The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 107
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CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
I Of
spacious cabinet of curiosities. Everything is open
to the public gratuitously.
Mr. T., in continuation, expatiated at considera-
ble length upon the merits of the bill; and in proof
that its provisions-were calculated to meet the wishes
and intentions of the donor of the munificent fund
now the objcct of consideration. He doubted the
utility of such an extensive and costly librarv as
had been suggested by the senator from Massachu-
setts; he doubted.the possibility of laying out useful-
ly and advantageously $20,000 a year—or even more
than four or five thousand dollars a year—in the pur-
chase of books. It would be impossible to make
such a vast collection of books as $500,000 would
purchase, without including cart loads—nay,
ship loads—of trash, not worth in reality
the cost of transport. There was the library of
Congress, to the increase of which $5,000 was annu-
ally appropriated, and it was well known that this
sum enabled the committee to procure everything
coming out in print worth procuring. Yet, in this
library, small in comparison to any of those foreign
libraries alluded to by the senator, he protested there
was "more than half the books that he would not
take a gift of for the cost of transportation to Ohio.
In conclusion, he saw no necessity for striking out
the eighth section of the bill. If the Senate approved
of a more liberal provision for a library, an addition-
al section could be put after the 8th section, and the
necessary alteration could be made in the first sec-
tion.
Mr. WOODBURY did not rise for any purpose
of opposition, but to suggest a course that would
probly lesult in harmonizing the propositions of the
senators from Ohio and Massachusetts. He thought
if the bill was recommitted to the Committee on the
Library, it would receive more attention than it was
possible to bestow upon it when there before, in
consequence of the absence of some of its members;
and he had no doubt the propriety of providing for
the establishment of a complete library on a liberal
scale—he would not say to the extent of purchases
amounting annually to twenty thousand, fifteen
thousand, or ten thousand dollars, but to an extent
commensurate with the wants of science and the
arts in this country at present, to be hereafter en-
larged as might be found necessary. He should be
sorry to see the 8th section of the bill stricken out,
for ne thought there were important provisions in
it which ought to"_be retained. The professors, and
every thing going to the principle of having a col-
lege or school connected with the institution, should
be dispensed with, but the plan of employing emi-
nent lecturers should be retained. These lecturers
could very well perform all the experiments re-
quired by the bill of professors. If lecturers of great
attainments, even from Europe, were deemed neces-
sary, they could be procured and paid liberally.
The donor of this fund was too well informed not to
know that in this country the most ample provisions
in school lands had been made for elementary edu-
cation, and that this fund was at least equal to a
stock yielding a million and a half of dollars annu-
ally for purposes of education. His intention doubt-
less was to devote his bequest to that increase and
diffusion of knowledge among men which was not
to be attained at existing institutions of learning in
this country; and it was obvious this intention could
be best accomplished by a harmonious blending
of the propositions of the two senators, properly
modified. There was, however, one part of the
plan he strongly objected to as unnecessary; it was
that relating to the establishment of a salaried board
of managers. The whole thing of balloting in Con-
gress for this board of managers was objectionable,
and would lead to loss of time and other incon-
veniences; besides, the persons so chosen might
be the most unfit. There was no occasion
whatever for that description of management. A
national institute was already in existence
in the capital of the government, created by Con-
gress, and the objects of which were peculia ly ap-
propriate to those of the trust now under considera-
tion. The officers of this institute are the ex officio
officers of the government itself, the scientific resi-
dents of the city, and the most eminent professors of
many of the learned institutions of the country.
These are all gentlemen of high attainments and
character, to whom the pursuit of knowledge and its
diffusion are labors of love, for which they seek no
pecuniary reward. To that institute this trust
should be confided. He hoped, therefore, that in re-
- Modeling the bill, the committee would allow this
Blatter its due weight and consideration.
Mr. TAPPAN saw no necessity for j-eeommitting
the-bill to the Committee on the Library, or any
pther committee. The Senate could, without stri-
king out the 8th section, amend it, and incorporate
such modification as it might approve of the propo-
sition made by the senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. PEARCE suggested the propriety of post-
poning the further consideration of the bill till to-
morrow, by which time gentlemen might make up
their minds as to the necessity of remodeling the ■
bill'.
On motion of Mr. MOREHEAD, the Senate then
adjourned.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Wednesday, January 8, 1845. •
The journal of yesterday was read and approved.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS,
The following are the executive communications
which were received yesterday as the House was
about to adjourn:
I. A letter from the Clerk of the House, accom-
panied by a statement of the expenditure of the
contingent fund of the House for the year 1844:
laid on the table.
II. A letter from the Secretary of the Treasury,
transmitting a report, prepared in obedience to the
joint resolution of Congress of the last session (in-
troduced by Mr. Pratt, of New York) directing
the Secretary of the Treasury to cause to be col-
lected, arranged, and classified, such statistical in-
formation as may be procured, showing, or tending
to show, each year, the condition of the agriculture,
manufactures, domestic trade, currency, and banks,
of the several States and Territories of the United
States.
Mr. PRATT moved its reference to a select com-
mittee of five members, to be called the Committee
on Statistics; which motion was agreed to; and a
Committee on Statistics was raised accordingly.
III. A letter from the Secretary of War, with
the annual report of the names and salaries of clerks
employed in the War Department in the year 1844:
laid on the table.
IV. A letter from the Secretary of War, with a
report prepared in obedience to the act of June 30,
1834, containing the names, dates of appointment,
and pay of all persons employed in the service of
the Indian department during the year 1844: laid on
the table.
V. A letter from the Secretary of the Navy, trans-
mitting a statement of the expenditure of the fund
appropriated for the contingent expenses of the Na-
vy Department: laid on the table.
VI. A letter from the Secretary of the Navy, ac-
companied with the annual report of the names and
salaries of persons employed as clerks in the sev-
eral offices of the Navy Department for the year
1844: laid on the table.
VII. A letter from the Secretary of the Treasury,
transmitting the annual report under the provisions
of the act for the relief of insolvent debtors to the
United States: laid on the table.
VIII. A letter from the Commissioner of the
Public Buildings, transmitting the annual report of
the business of his office, and of the expenditures
made by him for the year 1844: laid on the table.
SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT.
The resolution of Mr. ADAMS offered last even-
ing, to grant the use of the Hall one evening a week
for four successive weeks to Robert Owen, for the
delivery of four lectures on the improvement of
human society, came up thi3 morning.
Mr. ADAMS modified the resolution, as he said
he had been authorized by Mr. Owen to do, so as
to relate to but two evenings, the evening of the 29th
instant, and of the same day of the succeeding week.
Mr. HAMMETT opposed the resolution on
general grounds. H« was opposed to the practice
that had grown up of granting the use of the hall
to men, women, and children, coming into this city
to lecture upon every imaginable subject that could
find place in the human imagination. He thought
that nothing like the sanction of Congress should be
given to them. He should not only vote against
this, but all similar resolutions.
Mr. ARRINGTON renewed the motion made last
evening by him, and rejected, to lay the resolution
on the table.
Mr. BRINKERHOFF called the yeas and nays;
which were ordered.
The question was taken, and tke motion was
agreed to—yeas 91, nays 63.
Bo the resolution wits laid on the table.
RAILROAD IN MISSISSIPPI.
Mr. ROBERTS, in pursuance of previous no-
tice, asked and obtained leave, and introduced a bill
in regard to, the railroad leading to Jackson, through
Brandon, to the western boundary of Alabama;
which was read the first and second time, and re-
ferred to the Committee on Public Lands.
UNITED STATES COURTS IN OHIO.
. Mr. DUNCAN, in pursuance of notice given,
asked leave to introduce a bill to divide the State of
Ohio into two judicial districts • for the district
court of the United States; but objections being made,
the bill was not received.
ADMISSION OF TEXAS AS A STATE.
Mr. DROMGOOLE asked the general consent of
the House to introduce, without formal notice, a
bill, declaring the assent of Congress that'a new
State be formed within the jurisdiction of the repub-
lic of Texas, and admitted into this Union.
Mr. D: asked the indulgence of the House sim-
ply to state that, in drawing up this bill, he had fol-
lowed the precedents set by Congress in admitting
the first two new States that were admitted into, the
Union, viz: Kentucky and Vermont. On the 4th
February, 1791,Kentucky was erected into a Stat#
within the jurisdiction of Virginia, to come into the
Union more than a year afterwards; and the State
of Vermont, which was then out of the Union, wa«
admitted as an entire member of the confederacy, to
come in on the 4th of March, 1791.
Leave was then granted, and the bill was read as
follows:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of[Representative* of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, and it
it, heieby enacted and declared, That the Congress doth con-
sent that a new State may be erected, within the jurisdic-
tion of the republic of Texas, adjoining the States ofLouis-
iana and Arkansas, and bounded also by the Gulf of Mexi-
co, with a republican form of government, to be adopted by
the inhabitants' of said republic, assembled by deputies la
convention, with the consent of the existing government,
in order that the said new State may be admitted into this
Union.
Jlnd be it further enacted and declared, That the foregoing
consent of the Congress is given upon the following condi-
tions, to wit: that the new State shall be formed, and-its
government adopted, prior to the fourth day of July, in .the
present year; and that the boundaries of the said new State,
conforming to the outlines before stated, and contain-
ing an area not exceeding thousand square miles,
shall be defined by the convention of deputies, and inserted
in the constitution or form of government; and that the an-
sent of the State shall be also inserted to such boundaries
of the remaining territory, properly pertaining to Texas,
and to be claimed and held by said new State on superced-
ing the present government, as may be settled and defined
by the governmont of the United States, by negotiation and
treaty, or otherwise.
And be it further enacted and declared, That, on the afore-
said iourth day of July, in the present year, the said new
State, having been thus formed and defined, by the name
andstyleof the State ofTexas, shall be received and admit-
ted into this Union as a new and entire member of the Uni-
ted States of America.
The bill having been read the second time,
On motion of Mr. DROMGOOLE, it was refer-
red to the Committee of the Whole on the state of
the Union, and ordered to be printed.
IMPRISONMENT OF GOVERNOR DORR.
Mr. BURKE asked the consent of the House to
present certain resolutions of the legislature of the
State of New Hampshire, relative to the imprison-
ment of Gov. Dorr.
Mr. CRANSTON objected to the reception of
the resolutions.
Mr. BURKE moved to suspend the rules, to en-
able him to present the resolutions.
Mr. CRANSTON asked for the reading Of the
resolutions; and they were read.
Mr. CRANSTON called for the yeas and nays;
which being ordered, the question was taken and
decided in the negative—yeas 113, nays 74—there
not being two-thirds in the affirmative, as follows:
YEAS—Messrs. Adams, Anderson, Bayly, Benton, Bid-
lack, Edward J. Black, James Black, Blackwell, Bowlin,
Boyd, Brengle, Brinkerhoft', Brodhead, Aaron V. Brown,
William J. Brown, Burke, Caldwell; Jeremiah E. Gary,
Shepherd Gary, Catlin, Reuben Chapman, Chappell, Clia-
ton, Cobb, Cross, Dana, Daniel, Darraeh, Richard D. Davis,
John W. Davis, Dawson, Dean, Dillingham, Dromgoole,
Duncan, Dunlap, Elmer, Farlee, Foster, French, Fuller,
Hale, Hannibal Hamlin, Edward S. Hamlin, Hammett^Hays,
Henley, Hernck, Hopkins, Houston, Hubard, Hughes, Hun-
gerford, James B. Hunt, Andrew Johnson, George W.Jones,
Andrew Kennedy, Preston King, Labranche, Leonard, Lu-
cas, Lumpkin, Lyon, McCauslen, Maclay, McClelland,
McConnell, McDowell, McKay, Mathews, Joseph Morrir,
Isaac E. Morse, Nes, Norris, Owen, Parmenter, Pettii,
Emery D. Potter, Pratt, Rathbun, David S. Reid, Redine,
Ritter, Roberts, Russell, St. John, Saunders, Thomas H,
Seymour, Simons, Slidell, JohnT. Smith, Thomas Smith,
Robert Smith, Steenrod, John Stewart, Stiles, James W.
Stone, Alfred P. Stone, Strong, Sykes, Taylor, Thompson,
Tibbatts, Tucker, Weller, went-wortb, Benjamin White,
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, legislative document, 1845; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2366/m1/123/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.