The federal government made available to the state public lands whose sales revenue was to be used to support public education. In 1856 the legislature appointed a committee to investigate the books of the secretary of state and the state treasurer "from the beginning of the state government to the present time" to ascertain what disposition was being made of the school lands and the receipts from the sale of the same. The committee reported to the effect that "almost hopeless confusion was found in the books of the treasurer and land commissioners, that the state officials had been permitted to draw money in anticipation of their salaries, leaving only memoranda as equivalent; that the state treasurer was a defaulter to the general fund in the sum of $31,318.54, and that school and university funds had been recklessly loaned on insufficient security to friends of the state officers, "in short that thousands of dollars belonging to those funds had been squandered by the officials." There is no record that any action was taken as a result of the report.

Wisconsin: comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form, ed. by Ex-Gov. Geo. W. Peck (Madison, Wis., Western Historical Association, 1906).

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Dictionary of Wisconsin History

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