Editing Morrill Land-Grant Acts

{{Short description|Law allowing the creation of colleges in the US}}
{{Redirect|Morrill Act|the act regarding polygamy|Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use American English|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| othershorttitles  = Land-Grant Agricultural and Mechanical College Act of 1862
| longtitle         = An Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.
| colloquialacronym = 
| nickname          = Morrill Act of 1862
| enacted by        = 37th
| effective date    = July 2, 1862
| public law url    =
| cite public law   = {{USPL|37|130}}
| cite statutes at large = {{usstat|12|503}}
| acts amended    = 
| acts repealed   = 
| title amended   = [[Title 7 of the United States Code|7 U.S.C.: Agriculture]]
| sections created = Later codified as {{Usc-title-chap|7|13}} § 301 et seq.
| sections amended =
| leghisturl      = 
| introducedin    = Senate
| introducedbill  = {{USBill|37|S.|298}}
| introducedby    = [[Justin Smith Morrill]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[Vermont|VT]])
| introduceddate  = May 5, 1862
| committees      = 
| passedbody1     = Senate
| passeddate1     = June 10, 1862
| passedvote1     = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/37-2/s392 32-7]
| passedbody2     = House
| passedas2       = <!-- used if the second body changes the name of the legislation -->
| passeddate2     = June 17, 1862
| passedvote2     = [https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/37-2/h273 91-25]
| conferencedate  = 
| passedbody3     = 
| passeddate3     = 
| passedvote3     = 
| agreedbody3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreeddate3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedvote3     = <!-- used when the other body agrees without going into committee -->
| agreedbody4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreeddate4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| agreedvote4     = <!-- used if agreedbody3 further amends legislation -->
| passedbody4     = 
| passeddate4     = 
| passedvote4     = 
| signedpresident = [[Abraham Lincoln]]
| signeddate      = July 2, 1862
| unsignedpresident = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| unsigneddate    = <!-- used when passed without presidential signing -->
| vetoedpresident = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| vetoeddate      = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenvote1 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenbody2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddendate2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| overriddenvote2 = <!-- used when passed by overriding presidential veto -->
| amendments      = {{USStatute|51|841|26|417|1890|08|30}}
| SCOTUS cases    = 
}}
The '''Morrill Land-Grant Acts''' are [[United States]] [[statute]]s that allowed for the creation of [[land-grant colleges]] in [[U.S. states]] using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cession, or seizure. The '''Morrill Act of 1862''' (12 Stat. 503 (1862)<ref>https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/12/STATUTE-12-Pg503a.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=September 2022}}</ref> later [[Codification (law)|codified]] as {{USC|7|301}} et seq.) was enacted during the [[American Civil War]], and the '''Morrill Act of 1890''' (the '''Agricultural College Act of 1890''' ({{USStat|26|417}}, later codified as {{USC|7|321}} et seq.)) expanded this model.

==Passage of original bill==
[[Image:Justin Smith Morrill - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|left|[[Justin Smith Morrill]]]]

Beginning in the 1830s, a political movement called for the creation of agriculture colleges. The movement was led by Professor [[Jonathan Baldwin Turner]] of [[Illinois College]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dodd |first=William E. |date=1911 |title=Review of The Origin of the Land Grant Act of 1862 and Some Account of Its Author, Jonathan B. Turner |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2763175 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=406–407 |doi=10.1086/211983 |jstor=2763175 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref> For example, the [[Michigan Constitution]] of 1850 called for the creation of an "agricultural school",<ref>"[[s:Michigan Constitution of 1850|Michigan Constitution of 1850]]". Wikisource. Article 13, Section 11. Retrieved March 5, 2008.</ref> though it was not until February 12, 1855, that Michigan [[List of Governors of Michigan|governor]] [[Kinsley S. Bingham]] signed a bill establishing the United States' first agriculture college, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, known today as [[Michigan State University]], which served as a model for the Morrill Act.<ref name="sesquicentennial">"[http://www.msu.edu/unit/msuarhc/articlepg1.htm Milestones of MSU's Sesquicentennial] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806233601/http://www.msu.edu/unit/msuarhc/articlepg1.htm |date=2007-08-06 }}". MSU University Archives and Historical Collection. Retrieved March 5, 2008.</ref>

On February 8, 1853, the [[Illinois Legislature]] adopted a [[Resolution (law)|resolution]], drafted by Turner, calling for the Illinois congressional delegation to work to enact a land-grant bill to fund a system of industrial colleges, one in each state. Senator [[Lyman Trumbull]] of Illinois believed it was advisable that the bill should be introduced by an eastern congressman,<ref>Letter from Lyman Trumbull to J.B. Turner, 1857-10-19.</ref> and two months later Representative [[Justin Smith Morrill]] of [[Vermont]] introduced his bill.

Unlike the Turner Plan, which provided an equal grant to each state, the Morrill bill allocated land based on the number of senators and representatives each state had in Congress. This was more advantageous to the more populous eastern states.<ref>[[Carl L. Becker]], ''Cornell University Founders and The Founding'' (Cornell University Press 1943), pp. 28–30.</ref>

The Morrill Act was first proposed in 1857, and was passed by Congress in 1859, but it was vetoed by President [[James Buchanan]]. In 1861, Morrill resubmitted the act with the amendment that the proposed institutions would teach military tactics as well as engineering and agriculture.<ref>"Justin Smith Morrill (1810–1898)" in ''The Latin Library'' http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/chron/civilwarnotes/morrill.html.</ref> Aided by the secession of many states that did not support the plans, the reconfigured Morrill Act was signed into law by President [[Abraham Lincoln]] on July 2, 1862.

==Land-grant colleges==
{{main|Land-grant university}}
[[File:Land_Grant_Colleges_Map.svg|400px|right|thumbnail|Map of [[List of land-grant universities|most land-grant universities]] in the United States including the date of the land grant]]
[[Image:UMD Morrill Hall.JPG|thumb|right|Morrill Hall, on the campus of the [[University of Maryland, College Park]] (a land-grant university), is named for Senator [[Justin Morrill]], in honor of the act he sponsored.]]
[[File:Morrill Hall, Cornell University, west facade.jpg|thumb|[[Morrill Hall (Cornell University)|Morrill Hall]], the first building of [[Cornell University]], is named for Senator [[Justin Morrill]], in honor of the Morrill Land-Grant act.]]
[[Image:Beaumont Tower 10 2007 BR.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Beaumont Tower]] at [[Michigan State University]] marks the site of [[College Hall (Michigan State University)|College Hall]] which is the first building in the United States to teach agricultural science.]]

The purpose of the land-grant colleges was:
 
<blockquote>without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.<ref>{{USC|7|304}}</ref></blockquote>

From the early to mid-19th century the federal government, through 162 violence-backed cessions, expropriated approximately 10.7 million acres of land from 245 tribal nations and divided it into roughly 80,000 parcels for redistribution.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Robert |last2=Ahtone |first2=Tristan |last3=Pearce |first3=Margaret |last4=Goodluck |first4=Kalen |last5=McGhee |first5=Geoff |last6=Leff |first6=Cody |last7=Lanpher |first7=Katherine |last8=Salinas |first8=Taryn | title=Land-Grab Universities |journal=High Country News |date=March 30, 2020 |url=https://www.landgrabu.org/ |access-date=April 21, 2020}}</ref> Under the act, each eligible state received {{convert|30000|acre|km2}} of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries, for each member of congress the state had as of the census of 1860. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions described above. Under provision six of the Act, "No State while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States shall be entitled to the benefit of this act," in reference to the recent [[secession]] of several [[Southern United States|Southern]] states and the contemporaneously raging [[American Civil War]]. However, after the war, in the 1870s, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina each assigned one African American college land grant status; these were, respectively, Alcorn University, Hampton Institute, and Claflin University.<ref>John W. Davis, "The Negro Land-Grant College," 2 ''Journal of Negro Education'' p.312 (1933)</ref>

In 1890 the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states (see below for more detailed information), and it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862. If the federal land within a state was insufficient to meet that state's land grant, the state was issued [[scrip]] which authorized the state to select federal lands in other states to fund its institution.<ref>{{USC|7|302}}</ref> For example, [[New York (state)|New York]] carefully selected valuable timber land in [[Wisconsin]] to fund [[Cornell University]].<ref name=Whalen>{{cite web|url=https://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000046.pdf|first=Michael L.|last=Whalen|title=A Land-Grant University|publisher=Cornell University|date=May 2001|access-date=August 25, 2020|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228163104/http://www.cornell.edu/landgrant/resources/Land_Grant_Univ_Whalen.pdf|archive-date=February 28, 2008}}</ref>{{rp|9}} The resulting management of this scrip by the university yielded one third of the total grant revenues generated by all the states, even though New York received only one-tenth of the 1862 land grant.<ref name=Whalen />{{rp|10}} Overall, the 1862 Morrill Act allocated {{convert|17400000|acre|km2}} of land, which when sold yielded a collective endowment of $7.55 million.<ref name=Whalen />{{rp|8}}

On September 12, 1862, the [[state of Iowa]] was the first to accept the terms of the Morrill Act which provided the funding boost needed for the fledgling State Agricultural College and Model Farm (eventually renamed [[Iowa State University]] of Science and Technology).<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Iowa State: Time Line, 1858–1874 |url=http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/exhibits/150/template/timeline-1858.html |year=2006 |publisher=Iowa State University |access-date=9 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513215211/http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/exhibits/150/template/timeline-1858.html |archive-date=13 May 2009 }}</ref> The first land-grant institution actually created under the Act was [[Kansas State University]], which was established on February 16, 1863, and opened on September 2, 1863.<ref name= Nation>{{Citation | title = The National Schools of Science | journal = The Nation | page = 409 | date = November 21, 1867 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Mf0xAQAAIAAJ&q=land+grant+kansas+february+16%2C+1863+pennsylvania+April&pg=PA409 }}</ref>

The land grant colleges transformed [[engineering]] education in America and boosted the United States into a position of leader in technical education. Before the Civil War, American colleges primarily trained students in [[classical studies]] and the [[liberal arts]]. For the most part, only the relatively affluent could afford higher education, and entrance requirements often required proficiency in the [[dead language]]s of [[Latin]] and [[Ancient Greek]]. The first Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees, which typically required no Latin, came into being around 1850.<ref>Frederick Rudolph, ''Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636'' p.36 (1978)</ref> American engineers were mostly educated at the [[United States Military Academy]], on fortress construction, and their instructors were the authors of most engineering texts of the day. The Morrill Act changed all of that. Though the Congressional debates about the Act were largely focused on benefits to agriculture, the [[mechanic arts]] were specifically included in the Act's language, meaning [[applied science]]s and [[engineering]]. The Act prohibited spending the [[Financial endowment|endowment]] on constructing buildings as expensive and unnecessary, so instead the tools for engineering education increased, such as textbooks, laboratories and equipment. The number of engineers skyrocketed. Whereas in 1866 there were around 300 American men who had graduated with engineering degrees and only six reputable colleges granting them, just four years later there were 21 colleges offering engineering degrees and the total number of engineers graduated had tripled to 866. The following decade added another 2,249 engineers, and by 1911 the United States was graduating 3,000 engineers a year, with a total of 38,000 in the work force. At the time, Germany was graduating 1,800 engineers per year. The US had become the leader in technical education just 50 years after passage of the Morrill Act.<ref name= Williams>{{Citation | title = Morrill Act's Contribution to Engineering's Foundation | journal = Tau Beta Pi the Bent |date= Spring 2009 | url=http://www.tbp.org/pubs/Features/Sp09Williams.pdf |first=Daniel E. |last=Williams}}</ref>

With a few exceptions (including Cornell University and the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]), nearly all of the land-grant colleges are public.  (Cornell University, while private, administers several state-supported [[statutory college]]s that fulfill its public land-grant mission to the state of New York.)

To maintain their status as land-grant colleges, a number of programs are required to be maintained by the college. These include programs in [[agriculture]] and [[engineering]], as well as a [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps]] program.

==Expansion==
The second Morrill Act (1890) was also aimed at the former [[Confederate States of America|Confederate states]]. This act required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for African Americans.<ref>{{USC|7|323}}</ref> Thus, the second Morrill Act facilitated segregated education, although it also provided higher educational opportunities for African Americans who otherwise would not have had them.<ref>Debra Reid, "People's Colleges for Other Citizens: Black Land-Grant Institutions and the Politics of Educational Expansion in the Post-Civil War Era," in ''Science as Service: Establishing and Reformulating American Land-Grant Universities, 1865-1930'' p. 144 (2015).</ref>  Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of today's [[historically Black colleges and universities]]. Though the 1890 Act granted cash instead of land, it granted colleges under that act the same legal standing as the 1862 Act colleges; hence the term "land-grant college" properly applies to both groups.

Later on, other colleges such as the [[University of the District of Columbia]] and the "1994 land-grant colleges" for Native Americans were also awarded cash by Congress in lieu of land to achieve "land-grant" status.

In imitation of the [[land-grant university|land-grant colleges]]' focus on agricultural and mechanical research, Congress later established programs of [[sea grant colleges]] (aquatic research, in 1966), [[Urban university|urban grant colleges]] (urban research, in 1985), [[space grant colleges]] (space research, in 1988), and [[sun grant colleges]] (sustainable energy research, in 2003).

==Agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension service==
Starting in 1887, Congress also funded [[agricultural experiment station]]s and various categories of agricultural and veterinary research "under direction of" the land-grant universities.<ref>{{USC|7|361a}}</ref>  Congress later recognized the need to disseminate the knowledge gained at the land-grant colleges to farmers and homemakers. The [[Smith–Lever Act of 1914]] started federal funding of [[cooperative extension]], with the land-grant universities' agents being sent to virtually every county of every state. In some states, the annual federal appropriations to the land-grant college under these laws exceed the current income from the investment of the sales proceeds of the original land grants. In the fiscal year 2006 USDA budget, $1.033 billion went to research and cooperative extension activities nationwide.<ref>[http://www.usda.gov/agency/obpa/Budget-Summary/2006/12.REE.htm USDA Budget Summary 2006 - Research, Education, and Economics] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201142620/http://www.usda.gov/agency/obpa/Budget-Summary/2006/12.REE.htm |date=December 1, 2007 }}</ref> For this purpose, then President [[George W. Bush]] proposed a $1.035 billion appropriation for fiscal year 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.csrees.usda.gov/about/offices/budget/08_budget_brochure.pdf |title=CSREES FY2008 President's Budget Proposal |access-date=2013-02-12 |archive-date=2012-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217024040/http://www.csrees.usda.gov/about/offices/budget/08_budget_brochure.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Morrill Act 150th Anniversary Celebration, June 23, 2012 36.JPG|Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Morrill Act, at the [[Library of Congress]], June 23, 2012
File:Morrill Act 150th Anniversary Celebration, June 23, 2012 35.jpg|[[James H. Billington]] and [[Vartan Gregorian]] at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Morrill Act, 2012
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Agricultural Experiment Stations Act of 1887]]
* [[Association of Public and Land-grant Universities]]
* [[Hatch Act of 1887]]
* [[Land-grant university]]
* [[List of land-grant universities]]
* [[Manual labor college]]
* [[Smith-Lever Act of 1914]]
* [[United States Department of Agriculture]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Cross, Coy F. ''Justin Smith Morrill, Father of the Land-Grant Colleges.'' Michigan State University Press: 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-87013-508-8}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5NYBqv3E7IMC&dq=Justin+Smith+Morrill:+father+of+the+land-grant+colleges+Coy+F.+Cross&pg=PA9 online]
* Singh, Vineeta. "Inclusion or acquisition? Learning about justice, education, and property from the Morrill Land-Grant Acts." ''Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies'' 43.5 (2021): 419–439.
* Sorber, Nathan M. ''Land-grant colleges and popular revolt: The origins of the Morrill Act and the reform of higher education'' (Cornell University Press, 2018) [https://books.google.com/books?id=gL5RDwAAQBAJ&dq=MORRILL&pg=PT4 online].
* [https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/how-they-did-it-exposing-how-us-universities-profited-indigenous-land Lee, Robert and Tristan Ahtone. 2020. "How They Did It: Exposing How U.S. Universities Profited From Indigenous Land" PulitzerCenter.org]
* [https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=18673&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=20691764 Wallenstein, Peter. 2018. "The Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862 : seedbed of the American system of public universities." ''Civil War Congress and the creation of modern America : a revolution on the home front.'' Ohio University Press. ] {{ISBN|9780821423387}}
* [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1cc0c4tw Zdzienicka Fanshe, Rosalie. 2020. "The Morrill Act as Racial Contract: Settler-Colonialism and U.S. Higher Education" EScholarship.org]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Morrill Act}}
* {{cite web |url= https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/morrill-act |title= Text and PDF of original 1862 manuscript of Morrill Act |website= OurDocuments.gov |date= 11 February 2024 |publisher = U.S. National Archives and Records Administration}}
* {{Cite AV media |title=An Audacious Act: How a High School Dropout Helped Educate America |url=http://nepr.net/morrill/ |access-date=December 10, 2013 |publisher=[[WFCR|New England Public Radio]] |location=Amherst, MA |date=September 21, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101085754/http://nepr.net/morrill/ |archive-date=November 1, 2013 }} A radio documentary on the Morrill Land-Grant Acts.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1862 in American law]]
[[Category:37th United States Congress]]
[[Category:Land-grant universities and colleges|*]]
[[Category:History of universities and colleges in the United States]]
[[Category:United States federal agriculture legislation]]
[[Category:United States federal public land legislation]]