— Ch. 1 · Early Legislative Struggles —
Morrill Land-Grant Acts.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In 1853, the Illinois Legislature adopted a resolution drafted by Jonathan Baldwin Turner. This document called for federal support to create industrial colleges in every state. Turner was an agriculturist and professor at Illinois College who championed public land appropriations since the 1830s. His plan offered equal grants to each state regardless of population size. However, antebellum politics stymied these early efforts for decades. Southern legislators consistently blocked attempts to pass agricultural college bills before the Civil War began. Some Northern states like Michigan moved forward independently despite federal gridlock. The Michigan Constitution of 1850 mandated an agricultural school but no action followed until the 12th of February 1855. Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan that year. This institution served as a model for future national legislation. Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont introduced his own bill two months after Turner's resolution passed Congress. Morrill's approach allocated land based on congressional representation rather than equality among states. This method favored more populous eastern states over smaller western territories. President James Buchanan vetoed the Morrill Act when it first passed Congress in 1859.
Civil War Passage And Implementation
The secession of Southern states removed the primary opposition blocking agricultural college bills. In 1861, Justin Smith Morrill resubmitted the act with amendments requiring military tactics training alongside engineering and agriculture. President Abraham Lincoln signed the reconfigured Morrill Act into law on the 2nd of July 1862. This legislation provided each state land scrip worth one hundred sixty acres per senator and representative. Sale of this scrip funded the beginning of land-grant colleges across the nation. Iowa became the first state to accept terms on the 12th of September 1862. Kansas State University emerged as the first actual institution created under the Act in 1863. States exercised wide discretion in how they utilized their funds. Some added agricultural colleges to existing flagship universities like the University of Wisconsin. Others created entirely new institutions such as Mississippi State University or expanded existing schools like Michigan State University. The latest school established through the 1862 Act was the University of Alaska Fairbanks founded in 1917. Federal land within a state sometimes proved insufficient for meeting grant requirements. States then received scrip authorizing selection of federal lands elsewhere. New York carefully selected valuable timber land in Wisconsin to fund Cornell University. Management of this scrip by universities yielded one third of total grant revenues despite receiving only one tenth of initial grants.