TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-47. 399 



tory. It is matter of high gratification to my mind that 

 the Government has at last awakened to the importance of 

 the subject, and has found a complete justification, in the 

 hydrographical and topographical necessities of its service 

 by sea and land, for the endowment of so useful an institu- 

 tion. And I am glad, sir, to hear it announced that the 

 distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts finds his laud- 

 able enthusiasm for a noble branch of science fully met and 

 satisfied by the establishment in question. 



I think, Mr. Chairman, if there be anything plain and 

 obvious in reference to the plan to be adopted for the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, it is that no university or college of an 

 ordinary kind would come within the scope of the testator's 

 intentions, or would contribute properly to the end desired. 

 We require something connected with the great practical 

 purposes of life — something in accordance with the progres- 

 sive spirit of the age — something looking immediatel}' to 

 the elevation, improvement, and happiness of the great 

 mass of the people. Sir, it is not to be denied that most of 

 our best institutions of learning are not of this character. 

 They look chiefly to the past, searching for the obscure be- 

 ginnings of knowledge in the dead languages, and in the 

 writings of ancient sages, poets, and philosophers. It is 

 our business to look chiefly to the great future, with its 

 glorious fruits, ready to burst from a teeming soil, warmed 

 and enlightened by the great sun of science, which now dif- 

 fuses its energetic rays into every corner of human afiairs, 

 wherever life, vegetable or animal, and wherever mental or 

 physical power in its ten thousand inventive forms may find 

 a foothold for existence. 



In a letter of Dr. Thomas Cooper, of South Carolina, ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Forsyth, 20th July, 1838, in answer to inqui- 

 ries on the subject of the Smithsonian bequest, that distin- 

 guished gentleman says : 



" I object to all belles lettres and philosophical literature, as calculated 

 only to muke men pleasant talkers. I object to medicine. 



" I object to law. Ethics and politics are as yet unsettled branches of 

 knowledge. 



" I want to see those studies cultivated which, in their known tendencies 

 and results, abridge human labor, and increase and multiply the comforts 

 of existence to the great mass of mankind." 



Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, writes to the Secretary of 

 State on the same subject, on the 6th of November, 1838, 

 and proposes a plan for the institution not greatly dissimilar 

 from that proposed by this bill. I quote this short passage : 



A university or college in the ordinary sense, or any institution looking 

 to primary education, or to the instruction of the young merely, does not 



