180 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



necessity for a corporation for the purpose of administering- the means 

 of effecting the object proposed. I do not know as it ought to be the 

 basis of a great national institution, but we may incorporate it with a 

 view to insure the benefits contemplated; and, in order to effect that, 

 it is a question whether you will refer the subject to a committee who 

 may present plans to Congress to carry the purpose into execution, or 

 whether you will trust it with a commission, who, in the meantime, 

 may have power over the fund and at a future period may present to 

 Congress such a plan for its administration as they may think best. 

 The object of the bill introduced b}^ the Senator from Rhode Island is, 

 inasmuch as the business can not be managed by a standing committee 

 during the recess of Congress, to establish a board of trustees for this 

 purpose; and the sole object of the bill is to establish such a board of 

 trustees over the fund, who shall also prepare and present to Congress, 

 at its next session, or at some future period when it shall be prepared, 

 a plan for such an incorporation ; and that is all that the bill proposes. 



Mr. Wright. I understood and I meant to say that this bill involves 

 none of the great principles that have been brought into this discus- 

 sion, but simply provides for preparing a charter. But I find I was 

 mistaken. The scope of the bill is larger than I supposed. I would 

 now say nothing about these great principles, but about the bill itself; 

 and I would suggest the propriety of now passing a bill not involv- 

 ing any great question of principle. I find the bill provides for a 

 commission of nine persons, who are to have charge of the fund; 

 and, further, these nine are to constitute a component part of any 

 incorporation hereafter established for the institution. All this goes 

 materially farther than I had supposed. What necessity is there for 

 appointing these nine trustees now? This fund is to be invested under 

 the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. For what valuable 

 purpose, then, are we to hang this machinery on this great donation? 

 Is it for no other purpose than to constitute nine men the draftsmen 

 of an act of incorporation? And, in the meantime, shall we con- 

 fer on these nine persons very extensive powers? It is provided by 

 the bill that they shall have the management of the fund, under such 

 regulations and restrictions as Congress shall from time to time pre- 

 scribe. But these nine are also to be officers of the corporation when- 

 ever its officers are appointed. But are they to be such officers under 

 the Constitution of the United States? If they are to be so, it is a 

 perfectly new mode of appointment, and one the pertinency or 

 propriety of which I am unable to discover. Three of them are to 

 be chosen by the Senate annually, three by the House of Representa- 

 tives annually, and the other three by the President annuall3^ 



And if this, as we are told, is to be an institution for the District 

 of Columbia, or an ordinary college, why is this machinery necessary? 



