The Morrill Act was clearly pioneer thinking for United States timeframe and was met with strong criticism from the universities. At the time, the schools were teaching religion, law, and medicine. Morrill’s vision came from Europe, where it was proven that European farmers produced greater yields on smaller pieces of land compared to the United States (LaMay 77). This is where Morrill sought to bring people of different backgrounds, economically and social class to be educated and be beneficial to all. By allowing a widespread education in the United States, the country opened up many doors to a broader population of the country. When Morrill wrote the act, he also had a thought-provoking method of producing the money to fund the colleges through interest from sale of public lands (“The Land Grant Tradition”).
With the passing of the Homestead Act, previous to the signing of the Morrill Act, the Homestead Act gave western state and territories 160 acres of land. When Morrill brought the act back again to the House and Senate, he urged Congress to increase the land acreage to thirty thousand, but importantly including the teaching of military skills along with the Land-Grant provision (LaMay 78). The Morrill Act brought together a wider assembly of new American landowners along with a way to educate people to caring for the land and how to improve yields. With the industrial age coming about it was almost perfect timing for Justin Morrill and his expansion idea from Europe.
Land grant colleges were a major movement in the education system in the United States. With the passing of the Morrill Act, it enacted federal land to be given to each state, to provide a school to educate people on agriculture and mechanical arts. The purp...
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...n black land-grant colleges through the South.
Improving the uses of agriculture through research
Again, the coming about of land grant colleges had many factors that played into getting these colleges started and process of giving land to each state. The major factors that played an important role are social needs, to increase the efficiency of agricultural production. Farming was the primary source of income for much of the western population, and current production was extremely inefficient. Land grant colleges were a major stepping stone on building the land-grant system, where now more that 10 percent of America’s undergraduates are enrolled at a land grand college. An educator dream that rose above the traditional education, to make a more “people college” as Justin Morrill states that can educate the wider, diverse, growing population in the United States.
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.
The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting the agricultural community. During the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, many farmers in the United States saw railroads and banking enterprises threaten their way of life; their work to fight these elements eventually led to a change in national politics.
To begin with, I would like to talk about school funds. I have read in the document, that you gave me that the legislature set aside 1 million acres of land as an endowment for the university of Texas. Later on, the legislature added another 1 million acres to the land. People didn’t think that the land was worth very much. But oil was discovered in 1923 when oilmen decided to look for oil. By 2008, the land had produced $4.4
The availability of inexpensive land in the American West provided opportunity for many Americans to fulfill the American dream of individualism, economic opportunity and personal freedom. Immigrants, former slaves and other settlers moved across the country to become western farmers and ranchers to make a new life. One of the reasons why the west was a land of opportunity for the farmers and ranchers was the large quantity of cheap available land. This allowed for many Americans, both rich and poor, to buy land for farming and raising cattle. The Homestead Act of 1862 aided the process. The Homestead Act gave title to 160 acres of federal land to farmers who staked a claim and lived on the land for five years. Alternatively, a farmer could buy the land after six months for $1.25 an acre. Many blacks and immigrants joined the westward expansion, looking for a better life. Immigrants saw the land as opportunity because many could not own land in the countries where they were born. For example, in Nebraska, a fourth of the population was foreign born. These immigrants transformed...
The late 1800’s was a watershed moment for the United States, during which time the Industrial Revolution and the desire for expansion brought about through Manifest Destiny, began to run parallel. Following the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States found itself with a wealth of new territory ceded to it from the dying Spanish empire. The issue of what to do with these new lands became a source of debate all the way up to the U.S. Congress. Men like Albert J. Beveridge, a Senator from Indiana, advocated the annexation, but not necessarily the incorporation of these new l...
this notion of stable supply and demand affected prices of farm commodities. “Low prices on
There were three acts implemented in 1862. The first was the Homestead Act which stated that 160 acres would be granted after five years of residence and upon making specific improvements. This act led to the rapid settlement of the Midwest. The next act was the Morrill Act which granted two townships (approximately 40,000 acres) to each state for
The Higher Education Act of 1965 a law which was intended to build the educational resources for colleges and universities and to provide financial aid for students in any educational system after high school. It expanded federal funds given to universities, created , gave low-interest loans for students, and created scholarships.According to sites.edu.gov(1).Any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary,of education, to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward
"The Morrill Act and the Land-Grant Colleges." The Morrill Act and the Land-Grant Colleges. https://www.uky.edu/CampusGuide/land-grant.html (accessed March 12, 2014).
In the early 1600s, America was given the opportunity of higher education. As decades flew by universities grew and flourished to a point where it’s no longer a struggle to be admitted into a university, and it’s also more accessible to pay for, such as student loans, federal loans, scholarships and grants (Kirszner). Since attending university has become an essential to most high school graduates, universities have welcomed larger classes. A common argumentative debate when it comes to college is whether every American should attend. An example of someone who believes college is only for a handful of individuals is Charles Murray. Murray wrote, “What’s Wrong with Vocational School?” an article published in 2007 for the Wall Street
The colonial colleges were among the first colleges created and were established under religious auspices. It was believed that an educated ministry was needed to establish Christianity in the New World. Harvard College was established in 1636, followed by Yale, William and Mary, Princeton and King ‘s College later to be called Columbia University and there were also others. The general colonial college curriculum included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, rhetoric, and logic. Later philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and mathematics were added. The argument later arose that colleges for agriculture and mechanical science should be established with support from federal land grants, thus the Morill Act of 1862 was created. This act granted each state 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative of Congress and the income from this grant was to support state colleges for agricultural and mechanical instruction. Many leading state universities today originated as land-grant colleges.
This also attracted immigrants to move westward, the railroad owners sold off excess land to them for inflated prices. The new railroads also provided access to goods for their farm and/or house from other cities. The railroads provided great help to the homestead, they even delivered houses by the rails. There was great expansion with the mixture of the Homestead Act and the railroad, “over 1.6 million homestead applications were processed and more than 270 million acres—10 percent of all U.S. lands—passed into the hands of individuals” (National
For most young Americans, college has always been preached to them as being a vital part to their success in the adult world; but as they reach this educational rite of passage many find they must take out inflated loans, work part time jobs, or even become dissuaded entirely due to the exorbitant costs of higher education. We must forsake this current antiquated system in favor of government-subsidized tuition. Therefore, college education must be free because of its benefits to the economy, creation of equal opportunity, and the resolution of the student loan crisis. The first ever federal government-backed student loan program began in the 1950s under the National Defense Act (Sourmaidis). This was primarily offered as an incentive for students to pursue math and science degrees to compete with Soviet Russia after the launch of the Sputnik satellite (Sourmaidis).
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
Throughout the years, America has always debated whether education is needed- if it helps people succeed or not. The argument in the past was always over high school education, which is now mandatory. That decision has helped the US rise economically and industrially. Today, the US is in the middle of the same debate- this time, over college. Some, like David Leonhardt, a columnist for the business section of The New York Times, think a college education creates success in any job. Others, such as Christopher Beha, an author and assistant editor of Harper’s Magazine, believe that some college “education” (like that of for-profit schools) is a waste of time, and can even be harmful to students. Each stance on this argument has truth to it, and there is no simple answer to this rising issue in an ever changing nation full of unique people. Any final decision would affect the United States in all factions- especially economically and socially. However, despite the many arguments against college, there is overwhelming proof that college is good for all students, academically or not.