The Smithsonian institution : documents relative to its origin and history / edited by William J. Rhees.

Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Smithsonian institution : documents relative to its origin and history / edited by William J. Rhees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ter of this philanthropist and philosopher. If you think proper to publish any part of these facts in your excellent journal, they are entirely at your service. Erroneous im- pressions of the character of a good man ought to be cleared away. As to your second request, that I would indicate some- thing of the nature of the proposed institution, if I can find time I will give you a few thoughts. A determination on this point is not difficult; wTe ought to be guided by the known wishes of the testator; by the wants of education generally; and, lastly, by a consideration of what modifica- tions are needed to make it harmonize with principles and institutions existing among us. -V 'P «]. -T* 'f* 'T' 'T* *T» And believe me, yours truly, A JProm The Southern Literary Messenger, Richmond, Va., 1840, Vol VI, p. 25. We publish below our correspondent’s second letter upon this important subject. We sincerely commend it to the attention and consideration of our readers. Every friend to the cause of education—every lover of the welfare and progress of his country—must be deeply interested as to the result which shall dispose of this bequest. We occupy a wide domain of country. It has been bought with blood, and is sacred to freedom—it is filling up with an energetic and industrious population, and it must be the theatre of mighty action. It is so already. The springs of enterprise are in wide-spread operation among us. Towns spring up as by magic in the wilderness, factories line almost every stream, and mills are toiling on every cataract. The bugle of the boatman startles the distant recesses of the west, and ponderous wains, laden with precious stores, glide past us by the hundred. Tne rail car thunders from peopled mart to peopled mart, through ancient solitudes and the abodes of the panther, and the roar of the steam-barge is heard from the waters of the great Mississippi to the far banks of the Penobscot. Our white sails are sheeting over the foam- ing billows of every known sea, and fire-winged ships are- speeding to and fro, between us and the Old World, con- tinually. Our streets are blockaded with jars and boxes and bales, and our wharves are enforested by the masts of every nation of the civilized globe. From morn to night, cease-