Post Reconstruction and Education in Texas

"During the Civil War many modernizing and egalitarian Northern ideas were freed from the Southern ideology of states' rights and limited government. The consequences of this liberation became evident as early as 1862 when, during the war with the Southern states out of the Union, Congress passed three significant nonmilitary laws: (1) The Homestead Act, which granted ownership of 160 acres of public land to genuine settlers; (2) The Pacific Railroad Act, which provided federal support for the building of a transcontinental railroad; and (3) the Land Grant College Act (generally known as the Morrill Act after its sponsor, Republican congressman Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont)". ¹

------------------------------------------------------

¹Baum, Dale. "A Statue on the Texas A&M university Camput to a Former Slave?.", as printed in The Touchstone. The Matthew Gaines Memorial Homepage. 12 Nov. 2005 [tamu.edu/gaines/].