Morrill Act

Audience

As with many government acts, the document was intended for a vast audience, for its benefits would be felt by the entire wartime American society. The Morrill Act was of crucial importance for the states, which could receive for the first time considerable material aid from the federal government for education. A particularly important segment of the act's audience was American farmers and industrial workers, who, until then, had no access to higher education. The legislation was intended to provide easier access to higher education and to supply them with the technical skills required by the new American industrial developments. The document thus encouraged the working classes to seek admission to the new institutions that would be created. The fifth section of the act, with its exclusion of the states in rebellion against the Union, indirectly addressed the people of the southern states, showing them the benefits they could have if they were part of the United States. The section also sounds as a warning for wavering Union states not to change their allegiance.