LEGISLATION REGARDING THE DEPARTMENT. 47 



LANDS FOR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



The day following- the establishinent of the Department the law 

 granting- public lauds for the establishment of agricultural colleges 

 was approved by President Lincoln. The original bill for this purpose 

 ■was introduced in the House in 1857 by Hon. Justin S. Morrill. It was 

 l^assed, but was vetoed by President Buchanan. In December, 1801, 

 Mr. Morrill introduced his bill again, but on May 2, 1862, Senator Wade 

 offered a similar bill in the Senate, and in June it passed both houses. 



The act passed through the efforts of Hon. William Hatch, the Morrill 

 law of 1890 (p. 50), and this act constitute the largest Government aid 

 to education in the history of this country. 



[Act of July 2, 186-2.] 



AX ACT donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for 

 the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 

 in Congress 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 apportionment under 

 the census of eighteen hundred and sixty: Provided, That no mineral lands shall be 

 selected or purchased under the provisions of this act. 



Sec. 2. 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 quantity to -which said State 

 shall be entitled shall be selected from such lancLs within the limits of such State, 

 and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to issue to each of the States in 

 -which there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at ])rivate entry at 

 one dollar and twenty-live cents per acre, to -which said .-^tate may bcj 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 the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no other use or pur- 

 pose -whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to -which land scrip may 

 thus be issued be allowed to locate the same within the limits of any other State, or 

 of any Territory of the United States, but their assignees may thus locate said land 

 scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to sale at 

 private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre: And provided 

 further, That not more than one million acres shall be located by such assignees in 

 any one of the States: And provided further, That no such location shall be made 

 before one year from the passage of this act. 



Sec. 3. That all the expenses of management, superintendence, and taxes from 

 date of selection of said lamls, previous to their sales, and all expenses incurred in 

 the management and disbursement of the moneys which may be received therefrom, 

 shall be paid by the States to which they may belong, out of the treasury of said 

 States, so that the entire proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be ajiplied without 

 any diminution whatever to the purposes hereinafter mentioned. 



Sec. 4. That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States 

 to -which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip hereinbefore 

 provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or 

 some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of 

 said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the 

 capital of which shall remain forever undiminished (except so far as may be provided 



