ABSTRACT
Texas established its first public college after more than three decades of debate regarding the state's role in providing higher education. The Morrill Act's vague mandate that was intended to provide military training for the land-grant colleges gave them great latitude in meeting this requirement. Texas spent the years between independence and the Civil War debating the role that the state would play in providing higher education. In 1836, Texas won its independence from Mexico, and it functioned as a republic until gaining admission into the Union as a slave state in 1845. Sam Houston, war hero and Texas icon, served as the republic's first president and later, as US senator and governor. The Texas Legislature had envisioned a state university that it could support with a land endowment. Almost immediately, Agricultural and Mechanical's (A&M) critics deemed it an elephant-too large to move and too voracious to nourish.
