328 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



human knowledge. The general object of this bequest — of 

 which we are constituted the trustee — is described to be the 

 " increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." 'Now, 

 if we Averc to have a library at all to carry out this great 

 object, it really seemed to him that that library ought to be 

 coextensive with the limits of human knowledge. Some of 

 his honorable friends on both sides of the House, had dropped 

 observations in the course of this debate — and he had heard 

 them with surprise — which would seem to imply that moral 

 science is not knowledge, and that nothing but what are re- 

 garded as the natural sciences — astronomy, mathematics, 

 and others of that class — is knowledge. The great field of 

 modern inquiry relating to the moral and political sciences 

 is not to be considered at all as a branch of human knowl- 

 edge ! Was this so? And was this the country, or this the 

 age, in which we were to recognize such a doctrine? It did 

 seem to him that the most important of all the branches of 

 human knowledge is that which relates to the moral and 

 political relations of man. It is intimately connected with 

 the rights, and duties, and privileges of citizens, whether in 

 public or in private life. How would gentlemen designate 

 that great branch of human science, which is of very mod- 

 ern origin, and even now in its infancy — political economy ? 

 Is it not a most important part of human knowledge ? And 

 are the legislators of this country, who are so deeply con- 

 cerned in the destinies and progressive civilization of the 

 human race, to regard the science of government and legis- 

 lation as no part of human knowledge? It really seemed 

 to him that, as representatives of the American people, they 

 could recognize no such distinction. We have been told 

 from high classical authority that " the proper study ©f man- 

 kind is man ;" but here the idea upon wdiich the original 

 form of this bill seemed to stand was, that the proper study 

 of mankind is that of animals, exotics, and plants only — not 

 including at all the great moral and civil relations of man. 

 Now, he took it upon himself to say that, if gentlemen 

 would survey the field of moral science, they would find 

 that it embraced a much larger portion of knowledge than 

 the physical sciences, however important they may be. 



The honorable and venerable member from Ohio, as he 

 had been styled, [Mr. Tappan,] based his leading arguments 

 upon the necessity of making that institution a counterpart 

 of the Jardin ties Plantes, in Paris, where there w'cre great 

 collections of material elucidating natural history; but let 

 him tell the honorable Senator that that institution was sus- 

 tained at a very great expense, and yet itafi:brded but a very 



