Purdue University - Debris Yearbook (West Lafayette, IN)

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the purpose of agricultural education. The agitation took formal shape at least as early as 1852. Propositions came from several sources urging that the nation should promote scientific instruc- tion in agriculture, which would soon be needed if we were to preserve our national heritage in forest and field. Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, through whose efforts the land grant bill was first brought before congress, in speaking upon this subject before the house of representatives on April 20, 1858, said : f'There has been no measure for years which has received so much atten- tion in the various parts of the country, as the one now under consideration, so far as the fact can be proved by petitions which have been received from the various sta.tes, north and south, from state societies, county societies. and from individuals. Petitions have come in almost every day from the commencement of the sessionf' The bill then before congress granting land to the states for agricultural colleges was intro- duced and brought to its passage in the house by Mr. Morrill. This was April 22, 1858. It was indorsed by the senate at the following session. It met the veto of President Buchanan, Febru- ary 2-1, 1859. The main ground of the president's objection was that the proposed grant violated the constitution of the United States in that 'L congress does not possess the power to appropriate money in the treasury, raised by taxes on the people of the United States, for the purpose of educating the people of the respective statesfl and that the power specifically given to congress 'G to dispose of the territory and other property of the United States was to be used only for the objects specifically enumerated in the constitution. Firmly believing that the measure which had been defeated was both wise and constitutional, Mr. Morrill reintroduced the measure in the house of the Thirty-ninth Congress, December 16, 1861. It was again unfavorably reported by the committee on public lands, and, seeing its inevitable defeat, Mr. Morrill proposed to submit a substitute, which he hoped Would satisfy the committee and the house, but he was overruled by an objection from Mr. Holman. In the mean- time the measure had found a champion in the senate in the person of Senator W'ade, of Ohio. O11 May 5, 1862, Senator lVa.de introduced in the senate the bill which finally became a law, and which became the foundation of several state agricultural colleges, among them Purdue Uni- versity. Although the bill was bitterly opposed, Senator VVade succeeded in getting it through the senate June 10, 1862, with an amendment by Senator Lane. It passed the house one week later, and on July 2, 1862, it received the signature of President Lincoln and became a law. By this measure it was Henacted by the senate and house of representatives in congress assembled, that there be granted to the several states, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land, to be apportioned to each state a quantity equal to 30,000 ac1'es for each senator and representative in congress to which the states are respectively entitled under the census of 1860? The lands to be selected excluded all mineral lands, and were to be chosen

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PURDUE UNIVERSITY I-IIS sketch, or, better, compilation, makes no PIPIGIISIOIIS to being a complete or detailed history of our University, but seeks rather to throw some light on its o1'igin a11d development. In the personal reminiscences it is desired to give the readers some idea of tl1e life of the students in the University at different periods of its history. . In the field of American politics, belief in the inestimable benefits to the states of the 'Amore pe1'fect union has long been a part of tl1e popular faitl1. Though they may not have understood, the people have at least believed that in the source of the federal union they live and move and have their being. In the national political life, in the broad sense, education is one of the most important fields of state jurisdiction, and of the great benefits of the Union in the institutional life of the states, the history of popular education affords a specific a11d striking example. IVe have in a measure recognized the beneficent influence of the federal government i11 the development of education in I11dia11a. That government has been the most gene1'ous and powerful patron of the schools of our state. The tivo townships for colleges, tl1e sixteenth section for the common schools, the surplus fund, the saline la11ds, and minor donations, all coming from the general government, have proved to be the basis for the growth of the schools and the foundation on which the splendid school fund of the state has arisen. The history of Purdue University continues the story of the benefits received for education in Indiana from the national government. Purdue University is the Indiana Institute of Technology. It has been said of Cornell University that it was the gift of the United States govern- ment and Ezra Cornellf, Purdue rests upon a similar basis-on private benevolence upon the one hand and the gift of the central government upon the other. Both institutions, Cornell and Purdue, l1a.d their origin in the act of congress of July 2, 1862. In 1860 the national government had at its command, with the constitutional right of dis- posal, more than a billion acres of unclaimed public land. Agricultural societies' throughout the Union had for some years been petitioning congress for the donation of this land to the states for

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within the respective states if there were enough such lands subject to sale at private entry for 81.25. Otherwise, the secretary of the interior was to issue land sc-rip for the amount of the deficiency, the scrip to be sold by the states and the proceeds to be applied for the uses prescribed in this act. This land scrip was to give the buyer full claim to any unappropriated land of the United States which was then subject to sale at 31.25. All taxes and expenses attached to the necessa1'y proceedings of sale and ownership were not to come out of the funds so appropriated, but were to be paid bythe states. All moneys derived from this donation were to be invested in stocks of the United States or of the states or some other safe stock yielding not less than five per cent per annum on the par value, to constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated to the endow- ment, support and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts in such manner as the legislature of the states may prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of lifefl No state was to be entitled to the benefits of the act unless it expressed acceptance thereof by its legislature within two years from the date of its approval by the president. On April 1-1, 1864, congress extended by two years the time within which a state might signify its acceptance of the grant, and offered the benefits of tl1e grant to the state of W'est Virginia. Indiana, with two senators and eleven representatives by the census of 1860, received as her share of this donation 390,000 acres of land, or the equivalent in la.nd scrip. From this source she realized for her agricultural college :B3sl0,000. The state accepted the grant March G, 1865, by an act providing for the receipt, investment, and management of the congressional grant and assented to all the conditions and provisions contained therein. The governorhof the state, and Alfred Pollard, of Gibson county, Smith Vawter, of Jennings county, Henry Taylor, of Tippecanoe county, and Lewis Burke, of XVayne county, and their successors, were created a body corporate for the management of the institution under the name of the Trustees of Indiana Agricultural College. The land scrip, to be received by the board through its treasurer from the secretary of the interior, was to be sold at the most advantageous terms, and the proceeds invested in United States stocks yielding not less than tive per centum on the par value of stock. The act of 1865, however, made no provision for the location of the institution, and so strong a rivalry sprang up among the several places in the state that it was not until the special session of 1869 that the matter was finally settled. The act of that session accepted a donation of 85150,000 from John Purdue, on condition that the donation be made effectual, and in considera- tion thereof the state agreed that the institution should bear the name and style of Purdue University, and Mr. Purdue was made a life member of the board of trustees. The state also