8 



cords of our Union, and give to the capital of that Union a. new 

 charm, with greater stability ? 



The Smithsonian design is, as I have already suggested, a 

 peculiar one. It cannot, as a scene of educational training, have 

 any pretensions or provoke any jealousies. It is no rival of the 

 many admirable schools which adorn the respective States, and 

 can in no manner intrude upon their spheres of action. Yet it 

 will be a factory and a store-house of knowledge accessible to 

 all the agents of this vast Confederacy — its executive, legislative, 

 judicial, civil, military, foreign, and domestic agents. It will be 

 the recipient, too, of such fruits of the labors and such acquisi- 

 tions of the enterprise and travels of these agents as may con- 

 tribute to illustrate, and explain, and facilitate the public service, 

 or to give precision and vigor to its operations of every kind. As 

 a resource and a sanctuary for intellect, the Institution can hardly 

 fail to become an object of patriotic pride and attachment, and 

 must be felt as a persuasive inducement to preserve inviolate the 

 Constitution, with whose fate its own is identified. 



I will not dwell upon its special claim to the fostering kind- 

 ness and hospitality of this Metropolis. Her citizens doubtless 

 appreciate that justly. By designating Washington for its local 

 habitation, the generous testator has summoned the intelligence, 

 the courtesy, and the philanthropy of her inhabitants as auxilia- 

 ries to his beneficent project. Already it has added to her social 

 scene a fixed star whose beams pervade the scientific world ; and 

 ere long this rising temple, consecrated to the highest of human 

 pursuits, Knowledge, will give fresh attraction and firmness to 

 her destiny. 



