The school's first class graduated in 1861, but there was no time for an elaborate graduation ceremony. The following year, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to support similar colleges nationally, the first instance of federal funding for education. Williams, whose efforts as lieutenant governor had rescued the school from extinction, never witnessed this landmark occasion to which he had dedicated so much of his life, as he had become ill and died the year prior to the federal enactment.