PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 857 



Smithsonian Institution. I will therefore attempt to do so, 

 though conscious of my inability to do justice to a subject 

 so important in its character and relations. If it be wisely 

 organized, and supplied with a corps of distinguished pro- 

 fessors in the various departments of learning, it will affect 

 not only the highest interests of our country, but its influ- 

 ence will be felt in foreign lands. Let it go up in a char- 

 acter worthy of its liberal founder, let it be sustained with 

 the zeal and liberality becoming the object and our own 

 reputation, and it will add to our national points of union : 

 in these we are not very rich, and, therefore, should be glad 

 to multiply them, to bind together more firmly the elements 

 of the American confederation. The object of the contem- 

 plated institution is "the cultivation and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among mankind." This object, I believe, is distinctly 

 expressed in the will of Mr. Smithson. In making his will, 

 he probably had his eye upon those modern institutes and 

 universities of Europe, which are designed, not to teach the 

 first elements of science and letters, but to receive gradu- 

 ates, and men looking forward to professional eminence, 

 for the purpose of advancing them to the highest grades of 

 learning, and thus to give them power to enlarge the boun- 

 daries of knowledge, by fresh discoveries and investigations. 

 We may conclude, then, that he intended his bequest should 

 be applied to the erection of an institution for liberal and 

 professional purposes, and for the promotion of original 

 investigations to carry scholars through a range of studies 

 much above those of the ordinary collegiate course. I am 

 happy to know that this is the opinion of John Quincy 

 Adams, a gentleman whose judgment in the present case is 

 entitled to all respect. 



Admitting that this is to be its object, it is natural to 

 inquire, in the next place, how it should be organized, so as 

 most fully to promote this design. In organizing it, respect 

 should be had to the spirit of the present age, to the genius 

 of our Government, and to our peculiar wants as a nation. 

 It is of vital moment that it should receive such a shaping 

 as will best correspond with all the particulars. Many of 

 the institutions of learning in Europe, in rigidly adhering 

 to systems of government and instruction settled for ages, 

 altogether different from our own, do not send forth men 

 fitted to meet the exigencies of modern society. Though 

 richly endowed, and supplied with teachers of great powers 

 and attainments, they serve for little else than to show the 

 strength of the current that is setting by them. We, at 

 this day, and especially in this country, need men who are 



