108 PROCEEDINGS OF [Sept. 



Rienta or people. But Ihe history of speculations and discoveries ought to convince 

 us that almost every investigation of this description, however unpromising at first, 

 has been attended with some beneficial result to the human family. Every Ameri- 

 can, therefore, who has the welfare of his country at heart, to say nothing of its 

 reputation abroad, which is, in truth, one of its greatest resources, must have seen 

 with the highest satisfaction the determination of the General Government to ex- 

 tend its patronage, by all the means it can command, to these truly noble objects. 

 Of this liberal spirit the country has had an eminent example in the Exploring Ex- 

 pedition, which was litled out three years ago, and is still pursuing its honorable 

 career in various quarters of the globe, the known boundaries of which, indeed, it 

 has enlarged by adding the discovery of new and vast regions hitherto unexplored. 



The large collections already sent home by this active squadron, and which are 

 now in the process of arrangement at Washington, lay us under no small obliga- 

 tions to the authors of tliis national enterprise, and to the individuals upon whose 

 talents the nation relics for its complete execution. But, valuable as the fruits of 

 it already are, we may justly anticipate many further useful results from the re- 

 searches which are to be expected with the return of the Expedition. 



In the mean time, it is to be hoped that their collections of Natural History now 

 in our possession will not have lost any of their value by having remained too long 

 m the damp and unsuitable situation in which they were necessarily placed on their 

 first arrival, and where they still were in June last, when I was obligingly permit- 

 ted to view them with you. This subject, indeed, as you then informed me, had 

 not been overlooked by the distinguished individual at the head of the Department 

 of State, who, as I now find by the late public papers, has readily given the neces- 

 sary orders to secure the most ample and proper accommodations for this large and 

 valuable public property. 



In reviewing the several departments of science allotted to the eight cla.ssea 

 above mentioned, I do not find any place expressly appropriated to the Moral and 

 Political Sciences, though I must suppose they were intended to be included under 

 some one of those classes. But does not their importance, particularly in this free 

 country, entitle them to a distinct and honorable place among the others? In no 

 department of science could our country furnish a greater number of intelligent 

 and efficient fellow-laborers, nor a greater amount of useflil practical results. 



It is worthy of remark that, in the first organization of the National Institute of 

 France under the Republic, (which was digested by the most able men of that na- 

 tion,) a distinct class was established for the moral and political sciences. But 

 under the reign of the Emperor Napoleon, and during the Restoration, that depart, 

 ment of the Institute was abolished. The present able and enlightened sovereign 

 of that land of science, however, who sees clearly the true interests of the nation, 

 reestablished that class, and restored it to its former rank and importance ; and 

 among its first members was one of our own countrymen, the late eminent jurist, 

 Edward Livingston. The class now comprehends, in addition to the illustrious na- 

 tives of France, many foreigners of the highest distinction. The subjects of its 

 labors are arranged under the heads of: 1. Philosophy; 2. Morals; 3. Legisla. 

 tion, Public Law, and Jurisprudence ; 4. Political Economy and Statistics; and 5. 

 General and Philosophical History, 



When, therefore, we consider any of the various subjects of investigation which 



