Morrill Act & Land-Grant Universities

In 1862 in the midst of the second year of the Civil War, Congress found time to pass three significant pieces of agriculture-related legislation:

-- on May 15^th, the United States Department of Agriculture was founded;

-- on May 20^th, President Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act, which eventually distributed over 270 million acres of American land to over 1.6 million households; and,

-- on July 2^nd, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Act into law which set aside land in each state to perpetually endow a college to teach subjects in the agricultural and mechanic arts.

In this same year, on July 1^st, President Lincoln also signed the Pacific Railroad Act authorizing land grants to aid in the construction of a transcontinental railroad and telegraph lines from Nebraska to California. This brought with it a demand for trained engineers.