

902 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 



mode of establishing the Smithsonian Institution, and of so 

 conducting it as to make it what the generous founder in- 

 tended a national benefaction. 



Various suggestions have been thrown out as to the kind 

 of institution which would be most appropriate for accom- 

 plishing the object of the donor. But the public mind does 

 not seem to be settled upon any definite proposition. Some 

 have recommended a National Seminary, in which the usual 

 branches of school learning should be taught gratis, or at a 

 cheap rate; others have proposed the erection of an Observa- 

 tory, for celestial operations, by means of which we might 

 contribute our just quota of astronomical information to the 

 great community of civilized nations, &c. None of these, 

 however, appears to me fully to embrace the object contem- 

 plated. Our country already abounds in universities, col- 

 leges, and other high seminaries many more, indeed, than 

 are adequately supported in which the various branches of 

 Science and Literature are ably taught; and the establish- 

 ment of an additional one, at Washington, would only be to 

 build up a new rival, and thereby to augment the existing 

 redundancy. It would probably weaken other similar insti- 

 tutions, and therefore tend but little, in fact, to the "increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men." Besides, it would 

 necessarily be limited and partial in its operations, and con- 

 sequently become a source of dissatisfaction among those 

 who were excluded. We see this objection exemplified, 

 every day, in the envious and narrow-minded assaults upon 

 that noble institution, the United States Military Academy. 



The establishment of a national observatory would indeed 

 be a commendable and useful measure. It is one of those 

 institutions which every nation, with an extensive maritime 

 commerce, ought to possess for its own sake, and which is 

 due, as a contribution to Science, from every Government 

 that aspires to an equal rank with the rest of the civilized 

 world. But, as the immediate and palpable benefits of an 

 observatory inure mainly to the commercial and military 

 marine, it seems to come especially within the province, and 

 to be the duty, of Congress, to provide such an establishment 

 at the proper cost of the country. It appears to me to come 

 distinctly under the same constitutional provision, for the 

 protection and regulation of commerce, which authorizes 

 the construction of buoys, breakwaters and light-houses; 

 and this opinion has been sanctioned by one of the most 

 learned and eminent of our statesmen, who, in urging the 

 erection of an astronomical observatory, applies to those 

 institutions the figurative but appropriate appellation of 



