814 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



that it comes within the terms and spirit of the trust. 

 That directs us to " increase and diffuse knowledge among 

 men." And do not the judgments of all the wise — does 

 not the experience of all enlightened States — does not the 

 whole history of civilization, concur to declare that a vari- 

 ous and ample library is one of the surest, most constant, 

 most permanent, and most economical instrumentalities to 

 increase and diftuse knowledge ? There it would be — dura- 

 ble as liberty, durable as the Union; a vast storehouse, a 

 vast treasury, of all the facts which make up the history of 

 man and of nature, so far as that history has been written ; 

 of all the truths which the inquiries and experiences of all 

 the races and ages have found out; of all the opinions 

 that have been promulgated; of all the emotions, images, 

 sentiments, examples, of all the richest and most instructive 

 literatures : the whole past speaking to the present and the 

 future ; a silent, yet wise and eloquent teacher ; dead yet 

 speaking — not dead ! for Milton has told us that a " good 

 book is not absolutely a dead thing — the precious life-blood 

 rather of a master spirit; a seasoned life of man embalmed 

 and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." Is that 

 not an admirable instrumentality to increase and diffuse 

 knowledge among men ? It would place within the reach 

 of our mind, of our thinkers, and investigators, and schol- 

 ars, all, or the chief, intellectual and literary materials, and 

 food and instruments, now within the reach of the culti- 

 vated foreign mind ; and the effect would be to increase the 

 amount of individual acquisition, and multiply the number 

 of the learned. It would raise the standard of our schol- 

 arship, improve our style of investigation, and communicate 

 an impulse to our educated and to the general mind. There 

 is no library now in this country, I suppose, containing over 

 50,000 volumes. Many there are containing less. But, 

 from the nature of the case, all have the same works ; so 

 that I do not know, that of all the printed books in the 

 world, we have in this country more than 50,000 different 

 works. The consequence has been felt and lamented by all 

 our authors and all our scholars. It has been often said 

 that Gibbon's history could not have' been written here for 

 want of books. I suppose that Hallam's Middle Ages, and 

 his Introduction to the Literature of Europe could not. 

 Irving's Columbus was written in Spain. Wheaton's ISTorth- 

 men was prepared to be written in Copenhagen. See how 

 this inadequate supply' operates. An American mind kin- 

 dles with a subject; it enters on an investigation with a 

 spirit and with an ability worthy of the most splendid 



