146 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



whether it was for a charitable purpose ; and if there was 

 no power to establish the institution in any of the States, 

 he would establish it in the District of Columbia, and if the 

 power to establish it there was doubted, he would establish 

 it in one of the Territories. He deemed the establishment 

 of institutions for the diifusion of knowledge a vital principle 

 of a republican government. They might as well say that 

 delivering lectures in any of the sciences was a national 

 institution, as to call this, one. 



Mr. Peeston said, the declaration of the Senator from 

 New Jersey (Mr. Southard) had satisfied him that this was 

 a national university. There was no difference between a 

 university in the District of Columbia for the benefit of all 

 mankind and a national university. That Senator had not 

 distinguished between the power of erecting buildings and 

 the use to which they are appropriated. They had the pow- 

 er to erect buildings in loco farentis pair ice for the benefit of 

 the District of Columbia; they might erect buildings for 

 the maintenance of paupers of the District, but if the peo- 

 ple of the District, in this case, were to have any benefit 

 peculiar to the place, it was in the erection of the buildings 

 alone. He asked if the buildings of the Post Oflice De- 

 partment were erected by Congress as the parens patricB of 

 the District of Columbia ? Had they the right as parens 

 jMtrice of the District of Columbia, to erect this building for 

 the benefit humani genens of this District, when it was in 

 fact a general charity to mankind, including the confederacy, 

 and not confined to the District of Columbia ? He was 

 against the power, and Avould be against the policy, if they 

 had the power. 



After some further remarks from Messrs. Leigh and 

 Preston, the question was taken on ordering the bill to be 

 engrossed for a third reading, and decided in the affirma- 

 tive — yeas 31, nays 7, as follows : 



Yeas — Messrs. Benton, Black, Buchanan, Claj', Clayton, Crittenden, 

 Cuthbert, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsboro, Grundy, Hendricks, Hubbard, 

 Kent, King of Alabama, Knight, Leigh, Linn, Mangum, Moore, Naudain, 

 Nicholas, Porter, Prentiss, Eives, Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tallmadge, 

 Tomlinson, Walker— 31. 



Nats — Messrs. Calhoun, Ewing of Illinois, Hill, King of Georgia, Pres- 

 ton, Eobinson, White — 7. 



Senate, Monday, May 2, 1836. 



The resolution to authorize and enable the President to 

 assert and prosecute with effect the claim of the United 

 States to the legacy bequeathed to them by James Smithson, 



