Home > Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are pieces of US legislation which allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, which would be funded by the grant of federally-controlled land to each of the states which had stayed with the United States during the Civil War. The Morrill Act was first proposed by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont 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. This reconfigured Morrill Act was signed into law by President Lincoln on July 2, 1862.
Under the act, each eligible state received a total of 30,000 acres (121 km˛ 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.
A second Morrill Act followed in 1890Events January 2 Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the U. White House. January 25 The United Mine Workers of America is founded. January 25 Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days. March 1 Leon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest aiming to include the former Confederate states in the program. This act also required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of today's historically black colleges.
See also: National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant CollegesThe National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC is the oldest higher-education association within the US. External link ., Hatch Act of 1887The Hatch Act of 1887 was a piece of US legislation which authorized federal funding for agricultural experiment stations connected to each land-grant university. United States legal history., Smith Lever Act of 1914 , US Department of AgricultureDepartment of Agriculture also called the Agriculture Department or USDA is a Cabinet department of the United States Federal Government. Its purpose is to develop and execute policy on farming, agriculture, and food. It aims to meet the needs of farmers, USDA Cooperative State Research Service
United States law
