The Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an "agricultural school", either as a part of the University of Michigan, or as an autonomous institution. U-M President Henry P. Tappan tried to convince the legislature to build the agriculture school in Ann Arbor, but the secretary of the Michigan State Agricultural Society, John C. Holmes, argued that the young farmers would not get the attention they needed in the established university. Holmes' argument eventually won out and, on February 12, 1855, Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the nation's first agriculture college, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.