412 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



features — the credit of which belongs to the chairman of 

 the special committee, (Mr. Owen,) by whom the bill was 

 reported. 



In a case where there is room for so great diversity of 

 opinion as in this, there can be no hope of the adoption of 

 any plan not conceived in a spirit of compromise ; and on 

 this, as on another larger question, however widely apart 

 we may be at first, we shall probably find ourselves in the 

 end obliged to settle down upon the parallel of 49°. The 

 bill is reported by the special committee as a compromise, 

 and probably no one of the gentlemen concerned in its 

 preparation is quite satisfied with its provisions ; no one 

 believes it to be the best plan that could be devised ; but 

 they felt the necessity of deferring to each other, as well as 

 to the probable opinion of Congress, and were nearly unan- 

 imous in thinking it more likely to harmonize discordant 

 views than any other plan suggested. It was in this belief, 

 and in consideration of the importance and the duty of 

 early action, that I, as a member of that committee, assented 

 to the report, regarding the scheme, however, not merely 

 as a necessary compromise, but as rather an experiment, 

 which admitted, and which I trusted would hereafter re- 

 ceive, great changes in its conditions, than as a complete 

 working model. 



It has all along been assumed as a cardinal principle, that 

 we ought to follow implicitly the will of the liberal donor, 

 and it has been thought unfortunate that he w^as not more 

 specific in the appropriation of his bounty. But he has 

 given a proof of a generous and enlightened spirit, and at 

 the same time has paid this nation the highest possible com- 

 pliment, by using the largest and most comprehensive lan- 

 guage in his bequest ; thus in effect saying, that he preferred 

 rather to entrust the disposal of this great fund to tlie 

 wisdom and intelligence of a free and enlightened people, 

 than to limit its use to purposes accordant with his own pe- 

 culiar tastes. Some gentlemen have thought, that inasmuch 

 as the testator has not specified the particular mode by 

 which he would have the great ends of his charity accom- 

 plished, we are bound to infer his wishes from the character 

 of his favorite pursuits, and to conform to his supposed 

 views, by confining the fund to the promotion of objects, to 

 the cultivation of which his own time and researches were 

 devoted. But this would be no true conformity to the en- 

 lightened liberality which prompted so munificent a gift. 

 It would be a disparagement to so generous a spirit to 

 imagine, that while saying so much, he meant so little. It 



