390 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



port for the beneficent establishment which may be created 

 by the bill. 



Besides, sir, during this long period of delay, many plans 

 have been suggested and discussed, some learned reports 

 have been made in this House and in the Senate, and the 

 public attention has been so engaged upon this interesting 

 subject, that we are now doubtless prepared to dispose of it 

 intelligently, and in a manner which will fully meet the 

 high and liberal purposes of Mr. Smithson. There is no 

 longer any justification for delay. Everything is ready, 

 awaiting our action, and the wise and benevolent in all 

 quarters are anxiously expecting us to perform our solemn 

 duty in reference to this noble bequest. 



But there is, at this peculiar juncture in our affairs, still 

 another consideration strongly appealing to the national 

 honor, and urging the immediate disposition of the fund, 

 according to the will of the donor. James Smithson was 

 an Englishman. Yet he passed by his own powerful and 

 splendid Government — one which has never failed or refused 

 to contribute liberally to the cause of science — and selected 

 our plainer and simpler institutions as the more appropriate 

 depository of the sacred trust to which he devoted the 

 whole of his large fortune. Our relations with England at 

 the present moment, are thought to be very critical. I do 

 not anticipate v\^ar. I have little fear, that two enlightened 

 nations, whose interests are deeply involved in the mainten- 

 ance of peace, will, in the nineteenth century, rush into a 

 sanguinary and destructive war, even upon so grave a ques- 

 tion as that which now disturbs them. Yet, there are 

 many who look upon the present crisis with more serious 

 fears ; and all must acknowledge that war is possible — that 

 very slight mismanagement, on either side, might lead to 

 that disastrous end. Now, if war should take place, it 

 would be most dishonorable to our Government, that a 

 large fund, given by a benevolent foreigner to found an in- 

 stitution of the most peaceful and beneficent character, 

 should remain in the Treasury and be used to carry on war 

 against the very nation from whom the charitable gift was 

 received. I hope, sir, we shall avoid the possibility of such 

 humiliation, by adopting the measure before us without 

 delay. Should we fail to do so, and hostilities occur, the 

 omission will never cease to be the fruitful source and occa- 

 sion of those bitter attacks upon our honesty and the moral 

 tendency of our institutions, which have long filled the 

 pages of English periodicals, and the journals" of English 

 travelers. Their denunciations, then, would have a much 



