reaching doctrine that “the great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact,” he enumerated a vast array of powers granted in the Constitution, and added that, “if these powers may be effectually brought into action by laws promoting the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercising them for the benefit of the people themselves would be to hide in the earth the talent committed to our charge, — would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts.” He spoke of the establishment of a national university, astronomical observatories, and scientific enterprises, and suggested that, while European nations advanced with such rapid strides, it would be casting away the bounties of Providence if we stood still, confessing that we were “palsied by the will of our constituents.” This was opening a perspective of governmental functions much larger than the American mind was accustomed to contemplate. There had been some serious shaking of heads when this part of the message was discussed in the Cabinet, especially on the part of Barbour and Clay. This went a long way beyond the building of roads and the digging of canals, upon which Clay had been so fond of discoursing. But Adams, who was always inclined to express his opinions in the most uncompromising
