338 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



committee attached great importance to it — he (Mr. C.) had 

 given it his most anxious attention. It was the only part of 

 the original hill to which much consideration was not given 

 in the tirst instance. Since its recommittal the committee 

 had had repeated conferences on this point, and the result 

 has been that the plan laid down in the bill was unani- 

 mously adopted as a happy embodiment of the main princi- 

 ples of all former propositions, the difference of opinion in 

 regard to which had heretofore impeded the action of Con- 

 gress as to the disposition of the fund. ' He was prepared 

 now to say, that unless there was some more palpable 

 objection than had yet been made to the plan laid down in 

 the bill, the support which it would insure could not fail of 

 rendering the measure successful this session. 



It might be necessary to say a word or two respecting the 

 course pursued by the committee in making this arrange- 

 ment. They went back to the records of all proceedings in 

 Congress since the reception of the bequest, to ascertain the 

 number and character of the various propositions suggested 

 for its disposition ; and having collected them all, the com- 

 mittee conceived they could not be mistaken in combining 

 from the whole such general principles as would unite the 

 greatest number of friends to the main object. Now he 

 felt bound to say, that in this the committee had succeeded 

 beyond his most sanguine expectations. They had not, as 

 the Senator from New Hampshire seemed to suppose, made 

 a complex, expensive, or impracticable, plan of machinery 

 for the management of the institution ; but, on the contrary, 

 one pre-eminently likely to work well — economically, effi- 

 ciently, and practically considered. 



On reviewing all former propositions, the committee 

 found that there were two or three things in which a large 

 majority concurred — such as, that the Vice-President and 

 Chief Justice of the United States should be, ex officio, 

 members of the board, and that they should have associated 

 with them one or two respectable resident members of the 

 National Institute. It was found, also, that a suggestion 

 came from Mr. Robbins of Rhode Island, that three mem- 

 bers of the Senate and three of the House of Representa- 

 tives should be made members of the board. Thus the 

 committee had united whatever there was to recommend 

 this proposition to those whose differences of opinion had 

 heretofore impeded the action of Congress. They took for 

 the ex officio members of the board the Vice-President and 

 the Chief Justice of the United States. There could be no 

 difficulty as to their appointment, for they are already 



