EULOGY 



HON. STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS. 



PBEPARED AT THE BEQUEST OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN IK9TITUTI0N, BY HON. 

 SAMUEL 8. COX, OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



At a meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, held May 1, 1862, Professor Henry, the Secretary, having 

 announced the death of Judge Douglas, one of the Regents, the fol- 

 lowing resolutions were offered by Hon. Lyman Trumbull, and unani- 

 mously adopted. 



Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. Stephen A. Dougla.s, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution has been deprived of a most zealous friend ; the Board of Re- 

 gents of an active and attentive member; and the country of a distinguished 

 and influential citizen. 



Resolved, That the Board of Regents deeply sympathize with the bereaved 

 relatives of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to 

 them. 



Resolved, That the Hon. S. S. Cox be requested to prepare a suitable notice of 

 the Hon. S. A. Douglas, to be inserted in the journal of the Board of Regents. 



EULOGY. 



In February, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, while a senator 

 from that State, was appointed one of the Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and continued a member of the Board until the time of 

 his death, on the morning of the 3d of June, 1861. From the pur- 

 suits of his life and the peculiarities of his course, it might be thought 

 that he was not well qualified to discharge properly the duty of a 

 trustee of a fund intended for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men. But this would be a mistake, for, although he had 

 given no special attention to any branch of science, yet his mind was 

 of that comprehensive cast which enabled him duly to appreciate 

 the nature of the bequest and the general principles of the different 

 plans which had been proposed for carrying it into execution. It is 

 true, as I am informed, that before he was elected a Regent he had 

 adopted the popular idea that the bequest was intended merely to 

 diffuse useful knowledge among the people of the United States; yet 

 when he came to study the precise words of the will of the founder, 

 and caught, as he immediately did, the peculiar idea of the object in- 



