406 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



The ninth section was not under consideration, but when 

 it should be, he would move to amend it in the fourth line, 

 by inserting after the word " therein," the following pro- 

 viso : 



" Provided, That such students shall be selected from the different States 

 and Territories of the United States, according to the ratio of representa- 

 tion in Congress." 



He thought five per cent, as high a rate of interest as 

 was proper. He was not willing that his constituents 

 should be saddled with so high a rate of interest as six per 

 cent, for the people must pay it out of their pockets. For 

 a permanent loan, five per cent, was high enough. 



The other amendment which he would propose related to 

 the regulations for the admission of students into the 

 various departments of the institution. He proposed to 

 take the students from the difi:erent States and Territories 

 of the United States, according to their representation in 

 Congress, so that they shall not all be taken from Virginia, 

 Maryland, and this District, as had been the case in regard 

 to all other appointments. Heretofore, nine-tenths of all 

 appointments had been made from this District and the 

 neighboring States. Other States had been blotted out 

 from the vocabulary of appointments. There was a bill 

 before the House to do this, but it was impossible to reach 

 it, obstacles being thrown in the way whenever it was 

 attempted. While we were passing laws for creating more 

 public institutions, it was proper to make a proviso that the 

 persons benefited by it should be taken from QYevy portion 

 of the Union, instead of one locality. With proper modi- 

 fications, he was disposed to vote for this bill. 



Mr. D. P. King had some amendments, he said, to pro- 

 pose to the bill, at a proper time. In establishing an insti- 

 tution like this, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men, there ought undoubtedly to be some arrange- 

 ment for the education of teachers. He would propose 

 that lands and buildings be provided for young men, to 

 enable them to prepare for such an education as will qualify 

 them for usefulness and to teach others. He proposed that 

 persons should be received who, by their labor, would main- 

 tain themselves. He was desirous of promoting the inter- 

 ests of the yeomanry of the country — of cultivating the 

 hand as well as the head and heart ; and he hoped provi- 

 sions for these objects would be made in the bill. He 

 should move to insert in the seventh section, after the word 

 " professors," the words " of agriculture." A very large 

 portion of the people were agriculturists, and it was the 



