598 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



any quarter; the evils are the result of the system. At the 

 same time they do not cast blame or censure of any sort 

 upon those who suggested, and have labored to carry out, 

 that system. The design was, in itself, commendable and 

 elevated. It has, unquestionably, been pursued with zeal, 

 sincerity, integrity, and high motives and aims, but it is, 

 we think, necessarily surrounded with very great difficul- 

 ties. 



There is nothing in our constitutional system that au- 

 thorizes this Government to enter the sphere of literature 

 and science. Education is left to the States. This Govern- 

 ment cannot, Avithout violating the principles on which it 

 rests, become, directly or indirectly, through its official 

 agents or in the expenditure of funds, a censor of any de- 

 partment of the press, an arbiter of science, or a publisher 

 of works of mere literature or philosophy any more than of 

 morals or theology. 



ISTo amount of money that could possibly be raised would 

 enable this Government to perform these functions, with a 

 just, equal, and liberal hand, for the benefit of all depart- 

 ments of knowledge. Of course, it has no right to make 

 discriminations; not only natural history and physical 

 science, but every branch of learning and inquiry has a 

 right to demand patronage, if it is extended to any. What- 

 ever project in this line may be attempted will be found 

 surrounded with insuperable embarrassments. If, for in- 

 stance, the funds of the Smithsonian Institution should be 

 appropriated in the manner proposed in the petition from 

 citizens of Missouri, referred to this committee, for the 

 preparation and distribution of a monthly report of the 

 general progress of knowledge, who shall write those re- 

 ports ? To what school of philosophy'', or medicine, or pol- 

 itics shall he belong? Shall he confine himself, as the 

 Smithsonian Institution has, for the most part, very wisely 

 done, to particular provinces of natural science, to reptiles, 

 defunct species of animals, mathematical and astronomical 

 computations and researches, to aboriginal antiquities and 

 the glossaries of vanishing tribes of Indians, or shall he 

 rise above dead and brute nature, and treat the subject of 

 MAN, of civil society, of government, of politics, and reli- 

 gion ; If he confines himself to the former, not one in tea 

 thousand of the people will be interested or satisfied; if he- 

 attempts the latter, he is on forbidden ground, and cannot 

 escape being torn to pieces by parties, sects, and sections. 



Moving in the most cautious manner, acting within the.- 



