What is the Morrill Act?
The Morrill Act, also known as the Land-Grant College Act, was introduced by Senator Justin Smith Morrill and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862. The act specified that each state would receive 300,000 acres of federal land for each state congressional representative, to be sold to provide an endowment for at least one college where the primary objective would be to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts. The land donated to the states was to be sold and the money invested, with the interest generated providing funding to the states for the purpose of financing a land-grant institution.
