316 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



omy ! The writers of the first French school, of the Scotch fchool, (anc!^ 

 if we wish for history, wc must go beyond the publication of Adam Smith's 

 great work,) the Italian, the new French, and the new English schools, all 

 have not merely a claim upon our attention, but are entitled to a full and 

 accurate examination. And even then our task would be incomplete ; for 

 literary justice would require us to trace, through the works of general 

 political writers, the hints and remarks which have contributed to the prog- 

 ress of the branch we are studying, by the discovery of truth or by the 

 exposition of error. If such be the obligation of the student whose re- 

 searches are confined to a subject so new, what must be the necessities of 

 the historian who attempts to throw light upon those periods, for which the 

 testimony of printed authorities is to be confronted with that of manuscripts 

 and public documents, and where ignorance and prejudice have combined 

 with the more powerful incentives of interest to perplex his path by contra- 

 dictory statements and conflicting opinions! 



" Books are needed, not confined to any single branch, but embracing 

 the whole range of science and of literature, which shall supply the means 

 of every species of research and inquiry, and which, placed within reach 

 of all, shall leave idleness no excuse for the lightness of its labors, and 

 poverty no obstacles which industry may not surmount. 



" Whoever reflects, though but for a moment, upon the numerous 

 branches into which modern literature runs, and remembers that the liter- 

 ary glory of a nation can only be secured by a certain degree of success in 

 each of them — whoever considers the immense mass of varied materials, 

 without which no historical work of importance can be composed, or the 

 extensive learning which is required of even the most gifted genius of an 

 age like ours, and adds to these considerations the general and undeniable 

 fact that of those who would gladly devote themselves to literature, but a 

 few can ever hope to obtain by their own resources the command of the 

 works that are essential to the successful prosecution of their studies, will 

 be ready to acknowledge that we have, as yet, done but a small part of 

 what may be justly claimed from a nation which aspires to the first rank 

 for the liberality, and politeness, and high moral tone of its civilization. 

 Late, however, as we are to begin, scarce anything in this department has 

 been accomplished in Europe which might not be done with equal success 

 in America. And so numerous and manifest are our advantages in some 

 important particulars, that a prompt will and sound judgment in the execu- 

 tion of it might, in the course of a very few years, render the American 

 student nearly independent of those vast collections which, in Europe, have 

 required centuries for their formation. The undertaking, however, in 

 order to be successful, should be a national one. Without arguing that no 

 State is fully equal to it, or that in the bounds of any single State it would 

 not answer the same purpose, we may be permitted to say that the enlarge- 

 ment of the library of Congress upon those broad principles, the applica- 

 tion of which to the collection of books has become a difiicult and import- 

 ant art, would reflect an honor upon the country equal to the permanent 

 advantages which it would secure to every member of the community." — 

 North American Review^ vol. 4-5, p. 137. 



Yet these writers had access to the best library in this 

 country. 



Now there are very many among us, and every day we 

 shall have more, who vvould feelingly adopt this language. 

 Place within their reach the helps that guide the genius and 

 labors of Germany and England, and let the genius and 

 labors of Germany and England look to themselves ! Our 

 learned men would grow more learned and more able ; our 

 studies deeper and wider ; our mind itself exercised and 



