PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 855 



witnessed, the crossing of the Atlantic by steam, is a revo- 

 lution in human affairs. Distance, once an element in our 

 safety, as in all our relations with the old world, and the 

 basis on which rested essential maxims in our policy, has 

 disappeared. Europe has suddenly become neighbor to us, 

 for good and for evil, involving consequences that baffle all 

 foresight. Our statesmen must wake up to the mighty 

 change. There is no time to lose. They will have to ask 

 themselves what are the parts of our policy to be accom- 

 modated to the change. Our men of science, feeling new 

 excitements from this approximation of the hemispheres, 

 will naturally be on the alert, growing more emulous in 

 their several fields. The continent that Columbus found 

 was a desert, or overspread with barbarous people and in- 

 stitutions. The continent that steam has found teems with 

 civilization, fresh, advancing, and unavoidably innovating 

 upon the old world. The statesmen, the warriors, the 

 active and enterprising men, the whole people of the two 

 worlds, now almost confront each other. It is at such a 

 point in the destinies of America that the Smithsonian 

 Institution comes into being. By their physical resources 

 and power, the United States are well known. Their re- 

 sources of intellectual and moral strength have been more 

 in the back ground ; but may not an auspicious develop- 

 ment of them be aided by an institution like this, rising up 

 in their capital simultaneously with this new condition of 

 things, guarded, as it will be, by the annual watchfulness, 

 fostered 1 by the annual care, and improved, from time to 

 time, by the superintending wisdom of Congress ? 



The usefulness of the institution would doubtless be in- 

 creased, if young men could be regularly educated at it. 

 But here imperious obstacles seem to interpose. If I only, 

 in conclusion, touch this part of the plan, without dilating 

 upon it, it is from a fear that the fund would not bear their 

 maintenance, in connection with what has seemed to me 

 other indispensable objects. Perhaps a limited number who 

 had passed the age of 18, taken equally from the different 

 States, say two from each, under the federative principle, 

 might come to the institution, be formed into a class, and 

 attend its lectures for a couple or three courses ; their 

 expenses to be paid under such restrictions as the Govern- 

 ment might prescribe, and the young men to undergo 

 public examinations at the end of the term, prize medals 

 being awarded by the board of visitors or a committee of 

 Congress, to keep the tone of ambition high. But would 

 the fund bear even this ? Again, I fear not. 



