362 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



is that no university or college of an ordinary kind would come within 

 the scope of the testator's intentions, or would contribute properly to 

 the end desired. We require something connected with the great 

 practical purposes of life — something in accordance with the progres- 

 sive spirit of the age — something looking immediately to the eleva- 

 tion, improvement, and happiness of the great mass of the people. 

 Sir, it is not to be denied that most of our best institutions of learning 

 are not of this character. They look chiefly to the past, searching for 

 the obscure ])eginnings of knowledge in the dead languages and in 

 the writings of ancient sages, poets, and philosophers. It is our busi- 

 ness to look chiefl}^ to the great future, with its glorious fruits, ready 

 to burst from a teeming soil, warmed and enlightened by the great 

 sun of science, which now diffuses its energetic rays into every corner 

 of human affairs, wherever life, vegetable or animal, and wherever 

 mental or physical power in its ten thousand inventive forms may find 

 a foothold for existence. 



In a letter of Dr. Thomas Cooper, of South Carolina, addressed to 

 Mr. Forsyth, July 20, 1838, in answer to inquiries on the subject of 

 the Smithsonian bequest, that distinguished gentleman says: 



I object to all belles-lettres and philosophical literature, as calculated only to make 

 men pleasant talkers. I object to medicine. 



I object to law. Ethics and politics are as yet unsettled branches of knowledge. 



I want to see those studies cultivated which, in their known tendencies and 

 results, abridge human labor and increase and multiply the comforts of existence to 

 the great mass of mankind. 



Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, writes to the Secretary of State on 

 the same subject on the 6th of November, 1838, and proposes a plan 

 for the institution not greatly dissimilar from that proposed by this 

 bill. I quote this short passage: 



A university or college in the ordinary sense, or any institution looking to j^rimary 

 education, or to the instruction of the yomig merely, does not strike me as the kind 

 of institution contemplated by Mr. Smithson's will; declaring it in language simple 

 yet of the widest import to be " for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men," and making the United States the trustee of its intentions, it seems to follow 

 that it ought to be as comprehensive as possible in its objects and means, as it must 

 necessarily be national in its government. 



These letters are to be found in the report of Mr. Adams to this 

 House in 1842. The passage quoted seems to mo to be highly judicious, 

 and correctly descriptive of the true character of the institution 

 required. And I think, sir, the bill under consideration conforms in 

 its provisions to the general views expressed in these passages and 

 to those which I entertain. All the labors of the Institution will be 

 directed to the more useful sciences and arts, and its advantages must 

 necessarily be eminently practical and popular. These are the great 

 leading considerations, which should commend this bill to the favor of 

 the House and of the country. 



