EDUCATOR 81 



government, thoughtful and progressive men of high stand- 

 ing and character were urging with eloquent earnestness 

 that education in agriculture was as important as education 

 in the so-called liberal professions. But as Walter Bagehot 

 has said, "One of the greatest pains to human nature is the 

 pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, 'so up- 

 setting, it makes you think that, after all, your favorite 

 notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs unfounded.' " x 

 But the whole subject was put in a new light by the Hon. 

 Justin S. Morrill, then a representative in Congress from 

 Vermont, himself a farmer's boy, then a merchant, and 

 afterwards a farmer. He brought in, December 14, 1857, a 

 bill devoting large areas of the public lands to the states 

 which should within a given time establish colleges for 

 the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. The bill 

 passed the House by a vote of 105 to 100. Some thirteen 

 months afterward, on February 7, 1859, it passed the Sen- 

 ate by a vote of 25 to 22. President Buchanan returned it 

 to the House with a long veto message, the sum and sub- 

 stance of which was stated in the first sentence: "I deem 

 it to be both inexpedient and unconstitutional." 



The fact that such a bill had passed both houses of Con- 

 gress gave new inspiration to the friends of the movement, 

 and it is said that in the next contest for the presidency 

 two of the leading candidates, Mr. Lincoln and Judge Doug- 

 las, were pledged to favor the bill. The people now began 

 to talk of agricultural colleges, and two of the states went 

 forward and established them. 



Mr. Morrill, on December 13, 1861, again presented his 

 bill. It passed both houses, and on July 2, 1862, received 



1 Physics and Politics, 163. 



