JULY 2, 1862:
President Lincoln signs the Morrill Act into law. Sponsored
by Vermont Congressman Justin Morrill, the Morrill Act was officially titled
"An Act Donating Public Lands to the Several States and Territories which
may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic
Arts."
The Morrill Act provided each state with 30,000 acres of Federal
land for each member in their Congressional delegation. The land was then sold
by the states and the proceeds used to fund public colleges that focused on
agriculture and the mechanical arts.
Sixty-nine colleges were funded by these
land grants, including Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
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