492 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



report them to the country. A^arious complaints had been 

 made as to the expenditure of the money, the structure of 

 the building, and the material of which it was composed. 

 Were gentleman willing to exclude all those facts which it 

 was requisite should be known in order to arrive at correct 

 conclusions, and intelligently to direct the future operations 

 of the Institution ? If all was going on well, if the build- 

 ing was properly constructed, and the money had been 

 properly expended, let the country understand it. He 

 trusted that the House would adopt his proposition, and 

 that a committee would be appointed. 



Mr. McClelland, of Mich., said that he was not opposed 

 to the appointment of the committee contemplated by the 

 amendment of the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. John- 

 son.] At the same time, if he had no other reasons than those 

 which had been assigned by the gentleman from Tennessee, 

 he (Mr. McClelland) should be radically opposed to such an 

 appointment. Reports had been sent in by the Board of 

 Regents that were very full and ample in regard to all the 

 facts that the people throughout the country could desire to 

 know concerning this institution. One very full report of 

 all facts touching the institution had been laid before the 

 House at the last session of Congress. The House had 

 refused to print it. That report, his friend from Tennessee 

 (Mr. Johnson) would find, had set forth, in a simple and 

 lucid manner, everything connected with the institution 

 since its organization — everything that had been done 

 under the law passed by Congress down to that time. He, 

 (Mr. McClelland,) for one, as a member of the Board of 

 Regents, would say, that it was not afraid of any investiga- 

 tion by a committee of this House or otherwise. Ho would 

 go as far as anj* reasonable man in favor of economy and 

 retrenchment; and he would say that the Board of Regents, 

 so far as his knowledge extended, had acted upon both 

 these principles in every step they had taken. He was 

 astonished, on entering upon his official duties, to find that 

 almost every report which had been put in circulation in 

 regard to the institution was entirely false and groundless. 

 He hoped that every gentleman here, w^ho was a friend to 

 the institution, would permit a committee to be appointed, 

 and that it might be composed of members who were radi- 

 cally opposed to the institution, so that no barrier should be 

 interposed to the most rigorous and searching scrutiny. 

 And (continued Mr. McClelland) if that committee shall give 

 to the country such a report as I know they will give, (for 

 none other can they make,) the effect will be to raise the 



