TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS, 1843-45. 309 



this very question whether a school or college should be 

 established. The opinion of the committee of the House 

 is expressed in the 4th section of the bill (No. 293 Senate) 

 which they desired to report, and which is in these words : 



" Sec. 4. A7id be it further enacted, That no part of the said Smithsonian 

 fund, principal or interest, shall be applied to any school, college, univer- 

 sity, institute of education, or ecclesiastical establishment." 



That of the committee of the Senate is distinctly enough 

 intimated in the beautiful speech with which Mr. Robbins 

 introduced the subject in January, 1839. I find it in the 

 Appendix to the Congressional Globe : 



" I could wish, if all were agreed in it, that this institution should make 

 one of a number of colleges, to constitute a university to be established 

 here, and to be endowed in a manner worthy of this great nation and their 

 immense resources. But, as opinions are divided upon this subject — not, I 

 should hope, as to the great desirableness of such an establishment, but as 

 to the constitutional competency of Congress to undertake it — I will not 

 embarrass my present object by involving it with that subject. This, as an 

 independent institution, may hereafter be made a part of such a university, 

 should one be established ; but it is now to be looked at only as an inde- 

 pendent institution." 



It was to embody and execute this conception that Mr. 

 Robbins drew the Senate bill No. 292. 



Finding themselves unable to agree, it was determined 

 that each committee should report both of these bills to 

 their respective Houses. On the 25th February, 1839, the 

 bill drawn by Mr. Robbins was taken up in this body, and 

 after an animated discussion, was laid on the table by a vote 

 of 20 to 15. This vote is regarded, I perceive, by Mr. 

 Adams, in his subsequent reports of 1840 and 1842, as ex- 

 pressing the judgment of the Senate against the establish- 

 ment of such academical institute of learning. He says : 



" It is then to be considered as a circumstance propitious to the final dis- 

 posal of this fund, by the organization of an institution the best adapted 

 to accomplish the design of the testator, that this first but erroneous im- 

 pression of that design, an institute of learning, a university, upon the 

 foundation of which the whole fund should be lavished, and yet prove 

 inadequate to its purpose, without large appropriations of public moneys 

 in its aid — should have been presented to the consideration of Congress, 

 referred to a numerous joint committee of both Houses, there discussed, 

 reported for the deliberation of both Houses, fully debated in the House 

 where it originated, and then decisively rejected." 



If such may be inferred to have been the judgment of 

 the Senate, it may be defended on the most decisive reasons. 

 It is hardly worth while to move the question whether it 

 would be expedient to apply the fund as far as it would go 

 to the founding of a great university deserving of the name 

 — a national university — in which all the branches of a 

 thorough education should be taught; which should till the 



