Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Matthew Buckham

Justin Morrill (1810-1898) served as a US Representative (1855-1867) and Senator (1867-1898) from Vermont, following a successful business career. His signature legislative accomplishments were the Land Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890, which used the proceeds from the sale of federal lands expropriated from tribal nations, to create land-grant colleges. The purpose of these land-grant colleges was to teach agriculture, military instruction, and mechanical arts such as engineering in addition to the traditional science and classical education that was generally taught in colleges at that time. The second Land Grant Act, passed in 1890, funded colleges in the former Confederate states and required each state to offer race blind admissions or set up a separate land-grant college for persons of color, which led to the creation of several of the historically Black colleges and universities. An additional act passed by Congress in 1887 funded agricultural experiment stations under the direction of the land grant colleges. In 1865, the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College was incorporated, after a great deal of debate about whether a land-grant college in Vermont should be a separate institution, or attached to the University of Vermont, Norwich University, Middlebury College or even possibly a merger of those three institutions. Despite the 1865 incorporation, these debates would continue in Vermont for many years to come. With the establishment of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Morrill became a trustee of the University, a position he continued to hold until his death in 1898. Matthew Buckham (1832-1910) became President of the University in 1871 and continued in this role until his death in 1910. He had previously graduated from the University in 1851 and served as a faculty member from 1856-1871. His time as president saw the admission of women to the University, the addition of several notable buildings to campus such as Williams Hall and the Billings Library, and the development of the State Agricultural College which had admitted no students to the agricultural course in the six years before he became President. Morrill and Buckham were frequent correspondents and eighty-two of Morrill’s letters to Buckham, along with three to George Benedict and one to Albert Cummins, are preserved in Buckham’s papers at the University of Vermont and are digitized and transcribed in this collection. The letters included here discuss a wide variety of topics, mostly related to the agricultural college and include: federal support for the University, possible donors, military instruction, Morrill’s views on the development of agricultural colleges around the country, competition with Middlebury and Norwich, Vermont legislation such as the 1890 “divorce bill” which would have separated the State Agricultural College from the University, the experimental farm, the academic progress of Morrill’s son James at the University, and the construction of Billings Library along with the potential acquisition of the library of George Perkins Marsh.

List

Gallery

Information

Showing 21 - 30 of 86 Records

Relevance Title (A-Z) Title (Z-A) Year (0-9) Year (9-0)
10 25 50 100

86 text
Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Albert L. Cummins, May 30, 1877
Justin Smith Morrill to Albert L. Cummins, May 30, 1877
Image nop
    • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
    • Date Created: 1877-05-30
    • Description: Morrill writes to Lt. Albert L. Cummins with an offer to teach military instruction at the University of Vermont.
    • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
    Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 21, 1876
    Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 21, 1876
    Image nop
      • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
      • Date Created: 1876-07-21
      • Description: Morrill writes with praise from Senator Theodore Randolph about President Buckham's work on the examining board at West Point.
      • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
      Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 10, 1890
      Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 10, 1890
      Image nop
        • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
        • Date Created: 1890-09-10
        • Description: Morrill writes about the second Morrill Act and the process for UVM obtaining appropriations from the Act via the State legislature.
        • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
        Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, May 22, 1893
        Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, May 22, 1893
        Image nop
          • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
          • Date Created: 1893-05-22
          • Description: Morrill writes about the state of agricultural colleges in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, as well as the idea of having him make an address in support of keeping the Agricultural College at the University of Vermont.
          • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
          Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, June 14, 1873
          Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, June 14, 1873
          Image nop
            • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
            • Date Created: 1873-06-14
            • Description: Morrill writes with interest about Buckham's recent discourse on history and with a few thoughts on Milton's work on Latin history.
            • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
            Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, November 4, 1882
            Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, November 4, 1882
            Image nop
              • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
              • Date Created: 1882-11-04
              • Description: Topics include Buckham's interest in getting Frederick Billings to serve as a trustee of the University, Morrill's thoughts on the design of a new library building, and Morrill's thoughts on the Charles J. Folger's candidacy for Governor of New York and President Chester Arthur's role in getting Floger to run.
              • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
              Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, June 11, 1887
              Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, June 11, 1887
              Image nop
                • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                • Date Created: 1887-06-11
                • Description: Topics include a $50 donation from Morrill to the University and his thoughts on his upcoming commencement speech on Land Grant Colleges.
                • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, March 27, 1876
                Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, March 27, 1876
                Image nop
                  • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                  • Date Created: 1876-03-27
                  • Description: Morrill writes about the need to acquire forty to fifty acres of farm land for the University as a means of appeasing those opposed to the University as the home for the state's agricultural college, such as the Grangers and competing institutions like Middlebury .
                  • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                  Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 23, 1888
                  Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 23, 1888
                  Image nop
                    • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                    • Date Created: 1888-12-23
                    • Description: Morrill writes about an agricultural school at the University and state support for it.
                    • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                    Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 15, 1890
                    Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 15, 1890
                    Image nop
                      • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                      • Date Created: 1890-09-15
                      • Description: Brief letter of reply from Morrill to Buckham.
                      • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham