Part 16 (1/2)
”A suit of higher interest and dignity, has rarely perhaps been before the tribunals of a nation If the trust created by the testator's will be successfully carried into effect by the enlightened legislation of Congress, benefits may flow to the United States, and to the hu silently and gradually throughout ti the less effectually Not to speak of the inappreciable value of letters to individual and social lory often last when others perish, and seelory of a Republic whose foundations are laid in the assuthened and perpetuated as that improve”
The successful termination of the suit came, however, sooner than could have been expected; and in May, 1838, the a the substantial sum of five hundred thousand dollars, was received and invested as required by law
The facts stated were coress, in December, 1838 Attention was then called to the fact that he had applied to persons versed in science, for their views as to theof the fund which would be calculated best to meet the intent of the testator, and prove ht years intervening between this e of the bill for the incorporation of the Smithsonian Institution, ress, as to the besteffective the intention of the testator
In the light of events, soested are even now of curious interest The establishnificent national library at the Capital; the founding of a great university; of a norraduate school; and astronomical observatory ”equal to any in the world,” are a few of the plans from time to time proposed and earnestly advocated
The act of incorporation in 1846, the appointents, and the selection of a Secretary,of the Smithsonian Institution In the selection of a Secretary, the chief officer of the institution, the regents builded better than they knew The choice fell upon Professor Joseph Henry of Princeton, then peerless a men of science in America The appointment was accepted, and the essential features of the plan of organization he proposed were adopted in Decenized as
”Fundamental that the terms 'increase' and 'diffusion' should receive literal interpretation in accordance with the evident intention of the testator; that such terically distinct, the two purposes anization of the institution; that the increase of knowledge should be effected by the encouragehest character; and its diffusion by the publication of the results of original research, by inal memoirs; that the object of the institution should not be restricted in favor of any particular kind of knowledge; if to any, only to the higher and more abstract, to the discovery of new principles rather than that of isolated facts; that the institution should in no sense be national; that the bequest was intended for the benefit of le nation
”The accumulation and care of collections of objects of nature and art, the develop of courses of lectures, and the organization of a systeical observation, were to be only incidental to the fundainfluence during the passing years, those entrusted with the actual ement of this institution have conscientiously kept in view the clearly expressed intention of its founder Following the distinctive but parallel paths, ”increase”
and ”diffusion,” the Sely to the sue Its accredited representatives are out upon every pathway of intelligent research and discovery Under the wise operation of this -concealed secrets of nature have been discovered, and it can hardly be doubted that all that is given to man to knoill yet be revealed, and it will be permitted him
”To read what is still unread, In the ation, and by world-wide publication of the results, mankind has indeed become, as was intended, the beneficiary of the princely bequest
More fitting words could not be selected hich to close this sketch than those of the gifted and laiven to scientific research, and whose name is inseparably associated with the Smithsonian Institution:
”What has been done in these two paths the reader ather from this volume--in the former from the various articles by conte its activities in research and original contributions to the increase of hu others from the description of the work of one of its bureaux, that of the International Exchanges, where it may be more immediately seen how universal is the scope of the action of the Institution, which, in accordance with its motto 'PER ORBEM,' is not lis to the world, there being outside of the United States h every portion of the globe; indeed there is hardly a language, or a people, where the results of Smithson's benefaction are not known, and associated with his name
”If ere per, and is still to be done, in pursuance of his wish, we ht believe that he would feel that his hope at a ti full fruition; for events are justifying what may have seee of a former President of the United States, who has said: 'Renowned as is the naland, let the trust of James Smithson to the United States of America be faithfully executed, let the result accoe a shall entwine itself in the lapse of future ages around the name of Smithson than the united hands of history and poetry have braided around the naes past'”
XII THE OLD RANGER
JOHN REYNOLDS, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, A BORN POLITICIAN--HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE PEOPLE--HIS AFFECTATION OF HUMILITY--ADMITTED TO THE BAR --HE CONDEMNS A MURDERER TO DEATH--HIS CURIOUS ADDRESS TO ANOTHER MURDERER--BECOMES A MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE--ELECTED GOVERNOR --HIS GENEROSITY TO HIS POLITICAL ENEMIES--BECOMES A MEMBER OF CONGRESS--HIS ADMIRATION FOR HIS assOCIATES--ELECTED A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL assEMBLY OF THE STATE--RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE
This world of ours will be much older before the like of John Reynolds, the fourth Governor of Illinois, again appears upon its stage The title which he generously gave himself in early manhood, upon his return after a brief experience as a trooper in pursuit of a oes, stood him well in hand in all his future contests for office ”The Old Ranger” was a _sobriquet_ to conjure with, and turned the scales in his favor in many a doubtful contest
The subject of this sketch was a born politician if ever one trod this green earth He was a perennial candidate for office, and it was said he never took a drink of water without serious ht possibly affect his political prospects
The late Uriah Heep otten a few points in ”'uer in one or two of his political cans
While Illinois was yet a Territory, his father had erated from the e of Kaskaskia This was at the tie mentioned was then the most, and in fact, the only, i the present State of Illinois There were less than five thousand persons of all nationalities and conditions in the Territory, and they mainly in and about Kaskaskia, and southward to the Ohio Beck's Gazetteer published in 1823--five years after the ad: ”Chicago, a village of Pike County, situated on Lake Michigan at the o Creek
It contains twelve or fifteen houses, and about sixty or seventy inhabitants”
The acquaintance of John Reynolds as then known as ”the Illinois Country” began in 1800, and his thorough knowledge of the people and their ways gave hireat personal popularity Fairly well educated for the tiifted with an abundance of shrewdness, and withal an excellent judge of human nature, he soon became a man of mark in the new country He was at all times and under all circumstances the self-constituted ”friend of the people” He affected to be one of the hue, and deport with that assumption For the pride of ancestry he had a supreme contempt In his ”My Own Tiard the whole subject of ancestry and descent as utterly frivolous and unworthy of a e Baldwin said of Cave Burton:
”He was not clearly satisfied that Esau ain with his brother Jacob as soht was _a reeable taste, Cave was not quite sure that Esau had not gotten the advantage in his faain with the Father of Israel”
Hu the people he was always figuratively clothed in sackcloth and ashes A few extracts froular spectacle when in 1809 I started to Tennessee to college I looked like a trapper going to the Rocky Mountains
I wore a creaave rotesque appearance I ell acquainted with thematches, and other wild sports of the backwoods, but had not studied the polish of the ball-room and was sorely beset with diffidence, aardness, and poverty”