Historical Figure PresentationJustin Smith Morrill

By: Josh Nicholas

Justin MorrillBy: Jonathan Eastman Johnson

Oil on canvas, 1884

We have schools to teach men the art of man slaying…Shall we not have schools that teach the way to feel, clothe and enlighten the brotherhood of man?

- Justin Smith Morrill

Justin Smith Morrill in His Own Words

Justin Smith Morrill Quick Facts

Attended school until the age of 15

Born April 14, 1810 in Strafford, Vermont

Became self taught in business, architecture, politics, and horticulture

Served in the House of Representatives for 12 years (1855 – 67)

Served in the U.S. Senate for 31 years (1867 – 98)

Considered the “Father of Agricultural Colleges”

Chief sponsor of the 1862 and 1890 Land-Grant Acts

Son of a blacksmith

Early Life- Morrill had no formal education beyond

secondary school.- While he wanted to attend college, his father

could not afford to send him and his brothers, so he chose to send none of them.

- Prior to being elected to Congress, Morrill had a career dealing in dry goods in Vermont as well as Maine.

- Morrill retired at the age of 38 and in 1848 built his gentleman’s farm in Strafford, Vermont.

- Politics was a second career. - Remembered as a populist, Morrill was

against eight-hour work days, women’s suffrage, as well as the direct election of the president and senators.

Morrill as a businessman

Morrill homestead in Strafford, Vermont

The nation owes much to Strafford, Vermont for nourishing one of America’s great legislators, Justin Smith Morrill. No marker can properly commemorate such a man. His memory is better served by the thousands of men and women educated through his Land Grant College Act signed by Abraham Lincoln.

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Remembering Justin Smith Morrill

Political Career- Having disagreed with the direction of

the Whig Party, Morrill helped to found the Republican Party in Vermont in 1855.

- Morrill sponsored the Tariff act of 1861 which imposed high import duties on foreign goods in an effort to protect American industry from overseas competition.

- Inspired by his own lack of education, Morrill was the chief sponsor of the Land Grant Act, the most important piece of educational legislation in the 19th century.

Original Land Grant Act

Morrill Act of 1862The Morrill Act of 1862 provided funding for institutions of higher education in each state. The Act provided 30,000 acres of federally owned land for each congressional representative from that state. The land was then sold which provided an endowment for what are referred to today as land-grant colleges. The Morrill Act reads:

“…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…”

A majority of federally owned land was purchased by speculators. The vast amounts of land that were available meant that most states received very little for their land. For instance, Kentucky received only fifty cents per acre. On the other hand, if the federal land within a state was insufficient to meet that state's land grant, the state was issued "scrip" which allowed the state to select federal lands in other states to fund its institution. For example, the state of New York wisely selected valuable timber land in Wisconsin to fund Cornell University.

Early Land-Grant Colleges include: Iowa State University (first state to establish a land-grant college), Kansas State University,Michigan State University, Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Vermont, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, and the University of Wisconsin.

Morrill Act of 1890In 1890, a second Morrill Act was introduced which was created primarily for Confederate States. Unlike the first Morrill Act, the 1890 Act provided cash instead of land to establish institutions of higher education. The introduction of the Morrill Act of 1890 required states to show that race was not part of the admissions process. For states who did place an emphasis on race in regard to institution admission, a requirement of the Act stipulated that a separate land-grant institution must be designated for persons of color.

1890 Land-Grant Universities Include:Alabama A&M University, South Carolina State University, Tennessee State University, West Virginia State University, and Virginia State University.

Various Versions of “Grant Colleges”Throughout the 1900’s, Congress has awarded federal funding to establish sea grant colleges (aquatic research), urban grant colleges (urban research), space grant colleges (space research) and most recently, sun grant colleges (sustainable energy research).

Land-Grant College’s Impact Off Campus

Land-Grant Universities play a vital role in allowing federal, state, and county governments to carry out services provided by Cooperative Extension Service offices.

“The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. Offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes”.

Land-Grant College Facts

Largest Land-Grant College in America: University of CaliforniaTotal enrollment: approx. 150,000 across nine campuses

Smallest Land-Grant College in America: Kentucky State UniversityTotal enrollment: approx. 2,500

Total Land-Grant Colleges in America: 105

Total yearly enrollment of all Land-Grant Colleges: approx. 3 million students

Total degree awarded annually by Land-Grant Colleges:500,000 (1/3 of all bachelor’s and masters degrees and 60% of all doctoral degrees)

Total graduates from Land-Grant Colleges since 1862: 23 million

Morrill Hall – University of Maryland (a land-grant college)

Morrill Hall – Cornell University(a land-grant college)

Morrill Hall – University of Iowa (a land-grant college)

For me, there is no greater name in American education than that of Senator Justin Smith Morrill.

- Robert Frost

Remembering Justin Smith Morrill

200th Birthday of Senator Justin Smith Morrill Problems viewing the video – click here

Learn More

- William B. Parker (1924), The Life & Public Services of Justin Smith Morrill

- Coy F. Cross (1999), Justin Smith Morrill: The Father of the Land-Grant College

References

• http://www.ext.wvu.edu/about_extension/land_grant_system• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/392849/Justin-S-Morrill• http://www.community-wealth.org/_pdfs/articles-publications/universitie

s/article-la-may.pdf• http://www.morrillhomestead.org/• http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/• http://tmn-cot.com/organization/our-chapter/