Vermont congressman Justin Morrill introduced and championed the legislation bearing his name that provided federal land to each state and territory for the purpose of “establishing colleges focused on the teaching of agriculture and the mechanical arts.”
Opposed by politicians who viewed it as unfair to western settlers and an unconstitutional federal intervention into state affairs, the measure was vetoed by President James Buchanan in 1859 but revived two years later and ultimately passed into law with the signature of President Abraham Lincoln.
As Nathan Sorber points out in Land-Grant Colleges and Popular Revolt, “Republicans were united in making the western territories and states closed to slavery. Republicans wanted the West integrated politically and economically into the North’s capitalist system.”
The bill issued thirty thousand acres of land (or land script) to each state (excluding those states in rebellion) for each congressional representative to establish agricultural colleges.
