TWENTY-NINTH CONGEESS, 1845-1847. 403 



Let us take this money which the Government had taken and, if gen- 

 tlemen pleased, had squandered; let us honestly appropriate it and 

 expend it as was designed. 



He represented a constituency who would be among the last in the 

 world to withhold a fair and honest expenditure of the public money 

 because the Government representing the people had misapplied it. 

 He had no fear of a constituency worthy to be represented here for 

 doing what was honest on behalf of the Government and reputable on 

 behalf of themselves. We had had the gold, as we had been informed. 

 It had been placed in the public Treasury. It had not been wasted by 

 accident. It had been applied under the deliberate action of the Gov- 

 ernment. The Government held the bonds. It might at some future 

 day receive the money for them, but he did not believe in the pro- 

 priety of waiting until by "moral suasion," or any other kind of per- 

 suasion, the money was to be recovered from that improvident loan. 

 He was ready to vote for the bill, in which, so far as he understood 

 it, he could discover no objectionable features. It had been digested 

 and arranged by a committee as competent in point of learning, judg- 

 ment, and capacity as could be found in this or any other countr3^ 

 Some confidence must be placed in their recommendations, otherwise 

 no action ever could be had on the subject. If the plan had defects, 

 time would develop them, and the proper remedy could be applied. 



Mr. O. B. FiCKLiN opposed the bill. He thought, however, that 

 the good faith of the Government required that this money should be 

 considered as being in the Treasury, and that we could not excuse 

 ourselves by saying that the fund had been loaned out to the States 

 and could not now be realized. 



The objections which he entertained to the bill applied to all its sec- 

 tions; but to the first his objection was radical. He alluded to the 

 connection to be established between this Institution and the Treasury 

 of the United States. A million of dollars would be required to meet 

 the deficiency in this Smithsonian bequest. 



He was willing to expend the money for a library, or in carrying 

 out the propositions of a substitute bill which he had prepared — in 

 building a house and providing a library, and for scientific apparatus. 

 He was in favor of any S3^stem or plan by which the fund could be 

 disconnected from the Treasury of the United States. 



Mr. Owen desired to inquire whether the gentleman proposed to 

 appropriate the principal or the interest only. 



Mr. FiCKLiN said he was willing that the gentleman and others who 

 were the peculiar friends of the bill should take their own course in 

 that respect. He (Mr, Ficklin) was willing to apply the whole of the 

 principal or a part of it to keep up whatever institution might be 

 adopted; or he was willing that the sum of $500,000 should be loaned 

 to some natural or artificial person, and that the interest alone should 



