514 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



extent of his legal learning, the vigor and acuteness of hi.s logical facul- 

 ties, or the purity of his professional and private life, by any man in 

 this country or elsewhere. I mean Chief Justice Taney, with whom I 

 consider it to be exceedingly fortunate that I concur in opinion on this 

 question. 



Next, sir, I may be allowed to mention a gentleman from Georgia, 

 a member of General Jackson's Cabinet, his first Attorney-General, for 

 many years a distinguished ornament of this body, and now, in spite 

 of years somewhat advancing, retaining all the vigor of those physical 

 and intellectual faculties which made Mr. Wirt characterize him thirty 

 years ago as a man of splendid ability, and who at this time maintains, 

 as he has done for thirty years, a proud position in the front ranks of 

 his noble profession. I mean Mr. Berrien, of Georgia. 



Then, sir, I may mention a gentleman who was also once an Attorney- 

 General of the United States, Secretary of the Treasury, and minister 

 to England and to France, himself more intimately connected with 

 this Institution than any other person whom I know, having been the 

 agent appointed by the Government of the United States to proceed 

 to London and prosecute the suit in chancery upon which the deter- 

 mination of this fund depended; a gentleman of ample ability, of high 

 cultivation, and mature experience. I mean Mr. Richard Rush, of 

 Pennsylvania. 



I shall not, in his presence, bestow any eulogium upon my friend, 

 the honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason], who is one of those 

 who have concurred with me. But even in his presence I ma} T say 

 this much: That for many years more, perhaps, than he would be glad 

 to acknowledge he has been engaged in a large and successful prac- 

 tice, and in the higher walks of his profession; and that this furnishes 

 some small reason to infer that he is quite competent to construe an 

 act of Congress. 



Of the other members of the Board of Regents who concur with me 

 I need not make mention further than to say that, though not legal 

 men, they are all men of great eminence in this country, and their 

 eminence has been recognized in the high public positions which they 

 have occupied and still occupy and adorn. 



As I have said before, sir, this is some small consolation to me for 

 venturing to differ from Mr. Choate, who so unqualifiedly condemns 

 all those who oppose him. There is something rather peremptory, I 

 think, in the manner in which he announces his opinion in regard to 

 the construction and violation of this law. I do not find it qualified 

 by the expression of the possibility of any misconstruction on his 

 part; by the admission that intelligent and honorable men might well 

 differ in regard to that construction. Far be it from me, sir, to 

 impute to those who differ from me an}' want of intelligence and sin- 

 cerity. The Senator who sits beside me [Mr. Douglas] is one who 



