Morrill Act 12 Stat. 503 (1862)
MORRILL ACT 12 Stat. 503 (1862)
The Morrill Land Grant College Act provided a basis for state support of public universities and thereby profoundly influenced the course of American higher education.
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, section 16 of every township was sold and the proceeds used to create a "school fund." In the late 1850s, Vermont Republican Justin Morrill promoted the "Illinois Idea," which would have authorized further land grants to create an "industrial college" in each state. But southern Democrats objected on constitutional grounds, seeing in Morrill's bill a threat to states ' rights. In 1862, with these opponents withdrawn from Congress, the Land Grant College Act was passed. It provided that 30,000 acres of public lands be assigned to each state for each of its senators and representatives (or land scrip in an equivalent amount issued to states lacking available public lands). The proceeds of the land sales were to be invested to support a college "to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," as well as "military tactics," "in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." The American land-grant colleges are the result of this policy.
William M. Wiecek
(1986)