitous education in said courses to pupils of said school in such manner as the Legislature should prescribe—the pupils to be so received gratuitously into said school to be in each year such a number as would expend a sum equal to one-half of the said interest for the same year in paying for their instruction at regular rates; that the trustees should obligate themselves to erect additional and adequate buildings as soon as the same might become necessary, without charge to or upon the state; that the instruction of said school should be under the supervision and control of a board of ten visitors, to be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, who should report annually to the Legislature; that students
of agriculture and the mechanic arts should be admitted into the college upon the recommendation of the board of chosen freeholders of their respective counties, and that the number to which each county should be entitled should be in proportion to the number of representatives of such county in the Legislature.
"March 28, 1888, the Legislature passed an act providing for the examination of candidates for state scholarships at the Agricultural College by a board of examiners, under rules to be prescribed by the faculty of the college and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
"March 5, 1888 [P. L. p. 129], the Legislature passed an act in which it was declared that the trustees of Rutgers College had received the proceeds of said congressional fund, and had faithfully carried out the provisions of the laws of the United States and of the state of New Jersey relating thereto, and had maintained and were then maintaining the State Agricultural College of New Jersey in its various departments, in pursuance of and as required by the laws of the state, and that 'the said institution is the State Agricultural College of New Jersey.'
"On the 31st of March, 1890 [P. L. p. 161], the Legislature passed an act entitled 'An act to increase the efficiency of the public school system of the state by providing for additional free scholarships at the State Agricultural College.' The act reads as follows:
"'Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the state of New Jersey, that in order that students in the schools in all parts of the state may receive the stimulus afforded by the opportunity to pursue the courses of study in the State Agricultural College, and in order to enable said State Agricultural College to furnish instruction gratuitously to students, residents of this state, in its several courses of study, as special courses of advanced study in the public school system of this state, there shall be sent to the said college students to the number of one each year from each assembly district in this state, to be selected and designated as hereinafter provided, who shall receive gratuitous instruction in any or in all the prescribed branches of study in any of the courses of study of said State College, under the general powers of supervision and control possessed by the board of visitors of said State College; said students so received shall be residents of this state, and shall be admitted into said State College upon the terms and subject to the rules and discipline which shall apply to all other free students of said State College; and if there should be more than one suitably prepared applicant from the same assembly district in the same year, such additional applicants may, in the discretion of the board of visitors of the State Agricultural College, be received on any vacant scholarships of any other assembly districts until such districts shall require such scholarships, after notice has been served on the superintendent of education of the county in which such vacant assembly districts are situated.
"'Sec. 2. And be it enacted, that said students shall be selected as follows: A competitive examination, under the direction of the city superintendents, and the county superintendent of education, in each county, shall be held at the county court house in each county of the state, upon the first Saturday in June in each year, and the necessary traveling expenses of said examiners not otherwise provided for by law, on the approval of the president and secretary of the board of visitors of said State Agricultural College, shall be paid by said State College; students who apply for examination shall be examined upon such subjects as may be designated by the faculty of said college and the State Board of Education; and the said city and county superintendents shall report to the president of said college and to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction the names of all such students examined as in their opinion are suitably prepared to enter said college, with their estimates of the order of excellence in scholarship shown by said students at such preliminary examination; certificates of appointment to the State Agricultural College shall be issued by the State Superintendent of Public instruction to all of such students as are so found to be qualified to enter said college; and in case the vacant scholarships shall not be sufficient to receive all such successful candidates, preference in appointing to vacant scholarships shall be given to successful candidates in the order of the excellence of their examination as certified by said superintendents; and in general the regulations and provisions governing the conduct of such examinations, and the appointment of said students to said scholarships shall be subject to the control of said board of visitors of said college.
"'Sec. 3. And be it enacted, that each student so appointed and admitted to said college shall be regarded as holding a state scholarship, and for each scholarship so held there shall be paid, as hereinafter provided, on the first day of November in each year, to the treasurer of said college, the same sum of money as...
