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3
seventeen years bears to the whole number of children thereof"
The number of colored children between the ages of six and seventeen years is 10 5/8 per centum of the whole number of children between birth and twenty-one years, and this the city authorities contend is the meaning of the law: but the Trustees of colored schools content that the white and colored children are to be reckoned between the same ages, viz. 6 and 17 years. and thus reckoned, the colored children according to the census of 1860, are 20 per centum of the whole number of children between the ages of 6 and 17 years, and their share of the school moneys is 20 per centum instead of 10 5/8 per cent. The municipal authorities of Washington refuse to pay in that ratio, or in any other than the 10 5/8 rato, and in consequence the Trustees of colored schools instituted more than a year ago, a suit in the civil courts of this District, against the civil authorities of Washington city, for what remained unpaid of the 20 per centum.
The amount which the city refuses to pay, reckoning from their account of expenditures from June 25, 1864, to June 30, 1866 is $18828.47
This with the amount which they acknowledge to be due. $9159.34 makes the indebtidness of the city to the Trustees of colored schools, June 30, 1866. $27,987,86
The legal advisers of the trustees inform them that by the law of June 25, 1864. they can collect the 20 per centum from that date: but in order to make assureance doubly sure, and to cover some doubtful points, and to give