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Morrill Act

[ mawr-il, mor- ]

noun

, U.S. History.
  1. an act of Congress (1862) granting each state 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of land for each member it had in Congress, 90 percent of the gross proceeds of which were to be used for the endowment and maintenance of colleges and universities teaching agricultural and mechanical arts and other subjects.
  2. either of two supplementary acts (1890 and 1907) in which Congress made direct financial grants to assist the land-grant colleges and universities.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of Morrill Act1

Named after Justin Smith Morrill (1810–98), congressman and senator from Vermont

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Example Sentences

The Morrill Act eventually changed all that, as several land-grant speakers at the Library of Congress emphasized.

The passage of the Morrill Act in 1862 had a quickening effect on education in engineering and agriculture.

The Morrill Act of 1862 was the first important step toward the emancipation of agriculture.

In our country great wealth was given by the Morrill Act to scientific and technical schools.

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