Morrill Land-Grant Acts

Last updated

Morrill Land-Grant Acts
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Other short titlesLand-Grant Agricultural and Mechanical College Act of 1862
Long titleAn Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.
NicknamesMorrill Act of 1862
Enacted bythe 37th United States Congress
EffectiveJuly 2, 1862
Citations
Public law Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  37–130
Statutes at Large 12  Stat.   503
Codification
Titles amended 7 U.S.C.: Agriculture
U.S.C. sections createdLater codified as 7 U.S.C. ch. 13 § 301 et seq.
Legislative history
Major amendments
Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  51–841, 26  Stat.   417, enacted August 30, 1890

The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes 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) [1] later codified as 7 U.S.C.   § 301 et seq.) was enacted during the American Civil War, and the Morrill Act of 1890 (the Agricultural College Act of 1890 (26  Stat.   417, later codified as 7 U.S.C.   § 321 et seq.)) expanded this model.

Contents

Passage of original bill

Justin Smith Morrill Justin Smith Morrill - Brady-Handy.jpg
Justin Smith Morrill

For 20 years prior to the first introduction of the bill in 1857, there was a political movement calling for the creation of agriculture colleges. The movement was led by Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner of Illinois College. [2] For example, the Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an "agricultural school", [3] though it was not until February 12, 1855, that 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. [4]

On February 8, 1853, the Illinois Legislature adopted a 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, [5] 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. [6]

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. [7] 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

Map of most land-grant universities in the United States including the date of the land grant Land Grant Colleges Map.svg
Map of most land-grant universities in the United States including the date of the land grant
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. UMD Morrill Hall.JPG
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.
Morrill Hall, the first building of Cornell University, is named for Senator Justin Morrill, in honor of the Morrill Land-Grant act. Morrill Hall, Cornell University, west facade.jpg
Morrill Hall, the first building of Cornell University, is named for Senator Justin Morrill, in honor of the Morrill Land-Grant act.
Beaumont Tower at Michigan State University marks the site of College Hall which is the first building in the United States to teach agricultural science. Beaumont Tower 10 2007 BR.jpg
Beaumont Tower at Michigan State University marks the site of College Hall which is the first building in the United States to teach agricultural science.

The purpose of the land-grant colleges was:

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. [8]

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. [9] Under the act, each eligible state received 30,000 acres (120 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 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. [10]

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. [11] For example, New York carefully selected valuable timber land in Wisconsin to fund Cornell University. [12] : 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. [12] : 10  Overall, the 1862 Morrill Act allocated 17,400,000 acres (70,000 km2) of land, which when sold yielded a collective endowment of $7.55 million. [12] : 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). [13] 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. [14]

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 languages of Latin and Ancient Greek. The first Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees, which typically required no Latin, came into being around 1850. [15] 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 sciences and engineering. The Act prohibited spending the 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. [16]

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 colleges 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. 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. [17] 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. [18] 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 colleges' focus on agricultural and mechanical research, Congress later established programs of sea grant colleges (aquatic research, in 1966), 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 stations and various categories of agricultural and veterinary research "under direction of" the land-grant universities. [19] 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. [20] For this purpose, then President George W. Bush proposed a $1.035 billion appropriation for fiscal year 2008. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatch Act of 1887</span> United States federal law

The Hatch Act of 1887 gave federal funds, initially $15,000 each, to state land-grant colleges in order to create a series of agricultural experiment stations, as well as pass along new information, especially in the areas of soil minerals and plant growth. The bill was named for Congressman William Hatch, who chaired the House Committee of Agriculture at the time the bill was introduced. State agricultural stations created under this act were usually connected with those land-grant state colleges and universities founded under the Morrill Act of 1862, with few exceptions.

Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people. Under the doctrine, as long as the facilities provided to each race were equal, state and local governments could require that services, facilities, public accommodations, housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation be segregated by race, which was already the case throughout the states of the former Confederacy. The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890, although the law actually used the phrase "equal but separate".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Sea Grant College Program</span> Organization

The National Sea Grant College Program is a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a national network of 34 university-based Sea Grant programs involved in scientific research, education, training, and extension projects geared toward the conservation and practical use of the coasts, Great Lakes, and other marine areas. The program is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with the national office located in Silver Spring, Maryland. There are Sea Grant programs located in every coastal and Great Lakes state as well as in Puerto Rico and Guam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land-grant university</span> Institution of higher education in the US that receive benefits by the Morrill Acts

A land-grant university is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, or a beneficiary under the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994. There are 57 institutions which fall under the 1862 Act, 19 under the 1890 Act, and 35 under the 1994 Act.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. They were primarily founded by Protestant religious groups, until the Second Morill Act of 1890 required educationally segregated states to provide African American, public higher-education schools in order to receive the Act's benefits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin S. Morrill</span> American politician (1810–1898)

Justin Smith Morrill was an American politician and entrepreneur who represented Vermont in the United States House of Representatives (1855–1867) and United States Senate (1867–1898). He is most widely remembered for the Morrill Land-Grant Acts that provided federal funding for establishing many of the United States' public colleges and universities. Originally a Whig, after that party became defunct Morrill was one of the founders of the Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Baldwin Turner</span> American academic (1805–1899)

Jonathan Baldwin Turner was an American classical scholar, an ordained minister, a professor, a campaigner for the abolition of slavery, and political activist. He also campaigned in favor of land grant universities. In 1835, Turner married Rhodolphia Kibbe and they had seven children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service</span>

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service was formally established in 1915 after the 1914 passing of the Smith-Lever Act and in conjunction with Texas A&M University. Originally named Texas Agricultural Extension Service, then later Texas Cooperative Extension, the name Texas AgriLife Extension Service was adopted on January 1, 2008. A&M was added to the agency name on September 1, 2012 as a result of a Texas A&M University System change to strengthen the association with Texas A&M. The primary mission of AgriLife Extension is to provide educational outreach programs and services to the citizens of Texas. In conjunction with Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Extension faculty members conduct research and bring practical applications of those research findings to the people of Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agricultural education</span> Training in farming, natural resources, and land management

Agricultural education is the systematic and organized teaching, instruction and training available to students, farmers or individuals interested in the science, business and technology of agriculture as well as the management of land, environment and natural resources.

An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with farmers, ranchers, suppliers, processors, and others involved in food production and agriculture.

The history of Michigan State University dates back to 1855, when the Michigan Legislature established the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan under the encouragement of the Michigan State Agricultural Society and the Michigan Farmer, the state's leading agricultural periodical. As the first agricultural college in the United States, the school served as a model for other institutions of its kind established in the period, to give an instance, the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association of American Universities</span> Organization of leading research universities

The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 71 public and private universities in the United States as well as two universities in Canada. AAU membership is by invitation only and requires an affirmative vote of three-quarters of current members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station</span> Entity operated by Rutgers University

The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station is an entity currently operated by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in conjunction with the State of New Jersey in the university's role as the state's sole land-grant university. Today, it conducts research in agriculture, horticulture and turf grass science, and through the Rutgers Cooperative Extension aids New Jersey farmers, landscapers, and residents in each of the state's twenty-one counties.

The New York State College of Forestry, the first professional school of forestry in North America, opened its doors at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, in the autumn of 1898., It was advocated for by Governor Frank S. Black, but after just a few years of operation, it was defunded in 1903, by Governor Benjamin B. Odell in response to public outcry over the College's controversial forestry practices in the Adirondacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jersey Hall</span> United States historic place

New Jersey Hall is a historic education building located on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Built in 1889 under the leadership of President Merrill Edward Gates, it housed the Agricultural Experiment Station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1975, for its significance in agriculture and education.

The history of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the first land grant college for people of color in the state of North Carolina, can be traced back to 1890, when the United States Congress enacted the Second Morrill Act which mandated that states provide separate colleges for the colored race. The "Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race" was established On March 9, 1891 by an act of the General Assembly of North Carolina and began in Raleigh, North Carolina as an annex to Shaw University. The college made a permanent home in Greensboro with the help of monetary and land donation by local citizens. The college granted admission to both men and women from 1893 to 1901, when the board of trustees voted to restrict admission to males only. This policy would remain until 1928, when female students were once again allowed to be admitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service</span> Former agency of the United States Department of Agriculture

The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) was an extension agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the federal government. The 1994 Department Reorganization Act, passed by Congress, created CSREES by combining the former Cooperative State Research Service and the Extension Service into a single agency.

The history of higher education in the United States begins in 1636 and continues to the present time. American higher education is known throughout the world for its dramatic expansion. It was also heavily influenced by British models in the colonial era, and German models in the 19th century. The American model includes private schools, mostly founded by religious denominations, as well as universities run by state governments, and a few military academies that are run by the national government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public lands in the United States</span>

In the United States, governmental entities at all levels- including townships, cities, counties, states, and the federal government- all manage land which are referred to as either public lands or the public domain.

References

  1. ↑ https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/12/STATUTE-12-Pg503a.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  2. ↑ Dodd, William E. (1911). "Review of The Origin of the Land Grant Act of 1862 and Some Account of Its Author, Jonathan B. Turner". American Journal of Sociology. 17 (3): 406–407. doi:10.1086/211983. ISSN   0002-9602. JSTOR   2763175.
  3. ↑ "Michigan Constitution of 1850". Wikisource. Article 13, Section 11. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Milestones of MSU's Sesquicentennial Archived 2007-08-06 at the Wayback Machine ". MSU University Archives and Historical Collection. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  5. ↑ Letter from Lyman Trumbull to J.B. Turner, 1857-10-19.
  6. ↑ Carl L. Becker, Cornell University Founders and The Founding (Cornell University Press 1943), pp. 28–30.
  7. ↑ "Justin Smith Morrill (1810–1898)" in The Latin Library http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/chron/civilwarnotes/morrill.html.
  8. ↑ 7 U.S.C.   § 304
  9. ↑ Lee, Robert; Ahtone, Tristan; Pearce, Margaret; Goodluck, Kalen; McGhee, Geoff; Leff, Cody; Lanpher, Katherine; Salinas, Taryn (March 30, 2020). "Land-Grab Universities". High Country News. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  10. ↑ John W. Davis, "The Negro Land-Grant College," 2 Journal of Negro Education p.312 (1933)
  11. ↑ 7 U.S.C.   § 302
  12. 1 2 3 Whalen, Michael L. (May 2001). "A Land-Grant University" (PDF). Cornell University. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 28, 2008. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  13. ↑ "History of Iowa State: Time Line, 1858–1874". Iowa State University. 2006. Archived from the original on May 13, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
  14. ↑ "The National Schools of Science", The Nation: 409, November 21, 1867
  15. ↑ Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636 p.36 (1978)
  16. ↑ Williams, Daniel E. (Spring 2009), "Morrill Act's Contribution to Engineering's Foundation" (PDF), Tau Beta Pi the Bent
  17. ↑ 7 U.S.C.   § 323
  18. ↑ 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).
  19. ↑ 7 U.S.C.   § 361a
  20. ↑ USDA Budget Summary 2006 - Research, Education, and Economics Archived December 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ↑ "CSREES FY2008 President's Budget Proposal" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 17, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2013.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.