546 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



who has written this letter has chosen to challenge opinion 

 here. 



Now, sir, what has been done? A regent of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, who has been connected with it, I be- 

 lieve, from the foundation of the institution, occasionally as 

 a member of this bod}', chosen a regent by the vote of the 

 Senate, and occasionally as a citizen at large, clothed with 

 the high honor (for it is a very high honor) of an adminis- 

 trator of this trust, has declined further service; and has 

 assigned, as one of the reasons, and as this paper alleges 

 the dominant reason for declining it, that he does not agree 

 with his associates in their mode of administration. I do 

 not feel at liberty to say that such a course of conduct would 

 not be expected of one so honored, because the gentleman 

 who wrote the letter is absent; but I should say that, ac- 

 cording to my ideas of wiiat is due to the trust, if he be- 

 lieved there was mal-administration, it was the very last 

 occasion when he should have resigned; he should have 

 remained there in order that the inquiry which he has pro- 

 voked might be conducted in his presence, and, to some 

 extent, under his guidance. 



But, sir, he has resigned the trust, and, in doing so, he 

 has shot a Parthian arrow at those who were associated 

 with him. What is the character of his letter? None can 

 read without being struck with its tone, which was so justly 

 animadverted upon by my co-regent, the honorable Senator 

 who has just addressed you. I have been accustomed, Mr. 

 President, to find, in that profession to which I belong, and 

 of which I am a very humble member, that, whether at the 

 bar or on the bench, the surest, the soundest, and the ablest 

 intellect, gives its judgment with diffidence, courtesy, and 

 respect for the opinions of others. I have generally found, 

 too, in my experience of the world, that the soundest judg- 

 ment is the judgment which is accompanied by such diffi- 

 dence. Now, what is the tone of this communication? The 

 confident tone of Sir Oracle — of one whose judgment can- 

 not be impugned, and should not be questioned. "/ can- 

 not be wrong," says the writer of this paper, in substance, 

 "let others vindicate their judgment if they can," That is 

 what he says, and he has assigned, as the startling reason 

 for resigning this trust, that he differed from his associates 

 in the construction of an act of Congress; there is no im- 

 propriety even hinted in the conduct of his associate regents; 

 but he rests it exclusively on the ground that they have 

 misinterpreted the law which created the trust, and there 



