Morrill Land Grant Act (1862).This law, which provided land grants to the states for the founding of colleges to teach “agriculture and the mechanic arts,” was first introduced in Congress in 1857 by Representative Justin Morrill, a Vermont Whig (later Republican). Morrill was convinced that existing colleges were failing to provide practical education for the nation's farmers and workers, whose productivity might be greatly improved through the diffusion of “useful knowledge.” Although Morrill's first bill encountered strong southern opposition and was ultimately vetoed by President James Buchanan, a similar bill was passed in 1862 after southern secession and was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

The Morrill Act entitled each state to a grant of thirty thousand acres of federal land for each member of Congress. Funds from the sale of these lands were to be used as a permanent endowment for “at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts.” The states themselves had authority to choose their parcels of federal land, arrange for their sales, and designate the recipients of the income. States either chose existing universities (as in Wisconsin), founded new flagship universities (California), or named special agricultural and mechanical colleges (Indiana). Some southern states (which received grants after the Civil War) split the funds among separate agricultural and mechanical (A&M) colleges for whites and blacks.

Most land‐grant colleges struggled at first, lacking both students and a body of useful scientific knowledge to teach. Rising demand for engineering education and a surge in high‐school graduates, however, eventually caused these institutions to prosper. They were assisted materially by two subsequent acts passed in part because of lobbying efforts by the colleges themselves. The Hatch Act (1887) provided federal funds for agricultural experiment stations, which considerably furthered agricultural science, and the Second Morrill Act (1890) legislated annual federal appropriations.

The Morrill Act shaped American higher education in important respects. It promoted the equal standing of practical and liberal studies; encouraged publicly supported higher education by inducing states to found universities and materially assist their development; and fostered a system of agricultural education, research, and dissemination that ultimately brought useful knowledge to the farmers Justin Morrill had originally sought to help.
See also Agricultural Education and Extension; Agriculture: 1770s to 1890; Agriculture: The “Golden Age” (1890s–1920); Education: Collegiate Education; Education: The Rise of the University; Land Policy, Federal.

Bibliography

Edward D. Eddy Jr. , Colleges for Our Land and Time: The Land‐Grant Idea in American Education, 1957.
Roger L. Williams , The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land‐Grant College Movement, 1991.
The Land–Grant Act and American Higher Education, History of Higher Education Annual, 1998.

Roger L. Geiger

Justin Smith Morrill

Justin Smith Morrill (1810-1898), an American legislator, is best known for his educational legislation providing Federal land grants to the states to set up agricultural and mechanic arts colleges.

Justin Smith Morrill was born in Strafford, Vt., on April 14, 1810, to the family of a blacksmith of modest means. His formal education ended at 14, when he became a general-store clerk. He gained more experience later as a tradesman in Portland, Maine, and then returned to Strafford as a partner and manager of a country store. After 15 years as an active businessman, he went into farming.

In an age when the country store was the local gathering spot for social information and political discussion, Morrill's work made him well known. He also participated in politics, serving on local and state committees for the Whig party. In 1854 he first won a seat in Congress. Thus began continual congressional service which lasted until his death—12 years as a representative and 32 years as a senator.

Morrill's interest in educational legislation started early. There were then no colleges for agriculture and few offering advanced engineering training. At first Morrill promoted an unsuccessful resolution for a national agricultural school on the model of West Point. In 1857 he introduced his first bill providing for use of public land to form a common fund shared by all the states for the advancement of scientific and industrial education. The measure proved premature and received President James Buchanan's veto. However, by July 1862 Morrill had introduced the plan again and won both congressional approval and President Abraham Lincoln's signature.

The idea for the use of public lands may not have originated with Morrill, but his move charted a new course for Federal aid to higher education which directly affected public educational life in every state. His measure provided each state with public land (on the basis of 30,000 acres per each national representative and senator) for the establishment of schools of applied science. The Morrill legislation of 1890 provided further Federal funds for the land-grant colleges.

Education was not his only concern. In Congress, Morrill was well regarded for his knowledge of finance, and he is credited with shaping the protective tariff legislation of 1861. In the House he served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and in the Senate he was chairman of the Finance Committee. He took an active interest in Washington, D.C., leading moves to complete the Washington Monument and to construct buildings for the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court, among others. He died in Washington on Dec. 28, 1898.

Further Reading

The standard biography is William Belmont Parker, The Life and Public Services of Justin Smith Morrill (1924). Also informative is Earle Dudley Ross, Democracy's College: The Land-grant Movement in the Formative Stage (1942). □

Justin Smith Morrill 1810–98, American politician, b. Strafford, Vt. A prosperous merchant, he helped organize (1855) the Republican party in Vermont. First elected to Congress in 1854, he served in the House of Representatives until 1867 and then in the Senate until 1898. He is best known for the Morrill Act, a bill first introduced in 1857 and finally passed in 1862, which provided for the granting of public lands for the establishment of educational institutions; these came to be known as land-grant colleges (see land-grant colleges and universities ).

Bibliography: See biography by W. B. Parker (1924, repr. 1971).