Smithsonian fund, to produce an annual income of forty thousand dollars, to be distributed chiefly as premiums for promoting improvements in agriculture, manufactures and commerce, and for quickening attention to the natural sciences, and to the improvement of the common-school systems of the several states. What better mode could be proposed for realizing, in their widest extent, the views of the benevolent Smithson, by diffusing useful knowledge among mankind?

Nor, in attending to the interests of the mechanical and agricultural classes, have I suffered myself to overlook the importance of commercial and financial operations. On the contrary, the record will show that I have taken a deep interest in many matters relating to the mercantile and banking interests. I honor and uphold useful labor; and know, by my own experience, that it is a blessing, rather than a curse, that man should "earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." But it is because I thus approve of and honor labor, that I would uphold the commercial, and, upon a proper basis, the banking interests,— since, without these, labor would too often be deprived of its just reward.

In relation to banking,- believing the project of a national bank to be, if not unconstitutional, at least unwise and inexpedient,— I thought that the principles of free banking, so happily established in our own state, might be advantageously recognized wherever federal legislation extended. Accordingly, I proposed a plan for authorizing, in the District of Columbia, free banking, with certain safeguards, under the authority of the United States. I have not yet been able to see why a plan, which is working well in our own state, may not be advantageously recognized whenever congressional action is deemed necessary on such subjects.

The success of our recent embassy to China should prompt us to endeavor to extend American commerce into other secluded but not less favored regions of the globe. Among the movements

which I made for that purpose, was a proposition authorizing the president to commence diplomatic and commercial intercourse with Japan and Corea. The importance of the Japanese empire, with its fifty millions of people in a condition scarcely less civilized than the Chinese, would alone warrant the mission and the measures for which I proposed an appropriation. I cannot doubt that the period is at hand when Congress, watchful to promote all the best interests of our country, will make adequate provision for thus extending commercial intercourse into regions which furnish wide scope for the intelligent enterprise of the American people.

Having acted as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings, it is proper that I should frankly declare to you the course I pursued respecting them, and the motives that governed me. Most of you, I am sure, know me well enough to believe me, when I say that I go for economy in all things. I hate useless expenditure, whether in public or private. But economy is not penury, and there is a fitness in things which should not be forgotten or neglected by those who have the control of public affairs. Our public buildings are not merely national property, but they represent the nation. They are part of the appropriate exponents and monuments of her wealth and of her greatness, and their use is not only for the present, but for generations yet unborn. A common barn might contain and shelter your Congress; and your presidents might live, perhaps, even more comfortably for themselves, as individuals, than they now do, in a mansion of less size and pretensions than the "White House." But what right-minded American, justly proud of our national greatness, will grumble at the expense of the capitol, as a place of meeting for the representatives of this vast and glorious confederacy? What American, deserving of the name, does not desire a suitable mansion, with appropriate furniture, for the chief magistrate of the United States,— a functionary who is expected to receive and entertain his fellow

citizens from all parts of the Union, as well as ambassadors and

If such Americans there be, I I tell you frankly, my friends, public edifices in proper order;

visiters from foreign countries? glory in not being one of them. that I voted freely for placing the and I did it for the honor of my country, not for the gratification of the individuals whom your choice might call to occupy them.

As for the buildings occupied by several of the departments of the government, the reports which I submitted on behalf of the committee will abundantly show the necessity for extensive changes in regard to them. The whole country knows that the treasury and post-office departments, and the patent-office, have all, not long ago, been destroyed by fire, occasioning incalculable loss and inconvenience both to the public and to individuals. But it may astonish you to learn that, notwithstanding these repeated warnings, no measures were, until the recent session, adopted for preserving the archives and records of the war and navy departments, by constructing fire-proof edifices for their preservation. Not a single fire-proof room was occupied by either department; and, indeed, nearly half the rooms they have necessarily occupied, and still occupy, are those in private buildings, hired at a great expense, and most of them extremely inconvenient. The nation has literally, as regards these departments, outgrown its public buildings.

When you recollect that these departments contain the records of our warlike renown, the accounts of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers and sailors, and the vouchers for three or four hundred millions of dollars; and couple that with a recollection of the fate of the treasury, post-office, and patent-office buildings, I am sure there are few among you who will not approve of the appropriations I asked, for commencing a suitable fire-proof edifice for their reception and accommodation, an edifice designed to be one of the noblest structures in the world, as the present post-office edifice, in the plans for which I took a deep interest, is one of the most beau

tiful and convenient. The house, by a large majority, approved my plan, but the senate dissented. Time and public sentiment will show which was right.

It has been my aim, in everything connected with the national edifices and grounds, to favor such plans as tended to promote durability and good taste, as well as convenience and true economy; and I deem it due to the public officers at Washington generally, and to many of the citizens of that place, to express my cordial approbation of, and thanks for, the liberality, aid and attention, which I have uniformly received from them, in all the intercourse which my official duties rendered necessary in relation to these and other matters.

I might enumerate many other important subjects on which, as your representative, I have been called to act, and on which I have endeavored to act in such a manner as I considered most conducive to the best interests of our whole country. For, though your immediate representative, yet I was also a representative for the whole country; and, in matters of national concernment, I should have been recreant to my duty, had I failed to act for the good of the whole, instead of a part. In such matters I felt myself to be an American, legislating for America. It has also been my aim, generally, to work, and not to talk. I thought that, among two hundred and twenty-three representatives, there would be talking enough, and more than enough, without much of my aid; and I confess I have been more ambitious to be known by what I have done for my country, than by what I have said for it.

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, while I thank you - yes, heartily thank you for the many marks of your confidence with which you have honored me, suffer me, in restoring to you the trusts confided, to hope that, if you cannot approve of all I have done, you will at least give me credit for honesty of intention, for zeal, industry, and fidelity. Z. PRATT.

WASHINGTON, March 5, 1845.

SPEECH IN CONGRESS RESPECTING A DRY DOCK IN NEW YORK.*

MR. CHAIRMAN: I am unaccustomed to public debate. Other pursuits in life have somewhat indisposed me to present my views in that collected, comprehensive, and systematic manner, which long legislative experience has enabled those to do who have preceded me in the debate upon this question. But I will, in my own crude and undigested manner, present to the consideration of the house the various facts in my possession, which, in my humble opinion, should have a bearing upon this question. I dislike the practice of consuming the valuable time of the house, as some gentlemen are wont to do, upon other matters, irrelevant to the subject before them; and I have no doubt that such a practice is viewed with displeasure by the people; but, notwithstanding my great aversion to this practice, I cannot refrain, when a question presents itself, touching, in some measure, the interests of the state I have the honor in part to represent, to give my views upon the immediate question before the house.

In the first place, the question is, whether we shall appropriate in accordance with the suggestions of the committee who reported this bill to the house, and who have, no doubt, weighed well the relative wants of the several sections of country, which have been indicated as proper places for Dry Docks; or, whether we shall extend the provisions of the bill to embrace several, or a whole system, instead of this one provided for in the bill. There are two questions presented to my mind, when it is proposed to extend this

* Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 1st, 1839.