118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 



tended, namely, the extension of the bounds of science, and not merely 

 the teaching of what is already known, he fully adopted the views on 

 which the present organization of the Institution is based, and ever 

 after continued a warm advocate and an able supporter of the 

 measures now in successful operation for the realization of the liberal 

 and enlightened intention of James Smithson. 



In accordance with the usage heretofore observed in similar cases, 

 a resolution having been adopted directing the preparation, for the 

 proceedings of the Board of Regents, of a sketch of the characteristics 

 and incidents of his life, and the duty of furnishing this having been 

 assigned to me, I address myself to the task with an earnestness that 

 is only tempered by my fear that I have neither sufficient time nor 

 sufficient ability to do full justice to the memory of one whom I ad- 

 mired as a public man, and sincerely loved as a friend. 



It is, indeed, pre-eminently fitting that the name of Douglas, so 

 fondly cherished by the nation, and so familiarly spoken wherever 

 American statesmanship is known, should be honored in the journals 

 of this Institution, for whose prosperity he evinced -so earnest a 

 desire. It was not merely as one of its Regents that he showed him- 

 self the true and enlightened friend of objects kindred to tho:3e of this 

 establishment. He ever advocated measures which served to advance 

 knowledge and promote the progress of humanity. The encouragement 

 of the fine arts, the rewarding of discoverers and inventors, the or- 

 ganization of exploring expeditions, as well as the general diffusion of 

 education, Avere all objects of his special regard, whether in the 

 councils of his State, or in the hall of the Senate of the Union. 



Stephen A. Douglas was born at Brandon, in Vermont, on the 23d 

 of April, 1813. Like many, perhaps I should say like most, of the 

 rural neighborhoods of New England, Brandon contained a highly 

 intelligent and energetic population, independent alike in thought, 

 speech, and the conduct of their public affiiirs; and doubtless the fact 

 of his early years having been passed under the influence of the daily 

 life and conversation of such neighbors, had some share in imbuing 

 the boy with the sturdy independence and resolute energy which the 

 man was so remarkably and so triumphantly to exhibit throughout 

 his at once brilliant and laborious career. 



His ancestors were of Puritan descent; and his father was a physi- 

 cian of both ability and reputation, but died at a prematurely early 

 age, leaving his widow in very straitened circumstances, if not even 

 in actual distress. It may, indeed, be only too reasonably feared that 

 the latter was the case, for, excellent mother as she was known to be, 

 she yet was unable to give young Stephen the full education he so 

 much desired and so well deserved. He attended the district school 

 during only one-third of the year ; during all except the four winter 

 months he was engaged in the hard labor of a farm or in the shop of 

 a cabinet-maker. In this alternation of manual labor and imperfect 

 and interrupted schooling he continued till he was twenty years of 

 age, when he migrated to Illinois, where he taught school for his sup- 

 port, while he resolutely studied law. In 1834 he was admitted to 

 the l3ar, and we may judge of the character of his early efforts in the 



