PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 903 



'■'■light-houses of the skies." This being the case, all the du- 

 ties prescribed by the Constitution, and coming clearly 

 within the province of Congress, should be left to that body 

 to perform, in its own good time, with the means derived 

 from the public revenues; while the appropriation of a be- 

 quest, like that now under consideration, should be made to 

 some worthy national object, for which the rigid construers 

 of the organic law may dispute the competency of the legis- 

 lature to provide. It is well known that we have a class of 

 statesmen, so called, whose minds are of so subtle and dis- 

 putatious a cast, that no public measure, however valuable 

 and desirable, can receive their support, unless it be ex- 

 pressly provided for in the Constitution, and even then they 

 are always ready and prone to raise objections to any details 

 of a liberal tendency. They have been so thoroughly dis- 

 ciplined in the school of " strict construction," and are so 

 "profoundly skilled in analytic," that, like Sir Hudibras, 

 they can 



" distinguish and divide 



" A hair 'twixt south and southwest side " — 



and no direct proposition can be started, for the generous 

 purpose of improving our moral and intellectual character, 

 as a people, which does not encounter the most inveterate 

 cavilling. Hence it is, that I am for embracing the golden 

 opportunity — which now presents itself divested of all these 

 metaphysical difficulties — to establish at the seat of the 

 General Government an institution for the " increase and 

 diffusion" of a kind of knowledge which is of undoubted 

 advantage, and should be freely communicated, to all men. 

 I mean a liberal and comprehensive knowledge of the mate- 

 rial loorld — a just conception of the productions of nature, 

 and a general acquaintance with the useful works of art. 

 It will scarcely be denied, that an adequate knowledge of 

 this description would benefit every man that lives. It 

 would enable every one — no matter what may be his par- 

 ticular vocation — better to understand and appreciate his 

 position in this complicated scene of action, better to com- 

 prehend the means at his disposal for the promotion of his 

 welfare ; and, moreover, to avail himself, on the easiest 

 possible terms, of the skill and experience which have been 

 slowly and painfully acquired by others. 



In pursuance of this object I would appropriate, in per- 

 petuity, the income of the Smithsonian bequest to the estab- 

 lishment and maintenance of an institution at the city of 

 Washington, the dutj^ and business of which should be to 

 procure from every region of the globe, as opportunity 



