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Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Six: 1860 - 1869

Morrill Act of 1862

A Congressional law
passed by the U.S. Congress
in 1862 would have a major
effect on the educational scene
in Lake City, as well as the
whole state of Florida. The
Morrill Act of 1862, also
known as the Land Grant
College Act, established
institutions in each state that
would educate people in
agriculture, home economics,
Justin Smith Morrill was the mechanical arts, and other so-
man responsible for changing called “practical” professions.
education in the U.S.,
including Florida. The land-grant act
honored in its name the
Vermont congressman who introduced it: Justin Smith Morrill. The
first such law, passed in 1862 and signed by President Lincoln, gave
each state 30,000 acres of public land for each of its senators and
representatives. Officials were to sell the land and put the sale money
into an endowment fund that would provide support for the colleges
in each state.

Under provision six of the act, “No State while in a condition
of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States
shall be entitled to the benefit of this act,” in reference to the recent
secession of southern states in the American Civil War. After the war,
however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states.
Florida was eligible for ninety thousand acres since it had two senators
and one congressman at the time. The two land-grant colleges in Florida
would eventually become Florida A&M University and the University
of Florida. It would not be until the 1870s, however, before the first
school would be established in Florida.

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