TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1835-37. . 153 



sequently to that period, a more perfect union was formed, 

 combining in one system the principle of confederate sov- 

 ereignties with that of a Government by popular represen- 

 tation, with legislative, executive, and judicial powers, all 

 limited, but co-extensive with the whole confederation. 



Under this Government, a new experiment in the history 

 of mankind is now drawing to the close of half a century, 

 during which the territory and number of States in the 

 Union have nearly doubled, while their population, wealth, 

 and power have been multiplied more than fourfold. In 

 the process of this experiment, they have gone through the 

 vicissitudes of peace and w^ar, amidst bitter and ardent party 

 collisions, and the unceasing changes of popular elections 

 to the legislative and executive offices, both of the general 

 confederacy and of the separate States, without a single 

 execution for treason, or a single proscription for a political 

 offence. The whole Government, under the continual su- 

 perintendence of the whole people, has been holding a 

 steady course of prosperity, unexampled in the cotemporary 

 history of other nations, not less than in the annals of ages 

 past. During this period, our country has been freely 

 visited by observers from other lands, and often in no 

 friendly spirit by travellers from the native land of Mr. 

 Smithson. Their reports of the prevailing manners, opin- 

 ions and social intercourse of the people of this Union, 

 have exhibited no flattering or complacent pictures. All 

 the infirmities and vices of our civil and political condition 

 have been conned and noted, and displayed with no forbear- 

 ance of severe satirical comment to set them off; yet, after 

 all this, a British subject, of noble birth and ample fortune, 

 desiring to bequeath his whole estate to the purpose of in- 

 creasing and diffusing knowledge throughout the whole 

 community of civilized man, selects for the depositaries of 

 his trust, with confidence unqualified with reserve, the Con- 

 gress of the United States of America. 



In the commission of every trust, there is an implied 

 tribute of the soul to the integrity and intelligence of the 

 trustee ; and there is also an implied call for the faithful 

 exercise of those properties to the fulfilment of the purpose 

 of the trust. The tribute and the call acquire additional 

 force and energy, when the trust is committed for perform- 

 ance after the decease of him by wdiom it is granted, when 

 he no longer exists to witness or to constrain the effective 

 fulfilment of his design. The magnitude of the trust, and 

 the extent of confidence bestowed in the commital of it, do 

 but enlarge and aggravate the pressure of the obligation 



