-98- 



of the five years, and obtaining a patent therefor from the govern- 

 ment, as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of settlement 

 and cultivation as provided by existing laws granting preemption 

 rights. 



Approved, May 20, 1862. - Statutes ai Large . 12:392-393. 



LAND GRANT COLLEGE ACT OF 1862 



On July 2, 1862, Lincoln signed the Land Grant College Act. It approp- 

 riated large areas of land from the public domain for the endowment 

 of the agricultural colleges that have become so important to 

 American agriculture and the educational system of today. 

 Its exact title is "An Act donating Public Lands to 

 the several States and Territories which may 

 provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agri- 

 culture and the Mechanic Arts." and 

 its text is as follows: 



Be it e nacte d by the Senate and House of Rep resentatives of the 

 U nited States of America in C ongress assembled . That there be granted 

 to the several States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an 

 amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity 

 equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative in 

 Congress to which the States are respectively entitled by the appor- 

 tionment under the census of eighteen hundred and sixty: P rovided . 

 That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased under the pro- 

 visions of this act. 



Sec. 2. And be it further enacted , That the land aforesaid, after 

 being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States in sections 

 or subdivisions of sections, not less than one quarter of a section; 

 and whenever there are public lands in a State subject to sale at 

 private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the quan- 

 tity to which said State shall be entitled shall be selected from such 

 lands within the limits of such State, and the Secretary of the In- 

 terior is hereby directed to issue to each of the States in which 

 there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at private 

 entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to which said 

 State may be entitled under the provisions of this act, land scrip to 

 the amount in acres for the deficiency of its distributive share: said 

 scrip to be sold by said States and the proceeds thereof applied to 



