THIRTIETH CONGRESS, 1847-49. 497 



in the name of common sense, would not a committee, by 

 their investigation, convince the House and the country 

 that his objections were not not well founded, if such was 

 the fact ? Would not such investigation put the institution 

 and the regents on a better, a more enduring foundation ? 

 Then let them have a committee. If the institution was 

 right — if the Regents were carrying out the design of James 

 Smithson, let it be ascertained by the committee, and be 

 published to the House and the country. 



Mr. HiLLiARD resumed. The gentleman now said he had 

 no hostility to the institution. And how did he prove it? 

 Why, he said they had put a fictitious sum into the Treas- 

 ury, and therefore he would repeal the law, and replace the 

 money in the Treasury. It was well known that this Gov- 

 ernment had received the fund from the trustees of James 

 Smithson as a sacred trust. The Government had thought 

 proper to loan the money to the State of Arkansas, he be- 

 lieved ; the money had been squandered ; and now the 

 gentleman from Tennessee was opposed to the use of a sin- 

 gle dollar by the Smithsonian Institution, until the State of 

 Arkansas was made to refund the money ! Was he not 

 opposed to the institution ? and was not the very object of 

 his motion to uproot the whole establishment, on the ground 

 that the Government had loaned the money to the State of 

 Arkansas, and that it had never been returned ? By every 

 moral, by every equitable consideration, the Government 

 having loaned and lost the money, was bound to make good 

 the trust. Therefore, when the Government had thought 

 proper to make the establishment, it had authorized the 

 Regents in proper form to draw the money bequeathed by 

 James Smithson. It was in this way that the money had 

 been taken. And because they had thought proper to 

 make a judicious use of it from time to time, they were ar- 

 raigned by the gentleman as having squandered the funds. 

 Let him agree to have the report published, and he would 

 find that it gave a full account of what they had done. 



I3u.t the gentleman had said it was a crisis. It had been 

 a long crisis. Thank Heaven the crisis to which the gen- 

 tleman referred had passed away. The gentleman's allusion 

 to the war reminded him of the apology always oft'ered by 

 the steward in the Bride of Lammermoor, who always 

 accounted for the absence of articles of luxury about the 

 castle of his master, on the ground that there had been a 

 great fire there ; and now the gentleman would put down 

 every appropriation, whether for new objects, or to maintain 

 a great existing establishment, by the cry, " the war, the 

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