TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 1837-1839. 147 



the public interest has suffered from the want of a national institution to encourage 

 and facilitate the cultivation of those departments of knowledge on which these arts 

 are founded, he has at this time ventured to present himself as a memorialist before 

 your honorable bodies, and to ask permission to set forth the importance and necessity 

 of such an institution to the country, and its claims to the countenance of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States. 



In a clear comprehension of the internal resources of the country the whole nation 

 possesses a deep and a growing interest, and in those vast portions of territory con- 

 stituting the public domain the Government has a stake of immense magnitude. 

 But great as these interests are, and much as they demand the services of men pro- 

 fessionally devoted to their elucidation, the United States as yet possess no institu- 

 tion appropriated to the formation of those habits and the acquisition of thatjekill 

 which might insure the success of such researches. 



The want of an institution for these purposes is daily rendered more striking, in 

 proportion as the enterprise of our citizens is enlarged, and as a reliance on our own re- 

 sources becomes the more obviously necessary. But the determination of the value 

 of the natural resources of the country is far from being the only motive for the estab- 

 lishment of an institution for prosecuting researches in physical science. Those 

 resources require to be applied and improved, as well as discovered and described. 



A further purpose, therefore, to be effected by such an institution is the enlarging 

 of those resources by the introduction of improvements in agriculture and by natu- 

 ralizing the productions of other climates to the soil of our widely extended territory, 

 the encouraging of those arts which are essential to our national prosperity and inde- 

 pendence, the diffusing of important information respecting the commercial value of 

 our different resources, the examining of questions in every department of physical 

 research connected with the public service, and the preventing of those impostures 

 to which both individuals and the public are liable while important physical truths 

 remain unexplained. 



Motives of higher import are not wanting; inducements drawn from an exalted 

 patriotism might be presented in favor of such measures as might place our national 

 resources, institutions, and arms of defense above a dependence on the science of 

 foreign nations. 



In recognizing the important truth that the power, freedom, and happiness of 

 nations are essentially connected with a comprehension of their own natural advan- 

 tages, not less than with the wisdom, firmness, and prudence of those who are exalted 

 to civil authority, we discover at once the vast magnitude of the obligation imposed 

 on the people of this Union to become thoroughly acquainted with the resources of 

 their country. 



It is said, and said truly, that every freeman should understand the civil constitu- 

 tions of the country which secure his rights; and is it less imperative to understand 

 its physical constitution, which secures his existence? 



Whoever loves his country would see her great, powerful loved at home and 

 respected abroad. And what element in her greatness, her power, her loveliness, her 

 respectability is more sure to win the affections than the rich abundance of her 

 natural advantages and the ability of her citizens to comprehend, to develop, and 

 enjoy them? 



It is a mark of a meek colonial dependence to remain ignorant of all but the most 

 obvious features and productions of a country, and it is an evidence of something 

 worse than colonial dependence for a nation professing to be independent to receive 

 from foreigners all the knowledge that they ever acquire of the natural features and 

 resources of the country, and of their application to useful purposes. Why need we 

 cite the examples of antiquity? Why go to India, to Africa, to New Holland to seek 

 illustrations of this truth? What is the condition of the colonies still remaining on 

 this continent in regard to a knowledge of their respective territories? With what 



