TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 1837-1839. 167 



not MOW 80 strono- Avith us, it is because the want of the means, the 

 want of plain and sure directions for its pursuits, begets a despair of 

 its attainment. The Greek had these means, had these plain and sure 

 directions, and it was the certainty of success by perseverance and by 

 their guide that kindled and sustained his passion and made it his 

 ruling- passion. This passion is now burning in the young bosoms of 

 thousands of our 3'outh; but it is, as I have said, vis consili expei's, and 

 struggles in vain because it struggles blindly for the fame it pants 

 after. Let this Athenian mode of education be adopted in this 

 instance; let it produce but a few examples of eminent success (as I 

 have no doubt it speedily would), and thousands would rush to the 

 path that has led to that success; and members now of this body are 

 yet young enough to live to see a new era arising in our land — another 

 golden age of literature no less splendid than any that had gone 

 before it, not excepting even the Athenian. 



"I know it has been supposed that the Athenians had something- 

 peculiar in their genius which gave to them their unparalleled success. 

 But we have seen that when, with the loss of freedom, they lost their 

 literary glory, they fell back to the ordinary level of mankind, and 

 were not at all distinguished for literary merit from the mass of 

 nations. So it was not nature, but the means adopted to assist and 

 improve nature, that gave to them their preeminence, and their 

 success was but in exact proportion to the perfection and use of those 

 means. 



"I could wish, if all were agreed in it, that this institution should 

 make one of a number of colleges to constitute a university to be estab- 

 lished here, and to ])e endowed in a manner worthy of this great nation 

 and their immense resources. This object, recommended by Washing- 

 ton in one of his early communications to Congress, has not, as it 

 appears to me, received the attention it merits. For such an establish- 

 ment, formed and conducted as it might be, would be attended with 

 great and glorious results to this country, not only by its direct oper- 

 ation in elevating the standard of education, but by forming a central 

 point, a local head to all the learning of the country, such as the most 

 learned nations of Europe have, and from which they derive the great- 

 est advantages. But as opinions are divided upon this subject — not, I 

 should hope, as to the great desirableness of such an establishment, 

 but as to the constitutional competency of Congress to undertake it — 

 I will not embarrass my present object by involving it with that sub- 

 ject. This, as an independent institution, may hereafter be made a 

 part of such a university, should one be established; but it is now to be 

 looked at only as an independent institution. Still I should hope that 

 the liberality of Congress would so far concur with the generosity of 

 this foreign benefactor as to give full effect to his beneficent purpose; 

 and would not only give the grounds convenient for the accommoda- 



