TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-47. 385 



written for the masses, reaching the masses ; and awaking, 

 far and wide, a consciousness of deficiency, a spirit of in- 

 quiry, a desire to know more. 



The people govern in America. Ere long, the people 

 will govern throughout the habitable earth. And they are 

 coming into power in an age when questions of mighty 

 import rise up for their decision. They who govern should 

 be wise. They who govern should be educated. They 

 who decide mighty questions should be enlightened. Then, 

 as we value wise government, as we would have the desti- 

 nies of our kind shaped by an enlightened tribunal, let the 

 schools of the peoj^le, and the teachers who preside in these 

 schools, and the system that prevails in these schools, be 

 our peculiar care. 



We cannot reform the world, no, nor provide instruction 

 for a great nation, by any direction given to half a million 

 of dollars. But something, even in such a cause, may be 

 effected by it — something, I devoutly believe, that shall be 

 felt all over our broad land. The essential is, that, if little 

 we can do, that little be well done — be done faithfully, in 

 the spirit of the trust, in the spirit of the age — in a spirit 

 not restrictive, not exclusive, but diffusive, universal. 



Mr. Jones modified his motion as follows: 



Strike out all the bill after the word "be" in the sixth 

 line of the first section, and insert — 



" Paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the heirs-at-law or next of 

 kin of the said James Smithson, or their authorized agents, whenever they 

 shall demand the same : Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury 

 shall, in paying over said money as herein directed, deliver to said heirs all 

 State bonds or other stocks of every kind which have been purchased with 

 said money, or any part thereof, in lieu of so much of said money as shall 

 have been so invested in State bonds or other stocks. And the balance of 

 said sum of money, if any, not so invested, shall be paid out of any money 

 in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated." 



Mr. G, W. Jones said it was not his purpose to make a 

 speech on this occasion ; but believing, as he did, that this 

 whole matter was wrong ; that this Government, in the 

 first instance, had no right and no power to accept of this 

 trust fund, he was in favor of returning the amount of the 

 money or of the stocks in which that money has been in- 

 vested, to the heirs-at-law or next of kin of the late Mr. 

 Smithson, whenever they shall make the demand of the 

 Government. He admitted the right of the Government 

 "to borrow money" under the constitution, but denied 

 that it had any particle of power to deal in stocks or to 

 loan money. We had no power either to receive this 

 money in the first instance, or to invest it in State stocks 

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