nd genuine utterance of a man from the
people, and I hope some future historian will record the speech and
the name of the old, indomitable patriot.

_February 20._--Stimulated by a pure Athenian breeze, the Congress
passed a law organizing an Academy of Sciences. What a gigantic
folly; the only one committed by this Congress. The pressure was
very great, and exercised by the bottomless vanity of certain
scientific, self-styled magnates, and by the Athenians. Up to this
day, the American scientific development and progress consisted in
its freedom and independence. No legal corporation impeded and
trammeled the limitless scope of the intellectual and scientific
development. That was the soul and secret of our rapid and luminous
onward march. Now fifty patented, incorporated respectabilities will
put the curb on, will hamper the expansion. Academies turn to
fossils. My hope is that the true American spirit will soar above
the vanity and pettiness of corporated wisdom, and that this
scientific Academy bubble will end in inanity and in ridicule. I am
sorry that Congress was taken in, and committed such a blunder. It
was caught napping.

Mr. Chase's bank bill, prospective of money, and as many say,
prospective of presidency, passed the house. What fools are they
already begin to direct their steps and their ardent wishes toward
the White House.

_February 22._--The, at any price, supporters of the Administration,
point with satisfaction to the various successes, and to the space
of land already redeemed from rebellion. I protest against such
explanation given to events, and call to it the attention of every
future historian. Never had the _suum cuique_ required a more
stringent, philosophical application. With the various inexhaustible
means at its disposal, with the unextinguishable enthusiasm of the
people, far different and more conclusive results, _could_ and ought
to have been obtained. The ship makes headway if even, by the
negligence of the officers and of the crew, she drags a cable or an
anchor. The ship is the people dragging its administrators.

A western Democrat, but patriot, said to me that Lincoln compares to
Jeff Davis, as a wheel-barrow does to a steam engine!

The Democrats claim to be the genuine fighting element, and to be
possessed of the civic courage, and of governmental capacity. How,
then, can the Democrats rave for McClellan, the most unfighting
soldier ever known?

The future historian mu