432 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



had formerly been librarian of Congress, in conversation) 

 with him, had said that he thought it was impracticable to 

 purchase, with advantage, more than ten thousand dollars' 

 worth of books. The duty must be intrusted to one agent, 

 to prevent the purchase of duplicates ; and no one agent 

 could purchase advantageously more than this amount ; so 

 that there was a practical difficulty in the way. 



In relation to the course suggested by the gentleman from 

 Louisiana, [Mr. Morse,] the same plan had occurred to 

 Doctor Cooper, of South Carolina, but had been rejected 

 by him. [Mr. Owen here read an extract in support of 

 this assertion.] 



As to a cheap publication branch, he would remind the 

 committee that we already had one. In looking over the 

 periodicals of the day, it did not appear that the prize 

 essays were the best ; the voluntary essays seemed to be so. 

 "We should find plenty of treatises of a most useful char- 

 acter, without paying a dollar for them. The mere gratifi- 

 cation of having them published would be inducement 

 sufficient to enable us to obtain them. 



The gentleman said that there should be no laboratory ; 

 that it was not the design of Mr. Smithson. The fact that 

 Mr. Smithson spent half of his life in a laboratory seemed 

 to refute this objection. 



There was little in the bill of an imperative cliaracter in 

 relation to all these various 'branches. Its phraseology was 

 " may." If, therefore, it was discovered that one branch 

 would be more beneficial than another, there was the power 

 to adopt it. There was nothing at all binding about it. 



Mr. Chipman spoke urgently in opposition to the bill. 

 His first reason for voting (as he said he intended to do) 

 was based on a fact that was irrevocable — namely, that this 

 Government, great and powerful as it was — prospering and 

 progressing as it was in original native intellect, fostered 

 by institutions known to no other country, and no other 

 people — should have consented to be the recipient of what 

 was called here a munificent donation of half a million 

 from an Englishman to enlightened American republicans 

 in this country. How did it happen that this Government 

 accepted such a boon from a foreigner — an Englishman, 

 too. He looked upon it as a stain on the history of the 

 country, as an insult to the American nation. He wished 

 this Government to wash its hands of all such eleemosynary 

 dealings. There was a native stock in this country, intel- 

 lectual and physical, that needed no foreign aid, and he 

 trusted in God it would not condescend to receive any. 



