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.

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Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 12, 1893
Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 12, 1893
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    • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
    • Date Created: 1893-07-12
    • Description: Morrill writes promising to send the manuscript of his recent address to the University Library.
    • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
    Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, February 17, 1878
    Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, February 17, 1878
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      • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
      • Date Created: 1878-02-17
      • Description: Morrill writes about helping Professor Collier find work in Washington and discouraging him from speaking out against the University.
      • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
      Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 8, 1873
      Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 8, 1873
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        • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
        • Date Created: 1873-12-08
        • Description: Morrill writes about visiting President Grant with Senator George Edmunds and successfully lobbying to have Lieutenant Robinson assigned to the University as its first officer of military instruction.
        • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
        Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, August 20, 1875
        Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, August 20, 1875
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          • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
          • Date Created: 1875-08-20
          • Description: Morrill writes in reply to an unspecified idea of President Buckham's and the news of a new President at Norwich.
          • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
          Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 3, 1877
          Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, July 3, 1877
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            • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
            • Date Created: 1877-07-03
            • Description: Morrill writes with congratulations to President Buckham on some recent honors he has received, an offer to send a plaster cast of the Youth by Michaelangelo, with news of recent developments in the Agriculture Department, and about the academic progress of Morrill's son, James.
            • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
            Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 28, 1877
            Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 28, 1877
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              • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
              • Date Created: 1877-10-28
              • Description: Morrill writes about his hope for improvement in the intellectual and religious life of his son James and also gives his opinion on the religious revivals of Moody and Sankey.
              • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
              Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 30, 1876
              Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 30, 1876
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                • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                • Date Created: 1876-10-30
                • Description: Morrill writes about possible upcoming University business in the Vermont state legislture.
                • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 7, 1878
                Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 7, 1878
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                  • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                  • Date Created: 1878-10-07
                  • Description: Topics include 1878 US Senate election contest between Morrill and Luke Poland, and efforts to remove funding for the State Agricultural College from the University of Vermont.
                  • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                  Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, March 27, 1883
                  Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, March 27, 1883
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                    • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                    • Date Created: 1883-03-27
                    • Description: Topics include $75,000 for a new library building and a potential site for that building.
                    • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
                    Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, April 25, 1884
                    Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, April 25, 1884
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                      • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                      • Date Created: 1884-04-25
                      • Description: Topics include an assignment of a military officer to the University for instruction and Buckham's request for help from Morrill in obtaining copies of the Digest.
                      • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham