Heidi Alexander: “on Monday, at the Library of Congress, was the 150th anniversary celebration of the creation of land-grant universities…”

“on Monday, at the Library of Congress, was the 150th anniversary celebration of the creation of land-grant universities and the National Academy of Sciences. The assemblage also took a moment to throw a bouquet to Andrew Carnegie for founding so many free public libraries. I am on the floor to ask this question: What was in the water in Washington, DC, 150 years ago, in 1862 and 1863? During the 2 years after the telegraph dispatched the Pony Express in 1861, Congress and President Lincoln enacted the Morrill Act creating land-grant colleges, authorized the Transcontinental Railroad--reducing the time for getting from New York to San Francisco from 6 months to 6 days--as well as the National Academy of Sciences, and enacted the Homestead Act. They also agreed on a conscription law with teeth, a National Banking Act, establishing a national currency, a new internal revenue law, and created the Department of Agriculture. To top it off, on December 2, 1863 the last section of the Statute of Freedom was put in place on top of the Capitol dome, with a great celebration. Mr. President, if I were the Republican national chairman, I might suggest that this transforming burst of governing was simply a matter of turning the government completely over to Republicans and sending home half of the Democrats. By the end of the 37th Congress in 1863, southern Democratic U.S.…”