(D. M. S. W.) MORRILL, JUSTIN SMITH (1810-1898), American po litical leader and financier, was born at Strafford, Vt., on April 14, 181o. He was a clerk in a store at Strafford in 1825-28, and at Portland, Me., 1828-31, and was a merchant and then a farmer in his native town in 1831-55. He was elected to the national House of Representatives as an anti-slavery Whig in 1854, soon after wards joining the new Republican Party, and served in the house from 1855 until 1867. From 1867 until his death more than 3o years later he represented Vermont in the Senate. In the house he was continuously a member of the ways and means committee and in the Senate of the finance committee of which he was chair man for nearly 20 years. Soon after entering Congress he became the acknowledged leader of the protectionists, and at the request of John Sherman, then chairman of the ways and means com mittee, he prepared a new tariff bill, which was introduced in the house in March, 186o. To this relatively conservative bill, which substituted in many instances ad valorem for specific duties, and was intended by its author to be a revenue as well as a protective measure, were added many amendments which made the bill more strongly protectionist, and in some cases were vigorously opposed by Morrill. The bill was finally passed by the Senate on Feb. 20,
1861, and was signed by President Buchanan on March 2 follow ing. Morrill is probably best known as the author of the Land Grant Act passed on July 2, 1862, which provided for the foundation and maintenance of colleges "where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics (which had not been included in the original bill), to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts . . . in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." In 1890 Morrill intro duced in the Senate the so-called "second Morrill Act," under which $25,000 is given annually by the Federal Government to each of the "land-grant" colleges. He died at Washington, on Dec. 28, 1898.
See William Belmont Parker, The Life and Public Services of Justin Smith Morrill (1924).