EULOGY. 215 



confidence in, the discretion and integrity of its Secretary, were as conspicuous 

 as they were productive of the most lasting and important benefits. And though 

 it is true that the general form and policy of the Institution were determined 

 under the authority of Congress, by its first Board of Regents, yet it is quite as 

 certain that strenuous action was afterwards needed to maintain it in its adopted 

 course, and secure it from projected innovations which, though strenuously 

 advocated at the time, few now regard with aught but disfavor. To this end no 

 one lent more effectual aid than our lamented colleague. Although, from taste 

 and the conditions of his active life, he might more properly be styled a li'erary 

 man, yet were his scientific attainments by no means inconsiderable, and a liberal 

 and cultivated mind, which admitted of no narrow views, enabled him to em- 

 brace, in all its comprehensive simplicity, the idea of the generous foreigner 

 who, in founding this Institution, consecrated his fortune to "the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men." 



In whatever Mr. Pearce engaged he exhibited the same spirit. Marked as a 

 leader from his boyhood, at school as at college, in his profession as in the 

 councils of the nation, in his neighborhood, his. State, his country, as well as in 

 the church to which he had dedicated his faith, he stood distinguished for an 

 enlightened estimate and an efficient support of whatever is elevated and calcu- 

 lated to elevate. To him the work of construction was ever far more congenial 

 than that of demolition ; to improve and preserve was au instinct, to confound 

 and destroy, an innate aversion of, his nature. Refined in his tastes, brilliant in 

 society, instructive from the affluence of his ideas and extent of information, 

 without ostentation as without pretension, social, genial, even playful among his 

 intimates — such was the associate whom we must long mourn, feeling that at 

 the council board as in the famiiiar and friendly circle, we have lost one who 

 strengthened us in our adhesion to what is right, good, or true, while ever prompt 

 to lead us wherever progress held out rational hopes of improvement. 



Generally, men of the temperament we have described are impatient of details ; 

 but this was not at all so with our departed friend. It afforded him pleasure to 

 systematize and reduce to order even the dry details of finance, and a wonderful 

 memory and a quick perception enabled him to pass them in rapid review with 

 a scrutiny of every particular. His mental vision was as minute as compre- 

 hensive, and his analytical faculty never dismissed a subject of investigation 

 until he was thoroughly satisfied with the arrangement, the method, the results : 

 in a word, he was content with little less than the perfection of whatever occu- 

 pied his attention or claimed his solicitde. 



The objects which in Congress occupied most of his attention, and which it 

 gave him most pleasure to defend and sustain, were those connected with litera- 

 ture and science, and in these he showed the same qualities which as chairman 

 of our executive committee he has here so often exhibited. With the great 

 interests of state and the high objects of national politics he was abundantly quali- 

 fied to grapple ; in fact, he shrunk from no occasion in which to exert himself when 

 enlarged views and skilful powers of debate could be rendered serviceable to his 

 country or the world. But if duty called upon him from time to time for such 

 efforts, still it was to objects promotive of art and science and high civilization, 

 to means for man's moral and intellectual improvement, and for the enlargement 

 of his knowledge and power over nature, that he turned Avith ever new and un- 

 wearied interest. To him probably more than to any other senator the library 

 of Congress was indebted for the augmented fund which it has now for some 

 years enjoyed, and for the care taken in the selection of the materials which 

 render its shelves so useful. The exploring expedition was more than once 

 indebted to his earnest and persistent efforts for the continuance of the means 

 of publication of its results ; the Coast Survey for expositions of its importance 

 to the country and the world ; the Smithsonian for warding orf assaults, and 

 reconciling enthusiastic but misguided opposition ; the naval and military expe- 



