THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 527 



has been given by the board be a correct one, until I change my opin- 

 ion, or until Congress shall modify the law, I must adhere to my 

 original convictions. 



I regret, sir, that there should be the slightest feeling displayed in 

 this discussion. Really, a charitable fund for such high and noble 

 purposes ought to be administered in a spirit of kindness and charity. 

 I can not accede, therefore, to any intimation that those who act with 

 me. or those do not concur in the interpretation which has been given 

 to the law, are actuated by any but the highest and purest motives. 



Mr. J. M. MASON. Does the Senator understand that anything fell 

 from me to question the motives of the gentlemen who differed from 

 us in that matter? 



Mr. S. A. DOUGLAS. I do understand that the Senator from Virginia 

 supposed it to be prompted by improper motives, to get possession of 

 the fund, on the part of some persons. 



Mr. MASON. I thought I was understood. I said that unless I mis- 

 construed the signs of the times, this great and eager anxiety out of 

 doors, manifested by popular and inflammatory addresses through the 

 public press, showed that there was an earnest demand outside to get 

 hold of the fund. I never expressed, for I certainly never entertained, 

 a doubt that honorable gentlemen who differed with me in our judg- 

 ment as to the construction of the statute were actuated by as stem a 

 sense of duty as I was. I have always so expressed it. 



Mr. DOUGLAS. Mr. President, then I understand the Senator as not 

 impugning the action or motives of any of the Regents with whom he 

 has been associated; but I must say that I have not seen anything 

 to leave an impression on my mind that whatever action was prompted 

 out of doors meant to get possession of this fund, or to squander it, 

 or to apply it to any improper purposes. On the contrary, I believe 

 it arises from that same feeling which has been evinced in the differ- 

 ences of opinion which have existed from the time the Institution was 

 first proposed to be organized up to this day as to what was the true 

 application of the fund. Those who supposed that their opinions had 

 received the sanction of Congress in the organic law of the Institution 

 now think that that object has been defeated by a wrong construction 

 given to that organic law. It is a firm conviction, as I believe, on 

 their part, that the law has riot been carried out according to its terms. 

 It certainly has not been according to their understanding of its terms. 

 I believe that there is no portion of our community, certainly there are 

 no persons entitled to notice, who would wish to pervert this fund to 

 any other object than that to which it was dedicated by Smithson's 

 will. I believe the persons to whom the Senator referred are stimu- 

 lated by the purest motives to carry out that object, under the con- 

 viction that the mode in which the trust is now being administered is 

 neither in accordance with the will nor of the law. It is a difference 



