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Rh tain their separation that he even proposed that the law of exemptions be changed and that church property, except such as was used for schools and hospitals, be subject to taxation.

The setting in which Gov. Safford found himself shows that his exhortation against sectarian influence was not out of place. The Territory had celebrated its entrance on responsibility by giving public funds to a church institution, and in 1875 an effort to divide the public funds in the same manner had been defeated, not without effort. Says McCrea:

Gov. Safford resigned his office in April, 1877, on account of ill health, and ceased to be superintendent of public schools. But to this interest he was true to the end. To the legislature of 1877 he said, in review of the past and in exhortation for the future:

Then follows an exhortation to guard the school as a “sacred trust” and to keep it “free from sectarian or political influences,” for—

to surrender this system and yield to a division of the school fund upon sectarian grounds could only result in the destruction of the general plan for the