PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON's BEQUEST. 925 



which is better than millions, by cultivating the national 

 taste and conducing to the advancement of the fine arts. 



Preservation of our Free Institutions. — Another benefit 

 would touch the vital interests of the country — the very 

 existence of its free institutions. If practical science would 

 enrich it, sound political knowledge would tend to the pre- 

 servation of its liberties. That political volume, destined 

 to be read by the masses, like the book of judgment to the 

 evil-doer, would have terrors for the faithless ruler. Let it 

 pay its annual visit to the work-shop and farm-house, and 

 in the process of a few years it would confer upon the hon- 

 est labor no slight pretensions to statesmanship. It would 

 put an end to the reign of party despotism. It would crip- 

 ple the power of a mendacious press to mislead and deceive 

 the people. It would render the demagogue as impotent as 

 he is base. It would bring honest patriots to a substantial 

 agreement; and the great and the good would again sit in 

 the seats of power. We might, by God's help, even retrace 

 our steps from the fathomless gulf of foreign dictation, mob 

 violence, Jacobinic misrule, and the ultimate despotism, 

 upon which we are now advancing. 



On the whole, we may affirm, I think, that the publication 

 of these two serials would accomplish the object of Mr. 

 Smithson. Instead of packing away five hundred thousand 

 volumes in Washington city, in twenty-five years, it would 

 put ten times that number of volumes into the hands of the people 

 themselves. They would be "read, marked, learned, and 

 inwardly digested." They would immediately and bene- 

 ficially aft'ect the character and interests of the citizen, and 

 the safety of the country. They would be beautiful monu- 

 ments to the memory of the philanthropist, whose honored 

 name should stand upon every tiile-page, seen and read of 

 all men. This spring of benefits to mankind would not dry 

 up while the Government remained true to its trust, but flow 

 on, widening from age to age; and many a great and pros- 

 perous family in future times would be able most truly to 

 affirm that God and James Smithson had made them so. 



Answer to Objections. — There are few things so good that 

 men may not find objections to them; and the best projects 

 fare as ill in this respect as the worst. Objections will be 

 started to the present plan. Let us imagine wdiat they may 

 be, and ascertain their solidity. 



Since the funds are provided without drawing upon the 

 Treasury, the objection will not probably be pressed any 

 farther that legislation in the premises is unconstitutional. 



