Morrill Land-Grant College Acts

The Morrill Land-Grant College Act, passed in 1862, allotted each state thirty thousand acres of public land for every senator and representative that state had in Congress—a total of 17.4 million acres. Proceeds from the sale or use of the land were to fund colleges with agricultural, mechanical, and military programs. The Morrill Act had been debated in Congress for fifteen years, but it had been opposed by Southern legislators, who believed that education was a state concern, not a federal one. When the Civil War began Southern representatives and senators walked out of the Capitol, and the Morrill Act passed with little dissent on 2 July 1862.