174 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



bv an habitual neglect of the bounties of nature, and the 

 achievements of art ? How utterly at the mercy of strangers 

 how little competent to assert the dignity of any national 

 character, are most of the Spanish American republics ! It 

 is not pretended that ignorance of their resources is the 

 only cause of this degradation ; but that the former may at 

 least be considered a fair index to mark and measure the 

 latter. 



But, it may be asked, what great national interests will 

 be benefitted by an institution like that now proposed ? The 

 reply is easy. 



Wherever, in prosecuting his designs, man has occasion 

 to call to his aid the energies of nature, there will researches 

 in physical science find an appropriate sphere of action. 

 And wherever any national interest involves the production 

 or use of material objects, there must the energies of nature 

 be more or less constantly put in requisition. 



Among the prominent interests affected by the existence 

 and operation of an institution for physical researches, are 

 those of agriculture, of the army, the navy, the public 

 domain, engineering and topography; architecture, civil, 

 military, and naval ; the mining industry of the country 

 and its interests in the success of the inventive genius of 

 its citizens. To these must be added commerce and manu- 

 factures. 



That all these subjects are regarded as public interests, is, 

 perhaps, sufficiently evinced by the fact, that in the distri- 

 bution of the subjects of legislation in Congress, each, with 

 the exception of mining, is deemed of sufficient importance 

 to merit the attention of a separate standing committee of 

 each House. Thus there is in each House a committee on 

 agriculture, on military affairs, on naval affairs, on the 

 public lands, on roads and canals, on public buildings, on 

 patents and the patent office, on commerce, and on manu- 

 factures. 



The foregoing statement is made in order to show that, 

 in asking the attention of the national authorities to this 

 subject, there is no design to obtrude upon their notice 

 matters not already within the acknowledged and long con- 

 ceded sphere of constitutional action ; that there is no 

 attempt to introduce a course of legislation, on concerns 

 foreign to those great interests of the nation, for the protec- 

 tion of which the fundamental law has invested the Legis- 

 lature with ample powers. 



1. In no department of industry is the need of experi- 

 mental science more evident than in that of agriculture. 



