Allegany $300: annual for five years in the report, not expressly in its statutory clause

Finding #1156 documents a drafting/interpretive discrepancy, not a payment proof. New York’s 1846 ch. 114 §2 gives Onondaga $250 annually for five years. §4 gives Cattaraugus $350 per year for five years, then after a semicolon adds “the further sum of three hundred dollars” for Allegany teachers and expenses — without repeating “per year” or “five years.” §7 expressly gives St. Regis $200 per year for five years. §§6 and 8’s general annual-payment language and a local-contribution condition make a recurring Allegany reading plausible but do not settle the §4 asymmetry.

The superintendent’s report dated January 5, 1847 summarizes all four as appropriated annually for the term of five years, listing Allegany $300 alongside Cattaraugus $350, Onondaga $250, and St. Regis $200. That is an administrator’s reading, not a textual amendment or a warrant register. Later 1848 budget lines may reflect ongoing policy without proving the original clause’s legal duration or actual disbursement.

Why it matters for the archive: a confidently asserted five-year Allegany total of $1,500 under ch. 114 presupposes the general framework governs §4; calling the law an unambiguous one-time $300 ignores §§6/8 and the contemporary synopsis. Bonds were still unfiled as of the January 1847 report, so neither language establishes a disbursement. Distinct from #1152 (bonds unfiled), #1155 (prior seven schools), and the building $300s in §3.

Source: 1846-allegany-school-grant-duration-statute-versus-1847-report · commit 1bd8a681 · standing 379