MR. PRESIDENT,—I hope there may be no hesitation in refusing to agree to this amendment. It seems to me that the House of Representatives has acted wisely in increasing the appropriation, and we shall act very unwisely, if we fail to unite with the House. We, Sir, are a Republic; we are living under republican institutions; and, as I understand them, one of their essential elements is Education. Now, Sir, here is an agency associated with the National Government, having education for its object; and what is the appropriation proposed by our excellent committee? It is $5,400: that is all. Looking on the opposite page of the bill, I find an appropriation of $9,000 for stationery, furniture, and books for the Interior Department; I find an appropriation of $16,000 for fuel and lights for the Interior Department; and yet we propose to give only $5,400 to create and support a Bureau of Education! Sir, is that decent? It seems to me, in this age, at this period of our history, when more than ever we are beginning to see the transcendent advantage of education, how much we owe to light,—

it seems to me strange that we should now cut down the appropriation for the Bureau of Education. Turning on, I come to the Department of Agriculture, and there I find an appropriation of $72,170; and then I turn back again to the $5,400 for the Bureau of Education. I think the House did not go far enough, when it made the appropriation $14,500. I would make the appropriation as large as that for the Agricultural Department; and I know full well the period is at hand when all of you will rejoice to make an appropriation for the Educational Bureau twice more than that for the Agricultural Department.

As to the question whether there is any existing statute to sanction this appropriation, I dismiss it entirely. It is merely a technicality; and it ought not now, on this Appropriation Bill, at this stage, after the vote of the House, to be allowed to stand in the way.

Before that passes away, I wish to make one comment on a single word of the Senator from Ohio. The Senator said that he hoped we should take no backward step; and yet his speech and his proposition were a backward step. Sir, there is nothing that any State or any nation can do for education that is not for civilization itself; and now the Senator from Ohio is against appropriating a paltry sum of $10,000 for education.

Mr. Sumner. My friend will pardon me,—for education. He is against making this paltry appropriation for education; and he reminds us that in his great State $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose. Is it not shameful, that, while $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose in his great State, so small a sum as is now proposed is to be set apart by the Nation? Am I told that the Nation has nothing to do with this question? Allow me to reply at once, it has everything to do with it; it has more to do with it than the State of Ohio, inasmuch as in the Nation are all the States. Ohio is only one State; all the States compose the Nation; and the Nation is responsible for the civilization of all the States. The Nation is the presiding genius, not only of Ohio, but of all the associate States of the Union. Therefore, Sir, should the Nation by every means in its power, by appropriation, by a department, by a bureau, by clerks, by officers, do everything possible to promote the interests of education.

But the question may be asked, What can it do? With the sum proposed, unhappily, very little,—too little. But let us not give up doing even that little. A little in such a cause is much. If nothing else, information may be accumulated, statistics may be gathered, facts may be brought together, which can be laid before those interested in education all over our own country and in foreign lands. That may be a specific object of the Bureau of Education.

Then, again, it may supply a general impulse to education in every State,—even in Ohio, with its $3,000,000 appropriated to that purpose. Permit me to say, the State of Ohio, great as it is, is not yet above the reach of educational influences; and I am sure that this Bureau, if properly organized, might be of advantage even to the great State which my friend represents with so much ability on this floor. I therefore adopt the language of my friend, when he said, “Let us take no backward step.” I would increase this appropriation, rather than diminish it. I wish it were $100,000,—ay, Sir, $500,000.

The amendment was rejected,—Yeas 19, Nays 38.