Contents FOREWORD A Proclamation by the President of the United States---- Section I. DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND-GRANT SYSTEM OF Chronologies of Institutions by States.. Page III IV 1 7 The 1962 Stage of Growth.. 43 Section II. PROCEDURES FOR ADMINISTERING FEDERAL FUNDS 50 Section III. FEDERAL LAWS AND RULINGS_ 54 Federal Laws and Rulings Relating to Federal Funds for Act of July 2, 1862 (First Morrill Act)__ Act of 1866 Amending First Morrill Act_ Digest of Rulings and Opinions of Act of July 2, 1862- Act of August 30, 1890 (Second Morrill Act)_. 54 54 57 57 59 61 Digest of Rulings and Opinions on Acts of August 62 All Colleges Designated as "Land-Grant" Are 64 65 Land-Grant Colleges Constituted Depositories of Bankhead-Jones Act of June 29, 1935, as Amended Digest of Rulings and Opinions on Act of June 29, No Authority for State Legislature To Appropriate Retirement Act of March 4, 1940 (Public Law 422)__ Ruling Concerning Public Law 422. ! VIII Section III-Continued CONTENTS Federal Law Relating to State Agricultural Experiment Federal Law Relating to Cooperative Extension Work in Tables 1. Federal Funds Received by the Land-Grant Institutions for Instruction and Facilities for Instruction Through the First Morrill Act of 1862 and Later Acts Supplementary Thereto, Administered Through the Department of In- terior 1873 to 1938, Federal Security Agency 1939 to 1953, and Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1953 2. Summary Data Showing Scope of Operations of Land-Grant Institutions in Aggregate United States, Year Ended 3. Allotment of Funds to States and Puerto Rico for Land- 52 Section I Development of the Land-Grant System of Colleges and Universities URING THE HUNDRED YEARS since their establishment, the land-grant colleges and universities have grown to represent to the world a unique system of universal education. In the colonial days higher education in the United States was available only in a few institutions, such as Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary. These institutions at different times were subject to varying degrees of public control, but were essentially privately controlled. After the Revolutionary War, the States began to organize universities as publicly controlled institutions. They were not essentially different from the privately controlled ones which by that time had grown relatively strong and were setting the pace for the development of collegiate education throughout the country. Classical or Professional During the first half of the 19th century the two types of colleges and universities, publicly controlled and privately controlled, developed side by side. Both were greatly influenced by the European universities of which their leading professors were products. But these European universities were organized to serve a society not predominantly democratic. University education was for the leisure classes, the government leaders, and members of the professions. The American institutions, functioning in somewhat the same fashion, maintained chiefly the classical and professional curricula. They made only slight adaptations to the needs of a pioneer people. A study of such fields as agriculture and the mechanic arts was beneath their academic dignity. The mild protest against this too exclusively classical type of college and university grew into a widespread agitation by the middle of the 19th century. Agricultural societies in many States were insisting that colleges must be available where agriculture could be studied. The already established colleges and universities remained 642730-62- -2 1 largely uninfluenced, however, by this agitation. Hence, during the 1850's the Congress debated the issue and finally passed the Morrill Act of 1859. President Buchanan vetoed it essentially on the ground that it was in violation of the traditional policy of the Federal Government which had up to that time left the control of education to the States. On July 2, 1862, the Morrill Act was passed again and signed by President Lincoln. The Purpose There has been much discussion since the passage of the First Morrill Act as to its true intent. In the act the purpose is stated in the following words: the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.1 Speaking at the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1887, 25 years after passage of the act, Mr. Morrill again set forth his views on the general purpose of the Morrill Act in the following words: The land-grant colleges were founded on the idea that a higher and broader education should be placed in every State within the reach of those whose destiny assigns them to, or who may have the courage to choose industrial vocations where the wealth of nations is produced; where advanced civilization unfolds its comforts, and where a much larger number of the people need wider educational advantages, and impatiently await their possession . . . It would be a mistake to suppose it was intended that every student should become either a farmer or a mechanic when the design comprehended not only instruction for those who may hold the plow or follow a trade, but such instruction as any person might need-with "the world all before them where to choose"-and without the exclusion of those who might prefer to adhere to the classics.2 Speaking before the Vermont Legislature in 1888, Mr. Morrill said: Only the interest from the land-grant fund can be expended, and that must be expended, first-without excluding other scientific and classical studies-for teaching such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts-the latter as absolutely as the former. Obviously not manual, but intellectual instruction was the paramount 1 Morrill Act of 1862, sec. 4, see p. 55. Hon. Justin W. Morrill. Address, 1887. Reprinted under title, "I Would Have Higher Learning More Widely Disseminated," by University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1961. P. 4. |
