376 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



consider this the most \aluable feature of the plan, though I think the 

 amount unwisely restricted; and I shall confine the few observations I 

 design to submit respecting the bill chiefly to the consideration of this 

 single provision. I had originally purposed to examine the subject 

 from quite a different point of view, but the eloquent remarks of the 

 chairman of th(^ special committee [Mr. Owen], which seem to be 

 intended as an argument rather against this provision than in favor of 

 the bill, and as a repl}^ to the able and brilliant speech of a distin- 

 guished member of another branch of Congress upon a former occasion 

 [Mr. Choate], has induced me to take a somewhat narrower range than 

 I should otherwise have done. I wish, sir, that Senator were here to 

 rejoin, in his own proper person, to the beautiful speech of the gentle- 

 man from Indiana, who seems rather to admire the rhetoric than to 

 be convinced by the logic of the eloquent orator to whom 1 refer. In 

 that case, sir, I think my friend from Indiana, trenchant as are his 

 own weapons, would feel as man}^ have felt before, that the polished 

 blade of the gentleman who lately did such honor to Massachusetts in 

 the Senate of the United States, is not the less keen, because, like 

 Harmodius and Aristogiton, he wraps it in sprays of myrtle. 



It has been objected by some, that the appropriation is too large for 

 the purpose expressed — "the gradual formation of a library composed 

 of valuable works pertaining to all departments of human knowledge." 

 But if we consider how much is embraced in these comprehensive 

 words, we shall arrive at a very different conclusion. The great libra- 

 ries of Europe range from 200,000 to 500,000, or perhaps even 750,000 

 volumes. That of the University of Gottingen, the most useful of all 

 for the purposes of general scholarship, contains about 300,000. How 

 long would it require to collect a library like this, with an annual 

 expenditure of $10,000. The Library of Congress is said to have cost 

 about $3.50 per volume; but as a whole it has not been economically 

 purchased, and though composed chiefly of works which do not main- 

 tain a permanently high price, yet as a large proportion of the annual 

 purchases consists of new books from the press of London, the dearest 

 book market in the world, its cost has been much higher than that of 

 a great miscellaneous library ought to be. The best public library 

 in America for its extent (10,000 volumes), which I am happy to say is 

 that of the university of my native State, Vermont, costs but $1.50 

 per volume. It can hardly be expected that the Government, which 

 always pays the highest price, will be so favorably dealt with; and it is 

 scarcel}^ to be hoped that it will succeed in securing the services of so 

 faithful and so competent an agent as was employed by the University 

 of Vermont. 



I have myself been, unfortunately for my purse, a book buyer, and 

 have had occasion to procure books not only in this countr}^ but from 

 all the principal book marts in Western Europe. Erom my own expe- 



