TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 1837-1839. 153 



It is unnecessary to dwell on the importance of obtaining accurate information 

 respecting the metals employed for coin. Whatever materials the financial wisdom 

 of the nation shall at length decide to render current as the medium of exchange 

 and the standard of value, our mines of the precious metals, their nature, extent, and 

 richness, must ever remain objects of deep interest, both to individuals and to the 

 public. 



The value to be attached to our materials for architectural constructions and other 

 ornamental purposes yet remains to be fully developed. Enough, however, is known 

 to assure us that we have among our marbles for massive structures those which may 

 vie with the Pentelicum of Greece; for ornamental furniture, with the variegated 

 species of Egypt; and for beautiful statuary, with the snow-white Cararra of Italy. 

 With lithographic limestone we need no longer call on Germany to supply us. Our 

 mineral colors, hydraulic cements, and fire clays need only be better understood in 

 order to supersede entirely similar* articles from abroad. 



A patriotic resolution of one branch of the National Legislature has recently decreed 

 that the bust of one of our most eminent revolutionary statesmen shall henceforth 

 rest on a massive fragment of that iron mountain found in the rich and productive 

 region which, by a bloodless and honorable purchase, his sagacious counsels annexed 

 to our beloved country. Would that our thirty years of possession had taught us 

 other uses of that ore than to lie in unshaped masses as pedestals for our patriots. 

 Then might we boast some greater share of that real national independence, to the 

 attainment of which the whole life of our Jefferson was devoted. 



5. Passing to the interests of the country, as involved in her internal improve- 

 ments, we find much to occupy the attention of scientific inquirers; and as the reve- 

 nues of the nation are more or less directly benefited by those improvements, it is 

 perhaps but reasonable that the science to design and the skill to execute those works 

 should be supplied by means of a national institution. To a limited extent our prac- 

 tice has sanctioned this course. Surveyors and engineers in the service of the Gov- 

 ernment have, in a few cases, been placed at the disposal of the State authorities. 

 For reasons sufficiently obvious, however, no permanent reliance can be placed on 

 such a diversion of military officers from the peculiar duties for which the Govern- 

 ment has caused them to be educated. 



Incidental to the subject of internal commerce is that of locomotion, whether on 

 land or on water, embracing every inquiry relative to steam navigation, the causes 

 of explosions, and the methods proposed for insuring safety. 



Another incident to this division of the subject is the introduction into our mining 

 and metallurgic processes of those improvements which may free our country from a 

 dependence on foreign skill, foreign shipping, foreign insurance, commission, and 

 brokerage for every yard of railroad iron which is laid throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land. Over our very richest beds of iron ore and coal and limestone 

 are laid bars of foreign iron, extending far away and crossing each other in various 

 directions, while through their gratings the country looks out at an importunate cred- 

 itor beyond the Atlantic. No small portion of the hundred millions which have 

 been borrowed from Europe for the purposes of internal improvement have been 

 applied to the procuring of this article an article which it requires no very daring 

 spirit of prophecy to assure us will one day be exported in immense quantities from 

 the United States. 



6. In reference to the subject of architecture and public buildings, the acquisition 

 of information by experiment would often prove a most economical investment of a 

 moderate portion of the means devoted to such constructions. Besides all the inter- 

 esting inquiries relating to the form, strength, and durability of materials, the per- 

 manency of foundations, and the adhesion of mortars and cements, we have various 

 questions concerning the influence of temperature in the expansion of building ma- 

 terials and of the proper forces to be opposed to such expansions, as well as to other 



