450 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



lutely declaring that $800,000 was now in the Treasury of the 

 United States, the interest of which, being about -^33,000, 

 more than this bill applied, was to be appropriated. 



He alluded to the objection of Mr. Ficklin, that we should 

 doubtless appropriate hundreds of thousands more than this 

 sura, if we now began ; and said, in the unwillingness of 

 members to appropriate even the interest, there was no very 

 great reason to imagine that they would be so ready to ap- 

 propriate a larger sum, not included in this amount at all, 

 over which the institution has no right and with which no 

 connection. 



He w^as no lawyer, and would not argue the case techni- 

 cally ; but he would say, if there be any means of lowering 

 our national character over the whole civilized world (and 

 with so small a gain to the Government) more eifectually 

 than this, he did not know what it was. He held in regard 

 to public and private morals there is no difference. The 

 interest that had accrued on this sum was about $242,000, 

 (about one-half of which had been paid,) or about one-hun- 

 dredth part of the annual expenditures and receipts of the 

 Government ; and, in addition to this, w'e had some ten or 

 twelve thousand dollars surplus in the Treasury. And still 

 we claimed that we were relieved of the obligation for this 

 money, because we had invested it in stocks, the interest 

 of which was not paid. It was like a man with an annual 

 income of $2,000, and in addition having (say) $1,000 de- 

 posited in bank, who had loaned to a wayward or unfortu- 

 nate son $20, (one hundredth part of his income,) which he 

 had received in trust for a friend ; and who, one-half of it 

 having been paid, when called upon for the return of that 

 trust, should refuse it on the ground that one-half of the 

 sum had not been paid by his son, to whom, as trustee of 

 the fund, he had loaned it ! No one would hesitate to say 

 that, as a matter of common justice and honesty, he should 

 pay this small amount, even if the son nev^er i^aid it to him. 

 And what we ought to do as individuals, we gught also to 

 do as public men. 



He would not follow the gentleman from Massachusetts 

 through the whole course of his remarks. He believed the 

 gentleman admitted that the Government was ultimately 

 responsible for the application of this fund according to the 

 intention of the testator. If it did happen (which was not 

 probable, for he did not doubt her) that Arkansas did not at 

 some future period pay the interest, we should be called 

 upon to pay it from the Treasury, according to the gentle- 

 man from Massachusetts. Now, he wanted to know what 



