The Free lance., January 01, 1899, Image 22

years, and before entering Congress had been a successful
merchant, The Tariff Act which has since been familiarly known
by his name was, accordingly, the result of a long previous busi
ness experience, and was designed not so much to carry out any
financial theory as to bring in the necessary revenue to the
Government. This Act, with its subsequent modifications, was
the foundation and the inodel of all Tariff legislation during the
war, and, with the exception of the short-lived " Wilson Bill,"
has furnished the guiding principle of all our Tariff legislation
from that time to the present.
The one great Act, however, which Mr. Morrill probably
looked upon as his most important public service, the one upon
which his reputation will most permanently rest, and which he
lived to see exerting an influence beyond his most sanguine ex
pectations, was the " Land Grant Act "of 1862. The purpose of
this Act was to assist the several States, by means of a grant of
public lands, in the establishment of Colleges for the promotion
of what has been sometimes called the " new education." The
Colleges then existing in the United States were designed ex
clusively to give young men either a general education, so called,
or a preparation for one of the three professions, law, medicine or
theology. Mr. Morrill believed that the time had come when
College education, without lowering its aims or standards, could
be so directed as to prepare men for the industrial professions as
well as for the so-called learned professions. His bill accordingly
provided that every State which should accept the proffered grant
of land, should bind itself by legislative Act to maintain a College
whose leading object should be to promote the kind of education
which he had in view. He laid the foundation of these institutions
on as broad a basis as language could express. He provided that
no branch of classical or scientific study should be excluded from
the curriculum, that Military Tactics should be included, and
that, these conditions being fulfilled, the leading object should be
" to teach such branches of learning as are related to Agriculture
and the Mechanic Arts, in order to promote the liberal and prac
tical education of the industrial classes, in the several pursuits
and professions of life." A congressional clerk, seeking an easy
catch word for reference to this law, indexed it, as Mr. Morrill
himself explained, under the head of " Agricultural Colleges "
.and that name has since had more or less vogue. But Senator
EDITORIALS