148 



as it may appear, opposition to the bill manifested itself at 

 once and four months after its mtroduction the Chairman of 

 the Committee on Public Lands, Mr. Cobb of Alabama, re- 

 ported the bill adversely but it finally passed the House of 

 Representatives by a small majority and passed the Senate in 

 the winter of 1859. It was soon returned, however, with a 

 veto from President Buchanan. In 1862 the same bill was 

 introduced in the Senate and passed on the tenth of June 

 by; a vote of 32 to 7. The bill then went to the House. On 

 the 17th of June it passed by a vote of 90 to 25 and on the 

 2nd of July became a law by the approval of President Lincoln. 

 Under the Morill Act, the amount of public land was appor- 

 tioned to each State equal to 30,000 acres for each Senator 

 and Representative in Congress. The lands were to be se- 

 lected from the public domain subject to private entry and in 

 the event of there being no public land within a State subject 

 to entry, then the Secretary of the Interior issued land script 

 to such State, which could only be located by individuals so 

 that no State could locate or own land within the boundaries 

 of another State. The funds derived from the sale of lands 

 and land script were to be invested in stock of the United 

 States or the States, yielding not less than 5 per cent, interest. 

 The funds so invested were to remain undiminished as a 

 permanent endowment fund, the interest to be used for the 

 maintenance and support of at least one college where the 

 leading subject should be, without excluding other scientific 

 and classical studies and including military tactics, such 

 branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the me- 

 chanic arts. 



Nearly $3,000,000 have been derived from the sale of land 

 script issued for the allotment to the State of New York. 

 This fund has been placed at the disposal of Cornell Uni- 

 versity. Massachusetts was not so fortunate in the disposi- 

 tion of the lands derived under the ^Morill x\ct. The share 

 apportioned to Massachusetts was 360,000 acres and only 

 $207,000 was realized from the sale of the lands ; while Kansas 

 received only 90,000 acres, still by judicious selection of lands, 

 something over $550,000 were realized from their sale. In 

 all about $12,000,000 have been realized from the sale of land 

 and land script and something over $4,000,000 worth remain 

 undisposed of. 



The next act of importance was passed in 1887, which has 

 been known as the Hatch Act. This had for its purpose the 

 construction of experiment stations in conjunction with ths^ 

 colleges established under the Morill Act. Under tins Act 

 $15,000 was made available for each experiment station out 

 of any money derived from the sale of public lands. Under 

 this last act about $700,000 annually have been expended on 



