382 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



end, had he desired merely to found a library, it is reason- 

 able to suppose he would have said so. 



The bill, as reported to the House, has been framed in 

 that spirit of compromise so necessary in this world of a 

 thousand opinions. The importance of the chief objects at 

 which it aims will be conceded by all — the advancement of 

 agriculture, the improvement of primary education, and the 

 prosecution of scientific research. And if even, in its prac- 

 tical effects, the plan fall short of the anticipations of its 

 friends, suffer me to ask you, what is the alternative in the 

 Senate bill of last year, the only one that has yet found 

 favor enough to succeed in either branch ? Beyond the 

 library scheme and the professorship of agriculture, (a feature 

 equally in that bill and this,) what is proposed ? Public 

 lectures, to be delivered in this city " during the sessions 

 of Congress." "Who is to profit by these lectures? Let 

 the author of the plan answer : 



"Who would their audiences be? Members of Congress, with their 

 families ; members of the Government, with theirs, some inhabitants of 

 the city, some few strangers, who occasionally honor us with visits of curi- 

 osity or business. They would bo public men, of mature years and minds ; 

 educated, disciplined, to some degree; of liberal curiosity, and apprecia- 

 tion of generous and various knowledge." — Speech of Senator Choate as 

 above. 



Here is a plan for gratuitous lectures to be delivered to 

 members of Congress and of the Government, with their 

 families; to some citizens of Washington, and a few pass- 

 ing strangers; to men — so it is expressed — educated, dis- 

 ciplined ; already capable of " appreciating generous and 

 various knowledge." And this, as the mode the most 

 effectual, the most comprehensive, the most just and equal, 

 to increase and diffuse knowledge among men ! We are to 

 pass by all plans that may reach and benefit the people, by 

 improving their education and elevating the character of 

 their teachers; all proposals, even, to scatter broadcast 

 among them useful tracts, popular treatises ; all projects, 

 in short, to distribute among them the bread and water of 

 intellectual life wherever these are craved ; and we are to 

 adopt, in their stead, a course of lectures expressly restricted 

 to the sessions of Congress, expressly prepared for ourselves 

 and for a few Government officers and strangers ; a course 

 of lectures to be especially adapted to an audience already 

 favored by fortune and education — already, as we are com- 

 placently told, of mature minds and above all need of 

 elementary instruction ! 



Sir, over the entire land must the rills from this sacred 

 fountain freely flow ; not to be arrested and walled up here, 



